Stars Above Discussion Thread

What year Japanese are you taking? I just started first year Japanese this semester.

Same, Japanese 101, and 102 next semester. My old college started offering it online via another school, so I jumped at the chance.

I kinda breezed through the first couple weeks, thanks to being familiar with the basics already, but lately it's been a lot harder than expected. Still enjoyable for the most part, but a lot harder.

POSTING-FOR-THE-SAKE-OF-POSTING POST:

I strongly urge my fellow Madoka obsessives to check out one of this season's new anime, From the New World (Shin Sekai Yori), a sci-fi series set in a pastoral, post-apocalyptic Japan a millenium from now. It's still much too early in its run to make a full judgment on it, but based on the two episodes so far... wow. It's got a similar "dark secrets buried under cute, idyllic surface trappings" deal as the first two episodes of Madoka, but FtNW is much more up-front from the get-go about its dark themes... the opening is a killer, no pun intended. I'm waiting anxiously to see how it develops.

About Stars Above: I fully intended to get some writing done on Chapter 21 this week, honestly I did. However, on Wednesday morning, my cat suddenly took very ill and we had to go to the vet to put her down. She was my best friend, sometimes my only friend for over thirteen years, and letting her go was one of the most painful things I've ever done.

Today is actually the first day that I've felt together enough to even talk about it with anyone other than my close friends and family. It sounds sort of like I'm making excuses, I know, but believe me when I say that for the last four days, doing any writing at all, especially on something as dark as SA, was the last thing on my mind. Quite honestly, it still hurts like hell not hearing her next to me when I go to bed, or seeing her greet me on the stairs when I wake up... I'm slowly putting myself back on track, but I want to be absolutely sure I'm in the proper mindset before I get to work on Chapter 21 again. I hate to ask for your patience again, especially considering I just took a break a few weeks ago, but I think the story will suffer if I try to force it now. So, it may be another week or so before the next upload.

Just thought you'd want to know.

edited 14th Oct '12 1:22:54 PM by FringeBenefits

Sorry to hear that. I'm a cat person and grew up with cats in the house, so I know what it's like. Take as much time as you need.

I'll take a look at that show. Thanks for the recommendation.

edited 14th Oct '12 1:44:42 PM by Enthryn

Ah, loosing a pet like that is a very painful thing, take your time.

I might as well add that show to my "to watch" list, thanks

OH GOD WHY AM I A CAR!? - Forzare

'Nother small update.

Work continues on SA, but it's very slow. My job is exhausting me, the Japanese course is consuming more and more time, and I had to go and get myself addicted to Arrested Development on top of that.

About five pages of Chapter 21 are done, so that'll be next in the queue... it'll probably end up being a shorter chapter than usual, as I'm probably going to shunt some content into 22. Now I just need to find a cutoff point...

Oh yeah, and hopefully Sandy left all you guys in one piece. We're fine, minus a few shingles missing from the roof.

Just wondering, have you read the latest Kazumi chapter?

OH GOD WHY AM I A CAR!? - Forzare

21, or 22?

21

OH GOD WHY AM I A CAR!? - Forzare

Yeah, I read it. I knew something was up in those flashbacks ever since Kyubey's silhouette appeared in one panel, and Juubey in the next... now that the secret's out, it makes a whole lot of sense. Juubey's very different behavior in the flashbacks is because he isn't Juubey... I think that's pretty brilliant.

Also, unless I miss my guess, this month's installment is the last chapter. I have a hunch as to what's going to happen, but I know better than to think it's accurate... Kazumi has been one glorious mindfuck after another for most of its run. I'm really hoping the ending is up to par with the standards of the rest of the series.

Also also, it appears our avatars change into various Horrible Things™ whenever one scrolls them off the screen. Nice little bit of programming there, TV Tropes. -polite applause-

edited 30th Oct '12 8:13:18 PM by FringeBenefits

So, uh... while I'm working on Chapter 21...

Rare? My Sunshine and Respect reviews, plzkthx?

Oh crap, yeah, sorry about that. They should be on by Sunday night, that good?

EDIT: meanwhile discuss

edited 10th Nov '12 5:28:59 PM by Rareitor

OH GOD WHY AM I A CAR!? - Forzare

Sunday night sounds great, thanks.

EDIT: It's an interesting question. I think the Incubators would probably be wise to that sort of idea, so like one of the commenters said, rather than outright cheating Kyubey would either find some kind of loophole, or karma would step in and punish the poor girl immediately for being a smartass. Like, say, at some point after she makes the wish, all her friends get eaten by Witches and she can't do anything about it, because her wish specified her not becoming a magical girl.

edited 10th Nov '12 8:40:25 PM by FringeBenefits

I think the outcome would most likely be more straightforward: she makes the wish and immediately ceases to be a magical girl. The wish would have no effect except to eliminate her potential. It'd just be a rather boring waste of a wish.

Slightly unrelated: IT'S TOTALLY CANON.

edited 11th Nov '12 5:11:21 AM by FringeBenefits

What if the Incubators interpreted that in a logical process?

See:

• Girl + Wish(Incubator) -> Puella Magi
• Puella Magi +(Continued use of magic and/or severe negative emotions) -> Witch

Now then: G + W -> PM + (...) -> Witch; is how this process looks, so if there was a wish to not become a magical girl I think it could easily be translated in this equation like this

G + W -> X -> Witch

Therefore

G + W -> Witch

That make sense?

OH GOD WHY AM I A CAR!? - Forzare

Doubleposting because yes, and I should have my thoughts on Respect later this Monday

My Sunshine

-C1

Can't really talk about the intro since I am not that familiar with the Oriko side of the PM universe, though it is works fine as an introduction to the days after the disaster had begun. A personal comment though, I have an instinctive dislike for Kirika and her parallel in a certain plushie wielding gal from the Kazumi side of things. I can never feel anything but an intense desire to see them die horribly for their foolishness and stupidity.

Ah, hotblooded Kyoko, how lovely... though I understand where you are going with this, even she would need to blame someone else under such overwhelming pain.

-C2

You know, I find it strange that Kyoko's first lines in this chapter remind me more of denial than most of the events in the past chapter. If it was anyone else, the eating and tastelessness would be the usual, but considering who we are talking about it is pretty obvious.

It's really genius that Homura, with all the reason in the world, would speak to Kyoko about this topic – so is the fact that the latter knows squat about her and therefore can't (or couldn't anyway) see that she does mean what she says, even through the emotional wall she projects.

A hospital eh? An interesting Lair to be sure, I almost could imagine some Silent Hill bits in that, but back to the girls. I am interested in the process through which these Spawn or the Demon feed on or extract the memories.

-C3

Being hotblooded really makes me think this is the best way for her to go. When you think about it, it's not really all that different from what happened with Sayaka in the show, sure there are many differences, but her resolve is the same.

Playful talk was interesting to say the least, but there's nothing too important to analyze yet (I may be able to say more as it all develops though), Mami being a dominatrix notwithstanding.

And so, what Homura couldn't Asami could... it's sad that it is almost all Homura's fault in the end, and yet, you can't blame anyone.

And here I can start analyzing: the first stage was something big being forgotten, but not too bad since most other things were intact and lucidity remained; second stage is percieved overwhelming memory loss, which causes fear and distress, lucidity remains but may be marginally affected. I want to see where you take this, and if you can properly portray the despair that they both will feel, and if you know when one of them “stops” feeling that way.

-And now for something completely different: I've been playing this game, and one of the monsters in it reminds me of Vittoria, though barely, what do you think?◊-

edited 11th Nov '12 10:18:28 PM by Rareitor

OH GOD WHY AM I A CAR!? - Forzare

Thanks as always for your insights, Rare, they're worth the wait. I'll reply in more detail later tonight.

Yeah, that does look a bit like my mental picture of Vittoria. I'm really going to have to try to sketch the Demons one of these days, possibly to illustrate the profiles...

I finally finished Chapter 21 about a half-hour ago, just waiting on Forz's input.

Forz, by the way, took me up on a "Break my heart using my OTP" challenge on Tumblr yesterday, and wrote a magnificently depressing Bad End for Stars Above. This isn't canon, obviously, but it's uncannily close to how it could turn out if I were to go Anno on this thing. Considering that it made me have feels in my cold, black, sadistic writer's heart, I suggest you give it a read. I doubted anyone could possibly equal or outdo the horrible things I've done to Kagamura in Onions, SA, my private RPs, and in my own head, but Forz proved me wrong.

edited 12th Nov '12 1:54:09 PM by FringeBenefits

Well done, Forzare. I was expecting something more elaborate, but sometimes simpler is better. Rejoice — the despair generated will greatly benefit the universe!

Now I'm trying to figure out how an even worse end could happen. Nothing thus far, but considering that I eventually worked out a premise for a Bokurano Dark Fic, I'm not giving up yet.

Anyway, looking forward to chapter 21.

Chapter 21

Enjoy. :D

...interesting.

Spoilers for the chapter follow; not going to bother marking them.

First impressions: I like that Konata found out the truth. Could you remind me what she didn't know, though? Was it just the soul gem thing, or was there something else?

Reactions were good, as usual. Tsukasa going into shock seems realistic. (Random thought: Does Tsukasa with PTSD sound like Dead Baby Comedy? It's just such an absurd contrast.)

Not related to this chapter, but I'm still a little confused about why Aya was so calm and self-sacrificing. Was it just her nature, or is there some other explanation? The fact that she was cosplaying Yuki doesn't seem sufficient.

Nice demon design — I can picture it being terrifying to see, not just physically intimidating as many monsters are.

Not sure what to think about the last part. That's not a value judgment — I'm just really not sure what to make of it. Tsukasa doing weird prophecy stuff, and one of them going to die? (One of who? Ambiguity in prophecies is a big deal.) I'll have to see how it turns out.

Oh, one stylistic thing:

Er... yeah. See if that can be rephrased or something.

I have to inquire, how increasingly traumatic are the effects of the Lair and he events within it to Tsukasa since she is hypersensitive to these sort of context?

smugvillainmode/on Ah, collaterals! They have this wonderful effect on people like you Kagami. Righteous, a protector even, such a situation makes you become overwhelmed with distress as you find that defeating the enemy is no longer the greatest priority, but saving those who so unfortunately decided they would like to "get in the way" so to speak... then again, whose "way" am I talking about again? smugvillainmode/off (seriously though, very appropriate breakdown she had there, different from her sister's, but just as fitting)

The Demon looks awesome in my head. Even so, I must ask if you had ever seen this pretty bastard before. And I find it funny that Homura might not have considered its regeneration in the first place; the Lair is kind of a dead giveaway, at least to me.

I have this bothersome feeling that Konata is acting strangely. I don't mean Oo C, but rather that her reaction reminded me of Tsukasa more. I suppose I see it as Konata truly facing the facts in a flash, while conscious, in an unusual way. I have to say though that her reacting to Kyuukey's admitting of the withheld info was very good.

I have to say the last part is interesting in that it kind of further develops the nature of Tsukasa's power. I am curious as to how you will develop it further.

edited 12th Nov '12 7:48:53 PM by Rareitor

OH GOD WHY AM I A CAR!? - Forzare

oh hey yeah this thread is a thing that exists

Yeah, it was just a thing I wrote in like ten minutes because I was procrastinating homework. And because I couldn't not take up that challenge. It was just supposed to be a thing to make Brian sad, not to be a real supplement to the story or whatever.

Thanks, though.

I remember raising this concern too, but I can't for the life of me remember how Brian justified it.

Yeah, I'm not sure how you're going to top

• Konata and Tsukasa dying horribly in front of Kagami
• Kagami completely breaking and starting to witch out
• Desi being there laughing the whole time
• Homura either shooting herself or killing Kagami before she can end the world

nothing involving tsukasa being sad is funny u son of a bitch

Nil, a new sci-fi/horror story that you should read and review! (Updated 4/something) ''The gate opens.

Add Desi having her way with Homura while they both watch the world end... again?

And also Forz, Y U NO UPDATE NIL? Despite not having said anything about the last 4 chapters, I am still interested, just sayin'

edited 13th Nov '12 7:48:11 PM by Rareitor

OH GOD WHY AM I A CAR!? - Forzare

yeah i dunno why im having so much trouble there

I mean, it's not dead. I still think about it a lot. I just... haven't been able to write?

I'd blame college except I haven't written anything at all since like May.

Nil, a new sci-fi/horror story that you should read and review! (Updated 4/something) ''The gate opens.