Leon cursed as his phone demanded his attention, the sound of Priss Asagiri's 'Rock Me' muffled inside his jacket. Passing one of the Up 'N
Away takeaway bags over to Daley, he pulled the phone out and flipped it open. "McNichol."

"Query: Where are you now Detective?" HE-AT asked.

"Wong and I are at Atlas Up 'N Away," he replied. "What's going on boss-lady?" Daley paused in his dismantling of a Positron
Doubleburger (Leon having forgotten to mention no pickes, again) and looked at him, curious.

"Instructions: You need to meet Detective Becktrees at the Higgs Memorial Cemetery. Expansion: He has requested PSI assistance in a police investigation
involving a break in last night. He stressed that the situation may be limited by time requirements and the possibility of gang-related violence."

"Gotcha. We're on our way now," he said. "I'll call you as soon as I have anything." He flipped the phone closed and stashed it
back in his jacket. "Eat while I drive," he said to Daley, heading for the car.

"Trouble?" his partner asked as he followed.

"Becktree is asking for PSI backup," he replied as he pulled out his keys. "That man's got a damn hero phone book, he's gotta think
it's serious." As Daley buckled in and Leon started up the engine and threw it into reverse, he added, "Call the kid, see if she's free. She
needs investigation experience."

***

Higgs Memorial Cemetery was just outside Kings Row, in one of the regions of Paragon that, for reasons no one could ever determine, never seemed to suffer the
constant, never ending crime problems that required a high police and hero presence.

Not that it meant the region was completely peaceful, Leon mused as he showed his badge to the uniformed officers at the cemetery gates and continued inside.
It still suffered the sorts of problems that only Paragon seemed to accept so naturally. Council sleeper cells, Arachnos and Rikti terror attacks... and for
graveyards, the ever wonderful zombies and grave robbers.

"McNichol, Wong," Dectective Becktrees said as they approached, shaking both mens hands. "Thanks for coming so quickly."

"Happy to help," Leon shrugged. "What brought all the attention out here? Meat-Doctors, Pantheon?"

"A little lower down the national threat scale, but still serious," Becktrees admitted, then blinked at the sight of a tiny figure in a PPD duty
uniform flew out of the sky, landing next to the trio.

"Dectctive Becktrees, this is Officer Reilly, aka Major Starlight," Leon said, nodding between the pair. The Row's chief detective recovered his
footing quickly, shaking her hand and seeming unconcerned by a police officer that looked to be maybe fifteen years old. Then again, given the sheer variety of
heroes he'd worked with over the years, that shouldn't be surprising.

"Any of you familiar with Kerosene Kenneth?" he asked as he led them deeper into the cemetery.

"Ken Douglas," Tam replied. "One of the Hellions Damned. Mostly makes trouble in Perez, was arrested and charged with the attempted arson of the
Galaxy Girl theater in March, but got released on bail." Her PSI teammates gave her a curious look and she shrugged. "I was on the team that arrested
him," she admitted.

Becktrees chuckled bitterly. "Well, he won't be facing trial. He was found dead in a house fire in Steel Canyon last week, COD determined to be smoke
inhalation." This surprised none of the officers present, accidental suicide by fire being the most common cause of death in the Hellions ever since the
most recent Medicomm network upgrade. "No family left, no will, he was buried here in the public cemetery..."

He ducked under police tape and stopped at the edge of an open grave. "Then last night, someone broke in, dug up his grave and... well..." he waved a
hand into the grave. Leon looked down and scowled. Kens body was still there, but someone had taken some sort of blade, probably an axe, to the Hellions neck.

"They stole his skull," Tamara said quietly, kneeling down for a closer look. "I suppose I shoudl say there's a list of suspects, but if
I'm being honest, only one sticks out."

Daley nodded in agreement. "The Vaz would take the whole body for parts, the Pantheon wouldn't take an interest in just one corpse, and the Hellions
and Skulls have been glaring at each other lately." He glanced over at Leon. "When the Hellions hear about this, they'll blame the Skulls right
away."

"And go in shooting," Leon agreed, taking off his sunglasses. "Gang war in Galaxy, Atlas and the Row," he scowled, looking at the headless
corpse. "This could be bad."

okay, so Gir (Invin/SS/enrgy) is geting close to 50, and i have been doing better with IO's than i did with DS, but i recon i still need some help.

this is what i have sloted so far.

6 Titanium coatin in Temp invurability (6 sloted)

5 Aegis in Unyeilding (6 sloted)

4 Luck of the gambilar in Invincibility (6 sloted)

5 force feedbacks in Knok out Blow (5 sloted)

5 adjusted targeting in Rage ( 5 sloted)

now i know i could get mids or something to help, but i would rather hear how players have sloted thier tanks and how what works for them.

Encountered this in the Anime Room at Penguicon back at the beginning of the month. Ended up laughing so hard I almost hurt myself (admittedly, seeing it cold
in a room full of punch-drunk sleep-deprived MST3K-ing fen probably amplified the affect, but still). So I ended up putting it in my Netflix qeue and bumped
it to #1. And thereby hangs a tale....

Basically, for some reason, all the Netflix has is "Season 1, Part2", discs 1 and 2. Except the labels pressed on the discs say "Disc 2 and
Disc 3". Disc 1, I mean 2, I mean... gah. Anyway,the earlier disc has episodes 8-13, and the next disc has episoded 14-20. Okay, fine. But these are
the ONLY two discs that Netflix has. Where are Episodes 1-7? And any episodes past 20?

Going to Amazon and Ebay doesn't help -- the naming conventions for this series's discs seems to be uncertain and/or uneven. And at nearly $40 for one
disc, I'd rather not experiment. Anybody familiar with what's going on here who can help me out a bit?

Okay, enough about the DVDs. The series itself is just downright popcorn-eating parody fun. The "elevator pitch" for this might boil down to
"Schreck as applied to (reverse) harem shojo anime tropes." The characters manage to be complete parodies
of their standard reverse-harem comedy roles without becoming 2D or cardboard, and in fact have depth that lies
outside their role without turning the series (yet) into anything threatening to get serious. There's just enough depth here to keep you coming back and
looking for more, but every near-serious moment is promptly skewered by cheefully waaaay-over-the-top parodies of the standard tropes.

And the dub work is... magnificent. They even re-dubbed the OP music and it works. I think it actually improves on
the original (then again, I *am* biased in favor of lyrics I can understand). Caitlin Glass manages to convey an utterly deadpan female lead without falling
into Rei Ayanami territory -- Haruhi (no, not THAT Haruhi) is very cerebral, detached, sardonic, but not uninvolved or emotionally flat. She just doesn't
get emotional over most of the things that girls her age do. Haruhi is, simply, very emotionally mature -- she just
doesn't sweat the small stuff.

Except, she skipped straight from grade-schooler to adult, emotionally. And now she's surrounded by a gang of utterly carefree (and, in her opinion, none
too bright) bishies who are all competing for her attentions (which she has no interest in)... and they're, ever so slowly, starting to get to her. Of
course, she seems to be getting them to grow up a bit, too....

From random Chatlog.
Team] Misty Hanover:  [Random Tangent: What would be the funniest "freaky friday" Infamous/Legendary pairs?]
Team] Misty Hanover:  [IF necessary the swap can be infamous/infamous or LEgendary/legendary for max yuks]
Team] Sachie Hanagawa:  [Hm.]
Team] Sachie Hanagawa:  [Superball/Nogitsune?]
Team] Misty Hanover:  [Oh dear. Heh]
Team] Misty Hanover:  [Becky/Wide could be brain bendingly funny]
Team] Misty Hanover:  [And Scary]
Team] Sachie Hanagawa:  [Oik, yeah.]
Team] Misty Hanover:  [ESPECIALLY if Becky's psychosis... well. it can get DARK in a hurry]
Team] Misty Hanover:  [Point A: Becky in Wide will NOT ahve the experience at being SUPER STRONG that Wide does]
Team] Sachie Hanagawa:  [Hm. Does the Infamous have any notable prudes?]
Team] Misty Hanover:  [Well we have MEchanon PRime]
Team] Sachie Hanagawa:  [Point B: Becky will suddenly have control of half of Wide's -marriage-.]
Team] Misty Hanover:  [Strongly anti-flesh root mm]
Team] Sachie Hanagawa:  [Yeah, but that's a 'humans suck' not 'Sex is EEEEVIL'
Team] Sachie Hanagawa:  [...Or, heck in the Legendary?]
Team] Misty Hanover:  [Acetone maybe]
Team] Misty Hanover:  [We gotta have some prudes in the LEgendary]
Team] Misty Hanover:  [Alistair. ]
Team] Sachie Hanagawa:  [Heh. Alistair... and Jackie.]
Team] Misty Hanover:  [Also, no reason the swaps have to be 1-for-1]
Team] Misty Hanover:  [IE, they could "Daisy Chain"]
Team] Sachie Hanagawa:  [...Actually, that makes me picture 'Team 11 as Hero Sandwich']
Team] Misty Hanover:  [Especially if it's a "free for all" battle between them]
Team] Sachie Hanagawa:  [Sachie in a Terr Suit!]
Team] Misty Hanover:  [Nononon
Team] Misty Hanover:  [MISAO in a Terr suit]
Team] Sachie Hanagawa:  [Hm. Who as Gamma and who as Emerald?]
Team] Misty Hanover:  [That woudl be a tossup]
Team] Sachie Hanagawa:  [Hm. Gamma's shorter, so have her be Sachie. ^_^]
Team] Sachie Hanagawa:  [...snrk. Terr in a Misao suit.]
The Legendary]DarkSeraphim: good qestion
The Legendary]Sweno: no clue
The Legendary]valles: Que?
The Legendary]Foxboy: And Fox has another LEgendary/Infamous bunny
The Legendary]Stormgear: BUNNY!
The Legendary]Stormgear: BUNNIES BUNNIES BUNNIES!
The Legendary]DarkSeraphim: bunnie?
The Legendary]valles: Good in marinara sauce.
The Legendary]DarkSeraphim: so we need to kill fox's bunny and cook it?
The Legendary]Foxboy: Okay. Mystical MacGuffin of the Week..
The Legendary]Foxboy: Big Set piece battle between the LEgendary and The Infamous...
The Legendary]DarkSeraphim: yah?
The Legendary]valles: Terr and Sachie hammering on each other, someone else comes by to interfere...
The Legendary]Foxboy: During the Battle
The Legendary]valles: 'BUZZ OFF! *SWAT*'
The Legendary]Foxboy: One of the pair bumps the Dingus
The Legendary]Foxboy: Activating it
The Legendary]DarkSeraphim: Dingus?
The Legendary]Terrence Knight: Sorry...pvpin..was distracted
The Legendary]Foxboy: The sheer amount of MAgic being flung around has supercharged it.
The Legendary]Terrence Knight: lol
The Legendary]Foxboy: So instead of doing what i's supposed to with only two targets...
The Legendary]Foxboy: IT fires off and gets everyone involved in the fight
The Legendary]Terrence Knight: Hee
The Legendary]Foxboy: And what does this Dingus/MacGuffin do?
The Legendary]Foxboy: *ominous musical sting*
Team] Sachie Hanagawa:  ...children?
The Legendary]Foxboy: Next on The LEgendary: The Animated series... the Freaky Friday Episode
The Legendary]DarkSeraphim: *is being killed by suspence*
The Legendary]Stormgear: Oh God.
Team] Misty Hanover:  Y'know.. they're kinda adorable when they're not invadin'
The Legendary]DarkSeraphim: wait..... sachie in Terr's body and Terr in hers?
The Legendary]valles: No.
The Legendary]Foxboy: Not Quite
The Legendary]valles: Sachie in Gamma's.
The Legendary]valles: Misao in Terr's.
The Legendary]DarkSeraphim: ......
The Legendary]DarkSeraphim: so ninjas and sammich swap?
The Legendary]Foxboy: Inari as Lisa.
The Legendary]Stormgear: >_>
The Legendary]Stormgear: .>)
The Legendary]Foxboy: That would have been woodcut artist, btw not sculptor.
The Legendary]valles: OK, so, I've a bad memory. No surprise there. ^_^
The Legendary]Foxboy: Heh.
The Legendary]Foxboy: If anything, Nogi might have inspired Sei shonagon's Novel
The Legendary]Foxboy: First Fiction Novel EVER was Japanese
The Legendary]Stormgear: Not true.
The Legendary]Stormgear: First fiction 'novel' was written by cavemen about religeon.
The Legendary]Stormgear: Religion.
The Legendary]valles: Hee.
The Legendary]Foxboy: Let's say first Fiction Novel DELIBERATELY written as fiction.
The Legendary]Foxboy: Not a "history" not "Theology"
The Legendary]Foxboy: And, like all first adopters.. what was the first "Modern Concept of a Novel" about?
The Legendary]valles: Rule 34!
The Legendary]valles: *cheated via wiki*
The Legendary]DarkSeraphim: okay, so who else do you have planed for this "freaky friday" thing?
The Legendary]Foxboy: Well, we were going after silly/who wanted in, etc.
The Legendary]Terrence Knight: Ok..I'm Free of RV
The Legendary]Terrence Knight: Like 8-10 hours in there today 0_o
The Legendary]Foxboy: But we wanted Ninjettes/Hero Sammich for funsies
The Legendary]valles: I think I shall call it sleeptime, now.
The Legendary]DarkSeraphim: night V
The Legendary]Foxboy: Awww.
The Legendary]valles: Good luck with ever more brain-breaking comboes!
After Discussion, Terr decided against his toon's participation, alas.
''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

Exerpted from “The Unauthorized
Drunkard's Walk” DVD, deleted scenes section.

OPENING SCENE: A fairly ordinary
modern bedroom. It is dark outside the windows.

MAGGIE “SHADOWALKER” Sangnoir
enters the shot and sits on the bed, looking dejected and just worn
out. She removes her sunglasses and sets them on the nightstand
beside the bed, before reachig out to:

CLOSE-UP SHOT: Maggie's fingers
lightly running over the face of what looks like an incredibly
detailed but unpainted pewter figurine that is recognizably DOUGLAS Q
“LOONY TUNES” SANGNOIR, striking heroic pose with trademark grin.

MAGGIE (pulls her hand back, appears
ready to cry): Doug, where -are- you? All this time without so much
as a clue, or a sign... I know I'm supposed to be stronger than this,
but I just feel... like I'm at the end of my rope. Like I'm running
out of faith.

MAGGIE curls up on the bed still
facing the figurine, but there is nothing about her body language
that suggests relief or rest.

MAGGIE (faintly): I need...
-something-....

CUT TO: DOUG's sleeping face, a split
second before his eyes fly open and he sits up violently, eyes wild
and chest heaving as if he's been running for his life.

DOUG: -Maggie!-

DOUG looks around wildly for a moment,
clearly disoriented, before violently throwing aside his sleeping bag
and scrambling towards his parked motorcycle and snatching his slung
helmet. The longer shot establishes that he his somewhere outdoors,
wooded. It is night and the dying remnants of a small campfire
flicker nearby.

DOUG seizes his helmet in both hands
like a drowning man grabbing a life preserver, and stops suddenly
looking confused, as if he doesn't know what to do with it now that
he has it. His confused expression slips into one of smoldering rage
building towards ignition.

DOUG (venomous intensity): -Damn
you.- I'd say 'God damn you,' but that would be -recursive-, now
-wouldn't- it? She -needs- me. I don't know how I know, but I
-know-. You screw with -my- life, okay, fine, I'm a big boy, I'll
deal. But -she needs me,- and she's being left hanging [builds to a
full shout] BECAUSE OF YOU!

DOUG stands, shaking with helpless
rage and clenching his helmet in both hands with a white-knuckled
grip as a faint breeze plays with his hair... and nothing happens.
His rage slowly, gradually, crumbles towards something more like the
beginnings of despair, and he slumps physically in parallel.

DOUG (not quite broken, but close): I
can't do a thing... and you don't care. You don't--

DOUG twitches suddenly, eyes showing a
spark of something not quite daring to be hope. He drops onto his
knees and raises his helmet like a man about to experience a
sacrament.

CLOSE-UP SHOT of Doug's face as his
eyes close.

DOUG (Japanese): Belldandy-sama,
please hear me. My beloved needs me, and I am helpless to respond.
Please... not for my sake but for hers, I beg of--

ZOOM SHOT: A faintly translucent
slender feminine finger brushes lightly across his lips. His eyes
snap open as:

BELLDANDY (faint, as from a distance,
and with hints of her Overself Voice): Never beg, Doug-san. It ill
befits one I would call a friend. What I may do is sadly limited,
but all that I can, I will – you need merely -ask.-

DOUG (obviously considering and
discarding several all-too-obvious requests in sequence): I... I
don't know. I can't -reach- her from here....

BELLDANDY (OS, very slightly amused):
But her -voice- reached -you,- did it not?

DOUG (light bulb figuratively bursting
over his head): Of course! Bell, can you--

MEDIUM SHOT: Doug looks
thunderstruck.

DOUG (slowly): ...-you- wouldn't have
had anything to do with that, would you?

BELLDANDY, still offscreen, merely
hums. Fans of late-80s rock might recognize a particular snatch
from Van Halen's “Feels so Good” DOUG grins crookedly.

DOUG: Riiiight. Gotcha.

Doug's hands play across his helmet
almost of their own accord. The keypad door opens and the
retractable speakers extend.

ZOOM SHOT: Doug's finger taps out a
selection code on the keypad, and pauses over the “Execute” key.

CLOSE-UP SHOT: as DOUG looks up,
expression grateful.

DOUG (quietly): Thank you.

BELLDANDY “sings” something that
sounds more like music than words, fading slowly away.

DOUG hits “Execute”. The music
starts, and the shot DISSOLVES in an anime-style SHOWER OF WHITE
FEATHERS....

To show MAGGIE, in the same pose we
saw her last, but now fast asleep and smiling very faintly in her
sleep, looking overall like someone who's had a thousand tons of
stress and worry taken away.

FADE OUT

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Js_WUsXpxg

Leave A Light On
performed by:
Belinda Carlisle
written by: Rick Nowels-Ellen Shipley
Take
my hand
Tell me what you're feeling
Understand
This is just
the beginning
Although I have to go
It makes me feel like
crying
I don't know when I'll see you again
Chorus:
Darling
LEAVE A LIGHT ON FOR ME
I'll be there before you close the door
To
give you all the love that you need
Darling LEAVE A LIGHT ON FOR
ME
'cause when the world takes me away
You are still the air
that I breathe
I can't explain I just don't know
Just how far I
have to go
But darling I'll keep the key
Just leave a light on
for me
Yes I know
What I'm asking is crazy
You could
go
Just get tired of waiting
But if I lose your love
Torn
out by my desire
That would be the one regret of my life
Repeat
Chorus
Bridge:
Just like a spark lights up the dark
Baby
that's your heart
Baby that's your heart

Baby that's your heart

Darling LEAVE A LIGHT ON FOR ME
I'll
be there before you close the door
To give you all the love that
you need
Darling LEAVE A LIGHT ON FOR ME
'cause when the world
takes me away
You are still the air that I breathe

Darling LEAVE A LIGHT ON FOR ME
I'll
be there before you close the door
I'll be all the love that you
need

Darling LEAVE A LIGHT ON FOR ME...

Been MP3ing a lot of my old 80s rock
(cassette tapes, argh!), and this one was an old favorite – one
that I could actually get my -parents- and my little sisters to enjoy
in the car along with me (actually, my father showed a surprising
liking for Belinda Carlisle tunes, surprising since he didn't seem to
like anything but Glen Campbell before...). Anyway, “Leave a Light
On” got onto my MP3 player and I think it liked it, b/c it keeps
popping up in my “random” shuffle. And it's always struck me as
having a very powerful resonance with Doug's situation on the Walk –
I toyed with and discarded at least a dozen “message in a bottle”
scenarios.

Ever since the scene in DW5 where
Belldandy swears an utterly binding blood oath to always be honest
with Doug, -just to give him something to believe in when -he's- at
the end of his rope-, I've always thought that she would almost
certainly hear him, wherever he was, if he called for her desperately
enough. After all, her Overself is one of the Three steering him
along this path. And if -I-
was Bell's Overself, -I- wouldn't keep her from hearing someone she
thinks of as a friend. Would you?

Why does Maggie have a figurine of Doug?  Guesswork on my part, but I'm thinking that, given her unique "vision," she might use something like that in place of a photograph for her most cherished people.

Why script format? That's just how
this one came to me.

One last thing: the Van Halen bit?
Specifically:
I'll send the message in a bottle
Trust
in the mercy of the sea
Stormy weather, oh yeah

They're ready for you... CBC Radio's Q's Jian Ghomeshi interviews RUSH - for an hour. (Warning: 30MB download... and it'll only be available for four weeks.)

--
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

Transforminators.
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

It suddenly occurred to me a bit ago that we have a bit of a problem. Our characters are hardly static, while our character profiles remain so.

Here's an example. My character, for example, didn't have his biomod for a good deal of Season 0. Gina didn't exist as anything but an AI until
about six months into Season 1, and still further changes and evolutions are planned.

I personally feel that character profiles, as they are now, are fine and good for introducing a new character. However, as characters evolve after their
establishment, a profile must also change so show this evolution, and at what point in time the changes occurred so there is nothing to be confused about if
you're a newcomer.

I propose an addition of a time line to each character's profile to ensure such clarity. Even if an exact date cannot be given, a rough "right about
there" point can be provided so a new reader can grep the order of events in a character's evolution. I'll use my own character's profile as
an example.

Benjamin Rhodes

Primary Writer: BlackAeronaut

Appreance

• Height: 5'7"
  
  
  
  
  
• Weight: 140 lbs.
  
  
  
  
  
• Build: Light
  
  
  
  
  
• Hair: Long (see quirks for details) Dark Brown (looks almost black)
  
  
  
  
  
• Eyes: Brown
  
  
  
  

• Neat and Clean: Ben likes to keep all things neat and orderly, but still allows a certain degree of 'lived in'.
  
  
  
  
  
• Tenchi Masaki Syndrome: Through sheer luck in his draw from the genetic deck, Ben has the sort of looks that attract vast quantities of
  border-line under-age femme-fens.
  
  
  
  
  
• Mario Andretti, eat your heart out: He's a racing fiend! The whole courier thing just helps support it.
  
  
  
  

• "What's the Magic Word?": In order to use the special Shell Bullet attacks, Ben has to use Kazuma's attack lines,
  "Shocking Fist Bullet!" etc...
  
  
  
  
  
• Idle Hands: The arm, when it is active, has a mind of its own and it is a very perverted one at that. If Benjamin is not careful it will grope
  any attractive females present, save those he is closely familiar with (apparently it is only interested in 'New Territory'). To prevent this
  he uses a 5,000 lb. test nylon cargo strap fastened to his waist. He can disuade it through sheer concentration, but it requires constant focus; if his
  mind wavers from restraining the heinous acts of his perverted arm it will require physical restraint to bring it back under control.
  
  
  
  
  
• Dramatic Wavy Hair of Doom: One of two side effects that the Handwavium was able to get away with under the Professor's guidance was that
  Ben's hair gained a mind of its own and whips around as though it were in a constant breeze, exponentially increasing his dramatic air and Fen-girl
  attraction factor.
  
  
  
  
  
• James Dean's got nothing on me: The other side effect. If he wears a scarf, it whips around just like the hair.
  
  
  
  

I was trolling the boards for issue 15/16 news and well:

BOOM! Badges go bye-bye! Farming for Badges is
*against the rules of fun*

All my shiny AE badges.... *sob*... :p but at first glance this looks like another step in the right direction on the dev's part to clamp down on farming.

I'm having the worlds worst luck finding yours, though I know I have it somewhere... so, can you email me?

sofaspud.prime AT gmail-dot-com.

It's re: a resumption of the long-stalled Nano/Swift story I was working on...

--sofaspud
--"Listening to your kid is the audio equivalent of a Salvador Dali painting, Spud." --OpMegs