I've updated a few pages over on my website today, most notably the top page, but I've also put up A Brush With The Past, Evil Midnight Lurker's DW spamfic.

-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

Drop Doug on the Well World. 1560 different new races to try to figure out. The possibility of actually becoming one of them (although Doug of all people should be able to figure a way around this). Solving the Master Equation (you know how hackers always say "Look, God, all I need is a few minutes with the source code and a quick recompile"? Well, the Well is a terminal with root access....)

...this DW spamfic has been floating around in my head for quite a while now, and it's getting tired of the decor.
Anyone who watched children's TV in the '70s and '80s should be able to figure this one out.
Title: none. *shrug* Suggestions welcome...

Doug had been trekking through a combined rain forest, jungle, and swamp for nearly a month now. Was this one of those cliched, unlikely Hollywood worlds with only one terrain type? He'd run across stranger places, but few this boring.
No large dangerous wildlife, no swarms of biting insects--there were creatures here, yes, but none of them seemed the least bit interested in him. The mangrove-like trees were spread out just far enough that gravbike travel was practical, not far enough to see any great distance ahead.
Nothing to do but travel and try for a gatesong.
It was just as he began to consider abandoning travel for a permanent campsite that he ran into the City.
It lay on a low island in the middle of the largest lake he'd found yet: a natural moat surrounding a fortified complex the size of ancient Babylon or Troy, like them fallen into ruin. The city was lifeless, and had been so probably for centuries; judging by the state of the buildings and city walls, it had fallen to a siege.
Those walls were very strange indeed. Even in their current state of advanced decay, it was clear what they had been. Why the city's builders had relied on such an oddity... well, who could say now? Certainly not Doug.
Not in the absence of any information--the city had evidently possessed a high level of technology, but everything was gone or smashed to bits now. Bookshelves lay empty, computer casings were stripped of their contents; the inhabitants must have taken nearly everything with them when they abandoned this place. The inhabitants, or the besiegers?
Whatever had happened here so long ago, it would remain a mystery; Doug found his exit less than two weeks after discovering the ruins, and elected to use it a few days later. In all that time he'd found only one cryptic message, a graffito presumably left by the conquering army, carved so deeply into one of the larger buildings that it had survived long years of weathering. It was simple, straightforward, and said nothing but what was already obvious about the city's fall.
Given his new understanding of World-As-Myth, Doug mused, perhaps he'd find out someday just what had happened here. Or perhaps not. Whatever happened, that last sinister message would remain in his thoughts for a long time to come. Five words that somehow chilled him to the bone:
WE MADE HOLES IN TEETH.
--Sam Ashley
"Down here I'm considered the apotheosis of cool."

...looks like it's going to be another big one, circa 200K or so. There is a suggestion on my prereaders' list that I divvy it up into two chapters; I'm not sure I want to do that. Just out of curiosity, do people here have a preference?

-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

Just in case folks haven't been following the little tiny subheader at the top of the page, which I've started changing again recently, my fickle muse drifted back into my life last week and I've started churning out more of chapter 13. My prereaders have gotten a scene a day for the past week except for the weekend, when they got the entire extant chapter for review and to see all the new material in its proper places.
I'm not going to promise anything at this early date, but it's entirely possible that if this keeps up, I'll have the thing done by the end of August.
Wish me luck...

-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

For those who can't wait for their local game store to stock a copy, GURPS Shapeshifters is now available and shipping from SJGame's online store, Warehouse 23.
www.warehouse23.com/item.cgi?SJG6533

-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

For those who can't wait for their local game store to stock a copy, GURPS Shapeshifters is now available and shipping from SJGame's online store, Warehouse 23.
www.warehouse23.com/item.cgi?SJG6533

-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

No secret meanings or hints about stories to come here. Just a fun song.
-- Bob
----------------------------------
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 a crazy mind, Oh oh oh
And walked out on a piece of paper
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 can't do
I know the route of craziness
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 a crazy mind, Oh oh oh
And walked out on a piece of paper
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 can't do
What we do is what you just can can't do
What we do is what you just can can't do
What we do is what you just can can't do
What we do is what you just can can't do
We are the Cartoon Heroes, Oh oh oh
We are the ones who're gonna last forever
We came out of a crazy mind, Oh oh oh
And walked out on a piece of paper
There's still more to come,
And everyone will be
Welcomed at the
Toon - Toon
Town - Town
Party
-- "Cartoon Heroes", Aqua
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

Last Thursday, 17 July, Peg and I went to the theater. The Princeton Summer Theater was putting on "You're A Good Man Charlie Brown," and was having a special opening night tribute to the author/composer/lyricist of the play, Clark Gesner (Princeton class of '60), who died about a year ago. Peggy and I knew Clark -- I first met him about 22 years ago, and Peggy met him the first time I took her to the Princeton campus. Because our circles didn't often intersect, we were actually somewhere between acquaintances and friends, but he was always happy to see us, and always willing to chat for a while when we ran into each other. We both miss him quite a bit.
In any case, maudlin reminiscing aside, the show was a very good production. One wild, daring act of casting: a girl with a voice like Didi Conn was playing Snoopy, and did a fantastic job. They didn't hide the fact she was female, and had changed all the relevant pronouns in the script to "she" and "her" -- this was most explicitly an alternate Peanuts universe where Snoopy was female. This didn't change much except... well, Snoopy has always been mildly flirty with the girls in the strip and to a lesser degree in the play; however, in this production, the flirtiness got aimed at the male characters, which was just a little... odd, until you got used to it.
Anyway, if you're in the Princeton NJ area, and it's still running when you read this, consider going to see the show. Tell'em a friend of Clark's sent you.
Anyway, on to the titular fic idea. This came less from the play than from one of the prop/set pieces -- Lucy's psychiatry booth. I remembered a scene from one of the cartoons, where a coin was dropped in her jar, and she spent several minutes shaking it and rhapsodizing on the money and the sound it made... and I thought, "you know, that's so very Nabiki."
I thought about it for much of the first act, then discussed the idea with Peg at intermission. We argued a bit over the implementation (Peggy retracting her objections to one of my suggestions when she saw the number "Suppertime"), and kept discussing it for a couple days afterward. I think the idea's settled down enough that I can throw this little teaser/concept up on the board for everyone's amusement.
You're A Good Man, Ryoga Brown
by Clark Gesner and Rumiko Takahashi
Dramatis Personae:
Ryoga Brown
Nabiki Van Pelt
Tatewaki Van Pelt
Peppermint Ukyou
Mousse Schroeder
Featuring Ranma Saotome as Snoopy, and "Ranko" Saotome as The Little Red-Headed Girl.
See Ryoga get depressed and go to Nabiki for advice.
See Nabiki plan to make enough money to buy herself a queendom.
See Tatewaki attempt to live without his bokken and fail miserably.
See Ranma cower in fear at the sight of the cat next door.
Thrill to such immortal dialogue as Peppermint Ukyou's "We had okonomiyaki at our house three times this week!" and Nabiki's "My aunt Marion was right. Never discuss marriage with a magician!"
Don't miss songs like Ryoga's "The Fight Song", Tatewaki's "My Bokken and Me", Ranma's big number "Suppertime", and the classic ensemble piece "Martial Arts is..."
Coming soon to an anime-Broadway martial arts fusion theatre near you.
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

In case anyone needs a few brain cells killed, "Pink Lady and Jeff" are apparently being rebroadcast on the Trio network.
Ebony the Black Dragon
Senior Editor, Living Room Games
www.lrgames.com
Ebony the Black Dragon
http://ebony14.livejournal.com

"Good night, and may the Good Lord take a Viking to you."