Wrong... Just... WRONG!!! Don't click if you value your eyes!-Logan
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"This kind of thing tends invariably to devolve into the kind of "No, Nakajima, THIS is true power!!" argument that only really works if you're yelling it from the cockpit of a giant robot . . ."
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It was a pretty evening. The sun was going down, a few songbirds hardy enough to survive in an inner city park were singing, and the sky struck just the right balance between cloud and clear. Maria Pezzini had never been the sort of girl who spent much time appreciating natural beauty, but with the way things had changed for her it was one of the relatively few joys she had left.
Fucking Hellions. Fucking robot-thing.
On the other hand, if those idiots' perverted 'ritual' hadn't trapped her in this eighteenth-century abomination, she'd be completely dead by now, wouldn't she?
Maria sighed, internally - the only way she could, now, since this 'seelepanzer' thing didn't have speakers any more than it had a face - and concluded that, therapists aside, she really wasn't one of those people who were cut out for looking on the bright side of things.
Fucking Hellions. Fucking robot.
"You can't do this!"
"Watch your mouth, bitch!"
Oh, look, a distraction. Thank you for volunteering, asshat. She fed some more coal into the firebox with a mental command that felt sort of like swallowing, and waited for the boiler's pressure to rise to combat levels with a sense of anticipation that should have had a very nasty grin on her face.
"You think all your money's gonna protect ya? You think it gives you the right to diss us Hellions? That what you think?!"
"Hey, man," a second voice broke in. "Ain't that maybe a little much?"
"You backing out, man? Decided you don't want that Langley bitch so much after all? Besides, you're gettin' seconds here, ain't'cha?"
Those few words - the realization of exactly what these vermin planned, and the name of one of the few friends she'd had who'd seemed genuinely disturbed by her apparent death - were enough to sap any fragment of humor from the situation. Fortunately - both for the woman who'd been caught and the Hellions themselves, given the state of her temper these days - that was when the safety valve tripped and pressurized the rest of her system in a cloud of steam that hissed free from pinhole clearance gaps in foot-long, pencil-thin jets.
One step, two, and then she stepped off the roof.
For the space of one long breath she fell free, then slammed into the pavement with a crash that impressed a pair of hobnailed footprints half an inch deep in the pavement of the alley. The one standing lookout she ignored - for now - in favor of lunging ahead to slam the spiked plate carried across the 'knuckles' of her new arm into the jaw of what she figured to be the asshole who had been doing all the talking, what with his having stuck his hand inside the poor woman's shirt and all.
He had turned to look at the racket and was able to duck out of the way enough to make it a glancing blow rather than a direct one, but that only meant that he went down with a bleeding scrape along the side of his head rather than having his skull crushed between the brick wall and a swinging fist with well over a ton of mass behind it.
The third Hellion, the one who had been holding the woman in place, dropped his captive as his companion crumbled, stunned if not yet unconcious, and pulled out a knife. She almost could have laughed.
Something in her posture must have shown it, because he snarled and lunged, completely unconcerned with the fact that he was attacking what was, for all intents and purposes, an armored war machine more than a head taller than he was. It skittered harmlessly off of the grimy steel that had been intended to turn two-inch grapeshot, and then he was staggering back, clutching at the bleeding nose he'd earned when her backhand knocked him away.
She gave him a shot with the city-issue tazer installed in her right arm, to distract him, then turned back to the leader as he came up off the ground with axe in hand and some caliber of pistol bullet whined futilely off of the plating protecting her back. He was smarter than his friend, if even more disgusting, and swung at one of her joints as her nearer arm came up overhead.
That blow missed, but hers didn't, and hammered him to the ground, completely senseless.
The one she'd shocked was only starting to shake it off when she had turned back to him, and she didn't give him time to finish the process, instead driving a fist into his stomach hard enough to lift his feet completely off the ground. Through luck or natural surefootedness he managed to keep himself upright, but that only set him up more easily for the relatively gentle clout that put his lights completely out.
Her entire frame rang like a bell when the lookout caught her squarely with the sledgehammer he had snatched up, but a sweep of her nearer arm as she spun around to face him knocked it from his hands and snapped one wrist like a tree branch. He screamed, of course, and then cut the sound off as she brought the other arm down to club him unconcious.
"Maybe I was wrong about capes," the woman she'd rescued told her stiffly, trying to shrug her expensive suit coat back into place. "Thank you."

#1: It's Kindom Hearts plus BALLS! (is worksafe)
I've been trapped in DeviantArt for hours, clicking link after link to gallery after gallery and picture after picture... it's like a never ending hamster wheel of awesome...
- CD
ETA: #2: Aww, how sweetSERVO: Loook *deeeeply* into my eyes... Tell me, what do you see?
CROW: (hypnotized) A twisted man who wants to inflict his pain upon others.
For the next 72 hours, Itachi intoned, I will slap you with this trout. - Spying no Jutsu, chapter 3
--
"Anko, what you do in your free time is your own choice. Use it wisely. And if you do not use it wisely, make sure you thoroughly enjoy whatever unwise thing you are doing." - HymnOfRagnorok as Orochimaru at SpaceBattles
woot Med. Eng., verb, 1st & 3rd pers. prsnt. sg. know, knows

It looks like Iran's leaders are trying to stop thier citizens from getting second opinions on the official government interpretation of things. They have recently created teams of enforcers to search and destroy all the satellite antennas and recievers they can find among thier citizens.
gatewaypundit.blogspot.co...gimes.html
The Iranian leadership may feel the recent war in Lebonon between Israel and it's Hezzbolla forces has put them in danger of finding themselves in much the same position as the US during the Veitnam period or Russia was in in Afganistan with survivors coming home and telling the truth that was being partially hidden by the official news agencies.
Iran's leadership doesn't have to worry about large numbers of survivors returning home so they are taking steps to remove the free press from the equation.
Another thing that probably worries them is that in spite of the knee jerk reply from across the middle east that the catastrophic war in Lebonon is all Israels and the US's fault there has been a worrying number of leaders and arab citizens that privately and in not so private settings laying the blame at Iran and Syria's feet.
Add in persistant rumour that Israel made a major intelligence discovery at one of Hezzbolla's bases during or near the end of the occupation of Lebonon and you have a Iranian Leadership that is getting worried and tightening the screws on thier control.
Alternately Iran maybe preparing to escalate thier actions or envolvment in Lebonon and they are tightening thier control over thier citizen's in preparation for that.
Wonder if we can convince the American military to start rebroadcasting CNN and FOX news on local Iranian TV channels just across the border in Iraq.

howard melton

Members who are security level 30 or higher should dedicate one costume slot to the Legendary's standard uniform.
Note that this is for heroes who don't have as part of their origin a battlesuit or major modifications to the bodytype, like monstrous legs or large robotic gloves. For those, you can simply use the standard SG color replacement and not have to worry about dedicating a costume slot.
Individual tweaks and modifications are encouraged. If you have a particular "schtick" to your costume -- like Evangelia is the wings on the head and the wide curled up shoulder bits -- then keep that and change the rest. If you shoot eyebeams from a visor that you always wear on every costume, regardless of design, then leave that in.
As a general guideline, when designing variants, always try to keep in mind -- the center is blue, the outside is yellow. In other words. Torso and upper legs/arms blue with hands and feet as yellow. Anything that follows that general rule is going to look approximately right.
Key to descriptions:
Color grid is 10 across, 16 Vertical. Anytime there is a reference the color grid, it is given in coordinates starting from the left to right, then top to bottom. For instance, if an element says:
Color: 7/4 (Yellow)
Then that means that you count 7 over from the left, and 4 down to find find a shade of Yellow there.
Costume pieces and patterns are referred to by their names.

Well after going though the list I've found three that we don't have:
Terra Volta
Talos Island
and
Eden
I tried to grab them earlier and they didn't spawn. Someone is going to have to do a sweep of these areas Saturday and get them, hopefully. I know we're doing Delagation with F.O.R.C.E. we should have them all anyway.When I say Jump, I want you out the window, you got that Demon-boy!
What!
*********************
In the epic rage of furious thunder
legends create their tales
when the twilight calls and the dark lord falls
our glory will prevail

...can be found here.
It is by no means close to finished -- I'll be changing the banner text into Legendary gold when I get home and go back to work with a decent image editor, for one thing. But I wouldn't mind opinions and suggestions. I'm following the same basic layout as the rest of my site, with buttons along the left edge.
Oh, and for those wondering where the Vitruvian Man image came from, I stood Eva on the Round Table and did a screenshot straight down into one of those embedded monitors. Then I cropped and cleaned it up a little.
-- Bob
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...The President is on the line
As ninety-nine crab rangoons go by...

I was listening to My Favorite Broadway: The Leading Ladies and an Linda Eder's version of Man of La Mancha began playing (I must say this has become one of my favorite versions of this song.)
Title: Man of La Mancha
Artist: Linda Eder
Album: My Favorite Broadway: The Leading Ladies
Track: 9
Hear me now oh thou bleak and unbearable world
Thou art base and debauched as can be
And a knight with his banner all bravely unfurled
Now hurls down his gauntlet to thee!
I am I, Don Quixote, the Lord of La Mancha
Destroyer of Evil am I
I will march to the sounds of the trumpets of glory
Forever to conquer or die
Hear me heathens and wizards and serpents of sin
All your dastardly doings are past
For a holy endeavor is now to begin
And virtue shall triumph at last!
I am I, Don Quixote, the Lord of La Mancha
A name all the world soon will know
And the wild winds of fortune will carry me onward
Oh whither so ever they blow
Whither so ever they blow
Onward, to Glory I go!
I am I, Don Quixote, the Lord of La Mancha
A name all the world soon will know
And the wild winds of fortune will carry me onward
Oh whither so ever they blow
Whither so ever they blow
Onward, to Glory I go!
I see two possible uses for this song:
1) A "gate" song that takes Doug to a world where he is needed or
2) A "helper" song; it starts out with winds blowing around and fading in to view as if from a distance comes
"a country squire, no longer young... bony, hollow-faced... eyes that burn with the fire of inner vision."
It's "Don Quixote de La Mancha" on his "skinny old horse" with banners unfurled, ready to do battle!
Don Quixote can be used as a serious helper for Doug or for comedy, depending upon what Bob thinks.

I just had one. Since Sasuke's mom never got named officially, as far as I can remember, fic writers have to pull one out of their ... ear ... if they want to use her much - nothing unexpected there, perfectly normal. I did something similar for Sandaime's personal name recently.
The trouble was when the fic I was just reading named her Mikoto.
ARGH! Just THINKING it ... with the evil older brother and everything... ARGH!
- CDSERVO: Loook *deeeeply* into my eyes... Tell me, what do you see?
CROW: (hypnotized) A twisted man who wants to inflict his pain upon others.
A kung-fu nun in a leather thong was no less extreme than anything else he had seen that day. - Rev. Dark's IST: Holy Sea World
--
"Anko, what you do in your free time is your own choice. Use it wisely. And if you do not use it wisely, make sure you thoroughly enjoy whatever unwise thing you are doing." - HymnOfRagnorok as Orochimaru at SpaceBattles
woot Med. Eng., verb, 1st & 3rd pers. prsnt. sg. know, knows

Well, I've tried to search and make sure that this one hasn't been brought up, and as far as the search function is telling me it hasn't...
"Cartoon Heroes" by Aqua
We are what we're supposed to be
Illusions of your fantasy
All dots and lines that speak and say
What we do is what you wish to do
We are the cartoon symphony
We do the things you wanna see
Frame by frame, to the extreme
Our friends are so unreasonable
They do the unpredictable
All dots and lines that speak and say
What we do is what you wish to do
It's all an orchestra of strings,
Doing unbelievable things
Frame by frame, to the extreme
One by one, we're making it fun
We are the Cartoon Heroes, Oh oh oh
We are the ones who're gonna last forever
We came out of our crazy mind, Oh oh oh
And what a town and a feza, baby
Take a Spiderman, an arachnophobian
Welcome to the toon town party
Take a superman from nevernever land
Welcome to the toon town party
We learn to run at speed of light
And to fall down from many heights
It's true but just remember that
what we do is what you just can to
I know the route of crazyness
A bunch of dots that's chasin' us
Frame by frame, to the extreme
One by one, we're making it fun
We are the Cartoon Heroes, Oh oh oh
We are the ones who're gonna last forever
We came out of our crazy mind, Oh oh oh
And what a town and a feza, baby
Take a Spiderman, an arachnophobian
Welcome to the toon town party
Take a superman from nevernever land
Welcome to the toon town party
You'll think we're so mysterious
Don't take us all too serious
Be original, and remember that
what we do is what you just can do
What we do is what you just can do
What we do is what you just can do
What we do is what you just can do
What we do is what you just can do
We are the Cartoon Heroes, Oh oh oh
We are the ones who're gonna last forever
We came out of our crazy mind, Oh oh oh
And what a town and a feza, baby
There's still more to come,
And everyone will be
Welcomed at the
Toon - Toon
Town - Town
Party
***
Here's a Youtube link to an anime AMV done to the music
www.youtube.com/watch?v=sva1pHOrl30
***
Two possible interpretations that I've thought of...
1) Empowerment of potentially several other people with superpowers based on cartoon/comic book characters of their world - for example, if the "Spiderman and his Amazing Friends" cartoon existed in the Evangelion universe, Shinji is given Spider-abilities for the song, Asuka does Firestar, and Rei as Icegirl just to go with it. Doug as the power source may not be affected, or the song may just ignore him for any other effects (he's already a cartoon hero)...
2) Simulcra. Creations based on cartoon heroes start appearing to aid Doug in battle. The image I've got in my head is Doug being blown into a comic book shop/anime store, standing up and just smiling. The song begins, and the comics start doing the flapping/moving mysteriously, the anime DVDs start falling over and a TV flickers on in the back as whatever villian gets to see the sight of the comic characters crawling out/off the pages and out of the screen around Doug, glaring out the villian.
That'd sure as hell intimidate me if I was the local evil guy and Superman just climbed out of the TV in front of me. Doesn't matter if they might be illusion... I wouldn't know, and probably wouldn't want to find out in case they weren't...
RMH
***
Forsyth's Second Corollary to Murphy's Laws
Just when you see the light at the end of the tunnel, the roof caves in.