http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_ ... rc=flyouts
The NSA has only themselves to blame for this. I predict heads will be rolling..if they haven't already.
__________________
Into terror!,  Into valour!
Charge ahead! No! Never turn
Yes, it's into the fire we fly
And the devil will burn!
- Scarlett Pimpernell

http://io9.com/iain-m-banks-author-of-t ... -512173168
___________________________
"I've always wanted to be somebody, but I should have been more specific." - George Carlin

They're not actually fanfiction, as such, but they are prose fiction, so here they are anyway. Feel frree to use them straight or revise them to fit in a character's mouth if you have a place for them to fit, it's why they're here, just try to rmemeber to tell me about it so I can read what you make of it.

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"While I was lying there, waiting to heal, I had nothing to do but think... I wondered, what if they thought I'm already dead, and left? But knowing you guys, even a little, I realized that was impossible. Then I thought, what if they tried to climb after me, and fell to their deaths? I'd have to tell XXX's bratty brother, and the rest of your families... but I realized I don't even know who that might be. So I decided, I should get to know everyone better, not just the best ways to fight together. Because even if you all live to die of old age surrounded by fat great-grandbabies, eventually all that will be left is memories, and I want to remember more than the way XXXX drops her left shoulder when she commits to a lunge, or how YYYY always makes a bunch of clones at the beginning of a battle to hide around the edges and make sneak attacks. Those kind of memories... they're empty after a while."

----------------

It wasn't until I saw the terror in her eyes that I stopped, and realise just what my life had become. Had I really begun as a pampered girl in a fancy dress like this? Then I saw the spark hiding in the back of her eyes, the self-disgust as being so weak and terrifed, and I knew. Yes, I had, and now I had found the next Pirate Queen, the one who would captain the Iron Rose after me.

With a little toughening up first, of course.

"Put the ropes away, boys, this one's for the crew berths, not the hostage cabin," I ordered, and the way that spark blazed into anger, the way she sputtered in outrage at the suggestion that her family would be unwilling or unable to pay a ronsom rather than collapsing in in fear and pleading wa all the confirmation I needed. "Oh, don't worry, you'll not be sharing some seaman's bunk," I assured her. I run a taut airship, and I'll have no man aboard who would take would should only be given. "Not at the same time, at any rate, and I guarantee you'll be too tired to care that someone else was just rousted out of the bunk by the time your watch ends for months. Of course, if you can't take the exertions, you're free to become the plaything of anyone you choose..."

I'm still watching her eyes, and I can see that challenge take hold... actually see the idea of protesting about the wealth that's obvious in the clothes and jewels she's wearing being enough to pay a pretty daughter's ransom, discarded in favor of showing her who can't take it and play along until I get a chance, then rescue myself.

And if the grin that spreads across my face is more frightening than reassuring, that just means she has good judgment, because I'm Black Jack Jannie, Terror of the Skies, and my only enemies that aren't dead are kings and admirals.
--
"Anko, what you do in your free time is your own choice. Use it wisely. And if you do not use it wisely, make sure you thoroughly enjoy whatever unwise thing you are doing." - HymnOfRagnorok as Orochimaru at SpaceBattles
woot Med. Eng., verb, 1st & 3rd pers. prsnt. sg. know, knows

I haven't seen anyone pop up when I've been on lately, but my friends list is a bit small. I'm over on Beholder, with a Trickster Rogue, currently romping around Ebon Downs.
Ebony the Black Dragon
http://ebony14.livejournal.com

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

It took a dedicated team of 40s with INSANE amounts of DPS but we finally blew past Durtok and Ironclad, after that everything was anti-climactic, including the actual encounter with Firewing. (Kinda reminds me of Sephiroth in FF7 that way...) 
But I gotta give them props, this is - as far as I can tell - about 99% faithful to how Firewing is presented in the original source material books, including the artwork and his overall attitude. 



Stalnoy Volk was the character I took into this. Switched him to full-on Ranged DPS mode for artillery support and stayed in the air as much as possible raining down death from above with another Powered armor PC named "Gunhed". I think we had darn near identical loadouts and the synergy was amazing. Had a very good healer and shielder on support and at least one melee toon drawing off aggro at critical moments. 

Why don't people tell me about these things?
[video=vimeo]//player.vimeo.com/video/66784863[/video]Star Trek Continues E01 "Pilgrim of Eternity" from Star Trek Continues on Vimeo.
-----
Stand between the Silver Crystal and the Golden Sea.
"Youngsters these days just have no appreciation for the magnificence of the legendary cucumber."  --Krityan Elder, Tales of Vesperia.

If you provide ideas or text for me to use on the IST25 project, please post a note in this thread that says you give me permission to use it in the book.  At the moment, I think just an informal acknowledgment will be sufficient; if something more lawyerly is required, I'll let people know.
Thank you!
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

This subforum is for the "International Super Teams 25th Anniversary Edition" project I've begun, and is where I am hosting those parts which are crowdsourced or which have been offered for use over the years.  In advance, let me say thanks for all help, suggestions and contributions anyone will make.
Please be aware that if you do contribute any ideas or text you should be willing to transfer the rights to that material to me, as I will have to be free to transfer such rights to Steve Jackson Games in turn.  There will be a thread where you can essentially post a "release", just to keep them all together and organized; please just put a note in there indicating your agreement.  If we need something more formal, the thread will also let me find and contact you.
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

Is anyone going to be at AnimeNext in Somerset, NJ this weekend?  It's only a couple miles down Easton Avenue from our place, so we're planning on doing Saturday there.  I wouldn't mind meeting up with any forumfolk who might be attending.
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

Okay, an experiment.
I have yet to start laying out even the broad strokes of a timeline for events after 12/31/1999.  And I thought, hey, maybe I could see if a dozen heads converging on this would be better than one.  So I'm issuing a request/challenge -- let's brainstorm up the as-yet-unwritten history of the IST world together.
A few notes.  First, I'm not going to guarantee this will be exactly -- or even close to -- what I finally use.  But as the old saying goes, that's the way to bet.  Anyone who contributes anything that ends up in the final timeline will get a credit on the book/PDF.  But you've also got to release the rights to me to use your contributions, because I will have to be able to do the same to SJG when the time comes.
If you're cool with that, well, let's begin.
I have a few things in mind to start with. 
First, before anything else -- IST was starting to diverge strongly by the end of the 1980s, and my timeline for the 90s kept that up, although it was perhaps not nearly as divergent as it should have been.  The prime directive here now is that there is no need to parallel "real" history except for irony and/or humor.  We can go anywhere.
Second, the Infinite Worlds PDF for IST mentions a reality quake on 1/1/2000.  We're going to keep that, as the primary mechanism of the Wall -- this date was a nexus point for any number of possible futures to come into being, depending on which groups, gangs, governments, and/or conspiracies came out on top in the battles between their various plans and schemes.  Most of the outcomes were bad -- hence the varied visions of apocalypse received by precogs beforehand.  However something as yet undefined happened, and a "good" -- maybe not best, but good -- timeline resulted.  I want to figure out what that something is, or even if we need to define it at all.
The 1990s timeline on my website ends with Chinese forces poised to roll into both Hong Kong and the Korean DMZ.  I want this to turn into a full war, lasting anywhere upwards of five years.  (Working from 13 years later, we have a lot of freedom to do wild things, and this will be one of them.)  What is the result of this war?
9/11 does not happen.  It took several different sociopolitical trends converging in a specific way to motivate Bin Laden and al Qaeda to attach the US the way they did, and most if not all of them didn't happen (or happened very differently) in the IST world.  This is not to say something similar doesn't happen -- but when, where, and by/to whom?
If I think of/remember anything else I want nailed down firmly at the start of this little project, I'll add them to this post.  In the meantime, feel free to brainstorm.
And don't worry, I won't just be sitting back and making you do all the work.  I'll be jumping in and adding my own contributions.
In advance, thank you.
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.