Bay 12 Games Forum

We're looking at probably chopping off all access to external email/webmail sites, because we've had a slew of recent malware intrusions via idiots who get phishes in their Yahoo accounts and them open them.

i.e. I won't be able to read Gmail at work because the government employs a bunch of goddamned f*king morons who fall for this shit over and over and OVER, despite going through mandatory annual training that says, "Hey, if you get an unusual email, DON'T OPEN IT" and other assorted InfoSec rules to follow.

We just need to start firing people when they fall for this shit more than X number of times.

So...I have this idea for a story that's been mulling around in my head for the last...oh, 15 years or so. I would have made a comic book of it already, if I had any artistic ability whatsoever, which I don't. My 4-year old draws far better than I do.

Here's the gist:

In a remote village in early medieval Japan (deliberately ambiguous time period, though probably late Heian period), a young man is sent off to a Buddhist monastery in China to learn his father's trade -- that of a Shingon sect priest, as his father is the village's resident priest. Unfortunately, after just several months, his father dies unexpectedly and he is forced to return home to take over the care of the village shrine with only partial training. He returns having taken the Buddhist name "Bai Shan" (Hakusan in Japanese), or "White Mountain".

It just so happens that this village is being beset by a kitsune, or fox spirit, named Youko. The interplay of the priest character and the fox character is the real core of the story. After several run-ins (including at least one attempt to seduce him), he eventually corners her and uses the esoteric magic taught to him (Shingon is noted for a tradition of "hidden" teachings to banish demons, heal the sick, etc.) to threaten her with banishment. She begs for mercy, and he decides to spare her but makes her swear an oath not to harm any of the people of the village, to which she assents.

Eventually, Youko settles into the woods around the shrine and becomes a companion to Hakusan and sort of a mystical protector of the village. She is very powerful, but is....immature isn't quite the right word. It's more that she doesn't comprehend the full consequences of her actions, like a child. I imagined a scene where she helps defend the village from bandits by killing them in some incredibly gruesome way and animating the corpses like puppets because she finds it amusing, and doesn't understand why Hakusan is horrified.

The setup would be good for a "Monster of the Week" run of stories, as a good way to dredge up and use obscure monsters from Japanese folk tales, but these would really be a vehicle for character development. I imagine other story arcs that would explore the character of life in rural Japan, the role of Buddhism in village life, and elements of Buddhist theology itself. The big thing is that I would strive as much as possible to be historically and theologically accurate.

Another character element I'd like to explore is that Hakusan's training is woefully incomplete. The kickass, demon-exorcising Buddhist priest (who usually doesn't act very Buddhist at all) is a staple character in anime and HK film, so I thought it would be interesting to have a priest who is forced to be a monster-fighting badass, but really isn't an ideal candidate for the job.

The biggest hurdle, for me, is the artwork. I have this very distinct idea of what I want it to look like, but lack any ability to make it happen. I'm not too concerned with how most of it is drawn, but I'm locked into this notion that Youko, when in fox form, would be this hazy, indistinct figure drawn in a sumi-e style, with just a few brush strokes suggesting a fox, to underscore her "otherness" compared to the mundane world she inhabits.


Any thoughts? Comments? Offers to draw? I'm also not very well-versed in manga, so I'd be very curious to know if there's already something out there like this.

Quote from: ToonyMan on March 28, 2011, 03:11:43 pm

I was going through scholarships to see what money I can take from whom.  There exists a French-Canadian descent scholarship.

Score!

Sweet tell me, i got 8 percent noble blood.

I been making some more breakthroughs on the family tree lately (mostly on my wife's side). At this point, I think we could spend a couple of weeks in the UK just visting all the goddamned castles that are in her family lines.

Me? I appear to be the unholy cross of German-Russian beet farmers and Scotch-English dirt farmers. Closest thing we got to a castle might be a really well-built outhouse. 

Found out that a second set of close friends have been diagnosed infertile. Meanwhile, I've been dragging my feet on scheduling the appointment to get sterilized. Dunno if that makes me feel sad or awkward or what, but it just sucks.

Well, when the Egyptian revolution began, FOX was pretty much saying that the protesters were al-Qaeda. Because, y'know...freedom and democracy are anti-American extremist values. They kinda learned to shut the hell up with regards to Libya, although now they're starting to build a storyline of the Bahraini and Yemeni protesters being an "Iranian-funded insurrection", just because they're Shi'a. 

Speaking of...Yemen is getting uglier and Syria is getting much uglier. At least 13 dead today as security forces opened fire on protesters in a mosque in southern Syria today. And there have been over 1000 arrests in the last few weeks, targeting bloggers, journalists and others who have been critical of the al-Assad regime.

Hmm. That sorta dovetails with an odd habit I have of not looking at a person when I'm talking to them. Like, even if they're in my face, my eyes tend to focus on a random spot just past them or beside them, or if I'm walking, a random spot on the ground.

I've heard this behavior is linked to some forms of autism, because actually making and sustaining eye contact is apparently incredibly uncomfortable for many autistic people. But with me, it's purely reflexive. If I make a deliberate attempt to make eye contact (while delivering a speech, for instance), I can without too much problem. But it's still a good too to ignore dipshit coworkers who want to waste my time with small talk. Between that and my steadily declining hearing, I can pretend that I just didn't notice them there.

SO...MUCH...ITCHING.......

Poison ivy sucks. Chiggers suck (literally). The two in combination is Mother Nature inflicting some kind of karmic retribution for something I haven't even done yet, because I would remember if it was that bad.