As usual for me, it started with a slight.

"We know who you are, Uriel," said the recruiter, smiling like a shark that had
scented blood in the water.

I wrenched around at that name, a glare that could vaporize steel on my face. Granted, no one was supposed to know that name was associated with me. That wasn't the
point, though. The man went on.

"Arcus Kail, sniper, Marine Corps, code name Uriel, member of Project
Ying-Yang."

"Give me one reason why I shouldn't kill you where you stand, pencil
neck?"

The recruiter from the RDA simply smiled at me.
"Because I'm the man holding your ticket out of this hell hole."



I had to admit. I was intrigued.

I'd heard many things about this place called Pandora, that it was a beautiful world
that evoked visions of the Earth-That-Was centuries ago. It was completely unlike Earth in that anyone could get lost
there. Or, if you had the right skill set, you could disappear and never be found - free to live out your days as
peacefully as the carnivorous jungle would allow you to be.

It sounded like my kind of place; one where I could finally forget once and for all.



Cryo is no picnic, but at least you don't dream in it.
I can't imagine doing nothing but dreaming for six years. I'm glad that I didn't. Less chance of being bothered by what I might dream of.

"You okay there, deadeye?" asked the med-tech that pulled my cryo-cell open.

"Yeah, just dandy," I grumbled, fighting off the waves of nausea. Distractedly I ripped off the protective gauze covering my left eye socket. Curious, I
looked for a mirror.

The fact that my left eye was missing was nothing new to me. I'd long since gotten used to the sight of the grizzled scar tissue that had been all that was left - a reminder that I should
stay out of things like this.

That was then, though.

I pulled myself through the null-g cryo-chamber to my locker, ignoring all the other
half-drugged bodies drifting dizzily around, and opened it. There was a mirror inside the door.

The scar tissue was gone, replaced by freshly regenerated flesh. The eye was still gone, though. In its place was a black orb, completely and totally
featureless.

It was like an empty hole that craved nothing more than your soul. I scoffed at that thought - it suited me just fine.

There was someone next to me rummaging through his locker.
I hadn't paid attention before, but the legs caught my eye - those weak looking spindly legs that simply drifted uselessly.

"You're that Sully guy, aren't'cha?"

The ex-Marine looked at me with a curious, yet jaded expression. "And you are?"

I had to grin. No matter what I'd been
through, it was still so much fun to drop bombs like this.

"You know me, Sully. My call sign was Ma
Bell."

Sully blinked then said under his breath, "'Reach out and touch
someone.' Holy shit. I never thought I'd ever get to meet
you. Did you get the guy that got me?"

I felt the bitterness wringing at my stomach, but the savage grin remained on my
face. "First thing I did, partner."

Sully nodded and went on with his business at his locker.
"Thanks. That's the trouble with being recon. You're the
first one into the shit."

"Amen, brother."

"Funny you should say that," said Sully, sounding mildly amused as he shut his
locker. "I heard I was supposed to have a partner in this mess."



I smiled again. "Yeah. I'm Arcus Kail.
I'll be your mark-element."

Traveller : Universe of Babylon 5

So, how many times will your characters be killed by the Shadows during character creation?
--
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

Deadline Hollywood: http://www.deadline.com/hollywood/urgen ... t-planned/]Spider-Man 4 Scrapped

They're blaming it on script problems, and lack of 3-D. Me, I think they just want to re-boot the franchise. (We all know how old and stale it's gotten under Sam Raimi's watch, right?)
--
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

Added a themesong link for "Naze Nani Fenspace" here
Melody and Lyrics by me, vocals by [SONiKA]
''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

Well, I may not have considered

Spoiler

self-mutilation

http://www.fenspace.net/index.php5?title=Arthur_Nkomo]Since Firvulag asked... Presented for your consideration (and merciless poking-at) as a new section for the http://www.fenspace.net/index.php5?title=Great_Justice]Great Justice wiki page, likely between "Operation Great Justice Grade Scale" and "Motto":

==== Great Justice Troubleshooters ====

Daneside militaries don't send raw recruits to perform cadre duties or Special Forces commando squads to act as Military Police. Great Justice practices the same division of duties. One of their types of forces are '''troubleshooters''', people sent in when a military unit would be inappropriate.

OF-5 troubleshooters are the rank-and-file special investigators, the ones likely to be sent out on routine missions. They usually operate in teams (such as [[F] and [[Grey], often assigned together to liaise with 'Danelaw police agencies) and always have someone in a position of oversight to whom they must report on a regular basis. Troubleshooters in this grade never work undercover.

OF-6 troubleshooters are like their OF-5 comrades, but usually work alone and don't need to report in as often.

OF-7 troubleshooters can be sorted into two groups - the administrators and the field agents. Administrators receive and collate reports from field agents, and write summary reports for the command staff. Field Agents are OGJ's undercover operatives (the equivalent of the [[Space Patrol]'s Section 9), working for months or years without support.

OF-8 troubleshooters are the "elite" - the ones that can be depended on to go in, do the job, and (most importantly) get back out alive. In many respects, they're similar to the Space Patrol's Section 6, but without even a loose command hierarchy.

{{quote|OF-8 troubleshooters? They look for trouble, and shoot it. That makes ''our'' job that much harder.|20px|20px|Kirk Russell, Commissioner of the [[Space Patrol]}}

There are five confirmed OF-8 troubleshooters:

* [[A.C. Peters|The Scarlet Angel] is the Supers' top troubleshooter, trusted with one of their rare Double-O licences.

* [[Katz Schrödinger] and [[Noah Scott] are the only OF-8 troubleshooters who routinely work as a team. Their "take no prisoners" attitude to combat has lead to more than one fendane Boskonian ring calling them "Great Justice's Dirty Pair".

* [[Thomas & Allison Dobbs|Tom Dobbs] is perhaps the most professional OF-8 troubleshooter, if one defines "professional" as "military-like". Considering his background in the US Marine Corps, this isn't surprising.

* One of the [[Julian Friez] is an OF-8 troubleshooter. "Born" just after the start of the Boskone War, he was captured by a Boskonian raiding party mere hours after getting away from [[The Professor], and rescued by the [[SOS-dan] shortly after that. Commander-in-Chief Suzumiya herself convinced him to take up arms for the cause. This Julian uses his resemblance to the other Friezes to infiltrate suspected Boskonian strongholds, perform reconnaissance, and get out before either leaving them be or calling in a [[Warsie] bombing run, whichever is appropriate.

One persistent rumor is that before they were headhunted for the Space Patrol, the current [[Space Patrol#Some Important Patrol Members|"Nanoha" and "Kusanagi"] were OF-8 troubleshooters; neither are known to have ever commented on this rumor. Another, wilder, rumor is that [[Mr. Morden] is also an OF-8 troubleshooter; this rumor persists in making the rounds despite official denial by all concerned, including the man himself.
--
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

Copied from usenet:

Quote:I am a fan of the "Ranma becomes a kami" genre of fanfiction.

One story that I have read three times (one of my favorites) has vanished, I don't have a hardcopy, and I can't remember the title or author.

Synopsis: Ranma is Urd's son, hence a demigod, and gets promoted to full kami. Kasumi is granted a wish by Kwan-Yin and so Nabiki becomes a goddess of partnerships. In his training, Ranma splits into three mini-selves and spars with the ninjettes in the temple. The goddesses are threatened by the "black gods". The final chapter, Chapt 6, had not been written when I last looked.

A google search for "ranma +urd +nabiki +kodama" which should have found it, returned 190 false alarm results.

Can anyone point me to an archive of this story, or even its name? I'd really like to reread it again.

Time does what two atomic bombs can't...
--
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

I've been having some "burn out" issues of my own. I think I've mentioned in the past that I avoid burn out by subscribing to more than one
game and just playing more of the other one when I approach "burn out".

The past year or so, with all the cool stuff that CoH/CoV has added every couple of months, I was more than happy with staying with it exclusively. I even let
my WoW sub lapse.

But nothing can - nothing SHOULD - hold one's interest that exclusively forever. I'm in "semi-burnout" mode with CoH at the moment. I have a
sub with CO and re-upped my sub with WoW. Mainly for the variety, partially because I missed WoW and wanted to see any changes.

So - NOT going away. But you might not see me for days at a time. If you NEED me - say for supergroup invites or changes in permissions, feel free to post here
in the forums if you don't see me online in CoH. I check these every day, and I'll see it.

But yeah, I've found myself ramping back my time on CoH. I imagine that once the new expansion comes out, I'll be back with a vengeance. But right now,
not so much.

EDIT: Oh - almost forgot. Once Mass Effect 2 comes out? GONE BABY GONE until I finish that one. ^_^

I'm making some changes and improvements to the website, partly as self-education on some web design topics I've previously ignored. It's not
going to be very in-your-face, but I wanted to make sure no one was surprised too badly by something they didn't expect.
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.