Boy, talk about pathetic. I didn't even mention my prereaders for Monkey
Head-Butting Part Nine. I just don't know about me anymore. It hasn't been
my best day for posting. =P
A very big thanks to Harold Ancell, Michael Allen, Gary Kleppe, and David
Eddy. I even managed to slander one of my prereaders (David Eddy) by
telling another that he hadn't responded yet, when in fact he was the first
to respond. Just a red-letter day all around for Miko here. Anyway, my
story would have been a bit different, and for the worse, if not for the
timely comments of my wonderful prereaders! May the muse of fan fiction
(still trying to figure out exactly who that is) look upon them
benevolently!
Now, on another subject, I've had six or more people tell me I ought to
continue what I started with my stupid little short called "Decisions".
Mind you, I desperately need to rewrite that thing into something with some
semblance of a plot (for once, The Critic was right -- the first 2/3 of this
thing goes nowhere, but hey, I said so at the begining of the post didn't
I?) But obviously the future I started to lay out got the attention of a
few people. I didn't relish trying to create all of those extra characters,
but I've been thinking on it all day, and I have a lot of ideas now. So
here's a little teaser, and it's very rough because I wrote it only a few
hours ago. A few questions follow.
---------------------
"It's just not fair!" Keiko Saotome yelled. She threw herself
down on her bed, her long red braid flying, then rolled over to stare
at Karu and Akara, her two closest sisters. "Why can't a girl inherit
the dojo, huh? Why? It's so stupid! Our whole family is stupid
and backwards!"
"It's tradition, I guess," Akara replied. She sat down at one of
the two desks in the room. "You know how our family is about
tradition...."
"Tradition?" Keiko said. "Give me a break! This is the
twenty-first century, or have our parents forgotten?"
Keiko's twin, Karu, sat at the other desk. Although the two
looked identical, they were sometimes worlds apart in personality.
Keiko had a mercurial temper and a quick tongue, while Karu was
always introspective, thinking before she spoke.
"You know why it is, Keiko," Karu said. "Father and Mother
just want to leave the dojo in good hands. One martial artist isn't
enough to maintain the school."
"But there won't be just one martial artist!" Keiko sat up
abruptly. "There's five of us, and our two cousins. We can all help
out, right?"
"If you think I'm going to hang around here for the rest of my
life, teaching stupid punks how to throw a punch, then you're
losing it, Sis."
The three turned to the doorway. A fourth girl, taller and
older than the other three, stood there, leaning against the frame.
"Don't worry, Yori," Keiko said with thinly veiled sarcasm,
"somehow we'll manage without you, I'm sure."
"Admit it," Yori said. "You're just upset because you hate
boys so much. You don't plan to every marry, do you?"
"Yori, do YOU know a sixteen-year-old boy that YOU'D
consider marrying? I don't need to marry while I'm still in high
school!"
"Anyway," Karu said, "it's not just Father and Mother's
decision. Grandfather Tendo and Grandfather and Grandmother
Saotome were involved in this too, as were Aunt Kasumi and
Uncle Tofu and even Aunt Nabiki. It's a family-wide decision,
we'll just have to live with it."
"It's still stupid," Keiko said. "We could run this place as well
as any stupid boys could."
"It's more complicated than that," Karu said. "What about the
next generation? It makes sense that the dojo go to a couple who
are both martial artists from the Anything-Goes school, so that
their children can carry on the tradition."
"Gee, Sis," Akara said, "it almost sounds like you're already
planning to be the one to marry and inherit this place."
Karu shrugged. "So what if I am?" she said, simply. "One of
us is going to do it. Why not me?"
"Oh, give me a break!" Keiko said. "I suppose you're going to
hit on the first boy who walks through the door? You've got to be
kidding me, Ka-chan!"
"If he's cute," Karu said, then why not?"
"Anyway, Grandmother wasn't a martial artist," Keiko said.
"For that matter, the way they always tell it, Aunt Kasumi or Aunt
Nabiki could have inherited the dojo if they'd married Father, and
you can't really call either of them a martial artist, can you?"
"Aunt Kasumi knows a lot about pressure points," Akara said.
"My point is, if it's good enough that the wife isn't a martial
artist, then why does one of us have to marry a martial artist? I
mean, I'm a martial artist, so why can't I marry a painter, or a
construction worker, or a businessman, or something, and still
inherit the dojo? It's twentieth century sexism, that's what it is!"
"You have someone particular in mind, Sis?" Yori asked.
Keiko flushed red.
"No, of course not!"
"And when you become pregnant, who runs the dojo?" Karu
asked.
"I don't know," Keiko replied. "I'd hire someone. It's not like
there aren't thirty or fifty students of the school these days."
"She's got a point," Akara said. "I mean, when the three of us
were being carried, who was running the dojo?"
The sisters all looked at each other.
"Grandfather, I assume," Akara said.
-----------------------------
Okay, questions, questions.
First of all, I'm looking for a good Chinese hair-care-product name or two.
One for a boy, one for a girl. The boy will be the son of Lin-Lin or maybe
Ran-Ran or Link or Pink, depending on my mood. The girl will be the
daughter of Shampoo and Mousse. I know, my original short said they had no
children, but I know exactly what she looks like and acts like so I must
have been wrong. ^_^
Second, I need a name for Kuno's son. He's half-American, with sandy blond
hair, the sort of high school all-American quarterback letterman jerk with
all the looks, the cool, the talent, and the arrogance you could want. At
least, that's what I'm envisioning at the moment. I want to give him either
a typical money-elite American name (my roommate said "Franklin Kuno") or
maybe even better, a good, short Hawaiian name. Oh, yes, he's got all of
that American "we're better than you" attitude too. Not delusional like his
father, I think, but as much of a pain. ^_^
Third, since I've come this far, toss whatever ideas you have my way. I
have a fair idea of what Ryoga's three sons are like, and what some of the
Saotome sisters are like, but most of the rest I'm still working on. The
good thing is, I don't have to introduce all of these characters at once; I
can work them in a few at a time, after the initial plunge, much as
Takahashi's own story didn't dump fifteen characters on you in the first
chapter.
Another thing... I have no ideas about what Karumi and Natsumi's children
would be like. I'm still trying to figure out what any child of Miss Hinako
might turn out to be like. She was sickly as a child, so maybe we've got
another Gosunkuji on our hands. If she does that happo five-yen thing on
him regularly, would he grow up weak and easily frightened, or would that
toughen him up? Do you think her son should have any form of the permenant
child/instant growth thing she's got, courtesy of Happosai? My roommate
speculated that he might turn out to be someone who can't stand children, or
who's only attracted to older women. Also, wouldn't any husband of Miss
Hinako be a potential pedophile? Kinda disgusting to think about, but
really... =P
Let me know! I'm forming the basis for my story now! Ciao!
Miko!
"When I use a word," Humpty Dumpty said, in a rather a scornful tone, "it
means just what I choose it to mean -- neither more nor less."
"The question is," said Alice, "whether you can make words mean so many
different things."
"The question is," said Humpty Dumpty, "which is to be master -- that's
all."
(Lewis Carroll, Through The Looking-Glass)
Nausicaa@sprynet.com Belldandy@angelic.com
Anime rpg at http://come.to/akane/
Fan Fiction at http://listen.to/bell/