On old Adobe Reader 8.something, I had the ability to select and pull images straight out of the Reader. Now, with version 9.something, I can't do that.

So, I need to find a PDF reader that can. I tried looking at the Foxit tool, but I couldn't tell whether or not it could do what I wanted before I downloaded it. Plus, I'm sure with the experience that has accrued here, someone would know of what I need.

So! To humbly ask, is there a low-cost(preferably free) PDF viewer that I can use to pull images out of documents?

My eyes are all swollen and itchy, and I can't sleep. I hate ragweed.
-----
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.

Right here: http://www.haikasoru.com/rocket-girls/
Preorder yours now.  (^_^)

I was just thinking to myself, what two things should not go together?
My brain popped up with this for Item One: Elfen Lied.
Okay, brain.  What's item two?
Brain says that Item Two should be the Power Puff Girls.
How the hell does that work!?
I dunno.  Your the boss so you tell me.
.... I think I should go see the men in the white coats now, yeah?

It's in your eyes, what's on your mind.
I fear your smile and the promise inside.
It's in your eyes, what's on your mind.
I fear your presence, I'm frozen inside.
It's in your eyes, what's on your mind.
I see the truth that you've buried inside.
It's in your eyes, what's on your mind.
There is no mercy, just anger I find.
***The Lair was tense.
In truth, Nao was aware that this kind of thing was rather rare. Most times, social tension was the result of a dozen or so factors that led up to a group of normally amicable friends being ready to rip each other’s heads off because they’d simply been pushed too far. The memories she’d inherited from inside the Crey lab tube from her ‘older sister’ had certainly demonstrated this rather vividly. But in this case, there wasn’t anything that complex at work. Instead, it was mostly the result of one particularly grouchy telepath.
Ever since Jen had made the mistake of thinking about the intel they’d gotten about one of the Sabres getting married, Nena had been on edge. And not just one of the Sabres. Net Sabre, alias Nene Romanova. Much like Nao herself, Nena had been based off a pre-existing physio-mental template. In her case, she’d been based off Nene Romanova, with slight alterations to make her more tractable, though in Nao’s opinion, all they’d done was make her more childish. Case in point, Nena’s reaction to the news.
But while Nao found herself for the most part unbothered by the reminder of her artificial nature (her “past” certainly hadn’t been pleasant enough to want to relive or inherit all the little neuroses of her source), Nena occasionally gave worrying telltales about her fixation on her progenitor. The last major reaction had been shortly after reconnaissance had confirmed rumors that she and one Sachie Hanagawa were something of an item. Nena had alternated between locking herself in her room, occasional random rampages through lower Nerva and Sharkhead, and the odd mission that Nao realized had brought her close into contact with the kuonichi. She’d not confronted Nena over the habit, mostly because there was a difference between avoiding stepping in dogshit and provoking the dog leaving it behind. Still, she had informed Madigan of her given observations just in case. When the situation hadn’t gone any further and Nena seemed to come out of her funk, Nao had mostly forgotten about it.
However, notice of the wedding had led to a standing order from Madigan that none of the Scimitars were to interfere with the ceremony. It had been directed at all of them, but everyone knew that Madigan was primarily directing her mandate at Nena, and while Nena hadn’t violated that edict, her own tension was beginning to broadcast to other people, leading to a general fraying of nerves about the Lair. Which was really starting to annoy Nao, given the wedding had been over for almost two days now.
As far as options went, Nao didn’t have many. Attracting direct attention from a tetchy telepath wasn’t exactly a profitable endeavor, and of the others in the house, Fate was the only one that Nao thought capable of following her directions, and she was simply so level headed she hadn’t noticed the atmosphere change and wouldn’t see the point. Jen was too scatterbrained and Robin was too direct to work...which left more subtle work if Nao wanted this buzzing headache to go away sooner than Madigan’s “wait her out” plan would solve the problem. Or invest in a lot of aspirin.
Nao was fairly well motivated to solve the problem.
***
“Merccssssssy, I beg of you! Pleasssse, no more!” the fanged visage of the Snake begged, one reptilian eye already reduced to a gaping socket and the other widened in fear, while its muscles spasmed from false instructions caused by the electricity crackling over its skin. Nena held the mutant down by the neck, letting occasional jolts of electricity crackle through the gauntlet as she pondered which portion of the reptile to burn next, but her heart wasn't really in it. Or her attention either, really.
Nothing seemed particularly satisfactory at the moment. She'd spent an hour in Sharkhead inducing riots amongst the miners, watching as they were ruthlessly put down by a combination of Cage's personal thugs and Arachnos Crab Spider support. About the height of that interest was when an Arachnos flier crew had gotten bored and dropped its detachment of Bane Spiders into the midst of one of the riots, before suppressing the rest with heavy channelgun fire from its chin turret. That had been interesting, but unfortunately, the sheer brutal precision of the crew at work meant it had also been rather short, leaving her stuck in boredom again. And with boredom had come that...feeling again. That feeling she was trying to ignore.
Which left her with in Mercy, after she'd made a full round of the areas of the Rogue Isles that Madigan had approved for her to skulk in while unattended (out of concern for the hardsuit upkeep budget), throttling Snakes and experimenting with their brain chemistry. She realized she'd really gotten bored when she'd lowered herself to this point, where she really wasn't doing anything other than seeing how long it would take for her to burn the thing out one sector at a time, and how long her powers would actually affect it with increasing levels of brain damage. Thus far....Nena couldn't really remember exactly how her results had gone. But her HUD had informed her she'd earned some kind of award from the Rogue Isles government for dealing with enough Snakes. Apparently if you laid out enough corpses of the things, people took notice.
Of course, Nena was fully aware that she did remember every exact result and the number of Snakes she'd killed over the afternoon, but at the moment, her brain was simply too busy with increasing amounts of runtime spent on this...frustrating, aggravating, infuriating feeling that she couldn't define. It'd been there ever since she'd found out that That Girl was getting married. It'd wanted to go there, in full armor, and sate it somehow. Nena didn't know exactly how she would've made it go away, but it would have. She was certain of it. There was something about That Girl and her life and the people around her that got under Nena's skin, nestled itself in her brain and whispered to her at night, keeping her awake when she wanted to sleep, draining the enjoyment out of her fun, making her life less palatable in general. And she didn't know what it was. The irony of her inability to comprehend the workings of her own mind utterly lost on the telepath, Nena continued with her internal tail chasing as another part of her brain released the Snake, her armor's anti-grav activating and propelling her into the air.
"Penny for your thoughts," a familiar voice said near Nena as she rose above the roofline into uncluttered sky. She turned in place to come visor to faceplate with the teal helmet of Kumi Scimitar, the other armored woman looking back at her impassively. Nena still wasn't quite sure what to make of Nao, the girl behind the helmet. She wasn't easily manipulable like Jen or Robin. And she wasn't exactly a bastion of mental control like Madigan or Galatea. She fell into a middle area that Nena wasn't quite sure how to deal with. And given that she'd apparently been briefly inducted into the Arachnos Wolf Spider corps as a small bit of industrial espionage had also allowed her at least a little access to their conditioning routines that made her difficult to read.
"I'll let you know if I have any I want to share," she shot back, getting a wry chuckle from the other girl as she followed along, jumping rooftop to rooftop with casual ease.
"Well, you seemed shook up about the whole thing with the Sabre," she said, not sounding as if she was exerting herself at all.
"It doesn't matter," she bit out, a bit too curt.
"Oh? So what would you have done if you'd gone out there like Madigan told you not to?" Nao asked, purely using silenced communications now.
"I...I don't know," Nena grumbled. "Something. I would've known when I got there."
"What bothers you about that one in particular? Sure she's the one you were based off of. So?"
"She's...she's happy."
"You're upset because she's happy?" Nao asked, sounding dubious. "You just want to screw up her life?"
"No! That's not...not it," Nena said, frowning. "Something...something's missing. Something I don't have. She does. I don't know what it is, but I want it. I'm tired of feeling like there's some kind of hole...some kind of...gap. Something I was supposed to have too that I didn't get and she did."
"Well, what does she have that you don't?" Nao asked practically, causing Nena's brain to churn.
"Not a family...not sisters....she has...kids? I don't want those," Nena frowned. "She has a lover? I've had those. Nothing special there."
Nao was silent for a moment before speaking up. "Perhaps it's just the ones that she has in particular? There's something to be said for one unique item over thousands of regular ones."
Nena hrm'd silently. "The one she married, Ifrit...she's on the List. Madigan will be upset if I go after her, and I'm not even sure I could, all the way over in Paragon."
"How convenient that one of them isn't in Paragon then, isn't it?" Nao pointed out thoughtfully.
Nena blinked, before she considered the idea...and blinked as she realized that it might actually be plausible.
She could actually pull it off.
"Maybe...."
***
Nao watched as Nena flew off, the telepath seemingly much less distracted than she had been earlier. A few pointers about things she'd want to avoid doing around the kuonoichi if she wanted to succeed should keep the girl out of trouble, and even if she didn't succeed in clearing off her baggage, Nao knew that stalking the Hanagawa girl would keep Nena out of her hair for some time. Which meant the annoying buzzing in her head would go away for the time being. And that was certainly worthwhile enough in her own opinion.
***
If she'd ever been the type to bother with such things, Sachie might have compared the trailing Scimitar to lost puppy in the way that she seemed to follow Sachie around constantly. Psycho Scimitar had tried to do so quietly and unobtrusively at first, but Sachie had spotted her easily. Stealth abandoned, she'd tagged along with Sachie on a number of small jobs, and Sachie had found herself slowly beginning to get accustomed to her presence.
The girl's powers were, if of a different origin, almost identical to that of Misty, and the resemblance of the armor to another small statured, mouthy girl in armor of Sachie's acquaintance brought to mind certain enjoyable memories of her last visit that kept Sachie from being particularly annoyed by the tagalong's presence. And truthfully enough, she certainly was helpful. She was well equipped to handle herself if Sachie decided to deal with another problem off to the side, and for stealth related missions, she was almost better at the things than Sachie was, once she stopped holding back her own powers. In fact, things proceeded so smoothly that it was with a slight hint of surprise that Sachie had realized she'd finished everything she needed to handle that day in only a couple of hours rather than the entire day's work she'd thought it would be.
Nena, meanwhile, had been working double time the entire day, and was almost exhausted, but nearly there. The trick with the naturally resistant types wasn’t so much battering them down with force. That could work, but Nena didn’t have the horsepower to dominate Sachie without her probably snapping Nena’s neck before she could manage it. So instead, Nena’d switched tactics. Every mind had patterns, and those patterns were predictable if you were patient enough and knew where to look. Eventually, knowing which turns went where allowed you to redirect things by making the brain think you knew where you were going, and thus not an intruder.
And Nena had spent the last three hours mapping every inch of it, just to be sure. 
By the time that they’d been done with Sachie’s jobs for the day, Nena had mapped enough to give suggestions easily. “Maybe we should head back now?” she said, grinning behind her helmet as Sachie blinked before nodding.
“Yeah,” she said, relaxing somewhat as Nena let herself wriggle in a bit deeper into the openings presented. The ninja followed her as she led her onwards, not questioning the fact that Nena wasn’t leading her towards her home. She didn’t even notice as her mental barriers continued sliding down, slowly replaced by exterior control...
***
Sachie wasn’t quite sure how long she’d been at this, though at the least she was fairly certain she hadn’t had this prolonged of a workout since her early training back in the Hanagawa clan. Her own endurance wasn’t excessively taxed, but she was at least mildly puzzled by the ongoing torrent of costumes, roles, and activities that her lover had put her through. Nene wasn’t normally this...aggressive, but while the change wasn’t really unpleasant, it was a bit odd compared to Sachie’s normal perception of the redhead. She wondered, to a small degree, about that, but couldn’t really bring herself to dwell on it much. It probably wasn’t important.
To one degree, Sachie was somewhat surprised that Nene owned an apartment in the Rogue Isles at all. She was a hero, after all, and a PPD officer to boot. The giant floor of plushy toys looked like it had experienced a minor asteroid impact and resulting tectonic quakes afterwards as a result of the general activities of the past few days, but it was no more irritating against Sachie’s skin than shag carpet. And having Nene burrow after her to get her “reward” upon finding “buried treasure” had definitely been entertaining. She mentally filed that particular game away for later use, possibly with Inari. It was certainly more entertaining than straight up sex.
Other details that had seemed odd were the people that also roomed near Nene’s little love nest. Sachie had the distinct feeling that she’d seen them somewhere before, but the feeling was fuzzy and unclear. Like most things, she’d mostly brushed it off as not particularly relevant to the situation in the face of more pressing and immediate matters like a rather affectionate lover’s lips on her body. In fact, there was almost something odd there in the way that the sex felt different on some fundamental level...but it wasn’t bad, so Sachie didn’t worry.
At present, the redhead was dozing on top of her, having apparently forgotten to unlock the handcuffs that currently held Sachie to the bed. Not that they were any particular impediment, being of no real durable materials, but ripping her hands free of them would be somewhat unpleasant and involve breaking the bars of the headboard, as well as disturbing Nene on top of her. A little soreness in the joints (and other places) was well and away preferable to disrupting the general ambiance of the situation.
***
“So, your evaluation?” Madigan said, her tone clipped a bit tighter by the anxiety she wasn’t letting show on her face.
“Nena seems to have complete control of the woman, in spite of all existing observations showing Miss Hanagawa to be highly resistant to mental coercion and attack,” Galatea listed calmly, her utter composure assisting Madigan in keeping her own. “Certainly, if Miss Hanagawa had any idea of what the situation was, it would have long ago turned violent. As is, she seems remarkably content with the situation, though we do not have sufficient data to confirm that her will has been completely subsumed by Nena’s abilities,” she finished.
“Though if she hasn’t, it’s certainly an impressive job nonetheless,” Nao said from her spot sitting on the table nearby. “I don’t know about you, but either there’s some serious issues inside that girl’s head, or Nena has a really tight grip. She did manage to walk the ninja around on all fours through the building wearing nothing but the leash,” Nao said, bemused.
Madigan kept herself from grimacing. “Which is only useful if it stays that way...and doesn’t attract unwelcome attention. If we knew Nena had complete control, we could slowly have her use it to break off her existing relationships over time without it seeming sudden and suspicious. As is, we’re dealing with very dangerous fire.”
Galatea, for her part, remained motionless as the silence dragged on, before looking up. "It is entirely possible that we could simply awaken Miss Hanagawa from her psionic haze and let the inevitable happen as a means of satiating her anger."
"No," Madigan said, too quickly to have thought the position through, earning a slight raise of an eyebrow from Galatea, before her superior repeated the word again. "No," she said, more firmly this time. "That option isn't viable. But for the moment, begin preparing a sacrificial lamb. If necessary, we can try to portray it as being someone else that caused this problem, assuming she finds out."
Galatea nodded, calling up potential targets that could be used instead. Internally, she allowed herself some private satisfaction. Madigan was quite intelligent and very capable of ruthless means to ensure that the job was done, but sudden surprises occasionally baffled her. Still, all that was needed was the proper nudge to set her jarred mental wheels back into place if an unexpected rock or pothole knocked them out of alignment.
***
She'd had plenty of fun over the last few days. Once Nena was "in" someone's head, it was almost child's play to make sure she stayed there as long as she payed attention. Sometimes she didn't, when it wasn't particularly important. Simple thugs on the street or Arachnos troops that got too nosy. Even Crey that had poked their heads in a bit too close to things that Madigan wanted left alone without Crey thinking anything was out of the ordinary. It was simple.
Still, as the redhead tossed her hair back, Nena considered the larger woman in front of her. Sachie was spread out over the bed, the comically poorly proportioned "schoolgirl" outfit in disarray. Shirt opened and left there casually with buttons missing, vest wrinkled as it was pinned to the side. The almost ludicrously out of place plaid skirt was slid up to expose more than a little....and Nena hadn't bothered trying to find underwear in her size. It would've just gotten in the way anyway. 
Sliding on top of her, Nena leaned down over her, golden eyes glowing slightly as the circuitry patterns played about the irises. She felt Sachie look up at her as she let herself become visible again....in a manner of speaking. The kunoichi was seeing something else entirely now, which explained why Nena’s neck was still in its original design configuration.  Instead, Nena knew Sachie was seeing her "older sister" Nene. They looked enough alike that fooling the Hanagawa's mind was a simple task. And it was why the muscular ninja had let her have her way with her so easily....Sachie liked to play. 
But still, the doubts remained in Nena's mind as she looked at the ninja's softly breathing chest, her simple, willing acceptance in body and mind. As much as Nena had gotten away with this entire time....it wasn't what she wanted. She couldn't have this one, because it wasn't her that Sachie let do this. The first thing she’d discovered early on with her powers was that making someone do something they didn’t want to do was infinitely more difficult than making it seem to be something they’d agree with. The mind was less resistant to being nudged off course by a few degrees in a gradual turn rather than a 90-degree snap to the left. Which meant one thing...and one thing that she’d spent the last few days trying to deny.
"....you really do love her, don't you?" she asked, her control such that the apparent contradiction of "Nene" referring to herself in third person didn't even cross the ninja's mind. Sachie was silent for a while, as Nena felt the internal wheels unrelated to the situation at hand turning over that simple question. She had no idea that the way she’d phrased it and the situation she’d created had bypassed Sachie’s defenses in more ways than one. Still, none of that mattered since the answer was exactly what she’d been afraid of.
"...huh. Yeah,” the kuonoichi responded with a tiny but sincere smile and a small nod. 
Nena didn’t let her frustration show. She didn’t rage or throw a tantrum. Her sense of self-preservation, hammered in as well as Madigan had been able to manage, restrained any of the angry impulses about the unfairness of the situation, about how the one thing that could screw it up entirely had to have happened. Instead, she took a deep breath as the reality sank in.
Sachie was in love. Not lust. Not friends-with-benefits. Actual capital-L Love. Nena didn’t know what it was about that sort of thing that ingrained itself deeply into the human brain. Twisted around the brain stem and soaked in...and made it utterly resistant to permanent control in certain ways. Oh, Nena could potentially subvert Sachie in certain ways indefinitely. A memory loop or other things would be easy enough, and with some work, she could even insert herself into the woman’s life as if she’d always been there.
But that didn’t help that Nene had already prevented Nena from getting what she was after. There was no way for Nena to “get” what Nene had with Sachie because her powers couldn’t replicate it. Not the way it existed between them. Nena resisted the spike of anger in her mind again, before bending back over Sachie, this time with no interest in talking.
***
Madigan waited as the door to the upper living quarters opened, and found her intended momentum offset by an unusually solemn Nena. There was none of the self-satisfied prancing or other behavior she’d been exhibiting for the last week. Still, business first. “So...if you’re quite done with the time bomb up there?” she asked. The question wasn’t really a question, but then Nena did another thing Madigan didn’t expect.
“Yeah...there’s nothing more I can really do there,” she said, with no hint of humor...almost resigned, really.
Madigan actually blinked at that reaction, before regaining her footing. “Then I suppose you’re ready to help the rest of us ensure this situation doesn’t come back to bite us?”
“Sure.”
Utterly non-plussed by this unprecedented cooperation, Madigan just nodded and stepped out of the way, letting Nena past, finding herself oddly worried by the sudden mood swing. Just what had happened there?
***
“So, explain to me again why we’re taking pictures of Nena’s new girl toy?” Robin asked as she snapped another picture, Sachie’s willingness to do anything she was asked even while Nena wasn’t around having quickly lost any novelty when Robin couldn’t use it for more practical purposes than guiding her through what was essentially a naughty picture shoot. Which wasn’t very hard, given Robin had basically just ended up asking her to do her most arousing poses in the various costumes(and out of them) and then continued snapping pictures. A small part of her brain noted that under other circumstances, she’d be worried about the lack of effect this had on her. “Hmm?” Nao spoke up, before blinking and looking away from the distraction. “Ah, for the same reason Jen’s out conducting a mass cross-country plushy raid and Nena’s off mindwiping someone else instead of playing with her. Madigan wants deniability.”
Robin nodded. “I get why that means we’re going to put Sachie up with this whackjob that Nena’s brainwashing into brainwashing Sachie, sorta, so that he’ll foul up the trail leading to Nena, but if he’s going to be there, why are we getting Nena more plushies?”
Nao gave her a look. “Given how Nena’s mood has been lately, do you want to let her know the old plushie collection’s getting incinerated to get rid of any forensic evidence linking her to Sachie?”
Robin winced. “Yeah, good point.”
***
On her computer, Nene fretted.

Recent events with Sachie had been rather...stomach-churning to her. The first clue had been pictures of her appearing on the net. Nene'd put them up to one of Sachie's jobs, despite the content, until she'd noticed the timestamps involved. A quick call to Sachie had confirmed she didn't remember the photos being taken, and that had led into a full scale investigation.

Nene had backtracked the data transmission but run up against a wall thanks to the general lack of cooperation the RIP office had with any other police office. So she'd called in a few favors and had Sachie examined, finding enough forensic evidence to build a DNA profile. That in hand, Nene had simply kicked the door in at the RIP database and gotten a quick peek at their known offenders list, IDing the source. Even now, Nene didn't really regret giving Sachie the name, given what she'd seen in his file.

Her phone buzzed, and Nene picked up immediately. "Yes?"

"It's done."

"...so he's..."
"Yes?" the line replied, as if asking if she'd expected some other outcome at this point.

The troubling bit was that she hadn't, and part of her was glad that it had gone down like it did. Nene didn't particularly like admitting to that, even in her own head. What did it say when she, a cop, was willing to aid and abet murder because the person had harmed someone she cared about?

"....you okay?" the voice on the other line asked, seeming to guessing her train of thought.

"...am I okay? I should be asking you that," Nena said, flustered. "I mean, he..."

"Brainjob's new."

Nene opened her mouth to protest but swallowed the words. She was all too aware of how brutal Sachie's upbringing had been, if only by the small bits Sachie mentioned and background check of the organization itself. Still, it felt.....wrong just admitting that it was no big deal to her. "I just..."
"I know," the voice on the other end said, softening for those two words. "Thanks."

Nene sighed, before looking at her screen. "You have RIP officers reporting to the scene. Someone heard you."
"Won't find me."
"I know. But hurry."

"Hn. Ja ne."

The line hung up, leaving Nene alone with her worries.

***

The Cafe Distrognio was a high class cafe, open only to vetted members of the Family and completely owned by them. The Marcones had long since learned to keep their noses out, as the place was a veritable fortress on top of being a culinary paradise, wherein the Family dons could meet to discuss business without interruption. Today, it was being used to discuss business as well, but of a very different sort. Madigan poked at her pasta as she sat across the table from a woman with shock white hair, who was digging into her own ravioli with much more gusto.

“So your little troublemaker’s still in her room?”
“Yes. I confess, her reaction is beyond me,” Madigan admitted. “I’m a business CEO, not a psychiatrist, not that I’d trust Nena around one to begin with.”“What caused it?” her current lunch partner asked curiously, before wolfing down a breadstick.
Madigan considered how to phrase that, keeping all the potentially hazardous details away from a relatively unknown factor, before shrugging and going with the simplest explanation. “I suppose you could say girl trouble. She had a bit of a problem with someone I believe she had a crush on.”
“And no she’s moping about...quite the teenage reaction.”"I wouldn't know," Madigan admitted. "It's been ages since I was that young...I don't really have much to base the comparison on."
The other woman chuckled. "It's not so hard to figure out. Teenagers get in their moods most of the time. I think she just needs something to snap . In fact, I know just the thing. Consider it a...proof of what I can offer you."
"Oh, what's your proposal then?" Madigan considered. "You're offering quite a bit already if we take you on full-time."
"Well..." Battery Acid said, drawling out the syllable with a grin. "I happen to have something of a protege' that might be just up her alley..."

***

Author's note: and some weeks/months later, the context behind an earlier commission finally comes to light!
---
"Oh, silver blade, forged in the depths of the beyond. Heed my summons and purge those who stand in my way. Lay
waste."

What would Doug's Magegift make of "Gotta Knock a Little Harder", by the inimitable Yoko Kanno and the Seatbelts?

Quote:Happiness is just a word to me
And it might have meant a thing or two
If I'd known the difference

Emptiness, a lonely parody
And my life, another smokin' gun
A sign of my indifference

Always keepin' safe inside
Where no one ever had a chance
To penetrate a break in

Let me tell you some have tried
But I would slam the door so tight
That they could never get in

Kept my cool under lock and key
And I never shed a tear
Another sign of my condition

Fear of love or bitter vanity
That kept me on the run
The main events at my confession

I kept a chain upon my door
That would shake the shame of Cain
Into a blind submission

The burning ghost without a name
Was calling all the same
But I wouldn't listen

The longer I'd stall
The further I'd crawl
The further I'd crawl
The harder I'd fall
I was crawlin' into the fire

The more that I saw
The further I'd fall
The further I'd fall
The lower I'd crawl
I kept fallin' into the fire
Into the fire
Into the fire

Suddenly it occurred to me
The reason for the run and hide
Had totaled my existence

Everything left on the other side
Could never be much worse that this
But could I go the distance?

I faced the door and all my shame
Tearin' off each piece of chain
Until they all were broken

But no matter how I tried
The other side was locked so tight
That door, it wouldn't open

Gave it all that I got
And started to knock
Shouted for someone
To open the lock
I just gotta get through the door

And the more that I knocked
The hotter I got
The hotter I got
The harder I'd knock
I just gotta break through the door

Gotta knock a little harder
Gotta knock a little harder
Gotta knock a little harder
Break through the door

Just came back from Fuji-Q Highland Park.  Guess what I saw?  Uh-huh.  Yeee~AAAAA~aaahhhh!
Photographic evidence coming soon.  Unfortunately, I didn't know about the life-size entry plug and that you had to make a reservation before noon to snag that one.
Oh, and what isn't mentioned are the life-size replicas of Asuka and Rei.  So now I have distinctly clear ideas of what their proportions are - DAMN THEY'RE TINY!  (O_O

Yes, the man who brought us Love Hina and Negima says there's no life left in the moe or harem genres.

Sankaku Complex link (warning - it's Sankaku Complex, which is why it's not a hotlink): http://www.sankakucomplex.com/2010/08/2 ... -are-dead/

Everybody's entitled to his opinion, I guess... but while I don't see harem shows going away any time soon, it would be nice if this particular fad has run its course and we can see something else for a change.
--
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

Alright, rather than perform a 1+ year zombie thread resurrection I figured I'd start a new one.
For those who have forgotten what's going on (it's been a while) the last part is here.

Many thank to Spud for usage of his characters and being a beta.

Tales of the Legendary
[A Hero Sandwich Production]
Smouldering Decay: Staking a Claim (pt 6.5)

Perhaps the single greatest director in anime history since Miyazaki has died. His work pushed the medium, was beautiful and haunting. Do yourself a favor and find a copy of Millennium Actress and watch it in memoriam of this fantastic artist.
----------------
Epsilon
I'm going to go be sad now.