Another short from the 'Quoth the Raven' line of WoD/somethingorother crosses
---
For most people, one 'end of the world' in progress was the sole event of that type that they'd get to notice.
Liam Crowley was not most people.
That isn't to say that he was particularly enthused about the event at hand. No. You could say that he wasn't very happy about it at all, which, in his own words, would be one of the few vestiges of sanity he'd managed to retain over the years.
He'd be the first to admit that he'd lost a few recently. After all, putting himself in the path of a just launched nuclear warhead with the faint hope that his Gremlin spirit taught Gift of causing technology to malfunction would manage to stop it from obliterating an island full of war refugees as part of an overly ambitious and blatantly sociopathic government employee's plot was not something one could consider even marginally sane.
Even for the definition of sane held by somebody who routinely bartered with spirits and spent a fair bit of his time as a raven.
Apparently, though, he hadn't died as a result of that particular suicidal stunt. Hell's bells, it had actually worked ... somewhat. The resulting malfunction hadn't caused a nuclear detonation, but the explosion had been something to see nonetheless.
He'd seen it from point blank range, and blacked out.
Next thing he knew, he was waking up in downtown Tokyo ... nine years before he'd left his original Gaia.
He'd spent some time in Japan way back when he was 'just' another Corax trying to make a living by playing courier, information broker, and whatnot ...
... though he hadn't really gotten along with the Tengu branch of his breed too well, it had not been the most uninviting place he'd ever stopped at. Not by far.
He'd hoped that this was it, and he'd get a chance at putting his life back into some semblance of order ... hmm ... maybe buy some dot com stock in preparation for the end of the Millenium boom, even. Seemed like a nice way of making a tidy profit.
Unfortunately, fate had a way of getting _in_ the way of plans like that for him.
... and due to an awkward chain of events that he'd likely never let himself live down, he'd started living at a shrine of all places.
"... what are you waiting, for?!"
And then came _that_ development.
"In case it's escaped your notice, this is really not my sort of thing," Liam grumbled. He flicked open the latches.
With a flutter of wings, a six-inch-tall girl with black wings sprouting from her back landed on his shoulder.
"Please! I can feel ..." the girl sobbed. "She was injured. I beg you, help her!"
"Alright, alright. I said I didn't like it, not that I wouldn't do anything," the man swept the spirit from his shoulder. She shimmered, shifted, and turned into a raven that soon joined another, circling up ahead.
Meet part of the 'awkward chain of events'.
Liam Iskander Crowley was a self-professed coward. In truth, he merely prefered to choose his battles ... and he'd been more or less gearing up for something like this for a while now. Ever since he'd found out that the shrine owner's granddaughter had _that_ sort of night job.
You could say that he knew his brand of luck all too well.
The taint was unfamiliar, the circumstances ... oddly, he felt sort of at home. Other than the ridiculous outfits, that is.
He hefted the tube, inspected both grip and optical sight, then did the same with the stachel full of rune-inscribed rounds.
He flicked the fetish-feather hanging from his jacket's collar to renew its warding effect from the intense cold that would have normally brought even someone with his unnatural constitution down in a matter of hours, if not minutes.
Liam Iskander Crowley was a self-professed coward.
Nevermore was meticulous, scheming, ruthless, and he had yet to find someone who couldn't be brought down by an RPG-7 fired grenade enhanced by bound minor spirits. Or half a dozen of them, anyway ...
He gave a last shrug to Deimos and Phobos, and started off towards the source of the mystical emanations in the area.
---

Yuuichiro? Who's that?
Yup, a Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon/WoD cross.
Anyway, I blame whoever pimped Armored Core on the forum way back when. I think it was CD. I got Nexus just a month or so ago, and my wires got crossed when I considered Liam for obvious reasons. Raven and all. Hence the above.
-Griever
When tact is required, use brute force. When force is required, use greater force.
When the greatest force is required, use your head. Surprise is everything. - The Book of Cataclysm

I should have posted here about this a few hours ago when I made the changes, but what the hell.
I've created a new forum area, "Archived Fanfic Recommendations", to hold closed-out threads pointing to new (or at least unfamiliar) stories from "Other People's Fanfiction". This area will be read-only; as threads qualify (and cease to be active), I will move them there for easy reference.
-- Bob
---------
...The President is on the line
As ninety-nine crab rangoons go by...

*/ YeLLOW Generation, "Tobira no mukou e", 4:47 /*
The two of us are screaming, even now
As if to confirm something, you tightly clench your right hand
If the rules are annoying you, just go ahead and break them
If you're thinking of resting your ailing legs
Move just one more step forward from here, instead
Even if we push our way through the distorted winds
Even if we outdistance the cold sky
Even then, we still continue to wander
The two of us are screaming all the time
Just continuing to believe isn't the answer
Expose your weaknesses and your wounds
If we don't continue to struggle, nothing will begin
So break through, beyond the door
Society has become entangled in complex problems
If reality is vexing you, just go ahead and blow it away
If you're planning on moping over abuse and slander
Let out your selfishness and desire, instead
Drown out the confusing noise
Shake free the gazes that have grown apathetic
Continue from here, on to the next stage
The two of us are searching all the time
This accelerated speed can never go back
Bind your strength and resolution together
If we don't continue to run, there is no future
So move foward, beyond the door
Even if the pride you hold over your head is a mistake
Even if the ideal you paint crumbles
Even if everything here turns to lies and wears you down
I'll definitely be here
The two of us are screaming, even now
Just continuing to believe isn't the answer
Expose your weaknesses and your wounds
If we don't continue to struggle, nothing will begin
So break through, beyond the door
The two of us are searching, even now
This accelerated speed can never go back
Bind your strength and resolution together
If we don't continue to run, there is no future
So move foward, beyond the door
"Tobira", which this translation literally renders as "door", can be more poetically interpreted as "gate".
Also, given just how screwed up this makes 'reality' sound, it would probably be a good way to leave DW-Eva...

*/ DJ Encore ft. Engelina, "I See Right Through To You", 3:48 /*
(it works a lot better when you listen to it)
I see right through to you
See right through to you
See right through to you
I see right through to you
Its not like I dont feel your mood
What you have for me
Is different than the rest that moves
Ill be positive I know that I could be there too
Cause you have it all, have it all
I see right through to you
See your every move
See right through to you
See your every move
I know you now
I read your mind
Youve shown somehow
What I could find
On the inside
There you will see
Were all alike
You and me
I see right through to you
See your every move
See right through to you
See your every move
I'm thinking of some long-distance scrying, focused on one person (and unable to move its focus off of that person). It also looks like there could be some mental effects- maybe a bit of telepathic/empathic bleedover. Just enough to get emotional impressions, of course, and maybe a few minor thoughts that aren't quite Doug's (not that he's *aware* of this).

If this were any other song, I'd post lyrics and the song time, but this is a common enough song that everybody probably knows it: "Beat It", by Michael Jackson.
I would think that it would generate a roughly room-sized (or area-effect, in larger rooms/outside) fear effect, specifically just powerful enough to make each and every person in the room scared enough to run away. Perfect for situations where Doug's facing down a lot of weak fighters (street gangs come to mind), and wants to resolve the situation without fighting.

*/ Bif Naked, "Spaceman", 4:20 /*
i see your face on television, almost every day
in magazines and on the big screen
close yet far away
i wonder why you choose those others
and you never come to call on me
when i'm the one who's waiting for you
i really need you - please pick me!
spaceman, oh spaceman!
come rescue me from this!
calling all aliens!
come rescue me!
remember that night at my window
when i waved at you?
i must have been only five, or so,
but i never forgot you.
i wonder why you choose those others
and you never come to call on me.
when i'm the one who's waiting for you
i really need you - please pick me!
spaceman, oh spaceman!
come rescue me from this!
calling all aliens!
come rescue me!
Seems to me that this would be perfect for interrupting a fight that isn't going well, by- as the song clearly suggests- having somebody pull him out of it from space.
The fun part is that "spaceman" would be defined by Doug's subconscious- he'd probably get rescued by sci-fi characters (or simulacra of sci-fi characters). I can easily see the song teleporting him out of danger in a classic Star Trek effect, or putting an open, 1960s London police call box in his path (which would disappear with him). As I see it, teleportation out of danger, with illusions thrown in.

Okay, per a suggestion made in another thread, I've created a forum area just for old recommendation threads. I've put the two biggies in there, but if anyone thinks other threads should go in as well, let me know and let me know the name of the thread so I can find it.
Thanks!
-- Bob
---------
...The President is on the line
As ninety-nine crab rangoons go by...

Just as the description on the main page says, this forum will hold archived threads from "Other People's Fanfiction" in which story recommendations are made. Only admins and moderators can post in here, so don't try to add anything to these threads. Go to "Other People's Fanfiction" and add to whatever thread is current and live there instead.
-- Bob
---------
...The President is on the line
As ninety-nine crab rangoons go by...

Just continuing a theme
Post new fic recs here
''We don't just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat
them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary.''

-- James Nicoll

I just finished 'the prince', the collected stories of the Fall of the CoDominium, and the thought of Doug in the universe keeps bouncing into my skull, but I cannot for the life of me figure out where a dimensionally displaced metahuman fits in in a Kipling Revived future infantry warfare situation.
But it keeps niggling at me.. grr.Wire Geek - Burning the weak and trampling the dead since 1979