As always, forum members get a 24 hour leap on every other outlet:
Chapter 7 of Drunkard's Walk V.
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

Just saying...

Not right now, though.
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

So between a combination of GreggHL's Glorious Shotgun Princess and the demo of Asura's Wrath I was inspired to dig out the copy of Exalted 2e I picked up a few years ago. Despite the inherant awesomness of the game, I never got around to doing anything with it, in part because my group was slightly intimidated by the complexity of the combat system as compared to d20 stuff. However, due to my PnP gaming group being on hiatus due to Baby, we were discussing the possiblity of doing some play by post gaming to get our fix in. I volunteered to look into it, and thought that the slower pace of online gaming might be a great time to give Exalted a shot.
I was wondering if anyone who had played Exalted before had any advice to give about what books other than the Core rules would be worth picking up. Is there anything like a Monstrous Manual to be had, or am I stuck stating out each encounter by hand? Alternatly, a premade adventure would also work.
Also, any suggestions for a good place to run a small Play by post group? I'm currently of using Yahoo! Groups.
--
If you become a monster to put down a monster you've still got a monster running around at the end of the day and have as such not really solved the whole monster problem at all. 

http://www.newsfromme.com/2012/05/30/dick-beals-r-i-p/
This gentleman was doing the voice of little boys for 80 years.
He played Davey on Davey and Goliath
He was Speedy Alka-Zeltzer
He will be missed.
''We don't just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat
them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary.''

-- James Nicoll

I'm rereading this part in anticipation to the epilogue, and found something that might be an issue.
"The first person I spotted was Captain Turquoise (now in civvies, too), who looked distinctly uncomfortable in seiza on the far side of the table from the door (and, thus, me). He was flanked by two new folks, a pair of young women who appeared to be in their twenties and who occupied almost all of his attention. Hm. More mortal auxiliaries. They must have shown up while I was in the bath, I mused. I raised an eyebrow when I realized one was a cop of some variety, in full uniform. The other looked more like Buffy Coed." -chapter 1
I always took this that Rachel would fit in Sunnydale High, and not that she was particularly buff (as in muscled).
Now, the fact is that part XIII is actual Buffy, and the part above is written from Doug's point of view. It would somehow imply that he knows a least a bit of the buffy story.
Would that be an issue ?
-People may die, but ideas are forever. Je suis Charlie.

Shiny stuff from the freedom summit.

http://www.pcgamer.com/2012/05/30/playe ... es-summit/

Shiny

Ah, Legacy Project. How many times have I started this post, been distracted, and then failed to do anything with you?
Four. Let's hope for lucky number five. All dates are as near to accurate and logical as I can force them to be, assuming the 'present' is  october of 2014. Any incomplete data you see will be eventually rectified as I find the time/motivation to do so.
Sherry Reynard
The Fox-wife
Age: 24 (Deceased)
Birthdate: 9 April 1990
In august of 2008, Sherry met Benjamin Ganders at a party. Unfortunately, someone spiked the punch at that particular party. You can guess where things went from there. The next morning they both went their different ways, both feeling very awkward and guilty. Sherry, for being the slightly more aggresive one the night before and turning down Ben's incredibly awkward marriage propasal, and Ben for making the incredibly awkward marriage proposal. The next week, she left for the moon while he went to Air Force BMT. 
In september, she 'waved herself into a fox-girl and spent the following week discovering just how awkward it is to put on a space suit when you have a cute and bushy tail. This annoyance was soon superceeded by a bizarre mix of panic, disbelief, and shock at the discovery that she was pregnant. Talking to Benjamin resulted in another marriage proposal, filled with more awkward pauses and stuttering than the last. This too, was shot down.  To her surprise however, he managed to demand an answer as to why she said no.
"Well, it's pretty simple in my mind. Marriage is about love. I don't love you, and you don't love me."
After a surprisingly expensive silence (Interplanetary phone rates are not cheap), he asked if Sherry was going to keep their child. The cost of the next stretch of silence, 'ah's, and 'um's could be used to purchase a sandwich. Over the course of the call, they somehow managed to figure out the following:
Yes, they would be keeping 'her'. Sherry would stay in space, and Benjamin would continue to serve out the rest of his six year his term in the armed forces. However, he would be paying child support (at his insistence, not hers). He was also allowed to start courting her, and they would try to talk at least once a week.
Sherry wasn't pretty sure their 'courtship' wouldn't work out, given the difficulty of long-distance relationships, but figured that he deserved an honest shot. To her surprise, they hit off fairly well, once they managed to actually talk to one another instead of stare awkwardly at each other through webcams. Time passed, and on May  14th, 2009, at 6:29 AM, Mei Reynard-Ganders was born at Castle Magellan General Hospital. Weighing in at seventeen ounces, and ten and one half inches long, with a tiny stub of a tail and fuzzy ears, she was absolutely adorable. Benjamin couldn't make it there physically, but he did get leave to Australia, where he met with one of Sherry's friends, a cyborg named Hex. Hex set up a live interwave connection that allowed him to 'be' there for the birth.
A year later, Sherry came to Australia with their daughter to meet with Benjamin physically for Mei's first birthday. It was intended to be a somewhat private occasion. Unfortunately, Ben's parents found out about it, and decided to make it into a 'family' event. An invasion force consisting of his brother, sister,  fourteen cousins,  five aunts, four uncles, and mother and father ended up taking over most of the hotel under the command of his grandparents, and throwing a great big bash for the occasion.
The non-presence of Sherry's own parents is very carefully not ever brought up.
Mei is pronounced no less than five different kinds of adorable by the various member of the Ganders clan, and both Benjamin and Sherry are needled about the date of the wedding. Both say they aren't getting married yet. The addendum of 'yet' honestly surprised Sherry herself in a pleasant way.
Over the next few years, meeting in Australia for Mei's birthday became a family tradition. Each time, at least two or three members of Benjamin's family would come down to share in the festivities, and politely needle them about getting married.  Each time, the 'yet' gained a little bit more emphasis.
Eventually, six years passed. Benjamin completed his term, and on September fifteenth of 2014 came up to Crystal Tokyo to see his daughter and to present his third marriage proposal. 
On September the twenty-first, Sherry Reynard was killed in the line of duty.
Author's Notes: Yeah, this is a work in progress. There's some things that I couldn't find a place to fit in here, but they should get squeezed in later. When I'm more awake. I'm going to hit the major stuff that I missed quick, though. Sherry was a Sammie, one of the first really. She mostly did administrative duties during the Boskone war, so she could look after Mei. And boy, this is embarassing to admit, but I don't actually have a plan for Sherry's death. Well, it was planned, but I never really figured out what it was going to be. Ideas?
Also, I feel very bad for designing a character for the sole purpose of killing them off. And I have no idea if that height and weight is realistic for a newborn, I just made the numbers up.
Benjamin Ganders
The Single Parent
Content Coming Soon.
Mei Reynard-Ganders
The Fox Kid
Content Coming Soon.
Sissel
The Cat

Content Coming Soon.
Alexandria Hendricks AKA Hex
The Witch

Content Coming Soon.

General Author's Notes: I'm almost wondering if this whole project is too dark. It's centered a not quite widowed single dad trying to raise his daughter, with the help of his family and not-quite wife's friends. In space. Of course, the reason I call it the Legacy 'Project' is because I'm planning on (eventually) writing pieces centered around them during a bunch of different times. Some happier ones (like Mei's birthdays) some sadder ones (Sherry's funeral), and even a funny one or two (what's the male to female ratio on Crystal Tokyo?). The point is, the Legacy Project is basically a group of characters I designed to interact mostly with one another. That way, I could do interactions without constantly stepping on people toes.
But, I'm wondering if perhaps I'm over-doing it on some aspects. Tackling issues like being a single parent, the death of a loved one, the reasons one would biomod themselves, and body issues may be a bit beyond me, or inappropriate for Fenspace. Well, the biomod thing might fit right in actually. I've got two very different scene ideas for that, one for Sherry and one for Benjamin.
Anyway, feedback would be appreciated. Imma go pass out now. More content will be added as soon as I get the time to sit down and pound it out.

Part 1
Down the Rabbit Hole.


***
[b]



“Is the subject ready?”

“Yes sir... but even thought she was highly inebriated, we lost eight men bringing her in.”

“A trivial matter. Once we have the info we need, it won't matter.”

“Yes sir, beginning the procedure.”

* * *

There was a beep coming from somewhere, rousing her from her sleep.

Neph Seraph grunted as her eyes slowly opened, sunlight pouring in from the nearby window. Rubbing her eyes, she went to sit up before letting out a gasp of pain and collapsing back, her body feeling like she just gone five rounds with Terrence Knight.

Looking down at herself, her brain took a few seconds to take in what she was seeing, she was in a hospital bed; and guessing by the amount of machines hooked up to her, she must have been in a hell of a accident.

Was she hit by a car last night?

Sure she was drunk, but that drunk?

She groped around for her glasses when another fact slowly filtered into her brain.

She was was able to see the room around her perfectly.

How the hell was that possible? Her cruddy eyesight was a side effect from when Dib rushed her growth, resulting in a permanent case of short sightedness. However, but the room around her was crystal clear.

What the fuck was going on?

Her train of thought was distracted by the door opening when a tall balding man entered, adjusting his glasses as he consulted a clipboard and walked over to her.

“Ahhh, Miss Seraph, you are finally awake, you had us all worried there for a while.” He spoke in a calm, soothing voice.

“What the hell happened to me?” she mumbled, her voice sounding softer than she was used to.

He sighed before speaking. “There is no easy way to say this. You were hit by a car two weeks ago You’ve been comatose since. There was extensive damage, and it was touch and go for some time.”

“What? How bad was it?”

He took a deep breath before listing off her injuries. “Let's see, your right arm and six ribs were broken, along with severe internal bleeding from lacerations to your large intestines and a ruptured liver, a mild skull fracture and extensive damage to your right leg... You’re lucky to be alive young lady.”

“Two weeks? What the...why didn't the mediport system get me?” She asked. She knew she had suffered worse in the past and gotten off scot free, thanks to that little bit of tech.

The doctor furrowed his brow as he looked over his glasses. “Miss Seraph, you are aware that such technology is reserved for civil servants, the elderly and heroes, not teenage girls.”

“What?” She screeched as she tried to get up, pain flaring through her body as she looked down at herself, horror filling her as she saw her right leg was missing below the knee. She tried to move and pain flared through her body, crimson starting to stain the bed sheets, darkness filling her vision-

Images swirled in front of her, she was in some sort of tank, voices shouting from a great distance

“She's fighting the lotus effect sir!”

“Increase the dosage then.”

“Sir, we’re not sure if that’s a good idea, it could interfere with the download.”

“Do it!”

“Yes sir”

The voices began to fade. . .

As the room swum back into focus, the first thing she noticed was it was night now. As she tried to sit up, she discovered she could not. Instead of pain keeping her prone, she now saw that job was being done by large straps pinning her to the bed. Collapsing back, she glared at the ceiling and wondered what the hell was going on.

Then she heard voices drift in from outside the room. Straining herself to hear, she could make out the voice of the doctor and someone else who sounded vaguely familiar.

“After such a traumatic experience, it is not unusual for someone to lash out at their surroundings. It is a lot to take in at once.”

The second voice was a woman's that sounded so familiar that it was almost maddening. “I just can't believe that she would do something like that, she's normally such a gentle child.”

“Mrs. Seraph, until we can figure out what caused such a strong reaction, I suggest we keep her here for observation.”

Mrs. Seraph? That didn't sound like either of my aunts out there, Neph thought. Could it of been Laz? No...they called her a child. Her head swam with what ever they pumped into her.

The woman spoke again. “Is...is it okay if I see her, Doctor?”

There was a pause before he answered. “We have sedated and restrained her to stop her from harming herself or any of the orderlies...but a short visit should be okay. I'll be by the door if you need anything, ma'am.”

As the door opened, Neph tried to fight off the drugs as her head slumped back onto the pillow. Footsteps echoed closer, eventually bringing a short woman into her line of sight.

As the woman reached her side, the moonlight shone on her face and Neph felt her heart skip a beat as Tish Feugo looked down at her, the woman’s face a mask of concern.

Reaching over, Tish gently stroked some hair out of her face and smiled. “How ya doing kiddo?” she asked, keeping her voice soft.

Neph tried to reply, but only got out a strangled groan causing Tish's lip to tremble. She was upset? Last Neph knew, Tish would of probably been happy a car had hit her, so why did she look like she was about to cry?

“Stay still, the doctors said that during your little outburst, you managed to tear out some of your stitches.” She said, sitting on the side of the bed, resting a hand on her shoulder. “I can't stay for long, but I'll be back tomorrow with your father, okay sweetie?”

Neph tried to make another noise as Tish stood up and kissed her brow. “See you then.”

Watching the shorter woman, confusion raging in her head. The way Tish acted...it was almost as if she was her daughter...but Tish would never see her like that...would she?

The sedatives the doctor was talking about must have started to kick in as she started to black out, her last thoughts were of the way Tish had looked at her...and how it felt...

* * *

The director strode into the room, slowly panning his eyes over his underlings, the mass of computers, before finally resting upon the tank where his prize floated, a smirk coming to his face.

Hanging in the fluid, wires and tubes hooked up to her was Nephilim blade.

That bitch had ruined several of his projects...had him blacklisted from Crey...forced him on the run...but now, now he would get his revenge on her.

The perfect revenge, he would trap her in a dream world, biased off her own fantasy and desires. A world from which she would never awaken. Then, when she had fully accepted it, he would shatter her world like a snowglobe, destroying her mind and leaving her as a drooling vegetable.

A cruel grin pulled at his lips, she had all but destroyed his world, so he would break hers.

* * *[/b]



Sunlight woke her up again, getting a string of mild profanity from her as she tried to raise a hand to cover her face, only to be stopped by the damn restraints, causing another bout of swearing.

“Nephilim Angelica Seraph! Where on earth did you learn such language?” A voice scolded her.

Turning her head she saw Tish giving her a disapproving look. A large plushy of a cyan pegasus with a rainbow mane in her arms.

“Why do you care?” she croaked in reply, her throat feeling parched... how long had they drugged her?

“Because I'm your mother and I don't want my little girl getting so foul mouthed, that's why. Imagine if your father heard that?”

Neph froze, Tish had just said mother... Tish would never say that, why would she?

“Neph...are you okay?” The woman claiming to be her mother placed the plushy on her lap and lent over to rest her hand on her arm, the pain in her head building again-

“Sir, I'm not sure about this scenario, she seems to have trouble accepting it.”

“Impossible, it's biased of her own mind, if there is any rejection it is because one of you have made an error! If I have to come down here one more time to fix one of your mistakes, you are FIRED! Do you hear me?”

There was the sound of someone storming off.

“Man... what a dick.”

the voice faded away...

“Neph? Neph dear, are you okay?”

She came back to arms wrapped around her, comforting her, a hand stroking her head like a scared little child...

Part of her wanted to scream out that this was wrong. That this is not how things were meant to be...but a much smaller, much more scared part was afraid of losing this.

Her mind in turmoil, she did the only thing that made sense and cried.

* * *

She lost track of time for a bit after that, she listened to what they told her...it sounded stupid, it sounded fake...it had to be!

According to them she was sixteen years old, born naturally to Seraph and Tish 3 years after they got married and had two adopted sisters, but recently she had been having trouble with school.

Her parents suspected bullying, So they sent her to a psychiatrist. Then one day, after a particularly intense session, she apparently just walked across the street without paying attention where she was going and BAM!  Here she was, minus a leg.

It all just seemed so crazy to her. But any time she tried to voice it, her parents and the doctors all told her she was still recovering from a traumatic event, that she was confused. But it was true...it had to be...she could remember it all so vividly...

After another week of drifting in and out, the doctors decided to bring her psychiatrist in to talk to her, maybe then she could get somewhere.

Soon it was the day her shrink was scheduled to visit. When the door opened, it was almost all Neph could do not to laugh as the director of Project Blades, Dib Membrain walked in. He gave her a smile and pulled up a chair next to her bed, note pad on his lap. “Ah Neph, it is good to see you again...I was upset to hear what happened...and after we were making such progress.” His voice was calm, level, almost sincere...it was bullshit.

She started to laugh. “Oh...and what progress did we make, Dib?” She almost spat the name.

Adjusting his glasses, he flipped through the notebook. “Would it help if I went over our notes from previous sessions?”

“Whatever.”

Clearing his throat, he started. “During our first session, you told me of how you found yourself day dreaming that you were in a world like this one, but different. This is probably due to the stress of your everyday life.”

“And how was that, Doctor?”

“At first, you where just a simple hero like the rest of your family. But as you started to feel you were no longer in control of the world around you, this fantasy started to reflect that. You demonised me as some sort of evil scientist that created you as a weapon to use against your family, Possibly a manifestation of your fear that I might change you and the stigmata that all psychiatrist find a way to blame the parent for how the child turned out.”

She blinked as he kept going. “You also turned your mother into a cold, distant figure that didn't seem to give a care for you. We pinned this down to the fact your mother was the one pushing for these sessions, which you were originally rather against.”

He turned another page and kept going. “You also mentioned that in this dream world, you were a cyborg. I believe this is your subconscious mind trying to emulate your older sisters, both of them are cyborgs from what your father told me.”

Neph tired to speak, but her mind was coming up blank. Everything the bastard said had a ring of truth... but if he was right, then... “What...what about Lights Retribution?” she croaked out.

He flipped back and forth before he found what he was looking for. “Ah yes, the scruffy hero that accepts you for who you are, regardless of what you do. Based of a character from a book you read a lot as a child.”

“This...this isn't right, I remember all that shit, It's real to me!” She snapped at him.

“You suffered a near death experience. That combined with the blow to your head. it is very easy for your mind to confuse what is real and what is not Neph, Such an experience can be so traumatic that your mind escaped to this dream to protect itself from the harsh reality of what happened. But with help and time, we can figure out fact from fiction...if you are willing to let me.”

She looked down at herself...was he right? Was all this a dream?

And is that such a bad thing? A voice whispered in the back of her mind. It may not be real...but you have a family, they love you! You are no longer an outcast!

N... ph!

Blinking, she looked around, something flickering in the corner of her eye as the voice echoed off in the distance. Turning to Dib, she took a deep breath. “What...what if I can't be fixed...what if I'm stuck with one foot in each world?”

“In such a case, we may have to resort to more drastic measures like medication... but I would like to stress that I consider such things as a method of last resort, I don't prescribe such things lightly.”

“I...I need some time to think about it...okay?” She felt weak for saying it...but what he was saying...god she wished she had something with her to tell her what was real and what was fake.

Standing up, Dib nodded. “I am generally around the facility if you need me, all you have to do is ask one of the nurses and I'll be around as fast as I can.” He patted her head, for a second making her skin crawl. “We'll work this out together, okay?”

She mumbled a reply as he left, her eyes growing heavy as sleep claimed her again.

* * *

No joke.  It got bumped up.
http://boards.cityofheroe...hp?p=4253045#post4253045

I've made what feels like a tough choice. But in the end, inevitable, I suppose, given all that's happened. 

I was sitting there looking at my gaming hotlinks and about to call up City of Heroes when my eyes flicked up and saw the Mass Effect and Mass Effect 2 icons in my quicklaunch. 

It struck me that I hadn't played either of those games since the first week in March. Before I found out about the ME3 ending. And I realized with what hit me with an utterly surprising and painful sense of finality that I wasn't GOING to be playing them again. 

Ever. 

So I uninstalled both games. I need the hard drive space for other things. And that's about 30-45 gigs that can be better used by other things and not acting like a virtual paperweight. 

Thinking about it... just makes me feel...  empty. It's really weird. 

I guess I'm truly done with the series now. 

When stopping to think about it, I realized that I've even been turning away from artwork related to it and dropped reading any fanfic based it. There were two or three fanfic series I was really hooked on there for awhile. Now... meh.

Why the hell am I even posting this, anyway? I can't quite say. It's not to influence anyone's opinion of the game or the companies that made it. That's a moot point. I don't want to impress anyone with some high moral stance. That's just crap. 

I guess... I'm in mourning? But for what? What the fuck kind of strangeness is that I ask you??

-Logan
--------------------
(Wrote most of the above the other day. Wasn't sure I wanted to post it. Eh... fuck it. May as well get it off my chest. Part of the process I guess.)