"Go ahead," Dumbledore said, holding out a pointed leather hat so old and worn that it looked about ready to fall apart. "Put it on."
I gave him a dubious look, not taken in by the whole "twinkling eyes I'm-just-an-eccentric-old-man" act. "You're kidding." I gave the hat a dubious look as well, and had the oddest sensation that it was returning the favor.
Dumbledore shook his head. "Not at all, Douglas. Every staff member at Hogwarts must have at least a nominal House affiliation." He shrugged. "At the very least to give us an idea who can act as a representative of each House in ... unusual circumstances."
I caught myself about to scowl in a very Skuld-like manner and aborted the expression. I sighed, though, and held out my hand. "If I must."
Dumbledore just smiled and silently extended the Sorting Hat.
"Well, what have we here?" A voice echoed in my mind as soon as I'd plopped the thing onto my head.
"Funny," I thought back at it. "I was about to say the same thing. I'm used to talking to my headgear, but having it talk back is a new experience for me."
I sensed, rather than heard, its amusement. "A new teacher, are you? Well, well, where shall I put you?" It fell silent for a moment and I could feel the depth of its concentration. "Hmmm. Ambitious you aren't, not for power, but you enjoy glory for its own sake, and there is blood enough on your hands. Slytherin could make use of you."
It seemed to shift and settle itself differently on my head. "And yet you are a hero, too."
"I wouldn't say so. I'm a soldier, I just do my job."
Its chuckle, like the sound of old, creaking leather, echoed between my ears. "Eyes always ahead, you never know what it is you have done, do you? Trust me, young man, I see the trail of a hero behind you. Gryffindor is as good a choice."
"Whatever you say, Hat."
"But you also have a mind of extraordinary power, if not always of sufficient focus. Ravenclaw could sharpen your wits."
I sighed. "Is there a point to this? Or an end?"
"And loyalty in spades," it went on, ignoring me this time. "To friends, to wife, to commander, to those whom you take under your wing, and those who take you in. You would gladly die in their defense. You could show Hufflepuff a thing or two, I'd wager."
"So I belong everywhere. Maybe you should make up a new house just for me."
Another creaky chuckle. "Maybe I should. That'd stand Dumbledore's beard on end! Well, Mr. Sangnoir, it's a hard decision, a hard one indeed. But I've taken your measure, and read your life, and it is my belief that you belong in..."

Admittedly, still ongoing, but could be amusing.
Doug arrives, needs to get some spare parts for something or other, and while shopping, finds himself involved in a murder mystery.
And why is that little kid behaving so strangely? Sure, Doug's met precocious children before, but there's something different about Conan.
Eventually, Sangnoir could help Conan *finally* take down the Men in Black, so that he can return to normal.
Song: "Sunrise, Sunset" to let young Kudo "grow up" temporarily.....

Here's a song that might help Doug combat attempts at mind control:
There are those who think that life
Has nothing left to chance
With a host of holy horrors
To direct our aimless dance
A planet of playthings
We dance on the strings
Of powers we cannot perceive
The stars arent aligned ---
Or the gods are malign
Blame is better to give than receive
You can choose a ready guide
In some celestial voice
If you choose not to decide
You still have made a choice
You can choose from phantom fears
And kindness that can kill
I will choose a path thats clear
I will choose free will
There are those who think that theyve been dealt a losing hand
The cards were stacked against them ---
They werent born in lotus-land
All preordained
A prisoner in chains
A victim of venomous fate
Kicked in the face
You cant pray for a place
In heavens unearthly estate
Each of us
A cell of awareness
Imperfect and incomplete
Genetic blends
With uncertain ends
On a fortune hunt
Thats far too fleet...
-Rush "Freewill"
Just a thought.

--The Twisted OneNot only are there no happy endings, there aren't even any endings
--Bast, "American Gods", by Neil Gaiman
Episode 12
"If you
wish to converse with me, define your
terms."

--Voltaire

Here's a song with a fairly terrifying power, by my estimation at least. I mentioned it in another thread as a 34 minute long song. There are two version though. The original is split into two parts, listed as Phase 1 and Phase 2, on opposite ends of the album. Each one is around 17 minutes in length, and only Phase 1 has vocals (about 5 minutes worth). The alternate version, on the other hand, is one looong 34 minute long song. Personally, I find it superior to the original, though the vocals are the exact same in both versions.
Sorry for the rambling explanations, but one more note: some people will not like this song. It's very much prog.
The Sky Moves Sideways
Porcupine Tree
Versions:
Phase 1 (original) - 18:39
Alternate Version - 34:37
We lost the skyline
We stepped right off the map
Drifted in to blank space
And let the clocks relapse
We laughed the rain down
Slow burn on the lawn
Ghosts across the delta
Swallowed up the storm
Sometimes I feel like a fist
Sometimes I am the colour of air
Sometimes it's only afterwards
I find that I'm no there
In the dream dusk
We walked beside the lake
We watched the sky move sideways
And heard the evening break
Power: I think that this would create very intense and realistic illusions of a possible apocalypse. First, day would become night and the stars would begin to disappear (a la Arthur C. Clarke, from The Nine Billion Names of God). Then, acid rain would fall in a scalding downpour that could burn straight through steel plating. Next, people would (seemingly) disappear at random, simply being there one second, and gone the next. Finally, the air would begin to swirl violently, and the earth and sky would crack open.
All of these would register on every sense a person has, completing the illusion. It could be very effective for incapaciting a group with absolute terror, though I think Doug might be too much of a nice guy to use it. After all, a half-hour can be a long time.
If y'all want to make any suggestions or changes, feel free.*********
I am a very sensitive person! I can go from laughing to crying with just a kick to the face.
- Dave Attell

Thank's to Zoner's linkage to this www.hitachigst.com/hdd/re...ation.html in his LJ. It got me wondering, a quick websearch led me here www.postdiluvian.org/~gil...house.html
So, would Doug have any use for those songs, outside of making Marllier dance.
--Rod.H

so I just rewatched the End of Evangelion movie (and let me tell you, a lot of the trauma goes out listening to the english commentary track. And to hear the eva expert plug alan moore's promethea is just too cool) and it just hit me:
the third impact was about achieving NIRVANA! Where all individuality is erased and we become one with brahma or buddha or, in this case, a giant white chick with perky breasts.
which, you know, is how i'd like to achieve nirvana.
ANYWAY
Since this step takes place after the AMG one, presumably OUR HERO DOUG would have learned a bit more about the nature of God, Gods, etc, etc, and thus would have some more insight into the actual processes going on in the Eva world. Where most people would see a giant spider with big eyes crying acid, Doug would see . . . a giant spider with big eyes crying acid WITH SIGNIFICANT ONTOLOGICAL MEANING!
So, again presumably, Doug's goal is not only martial training but also the sort of psychic (for wont of a better term) training that would enable Shini et al. to withstand or perhaps even thwart the movie ending.
[This gets into my idea that the movie ended as happily as it could but that's a different topic that i addressed earlier]
'Course, this raises some questions such as how Doug interacts with the Chilren, specifically Rei. His mage-sight would most likely allow him to know that she's a bit more than she seems, but does that mean that he would know that she's the harbinger of revelation (apocalypse)? And if so, then what?
umm...
-murmur
The reason why the subject line is the way it is is because of the fact that only shinji doesn't succumb to the whole rei-as-nirvana thing. So the question is: Does Shinji have Buddha Nature?

This is a plot bunny for a Sakura Taisen step that Bob is thinking about. It came to me while I was in the gym working out and I ended up talking and observing one of the fitness trainers.
Let me digress for a bit and describe her. Her name is Michelle. She looks about in her mid-20s to early 30s (she has a son in the Navy, so you can figure what her actual age is). She looks about 100 lbs (slim). But Ive seen her bench-press 350 lbs. She told me that there are significant differences between how woman should train for strength vs a man. Train like a man, and youll end up looking like a female version of the Governator in his prime. She told me that she wanted to be strong. But she wanted to still look like a girl.
Which brings me back to Kanna. Her father probably didnt know how to train a girl in the family style (Im betting only sons were trained in the style before Kanna, or if he had an idea, he wasnt about to mess with a proven training methodespecially if its the only one). Kanna would be under pressure to prove that a female Karishina could successfully become the heir and master of the family style, so I dont think shed say anything, even if she had an idea of how to do things differently.
So you have the powerhouse of the Hanagumi, who has been stuck playing all the male roles in the theater. Someone, if you take away her boobs, who can pass for a man. And would probably be the last Karishina because what normal Japanese man (let alone a martial artist) would marry someone as masculine looking as her? You have to wonder what thoughts she must think late at nite.
Now Doug might know a concept in body building thats definitely unknown in the 1920s.
Body sculpting.
Training your body to a specific shape (for a specific function).
If Doug can coach Kanna into redesigning her body into a more feminine shape w/o sacrificing much of her strength and gain speed as a result, Id consider that as a more than fair exhange. To be able to land 2 blows @ 90-95% of your former power in the same time it would take to land blow at full power is a more than fair bargain. I can visualize Kanna looking like Bloodberry of Saber Marionnette J as an end result.
Of course, now we come to stage 2 of the make-over.
Does anyone remember the plot to Bernard Shaws play Pygmalion? ^^
Or better yet Werner and Lowe's musical My Fair Lady?
Kanna cast as Eliza Doolittle(snicker)
__________________
Into terror!,  Into valour!
Charge ahead! No! Never turn
Yes, it's into the fire we fly
And the devil will burn!
- Scarlett Pimpernell

A thought occurred to me while watching an AMG AMV.
We know that in the AMG universe, mortal reality is overseen and run by the giant computer Yggdrissil (Yggdrassil? Yggdrisil?). So how does it compute/perceive the presence of Doug, an extradimensional who, under the right cirumstances, can kill (and has killed) a God(dess) and is a mortal to boot? Would the system provide some sort of warning to its caretakers and three goddesses (and one god) in particular?*********
I am a very sensitive person! I can go from laughing to crying with just a kick to the face.
- Dave Attell

A while back there was a thread by, I think, Drenivian about converting Doug into tri-stat. I can't find it, and I don't remember seeing the conversion posted.
That's been bugging me for a while, so I decided to do my own conversion, using BESM becuase I don't have a copy of Silver Age Sentinels.

Home To Stay
by Josh Groban


I know you're gone
I watched you leave
I always thought
That it was me
You made it clear
With that last kiss
You couldn't live a life
With maybe's and whatif's
When every boat
Has sailed away
And every path
Is marked and paved
When every road
Has had its say
Then I'll be bringing you back
Home to stay
I have the cards you sent to me
You wrote of trains and Paris galleries
This spring you'll draw
Canals, and frescoed walls
Look how far your dreaming's gone
When every town looks just the same
When every choice gets hard to make
When every map is put away
Then I'll be bringing you back
Home to stay
And now I know why you had to go alone
Isn't there a place between
When every boat
Has sailed away
And every path
Is marked and paved
When every road
Has had its say
Then I'll be bringing you back
Home to stay
Reach out to me
Call out my name
And I would bring you back again
Today

I'd consider this the last gate song.
__________________
Into terror!,  Into valour!
Charge ahead! No! Never turn
Yes, it's into the fire we fly
And the devil will burn!
- Scarlett Pimpernell