In discussions of the Avengers possible roster in upcoming movies with others in CoH. I was all of a sudden struck by a horrible thought. Also kind of cool, but still horrible.
Hank Pym. Several identities. But best known as Giant Man or Ant Man. Giant Man is obvious and probably better known. But he was actually Ant-Man first when he joined the Avengers. You know the drill. He'd shrink himself to Ant size, had a helmet that psionically controlled ants. Big fucking deal, yeah? Not very impressive?
My horrible thought was this -
I bet people would take Hank Pym a LOT MORE FUCKING SERIOUSLY if they knew he could control BULLET ANTS.
So yeah... BRRR...

What would the Stan Rogers song Mary Ellen Carter do?

Quote:She went down last October in a pouring driving rain.
The skipper, he'd been drinking and the Mate, he felt no pain.
Too close to Three Mile Rock, and she was dealt her mortal blow,
And the Mary Ellen Carter settled low.
There were just us five aboard her when she finally was awash.
We'd worked like hell to save her, all heedless of the cost.
And the groan she gave as she went down, it caused us to proclaim
That the Mary Ellen Carter would rise again.

Well, the owners wrote her off; not a nickel would they spend.
She gave twenty years of service, boys, then met her sorry end.
But insurance paid the loss to them, they let her rest below.
Then they laughed at us and said we had to go.
But we talked of her all winter, some days around the clock,
For she's worth a quarter million, afloat and at the dock.
And with every jar that hit the bar, we swore we would remain
And make the Mary Ellen Carter rise again.

REFRAIN:
Rise again, rise again, that her name not be lost
To the knowledge of men.
Those who loved her best and were with her till the end
Will make the Mary Ellen Carter rise again.

All spring, now, we've been with her on a barge lent by a friend.
Three dives a day in hard hat suit and twice I've had the bends.
Thank God it's only sixty feet and the currents here are slow
Or I'd never have the strength to go below.
But we've patched her rents, stopped her vents, dogged hatch and
porthole down.
Put cables to her, 'fore and aft and girded her around.
Tomorrow, noon, we'll hit the air and then take up the strain.
And make the Mary Ellen Carter Rise Again.

REFRAIN

For we couldn't leave her there, you see, to crumble into scale.
She'd saved our lives so many times, living through the gales
And the laughing, drunken rats who left her to a sorry grave
They won't be laughing in another day. . .
And you, to whom adversity has dealt the final blow
With smiling bastards lying to you everywhere you go
Turn to, and put out all your strength of arm and heart and brain
And like the Mary Ellen Carter, rise again.

Rise again, rise again - though your heart it be broken
And life about to end
No matter what you've lost, be it a home, a love, a friend.
Like the Mary Ellen Carter, rise again.
Rise again, rise again - though your heart it be broken
And life about to end
No matter what you've lost, be it a home, a love, a friend.
Like the Mary Ellen Carter, rise again.

I tried mining my Fenspace archives today for information about the TSAB, only to discover that there isn't any beyond what's already on the FenWiki - there's never been anything substantial posted about Benjamin Franklin station or Stephen Caldwell or Amy O'Connell. Now I know ECSNorway is still posting here on occasion, so this isn't a matter for immediate concern, but it did get me to thinking. And we all know how dangerous that is...

There are some folks who started filling in corners of Fenspace, then... left, sometimes with their contributions unfinished. What do we want to do with these works-possibly-still-in-progress? (For example, should the Professor become an open character, or is CattyNebulart planning on coming back and doing something with him some day - and how can we know? Likewise with Candy Apple Red's and His Lovely Wife, The Island and Acyl, and a few other examples.)

I don't want to simply ignore these contributions, but the unfinished state of some of them makes it difficult to do anything with those. Should we try fleshing out these writeups, risking upsetting the people who created them and seem to have dropped out of Fenspace, or should we just leave them as stubs and redlinks in the FenWiki, leaving small holes in the setting?

[size=smaller](Oh, yes... Does Amy O'Connell happen to look like http://pagesperso-orange.fr/inukiblog/c ... ha-amy.jpg]this? )[/size]
--
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

Nothing to see here?
===========

===============================================
"V, did you do something foolish?"
"Yes, and it was glorious."

I will call this NSFW due to bikini babe-age, bikini cow-age and Jackie.
http://www.whatsupdark.com/3.html

I have officially had it to here with the lag and unplayability of this server. And I'm with Valles now. I'm not coming back until the devs replace that piece of rusting shite and take the old server hardware out to the backlot, and put it out of it's misery.
It is not me. It is not my ISP. I can play on Infinity and Justice just fine.
(Edit: Better?)

Meet BountyHead Bebop, the RPG....
According to the author, he approached Sunrise for an actual license and was told that they weren't interested - dismissed pen and paper RPGs as "kid stuff".
So a few serial numbers filed off and....
--
Sucrose Octanitrate.
Proof positive that with sufficient motivation, you can make anything explode.

I know a spoken voiceover probably isn't enough to qualify a piece of music as a "song". But if it were, what, if anything, would the ReBoot theme do?
Spoken bits (seasons 1 and 2), said by Bob:

Quote:I come from the Net,
Through Systems, peoples, and cities,
To this place: Mainframe.
My Format: Guardian.
To Mend and Defend.
To defend my newfound friends,
Their hopes, and dreams.
To defend them from
Their enemies.
…
They say the User live outside the Net, and inputs Games for pleasure. No one knows for sure, but I intend to find out.
ReBoot!

It's something that's been rattling around in my brain for a while, and it occured to me to try applying it to the Roughriders.
The idea is this: space-flight capable wet navy assets.  Really, not a new idea.  Fenspace even has one such example in the USS Stingray.  However, it's the scale that makes it quite notable.  That is, one that probably rivals the SDF-1 in sheer tonnage.
First of all, note that this is to be the sole representative of the Roughrider's Wet Navy forces.  As such, firepower available should be roughly equal to that of one or two strike groups and a battalion of marines.  Second, the timeframe for this monster is going to be sometime in the 2020's - by then relations with the major 'Dane-side governments should be good enough to allow a peacekeeping force such as this in international waters and at the beck and call of the UN.
Would there be viable oceans on Mars and Venus at this time?  Or are we still waiting on that?
Other venues could be Alpha-Centauri, moons of New Texas, and pretty much anywhere else you could use and float a wet navy force.
The general layout was inspired by the ill-fated 'super-carrier' from Genocyber - a massive trimaran hulled ship.  (Unfortunately, I'm unable to find an image at this time.)  The forward-center hull is dedicated as a platform for offensive weaponry.  Primarily, two turrets inspired by WWII era battleships, both packing three heavy-calibur rail guns each.  This is primarily a land-attack weapon capable of striking with surgical precision over long range using guided hypersonic projectiles.  Other weapon systems include two 'full-sized' VLS launchers (balistic missile defense, anti-ship, anti-air), four conventional major-calibur gun mounts (mid-range self-defense), and several close-in weapon systems (anti-missile, anti-air).
One further nasty little surprise is the twelve full-size torpedo tubes.  Located below the waterline, they are arranged in a 'broadside' configuration.  Submarine skippers that think they can attack without impunity have another thing coming.
The after hulls are... unique.  Each hull has a flight-deck running it's length.  Either one can be used for rotary-winged or fixed wing craft for redundancy sake.  (I swear to God, with carriers these days it's take one little missile to the flight deck and it's game over...)  Straddling the two hulls is a superstructure that carries the phased array radar system among other fun toys.
Another surprise lies beneath the superstructure - a pair of Tuatha de Dannen-class submarines.  Primarily they are built with amphibious landings in mind, however they can readily repel an attacking submarine.  Or at least scare the holy crud out of them. 
Propulsion is handled through the judicious use of magneto-hydrodynamic drives for seafaring, and ion-drives for spacefaring.  Powerplant is four Roughriders 'candle-stick' reactors (two in each of the aft hulls) providing a classified amount of horsepower.
Speed is about what you might expect - fast for something her size, but still slow relative to smaller ships.  At least, until you kill the 'Full Military Power' governer on this thing and then you'll want to make damn sure your clear of that thing.  Don't expect that to happen very often, though, as it puts a serious strain on the powerplant and drives.  If that ever happens, expect a visit to the shipyards to be soon in coming.

I'm not any good at all at actually writing stories, but I can still describe the scenario and hope it inspires somebody with actual talent and skill.
Sailor Venus is alone, outnumbered, and outgunned. She acquits herself well, but is eventually overwhelmed. She is on her hands and knees, struggling to rise. The leader of her opponents is about to deal the death blow with his sword, but his blade is blocked by the blade of a naginata – a blade which appears to be made of ice. Pan up along the naginata's length to reveal that its wielder is Sailor Mercury, and she is not amused. Doug and the other Senshi are quickly dispatching the few remaining mooks, and Sailor Venus recovers to lead the ass-kicking of the poor fool who failed to realize that if you mess with one Senshi, sooner or later you'll have to deal with them all, all at once.
I can see by the look that you have in your eyes
You came here for metal, to fight and to die
Defenders of Steel, now we are home!

I don't know if it's canon or fanon, but "metal" is supposedly part of the bailiwick of Sailor Venus. Similarly, many fan works grant signature weapons to Senshi other than Venus and the Outers; Sailor Mercury's is usually either a pair of tessen (war fans), or a staff which Mercury can turn into a wide variety of bladed polearms.
I know Bob's declared "Call to Arms" to be a power song, but it would make a perfect theme for an "everybody rescues Venus" scenario, wouldn't it?