Anyone have any 'Good Omen' fics that they'd recommend?

In Nomine Anime received electronic publication to e23 this week. I mentioned a thread on the In Nomine forum about an expanded filmography for that book, and the SJGames.com webmaster expressed interest in linking to the list if it was all in one place.

So http://web.ncf.ca/fm536/in_nomine/ina-filmography.html]it's now all in one place.

But it's incomplete. Anybody want to help fill in the gaps?

I know I want short-short writeups of these titles:

• Angel Tales/Tails (Hiroaki Maki and Mari Okada, 2001)
  
• Ao no Exorcist (Blue Exorcist) (Kazue Kato, 2011)
  
• Chrono Crusade (Daisuke Moriyama, 2003)
  
• Cutey Honey (Go Nagai, 1973, 1994, 1997, 2004)
  
• Death Note (Takeshi Obata and Tsugumi Ohba, 2006)
  
• Devilman (Go Nagai, 1972, 1987)
  
• Haibane Renmei (Yoshitoshi ABe, 2002)
  
• Jigoku Shoujo (Hell Girl) (Takahiro Omori and others, 2005)
  
• Kobato. (Studio CLAMP, 2009)
  
• Makai Senki Disgaea (Kiyotaka Isako and Atsuhiro Tomioka, 2006)
  
• Miracle Melmo
  
• Pita Ten (Koge Donbo, 2002)
  
• Rozen Maiden ("Peach-Pit," 2004)
  
• Serial Experiments Lain (Yoshitoshi ABe, 1998)
  
• Shuffle! (Naoto Hosoda and Masashi Suzuki, 2005, 2007)
  
• Spirited Away (Hayao Miyazaki, 2001)
  
• Steel Angel Kurumi (Kaishaku, 1999-2001)
  
• Yondemasu yo, Azazel-san (Yasuhisa Kubo, 2010, 2011)
  

Cole Porter: Let's Misbehave

You could have a great career,

And you should;

Yes you should.

Only one thing stops you dear:

You're too good;

Way too good!

If you want a future, darlin',

Why don't you get a past?

'Cause that fateful moment's comin' at last...

We're all alone, no chaperone

Can get our number

The world's in slumber--let's misbehave!!!

There's something wild about you child

That's so contagious

Let's be outrageous--let's misbehave!!!

When Adam won Eve's hand

He wouldn't stand for teasin'.

He didn't care about those apples out of season.

They say that Spring means just one little thing to little lovebirds

We're not above birds--let's misbehave!!!

It's getting late and while I wait

My poor heart aches on

Why keep the breaks on? Let's misbehave!!!

I feel quite sure affaire d'amour

Would be attractive

While we're still active, let's misbehave!

You know my heart is true

And you say you for me care...

Somebody's sure to tell,

But what the heck do we care?

They say that bears have love affairs

And even camels

We're men and mammals--let's misbehave!!!

-------

power: invite any one mammal to a one night stand while the song is playing and they will do their best to come.

I am not certain if Doug would have to follow through if he invited someone -- or how that someone would react to a ... "platonic" one night stand.

I believe he could play this song and not invite someone without problems, however he would have to watch his words for implicit invitations.

Hmmmm ...what would have been his thoughts on finding out?

"Meh, that would have been usefull in 7th grade ... but now?!?"?

Bob Schroeck's UTM post: http://drunkardswalkforums.yuku.com/sre ... n-Fenspace
M Fnord's Magic post: http://drunkardswalkforums.yuku.com/sre ... n-Fenspace
Bonewits:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaac_Bonewits
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Authentic_Thaumaturgy
Seeing as the various traditions of magic use in Fenspace will be built on top of a UTM, rather than the more common deducing a UTM from traditions, I think it's worth considering what might be in the UTM.
We don't have any magic, as authors (or if we do, we aren't admitting it), so the list of what might be usable likely isn't based on practical experience. But, we should be able to use things like Bonewits studies of 'real world' magic, on a meta level, to say a few things.

All the following is META author stuff - you aren't allowed to tell it to your characters. [grin]

We now know, from what Mal has said, that there is a field we're calling 'mana' in the rough area of the Solar System. We don't know (yet) if this field extends far outside the Solar System, we don't know if it exists in other star systems. This field is what minds interact with to generate 'magical effects', and it appears some highly specialised machinery can also interact with mana.
Magical effects are changes that do not fit in with previously known physical laws, or the previously known fields, like gravity, electro-magnetism, strong nuclear and weak nuclear forces. However, they might mimic these, in some cases.
There appears to be a genetic basis to human minds manipulating mana, which is more than a binary "can/can't" switch. It's not yet clear whether a handwavium biomod can provide 'magical ability' (it seems likely) in someone who previously didn't have it. This genetic basis is not something initially understood (except by Noah, etc).
The universe doesn't have any known mechanism to allow physical laws to be altered on a massive scale (such as an Amberite could do with a Shadow). So, the amount of mana that can be manipulated seems to translate into the scale of magical effect that can be produced. More subtle uses of mana may produce more drastic effects for less mana 'spent', but you can't have an ultra-master mage who just turns off the gravity of, say, Earth with a subtle spell. A planetoid maybe, a few kilometers across, not a whole planet.
Two basic magical principles are 'similarity' and 'contagion'.
Stated simply, 'similar things produce similar results' (e.g. pour water on the ground to create rain), and 'things once in contact remain connected' (e.g. having someone's personal possessions means you've a 'handle' to affect them).
Beyond these two principles, just about everything else is down to the tradition you follow. Names and geometry might be vital to one tradition, irrelevant to others (except, maybe, the contagion effect of a name). All spells might need to be done using clearly spoken Enochian, in another tradition the intent behind the words might be the important thing.
About the only thing you can guarantee is that all traditions will be different. And, in many cases 'superior' to all the other 'incomplete' traditions.
See:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magic_%28paranormal%29
I'd strongly recommend reading Bonewits 'Real Magic' if you're interested in this area:
http:////ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widge...indow=true
--
"It is the business of the future to be dangerous" - Hawkwind

Mage War Blues - 05/Oct/2012
Early March, 2014, Hogsmeade.
Cynthia Luckwold sat back in her chair.  Yes, the Minister of Magic (IMC) had a nice office.  Yes, she got to work as many hours as she wanted to (most of her subordinates said 'too many').  But, she would chuck it all over in a moment, to be just a simple Sociology lecturer again.
The Wizards had taken a terrible beating in the Boskone War.  They'd had Auror teams, even Hit Wizards, on twenty-four hour stand by, for weeks at a time in the worst periods.  All the support they could beg from the other factions. They'd still lost so many people.
In the beginning it was just the odd adult, in isolated areas.  Bad enough, but you could warn people to be careful.  She'd met some of the ones who'd been rescued.  The haunted look in their eyes, the cringing.  Almost all of them had become catgirls, there was the odd wolfman or other combat shapes.  Arguably worst were the thionite addicts, almost all of those still surviving hospitalised, for their own protection.
Later whole groups had been grabbed, and the focus seemed to shift to late teen-aged children.  The stories suggested they'd got systems in place to 'process' the kidnapped; transformation and conditioning, hints of even nastier things towards the end.
Cynthia had been a Minister from the beginning, rotated through various of the positions.  Several times she'd tried to hand over to others, but been persuaded she was still best for the job.  She kept being pushed to be Chairman.  When the war was at its worst, that man, Albreth Durer, nearly took over.  Claimed she wasn't taking a hard enough line.  If The Quibbler hadn't found out and revealed he was being financed by the Death Eaters she'd have been out of a job. Funny...
She knew her history.  The Wizarding World'd want to replace her.  Leader in a war, not victorious, but with terrible losses.  They'd want a 'new broom'.  The catgirls who'd tried to return.  Everyone was nice to their faces.  But, they were so lost, almost none of them managed to fit in.  The werewolves were heroes compared to those reminders of what'd happened.
Her once partner, before the job of Minister ate all her time.  Jason Nelly, Auror.  Now Nelly the Catgirl.  He, she, couldn't face her.  Said she'd 'failed'.  One of the ones rescued from Earth, 'Terra' she was supposed to call it these days.  Hadn't even got scars to remember what happened, they healed too quickly.
Cynthia'd insisted.  They'd got a Catgirling Machine, two in fact.  Their best researchers were studying them, at the Department of Mysteries.  And, there were volunteers, returned catgirls, some ex-thionite addicts, a few who'd threatened suicide if they weren't allowed to help.  Somehow they'd make things better.
Meanwhile, she'd got begging letters to write, to those she knew in the other factions.  Or, in some cases, just to sign, if they weren't to people she was familiar with.  They needed to re-build.  And, she'd got applications to refuse. To people who wanted to create Dementors to guard Azkaban.  She shuddered.  You'd hope people would know better.
Here were some applications she could agree to, though she wanted to keep an eye on them.  Really 'Magical Creatures' should be doing it, but it had been pushed over to her for a final decision.  Someone had managed to make viable dragon eggs, and wanted to raise them to maturity.  The magical botanists had plants that were twice as efficient at renewing air, and processing sewage into pure water - the seed pods tasted just as bad though, like that Dole Yeast.
And, the centaurs were sending healers to work in the hospitals, something no one had been happy with before.  They had some new herbal mixes, that were supposed to be very effective in helping people get over mental trauma.  Just what they needed.
Cynthia wondered if they worked on politicians...
--
"It is the business of the future to be dangerous" - Hawkwind

If COH is not rescued, this might be a way to make a "retributive strike" at NCSoft.  But it'll need the help of a friendly lawyer or two.
Every time we agree to the terms of service to get into the game, one of the things we do is give NCSoft a bunch of rights to our intellectual property -- our characters.  Now, it's been a year or two since I last read those terms, but I seem to recall that they're rather comprehensive and "in perpetuity" things.  If NCSoft refuses any and all offers of purchase or licensing, shutters COH, and sits on it, maybe we can get a class action IP suit going to get those rights back on the grounds that they're wasting the potential of those properties.  It might not work, but even if it doesn't, NCSoft will still have to spend money and time dealing with the challenge, and I can't think of a better way to strike back at them than that.
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

Good Life - 04/Oct/2012
Good Life are an extreme faction who many would describe as evil.  However, they do not consider themselves to be bound by normal human morals or ethics.  You may have heard people theorise that "The World would be a better place without humans'. Well, those who call themselves 'good life' aim to achieve that state.
Good Life consider humanity to be an infection on the face of the Earth, and on the entire Solar System, and, they fear, beyond.  A destroyer of the 'natural order' - you could call them 'extreme environmentalists'.  They are inspired by the 'Berserker' series of books by Fred Saberhagen:
http://en.wikipedia.org/w...rserker_%28Saberhagen%29
One of the main objectives of Good Life is to remove all 'bad life' (humans), by the 'waving of Berserkers, soulless machines dedicated to the destruction of all life.  In the end, when this object is achieved, they expect that they to will be destroyed, so the universe will be returned to life-less perfection.
Unfortunately, handwavium is proving to be a very difficult means of producing Berserkers, and the combat robots that they build invariably turn out to have their own ideas about what their purpose is, in their non-organic lives.  Occasionally they might think they have succeeded, but so far this has proved to be the AIs "keeping their heads down" until they figure-out what is going on.
Good Life rarely directly attack humans, or human places, partly because there are so few of them.  But, mainly because they believe the work should be done by Berserkers.  Opinion is divided among the few who have even heard of Good Life as to whether it is possible for them to succeed.  In general, unless they can build a purely hard tech murderous AI, the answer is believed to be 'no'.
One reason Good Life are relevant is that the products of their work may attempt to join the larger Fenspace community.  Some ask for help in demilitarising themselves, others seek work as part of Great Justice or the Space Patrol.  There is no evidence that any of them have been recruited by Boskone.  One or two claim to be Iain M. Banks 'Culture' fans, and want help to upgrade themselves to become the equivalent of Culture Minds.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Culture
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Culture_series
Edit: Fixed sp.
--
"It is the business of the future to be dangerous" - Hawkwind

In full black and green Phantom of the Opera regalia, Wandblume, more often than not known as Shego, melodramatically thrashed a Full-On-Dracula-Pipe-Organ-of-Doom. Her mock organeering wasn’t really even close to the Night on Bare Mountain that thundered from the forest of resonating organ pipes but her particular superpower suggested that her method was scarily proper nonetheless!  Approaching the climax, a choir of moaning robot-banshees flitted out from amongst the pipes; haunted the music with a wordless choral  accompaniment that built, with the music, to a creepily musical full-throated howl. That’s where she ended it : who really wanted to hear the final four minutes of pastoral quietude, anyway?
Shego tossed a half-masked pseudo-askance glance aft. Her gloom (collective noun) of Goths were, with the exception of Pitchy, engrossed. The youngest didn’t go in for ‘long haired’ stuff unless it had first been passed through the Metal filter of her favourite band, Fugue State. She fidgeted,  her scythe blade tip carving a kawaii skull into the sham-wood of the chair back facing her.
“ Pitchy needs her Metal supplement, I see. How about a dose of  Fugue State?”
Pitchy’s eyes darked-up (Lit-up just isn’t a goth expression.) “Real music? Please!”
Wandblume activated the less traditional synthesizer aspects of the Uber-Wurlitzer ; commenced to ‘play’ the slightly discordant electric guitar pizzicato opening to Mosh-Pit Macabre, Fugue State’s metalized rendition of Camille Saint-Saën’s tone poem, Danse Macabre. Banshees stole away in favour of the frenetic ivory jangling of a skeleton-bot rave.   Pitchy’s einheit scythe, Sichel Mond, perked up halfway through carving the Goodbye-Kitty bow on its rather well executed head-bone.
During the performance, Van Loan, wielding a pristine first edition of 1984 in a manner oddly suggestive of a device, skulked about the theatre. He stopped four times : once to admire his girlfriend’s use of his organ ; three times to futz technologically with seemingly mundane portions of the auditorium. Ten minutes later, he ghosted out of the chamber.
“Oh, this is almost as gut as Die Moritat von Mackie Messer (Mack the Knife)!” Sichel Mond’s voice, mechanistic Austrian accented English, sounded suspiciously like a former governor of California.
“Shush!” Pitchy rapped the bumptious scythe’s butt against the auditorium’s sticky floor.
Einheit Sichel Mond apologized in a synthesized  Teutonic whisper : “Wie bitte, Chef!”
***
With a  properly dark toast of Quarter Cask Laphroaig for the adult and relatively well seasoned teens and Double-Death-by-Dark-Chocolate-Cocoa for Pitchy, Shego wound up the Devil’s Night graduation festivities.
“ It’s been a dark delight, gals! “ She hefted the requisite ornate whiskey glass, solid enough to brain an ox, fired the potent bog juice into her throat. Four others quaffed their own tumblers of complex Scotch. Pitchy sipped her multiplex hot-chocolate daintily.
Over the third Scotch shot, Dies Irae broached the subject that made it the perfect evening for Shego.
“You were always planning to deliver us on Halloween.”
Shego favored her with a knowing Prospero wink while thinking, ‘Plan?’
“Would there be any other way, Irae?”
“Nothing that would be...proper.”
The pause, almost undetectable, would have escaped the slightly alcohol-addled Shego if it hadn’t been punctuated by a shared look of desperation  that flashed about the group.  She was in the presence of  inchoate conspiracy, she abruptly, happily realized.  ‘My girls are scheming!’  Then the epiphany pounced.
Shego exercised more willpower than she thought she had as she poured out a fourth round of Scotch, even adding a splash to Pitchy’s cocoa.
“Penny,” Shego’s smiled a slightly crooked smile that juxtaposed very well against the even, reasonable tone of her voice. “when have I ever given a damn about propriety?” She widened the crook of the grin ; passed a neat double to Dies Irae whose real name was Penelope Winterbottom.  “Perhaps you have an improper proposal?” She allowed the grin to reach the penultimate tier--any further and she’d achieve maniacal peals of full-blown super-villainess cackling!-- of  glee. “I’d love to hear it!”
Wandblume’s  inner opportunist, a tiny and very happy meta-gal-Iago, crowed, ‘And I shall call them, Shegoth!
***
The blue border collie, pronounced ‘Tachikoma’ by a large, blue and white metallic  dog tag, dutifully watched the fisheye distorted display that was now a complete fiction. It was difficult given the primal sensory data that swirled and roiled from the next room over. Tachikoma buried his snout in his forepaws and chuffed  a doggy sigh. A mechanism in the collar translated it into the oddly adorable squeaky,  “Everyone’s in a rut but me!”
***The brace of buxom egg chairs considered their luxurious repeater screen view of Sex (transparent), Lies (opaque) & Recordable Media (Who uses video tape these days?).
“Yayoi, do we promote the  uplifted quadruped or fire the AWOL assets?”
“Mikuru, why not both?”
An arm emerged from the gloom that obscured all but the superabundant bosom and follicular extremities of the mystifying Yayoi. The attached hand, well manicured with elaborately white starred on midnight blue-backed nails of moderate length, depressed the intercom stud built into the outer swell of her curvaceous throne.
“Promote the Tachikoma attached to Project : Black & Blue to Primary Asset status.”
“Hai, Danna!” The voice, one quaver short of being obsequious, filtered out of a cunningly concealed speaker.
“And...reassign agents Togusa & Batou to...” The hand clicked nails across the spotless white enamel exterior of the pod. “...Monolith duty.”
The unseen lackey’s voice trembled minutely. “Wakatta, Danna!”
“Yayoi, you’re just a big, soft panda.” There was only the slightest tinge of pique in the other’s voice.
“Cute, yet still very dangerous? Thanks, dear!”

Great Justice 20XX - 04/Oct/2012
"We've got you this time."  GJ Mage Inspector Ketty shook the soul jar, with the attached DNA tab.  Inside the green glow didn't respond, but it definitely didn't look happy.
---
"How's it going, Zet?"  "A bit messy, Inspector, but we think we've got the lot of them.  The new teleport wards worked as advertised, and the Interwave filters stopped any of them escaping that way.  We caught three of them trying to leave the hard way, but Jaky spotted them with her spirit sight, and they're all in soul jars."
"Is it just me, or are Boskone getting more slippery these days?"  "Not sure, Sir.  They certainly don't seem as shy about getting killed.  Maybe they've got a competent necromancer on staff?  They certainly were chucking around some nasty combat magics."
Ketty lifted his Mage Crown, and scratched underneath at his developing bald spot.  His wife kept telling him they should invest in a new body for him, but he was really attached to this one.  Great Justice benefits were pretty good, but they didn't spring for body upgrades, and he wasn't getting killed in the line of duty just to get one on medical grounds.  None of the reliable standard biomods really suited him, and he felt he got a bit of extra magical 'omph' by being an unmodded human, with no longevity drugs in his system.
"Have you done the deep scans to check for any bolt holes?"  "Just doing that now, Sir."  The mage technician tapped his ear, and listened.  "We've found the last of the missing kidnap victims.  Two of them have already been catgirled, and probably memory purged."
Ketty sighed.  "Another big job for the medics.  It's never easy fixing that sort of mental damage."  "Good news, Sir.  Only one of the assault team were killed.  And, the mobile resurrection team say she should be back on her feet in half an hour.  None of the team going home in soul jars, this time."
"I suppose that is good", Ketty shook his head, "I never liked the job of going talking to relatives, in the old days".
"How's the evidence collection going?"  "I think we've got them, Sir!"  The technician grinned fiercely.  "Murder they may be able to get away with, or mental damage, as long as they pay the fines.  But, the best lawyers they can get wont save them this time."
"We've got them for tax evasion."
--
"It is the business of the future to be dangerous" - Hawkwind

I figured the media would strain to spin this as an Obama victory, but I assumed that he'd give them something, however small, to work with.
He gave them nothing.
The Hill's post-debate headline is "Romney lands punches against subdued Obama in first debate," but that doesn't remotely capture it.
How bad was it for Team O?

Dude:





And the coup de grace of an unspinnably terrible night for the left:





Endgame:



Andrew Sullivan, one of The One's biggest fans, despairs:

Quote:Look: you know how much I love the guy, and you know how much of a high information viewer I am, and I can see the logic of some of Obama's meandering, weak, professorial arguments. But this was a disaster for the president for the key people he needs to reach, and his effete, wonkish lectures may have jolted a lot of independents into giving Romney a second look...
The person with authority on that stage was Romney – offered it by one of the lamest moderators ever, and seized with relish. This was Romney the salesman. And my gut tells me he sold a few voters on a change tonight. It's beyond depressing. But it's true.