I'm trying to identify one or two Harry Potter stories so that I can try to find them again. I say one or two because it MIGHT be from the same story; I'm not certain. The plot points that I remember seem to be fairly unique; at least, I only recall reading them in once.
1) Fairly powerful Harry, who's a Lord through several different lines. This gives him a number of votes that he can use to influence things. He only shows up wearing the rings for the Black and Potter lines, but has three other rings: Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin (I'm waiting for Hufflepuff to show up, really I am). He's set up a separate identity for the Ravenclaw lord, and he's also using 'elemental' bird summonings to carry messages back and forth to other lords - things like a fire owl, and an ice phoenix.
2) This MIGHT be the same story, but I can't connect the two in my head, so I'm not sure. Another powerful Harry story, where he actually exhibits traits of the Black bloodline. It has something to do with a ritual that Sirius took part in when he was named godfather, one used by wizards when they adopt children that causes them to take on characteristics of their adopted parents/bloodline. I believe the story mentioned that James Potter's hair was actually a dark brown, while Harry's is black like that of Sirius. The other characteristic of this story was a Black family ability called blackfire that they can summon. In one scene, Harry was knocked off of a broom, and actually summoned a column of the stuff to catch him/slow his fall - an amazing amount of it.
If anyone can tell me the titles of these stories, I would really appreciate it. I recall enjoying both of them, fairly recently, but can't recall the titles at all. Thanks.
Feinan

Sometime back, someone posted a description of a
character (original, I think) for a Naruto story. I know
next to nothing about Naruto, so I didn't retain any of
the setting specific information, but it went something
like this:
She's got so and so's [move], and thus and such [power]
and etc...
And to top it all off, she's stone. Bugfuck. Serial killer.
Crazy.
As I said, I know next to nothing about Naruto. Some
of my friends have started getting into it, and I'd like
to share this tidbit with them. Unfortunately, it has
either disappeared into the ether, or I'm looking in
-entirely- the wrong spots.
To make a long story short: Help?
-zerosum

When the Quicksand we call Fanfiction.net shifts thier
URL's for fanfics do they follow a pattern?
If they do and it's half way logical I'll write a program and convert the invalid links I've found to valid links.
I was about to add the 13th page of Links to my webpage when a older link caught my eye and I tried to go check on it.
The link didn't work and then I got a very familiar error for Fanfiction.net. I had a sinking feeling that was quickly confirmed by dozens of other links.
It looks like most of older Fanfiction.net links are no longer valid.
Unless someone knows of a pattern fanfiction.net follows when they change thier URL's I'm planning on deleting them from my webpage instead of trying to use the flaky search engines and the writers name to find Fanfiction.net's new URL address.
howard melton
God bless

Now, I haven't really played any of the Halo games, but I have read the Novelisations, 'The Fall of Reach' and 'First Strike' which takes place before the first game, and before the second game, respectively.
I can already tell you that this setup trips my sensitivity of nihilism.
So, I'm thinking about changing things up just a scoach. Reach is more than just a Big Ass Military Base, it's also the seat of all military research. Throw in a touch of Sliders for the science experiment that brings in our boy, only one of the lead scientists is a fellow named Dr. Emilio Lizardo.
Yeah, I know. I'm a sick puppy.
Before Emilio got what he got in the begining of Buckaroo Banzai he was a very decent fellow - had a wife and kid and all. Same applies here, only he doesn't get messed up. Ergo, he feels so terrible for the guy that he starts using his clearances to call in some help.
Of course, there were moral concerns...
"Emilio, this is a human being we're talking about here!"
"I know he is, but if we do not do this then all he will be is the largest living collection of scar tissue. Is that any sort of life for a human to live?"
"But how do you know this is the right thing to do?"
"You go in there and look in his eyes. That boy's lucky to still have at least that!"
With the interested assistance of Dr. Halsey and a few others (at this time I haven't figured out who yet) they save the poor sap by making him into the first ever full conversion cyborg.
Of course, thay had to get approval from the government, and of course, they want a return on their investment.
"Dr. Lizardo, you do realize that even with the help of the Spartans we will most likely not win this war?"
"The thought has crossed my mind."
"Then you'll understand why we are conscripting... Mr. Rhodes, was it? ...into the UNSC and assigning you and your team to a new project."
"But what about Rhodes? What do you intend to do with him?"
"Relax Dr. Lizardo. He will be your guinea pig for Project MANTICOR."
Dr. Halsey never really learns of this part... Until, that is, the Covenant arrive at Reach.
Project MANTICOR's prototype was ready for field testing (all lab tests had gone fairly well) and in a last ditch effort to keep that advanced cybertechnology out of Covenant hands, one last Pelican dropship, loaded with the Project MANTICOR prototype and key hardware rendevous with the Pillar of Autumn before her escape.
Thoughts anyone?-NeoRaven
"I became insane with long intervals of horrible sanity." -Edgar Allen Poe
Sponsored by Black Aeronaut Technologies -
Aerospace solutions for the discerning spacer.-NeoRaven

"I became insane with long intervals of horrible sanity." -Edgar Allen Poe

Sponsored by Black Aeronaut Technologies -

Aerospace solutions for the discerning spacer.

video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5206257500748953004&q=legend+of+zelda
An old Japanese commericial for The Legend of Zelda. So very very 80's.--
Oh, what has science wrought? I sought only to turn a man into a metal-encased juggernaught of destruction powered by the unknown properties of a mysterious living crystal. How could this have all gone wrong?
--
If you become a monster to put down a monster you've still got a monster running around at the end of the day and have as such not really solved the whole monster problem at all. 

Were the board's display fonts changed recently? I haven't changed anything on this end, but the text on the boards looks different. It's hard to describe, but they look kind of "light weight" to me in recent days.
Jeanne

I know we've all got at least one of these - an idea that hovers constantly at the edges of your mind, taunting you with this piece or that piece, but never stepping forward long enough or far enough to latch on to it and put it down on paper or electrons.
So, since I'm bored, I thought it might be interesting to talk to people about them.

God gave rock and roll to you, gave rock and roll to you
Put it in the soul of everyone
Do you know what you want? You don't know for sure
You don't feel right, you can't find a cure
And you're gettin' less than what you're lookin' for
You don't have money or a fancy car
And you're tired of wishin' on a falling star
You gotta put your faith in a loud guitar
Chorus:
God gave rock and roll to you, gave rock and roll to you
Gave rock and roll to everyone (oh yeah)
God gave rock and roll to you, gave rock and roll to you
Put it in the soul of everyone
"Now listen"
If you wanna be a singer, or play guitar
Man, you gotta sweat or you won't get far
Cause it's never too late to work nine-to-five
You can take a stand, or you can compromise
You can work real hard or just fantasize
But you don't start livin' till you realize - "I gotta tell ya!"
God gave rock and roll to you, gave rock and roll to you
Gave rock and roll to everyone
God gave rock and roll to you, gave rock and roll to you
Put it in the soul
(Instrumental break)
God gave rock and roll to you (to everyone he gave the song to be sung)
Gave rock and roll to you, gave rock and roll to everyone
God gave rock and roll to you (to everyone he gave the song to be sung)
Gave rock and roll to you, saved rock and roll for everyone
Saved rock and roll
chorus repeats out...
"I know life sometimes can get tough! And I know life sometimes can be a drag!
But people, we have been given a gift, we have been given a road
And that road's name is... Rock and Roll!"
--Kiss, God Gave Rock and Roll To You II
The way I see this one... everyone within Doug's AoE who can hear the song, and who's present for the entire duration, gets one shot of his own broken magegift.
The very next song each individual hears, if it's one in Doug's arsenal, will activate as if that individual were Doug.
And, as a side-effect, ordinary magegifts won't function until the power has been discharged...
--Sam
"This is a totally deep hole."

By Phil Collins

I can feel it coming in the air tonight, oh lord
(Doug recieves a premonition about a target's near-future actions, must be played after dark)
Ive been waiting for this moment, all my life, oh lord
Can you feel it coming in the air tonight, oh lord, oh lord
Well, if you told me you were drowning
I would not lend a hand
(Target must be someone Doug dislikes or outright despises)
Ive seen your face before my friend
But I dont know if you know who I am
(Doug must be able to recognise the target by sight, thoguh they need not know him)
Well, I was there and I saw what you did
I saw it with my own two eyes
So you can wipe off the grin, I know where youve been
(After the initial precog burst at the beginning of the song, the trance continues, and he sees groundwork already done as if he was an observer present at the time, including rough knowledge of where it happened, enoguh to draw a circle on a state map)
Its all been a pack of lies
And I can feel it coming in the air tonight, oh lord
Ive been waiting for this moment for all my life, oh lord
I can feel it in the air tonight, oh lord, oh lord
And Ive been waiting for this moment all my life, oh lord, oh lord
Well I remember, I remember dont worry
How could I ever forget, its the first time, the last time we ever met
But I know the reason why you keep your silence up, no you dont fool me
The hurt doesnt show; but the pain still grows
Its no stranger to you or me
And I can feel it coming in the air tonight, oh lord...

It should probably be less a matter of Doug thinking about a specific bad guy to target, than his subconscious picking one at semi-random from whoever fits the criteria in local reality - trying to force a psecific target makes it likely to backfire and just play through the first and or last time he encountered that target rather than showing anything new, and there's a certain level of nastiness that must apply to the things being plotted before it'll key in. So, on aslow night when the biggest evil underfoot is filling the Badmobile and drving off without paying, or using solid-light projection abilites to make it look like athe female lead is naked throughout the movie in a theeater, he gets to reminisce over that time Doctor Splice tried the old "water trap & mutant sharks" deathtrap and he turned the sharks into sea monkeys.
- CDThat which does not kill us... has made its last mistake.
SERVO: Loook *deeeeply* into my eyes... Tell me, what do you see?
CROW: (hypnotized) A twisted man who wants to inflict his pain upon others.
" It's crazy to try to spell out all the mega-nooks and hyper-crannies of a Borg contrivance." - Doug Drexler
--
"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

...mostly because I'm having fun picturing Bob making puppy-dog eyes at a Game Master and saying, "Please?"
Play That Song Again
Joan Jett, Ricky Bird, & Frank Carillo
Twenty-one and lost out on the street,
You won't take nobody's sympathy.
Back at home you reached for love
But you was turned away.
Black and blue, you cry most every night.
You tell your friends that everything's all right
Hoping when you close your eyes
It all will go away.
(But with the music loud
Your life gets better somehow)
All right, play that song again,
All night and never let it end;
You'll find something there for you;
All right, it can get you through.
It's though there's someone trying to break you down;
There's a million takers in this town.
It's too hard when no one even wants to understand.
Guitar coming from a radio,
Always takes you where you wanna go;
Somehow all your troubles always seem to fade away.
(But with the music loud
Your life gets better somehow)
All right, play that song again,
All night and never let it end;
You'll find something there for you;
All right, it can get you through.
Guitar coming from a radio,
Always takes you where you wanna go.
(But with the music loud
Your life gets better somehow)
All right, play that song again,
All night and never let it end;
You'll find something there for you;
All right, it can get you through.
All right all night.
All right all night.
Effect: Doug has to play this song completely through, but then if he starts a new power song within thirty seconds, the power from the new song lasts twice as long as the song itself does ("playing" the song again) -- unless it's night. In that case, the power lasts for the rest of the night.
That's not necessarily as beneficial as sounds, because he can't shut it off once the second power song has finished playing -- he has to wait for the extended duration to complete -- and he can't use any other power songs during that period.
And if you need another unpleasant side effect, Doug feels like an alienated, unloved twenty-something at least during the playing of the initial song, although the second song should cheer him up.
DHBirr
"Up, lad, up! We've villages to pillage, maidens to slay, and dragons to rescue!"
-----
Big Brother is watching you.  And damn, you are so bloody BORING.