For your amusement, a brief snippet of dialogue I recently came up with:
"But I don't understand," Misato said with obvious puzzlement. "Conventional weapons aren't supposed to have any affect on them."I grinned. "I am not, in *any* possible meaning of the term, aconventional weapon."

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

An initial outline for a Borrible Step has gone to my prereaders for comments and suggestions. More on this as it develops.
Oh, and I got my copy of the recent British printing of all three novels in an omnibus form. Niiiice book. I highly recommend this, if you have about $23 to spare. (That includes the airmail postage from the UK, at least as far as NJ.) You can find it listed here.
-- Bob
(Edit: added note about postage)
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

Over on "The Game", as part of the discussion of the use of Supertramp's "Logical Song", valles suggested it might have this effect on Rei:

Quote:

---

Her crimson eyes went wide, shining with something a little like hope. "I'm... real? Yes," she answered her own question softly. "I'm real." She smiled, softly at first, but at the end a full, facesplitting grin. Her voice was gentle, reverent, and entirely approving. "*Dude.*"

---

Heard it on the radio this afternoon, and something about it clicked I see two possibilities - one being the more logical (pun intended) of the two, bu the other has promise too...
1. Turns Doug (figuratively) into a massive supercomputer, allowing him to do mathematical calculations like nobody's business.
2. His gift locks onto the repeated line "Please tell me who I am.", an everyone in radius gets hit with the realization of exactly who and what they are, For someone whos self image is close to reality, this will have little effect. OTOH, for someone whos self image is way off, or worse yet is in denial, this can be one hell of a shock... This could have been useful in DW2 if things had gone in a different direction, but I think there are future steps where this might also be useful as well...
We now return you to your regularly scheduled program
Offsides
Drunkard's Walk Forum Moderator and Prereader At Large

Latest silly Step suggestion: Trigun.
Or maybe -not- so silly. Doug would have a fine old time in the even wilder west, trying to figure out what is -up- with the tech base on planet Gunsmoke (you guys can create thirty-foot-tall war cyborgs and you don't have RADIO?!); he'd find a kindred spirit in Vash (two, two, TWO goofy superheroes for the price of one!); and, oddly enough, the second chapter of the original manga was entitled "Loony Tunes".
(not very comprehensive guide: )
trigunner.giborama.com/tr...index.html
--Sam Ashley
"I'm betting I'm just abnormal enough to survive!"

Well, I couldn't resist posting something here even though it reveals my existance to the board at large. Below are ten songs that I thought over and wonder if Doug's metagift might find interesting and some of what it could do with them. I have put in links to pages with the lyrics of all the songs I mention, just to make things easier for people to remind themselves of "What is that one again?"
"Nowhere Man" by the Beatles is a song that came to mind as interesting for Doug. Going from the first two lines ("He's a real nowhere man, Sitting in his nowhere land,") the idea came to mind of it being able to banishing someone away into some sort of limbo. Of course, when the song ends they'd likely just reappear after their short "rest" but it would be handy to put somebody out of a fight for a bit or a hostage out of harms way.
"Go West" by the Pet Shop Boys has a number of fun lines in it which suggest that it could be used to grant flight to Doug and anybody he is holding hands with. The obvious drawback to using this song would be that your choice of directions to travel in would be rather limited...
"Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap" by AC/DC is one that I remember reading being used in the Spellsinger series of books. One look at the lyrics shows that it has potential for a rather direct and subtle combat song, calling up a rather blunt assassain. Of course, if this is one of those songs which went horribly wrong when Doug tried getting a power from it I can imagine that he would be the target of that persons attentions.
"Cold As Ice" by No Angels seems to be a song which could either grant a handy power or else backfire rather badly. If LT's mind got hold of the line "You're as cold as ice" then it might work and grant the ability to literally cool people off, freezing them rather badly. On the other hand, if it somehow went wrong then having that happen to somebody nearby whom the Doug cares for while muting his feelings to them ("Feelings fade away") it could be rather... unpleasent.
"I Don't Like Mondays" by Boomtown Rats is next up with three different suggestions for what could happen due to it. It could cause all machines and electronics to either fail or go haywire for the duration, strip out a compulsion or mind controling device from somebody, or else it could turn somebody into a smiling and sadistic psychopath.
"Birdhouse in your soul" by They Might Be Giants seems tailor made to call up some sort of friendly electrical spirit. I can almost see a bluebird made of crackling electricity trying its very best to be helpful, although as defined by the song it can definately make some dangerous mistakes ("I'd be fired if that were my job, After killing Jason off and countless screaming Argonauts").
Just for fun and the WTF? factor, I think that Doug should be able to get the obvious thing from the song "Combine Harvester (Brand New Key)" by the Wurzels. Having a brand new, shiny and rather heavy combine harverster appear where he wants it to for the duration of the song seems to be the sort of thing that he'd find amusing. If nothing else, it could be made to appear above an oppenent or put down as a piece of cover. Though if you wanted to have the song squib on him, it could simply give him a key which worked in the locks of any combine harvester...
In the continuing line of silly songs with useful effects "Lily The Pink" as done by the Scafold could produce a potion which could cure almost anything but have unpredictable side effects as it over does things by a fairly large margin. It might fix whatever is wrong, but there would definately be more problems as a result.
"The Time Warp" from the Rocky Horror Picture Show is a song that might seem powerful, but I still think that it might be best as an example of the sort of thing which is effectively useless. Imagine it's only power is to effectively make the song itself repeat until something was done to make it stop.
"Heaven Can Wait" by Meatloaf seems like a sort of last ditch song, keeping Doug alive or stablizing him when some serious hurting has occured and he hasn't got a better song available. Basically just doing enough to stop him from kicking the bucket if he can get the song running in time.

As promised in another thread, the anime-In Nomine "movie trailers" from the SJGames website (for those who didn't bother to find them on their own):
The Dominican Tank Police
Lovely Angels of the Wind
And here's the original citation from that other thread, just for completeness' sake:
Redneck's Tenchi Muyo! -- In Nomine

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

I've been to Canada twice in the last ten years, I've got relatives there, and I never knew until today... that the Canadian one-dollar coin is called "the loonie". (See this page on the Snopes urban legend site for some interesting info on the loonie.) Even more interesting is that the loonie was introduced at about the same time Looney joined the Warriors... there's got to be a cosmic signficance there somewhere.

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

For those of you who were following the minidiscussion of a possible Step set in the world of Michael de Larrabeiti's Borribles books (see "Self-Cross?" over in Future Steps), I've come up with a plot, which I'm going to be polishing a little and then sending to my prereaders. But I just need to crow a little about it. Imagine...
The SBG on the march. Corrupt officials who want their dirty laundry kept hidden. The heroes of the Great Rumble Hunt reunited once more. A UN resolution. Amnesty International. The Wendle tunnels under seige. A desperate race against both time and and a team of assassins.
I've probably said too much, but damn. If this weren't a fanfic, it would make a great summer blockbuster movie...

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

-ReBoot!
(If the gate could drop Doug in Mainframe instead of whatever totally whacked "real" world the Users inhabit...)
-Bionicle
(A tropical island inhabited by Lego-based life forms?!)
-Darkwing Duck
("Oh great, another hairless ape with superpowers...")
-South Park
("Singing superheroes is where I draw the line.")
-Callahan's Place
(If Doug is in need of a drink and some light therapy...)
-Devilman
(because that one ended on a hideously depressing note, and desperately needs a good tweaking)
Mobile Fighter G-Gundam
(because it's just so deliberately silly... and Doug would have to wind up with his own themed Gundam )
--Sam Ashley
"So the junta has become the hunted!"