Hehe... I all of a sudden had this new idea for the background of MACSS.
A bunch of genius kids building a giant robot and taking turns piloting him by remote through Paragon City.

So MACSS is a remote-piloted robot. Team MACSS is
Mark - the Hot-headed excitable kid who's kind of the "idea" guy. Lots of imagination.
Alex - The quieter, moody one. Friendly rival to Mark, it's a constant game of "hey! watch THIS!" between the two of them.
Colin - The logistics guy. Always fiddling with the tech and the numbers. The one who takes care of maintenance the most, and takes MACSS out the least, and is most upset when it comes back with damage...
Samantha - Colin's younger sister. They had to let her onto the team or she'd tell their parents what they're up to...
Sean - The computer software guy. Socially stunted. Knows far more about hacking computer systems than what is really good for him.
They're all students at Paragon Preparatory Institute, a school for gifted youngsters. They're all geniuses to one degree or another. PPI is west of the city outside of the warwalls.
They're "stoked" to use Mark's term, that they've gotten in with The Legendary. Working with real heroes! Plus, it gives them a place to park the MACSS bot when they want to hide it from the school...

So now I have a thoroughly unique take on the character. I'm pleased. ^_^

I'm doing some spring cleaning (hah!) and came across my late uncles treasure trove of Terry Pratchett books.

Now, castigate me if you must, but, I don't like Terry Pratchett's stuff, mostly.

I seem to recall *someone* in The Legendary liked Pratchett's work... if so, contact me privately (sofaspud.prime AT gmail
with-the-DOT-and-the-COM-and-the-oy) if you want to go through the list or want them all, for that matter. They're all paperbacks, I've got multiple
copies of some, and they're all in excellent condition. I don't like seeing books go to waste, so I'm going to donate whichever I can't give
away.

Sorry for the off-topic post, but I wanted to offer them to y'all first. Back to your regularly scheduled forum!

--sofaspud
--"Listening to your kid is the audio equivalent of a Salvador Dali painting, Spud." --OpMegs

Okay, the high points, quickly:

While it's not a surprise, the chapter is running longer than we were hoping. I think it's a foregone conclusion that it'll be split into two shortly.

However, Chris and I are each stalled on a scene. Yes, that's two different scenes that we're writing separately and at the same time. We can't really split the chapter and release the first part as chapter 5 until we break through our blocks and complete those scenes, because they're part of what would be the first part. Once we do, though, there's only one more scene in that segment.

Whether we split the current chapter 6 or not, this is the end of the story. Everything comes to a head and everything's resolved by the end of the current development file.

So... just be patient with us, okay? Thanks.
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

I watched in frank fascination as Belldandy simply picked up the
very mundane telephone and punched at least twenty digits into
its keypad. I resisted the urge to shake my head, but geeze, the
way Celestials did things in this universe. Every time I thought
I understood them, there was a new twist.

A *telephone* link to Heaven?

"Weird" just did *not* cover it.

But I made a mental note to try the redial if I had a chance.

(What? I had -- have -- more than a couple philosophical
questions about the nature of mortal existence that I think are
rather important, and if I could reach some kind of Customer
Service department, I fully intended to *ask* them.

Yes, politely.

Well, at least at first.)
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

Oh, give me a locus, where the gravitons focus

Where the three-body problem is solved

Where the microwaves play, down at three degrees K

And the cold virus never evolved

Home, home on LaGrange

Where the space debris always collects

We posess, so it seems, two of man's greatest dreams...

Solar power...

And zero-gee sex*.

(*: Presence of MOTAS is not guaranteed by this spell. Nor do we guarantee their attractiveness. Edit: Or willingness.)
--
Sucrose Octanitrate.
Proof positive that with sufficient motivation, you can make anything explode.

So I was at the Virtueverse Wiki Page doing a couple of minor edits to
Cyberman 8's page and after I was done I started hitting the "random
page" link and reading character bios. After a while I started to notice that if a character page didn't have a cool picture at the top or at least
some kind of "hook" to draw me in, that I'd hit the "back" button on my browser. So I started taking note of this and defining some
loose "rules" for my random surfing.

It's got to have a picture at the top in the "Hero Box/Villain Box" section.

That picture has to be interesting in some fashion. Doesn't have to be pretty, but it does have to spark interest. Either a great character design, or a
cool photo-manip, an interesting close-up or pose, neat power effects going on or even a photo of a real life actor/actress that the designer felt their
character would look like.

It's better if there is something to actually read at the page. It's not essential, but the picture at
the top had better make me wish there were something written, or I hit the "back" button.

Then I thought - hey, maybe the people at the DW Legendary site might find some of these interesting too?

Maybe make another game of it? Make it a little easier, next person who posts only has to do - say - 20 random heroes/villains? I mean - if you want to
continue the meme, that is.

Anyway, here's 100 random characters from the Virtue Wiki site, with pictures!

Sundrone

Unchainer

Shadewing

Lanara

Disco Explosion

Excel Excel

CEO of Earth

Lucian Gray

Primadonna

Shinobi Archer

Erec Strike

Ms. Amerika

Mikuruneko

Offering

Nickelle

Agent Ironhawk

Dr. Nil

White Bishop

Trickshot Kid

Unebbing Fire

Kaelinia

Shelly Lightfoot

Perfect Ariel

RoboJesus

Grifter Hawk

Miss Judgment

Invincible Dragon

Mother Aoi

Gunsmoke

Mini Mizer

Nick Cruise

Joshua Caine

Moonrise

Dr. Meenen

Rin Chan

Operative Bane

Levin-Bolt

Pokechop

Echos

Canvas

Fumiyo

OmegaPrime

Shocktrooper

Kara Nova

Gx the Space Gremlin

American Man

Colonel Hero

Fallendarkness

Winter Flux

Clobber-Girl

Gravity Guy

Pengi

Mayor Malicious

Acier

Cap'n Booty

Doctor Crom

Agent 3-X

Hot Betty

Questing Eagle

Autumn

Chovexani

Lucretia de Loccia

Ascendette

Space-Girl

Tarosvan

Xirella

Halley's Comet

Throttlerocket

Professor Proton

Cyber Knight

Reichman

Quantum Quark

Peregrine Falcon

Nomadic Shock

Cyborg Systre

Rowr

Lady Utopia

Michael Summers

Hologram

Graphite

Loopy Loup Garou

Celtic Arrow

Cityscape

Giga Gal

The Requiem of Saints

Cerenkov

Omega-Beam

Jet Nitro

Madame Phantom

London Reign

Tonic de la Hideaway

Ursa Auvergne

Colossal Girl

Dark Thorn

Evil DJ Cozmic

Empyreal

Ghost Scream

Miss Fortunate

Night-Girl

The Galactic Guard

All of it. Just be careful in Dragonlance and/or Slayers worlds with a few of their songs.

A sample:

Quote: We are riding for the battle field in force tonight


Fury of the darkest evil cry for war


Far beyond the boundaries of hell and starlight


On the road to lands unknown forever more




Through the caverns far below our quest will lead us


Onwards through the ice and snow forever more


Standing fighting full of hate the time has come now


Stand and sound the guns of glory cry for war




On wings of glory we will carry on


Far across the forgotten lands toward the distant sun


And in the darkness shining far beyond the starlight


Lightning is striking from the dark dawning shadows


And in the kingdom of the everlasting sun


When the glory of the master's time has come




Into the fires of forever we will fly through the heavens


With the power of the universe we stand strong together


Through the force of power, it will soon reach the hour


For victory we ride, Fury of the Storm!




We are the chosen ones we cannot fail now


Spilling all the blood on the fires below


Smashing through the boundaries with the fire and fury


Killing all the mortals down the winding road




Hell fires are raging the storm growing strong


On the path to victory towards the distant sun


And in the darkness shining far beyond the starlight


Lightning is striking from the dark dawning shadows


And in the kingdom of the everlasting sun


When the glory of the master's time has come




Into the fires of forever we will fly through the heavens


With the power of the universe we stand strong together


Trough the forced of power, it will soon reach the hour


For victory we ride, Fury of the Storm!

A bit of usenet hilarity for your enjoyment. This one came to me while in the shower, and the mental image was too cute to not post:

Here. Some -- Comedian, Rorschach -- look very good. Others, well, acceptable. The guy they cast as Ozymandias, though, just does not do it for me at all, at least in his photo.

-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

It's a Santana album. If you're not a guitar aficionado. well, buy the album anyway. I haven't completed listening, yet, but the album has Oye Coma
Va, Evil Ways, Black Magic Woman, and Smooth - all worthwhile additions to a music collection. The Game of Love is present, as well as Put Your Lights On,
which is pretty much a 'greatest hits' album right there.

New stuff is the wonderful Into The Night - Chad Kroeger (Hero) vocals with Santana guitars. WOW.

Also good on the first run is Interplanetary Party, and Europa.

Tons of different styles. If you buy CDs, buy this one.Wire Geek - Burning the weak and trampling the dead since 1979