Japanese Kitsune

by on April 5, 2018 at 12:01 am
Posted In: The Races of Humanity

One feature that distinguishes the Japanese Kitsune from other humans is the tail that signifies their place in society. It is a cybernetic augmentation for most Kitsune, built and customized to their exact measurements. Anyone can buy a tail if they wish, but Kitsune society has rather strict procedures when it comes to official Kitsune regalia. A member of the Kitsune must earn their tail, much like a Boy Scout earns a badge. The first tail is generally easy to earn, since they recognize the real world. If they made it too difficult to earn, people would wear fakes more often. So the first tail comes quickly, though a thicker or longer tail is an indication of further advancement. That is all the vast majority of Kitsune ever earn.

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Rin

by on April 4, 2018 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Art, Character Profiles

We were on Sunnydale the first time I met Rin, back when we were preparing to attack the Hyades Cluster. She came in on one of the big carriers. America? No. Constitution. She was one of the new Enterprise-class Fleet Carriers that came out before The War. Tough old girl. She and America showed up with new orders and several transports full of soldiers looking to bring The War to the enemy. Most of the cybers on that cruise were young and still getting to know their pilots. But Rin was old. She didn’t tell me until years later, but she came from the same branch of the cybernetic family tree as Emiri, Sara, and more than a few others. Sometimes I think all of the Japanese cybers must be related. Point is, the Japanese cybers tend to do better with large numbers of people than most American-style cybers. Call it cultural. Not always true, but true often enough. So while the American cybers spent time working their new pilots up to snuff, Rin spent her time jumping around the fleet and entertaining everybody. I was there when several thousand American G.I.s from every State in the Union, not to mention several colony worlds, marched off the transports, in cadence, shouting their praises to Lovely Rin at the top of their lungs. Four syllables. Lov-e-ly Rin. Have I mentioned that I had some strange days on Sunnydale? If I haven’t, this would be one of them.

High rez version available for free on Patreon

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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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