flemmings | (no subject)

OK, my part of the Saiyuuki round robin. About 1250 words. Sorry, I have a mild fever and no voice and this was all that would come to me. (And if anyone knows how to make things indent in html, or how to use lj's fershlugginer rich text mode where they *do* indent, please tell me.) (Gnashing of frustrated teeth)
(And why doesn't the cut part show on the nice wide lj-cut screen? I don't get this.)

      "This game is over," he said, loudly so his voice could be heard, and he opened the door.
     "Game?" a nervous voice answered him. "Uhh- what game?"
     "Jiroushin?" Konzen blinked. "What are you doing here?" His gaze swept the room. Still empty. "What's going on? Why is it so dark all of a sudden? And have you seen Gokuu anywhere?"
     "Ah- yes- "
      "Where?"
      "I mean, ah yes, I have ahh information about your first questions, or rather Kanzeon Bousatsu does, and-"
     "Never mind Kanzeon. What's this all about?" Konzen settled irritably onto the bed. Bedrooms were for sleeping, was why they had beds. Bedrooms weren't for interviews, was why they didn't have chairs.
     "Hir Excellency can explain it. Se wants to see you. Uhh, now. If you wouldn't mind."
     "I do mind."
     "Oh." Jiroushin blinked. "But se ahh commands your presence, you see."
      "Too bad. I'm not going wandering through a pitch-black palace just because the old bat tells me to. Anyway I have to wait for Gokuu to come back. If he comes back." The possibility occurred to him that *Gokuu* was wandering through a pitch-black palace with no idea where he was. No, that was silly. Gokuu could smell his way back- he was an animal, after all. And anyway *I* can't go looking for him, I'd get lost myself. Just sit tight---
     "What?" he said irritably. Jiroushin had been saying something.
     "I am to tell you that, uhh, if I have this correctly- 'If the kami will not go to the Bousatsu, the Bousatsu will come to the kami.'"
     Konzen was on the verge of saying 'Well, let hir' when the ramifications of that sank in. Kanzeon. Here. In his bedroom. Hastily he got to his feet.
     "Alright, alright. I'll go see hir. *You* carry the lantern."

      At least someone had finally had the sense to light a few of the lamps along the way. They made their way through the corridors of this wing- never heavily peopled at the best of times- towards Kanzeon Bousatsu's suite, repassing Tenpou along the way, still contemplating the darkness. Rather to Konzen's surprise, Jiroushin requested the Marshal's company as well.
     "You wouldn't happen to know where General Kenren is, would you?" Jiroushin asked hopefully.
      "Gone fishing," Tenpou said briefly, and Jiroushin's face fell.
      "Oh dear. Finding him will be a problem then."
      "What do you want him for?" Konzen demanded, and got only a vague "Ahh, I'll let the Bousatsu explain that" in answer. Which did nothing to improve his mood. He was seething like reheated soup by the time they got to Kanzeon's office.
      "What's going on here?" he demanded as he strode through the doors. "Why is it so dark all of a sudden?" He stood menacingly, he hoped, above the lounging bodhisattva who looked up at him with quirking eyebrows.
      "It's dark because the sun has gone," Kanzeon said. 'Nitwit', hir tone added.
     "Well, where's it gone then?"
      "Into a cave."
      "Well, wh-- Uh, what? What do you mean, into a cave?"
      "Into a cave means into a cave. What else would it mean?"
      Konzen blinked in confusion. Tenpou's mild voice spoke behind him.
      "Is there a reason for this slightly unorthodox occurrence?"
      "There is indeed. She's pissed off."
      "Who's pissed off?" Konzen demanded in frustration. "Besides me?" Pitch black in the middle of the day, Gokuu vanished, and the old hag sitting there babbling her nonsense--
      "And would there be a reason for *that*?" Tenpou inquired, as if Konzen's question had been merely rhetorical.
      "But of course. Extreme provocation, or at least what she thinks of as extreme provocation."
      "She who??" Konzen howled.
      "She the sun. Are you well, Konzen?" Kanzeon stood up and put a hand to his forehead. "You're having an awful lot of difficulty following a very simple conversation."
      He batted hir away. "I'm perfectly well. And the sun is a flaming ball of gas."
      "The celestial party line." Kanzeon sat down again. "The sun is a rather high-strung Shinto goddess who doesn't exist for official Buddhist purposes. Naturally."
      Konzen goggled.
      "So who's been flaying pie-bald horses backwards now?" Tenpou asked, with midnight black obscurity.
      "It's a little worse than pie-bald horses this time," Kanzeon said. "*Or* taking a dump in her palace. Someone has stolen her celestial peaches."
      "Her celestial peaches?" A very unKonzenlike interpretation of the word had just occurred to Konzen, and he blushed crimson.
      Kanzeon gave him a knowing red-lipsticked smile, as if reading his mind. "The peaches of immortality."
     Tenpou's drawn breath and "Oh, I see" did nothing for Konzen's state of mind.
      "The peaches of immortality belong to the Emperor," he corrected her.
      "The party line," Kanzeon said again. "The peaches of immortality belong to the Heaven-Shining-Great-August-Deity--"
      "What kind of a name is *that*?!"
     "They're all called things like that over in Wa. Amaterasu for short. Anyway, she owns the peaches of immortality and no Konzen I don't care what that old fart says, they're hers even if they're kept here. Or were kept here, until someone walked off with them this morning. And now she's gone off in a snit and hidden herself in a cave, and that unfortunately will have repercussions not only Up Here but Down There, and not only in our Now but in their Now and Then and Will Be."
      "Mh?" Tenpou inquired while Konzen blinked.
      "The people Down There experience time as linear, with a past and a present and a future," Kanzeon explained.
     Tenpou frowned. "But- how? Or rather, why?"
      Kanzeon shrugged. "Celestial bureaucrats. They like to make things easy for themselves. In this case the paperwork on who's reborn when as what. Easier if it's separated into three categories, they think, instead of all lumped together like Up Here. And of course it only complicates things totally for the rest of us--"
      "Look," Konzen said. "Enough of this. What did you call me here for? *I* have nothing to do with any peaches, whoever they belong to. I want the lights back on and I want to find Gokuu--" The words died on his lips. "Oh no," he said palely.
      "Oh yes," Kanzeon nodded.
      "What proof do you have?!" Startlement and anger put unaccustomed energy into his voice.
      "He was seen by the guards with a peach in each hand and juice running down his chin," Kanzeon said unanswerably. "They pursued him and he ran. And then-- 'everything went black', as they say Down There."
      There was silence for a moment.
     "So it would seem the peaches are gone," Tenpou suggested, "and getting them back isn't an option. Since that's past praying for, there remains to get *her* back."
     "Indeed."
     "As before?" Tenpou asked.
      "It worked then... I'd rather hoped the General could be persuaded to take the lead part, given his talents, but since he's not here..." Se shrugged.
     Tenpou grunted agreement. "We need someone else."
      "Any thoughts?" Kanzeon smiled at the Marshal. Se was making up to him. Konzen hunched his shoulders, repelled. His mind turned back to the question of Gokuu. That stupid monkey- into everything, always going where he wasn't supposed to, always hungry of course...
     "'Like will to like, quoth the devil to the carpenter,'" he thought he heard Tenpou say, which was total nonsense. Must have misheard... and where would Gokuu go hide when he was in trouble?
      "Ah, yes. I was thinking the same thing." Konzen's attention snapped back. Kanzeon had that tone to hir, the one like a cat's smile, satisfied and more than a little untrustworthy.
      "What thing?" he demanded.
      They both looked at him. "We need someone like the sun."

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

HTML doesn't have an indent. Each paragraph starts with a tag. Visually, this is flush left text and what does rather look like a double space between blocks. When typed out, it looks like this:

But you can fake it by starting out the entire piece with a single tag, then using 5 space entity codes for a tab and ending each paragraph with the break tag . If you're using the browser interface, you also have to check "don't auto-format" when you do this.

Here is some text. This is the end of a paragraph.      Here is another paragraph, and so on.

(I haven't read this yet! Please chug medicine now.)

Not an html expert, but I think you can use the following tags for indentation (replacing the curly brackets with arrow ones):

{ul}This text will be indented.{/ul} This text will not.

{blockquote}This whole paragraph will be indented.
What fun.{/blockquote}

After replacing the curly brackets with arrow brackets:

This text will be indented. This text will not.

This whole paragraph will be indented.
What fun.

-----------------------------------

Konzen was on the verge of saying 'Well, let hir' when the ramifications of that sank in. Kanzeon. Here. In his bedroom. Hastily he got to his feet.

^_^ Thanks for the laugh.

Actually please disregard,

mikeneko's way is much easier. ^_^;;

Easier? I hate space entity codes with a passion. Let me see what ul does.

(whimpering) But why doesn't the lj-cut work like it's supposed to?

And you know something else? That short-cut 'respond to comment' thingy doesn't work either. My lj is located in the Twilight Zone...

But why doesn't the lj-cut work like it's supposed to?

Are you not seeing it? I'm seeing the lj cut for your post on my flist page. And when I load your lj directly (http://www.livejournal.com/users/flemmings/) I see the lj cut too. ::scratches head::

I think the "Quick Reply" box thing only works on journals that use S1 styles (or S2 styles with old style comments @_@). According to the latest news (http://www.livejournal.com/news.bml) post (http://www.livejournal.com/users/news/79893.html), they're working on making it work with new style comments in S2. (Hope you're not as confused as I am by all this. ^_^;;)

The lj-cut is there, but instead of taking me to the default lj page (blue border at top, lj managing links, full-screen for text) it takes me to my customized lj with the pink background. I know no-one else whose lj-cuts read in their lj like that.

Ah, I get it. Actually my lj-cuts read like yours (http://www.livejournal.com/users/luxetumbra/2004/06/19/) as well, but if you want to turn off the behavior try the following:

Go here (http://www.livejournal.com/customize/) and you should hopefully see a button labeled "Edit Customizations" under the Change Individual Settings header at the bottom of the page. Click it and you'll get to this screen (http://www.livejournal.com/customize/layer.bml?w=user&journal=flemmings). I'm guessing, but I think your style is Punquin Elegant or something like that. If you click the middle tab on the page (it'll be called "Presentation"), you'll see an option called

Enable to use the old comment page instead of the newer style specific view

Try checking the box beneath it that says "Override default" and then make sure that it says "Yes". Then at the bottom of the page hit the Save button.

Hopefully you should see your lj-cut using the standard LJ default style now. ::crosses fingers:: (At least this technique works with my style, but I'm using Opal so YMMV. ^_^;;)

Ahh yes- much more readable now. Thank you. (Now you mention it, so does Petronia's comments take you to her customized page, which is why I avoid reading Petronia's comments- tiny fonts on non-contrasting colours and all. Ahh ze young, zey are so... nonpresbyopic.)

I have the same problem with the microscopic fonts on low-contrast colors (people are trying to blind me, I swear ;_;) However, you can view everyone's comments using your own chosen style by doing the following:

1.) Click here (http://www.livejournal.com/editinfo.bml) and if you scroll down the page you'll see the following lines of text (they're near the bottom):

View comment pages in your journal style?

Check this option to view comment pages in your journal style when following links from your friends page.

Make sure the box next to that bold line is checked and then hit the "Save Changes" button at the bottom of the page. Now you should hopefully see all comments pages for all journals, not just your own, with your own chosen style applied when you click through to the comments while viewing your friends page.

Thanks again for the story and best wishes for a quick recovery. ^_^

Like the income tax form, isn't it? It's all there in the guide, you just have to know where to look for it and what it means when you find it. ^_^

What is this "no voice" you speak of? You have it all right here before me.

What a wonderful twist. :D And I was clapping at that last line. Great job.

(Rest up and feel better. It sounds like you need more sleep than me now.)

What is this "no voice" you speak of? You have it all right here before me.
That's not me. That's my alternative personality. Me, I croak. ^_^

Actually I do little else but sleep. And that lovefest over at monkeybarrel still has me blushing like the setting sun. Speechless, I am. Well, as ever.

All love-fests deserved. This had me snickering as I read it, which was difficult to camouflage in the middle of work.

Do we now get to see Konzen doing a striptease?

(deleted comment)

It's out of my hands, of course. But there's the problem of a round robin and a strong authorial ego. You don't get the final say, and if you indicate your preferences too strongly you cramp everyone else's style after you.

Mind you, being later in a round robin is probably a lot like writing fanfic itself. The givens are given. Then you do something else with them.

That remark stuck in my mind. No, he doesn't 'win' because... because... because he's not presented as having any strengths, even delusive ones. Gokuu's all bright positive yang, Tenpou's observant and intelligent, Kenren's capable of the occasional insight and anyway he *thinks* he's great, which is half the battle. But Konzen is all negatives. There are no grounds for him to win on.

What's odd in terms of the canon is that Tenpou makes Konzen his confidante. He must have a reason for it- I mean, aside from concealing an information dump on The Rise of Litouten etc. He must assume Konzen can be of use or help somehow, or *needs* to be alerted to Something Rotten for some reason. One just wonders what it might be.

Oh, dear. Now we've added a whole separate set of Kami to the mix. Brilliant! This promises to be very interesting.