non-embedded

What do you say, Bob, increased/reduced effect, or something different entirely?

non embedded

This one's old and well known enough that Doug may well already have a power from it, but I came up with a good one just now... and then I went and over-complicated everything thinking about the rules and exceptions and just RPG nerd things, but basically, Doug was feeling really homesick at some point in the Walk, and/or tried this as a gate song based on the repeated calls to spend time with the singer's loved one(s), but instead what it does is one of two things: First, to allow him to pull up the memory of a single sequence of events in the last 24 hours, up to the full duration, and encapsulate it for perfect recall at any later time; or second, to replay one of these memories for himself and/or someone else.

Not the way he intended to "look around enough" or "have enough time to do all the things you want to do" let alone "save every day and then spend them with you," but at least ten times better than a holiday photo album, and having its own strategic utility for after action reports, incident analysis, and general information gathering. It might interact with a Pensieve in an interesting way, too, or be inspired by them if it only comes in after the HP Step.

overthinking it

While limited to the physical state of what the sound and light reaching his AoE can discern, it is in fact a divination/retrocognition effect so perfect recall means perfect, not just what he noticed consciously or subconsciously, or was able to percieve at the time, or had senses to detect at all in the case of photons outside the visible and frequencies beyond the audible rages at the time. Mana sense detects the magic backing the effect rather than what was present in the scene, and things that were not inside the AoE directly are not recorded if they were, for example, inside a closed drawer or box that was visible but not that close, and observers entering the memory later with the second effect of the song can't leave his AoE from the recorded time anyway.

Not sure if any of these are funny....


-----
British History:
So we just showed up uninvited and made the place our own for a couple of centuries. Savages didn’t even welcome us.

American History:
All men are created equal* (Terms and conditions may apply. See fine print. )

French History:
They call it a revolution. IBecause we wend up right back where we started.

German History:
Once again, Europe is at war.

Austrian History:
Did we start that?

Swiss History:
500 years of peace and brotherly love have given us - a fancy watch.

Belgian History:
Would like you to laugh it off as Germany’s bypass - pay no attention to the Ghost of King Leopold there.

Dutch History:
Never living the tulip thing down

Spanish History:
Arrives in America like the full stop at the end of a sentence.

Portuguese History
Finders Keepers

Irish History:
Right lads, we're leaving - again.

Italian History
Remember when we ruled the known world?

Greek History
Remember who ruled it before Italy?

Iranian History
Yes.

Russian History:
Take a drink when it gets worse.

Ukrainian History:
Desperately trying not to become Russian History

Polish History:
Desperately trying to remain Polish History

Balkan History:
A Tesla Fire.

Japanese History:
We're special. Nothing ever happened. Lets just keep that quiet. Lets never talk about it.....

Chinese History:
...and then millions died.

Australian History:
A thirty thousand year dream fucked by one British cunt's Endeavour

New Zealand History:
Getting annoyed when mistaken for Aussie history.

Indian History.
The difference between 25% of the world economy, and 7% is the British Empire.

Middle Eastern History:
A 3000 year stew of paternalist foreign intervention and religious fundamentalism.

Arabian History:
Camel-Camel-Camel-Car-Private Jet-America-Camel-Camel

7 Henrietta Street
Dublin, Ireland
November 17, 2016
3:47 PM

"I'm coming, I'm coming," Meg muttered to herself as the pounding at 7 Henrietta's front door obstinately refused to stop. "Hold on, damn you," she growled when she reached door and began to flip all the various latches. The sound of the locks opening apparently satisfied whoever was on the other side of the door, because the pounding abruptly stopped.

Meg swung the door open and stared balefully at the man on the stoop. He had short-cut hair of a shade halfway between brown and dirty blond, atop a sharp-featured face. His head was canted forward slightly and he studied her from under his beetled brows. He wore a long glossy black leather jacket of a vaguely retro cut over a new-looking black T-shirt, along with dark grey slacks and loafers. She looked him over head to toe then said, "Yes?"

"You Meg Deckard?" he asked a bit gruffly. He had a Mancunian accent, out of place in Dublin.

"I am," she allowed. "And you are?"

He took a deep breath, as if to steady himself, then drew a worn black ID case from his right jacket pocket. "I'm Inspector Sam Tyler, with the Garda," he said, displaying an ID that agreed that this was the case. "Except I'm not."

"Oh?" Meg raised an eyebrow, silently thanking Data for the snippet of biomimetic programming that let her do so.

He growled and scrubbed his face with one hand as he slid the ID back in his pocket with the other. "I'm screwing this up. Let me start again. My name is Sam Tyler. In 2006 I was a DCI with the Greater Manchester Police. After I was hit by a car, I woke up in 1973 as a DC in the Manchester and Salford Police. I was stuck in the 1970s for three years, then I got shot while trying to take down a suspect." He drew a deep sigh and scrubbed his face again. "I woke up an hour ago on a park bench here in Dublin. In one pocket I had an ID that says I'm an Inspector in the Garda, and in the other I found a piece of paper with your name, this address, and 'She'll understand' all written on it." The glowering expression on his face broke, replaced by confusion and near panic. "The newspapers I saw on my way here say it's 2016." He shook his head. "I've got to know -- am I mad, in a coma, or traveling in time?"

Meg took this all in, then slowly nodded. She stepped back and opened the door wide. "I think you'd better come on in," she said.

Yes, after a dozen years, Tim Park has created a new AMV. "A Space Pirate Scorned", featuring (as you may have guessed from the title) the characters from Tenchi Muyo!

I'm going to have to hang a NSFW tag on this one for the lyrics. The visuals are fine.




Non-embedded

Blossom Apartments, Ottawa, ON, Canada
September 17, 2016
6:00 AM


Rei was worried. She wasn't in Japan any more, which meant that she was nowhere near any of the 280 Hikawa Shrines. How was she supposed to carry out the rites on her own, without a kannushi in charge? But she was Sailor Mars, and in that role she was – politically – the most senior shaman of the Silver Millennium, she reminded herself yet again. There was no organized Shinto presence in Ottawa; her personal status would have to be enough.

She still feared the wrath of the kami if she was wrong – not for herself, but for her friends, both the other Sailor Senshi and the people she had met here in this refuge they'd found in Ottawa. And the kami enshrined at the Hikawa Shrines was known to be very wrathful on occasion.

No, she realized, that attitude was incorrect for a miko of the Hikawa Shrines. Follow the example set by the kami enshrined at the Hikawa Shrines, she told herself; it was better to take decisive action than to worry.

Her decision reached, Rei quickly made her way to the residence manager's office.

Managers Teleconference
October 13, 2016


Bob: "I've been thinking about that Predator that you said Makoto ran into, Rob."

Brent: "Haven't we all!"

Bob: "And it led me into strange areas of contemplation."

Rob: "Like what?"

Bob: "I've realized that the situation we're in is very Earth-specific. Except for that Predator -- or, rather, those Predators, plural, since at least one more had to be around to leave that tanto for Makoto -- and those Fae you fought off last week, and of course the Mau, almost everyone who's been displaced has been human, and even those that aren't are from human works of fiction."

Raven: "Your point?"

Bob: "My point is, are we the only world in this big wide universe providing refugee services? Are there alien civilizations who are receiving displacees from their own works of fiction, overseen by the gods and demons wearing unrecognizable faces?"

<silence>

Brent: "That's an... interesting question. Yeah, probably."

Rob: "You've got me thinking that some heroes of Klingon operas are showing up on Qo'noS even as we speak. But does it matter? If there are, we're never going to meet them."

Bob: "Maybe, maybe not. I mean, an infinite universe providing homes to refugees from an even more infinite multiverse... the law of big numbers says that sooner or later we're going to see some kind of overlap, say an alien story where they've managed to come up with something reasonably close to earth humans as their counterpart to extraterrestrials. What happens if they're the equivalent of 1950s B-movie alien invaders? And have the technology to find us? I mean, we already have, what, three starships on earth right now, thanks to the Masakis and their houseguests? There's no reason to expect we're alone in the universe and also that our fiction will be the only works with ultratech galaxy-spanning drives and other near-magic toys."

...

Rob: "Now I've got a question. All of the exceptions to Bob's rule about no nonhumans happened to my residents or at my residence or both. What's so special about us?"

Raven: "Hey! What are my residents? Chopped liver? I have four nonhumans in The Steeple. Or have you forgotten Zafira and the familiars?"

Rob: "Actually, yeah, sorry. But it just underlines my point. If we aren't special — and I guess we aren't — when are things like that Predator going to happen to everyone else? Is some tentacled monstrosity going to crawl out of the Pacific Ocean and onto Venice Beach, maybe?"

Brent: "Like in Haiyore! Nyarko-san, shonen?"

Bob: "<snrk> What are the odds that somebody is actually running some underwater residence south of Hawaii where Godzilla, Cthulhu, the aliens from Pacific Rim, Reptilicus and the Varga are all hanging out playing pinochle with cards the size of tennis courts? And when they get bored, that's when they show up in Venice?"

Brent: "Don't worry guys, I'm a great pinochle player!"

...

Bob: "A question."

Rob: "An answer???"

Bob: "Why haven't we seen anyone from fanfiction? I very seriously doubt that the multiverse at large gives a crap about copyrights, trademarks and market share, so logically we should have or should soon see someone recognizable from a fic."

Raven: "Like Doug, maybe?"

Bob: "Well, yeah, or the Girls. But just as much, Twister, Legion, Fenris... any of the godlike Harry Potters or world-jumping Ranmas... Terawatt! Or Chris Angel's Paradox. Hell, Gryphon or just about anyone else from Undocumented Features."

Rob: "Fenspace?"

Bob: "Yeah. Why aren't we seeing displacees from any of them?"

Brent: "Maybe they're getting recruited to help instead of just becoming displacees."

Rob: "Don't tempt fate. With my luck, I'd ask for help from SkyKnight but I'd get Skysaber instead."

Bob: "There's one way to find out about Skysaber, you know."

Brent: "Don't say it."

Bob: "Just pick up a landline phone and make the request for him to the dial tone."

Brent: "And now I can't not think about doing that."

Rob: "If you summon Skysaber, you get to give him a place to live."

...

Bob: "Another question."

Raven: "Oh god." <chuckles>

Bob: "The Q Continuum. Where are they?"

...

Bob: "One more. One final question."

Brent: "Enough. Please."

Bob: "What if we're someone's fanfic?"

<beat>

Raven: "Whose?"

<beat>

Bob: "Ours."

Bob: "A group project like 'Fenspace', some kind of self-insert megacrossover story. I mean, there are six of us, all from my board, who are managers, five of us writers to one degree or another. What are the odds of that?"

Raven: "Pretty good, considering Funtom used your board to find people with the qualities they needed."

Rob: "And we're just a fraction of the staff, one that's getting smaller with every new residence that opens. Although Epsilon is a writer, too."

Brent: "Not to mention, if this was a self-insert wouldn't you expect us to all get some obscene power-ups with people like Washuu-chan and Usagi around who are willing to help out if asked?"

Raven: "Oh yeah, we'd all be Sailor Alpha Centauri, or Superman, or some hybrid monstrosity with built-in particle beam weapons."

Rob: "Raven's right -- if this was a self-insert, we'd be center stage. At best we're supporting characters. Although we're better off than Rosencrantz and Guildenstern."

Bob: "But what if it was supposed to be some subversive funhouse mirror image of an isekai story? And it would answer a lot of my other questions -- we're writing what we know, so that's why there's no alien displacees, and we wouldn't poach on other fic writers' turf, so that's why that..."

Raven: "Bob, you're over-thinking things. Go get some sleep."

Because of Kindle Unlimited rules, Beware of Chicken's vol. 2 is being taken down on March 8th and vol. 1 is staying down instead of being reposted. If you want a free copy, you have a week to save the chapters.

The author's post on the subject:

Quote:Alright. Theres been a bit of bad news. Originally, I thought that Volume 1 of Beware of Chicken would go up on Kindle Unlimited for a short amount of time, as kind of an extra boost to sales which would then taper off, and Volume one would be returned to free platforms. However, this is no longer the case. Volume one will be remaining on KU for the foreseeable future, with the other books being taken down as they are released.

I must express my apologies for saying something that did not, in the end, come true.

So here comes the second part: by the 8th of march, , Volume 2 up to chapter 58 will be removed to satisfy Kindle Unlimited requirements. This will likely be for until BOC is finished.

Again, I'm sorry to those who were waiting for Volume 1 to go back up.

First, way to slant the story with the headline, CBC: Florida governor signs bill giving state control of Walt Disney World district

On one hand, Florida is resolving an issue that has existed for decades: Disney received a special tax arrangement because they were going to "build a futuristic city that would include a transit system and urban planning innovations", but they built a theme park instead. Now the special tax arrangement is being changed to match.

On the other hand, Florida just picked a fight with one of the largest media corporations on the planet.

Microsoft hijacks Google's Chrome download page to beg you not to ditch Edge

In this particular case, it's obvious content.

But if the software will change how one or two web pages are displayed, how do we know whether it will change how other pages are displayed?


(Me? I'm still using FireFox...)