Fortress of Perpetual Midnight - May 23rd, 2008

For some reason, the Waffen-SS of the Last Battalion were not a military group but an urban gang, and it was up to us Ninja Turtles to deal with them. The Hauptsturmführer's work was easy to identify, as there weren't many others running around with Broomhandle Mausers these days.† Oddly enough, Dok‡ wasn't actually doing anything evil, just researching at a local library.

†It had been replaced as a service pistol even by WWII, although some officers (such as him) still had personal ones. As the only confirmed Werwolfes are him and Ms. Rip-Van, we don't know anything about how they're spawned, so for all we know he may have been a soldier for decades before that. Interestingly enough, the powers they are seen to have seem to relate to firearms: Ms. Rip-Van's dancing musket ball and the Hauptsturmführer's ability to make two long-barreled Mausers look like one normal piece when holstered （笑）. (Speaking of extensible barrels, DM had to make a similar excuse so that typical slugthrower rifles (exemplified by the Czerka Adventurer) can double as BAW E-5 Droid Blaster Carbines due to the changes he's made to the plot.) Tangentially, I'm also amused by the fact that humans like Walter can chop up people with mono-wire, while vampires (there's one who shows up later on, not to spoil anything by saying where) can chop up skyscrapers. There's also the fact that Walter is a gunsmith, yet he fights exclusively with mono-wire. (I've thought of a logical reason for that, but that's ( a spoiler for Book 9. ))

Admittedly, there are Mauser variants chambered in modern calibers, so his work might not be identifiable by the ammo and brass left at the scene if he uses one of those. However, each firearm has a distinct pattern of marks that it leaves on each bullet from the rifling in the barrel. I think I may have heard that it's possible to determine the model as well, but I failed to find confirmation on that; still, they would be able to tell that all of the rounds came from the same two weapons, making it easier to link it to a specific person.

‡Since they're German, I assumed it was an abbreviation of the German word. I don't know whether they use such an affectionate term in German, but I don't imagine Hirano does either. (The dwarf is known as "Chef.") Using German words can lead to some odd things; this one is the same as an Ork word, and "Death Korps" is a bit of a false friend. . . .

When I first saw this, I assumed from the single star and the color scheme that he was drawing a comparison to other red republics, such as Union of Soviet Socialist and People's of China (in which case I'd point out that communism sounds good to me if it's what it takes to have freedom of religion), but it turns out that it's actually the California state flag. Now I don't see if he's actually saying anything, other than fact. Still, this did lead me to read a couple of other things that I had missed before on the same page (locally):

1. The First Amendment was quoted directly. Other than the fact that it's a crudely written run-on sentence, it brought to my attention the fact that I'm not clear on how the wording works. It says that "Congress shall" not do these things, but does that protect us from laws on regional levels, or regulations for individual institutions (like public schools) as well? Obviously, it should, but there are plenty of people who claim that we should always follow what the Constitution says, regardless of whether it's right or wrong.

2. Good point. It's important to be able to see who the bigots are.

On the original topic again, I noticed something not quite accurate about Ms. Morishima's comments in her first Yuri-Yuri Kembunroku about YURICON, where she was excited thinking "if ○○ and ×× went to America, they could get married!?" or some such. The problem is that such a marriage would only be valid in the place where it's legalized. According to my research, the only place where they say it's valid globally is Canada, and I don't see what difference it makes, since it would be odd if a place where it was illegal would recognize marriages granted by some other country. Of course, the point is rather moot, since Ms. Morishima is (as usual) talking about yuri; fictional characters don't need real-life legal status. I can only assume that no First-World country will stop you from having ceremonies and vows, although some people there will grumble about them.