From: @33Stars_Band
33 minutes ago.

Hi...

Since we have followers in California, This applies to us

Every member of this band is an artificial lifeform pretending to be human.

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I had the notion for an amusing but not enormously useful power from the song "Gloria," Laura Branigan's 1982 remake of an Italian song.  I pictured it as basically being a fun party trick.  And then I thought a bit more about some of the ramifications, and can you say "Gamebreaker," boys and girls?

Quote:Gloria, you're always on the run now
Running after somebody, you gotta get him somehow
I think you've got to slow down, before you start to blow it
I think you're headed for a breakdown, so be careful not to show it

You really don't remember, was it something that he said?
Are the voices in your head calling, Gloria?
Gloria, don't you think you're fallin'?
If everybody wants you, why isn't anybody callin'?
You don't have to answer
Leave them hangin' on the line, oh-oh-oh, calling Gloria
Gloria (Gloria), I think they got your number (Gloria)
I think they got the alias (Gloria) that you've been living under (Gloria)
But you really don't remember, was it something that they said?
Are the voices in your head calling, Gloria?

A-ha-ha, a-ha-ha, Gloria, how's it gonna go down?
Will you meet him on the main line, or will you catch him on the rebound?
Will you marry for the money, take a lover in the afternoon?
Feel your innocence slipping away, don't believe it's comin' back soon

And you really don't remember, was it something that he said?
Are the voices in your head calling, Gloria?
Gloria (Gloria), I think they got your number (Gloria)
I think they got the alias (Gloria) that you've been living under (Gloria)
But you really don't remember, was it something that they said?
Are the voices in your head calling, Gloria?

No, you didn't miss "Rob's as-yet-untitled sidestory #7" (the big raid) or "Rob's as-yet-untitled sidestory #9" (the fallout from Rob and Hyoga repairing Hvergelmir) - I haven't written them yet. But my discovering a particular piece of fan art awoke my muse.

Just one more from me for the moment:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o74GsmbSDpI

Effect: When at least half the duration of the song is played within range, it turns one recognizably intact corpse into a cyber-zombie constructed with the best tech and magical base Doug understands. The result will have partial memories of the deceased but does not have their original soul, and is invariably hostile to Doug and any allies present. He has no control over it, and the reanimation is permanent, though if he keeps playing the song (or someone else keeps playing it without access to his tuneplug or a similar jamming sound source) the zombie regenerates and can operate on what would normally be overload power for the remaining duration as the damage accrued recovers immediately.

Because despite all the helpful effects he discovers, sometimes Doug's power is just a dick, and there's no real way to tell the specific downsides of the "return of a friend you thought was dead" effect without trying it once, aside from knowing that there's always a cost to be paid for magic and usually threefold for things that mess around with the natural order. (In this case, the subject being implacably hostile, being as strong normally as he could make with unlimited time and budget, and being further empowered for the remaining duration.) Doug would certainly kick himself and swear he knew better all along after the fact, but hope is the cruelest emotion after all.

It might be better used as an object lesson in the cost of magic for him to talk about in the Buffy step, since Willow is teetering on the line of dark and light for the Glory season. Doug having been an accredited magical teacher for the HP step before would probably make him the best qualified in that area to try to curb those tendencies, since Tara is a little too nice even when she's being strict, Giles was on the darker side in his younger days and mostly stays away form it as a result, and Willow is entirely self taught otherwise in the "knows enough to get in trouble, only maybe to get out afterwards" sort of way. And I think Amy was still a rat at this point? I don't remember when that got fixed, just that she was briefly a problem again in S6 or 7.

According to the Sailor Moon Wikia:

Quote:Did you know?
The first fourteen seconds of Sailor Venus's theme in the Sailor Moon video game for the Super Famicom sound exactly like the first fourteen seconds of Bananarama's version of the song "Venus", which was originally by Shocking Blue.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UaLHu8UIwGE

I'm not sure about the effect really, but the music is too good to have none. It's not that strong as mental influence powers go, using it during active combat might get you some hesitation at best and seriously provoke the target if their "moment of weakness" is taken advantage of... but if you use it on the right person, at the right time, and in combination with actually following through on the promise it offers, you might just turn an enemy into an ally. Notably, it's effective even on targets that Doug could not normally communicate with as long as they're within his range and capable of understanding the concept of a friend/ally/partner/packmate/etc..

Diplomancing? Doug? Clearly the universe has not yet revealed the true depths of its perversity

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l9PxOanFjxQ

Effect: The reverse of Steely Dan's Godwhacker that makes deathless beings killable for the duration, for as long as it plays Immortals removes the fatal weaknesses of beings that can normally only be killed by specific methods other than age. Within Doug's area of effect, werewolves won't be poisoned by silver, vampires won't burn up in the sun, jellyfish will regenerate physical damage, etc.. There is no effect if the being could die of old age so its utility is about as sharply limited as Godwhacker, but when you do want access to one of these effects you really want it, and being able to pull out these highly situational "no, fuck you" powers at just the right moment is something of a trademark for Doug, as with any proper wizard.

If Doug happened to visit the Highlander universe, it might also activate pre-Immortals, with the deciding factor probably being whether or not it worked for teh story.

Since the last thread has more than 300 posts, have a new thread.

After four decades of touring (and creating The Elephant Show between tours), Sharon and Bram are finally on their last tour. This tour includes the first major theatre that Sharon, Lois, and Bram played at.

They won't stop recording, though, so children still have some good music to look forward to.

CBC News Analysis: Brett Kavanaugh exposed his political grudges — now faith in a neutral Supreme Court may be lost for decades

How can this person be expected to be impartial when judging the Constitutionality of laws? He's shown himself to have a bias against a particular political party - that can be held against him if he is asked to judge any bills that were written or moved by that particular party. (And it doesn't matter which political party that is.)

That should have been enough to remove him from consideration then and there.