[FFML] Fwd: [Mai Hime, Future] Unexpected Visitor

[John Biles]

On Sun, Mar 1, 2009 at 4:07 PM, Bert Miller <hkmiller at theeddy.com> wrote:

> Yay! More! More!
>
> John Biles wrote:
>
>> Crystal's Story, Part One:
>>
>> I
>> have no big romantic delusions about sex, but I also want to avoid being
>> pregnant.
>>
> Abnormal enough for a sixteen-year-old, I would think, to be indicative of
> having actually
> listened to adult advice.
>

She has her Aunt Nao, who has been preaching the safe sex gospel at the kids
for several years.


>
>     "She and Kazuya were first loves.  REALLY SAPPY AND STOMACH CURDLING
>> first loves."  Aunt Nao made funny faces as she said, "Oh, my little
>> wuvi-lumpkins, I lurve you sooooo much."  Then she kissed one of my
>> stuffed
>> bears.
>>
>>
> These lines made me laugh out loud the first couple of times through.
>

Heheh.  One of my favorite bits.



>
>
>     When I was little, she got me in trouble sometimes as she tended to
>> encourage me to be naughty and break the rules.  Then Mom would yell at
>> both
>> of us.  When she babysat me, we'd watch late night TV, eat up the ice
>> cream
>> and not put away the toys.  Mom would go crazy, then Aunt Nao would tease
>> her about something and she'd just laugh and make Aunt Nao help me pick up
>> my toys.
>>
>>
> Again, very nice bit. Nao, in the anime, seems to like coming across to
> everyone
> else as a bad girl, but isn't actually so bad as all that. And maybe not as
> bad as
> she herself thinks she is. Still, her overcompensatory lifestyle (nun,
> combatting
> supernatural evil) while never thinking much about her own happiness smacks
> of someone perhaps told too often as a child that she'd been, or was, bad,
> to
> the point where she believed it.


Nao is pretty bitter and unhappy, but she's not fundamentally nasty, which
is how she's become a better person.  (Note she doesn't go around preying on
women unless provoked.)  At the same time, she's the only one of the Hime to
go out and prey on people with her powers.  (Until Shizuru snaps, anyway).

And yes, she's overcompensating.

>
>
>     "Love can make us angels but it can make us monsters too," Aunt Nao
>> said, finishing her tea, then staring at her noodles.  "Love can make you
>> do
>> terrible, horrible things.  Things you will regret for the rest of your
>> life."
>>
>>
> Interesting to have Nao say this, given that she doesn't do all that awful
> much during the Festival
> for love (as opposed to revenge for her eye). She's actually talking about
> Shizuru here.


In Nao's case, it was her love for her mother which gave her the power to be
a Hime.  Her actions there were largely revenge driven, but it was her
issues with love and lack of it and lack of love from others which bent her
to where she was at the start of the festival.  But she's also generally
commenting on how people went progressively more and more out of control
too.

>
>
>     "I'm a Journalism teacher at Rosewood,
>>
> Heh. Specializing in how and why newspapers get censored, perhaps? Chie
> would
> certainly have some interesting things to say about newspaper coverage, or
> lack
> thereof, during a certain bridge destruction and private army invasion.
>

Heh.  Well, she likes to KNOW WHAT IS GOING ON. :)


>
>
>  longer."  She stared out the window for a moment; I glanced, but didn't
>> see
>> anything.
>>
>>    Chie glanced over without turning her head to look outside the
>> restaurant.  "Is something wrong?" she asked very softly.
>>
>>
> Now, this bit suggests that Chie is very well aware that she's on the
> outside, and Nao on the
> inside, of a major secret, and that Chie has also made the conscious
> decision that some
> things weren't meant for her to know (or expose). Which is about what I'd
> expect of her;
> Chie is too smart about the right things to be as oblivious as she's
> portrayed in the
> first part of "A Dream of Flight".


Actually, it's meant to read more as Chie being very good at reading people,
but yes.  Having rewatched various stuff, I will need to do some revision in
A Dream of Flight to better suggest they know enough to know they don't know
something. :)


>
>     "Wild woman, got in knife fights all the time, seduced men right and
>> left, then broke their hearts," Chie said.
>>
>>    No way that was true.
>>
>>    Right???
>>
>>
> Heh. I liked this. To the adults, of course, Chie's remark is just funny,
> but Crystal isn't
> able to dismiss its possible truth quite so easily.
>

EXACTLY.  Especially  in the case of Crystal, who is most driven to find out
of the kids.


>
>
>     "You didn't see Aunt Haruka's imaginary ice cream thief, did you?" I
>> teased her.
>>
>>
> Bingo!


Heh.

>
>
>   and I don't know what
>> Yukariko's up to.  Probably kicking her husband's ass,"
>>
> Which reminds me: shouldn't your five sixteen-year-olds have a twenty-three
> year old 'cousin'? If not, whatever happened to Yukariko's pregnancy at the
> end of the series?
>

AAAARGH I TOTALLY FORGOT IN EVERY WAY POSSIBLE.

I...um...gonna have to figure out who this person is and everything.  Color
me Dumbass.


>
>
>     "Neither will I," she said.  "But we're not stupid enough to fall for
>> his tricks again."
>>
> The teenagers, on the other hand...


Heh.


>
>
>  illusions.  I suddenly wondered if I WANTED to know.  Could I even face
>> knowing what I could have become?  If I would have been something
>> better...
>>
>>
> She's a nun who fights supernatural evil for a living, and is considered
> 'kind' by her
> unrelated protectees. How much better can you get?
>
> And it's not like people don't tell her this; in this story alone, a number
> of
> people tell her. Nao just can't hear it.


Yeah.  Though by the end of the story, she's feeling better about herself.
(Which I further hinted at in A Dream of Flight where her Child has grown
larger.)


>
>
>     "I think he may suspect something, but he seems to me more likely to
>> try
>> to figure it out than to leave over it," Natsuki said, now looking up.
>>  "It
>> intrigues him."
>>
>>
> Bingo. And, of course, in 'A Dream of Flight' he begins to find out...
>

Yep!


>
>
>     "Interesting," I told her.  Probably best to make sure he's not in the
>> Order's archives...
>>
>>
> ...which raises the question: why isn't he?


That would be telling.  But we'll see more of his background in the future.



>
>
>     "I don't know what he'll think if he does find out," Natsuki said.
>>  "Not
>> everyone can handle something like this as well as Tate does."  She
>> sounded
>> a little jealous.
>>
>>
> Yeah, well, once everyone else finds out, we'll see how well Tate handles
> the sight of a man
> who CAN help fight the supernatural. Roger has the potential to pose a real
> problem for Tate.
>

Yes.  An issue for Reito too, though he's been trying.

>
>
>     Way to totally evade, I thought.  "They fuck regularly?"
>>
>>    "He tries his best," Yukino said calmly.
>>
>>    That actually made me feel better; it was so nice and subtly vicious.
>>
>>
> Heh.


I loved that whole sequence.

>
>
>     Midori and her hubby were the first to arrive.
>>
> So far, you've avoided applying a name to Midori's professor, but he has a
> last name in
> the anime: Sasaki.


I tried to watch for that, but missed it.  Danke.


>
>
>     "You are a better person than I," Shizuru mumbled in my direction,
>> trying to figure out how to stand up.
>>
>>
> Given that she's a peace activist, I guess Shizuru has some of the same
> issues as Nao.
>

Multiplied by five, given she went on a giant killing spree against normal
humans when she butchered First District.



>
>
>
>>    We were practicing in the yard behind my dorm as we did a lot of
>> nights,
>>
>>
> What do all the other kids at this school think of these five, by the way?


We will get to see some of that in the currently in progress story 'Road
Trip'.

Some like them, some don't, and no one really understands them.



>
>     "The world is dangerous.  I estimate a 90% chance you will not live to
>> see thirty if you do not begin some proper training," Aunt Miyu said to
>> Kasumi, who stared, eyes wide.
>>
>>
> Heh. Very Miyu. But I note Kasumi seems to have taken the sentiment to
> heart as of ADOF.


Kasumi knows that Aunt Miyu wouldn't say that if she didn't MEAN it.

>
>
>     "You're not talking about...ummm....Masakuri Hayao?" Kasumi finished
>> weakly.
>>
>>    "He...I mean...I knew Crystal liked him and...ummm..."  Kasumi shuffled
>> on her feet.
>>
>>    I slapped my forehead.  "Did you come to ask if I minded if you asked
>> him out?"
>>
>>
> Heh. Nice plot development.


Yep. :)


>
>     "He asked me out, but I knew you liked him enough to go to dangerous
>> trashy parties half-naked to impress him...I mean...ahaha..."
>>
> Heh. Kasumi is so honest about her opinion here!
>

Kasumi didn't MEAN to be so honest but her 'good girl lecturing' side came
out to play :)


>
> I'm really enjoying these stories (and also really, really impressed at the
> rate you're
> writing them). Keep up the good work!


For a long time this project sat in a folder in the form of story fragments
and then suddenly, it all started to jel for me.
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