Been rereading the whole schmear, and I got to thinking about Mr. Big Bad.
Brilliant man. Totally mad, but brilliant. The Dark Geek in all of us... well, some of us. I'd admire him if he weren't so darn twisted; as it is, to some extent I pity him. (If Doug had shown up twenty or thirty years earlier... would J.D. have tried to work with him? Asked, politely, for gene donations, and gone the hero route while he had enough moral fiber left to manage it?)
There are two Big Things lurking in my head regarding the man, and I might as well address them both here.
One:
I have to wonder what the effect of "meeting" Quincy has been like for you, Bob, as well as for Doug. There's a story behind that...
Daniel Dumas, the villain of Mark Latus's BGC fics, struck a particular chord with me. Another recipient of the Stingray brain-augments, he thought the world needed more aggressive saving than Sylia was prepared to go for... and eventually killed the Sabers when he decided they were a threat to his plans.
Dumas was, and remains, the only fictional villain--fan or pro--who made me go into a towering fury to the point where I wanted to reach into the monitor and personally throttle him. It took me a while to realize just why that was.
By sheer coincidence, Mark had created a villain whose style, goals, and even name were a warped parallel of one of my own characters--from an old Champions game--and the one who was, more than any other, my self-insert: Dylan MacRoss, the Engineer, a hyperintelligent armored gadgeteer who was dedicated to making the world a better place. Dumas was exactly what MacRoss would have been had he deliberately and callously betrayed his own ideals to pursue his goals, the Engineer's mirror-universe twin, and the thought of me in his place filled me with loathing.
Now, here's James D. Quincy, presented as in some ways a dark mirror of Doug. And a gamer, to boot. And I'm wondering how much of that is really a dark mirror of Robert M. Schroeck, and if so, what was it like to write such an anti-you?
Two:
Consider Quincy, his every form and aspect.
Mad, of course, as mentioned above; but also brilliant. Sufficiently dedicated to spend fifty years in pursuit of a golden dream of heroism, and to remake himself into a megalomaniacal villain on behalf of that dream.
How proud he must have been of that young turk Mason, following in his footsteps to become a classic supervillain in his own right! And the mad Doctor Miriam, attacking the ADP building in flamboyant style... such promise.
It's important to remember that Quincy won. He got the world he'd dreamed of, even if--like a mirror-Moses--he didn't quite live to see its full flower.
Or... did he?
Consider again: this was a man who Knew The Rules, and abided by them. I'd be very surprised if, even in his Arcanum persona, he hadn't been expecting the possibility that, yes, Doug would find a way to escape and even Foil His Evil Plan.
And that would have been perfectly all right. Proper, even. (He left the helmet IN THE ROOM, for crying out loud!)
Could he even have anticipated Madigan's betrayal, as another classic trope? Welcomed it on some level?
And--let's face it--wouldn't such a proper villain have prepared for even the worst eventuality?
Quincy's body may be dead, but I do not and cannot believe that Quincy is gone. He'd have braintapes, private cloning facilities, his own version of the boomer-brain transfer process, something to allow him to pull off the classic Return from the Grave. And, Bob, if you say he didn't... well, I'll have no choice but to accuse you of lying.
And since it's fairly obvious that Largo is still around somewhere... things could get interesting down the line.
(Ian, any comments about their situations in Dead Bang?)
--Sam Ashley
"An object at rest--CANNOT BE STOPPED!!!"

I was looking for a song in which Doug can summon a mecha if he has to. The opening song of The Big O by
Nagai Rui springs to mind.
Light a light in a lonely heart
Dying me with words Ye god!
Big-O!
Big-O! Big-O! Big-O!
Big-O!
Big-O! Big-O! Big-O!
Cast in the name of God
Ye not the guilty
We have came to team!
Big-O!
Swear an eternal oath
to this city that lost all of its past.
Light a light in a lonely heart
Dying me with words
Big-O!
Big-O! Big-O! Big-O!
Big-O!
Big-O! Big-O! -O! -O! Big-O!
Big-O! Big-O! -O! -O! Big-O!
Big-O! Big-O! Big-O! Big-O!

Now I grant you the song is ripoff of the "Flash Gordon" song by Queen, but it's not bad.
Having an EVA sized mecha to pilot is nothing to sneeze at either.
__________________
Into terror!,  Into valour!
Charge ahead! No! Never turn
Yes, it's into the fire we fly
And the devil will burn!
- Scarlett Pimpernell

Hello, The name is Edward, though I call myself Zertax quite a bit.
I just thought I'd say something here. What i was gonna say has slipped my mind but, well, maybe it i'll come back to me after I read something.
Well, umm, Genuis isn't rushed, only Bad Writing.
*********************
In the epic rage of furious thunder
legends create their tales
when the twilight calls and the dark lord falls
our glory will prevail

Just what the subject line says. Found some more potential quotes/sayings for the rotating top banner. ^_^
==========
Do not taunt happy fun superpower.
Do you ever just want to teleport in, destroy some monsters, damage property, and teleport out?
I am heavily armed, easily bored, and off my medication.
I am not a trained killer. I LEAD trained killers.
I know Karate, Kung Fu, and 47 other dangerous words.
The mind is the final battlefield. The stuff in between is just noise.
Nine out of ten of the voices in my head say "Don't shoot!"
As long as we're going insane, we might as well go the whole way. A mere shred of sanity is of no value.
Because of heavy computing requirements we are currently using some of your unallocated brain capacity for backup processing. Please ignore any hallucinations, voices, or unusual dreams you may experience. Please avoid concentration intensive tasks until further notice. Thank you.
It's hard to predict the future when they keep changing the past.
Madness takes its toll. Please have exact change.
Outnumbered, yes. Outmaneuvered, maybe. Outclassed, never!
NO! NO! Don't touch the plot contrivance switch!
Reality is just a transfer gate away.
Time paradoxes will have given me a headache.
Brought to you by the people who made "out of context" a household word.
Cry CHEEBLE! and unloose the hamsters of war!
I do the work of three men--Larry, Moe, and Curly.
I have bungee fever and there's only one cure....BOING....
I used to have a Heisenbergmobile, but every time I looked at the speedometer, I got lost...
I'm not imaginary--I'm ontologically challenged.
I'm a very dangerous fellow when I don't know what I'm doing.
I'm not touching that with a 10' snide remark.
We all live in a yellow subroutine.
-Logan
-----------------
"So there I was, lying flat on my back, with my face pressed into the dirt, thinking, "Wait a minute, something's not rig..."
-----------------

Evanescence - Where Will You Go?
You're too important for anyone
You play the role of all you long to be
But I, I know who you really are
You're the one who cries when you're alone
[Chorus:]
But where will you go
With no one left to save you from yourself
You can't escape
You can't escape
You think that I can't see right through your eyes
Scared to death to face reality
No one seems to hear your hidden cries
You're left to face yourself alone
[Chorus]
I realize you're afraid
But you can't abandon everyone
You can't escape
You don't want to escape
I'm so sick of speaking words that no one understands
Is it clear enough that you can't live your whole life all alone
I can hear you in a whisper
But you can't even hear me screaming
[Chorus]
I realize you're afraid
But you can't reject the whole world
You can't escape
You won't escape
You can't escape
You don't want to escape

Thought about this suggesting last night, but was having trouble thinking of what it would do. Other than unleash a serious mind-screw on someone.
"This hand of mine glows with an awesome power. Its burning grip tells me to defeat you....
Shining FINGER!" -Domon Kashuu, Mobile Fighter G Gundam

Well, I never thought I'd find a series I liked this much, well other than BGZ of course.
Bob, you've written a great story here and I for one cannot wait for more. Keep on with the good work.
Genius can't be rushed, but crap can be.
Zertax Drenivian, Short Time Reader, First Time Poster.
Hooked and Waiting for more.
*********************
In the epic rage of furious thunder
legends create their tales
when the twilight calls and the dark lord falls
our glory will prevail

Hi all,
I'm not sure if I post this here or over in the "games everyong likes to play" forum. However, I'm tired and am in this forum now, so I'll put it here. If it is the wrong place, could the mods please move it?
Having finally downloaded and read Chris' story, the following song was recalled into my head. I'm not sure exactly what powers it would give Doug, however it does play on the Past/Present/Future/Moment aspect of the OMB universe.
I'm too tired to offer more comments, or comments that make any sense. Here's a link to the lyrics.
John Farnham - Man of the Hour
The link also has links to some other John Farnham songs that might be useful for different aspects and/or effects, 'Don't you know it's magic', 'That's freedom', 'Keep talking', 'See the bannars fall', 'When all else fails', 'We're no angels', plus many more that I'm too tired to process. (It's been a long 48 hours - exactly 0xB40 minutes in length.)
Micro Hue
(who one day will get an account here ... one day)

I'm hoping someone can help... The image below was made by a DW reader a couple years back, and I know he uses it on his own mirror of DW2. But I can't find the page via Google or the image via Google Images, and there's no identifying info embedded in the pic. If you recognize it and know who made it, or you are the one who made it, please let me know! Thank you.



-- Bob
---------
There's no wrong way to eat a Rhesus.

I've slightly rearranged the DW pages. In anticipation of the coming DW5, and to make the main DW page a bit less crowded, I've split off a dedicated DW2 page. I've also updated a few other pages there to match.
Just in case anyone's "page changed" monitors go off...


-- Bob
---------
There's no wrong way to eat a Rhesus.

On top of spagettii
all covered with cheese
I lost my poor meatball
.....................
Effects: causes spaggetti, molten cheese, and meatballs to rain down.

Shaving cream Be nice and clean
Shave everyday and you'll always look clean
.......................
Effect: Doug's shaving song.
--------------------
Tom Mathews aka Disruptor