...unless you really want to.
What if handwavium wasn't created by any means so far proposed, least of all by Haruhi?
What if Fenspace Earth was an "ordinary, uninteresting" world visited by Doug Sangnoir, and handwavium was an unknown and unintended consequence of his visit?
(Momentarily envisions the "Girls, Girls, Girls" crew opening a gate to the main concourse of the Stellvia and asking if anyone's met Doug... in the middle of OGJ...)

-- Bob
---------
The Internet Is For Norns.

According to The Register quoting The Sun, Doctor Who faces extermination after new season 4.
(And I'm still only partway through watching season 2. If I'm a typical viewer, I can understand why the show's being dropped instead of re-staffed... but I doubt I'm a typical viewer.)

-Rob Kelk
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012

In the past, people have pointed out the similarities between Belldandy and her sisters and another fairly famous anime trio of sisters (though in that one, the middle and eldest sisters are swapped compared to the Norns...).
With the addition of Paradox, the similarity continues with the addition of a honorable but mouthy warrior type with unusual...problems of his own, including being pursued by multiple 'fiances' so to speak.
And with the addition of Doug, it *continues* the similarity with the addition of a 'lost boy'..who ends up in a sort of relationship with the violent, mallet-wielding youngest sister. ;-)
Though I do get the image of a micro-stagger where Doug ends up in some really *way* out there parallel (say, Nazi New Zealand) and is pondering his fate, when..."Hey, Doug? What are you doing in downtown Tokyo again?" "Ryouga??? Ummm...this *isn't* Tokyo...."

news.livejournal.com/9896...7#comments
community.livejournal.com...nce_jihad/
more links as the top entry at kokuten.livejournal.com
I am confused and pissy.Wire Geek - Burning the weak and trampling the dead since 1979Wire Geek - Burning the weak and trampling the dead since 1979

Got to thinking: what, exactly, am I supposed to *do* with the King of 3 Shadows' costume slots? It's not like the Mirror Kingdom has a uniform.
Halloween slot went to his formal robes, but that didn't solve the greater problem. Then it hit me.
The King is a multi-stage transforming Dragonball Z villain.
First stage:

...and second:

Next slot will be totally-bulked-out demonic third stage, and the last... the Ultimate Form... will of course be completely human, because that's how these things work.
--Sam
"It's over NINE THOUSAAAAAAAND!!!!!!!!!!!!"

A few thoughts on the BBI and the War....
The Institute goes where it needs to be, and often fills in roles of disaster relief and evacuation, as well as prevention. Given the Global Frequency, there are Blazers in almost every region of Fenspace and Mundane, ready to react on the signal of an AI that has taps into or links with almost every media existent media source. If you are a Blazer, and there's a situation, you can call Buckaroo, and the Institute will mobilize appropriate forces. Sometimes it comes as cleanup, and sometimes....
* * *
"I really wouldn't do that if I were you." I say, stepping out of the shadows, the red dot of a laser sight tagging the Reaver's center of mass. "It might make me cross."
The Reaver is relatively normal in appearance, with only a collection of piercings and a few scars to indicate he isn't actually an Alice Springs Water Department employee, despite his distinctive jumpsuit, hard hat, and ID badge. Even that might be appropriate, given his age. But the look in his eyes, that look of someone that's not quite all there, belies his nature. "Took you long enough," he comments, as if I were the pizza delivery man.
I shrug. "Six bombs, with accompanying bombers," I add, informing him of his team's failure. "You've left the Alice Springs police with a lot of paperwork."
"You won't kill me. You don't kill." He turns away from me and reaches for his package. There's a motion, and J. is there, moving with a stealth and speed that is uncanny for a man his size. Before he can do more than fist the Reaver's clothing, the bomber has snatched up his detonator and flipped it active. He catches J. across the jaw with the improvised fistload of the deadman switch, knocking him to the ground. "Stay back!" he shouts at me, halting my advance by thrusting the switch at me like a pistol, as if he could kill me directly with it. "You know what this is! No one touches me until the bomb goes off!"
"Shouldn't that be 'or the bomb goes off'," says Nezumi as she appears at the other end of the room, next to the emergency exit. Her pistols, the twin Schofields that she got from Governor Clarke, are free and steady. She could shoot out his eyes from that angle, but the switch would open. And of all of us, she knows what a batch of 'Wavium released into the water main would do.
"Where's Chaos?" I ask, holstering my Glock and keeping my eyes on the Reaver. Both exits are blocked, and it's merely a matter of time before he does something really drastic.
"Dealing with the other bombs. He had to get Tommy Eight-Fingers on the phone for some of the work."
I nod. The Reaver's looking more and more like a frightened dog, ready to bite anyone that even looks like he's going to move. The throwing spike drops into my hand, but that's a good second for him to react, and he's still got the switch. "J.?"
"Yeah, I'm here." J. pulls himself to his hands and knees at the feet of the Reaver.
"Don't move, fucker! I will set this thing off if you even breath wrong!"
Too many movies. Well, scratch that, because there's no such thing. Too many movies of the wrong kind. "J.?"
"Yeah?"
"Boom."
Given that J. stands 6'1" and weighs upward of 280 lbs., few people believe that he can move as fast as he can from a standing start. Or that he can kick as high as he does. The front snap kick is a steel-toed blur that connects maybe a quarter-second after his hand closes around the loosening grip of the Reaver, jamming the fist tight around the switch. Unfortunately, the Reaver takes the force of the kick full in the jaw and unsuccessfully tries to follow the line of force imparted. Unsuccessfully, because he is anchored by J.'s aforementioned grip on his hand. The crack of bones breaking echoes through the room, and the Reaver goes limp, his neck at an unpleasant angle.
"Shit." J. lays the body down and checks the pulse. "Shit!" he says again.
I couldn't agree more, but now's not the time. There's still a bomb. "Bomb now. Trauma later." I've got the phone open and active before I finish the sentence. Time to see if Tommy Eight-Fingers can conference.
* * *
...Sometimes they end up in the Alice Springs police station, dealing with paperwork and a case of self-defense.
My point to all of this is that the BBI can and will show up anywhere they're needed. They follow their own agenda, which is less elitist than many of the factions (often involving 'Dane experts and authorities), and Blackstone and the others have no problem simply not telling Haruhi what they're doing if they feel they don't need to.
Ebony
Ebony the Black Dragon
Senior Editor, Living Room Games
http://www.lrgames.com
Ebony the Black Dragon
http://ebony14.livejournal.com

"Good night, and may the Good Lord take a Viking to you."

The "For Great Justice" thread twice brings up the enslavement/biomodding of kids from Hogwarts, but does it in such a way as to imply that something has happened to Hogwarts itself. But the latest changes to the "places" thread doesn't note anything happening to Hogwarts the way it notes the Jan '13 destruction of Crystal Osaka. Is this something we need to hash out?

-- Bob
---------
The Internet Is For Norns.

PIN the suger pill banks call security so they don't have to actually have any security.

If the PIN doesn't change in a pattern that can't be easily calculated or predicted with each transaction then like a suger pill any resistance it has to a thief dissolves the first time a thief goes after it.
-------------------
www.pcworld.com/article/i...=nl_cxanws
-------------------
These crooks seemed to have used a different route, but I always wondered/worried and made fun of a security system that required every person in what is in most cases a near minimum wage job to be honest.
I wouldn't be surprise if the Police eventually discover that several of the checkout people in the stores were actually part of the teams. Either adhoc members by being slipped a few hundreds to look the other way or long term members of the teams that were actively searching for Checkout jobs to gain access to the keypads.

/QUOTE/
Authorities in a number of states have reported local instances of a new high-tech crime: Crooks replacing or "bugging" checkout keypads at grocery and convenience stores. The rigged keypads record your credit card number or the personal identification number (PIN) that you key in when using your debit card. The crooks later return to collect the keypads--sometimes by ripping them from checkout aisles--and use the intercepted data to siphon large sums of money from unsuspecting store patrons.
/ENDQUOTE/
howard melton
God bless

www.silversnail.com/storefront/
Oh, yeah.

The Gorman Familly. The Patriarch's a Circle of Thorn mage and the Matriarch's a behemoth. Don't ask me how it's possible, it's just what my brain belched out after I made the oldest of their children, Anthony Gorman, the 'runt' of the family.
img.photobucket.com/album...-22-54.jpg
As soon as he has him, his bruiser will be Timothy "Tiny Timmy" Gorman, the baby of the family.
Their Mother tends to baby Timmy a lot btw, here's dialogue I made.
***
"Damnit Timmy, be careful. If you get yourself arrested working for me, Mum's going to rip my head off."
"Aw, you're just jealous because mommy likes me more than you."
***
Aside from those odd tidbits, here's a few monologues I've made of Anthony briefing Lil' Nicky, Frail Fred, Pyro Pete, two currently unnamed Lieutenants and Timmy before an heist.
***
Ok boys, we've got a job to do, and here's how we're going to do it.
Fred, stop picking on Nicky and watch the door for the hero that'll arrive to try and stop.
Yes, I know there's going to be one, there always is.
Nicky, stop goading Fred and go check the patrols. I don't care that you're not touching him, that's still goading.
Pete, stop laughing and just, y'know, put stuff on fire when the fighting start. Just try not to light up the entire bank like last time.
Yes Timmy, I know I'm always the one to give orders.
Because you got us in jail last time I let you.
Don't you dare tell Mum that or I'm not letting you beat up the hero.
Yes yes, most horrible meany on the planet, moving on...
***
And that's it. Why I've put this up online? Because my muse struck and I know better than refuse to obey, she might keep hitting.