Sunday, February 13, 2011

New Project: The Legend of Zelda, The Musical

You read that right. I'm in the process of adapting "Ocarina of Time" into a musical. For actual stage production. Its happening. Accept it.

Its short, to keep the time necessary for production down, but at 9 musical numbers its at par with most Disney movies. I've been using the original motifs composed by Koji Kondo for the game back in the 90's and putting lyrics to them. Its turned out surprisingly well.

I'll be posting updates here as they happen. Right now I have a script done, and a seemingly eager group of people to help me do this. I'm excited. Are you excited? I'm excited!

Vader Vs. Link

So who would win? As the illustrious Sam Wolfe puts it, "A MORE IMPORTANT QUESTION HAS NEVER BEEN ASKED."

I am inclined to agree.

Note: I am assuming the most iconic of all Link incarnations, the Ocarina of Time. This is also fitting as it is the earliest incarnation in the canonical timeline, pending the release of Skyward Sword.

Now, at first glance the answer may seem objectively obvious. Technologically, Vader is from an indefinite future, while Link is from our medieval past. However, as with any sci-fi/fantasy crossover scenario, one must establish equivalencies.

For example, superhuman power can be attributed to either: Vader with the Force, Link with the combined might of various magical abilities and the Triforce of Courage. Below is a listing of basic superhuman abilities:

Darth Vader:
Force Perception (can sense an opponent)
Force Manipulation (Telekinesis, as seen in the Bespin duel and via Force Chokes)
Mind tricks? Its possible

Note that Vader does not actually have the ability to use Force Lightning, because he has no limbs. Palpatine was able to keep him in check because he had that upper hand, but its also the reason Vader was never able to surpass him.

Here is Link's listing:
Farore's Wind: Teleportation
Nayru's Love: Basic protection
Din's Fire: Frikkin' fire, man!
Magic sword attacks: Sword spins infused with magic granted by great fairies
Navi: The ability to keep track of an enemy and react faster

Tools and equipment:

Vader:
Lightsaber : A laser sword
Vader Suit : A cyborg life support system

Link: Equipment
Master Sword : The Sword of Evil's Bane
The Mirror Shield: A shield capable of reflecting light and beam based attacks
Golden Gauntlets : Gloves that lend him superhuman strength
Hover Boots: Boots that allow him to hover in the air for short periods of time

Link: Items (Link is capable of having three items on hand, as per the C-button mechanic of Ocarina)
Lens of Truth: A looking glass that allows Link to see through illusions
Hookshot: Think Batman's grappling gun
Fairy in a bottle: Basically a second life. Think one up or phoenix down.

Now the item distribution may seem unfair, but Vader himself would disagree. Vader is defined by his ability to navigate any situation with his wits alone. He uses the environment in ways Link doesn't, and relies on his own cunning over a host of tools.

Link on the other hand is defined by his ability to approach any situation with the right tool for the job. That's his thing.

I've got to say though, even without his three Items its looking like Link has this one in the bag. Compare base weaponry, for instance: Vader's Lightsaber is a sword made of lasers. The sort of thing you'd think couldn't be beat. And many of you may be thinking "well that beats the Master Sword easy, right? Lasers vs steel, steel melts!"

WRONG. The Master sword is a very special blade, forged as the key to the Sacred Realm and conditioned to be wielded by only those completely pure of heart. Over the course of Ocarina, we've seen this sword bounce orbs of magical energy back at opponents as if they were tennis balls, we've seen it slay monster after impervious monster. It can be infused with magical energy to take on lightsaber-like qualities: To the people of Hyrule, its the game changer.
So lets go ahead and say that Vader's lightsaber and the Master Sword are evenly matched. If not, the Mirror Shield deflects lasers. That's what it does. That is its function. Link's fine.

What about Vader's mind tricks and such? LENS OF TRUTH. Done.

Now, both are also expert swordsmen, but Link is faster than Vader because he's got real, 100% human parts. He's got the agility for backflips, rolls, side-evasions and jump attacks that Vader can only dream of in memories of Prequel days.

At this point, Vader's main advantage is his force perception. He's able to sense where Link is coming from as soon as Link decides what his next move is. My response to Vader's biggest magical advantage is the Three goddess spells under Link's command. Nayru's love leaves Link impervious to damage, Farore's Wind allows him some basic teleportation, and Din's Fire summons a dome of flame that burns anything in its blast radius. At some point, Vader's weakness becomes the gap between knowing what Link will do next and his ability to react to it.

Finally, Link already has a resume for defeating caped dark lords. I'd call him in on Vader over Luke Skywalker any day.







Sunday, January 9, 2011

Anthrophobia

Thought I'd take another crack at the dialogue thing. I think the problem with the last one was that there was way too much backstory for it to work effectively on its own. This one's nice and simple...and funnier, too. Enjoy!

ANTHROPHOBIA

You’re scared of them.

I am not scared of them.

You’re scared of humans.

I am not scared of humans!

Mmhm. And the screaming was...what, exactly? A war cry?

They creep me out. I’m not scared of them, they’re just creepy. There’s a difference!

You know, you don’t have to stomp on them like that every time. They’re harmless.

They are not harmless, are you kidding me? Just look at one!

I’ve seen humans. They’re funny.

Funny like...like...a human!

Seriously?

I’m thinking of unfunny things, and humans top the list.

Seriously?

You tell me you look at a human and you don’t get that creepy, tingling feeling in your thorax.

I don’t!

Did you know that they have these little, grasping things on the ends of their legs?

What, like monkeys? Monkeys are harmless.

No, but they’re grasping things are all arranged so they can grab things like...hammers!

Hold on...

And they’re so small you can’t even see them, but they’re there! Oh they’re there all right...

Listen to me. They’re a million times smaller than you. They’re much more afraid of you than you are of them.

I’m not afraid of them! I’m not homophobic.

I don’t think that word means what you think it does...

Homophobia. Fear of Homo Sapiens.

You want Anthrophobia.

Anthrophobia?

Fear of humans.

Well I’m not Anthrophobic either!

I mean come on, what are their little graspy things going to do to you?

They’re called thumbs. Doesn’t that just make you cringe? Its like whoever comes up with these names is trying to tell you something.

Like what?

Like maybe “DANGER! STAY AWAY! GRASPING APPENDAGES WILL RESULT IN...complications!”

Are you listening to yourself? They don’t have thumbs. Jeez, where do you hear this stuff?

Ok, fine, then. Boots. What about boots?

What about them?

What about them? They use them to squish our kind!

Oh come on. Remember what I just said? They’re a million times smaller than us.

They’re not a million times smaller, don’t exaggerate to make me look stupid. I’m not stupid. I’m talking about earth arachnids. They’re tiny here, and they stomp on them.

Like you stomp on them?

That’s not the same and you know it.

Right, because you’re afraid of them.

You’re really starting to piss me off.

You think they tell each other they aren’t afraid of spiders while they’re stomping on them?

Don’t be ridiculous, humans can’t talk.

Maybe they think we can’t talk.

Do you have a point you’re crawling towards?

I said they’re more afraid of us than we are of them.

I’m not-

Fine, they’re more creeped out by us than we are by them.

Debatable...but continue.

Well maybe that’s why they stomp on the little ones. Because they creep the humans out. So if that’s true, can you imagine how we must seem to them?

Hey, at least I’m not some unnatural, thumb-grasping freak.

They have four legs. Four. We have twice as many, and that’s enough to freak them out when they’re towering over them.

You know what, I don’t have anything to justify. I don’t need a reason to kill them, I just AAGH! WHAT! AUGH DIE! DIE!

Holy...calm down!

Did you see that? Came out of nowhere! It was huge, like easily ten feet tall!

And you were telling me not to exaggerate? They don’t get that big.

Well this one did, I swear. Look at it!

Well I can’t tell now, its all squished.

Uuuuugh...Its still creepy. I think I can see its thumbs.

You can’t see its thumbs, you big scaredy-cat.

Oh take that back!

I don’t see any thumbs.

No, I mean the cat thing! Come on, man, that’s not funny!

What you’re scared of them, too?

They creep me out! You can’t blame me for that, they eat spiders!

You’re scared of cats!

I am not scared of cats!

Wednesday, January 5, 2011

Storage


storing this image to post somewhere else.

Friday, December 24, 2010

My Christmas Eve

I tweeted this, verse by verse. Its funny how twitter helps structure things.

The night before Christmas, at the Ayers Hotel
the decor and music weave holiday spells
The guests all are laughin' with holiday cheer
a sure sign as any that Christmas is near!
There's a tree in the lobby, stockings over the fire,
there's a fat lady wearin' some santa attire
There's garlands and ribbons all matching the mood,
a party next door filled with wine and with food!
But the food's not for me, and the wine I can't drink;
I don't have a stocking, or bells that go clink.
I admire the tree and the presents below,
and I'd surely go sledding if C.A. got snow,
but I don't get presents to grab and unwrap...
A Californian Muslim in December's a sap.

now I'm depressed. *sigh*

So cleanse thy pallate!

As fun as "The Itch Only Love Can Surpass" was to write, its a bit much to have on my front page...as the first post people see on the blog.

I'd like to note that it was totally written on an implied dare.

That...I chose to imply...

ANYWAYS. I finished Brandon Sanderson's Way of Kings, and it was really very good. I can't wait for the rest of that series, as well as whatever else he's going to be throwing the public's way. I'm looking forward to next year's Alloy of Law and The Rithmatist.

In the meantime, Winter Break means I've got a bit of time to work on the ever looming Will of Thedosis, which is now at about 22,000 words. I've been stuck deep in the novel's 6th chapter for...well, 4 months now. I have this feeling that once this chapter is done it'll start flowing out a little more easily. Its a long, sort of complex chapter...

Enough excuses! in terms of page-count its 67 right now and I'm just getting started. I think its going to be a good length. As its my first novel I don't think I'm going to be looking into publishing right away. I think I want to just be able to prove to myself that I can write a novel from cover to cover. Its very different from writing a play. I think dialogue flows a little more easily for me. This description nonsense takes me forever to get just right.

That's the other thing! I tend to write very slowly, very deliberately, with very little editing later. Some people suggest writing quickly and editing heavily after, to just get the ideas on the page before you loose them. Maybe I ought to try to build some new habits.

Might take a while though.

Anyways, I'm super tired and bogged down now, so I'm going to probably stare at my word processor for another hour or so and then give up and go to bed.

Merry Holidaymas to you all

Tuesday, December 21, 2010

“The Itch Only Love Can Surpass”

You could call this a fanfiction. You could call it an abomination against humanity.

You would be right.

“The Itch Only Love Can Surpass”
Based on “Dance of the Manwhore” by Adzuken, Sexual Lobster, Dutchinlive, Ultius, SPace, and mattpoop. (May be NSFW...)


“Climb upon my trusty steed,” Fernando whispered. The scantily clad woman, in her pale blue bikini, saw little alternative. Anything was better than being eaten alive by the enormous dinosaur chasing them.
“Alright,” she said, mounting the stallion behind him.
“Later you will taste my seed.”
“What was that?”
“Love as large as Brontosaurus,” he grunted past his flowing black beard. He drove the horse onward, escaping the lumbering reptile’s gigantic feet. The woman clung from behind to his musk-stained wife-beater, grasping chunks of chest hair in her hands for leverage. “Passion...like a bleeding walrus.”
Out of nowhere, a walrus of untoward proportions burst from the sand (for they had left the forest and were now apparently on a beach), ichor running down its cracked, dry backskin. Fernando grabbed the woman by the hips, and flung her forward off the horse in perfect gymnast’s form.
Unfortunately, she was not a gymnast.
She hurtled through the air, somehow landing on the walrus’ bloodslicked back. Fernando followed, straddling the weeping beast with his black-boxer clad thighs. The horse he had left behind was immediately trampled by the rampaging brontosaurus. The woman wondered what mysticism was afoot here. Could she be dreaming? Could this be some sort of-
“Our love is real, its no mirage!” Fernando bellowed, willing the walrus into the sea to escape the dinosaur. Unlike his handling of the horse, which seemed to lend itself to classical rider’s form, he seemed to coax movement from the walrus by thrusting his pelvis back and forth along its back, the ever-present blood acting as a lubricant. “Want to lock you in my garage” he muttered under his breath.
“What was that?” the woman asked again. The brontosaurus drowned as it attempted to follow them. The man turned, as if to taunt the slowly gurgling monster.
“This heart of mine is yours to capture, from now until VELOCIRAPTURE.” He screamed at the dying animal.
That’s not even the right kind of dinosaur, is it? The woman asked herself. But there would be another time to ask these questions. For now...
A giant squid burst forth from the seemingly calm sea. Fernando lowered his gaze, glaring at the offending animal past wild locks of hair, eyes and hair both dark as the void. He uttered his challenge to the leviathan past clenched teeth.
“Love is like a ripened squid...it stings with limp appendages!” He thrust his arm out to the side, the very foam itself forming a frothing mass about his hand.
“I wield my passion like an axe...it’s warm and gooey, just like wax!”
And just like that, the boiling sea did form a great battle-axe in Fernando’s hand. He faced off against the giant squid, preparing to rend its tentacles from its body. He went to work.
Tentacles slapped against the water, staining the white foam red.
“You cannot tame such juicy lust!” he cried. Almost as an afterthought, he turned back to the woman behind him, asking with genuine concern, “Can you withstand my manly musk?” Before she had a chance to answer, he turned to address the squid, in its death throes.
“Know that I can never hold back!” he cried, raising his axe. “THAT - MIGHT - BE - WHY - I - SMOKE - THE - CRACK!” he continued, bringing his blade down across the monster’s face with every wrenching word. He raised a shaking hand, covered in red ichor.
“Drenched deep in sweaty brine...” He formed it into a fist, asking the corpse, the walrus, the very world itself...
“Is this blood yours or mine?!”
The woman could see that Fernando was deeply distraught. She did not know why this man, obviously endowed with the magics of a long forgotten God, was so deeply moved by the events of the past 47 seconds. Surely his life among whatever pantheon of dieties he fraternized with was less eventful than the life-shattering minute she had known him. Suddenly, he turned, dark eyes framed in rigid determination. A single tear ran down his cheek.
“Tonight I will have sex with you.” he said. It was a statement of fact. A foregone conclusion. She didn’t find herself arguing. He gestured with his bloodied axe to the squid’s carcass. “Then, we will prepare a stew.”
“Fernando...” the woman asked. She had questioned long enough, and it was calm now...who knew how long it would take for another calamity to befall them? “Why did you choose me?”
“You scratch the rash upon my ass. The itch only love can surpass.”
She found herself moved by his words. Such poetry. In fact, every phrase he uttered carried in it an unsung song.
“Oh, Fernando” she moaned. “Please, regale me with more of your divine prose!”
“Roses are red, Violets are blue, I must eat yogurt off of you” he whispered into her ear. She quivered at the simple, primal attraction of those words. She leant in to kiss him...but he backed away, a perplexed look upon his face. He seemed distracted by something.
“...F-Fernando?” She said. He closed his eyes in deep concentration.
“Yogurt is a dish best served chilled...” he said, screwing his eyes shut. Finally, he opened them in realization.
“I forgot to get my prescription filled!” he said, snapping his fingers. She eyed him with concern, but the demons were gone. He turned to her, looking at her with the desire of a hundred men.
“Tears and screams of pain and pleasure are gifts we will share forever.” He said to her. He began to lean in, slowly, majestically. “Stalk like a lizard of the night...come closer, Fernando won’t bite.”
“Oh, Fernando...I LOVE you” she said. Fernando was once again gripped by the odd distraction that had taken him moments before. He looked deep into her eyes, raising his hair-encrusted fists to his own.
“My...father...never loved me” he whispered. It was half confession, half crushing realization. She sat there, on the bleeding back of the walrus, unsure of what to do. She thought to maybe console the weeping demi-god...
A man, clad in spectacularly clashing pink shirt and orange tie, rose from the sea. The water shed itself from his mirrored sunglasses, his hair returning to a state that can only be described as “carefully tousled”. He placed a comforting hand on Fernando’s exposed shoulder, but the man pushed him away, crying openly. Fernando disappeared into the frothing ocean, his tears mingling with the foam. The pink-shirted, orange-tie’d man frowned, eyes hidden behind reflective lenses. He shook his head, slowly. He returned to the sea off the walrus’ other side, leaving the woman stranded, in the middle of the ocean, on the back of a bleeding walrus, in front of the desecrated corpse of a giant squid.
She was eaten by sharks within minutes.