Just a little something I came up with a while back and have been working at every now again. Feedback would be greatly appreciated.

This wiki may be interesting for anyone interested in the guts of the stories, including fanfic writers.
They've got pages about all the standard tropes, heroes, stock phrases, etc, with examples, and conversely, lists of the tropes etc used by most major TV/anime shows. Trying to avoid using these tropes in fanfic would not be a good idea, but being able to recognise which ones you're using and which ones are inherent in the show could be useful.
There's also a random plot generator, one trope from column A, one from column B, ... which actually produces more original plots than some TV shows.

Just a reminder... I'm still looking for a good song to use for smelting and/or working ore/metal; I need it for a couple different Steps. Does anyone have any ideas?
-- Bob
---------
...The President is on the line
As ninety-nine crab rangoons go by...

During the past few weeks I've been thinking about all the "pet peeves" and "stupid author tricks" threads we've had in here over the years, and I finally decided to try to consolidate them and turn them into some kind of guide document for fic authors. I'm far from finished, but I've got a big chunk of the first section done, and I thought I might post it here for commentary and suggestions. So please take a look at this and let me know what you think. Thanks!
-- Bob

I wrote this bit a year or two back, as one of the "flavor" pieces to help me visualize how all the characters in "Girls Girls Girls" might interact. However, once I finalized the structure of the Walk, it became obsolete, as many of the worlds they come from are either relegated to the "Drunkard's Vacation" series, or have been abandoned entirely. And in at least one case, I changed my mind about who was going to represent her world.

So I figured, what the hell, might as well share this, because even though it's now "apocryphal", it might still be entertaining. It has been edited, though, to remove some material that is spoilericious for as-yet unwritten Steps.

Enjoy.

I was reading some HP fanfic tonight, and Winamp decided to throw up Pink Floyd's "Another Brick in the Wall". This got me to thinking, isn't Snape just a poster-child for this song? This further got me wondering if JKR is a Floyd fan, because pretty much the whole Harry Potter saga could be set to "The Wall". So, without further ado, I give you:
Harry Potter: The Wall
a rock opera
Starring
Harry Potter as Pink
Vernon and Petunia Dursley as Mother
Snape as the child-hating teacher
Cho Chang as the little tart who flashes her tits to get in for free
Ginny as Pink's cheating wife
Hermione and Ron as the backup band
and guest starring Voldemort as Hammer
Now, I really don't have the dedication to follow through with this idea, so if anyone thinks they can do justice to it, by all means, run with it. The only things I ask are 1) idea credit and 2) linkage.
"Ah, great. More androids." "We're not androids, we're the Knight Sabers!" "Huh. Frederick's of Hollywood has a line of power armor out. Who knew?"Falling out of aeroplanes and hiding out in holes

Waiting for the sunset to come, people going home

Jump out from behind them and shoot them in the head

Now everybody dancing the dance of the dead

I don't recall offhand how far you'd gotten in actually writing the Griffin arc, but I do remember having a discussion with you about which version of the Batmobile Sylia ended up using.
I still say, BTW, that an extreme enough variation on all-wheel steering would be able to get adequate performance out of the Animated Series version, though granted the thing is always going to be a rocket first and foremost.
Anyway, the question is now solved.
Ja, -n

===============================================
"Puripuri puripuri... Bang!"

Again on a short-retention-time site, so grab it while you can...
"Only Peorth puts on more clothes to go swimming than she wears around the house," to quote the person who scanned the image.

-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

and after finishing my latest purchase and reading some of the Naruto threads here, I had a horrible idea.
---
I am a warrior, or at least I was supposed to be. I had not finished my training when the Enemy attacked. It was not a surprise, they had been spotted long before they could reach striking distance.
The problem, in the end was as always the sheer numbers of Enemy that we faced. No matter how many we killed there were always more. We is perhaps the wrong word, for I never saw them myself. I had been awakened early when the attack began, and was moving out of the training area when the weapon struck the facility.
I do not know what kind of weapon it was, only that when I regained conciousness I was no longer in the facility. I was no longer anywhere I recognized. No matter when I looked I could find no trace of the Enemy, or of my people.
I came back here, to where I had first arrived and contemplated. It was possible, probably, that I was halucinating, despite the safe guards. However, every check I ran came back clean. So here I wait, sleeping, hoping that my people will come that I might be rescued, or the Enemy, that I might truly become a warrior. It does not seem likely though. The war was savage, no quarter would have been given or asked.
I have computed the probabilities and it is 91.76% likely that all but a few scattered pockets of either side still exist. Also, knowing the doctrine employed by both the Enemy and my own people, it is 95.32% likely that
hunter-killer squadrons were sent to ravage every part of our respective realms.
So I wait, for a very long time. One day I hear the sounds of foot steps approaching my resting place. Bipedal foot steps, a number of people are coming near. This is impossible, there is no trace of a high tech civilization anywhere, I have looked. As subtly as I can, I try for a better look.
***
Naruto ran easily up the path beside Jirya. The frog-hermit was not watching the trail they were following too closely. Rather he was searching for traps, or signs that some of their prey had left the path.
The main trail wasn't hard to follow, there was only one ninja ahead of them, along with a group of bandits and the surviving women of the small village that had lain at the foot of the mountains.
Naruto figured that he knew why they were taking this path. Jirya had been telling him about it the night before they had spotted the smoke rising from the villiage. A few narrow paths wound their way into the foothills around here. Several of them lead to some kind of ruined fortress.
No one knew who had built it or when, but it was of a style unlike anything found on the continent. The local people were afraid of it, and no one else cared enough to explore. The bandits could be fairly certain that they wouldn't run into anyone.
"Oi, Ero-sennin! we're catching up aren't we?"
Jirya didn't bother to glare at his student. It would have been wasted anyway.
"Hmph, yes, they're maybe twenty minutes ahead of us. If they haven't left any more surprises."
"Hey I beat those guys all on my own. They were horrible." Naruto growled back.
"Yes, but we don't know what that ninja might have done."
A little less than twenty minutes later they rounded a rocky outcropping and found their quarry. A loose semi-circle of ragged bandits stood between them and a group of hopeless looking women.
Behind both rose the bulk of the strange ruins. Short and broad compared to the castles and forts Naruto was familiar with, it was almost completely covered by short stunted trees and other plants.
The ninja was standing on a large piece of rubble, off to one side. He had a kunai ready in one hand, the other hidden behind his back. His forehead protector was heavily scratched, obliterating any trace of his home village. A missing nin then.
Naruto yelled at his opponents. "Hey, let them go!"
The other ninja laughed. "Why would I want to do that? They'll bring me a good price at a brothel I know. You aren't going to beat me little brat, nor are you old man."
"Huh, you can't be much of a ninja if you've got to use thugs like these to fight for you! A ninja is supposed to protect people!"
"Protect people! You've got to be the dumbest kid I've ever met. Tell you what, I'll leave you alive so you can watch what we do with these tonight." The missing nin sneered down at Naruto. "Now, let's settle this."
Everyone was surprised by the clear feminine voice that spoke next.
"Yes. Let us."
***
I watch the group of people gather about. They seem agitated about persuit, a group of refugees perhaps. They are armed strangely though, with primitive melee weapons. There are no needlers or man portable energy weapons in evidence. Perhaps that is why I was not able to find them. I was looking for the wrong sort of civilization.
I do not know their language, but I recognize bits and pieces. It does not take me long to realize it is a decendent of Japanese. They do not speak much, but I am capable of extrapolating much of the vocabulary from what they do say.
Eighteen minutes after the first group arrives, two more people round the corner of the trail. Judging by the postures and reactions of both groups, these are the chasers. They pause for a moment, and begin to
speak. I follow the conversation as best I can, revising my vocabulary and come to an unpleasant conclusion. I check the condition of the women with the first group.
Their body language indicates fear and pain. They are afraid of both those with them and those who are chasing them. It is obvious, their protectors have failed, and they have been captured by their enemy. It also seems obvious that the youngest of the two persuers, a blond boy is intent of rescuing them.
I reach my conclusions quickly, and as the fight is about to start, speak.
***
Everyone froze for an instant, trying to find the speaker. The voice seemed to be coming from the ruins, but that didn't necissarily mean much.
"In the absense of specific, lawful orders, I must act of my own volition and follow the precepts of my service as best as possible. As such I cannot allow you to further harm these people." The voice was firm and unyeilding.
The missing nin was splitting his attention between his two visable opponets, and trying to track down the source of the voice.
"I'm not going to be intimidated by a voice. Show yourself!"
"I am two zero point five four meters behind you. I am not hiding, nor am I attempting to intimidate you I merely wanted you to move slightly farther away from your victims."
The trail errupted into violence in that moment. Great roars of thunder overlapped one another as something tore through the bandits and the missing nin, ripping them to small, bloody rags and shreding the ground beneath them.
Jirya leavered him self up off of the ground to peer over the
rock he had found cover behind. He was completely focused on the ruins, which were moving. Tearing free of the plants that had buried them.
Naruto was still standing where he had been, his arms raised reflexively to protect his face. The boy looked wide eyed at the remains of the bandits. "Wow! How did you do that? That was so cool! Who are you?"
***
I consider them both, the old man and the younger. The younger who was determined to protect people he hardly knew. I come to my decission. It is in the end the only decission I can make. I focus on him, and speak.
"Unit Niner-One-Seven-Three-HNT of the Line reporting for duty Commander."
---
I realize HNT isn't speaking with the precision she ought to, but I was worried it might give away too much too early.
F
--
#4 "Many people tend to have a nasty tendency to carry grudges to the
grave. Specifically, yours. And they'll come back yearly just to do
the Meposian Dance of Joy on it. Besides, nothing bad ever happens to
Kasumi or Mihoshi, does it?" - the Guide to living in an Anime Universe

Needed to de-stress, and this seemed like such a wonderful bad pun to pull ...