This is more of a adventure/fantasy type of story, a lot more lighthearted than Thomas's story. Lots of comedy moments, action moments, not too entirely deep, but not shallow either. I believe the plot and the concept itself is fairly original, and it may more or less be a spoof of other fantasy and adventures, sort of like how CCS was considered a spoof of typical girl transformation shows.
Introduction.
There are many who believe in gods, a religion, or some omniscient being that protects the planet from chaos and destruction, to prevent the world from falling out of its delicate, harmonic balance. These people believe that their god or gods have complete power over all the governs their world, and use these powers almost always for good and the protection of the world. They also believe these beings are above anything that humans can ever be, all knowing, all respected, and never failing.
This view is... slightly inaccurate.
In reality, gods are really quite unproductive and have no motive to keep any planet thriving unless they get something out of it. So, therefore, the gods above the gods made keeping task of Earth a rather interesting and entertaining game. As usual, there are elements assigned to the gods, and each "god" can use these elements as their main source of power, thus being, in more appropriate terms, Guardian Elements. In an all out tournament to determine which Guardian Elementa is dominant over all others, each elementalor will, at a specific time when the planet needs it the most, go out and defend the world! How do they do this?
Well, there are small disasters that go around the world all the time known as Catastrophes. These catastrophes will build up in strength over time goes by if uncontrolled, sort of like weeds in a garden. Hence, the Guardian Element's tournament begins specifically when these catastrophes are almost at the brink of causing chaos in the world, but not quite there yet. There, in secret, the elementalors work their power, defeating the materialized form of a catastrophe and absorbing it to make their own powers stronger... and this continues until all the catastrophes have been quarantined, in which after then, in a private environment, the Elementalors go all out against each other, using the powers they have absorbed while battling catastrophes and attempt to win the tournament!!
So what exactly do they win, and how often do these "godly" elementalors appear?
Well, remember the whole concept of the omniscient and respected god being rather inaccurate? These gods aren't exactly omniscient themselves. Other than the fact that they know they're in some tournament and that they need to defeat catastrophes and absorb their power before other elementalors acquire it, they can recollect little memory of their previous lives and lifestyles before each tournament, being that they sleep pretty much the entire time in between tournaments. So how exactly do these Guardian Elements go about doing their business, then? What powers do they possess; are they purely elemental, or do they have other traights, aspects, and oddities to them? Well... how about we take a look for ourselves by observing a uninteresting and dull college student visiting the bamboo forest in the depths of China for his biological study expedition.
Background Detail.
Guardian Elements view Earth and its inhabitants similar to how a person in real life would view an MMORPG. They believe it is all some sort of game, but, alas, similar to people who become immersed in MMORPGs, drama can happen, especially when your MMORPG has a mind (or rather, minds) of its own. On the other side of the coin, each "host" of the Guardian Elements can see their Elements in spirit form. Nobody else can see the guardians except for hosts and Sub-Elements, which will be explained later. They also have the option to talk through the weapons which they enchant.
Now, about hosts and weapons. The Guardian Elements do not inhabit the host, but in fact a "weapon" which was immediately acquired upon confrontation with their new host. They do use the host's body, however, to materialize their spirit form into reality, where upon doing so the host is transformed into spirit form. For the Host, only his/her Guardian Element can see him/her in spirit form. The "weapon" which is acquired is usually nothing more than what the host had on hand before he/she was accepted. And since Catastrophes happen without warning, some of the weapons seem rather unconventional...
The world setting is similar to that of the real world, and for the sake of simplicity, the world and its locations will the same as the real world.
Characters:
Guardian Elements and their Hosts- The Elemental Guardians have a mind of their own; though they are essentially elements, they can think, talk, and react similar to how humans do. They will not take an unwilling host--therefore they must do something to satisfy the host's wishes, for an unwilling host will hinder them from achieving their goals.
Guardian Element: Earth
Given Name: Guai He Zi
Appearance: Long purple hair, has traditional style chinese robe (white). Age appearance around 21.
Details: Guai He Zi is an agility type character, one not usually associated with the element of Earth. The theory is that Earth or the terrain can change at any given moment, much like the sudden attack of an earthquake or a volcano. Hence, Guai's style is that suddenness; without warning he can appear and disappear using ninja-style skills. His elemental attacks usually come out of nowhere as well, usually needing little time to charge unless he wishes to unleash a more powerful attack. Personality-wise, he is rather sharp tongued and often makes harsh jokes. He has an understanding for the workings of the world, however, including human habits such as emotion and love. He therefore respects his host and his wishes, as well as his fellow Elements though he will still crack jokes at them and, when the time comes, show no mercy when attempting to win the tournament.
Host:Thomas T. Reusbucks (pending name)
Appearance: Like Dr. Reusbucks in the previous story, except maybe without glasses. Age appearance around 20.
Details: A college student studying Entomology (study of insects). He's not exactly sure he wants to become involved in this game of the Elements, but since the Catastrophe was threatening his sister, he felt he really had no choice. While he doesn't quite like the fact that he suddenly must "save the world" per se, he will accept his Element as long as it promises the safety of his sister.
Weapon: Chopsticks. Lets just say, it was the only thing Thomas had on hand when he encountered Guai...
Guardian Element: Water
Given Name: (Pending)
Appearance: Rather Elegant, similar to how young catholic nuns appear. Age appearance around 25.
Details: She acts much like the motherly and caring type of person, but it would be wrong to underestimate her abilities. Her appearance is rather attractive to most people, and even when attacking she's very elegant in that each attack seems beautiful to the eye. She perhaps understands the most about emotion and feeling to others in the world, and also has a variety of knowledge. When she's not on the battleground, she'll be very cooperative and discuss issues of any sort, ranging from the "game" they must play to personal details for the humans inhabiting the world. She has a very comforting personality that even the other Elements admire.
Host: Pending Name
Appearance: the Loli of the show (Age around 9 or 10), properly partnered with the motherly type. She'll probably be designed much like a rich daughter girl from Europe, with yellow locks of hair and a taste for fashion.
Details: The host is a young girl who seems to enjoy travelling the world with her Element. Her background story is probably that a Catastrophe had struck her home, possibly destroying most things including her parents and leaving her orphaned. The Element may have comforted her, which is the reason why she accepts her. She is a very upbeat and somewhat naive type of girl; she is quite trusting of most people and similarly, thinks of the the tournament as a sort of game to save the world. Because of this, she doesn't exactly "hate" it when accidents happen (ie deaths), but she highly disapproves if her Element does so. She's a rich orphan so she can travel anywhere. Her only request as a host is for her Element to "play" with her, ie keeping her away from loneliness. In turn, her Element develops a maternal and caring nature towards her.
Weapon: Harp. Both the Host and the Element know how to play the harp.
Guardian Element: Fire
Given Name: N/A
Appearance: A dog boy, similar to Inuyasha or the dog boy from Negima, hence a rather "aggressive" type face with (appropriately enough) dog ears. Has long white hair (about shoulder length) that's quite messy, but he seems to try and keep it somewhat together with a ponytail... probably has casual "American cool guy" clothes (black jacket, chain necklace, etc.)
Details: From his mere appearance one can tell he's the type that enjoys a good fight. He's loud, straightfoward, a bit short tempered, and not willing to step down for anyone-- except if people are endangered. His host's request is that he protect any surrounding humans who are unknowningly in danger; though the task seems somewhat hard in large numbers, the Element is quite capable at keeping his promise. In this sense, he's quite noble despite his seemingly aggressive nature. His relation with other Elements are less forgiving; seeing them as equals to himself, he considers them in no danger to go full out upon, and would even be willing to challenge them if no Catastrophe was present. His eagerness for a good fight, however, puts him at more a disadvantage when competing for a Catastrophe than his nobility to save all humans around him; very often, Elements (specifically Earth and Water) will use a "challenge" to stealthily take away a Catastrophe from him, playing him for a fool.
Host: General Jon B. Wolf (Pending Name)
Appearance: A rather strong looking man, darker skinned, short yellowish spiked hair, strong yet caring. Probably able to defeat the other Element hosts if they did not have their Elements, but his kind nature would forbid him to do that.
Details: Though he's been through the military, he's very understanding about others... he seems to have no family relations but looks to protect other families of any sort of harm. Seeing the Elements as a good opportunity to "clean the world", he'll accept his Element's tasks as long as the lives of others are not disturbed. He does not mind his Element's aggressive and "wanting to win" nature at all, and is able to become great friends with his Element.
Weapon: Umbrella. It was probably raining when they met.
16.7.05
4.7.05
AX! UPDATE: Edited!
Heya! I'm back from AX and I must admit I had a helluva good time. Had its ups and downs, could be better, but it also certainly could be worse. Best of all, I saw KOTOKO!!! Ok, more details on that later, first, some basic info material, then a bit of a description on each day of my AX weekend. I may add more to the details when I remember something I forgot to put in. :p
Basic info!
Stuff that got licensed- Anime
Mai Hime, by Bandai(:o)
Kannazuki no Miko. by Geneon (O.O Wow! This was a big surprise, but it would explain why Geneon hired Kotoko to sing for this year's AX, considering no one knows Kotoko other than from the Bandai license Onegai Teacher)
Stuff that got licensed- Manga
Rozen Maiden, by Tokyopop (OMG *gawk*)
Full Moon Wo Sagashite, by Viz (WTFrea @.@ *insert crazy astonished here*)
Another note to this is that I heard, but not from AX (my friend told me) that Shinobuden 2x2 is also licensed. o_O Wow so much obscure anime I thought no one would like getting licensed...
Stuff I got :P
Ragnarok Battle Offline OST (yay!)
Ragnarok Online Fan Artbook (YAY!)
Megumi Artbook on Various Anime
Kokoro winter concert avi file (Yes, I got this one for free from my friends :p)
Various mp3 rips of albums from Kotoko, Lia, and Eufonius (also for free :p)
Notice how I didn't buy any manga or anime. Since I was working at Orbit, and since they were busy pretty much the entire day, I decided to wait and they told me to come back to an Orbit store to get discounts there. So, I'm going tomorrow to get more anime and manga... So my Anime adventure isn't over yet... XD
ANIME EXPO DAILY EXPLANATORY DETAILS!!! (or, informally, "My AX diary")
Friday:
On Friday, I woke up at an annoyingly early 6:30 in the morning so a friend of a friend of mine can pick me up. His name is Alex. He's like a nurse and likes biology, so that's kind of cool. Yea, that's what we talked about on the trip there. :p So anyway we got there and grouped together with the other USC people at the hotels we were to stay in. Well, we couldn't get our keys yet, I think, and so I left them to go talk to the people working at the Orbit booth, since I'm volunteering.
I'll tell you this much right now: I'm never volunteering at AX again, because that was such a hassle. It's probably fine as long as I had stuff to do, but there were times where everyone else looked so busy and I was standing there waiting for something to do, but no one ever told me to do anything. That annoyed me >.<. But actually, friday, it was pretty busy in itself. Although the day didn't seem quite exciting, while browsing around I found the Ragnarok Battle Offline OST, which really got me excited, except I don't know how to bargain, and that quickly turned my excitement into embarassment. :P Still, I got it for 18 dollars (originally 20), and the fact that I'm happy and listening to it right now is nice. :P By closing time, I wanted to get out of the booths asap because I was in there for so long, and so I got really irritated when I supposedly had to wait around for someone to give me something to do, and in the end I wasted like 10 minutes because no one ever told me to do anything, so I asked to leave and they let me leave. >.<>.<>.> Well, this was the day of the Kotoko concert, but the morning REALLY REALLY SUCKED and it was THIS morning why I decide I'm never going to try volunteering again. You see, the orbit people, though they provided free access to the dealers room, free hotel rooms, and free food, didn't have badges for everyone. It seems to be some AX rule. In any case, I needed a badge, or (what I thought) a ticket to get into the Kotoko concert, but IT TOOK SO FREAKIN LONG TO GET ONE!!! I ended up working some of a shift WHICH I WASN'T TO WORK IN (I only really wanted to just get the damn badge and leave). Eventually it turned REALLY chaotic when someone told me (misleadingly) that you needed tickets to get into the Kotoko concert and they said there were only 2 tickets per company. Meaning orbit only had 2 tickets. And they made it sound like you NEEDED the tickets, so I was frantic and worried as hell that I'm going to miss the Kotoko concert, but then I called up my USC friend, and he told me the ticket stuff was BS and I could get in as long as I had a badge. Probably without one too, but didn't wanna miss seating and chance of missing part of the concert just because I didn't have a badge -_-;; So I waited, again, like a freakin insane amount of time before they FINALLY gave in and let me borrow a badge (FYI, the badge ratio was like 12 badges for 50 people) and got in.
THE KOTOKO CONCERT WAS AWESOME!!! Not only was it the first Kotoko concert I been to, it was the first Kotoko concert in America, which made me seem even more special X3. I could have died right after the Kotoko concert and not have cared. Ok that was an exaggeration, but it was one of the best concerts I've been to ever!! I was sitting at the ~~4th, 5th row from the front, so I was pretty close to her. Of course, that meant huge blasting speakers that deafened me for the rest of AX, but the music, being Kotoko, was still good. THE AUDIECE WAS CRAZY, THOUGH. Seriously, because I thought that not many people know kotoko, that the audience wouldn't be too into it, but... O.O It got pretty crazy. First, people started standing up, which was kind of weird, imo, to me, being that I don't goto concerts that often. And then... everyone... started... well...
Ok, one of the comments that my friend (Robert) made was this: "There are two things different about this concert and the concerts in japan: 1. There are no glowsticks, and 2. There are females present." Well, he was pretty right about the second one, there were girls and if you watch the Kotoko concert, you don't see any girls at the concert o_O. But the glowstick incident was IMPRESSIVELY made up when people started waving to the music, with... whatever they had. Cell Phones, PDAs, Game Boy Advances, even lighters... it was all there. You looked back and you could see a sea of technological devices, and you wonder... "All this for Kotoko concert?" Truly... "touching" but I feel this is the wrong word.
Ok, now a little criticism to my rave on the Kotoko concert. While I'm sure most of the concert's antics were due to some crazy japanese otaku fanboys of Kotoko and stupid americans who like to follow what everyone else does, I'm worried about how "cool" I think her music is... I was wondering over the concert period, because it seems that music has perhaps a little of a hypnotic effect on me. >.> you know, like Sirens in Greek mythology... while I maintained composure throughout most of the concert (I didn't go all out crazy... I didn't even wave my cell phone around) I was truly into her music and I'm starting to worry about that... Maybe Kotoko is an evil music alien that will try to hypnotize the world... Naaa, if that were true, everyone would be into Kotoko by now. Yet, she's still obscure. So oh well.
The last thing I want to say about Kotoko is I missed her panel... I didn't get to see people ask questions to her or ask questions myself... nor get her autograph because of it >..<>.<... Well, now I know, in addition to not volunteering at Marketing Booths, to not goto masquarade either. Well, not alone with no one to talk to or be bored with. /pif
Monday
What did I do today? Well, I pretty much went straight to the dealer's room and worked most of the time. I went also to look for that megumi artbook because I checked it out earlier... it had a lot of Air pictures, so that's why I wanted to get it. Well, while looking for that book in one of the shops, I found a hardcover RO fan artbook O.O... so I bought it. :p Other than that, worked till 3 at the orbit booth at the exhibition hall, then met two other friends who were taking me home (Their names were Eddie and Steve). They wanted to goto Outback and eat dinner first; I didn't eat with them since I was eating dinner at home. Then I come home, play some RO, eat dinner, and type up this long post. :p
I'll update the previous story when I'm feeling less tired... I woke up like 8 in the morning every day and slept past midnight... but keep on looking at the Thomas story, still working on it!
On Tuesday!
I bought so much more discounted stuff!!! This almost makes the volunteer torture worth the effort!! Manga for 5.50 (originally 10 dollars, mind you), Anime for 17-18 dollars... Ok so you guys don't care, and I'm sure you guys dont' care what I bought but I'm gonna tell you anyway!!
Fruits Basket Manga 1-3 (for sister)
Read or Die OVA (For a friend)
Abenonashi Magical Shopping Arcade #3 (another friend)
Elfen Lied 1 and 2 (for myself :P)
UPDATE AGAIN: Due to unidentified technical errors, about half of my AX trip was deleted. Because This was about, well, half of my AX trip, I'm not going to type this all up again and express it to you. Sorry. :p
Basic info!
Stuff that got licensed- Anime
Mai Hime, by Bandai(:o)
Kannazuki no Miko. by Geneon (O.O Wow! This was a big surprise, but it would explain why Geneon hired Kotoko to sing for this year's AX, considering no one knows Kotoko other than from the Bandai license Onegai Teacher)
Stuff that got licensed- Manga
Rozen Maiden, by Tokyopop (OMG *gawk*)
Full Moon Wo Sagashite, by Viz (WTFrea @.@ *insert crazy astonished here*)
Another note to this is that I heard, but not from AX (my friend told me) that Shinobuden 2x2 is also licensed. o_O Wow so much obscure anime I thought no one would like getting licensed...
Stuff I got :P
Ragnarok Battle Offline OST (yay!)
Ragnarok Online Fan Artbook (YAY!)
Megumi Artbook on Various Anime
Kokoro winter concert avi file (Yes, I got this one for free from my friends :p)
Various mp3 rips of albums from Kotoko, Lia, and Eufonius (also for free :p)
Notice how I didn't buy any manga or anime. Since I was working at Orbit, and since they were busy pretty much the entire day, I decided to wait and they told me to come back to an Orbit store to get discounts there. So, I'm going tomorrow to get more anime and manga... So my Anime adventure isn't over yet... XD
ANIME EXPO DAILY EXPLANATORY DETAILS!!! (or, informally, "My AX diary")
Friday:
On Friday, I woke up at an annoyingly early 6:30 in the morning so a friend of a friend of mine can pick me up. His name is Alex. He's like a nurse and likes biology, so that's kind of cool. Yea, that's what we talked about on the trip there. :p So anyway we got there and grouped together with the other USC people at the hotels we were to stay in. Well, we couldn't get our keys yet, I think, and so I left them to go talk to the people working at the Orbit booth, since I'm volunteering.
I'll tell you this much right now: I'm never volunteering at AX again, because that was such a hassle. It's probably fine as long as I had stuff to do, but there were times where everyone else looked so busy and I was standing there waiting for something to do, but no one ever told me to do anything. That annoyed me >.<. But actually, friday, it was pretty busy in itself. Although the day didn't seem quite exciting, while browsing around I found the Ragnarok Battle Offline OST, which really got me excited, except I don't know how to bargain, and that quickly turned my excitement into embarassment. :P Still, I got it for 18 dollars (originally 20), and the fact that I'm happy and listening to it right now is nice. :P By closing time, I wanted to get out of the booths asap because I was in there for so long, and so I got really irritated when I supposedly had to wait around for someone to give me something to do, and in the end I wasted like 10 minutes because no one ever told me to do anything, so I asked to leave and they let me leave. >.<>.<>.> Well, this was the day of the Kotoko concert, but the morning REALLY REALLY SUCKED and it was THIS morning why I decide I'm never going to try volunteering again. You see, the orbit people, though they provided free access to the dealers room, free hotel rooms, and free food, didn't have badges for everyone. It seems to be some AX rule. In any case, I needed a badge, or (what I thought) a ticket to get into the Kotoko concert, but IT TOOK SO FREAKIN LONG TO GET ONE!!! I ended up working some of a shift WHICH I WASN'T TO WORK IN (I only really wanted to just get the damn badge and leave). Eventually it turned REALLY chaotic when someone told me (misleadingly) that you needed tickets to get into the Kotoko concert and they said there were only 2 tickets per company. Meaning orbit only had 2 tickets. And they made it sound like you NEEDED the tickets, so I was frantic and worried as hell that I'm going to miss the Kotoko concert, but then I called up my USC friend, and he told me the ticket stuff was BS and I could get in as long as I had a badge. Probably without one too, but didn't wanna miss seating and chance of missing part of the concert just because I didn't have a badge -_-;; So I waited, again, like a freakin insane amount of time before they FINALLY gave in and let me borrow a badge (FYI, the badge ratio was like 12 badges for 50 people) and got in.
THE KOTOKO CONCERT WAS AWESOME!!! Not only was it the first Kotoko concert I been to, it was the first Kotoko concert in America, which made me seem even more special X3. I could have died right after the Kotoko concert and not have cared. Ok that was an exaggeration, but it was one of the best concerts I've been to ever!! I was sitting at the ~~4th, 5th row from the front, so I was pretty close to her. Of course, that meant huge blasting speakers that deafened me for the rest of AX, but the music, being Kotoko, was still good. THE AUDIECE WAS CRAZY, THOUGH. Seriously, because I thought that not many people know kotoko, that the audience wouldn't be too into it, but... O.O It got pretty crazy. First, people started standing up, which was kind of weird, imo, to me, being that I don't goto concerts that often. And then... everyone... started... well...
Ok, one of the comments that my friend (Robert) made was this: "There are two things different about this concert and the concerts in japan: 1. There are no glowsticks, and 2. There are females present." Well, he was pretty right about the second one, there were girls and if you watch the Kotoko concert, you don't see any girls at the concert o_O. But the glowstick incident was IMPRESSIVELY made up when people started waving to the music, with... whatever they had. Cell Phones, PDAs, Game Boy Advances, even lighters... it was all there. You looked back and you could see a sea of technological devices, and you wonder... "All this for Kotoko concert?" Truly... "touching" but I feel this is the wrong word.
Ok, now a little criticism to my rave on the Kotoko concert. While I'm sure most of the concert's antics were due to some crazy japanese otaku fanboys of Kotoko and stupid americans who like to follow what everyone else does, I'm worried about how "cool" I think her music is... I was wondering over the concert period, because it seems that music has perhaps a little of a hypnotic effect on me. >.> you know, like Sirens in Greek mythology... while I maintained composure throughout most of the concert (I didn't go all out crazy... I didn't even wave my cell phone around) I was truly into her music and I'm starting to worry about that... Maybe Kotoko is an evil music alien that will try to hypnotize the world... Naaa, if that were true, everyone would be into Kotoko by now. Yet, she's still obscure. So oh well.
The last thing I want to say about Kotoko is I missed her panel... I didn't get to see people ask questions to her or ask questions myself... nor get her autograph because of it >..<>.<... Well, now I know, in addition to not volunteering at Marketing Booths, to not goto masquarade either. Well, not alone with no one to talk to or be bored with. /pif
Monday
What did I do today? Well, I pretty much went straight to the dealer's room and worked most of the time. I went also to look for that megumi artbook because I checked it out earlier... it had a lot of Air pictures, so that's why I wanted to get it. Well, while looking for that book in one of the shops, I found a hardcover RO fan artbook O.O... so I bought it. :p Other than that, worked till 3 at the orbit booth at the exhibition hall, then met two other friends who were taking me home (Their names were Eddie and Steve). They wanted to goto Outback and eat dinner first; I didn't eat with them since I was eating dinner at home. Then I come home, play some RO, eat dinner, and type up this long post. :p
I'll update the previous story when I'm feeling less tired... I woke up like 8 in the morning every day and slept past midnight... but keep on looking at the Thomas story, still working on it!
On Tuesday!
I bought so much more discounted stuff!!! This almost makes the volunteer torture worth the effort!! Manga for 5.50 (originally 10 dollars, mind you), Anime for 17-18 dollars... Ok so you guys don't care, and I'm sure you guys dont' care what I bought but I'm gonna tell you anyway!!
Fruits Basket Manga 1-3 (for sister)
Read or Die OVA (For a friend)
Abenonashi Magical Shopping Arcade #3 (another friend)
Elfen Lied 1 and 2 (for myself :P)
UPDATE AGAIN: Due to unidentified technical errors, about half of my AX trip was deleted. Because This was about, well, half of my AX trip, I'm not going to type this all up again and express it to you. Sorry. :p
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