Japanese Kitsune

by on April 3, 2018 at 12:01 am
Posted In: The Races of Humanity

The vast majority of the Japanese Kitsune use entirely cybernetic augmentations to achieve the Kitsune look. Wearable ears or attachable tails. Some even wear masks, but those are not common. The professional Kitsune organizations all encourage minimalist augmentations to act as more adornments than actual, permanent changes. They have always wanted their members to be able to step in and out of normal society at will since the days when they were a derided subculture. But there are a small minority who seek to truly become the fox through gengineering. There those who have “natural” fur, tails, or even ears are celebrated as part of a brave new world.

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Ready Player One

by on April 2, 2018 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Diaries

I watched Ready Player One over the weekend. Much like other Spielberg movies, it borrows shamelessly from the book it is based on while being almost an entirely different story. It shares some scenes with the book, but most of the movie is created in whole cloth for the big screen.

This is actually a good thing, I think. I enjoyed the book, but it was written to be a book, not a movie. Many of the scenes in it simply wouldn’t work for a mass-market movie. They wouldn’t be amazing enough. The opening race in the movie was exciting and allowed for an opening extravaganza of sights and sounds. Watching a battle of the classic arcade Joust like in the book? It wouldn’t have the same punch.

More changes are that the abject poverty in the book, in both real and digital worlds, is glossed over in the movie. And many things that Parzival did in the book are parceled out to other characters for the movie. This is very nice as it gives them more time to shine, but at least some of those were major character points for the hero, and change the course of the story. One character’s contribution is completely and utterly changed, denying him a major character point, but granting him a host of others that I think are worthy of him.

I may disagree with some of the changes, while agreeing wholeheartedly with others. In the end though, the movie is the movie, which is a substantially different animal from the book. And I think that is good. It was a fun movie to watch, and stayed close enough to the heart of the book that I think it is a worthy translation of the source material. I enjoyed my time in the movie, and will look forward to buying the DVD when it comes out.

I give the movie two Deloreans, flying up way high.

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Happy Easter – No Fooling…

by on April 1, 2018 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Diaries

I have never understood exactly how Easter is calculated. It is some black art mixing mathematics, calendars, star charts, and tide patterns or something like that. I have never known when Easter would be. Imagine my wry amusement when people started saying it was on April Fools Day. Now I may be a bit slow at times, but Momma Pryde did not raise a fool. So I assumed people were funning me.

Then I found out they were right and that was a mind job. So what do you do when Easter, the day we celebrate the fact that Jesus Christ rose from the dead, ends up on April Fools Day? Ignore it in some kind of stuffy huff because a silly day for making jokes happens to coincide with it? Or run with that theatre of the absurd?

Well. It’s me here. What do you think I’m going to do?

Laugh at the devil and say “April Fools! He fooled you, He fooled you!”

🙂

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Niko Nakamura

by on March 31, 2018 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Art, Character Profiles

Niko Nakamura has amazing eyes, and a truly fantastic tail. Seriously. She just doesn’t wear it most of the time. She was the first time I saw her on Sunnydale though. She came in with one of the Earthbuilt Avenger squadrons. She’d signed up for service after Yosemite fell, you see, and found her way into the Navy. Spent most of her first years in service escorting capital ships around on long, boring patrols, and through short, terrifying battles. After arriving at Sunnydale, she decided to come prowling around and scouting us Cowboys out to see if we were worthy of our reputation. She was doubtful on that fact. So there I was, minding my own business…nah…who am I kidding? I was totally watching the pretty girls walk by. That was when she appeared at my elbow and asked if I enjoyed the view. Would you buy it if I said that I calmly turned to face her and said it was fantastic? No? Smart. I nearly jumped out of my skin. Once my heartbeat got back down into the living range and I noticed her squadron patch, I decided that the proper revenge for such a low-down, sneaky, and duplicitous act was to give her a ride on a real Peloranbuilt Avenger. Let her suck on those eggs and like them. Little did I know she liked that ride so much she decided to request a transfer. Showed up a week later wearing a told-me-so grin, a tail flicking in amusement, and genuine Kitsune Youth ears. That was the day she became a Cowboy. It was a strange day, all told.

High rez version available for free on Patreon

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Myths and Legends

by on March 30, 2018 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Diaries

One of the more interesting things I do when studying what I want to do next with Jack is looking at old myths and legends. They are the great stories that have entranced us for thousands of years. They are the cultural myths we have tried to use to understand ourselves and the world around us. They are part of us. Stories like Star Trek and Star Wars have touched on these myths and legends enough to create millions of fans all over the world. People who don’t just enjoy it, but want to be it. People dress up as Starfleet officers, or wear Jedi robes. You can see it in other modern stories too, especially in those coming out of Japan, or in the sports heroes we idolize and dress up as. The football fan wearing horns and makeup is no less enamored by the spectacle than someone dressing up like their favorite Harry Potter character. The best stories have something that makes us want to be part of them. That is what I strive to harness with Jack of Harts.

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