Kohran pushed her glasses up her nose, never taking her eyes off the unconscious man on the cot. "It is not unheard of," she said quietly. "There are ancient words for people who could do this, who could project their spirit energy out of their body in any way that they wanted.""There are?" Ohgami's eyes snapped to hers. "What are they?""Shugenja," Kohran whispered. "Magus. *Wizard*."---------------"It's a beautiful piece of work, but you'd never find me getting into one."---------------"What are you using to generate your steam? I mean, don't get mewrong, but I don't see a coal car hanging on the back of these things. And you guys have neither the theory or the resourcesfor atomics."Kohran gave me a sly little smile, spun a couple of dogs and popped open a hatch. "Look there. See?"I frowned at first, not sure of what I was seeing. It didn't seem to make sense, like an Escher print expressed in reality.Then I had a sudden moment of double vision, as two completely different paradigms overlapped and blended. "Holy shit," I whispered. "Ah, you understand. Yes," Kohran replied. "It is what you think."I shook my head. "And I thought *my* world had a handle on magitech. I'd never have... I mean... *damn,* woman."She giggled.
(No promises... just a little fun I came up with.)

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

Just a little rambling note...
Don't take this as gospel or any kind of promise, but Peggy and I have idly discussed writing some joint adventures of Doug and Shadowwalker together in various worlds. So far the two definite "that-would-be-cool" settings that we've come up with have been the early-20th-Century Egypt of Elizabeth Peters' Amelia Peabody books, and Silent Mobius. (Peg's a big Silent Mobius fan. And I want to see Shadowwalker shred a Class 2 or higher Lucifer Hawk by screaming at it.)
Anyway, nothing's really solid here, just a lot of "it would be neat if"ing. But I've come up with a tentative name for the series and I wanted to share it -- "Drunkard's Vacation".

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

Oh, yeah, almost forgot. Yesterday SJ Games officially announced that Shapeshifters is on schedule for a July release.

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

It wouldn't be Shapeshifters if the damned book stayed the same two months in a row.
I'm in what's supposed to be final edit, and over the last week or so, I've been fielding many emails from my editor; big, question-heavy, suggestion-laden emails that each take me much of an evening to get through.
The book is changing and evolving even when it's out of my hands.
If I've appeared to be off-line a lot for the last few days, that's why. It'll be going on for a while, yet, too -- I ended last night with four emails left in my inbox that I had yet to address, and overnight another four appeared.

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

Being in SF this past weekend, I had to go looking for Japanese Imports. I didn't find any DVDs I was looking for, but I did find something that I had to get - The BGC Complete Vocal Collection. 3 discs with all the vocal music from the original 8 OVAs (and maybe even BGCrash, I can't read Japanese . One of these days I need to find the lyrics translations to all of these, and see if any of them would be useful for Doug besides Konya-Wa Hurricane...
Offsides
Drunkard's Walk Forum Moderator and Prereader At Large

(Doug hasn't got this song...it's quite obscure, and it'd screw up the plot.
But if he did, it'd give him the power to talk on the telephone with his wife, for the duration of the song.)
Touch Tone Lullabye, John Corning
I say hello, You say hello
Funny how I've missed you since we talked last night.
And I suppose, you ought to know
I've been thinking 'bout you nearly all the time.
All those tender words of love keep coming back to me.
And I think of all the times I've held you close to me,
so Sleep tight my darling, don't you cry,
hold your pillow close and close your eyes
In three days I'll be there to hold you tight
'til then I'll sing my love for you on the telephone line.
I say it's cold, you say it's warm
Been so long since I felt the sun upon my arms.
Work's going well, and only time will tell,
But if this deal goes through we'll surely paint the town.
With all we do our lives apart still seem so incomplete
and I wait for just those times when both our lives will meet
so Sleep tight my darling, don't you cry,
hold your pillow close and close your eyes
In three days I'll be there to hold you tight
'til then I'll sing my love for you on the telephone line.
[instrumental]

With all we do our lives apart still seem so incomplete
and I wait for just those times when both our lives will meet
so Sleep tight my darling, don't you cry,
hold your pillow close and close your eyes
In three days I'll be there to hold you tight
'til then I'll sing my love for you on the telephone line.
I'll sing this touch tone lullabye on the telephone line.

Red Cross Book
I haven't had the time to give it a full readthrough yet, but for my skimming I'd say that the phrasing is vague enough to include just about every theory that's been aired on this board so far.
For instance, 'derived from Lillith' and 'originally having belonged to Lillith' are not at all the same thing. Far's I can see, the same comment (RE: where Rei's soul came from) would hold true for the whole human race.
On reflection, my opinion of the Rei/Lillith thing is that while there is enough genetic and 'aural' connection/similarity to create the observe merging effect, their minds, or souls if you insist on being religious, have little to nothing in common... because both of those things are dependant upon free will, which (at least by what my skimming indicates) neither Lillith nor the Angels have.
Lillith turns into Rei, and previously was unable to move from the cross, because there was nobody home and she wasn't getting any orders from outside.
Rei, on the other hand, -could- have been normal enough, if Rokubungi and SEELE hadn't fucked her over from day one.
Blessed be.
-n
===========

===============================================
"V, did you do something foolish?"
"Yes, and it was glorious."

Hello all, long time no post, but this bit of mayhem has been cross-checking around inside my head and finally found a way out.
I was raised on Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies(which gives you an idea of my normal mental state) and a few of these references parsed themselves against my will when I re-read DWII:
"Ho, ho, ho. Doug-Hunters is da cwaziest peoples." (I do believe I've found a .sig for this board)
"Ahhhh, yes! Frustrating, isn't it?"
(Bogart from 'The African Queen' strides into frame. Any part of the series.) "Pardon me, sir, but could you help out a fellow American who's down on his luck?"
"Katherine Madigan. Soooooooper Geeeeeenius!"
Doug pauses as he is about to administer some righteous self-defense to the beginning pack of 'crunchies' and, breaking the fourth wall, notices the audience. He stretches a hand upward out-of-frame and pulls down a black window shade with the word 'CENSORED' proudly stenciled in yellow on its surface. Sounds of violence ensue, rattling the window shade.
How about you guys?
---
Draconan
"Ho, ho, ho. Doug-Hunters is da cwaziest peoples."

Okay... the problem with this song isn't finding an appropriate effect, it's that there are *TOO MANY* potential effects, most of which are far too 'game-breaking'.
Nageki no Rosario, the opening to Gravion (artist unknown)

Tsuki ga yami o terasu toki,
Densetsu ga sora wo ubau.
Kindan no duel no toki,
Tada toss ga yonderu,
Tooku.
Beauty, kamen ni kakushita,
Tsumi no itami to hikikaeri.
Zutto, sagashitsuzuketeru shinjitsu dake o,
Unmei ni tomadou nageki no rosario.
Teppei nai gimoku ga ai ni furueteru.
Tsuki ga yami o terasu toki,
Densetsu ga sora wo ubau.
Kanenai kida tenshi-tachi yo utsukushiku tobe,
Kindan no duel no toki,
Tada toss ga yonderu,
Tooku.

This translates roughly as:
When the moon reveals the darkness,
Legends dance in the sky.
At the time of the forbidden duel,
Only the toss calls to you,
Far away.
Beauty, hidden behind a mask,
Traded for the pain of guilt,
I'm looking for the truth.
Confused in its destiny, a rosary of guilt.
The memories I cannot erase are shivering on love.
When the moon reveals the darkness,
Legends dance in the sky.
O angels without hope, fly beautifully.
At the time of the forbidden duel,
Only the toss calls to you,
Far away.

www.cthulhulives.org/Musical/cdinfo.html
That is all.
- Acyl
-- Acyl