I started throwing this together, and thought I'd toss it out there to see if it's worth developing, or if I should restart from a different place, or do something else entirely.

I'm Saoirse Kelly.  If you follow boxing on Earth, you more than likely heard of me at some point—I was known as the female light heavyweight champ to a lot more people than knew me—back then—as a college student, physics major, witch, and more. 

 

I never wanted to become a Fen.  Sure, I like my Science Fiction, my Fantasy—but it's never been the be-all and end-all of my life.  But—Handwaviuim fascinated me from the time I was a child.  We didn't CALL it Handwavium, or Unobtanium; it was simply magic.  See, I'm a Wiccan, as were my grandparents before me—long before Wicca had a name.  (My parents weren't, but that's another story—one I probably won't tell.)  I wasn't even supposed to know about it; it was passed down from one generation to another, and a 16 year old certainly shouldn't have known about it.  But with my parents out of the sequence, Grandma decided to tell me the big secret when I was only 14.

 

Magical power back then didn't breed well, but had to be carefully brewed with rituals that are still secret.  But that's not important—what is important is how I went from being a pretty ordinary college student—and darned good boxer with Olympic aspirations—to where I am now.

 

Back in 2007, to hear some say it, I'd been leaving a trail of dazed and unconscious opponents through the major amateur boxing tournaments, including the golden gloves.  I was the national champion in my weight class—but amateur boxing seldom results in knockouts.  (Though I DID leave more than a few face down on the canvas, despite the big gloves and headgear—without false modesty, I am good at what I do, and one of the hardest punchers in the woman's game.)

 

Sadly, Olympic Glory was not to be mine.  By 2007, the IOC had ruled that women's boxing was not to be an Olympic sport that year; once again, discrimination was rearing its ugly head.  Still, there were options.  Starting college was definitely part of the plan—and perhaps turning pro was in the cards.  So—to college I went, at the ripe old age of 16.

 

Times were changing in the good ol' USA.  The freedoms we took for granted were fading fast.  Surveillance cameras everywhere, people using plastic for every purchase,  the records being sold to advertisers—and used by the Feds to track “suspicious” activities.  Scientific inquiry was stifled, too; Handwavium studies in universities were prohibited, at least for undergraduates.  Not only that, a friend of mine sniffed out that they were tracking any internet activity related to the stuff.  That was bad enough—but they had planted some tracking software on my computer.  Physics is my expertise, not computer funny business.  All in all, that made my first choice of school: MIT—out of the question.  I thought next of the University of Toronto—but it was a member of the Association of American Universities.  Ultimately, I chose the University of Ottawa; they have some active research in Handwavium, and the traditional Canadian open-mindedness.

 

My undergrad years were interesting—but nothing that I plan to write about now.  I had a generous scholarship, Grandma had a decent amount of money which she sent my way—and I did take up professional boxing.  There's good training available both in Ottawa, and in Florida, and I was an up and coming boxer.

 

In this time of Handwavium exploding on the scene, and off the planet, people were studying hard science or Handwavium—not both.  That seemed to me to be a bad plan; both are part of reality.  So, I took my undergrad studies—and after I graduated in 2011, I almost didn't make it back to school.  I'd been visiting my grandparents in Florida, and apparently, someone decided that I was a menace to the nice, controlled society that keeps exploration in the hands of the elite.  Grandma, however, suspected something, and urged me to cut my break short.  I crossed the border just before the order to hold me up.

 

There was no arrest order, nothing official; they didn't even invalidate my passport.  I'd committed no official crimes—but the idea of Handwavium terrified them.  Even more, the idea of someone skilled at both hard tech and Handwavium running around loose was even scarier.  Sure, I was just starting as a grad student in a few months, but I'd already been noticed in the scientific community—and from there, the United States government.

 

But—at the same time, they were watching their step, being careful not to appear TOO heavy handed.  (Or perhaps it was Grandma's connections with the ACLU that kept them from going too far…)

 

 

This is just the beginnings of a hastily thrown together idea, but before putting more into it, I thought I'd see if it was worth pursuing—or if I should take another route.

Well, I liked the first one. This one actually looks to be just as good, if not better. (Professor Moriarty!)

http://trailers.apple.com/trailers/w...gameofshadows/

I just discovered Fenspace, and I love it.  I see that the POD was pre-9-11--did 9-11 happen in the fenspace timeline?  Or is the paranoia in the United States attributed to handvavioum, with no World Trade Tower attacks?

Sometimes an idea just jumps you and you have to write it down. This one took less than an hour from "crazy idea" to "I will post it". Have fun !

Quote:Two entities were floating at the border of the solar system, looking at the scene in front of them through a system quarantine shield.

“So this is the result of your new uplifting project? I have to say I am really impressed, you have outdone yourself.”

“Hey, its not that bad... you have to look at the positive side of the thing.”

“Not bad? Let me see... you introduced a plank scale self replicating machine into their technology, one that created a high level physics distortion field.”

“They had a lot of fun with it. It was a good way to jumpstart their civilization.”

“Oh, yes I see, they had fun with it. You broke apart their society within a few years. Their states could not hold together while random groups colonized their solar system on their own.”

“Its a good way to make the big step forward, leave you planet and start exploring.”

“Not even three years later multiple wars had started among this mess of small independent groups.”

“I could not know they were that aggressive.”

“You should have. Oh, the resulting war killed approximately 5.7 billion sentient being. Or maybe I should say ‘all of them'.”

“Hey, who would have thought they would get to planet cracker level weapons that fast?”

“One of the planets was even killed in a test of a new gravity engine for a sport car!”

“Each of them liked to own the fastest vehicle around. Its not unusual, everyone does.”

“And that does made their star go nova?”

“Sorry, I'm not sure how they did this.”

“So... you killed all of them, or watched as they killed themselves. They managed to scatter the mass of five of their seven planets in their system, swallowed several moons and a partial stellar enveloping swarm of satellites with improvised black hole weapons and induced a nova in their own sun. That's it, the council have enough of your private projects!”

“But...”

“No but. You will hand over the plans for your replicator engines at once. After that, we will discuss what kind of security measurements we can implement into the system to make it useful after all. And while we are busy modifying it, I promise you we will include some basic AI templates. So that we are sure the next target group have at least some rational beings around.”

“That's damned hard... I have spent thousands of cycles on the new version of the substance. Just handing them over to the council feels wrong.”

“Be glad it happens this way. If you cooperate, maybe they decide to keep your name for the damned things. Where the hell did you got the idea for this stupid name anyways?”

“Hey, Handwavium just sounded cool!”

From Avatea
 Join us in game for a super weekend of Double-XP goodness starting July 28 at 9:00 a.m. PDT (12:00 p.m. EDT / 5:00 p.m. BST / 18:00 CEST) until July 31 at 11:59 p.m. PDT (2:59 a.m. EDT / 7:59 a.m. BST / 8:59 CEST)!

This is your chance to level up those heroes or villains you couldn't
find time for! Unless you're in serious need of Inf or Prestige for a
bit of super shopping in game, in which case you'll be happy to learn
that you'll also get double the Inf and double the Prestige over the
Double XP Weekend!

So start planning, start thinking up that dream build or get those
characters back into the game! The Double XP Weekend is going to be upon
us on July 28th!
(Be There or Be Square!)

Veggie Tales "Rock Monster"
Summons 40 foot tall Stone Giant/ gollem which does a "Cannon Ball" onto target. don't forget to check for splash damage.

listal: http://www.listal.com/list/twisted-princess]What if the Beauty was the Beast, or Twisted Princesses

These aren't kiddie movies...
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012

So, I posted the following on LiveJournal with the title, "A rather perverse dalek thought."
(Note: The day six link below is amusing, but you should be aware that the closing line of the drabble it is following up is a bit squicky in its cold post-apocalyptic rationality)

Quote:What? No not perverse like that. Perverse as in it twists Dalek thinking into unnatural (for them) directions.
So, if you read [img]http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif?v=3]jeriendhal's 30 Days of Drabble - Day Six it involves Daleks on a post apocalypse Earth. After reading it an unnatural thought occurred to me.
Posit that you have a Dalek of unusual thinking as part of the pursuit, one who runs through this chain of logic.
Daleks
are the universe's superior form of life. But that pesky Doctor keeps
interfering with things. This ruined planet is Earth. The Doctor likes
Earth and the Humans. The Doctor will stop interfering if it would
threaten human survival. (here comes the unnatural, for a Dalek, twist)
Thus if the Dalek's are protecting the humans The Doctor will be
neutralized.
"WE SHALL PROTECT THE HUMANS?"
"WE SHALL!"
"WHY SHALL WE PROTECT THE HUMANS?"
"WE
WILL PROVE DALEKS SUPERIOR. THE DOCTOR HAS FAILED. THE EARTH IS RUINED.
THE HUMANS ARE DYING. DALEKS SHALL SUCCEED WHERE THE DOCTOR HAS
FAILED."

Okay, fine, you insist this isn't truly perverse and the title was a lie? Fine, a scene resulting from the above.
"You want me to do what!"
"HUMANS MUST NOT GO EXTINCT."
"THE HUMAN FEMALE AND THE HUMAN MALE SHALL PROCREATE."
"PRO-CRE-ATE! PRO-CRE-ATE!"
"This is all somehow your fault Doctor."

Quote:And really, what is the Doctor to do.
"What are you doing! Stop
taking food to those refugees! What? Medicines? But you're evil! Stop
being good! How am I supposed to hate you if you are being so, so,
charitable!"
"RISE IN THE DOCTOR'S BLOOD PRESSURE DETECTED. MEDICAL DALEK RECOMMENDS MEDITATION."
"THE DOCTOR WILL CALM HIMSELF IMMEDIATELY! MEDITATE! MED-I-TATE!"

http://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?578 ... st14142959]Some ideas on the girls' magical equipment that (if I recall correctly) don't contradict anything in canon, but aren't supported by anything in canon either. (Shadowjack comments on the ideas in the next post in that thread.)

http://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?578 ... st14143785]Shadowjack theorizes on why Luna didn't remember there was no Sailor Moon in the Silver Millennium
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012

No, not Christmas.

It's almost the third week in July, which means it's time for the combined Schroeck-Viel-Ott families' invasion of Long Beach Island.   Our annual week-long beach house vacation starts tomorrow.  And just like last year, we're bringing the laptop (and a few new electronic goodies), so I won't really be out of touch -- but I figured, hey, by this point it's a tradition to warn you all that we're going on vacation.

So... we're going on vacation.
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.