First page
[Hasty handwriting] Char-Lisa  Hero ID number: 2007082347-FFS
[Later addition in much neater handwriting]
Security Level 22 short-range pyrokinetic. Gave up her life to save 27 students of Galaxy City Regional High School during the first wave of the second Rikti Invasion, myself included.
several similar entries, detailing heroes who have fallen in the line of duty
Several blank pages before the next set of entries
Ghost Widow FC Intelligence file 2005103102-DDD
Threat Level 54 spectral entity. [shaky handwriting] Never again.
The rest of the "Patrons" are listed in similar fashion, followed by more villains and then some blank pages
''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

It's been lost to the mists of 4chan - and with wikichan down it'll probably be gone forever but here's the best parts for the sheer epicness of
it:

Quote:

Sailor Moon has the most useful power.




In a game I played once, I was Sailor Mars and had level 4 in Elemental Control (fire). So when I got captured by the Dark Kingdom and mindraped by Metallia,
I wound up setting Tokyo ablaze and killing thousands.




I was ever so grateful to Usagi-chan when she undid all that after we killed Metallia.

Quote:

Well, there's the obviously just mentioned part where Rei became a psycho evil bitch who burned down most of Tokyo and mercilessly slaughtered thousands
on an insane rampage of destruction. God that was fun.




Then there was the time one of Princess Serenity's best friends escaped from the crystal prison she'd been put in back during the Silver Millenium
for her crimes of summoning demons and killing a few hundred people herself. She massacred quite a lot of people on her return, and along with the other
ex-prisoners kicked our asses a few times before we finally defeated her. And as she was on her knees, shaking and apologising... Sailor Venus drilled her
head with a Crescent Beam, execution style.




Then Chibi Usa appeared, except instead of coming from the future, she'd come from a parallel universe where the sailor senshi had all been killed by the
Black Moon sisters in that episode where they had the dimensional rift weapon. The two sisters that had earlier went good were brainwashed again and sent to
our world after Chibi Usa, and pretty mercilessly killed by the PCs before we went to the other world to clean up the mess before it spread to ours. There we
found a bleak world conquered by the Black Moon but at the same time slowly unravelling due to the paradox that the Black Moon family should never have
appeared without the sailor senshi around to create Crystal Tokyo. We killed the fuck out of the remaining sisters along with Rubeus before rescuing our
dimensional counterparts from the rift they'd been imprisoned in and telling them all about how we'd killed the black moon sisters they'd
befriended.




So many fun memories...

Quote: The final arc of the game involved a confrontation with a person searching for the Silver Crystal, claiming it had been stolen from him ages ago.




This presented a few problems for us. The original Silver Crystal had shattered after we killed Metallia back at the start of the game. However, we'd
adopted Chibi Usa from the alternate universe mentioned earlier - she could never go home because her future no longer existed, but her own existence was
sustained by... the Silver Crystal, which she held inside of her.




His general modus operandi was to appear before a large gathering of people, freeze them in place, and look inside them for the crystal. Being magical girls,
the sailor senshi were immune to this freezing, which caught his attention and led to a ridiculously one-sided battle in which he utterly dominated the
senshi and the deathbusters (we may have killed a lot of people that survived in the anime, but we actually did manage to save the Witches 5, who became
awesome magitech allies). Desperate, Sailor Moon used the power of the Holy Grail (which was still around because we never fought Pharaoh 90 directly, nor
had Sailor Saturn awaken fully, thanks to our quick defeat of the Deathbusters) to drive him off, but not before we caught a glimpse of his utterly immense
spiritual power which up till then had been completely masked.


Using the Deathbuster's equipment and Sailor Mercury's computer, we analysed a recording of the battle to discover that our foe was not actually a
man at all. He was an artifical construct - a sentient bridge between this universe and a 'pocket universe'. Said pocket universe existed for only
one reason: a power source. Tapping into the complete energy of an entire cosmos under his control, he was effectively omnipotent in this universe. But his
power had been sealed, with the Silver Crystal being the key to his full potential.




Unfortunately, he attacked Rei's shrine next. This time Rei failed her check to resist being frozen, but Hotaru who was working there part time as a miko
did not. She was an NPC, so none of us saw what happened, but whatever it was caused Sailor Saturn to awaken fully, driving our foe off in Rei's defence
but being horribly wounded in the process.




Our backs against the wall against this overwhelmingly powerful foe, we came up with a desperate plan. Getting our most powerful members to attack him head
on, they would cause his 'null field' to break like it had when Sailor Moon used the Holy Grail. At this point, everyone else would hit him with
everything they had to destroy his physical form before he fled. Apparently the risk of this causing a catastrophic release of energy from his pocket
universe and annihilating the milky way galaxy was less than 50/50.




Unfortunately our foe found us before we could fully prepare our own attack, and even worse, it was while Rei was babysitting Chibi Usa. Close proximity to
him caused the girl to revert to a silvery-pink crystal that he wasted no effort in obtaining; his attempts to warp reality and sieze the Crystal from Rei
managing to tear her left arm out its socket and shatter her right forearm in several places while she somehow retained a desperate grip.




The other senshi plus our deathbuster and space elf allies all made their way quickly to join the battle at the roof of Mugen Gakuen, inflicting a horrendous
barrage of attacks including a 4x critical from Sailor Jupiter that utterly destroyed the top floor of the building.




This seemed only to piss him off, however, releasing a wide area attack that stunned all of the senshi, giving him time to grab the crystal and absorb it.
Removed of all limits, he healed himself in an instant, utterly ignoring a furious desperate attack from Sailor Moon as he prepared to end her life,
savouring the moment of revenge against one who reminded him of the woman who had stolen the crystal oh so long ago.




Then, amazingly, Chibi Usa spoke from within the living weapon. She tried with all her might to restrain his immense power, all of her friends desperately
encouraging her, but to no avail. He was simply too strong. So instead she sacrificed herself, shattering the crystal to re-limit his power and fully heal
all of her loved ones.




Filled with rage and grief, the Sailor Senshi laid into the monster with a vengeance, The remaining Deathbusters also arriving by this point to assist in the
battle. Hit by Usagi's final attack with the Holy Grail, he was finally and utterly overwhelmed by the mass beamspam, and everything went black...




Waking up an unknown time later, the girls saw they had won, and the Galaxy hadn't been destroyed. But victory tasted like ashes after the brave and
selfless sacrifice of one little girl who had already lost so much in her tragically short life.

Quote:

>Okay, just for laughs: what is the ceapest kill any of you scored in the Sailor Moon RPG?


>Mine was: A monster aproached our group over a rope bridge, so Ami froze our end of the bringe and shattered the frozen
ropes.




We were fighting a balloon type youma that was utterly impervious to all of our sparkly beamspam. After a few rounds of futile combat, Sailor Mercury scanned
it with her computer and reported that it was exceptionally vulnerable to stabbing.




So Sailor Venus grabbed Artemis and hucked the screaming mooncat at the youma, which promptly exploded as he landed claws-first.




Good times.

"Why am I here?" Kemwer asked irritably. One usher had been trying to grab for Kemwer's videocamera, The guy cracked his head on a wall he could
have sworn was ten feet away and fell unconscious.

"Come on , you just have to see this. "Dr. Clark Sanders told him The name FP had given from the other side was Lucinda Tempscire. Apparently,
enough money can get you anywhere, and due to a Star Trek replicator Kemwer had handwaved could produce gold bars provided one didn't ask to provide too
much of it.

"Channelers? You have to got to be kidding me. There is no way that handwavium calls up spirits from past times. Hell, there's no way one can call up
spirits of the dead in the first place unless you count Stellvia's rumored dimensional incursion. They do not come and possess people to give them the
"Wisdom of the Ages. " Kemwer put little finger quotes around the last part of the sentence as he displayed the fourth ring on his hand.

"I don't mind channelers fleecing them out of their own desire to believe and stupidity.Why am I here, paying seven hundred fifty to see a false
channeler?" Kemwer's words were carried very quietly to his two companions.

"She's using your name. " FP returned to me quietly. The rings on his fingers allow me to hold private conversations in the middle of a room as
long as one directs the wind carefully. The Rings of the Elves appear to be slightly empathic in nature which was why Kemwer used them more often than other
items.

"Kemwer?" Kemwer had signed his name as Robert Rumboldt in the guest books. Fake psychics and mediums usually tossed out skeptics as negative
vibrations in the astral plane disturbing the sympathetic harmonies or some other gobbledygook. Extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof. Handwavium
was extraordinary when you see floating islands.

Unfortunately, this had given a boost to the con artist, faith healer, medium and spiritualist market. The very fact that it's handwaved means that it
hadn't worked like that before. This is why Dr. Sanders is so obsessed about proving science above handwavium. Science has replicable results. His latest
design is a positronic brain patented by Isaac Asimov in the Sixties formed by crystal growing that looked remarkably similar to biological cell division.
That's why Kemwer was wondering why Dr. Sanders had dragged him to the channeler. Dr. Sanders had not signed his name as usual, instead he was using the
alias James Campion.

Kemwer looked at the hardwood floor. The ushers were offering pillows at ten bucks each. Eighty rows of ten people equalled eight thousand dollars. The
videocamera was covered in an illusion. Psychics and such don't allow videocameras. It made it too easy to spot the wires and earpieces.

A Brad Pitt clone(clone as in looks like him, not clone in the sense that the Professor kidnapped him and made a twin) stepped onto the stage. He gave the
ground rules, no flash photography(they had confiscated all the cameras before anyway, except Kemwer's ), no applause, and no bathroom breaks. The clone
explained that it disturbed Aria's concentration and even the closing of a door could break her sympathetic link.

Or someone distracted by the bladders were less distracted by gobbledegook such as was being spouted by the emcee lookalike.

"Eight thousand years ago, Kemwur was a High Priest of Atlantis. He lived for three hundred years before ascending and acquiring the wisdom of the ages.
"

What wisdom? The Stone Ages? Eight thousand years ago humans were living in trees. (By the by, the Bible's age of the world is six thousand years.
Don't trust books that say that is the only one you'll ever need to read. There's two thousand, eight hundred and six of them that all say that. )

"He spoke with the oracle of Delphi, he delved in to the Sacred Writings of the Rosicrucians. Now watch as Aria calls him forth from the Cosmic All.
"

Dr. Sanders looked at Kemwer. FP looked at Kemwer. He looked in mirror made of ice as it was coalesced in his hand through the power of the Ring of Water. He
now knew the term, face like thunder.

"She's using my name- " Kemwer growled as the voice carried to his partners.

"Technically, she's spelling it with a U. "

"Wars have been started over such impersonations. "

The lighting deepened to rose and the chiffon banners started swaying in the breeze provided by fans in the back. Kemwer had looked through the walls.
Changing the refractive index was instinctive when one wore the Ring of Fire.

Aria in a caftan and sacred amulet descended from a curving stairway. There was mood music to accompany her descent.

There's a tradition in fantasy novels about how a Dark Lord can pour physical sensations into thoughts and thus one feels the baleful influence of watching
eyes. Kemwer could have been one of those as frost formed on the walls.

"Welcome, Seekers After Divine Truth. We are going to have a wonderful spiritual experience together here today and achieve a new plane of enlightenment.
"

There was applause as people ignored the no-applause edict.

"But you mustn't applaud me. I am only the channel through which Kemwur manifests. Kemwur first came to me five years ago and it frightened me. I
didn't want to believe. It took me a year to realize that I had become a focus for cosmic energies. Today, it will be the wisdom of Kemwur you hear, not
that of mine. If... "nice theatrical pause. Good for every performance. " ...he deigns to come. He is a sage, not a servant to be bidden. "

"What a bunch of claptrap. " Kemwer told FP and Sanders. She was making him -annoyed-.

People wouldn't pay seven hundred and fifty for a no-show.

"Kemwur will only come if the earthly plane is aligned. If there are any of you who harbor negative vibrations, contact will be denied. "

If she looked at Kemwer at that moment, she'd be very surprised at how many thoughts he was harboring ranging from exposing her as a fraud to immuring her
in ice and seeing how she handled being a frozen corpse. She passed over Kemwer's notice as the Rings of Air and Water handled the cloaking aspect.

"Do you believe?Are you thinking positive thoughts, positive emotions?"

Kemwer's current thought was about immolating her in magma. One just had to get fire hot enough to melt stone.

"I sense that every one of you is thinking positive thoughts. Now to bring Kemwur among us, you must help me. You must calm your center You must
concentrate on your inner soul-self. "

Kemwer's light folded around to give him 360-degree vision. This usually gave him a slight migraine. He did this with nary a twinge. Over half the
clientele had their eyes shut, and some folded their hands together in imitation of prayer.

And then Kemwer was hit with an unexpected sensation. It was the sense of belief trying to reconfigure him as to what he wanted. The belief rolled off him like
a duck. Kemwer smiled.

He realized what was going on. It was an indirect attack by somebody who thought Kemwer had used the handwaved avatar method of becoming a god. He had in one
sense only one believer, that of Marduk. Eighty believers ran up against in another sense, millions, as the stuff in his body and blood overwhelmed the
reconfiguration attempt.

"So that's what happening. " Kemwer thought. Marduk had told him there was only one who was using his name. If he did anything with extraordinary
powers, he supported the claim of phony psychics everywhere. If he didn't, eventually there'd be enough to leave him mortal, rather than a god.

"I see why you two wanted me to come. " Kemwer told FP znd Sanders. He thought a bit. He needed to do something about this.

"What's got you so happy, Kemwer?"

"Shh.. Watch the show. " Aria came in with the same mood lightning. Kemwer felt remarkably lighthearted about producing two more gold bars. He earned
money the the old-fashioned way, by working, for his secret identity. He drew a sword out of it's scabbard in the middle of the channeler's speech.

"Welcome O-Seekers of Divine Truth-I'm a fraud, a fake, a charlatan. " Her face expressed horror when she heard the words come out of her mouth.
" I've never channeled a spirit in my life. Kemwur was something Ted made up. I was running a pyramid scheme in Chicago, Illinois at the time. The
feds were closing in on me, and I'd already be up on charges of insurance fraud, so I changed my name-My real name's Gail Archten. I stashed the money
there and sequestered for a year working on the voice of Kemwur. -"

There was an enormous crash from the back. The videocamera operator had dropped the videocamera. The emcee had come back on as Aria had been frozen in horror
at the words coming out of her mouth.

"Which one's Ted?" Kemwer asked from the audience.

"The one in the blue shirt at the back. " Kemwer spotted him instantly. It was the one trying to sneak away.

"Then I contacted a guy I knew, his name was Chuck Elliott, you probably know him as Charles Akeling. We worked together on a couple of chain-letter
scams, so I told him to take me to Salem and break into the channeling business. "

Dr. Sanders had somehow managed to get into the security guard's way and knock them out while Kemwer kept the videocamera in full view.

"Chuck always did have a bad habit of writing everything down. You can't blackmail me, Gail., he said. Wanna bet? I asked him. I told him it was in
the safe deposit box in Dayton, Ohio, ready to be released if anything happened to me. It's not. It's behind the portrait of Atlantis in my bedroom.
The combinations's seven right, six left, eight right. He taught me all about how one softens the marks in the seminar, so they'll tell you all about
their love life in the private sessions. Then you send them copies of the videotapes-"There were audible gasps.

-":and then he introduced me to one of the orderlies at the Neogenesis Rehab Center, and deep masseuse at New Lilac Spa, so I could convince the marks
that Kemwur knows all and sees all. I learned how to change my voice so as to pretend I was channeling spirits, although I didn't think learning all that
junk from Edgar Cayce and Madame Blavatsky was necessary. You guys pay me money as long as I pretend to care about your romances and gallstones-"Aria
seemed to recollect herself as the audible rumble became a growl .

She tried to run off the stage, but Dr. Sanders maneuvered the security guard into her so that she managed to steady herself from the back while the security
guard cracked his head on the floor. He'd have a nasty concussion. Dr. Sanders' specialty is in medicine, you know.

"Are you saying you're the one doing the voice of Kemwur?" Kemwer asked.

"Of course. There's no such thing as channeling the spirits from the great beyond. "She looked around, panicky for an escape route.

"Are you saying Greta Sedona is a fake too?" Kemwer asked.

"Oh, yes. They're all fakes. Greta Sedona, Dominic Chakravanti, Randall Ceti. "

"Do they all use blackmail like you?" Any minute now she'd remember to cover her mouth with her hands, the way she was staring like a frightened
rabbit .

"No. Swami Brahma uses extortion, and Cephera uses posthypnotic suggestion. "

"What about Charles Akeling? What's his scam?"

"Investment fraud. "She cupped her heads as the clip-on microphone cut off.

"Charles tells his clients their dead relations want them to invest in certain stocks-"At the point, Aria had the brainstorm to cover her mouth which
gave her answers in a resulting mumble. The emcee finally succeeded in stepping in front of Aria.

"Thank you for coming. Videos-""He had second thoughts. " That is, personally autographed books are on sale in the front counter.
"Two security guards gripped Aria's hands and feet and carried her bodily off the stage.

Kemwer had located Ted's body heat and saw him through the building. Freedom Princess obligingly pulled Dr. Sanders and Kemwer through the wall while
Kemwer shielded them from sight and mind.

"Hi Ted,. "Kemwer smiled.

"I-I have connections. You'll regret it. " He tried. The sword had been resheathed. Kemwer drew it again.

"Who gave you the idea of Kemwur?" Kemwer asked him.

"A guy who sprung up for an operation to replace my missing leg. He said all I had to do was this to pay him back. He said I'd make it back in spades
in this operation, but I could quit anytime. "

"How did you contact him?"

"There's a code and a number. " He gave Kemwer the code, the number, and who recommended him.

"What did he call himself?"

"He called himself Mazzare. Can I go now?" He whined plaintively. Kemwer sniffed the air. Kemwer had acute human senses, but one didn't need that
to smell the air had definitely become unpleasant. Dr. Sanders put him to sleep. I resheathed my sword.

Mazzare's one of the supersoldiers that Dr. Grey has personally serving him. It's the Italian word for seer and he's pretty good at putting
together coherent pictures of information. Kemwer was wearing the Band of Blacknil The obvious thing was either to kill Ted thereby removing information or to
dump him in a black hole.

It took a few minutes for Kemwer to shove Ted into an empty parallel from the elevator. He'd have to come back later to petrify him with the Wand of Jadis.

"Let's see him try to get information about vanishing. " Kemwer smiled happily.

It had looked like Dr. Sanders would have had to testify on the preliminary hearings, which would have proven awkward since Kemwer was the one holding the
videocamera. She got into a fight with her lawyers over the insanity defense, since she claimed dark powers had been at work.

On the other hand, her fringerprints matched her Illinois driver's license, and every lead she had mentioned checked out, and one could leave it to the
police to roll up the false psychics she had mentioned. Charles Akeling was up on insider trading charges and half the psychics in the city were running for
the hills.

New mediums and psychics then moved in advertising themselves as restorers of balance and the spirits one can trust. This only proves P. T Barnum's old
adage, there's a sucker born every minute and two to take them.

It was a good two weeks.

The police rolled up the psychic network depriving Grey of an important resource that he could have used to turn him mortal, Kemwer had snapped up one of his
unwitting agents to interrogate, and most importantly, Mazzare had no information from his pawn as to what had happened. He placed the Sword of Veracity from
Hercules: The Legendary Journeys back in it's case.

Black Wolf Corps is a love letter to the Shinsengumi, to the Mecha genre, and to the pure unadulterated awesome of swordfight series like Rurouni Kenshin
(/highlyrecommended) and Peace Maker (also recommended). I haven't written any actual -fiction- in ages, so bear with me while I try to find my voice
again.

A brief translation guide - Jinzouningen: Cyborg/Robot [here, it refers to the Mecha themselves]. Okita Sanshiro is the name of the grandfather of Okita Soji -
the captain of the 1st squad of the Shinsengumi. Saito Hajime is the name of the third captain - Katsura Saito is not not descended from Hajime, but he is
named after the legendary captain, whose 'left-handed thrust' was his specialty.

Modern Samurai Legend: Black Wolf Corps

The year is 2012. Developments in the arms race yield the discovery of force-shield technology by English scientist Michael
Rosenkrantz. The Rosenkrantz Defense Barrier becomes the European Alliance's secret weapon.

To counter the European Alliance and prepare for war, Japan creates ten massive war
machines, the Jinzouningen. Armed with microfilament barrier-breaking weapons, the jinzouningen are stationed around Tokyo City, and given to the ten
highest-scoring pilots. Now, the world watches, anticipation and fear growing as war's dark shadow threatens to engulf the future. The only hope lies in
the ten Jinzouningen and their supporting vehicles...in the Black Wolf
Corps!

Katsura Saito was late.

It wasn't really his fault - traffic was horrible
at this time of day, the trains were overcrowded, and his apartment was about an hour away on foot - but he doubted the commander would be lenient over that
fact. Especially on the first day of reserve duty.

As he skidded around the corner, Saito flipped up his
phone. If he hurried, he'd get there in five minutes, and maybe the commander wouldn't notice his error.

Of course, in his haste, he neglected to look around
the corner first. The woman threw up her hands as they collided, and Saito's eyes widened as his phone slipped out of his hand and his feet from the
ground.

"Ow ow ow ow ow!" He muttered, rubbing his
forehead. "Watch where you're going!"

"I could say the same to you, idiot!" The
woman countered, sticking her tongue out as she picked herself up off the ground. She brushed her deep black ponytail over her shoulder and stuck out her
tongue again as he got up. "It's rude to run into people, you know!"

What a stupid thing to say, Saito thought as his hand clenched around his phone. "Then you're rude,
too!"

"You were the one
running!"

"So were you!"

Saito flipped his phone back up. The delay had already
cost him a whole minute; he scrambled to his feet. "I don't have time for this!" He shouted as he dodged around the woman. He heard her shriek of
'moron!' - among other things - as he ran for dear job, boots clunking against the ground.

"Katsura Saito, reporting for duty!" Saito
saluted as he ran through the doors of the Black Wolf Corps' barracks. The receptionist looked up at him, barely catching a glimpse of his ID card and the
distinctive widow's peak of his face as he passed.

"Have a nice...day..." She managed - a bit
too late. The turnstyle bypassed with a leap and a flash of his card, Saito was already halfway down the hall.

"The Black Wolf Corps is the largest defensive
army in Japan. Organized by the government, Black Wolf Corps' one and only duty is the defense of the capitol."

Saito ducked into the lecture, taking his place in the
back row. Crossing his fingers as he slid his ID card back into his pocket, he closed his eyes, praying the Commander hadn't
noticed.

"Captain Katsura Saito." The clear, crisp
voice of the Commander rang out in the hall, and all eyes turned to stare at the latecomer captain. "How good of you to arrive so
punctually."

"Just...doing my job, sir?" Saito replied,
breaking into a sheepish grin and hoping against hope that it was convincing enough to fool the commander and distract from the sweat on his
brow.

"Next time, Captain Katsura, you should leave
earlier. Traffic is terrible." The commander stepped forward, and the ranks opened for him in unison. A visually imposing man, Commander Hijito's tall
form was punctuated by his slim, stern, and altogether sharp face, and Saito involuntarily swallowed as the clean-cut man reached him. Hijito tilted forward
just a bit, narrowing his eyes to slits.

"I'll...I'll remember that, Commander,
sir." Saito finally managed. "Five minutes earlier."

"Ten." Hijito replied, "I want you here
five minutes ahead of schedule every day this week, Captain Katsura."

"Sir, yes sir!" Saito snapped, clicking his
heels together and saluting. "I will make certain to arrive five minutes ahead of schedule every day this week, sir!"

"Very good." Hijito turned and headed back
up the ranks, taking his place at the head of the lecture. Saito's sigh was barely noticeable as the ranks closed once again, and he mopped some of the
sweat off his brow. Narrowly escaping discharge wasn't something he hoped to be doing again.

Saito filed out of the lecture as Commander Hijito
dismissed the group.

"I've never seen anybody actually
sweat staring down the commander!" Someone said from behind him. He whirled to meet the source of the voice, and found himself staring at a
soldier who could only be called a boy. Maybe eighteen, a slim face framed by long hair, and a cheery smile that nearly threw Saito
completely off-guard, the boy reached around and patted Saito on the back. "C'mon, keep walking - if you stand around like that, you'll get in the
way, and then you'll wind up talking to the Commander again."

"You make it sound like a punishment." Saito
said after a moment, taking the boy's advice and heading down the hallway before the rest of the units left.

"You made it look like a punishment," the
boy replied, still far too cheery and chipper for his own good. "I'm Sanshiro."

"Katsura Saito," Saito answered, holding out
his hand. Sanshiro shook it briskly.

"So I heard," he noted, "So you're
a captain, too? Which unit are you in?"

Saito dug out his ID card, turning it over. There,
under his name and beside his slim-featured face (a poor picture of it, too - it always turned out that way), was his rank.

"Third," he responded, "Wait,
too?"

"You didn't read your briefing packets, did
you?" Sanshiro inquired, looking up at Saito. Saito shook his head.

"No, I didn't have time this morning. They
let a kid into the military at such a high rank?"

"I'm Kensen Sanshiro, Captain of the First Unit. Nice to meet you!"

"Nice...to meet you too..." Saito
managed.

"Hey...you wanna see 'em?" Sanshiro
asked after a moment, flicking his eyes down an adjacent hall. Saito turned his head to follow Sanshiro's gaze.

The huge double-doors marked 'Hangar' met his
eyes, and Saito stopped in his tracks. Sanshiro glanced up at him before turning and heading towards the doors.

"Guess that's a yes!" He
chirped.

"Hey, wait a minute! Won't we get in trouble
with-"

"The commander?" Sanshiro intercepted,
"I doubt it. We're going to be piloting these things, after all. It'll be nice to get a look at them, right?"

"I guess," Saito conceded. Truth be told, he
was anxious to see the real jinzouningen for himself, and Sanshiro didn't seem to be worried about any consequences anyway. Besides, if they got in
trouble, they'd be able to stand together, and better together than alone. He turned and headed down after Sanshiro, meeting him as the double-doors
opened.

There they were. Ten massive black machines, massive
metal men awaiting their fleshy counterparts to join them in battle. Each one was detailed with a blue shoulder-shield, over which a black wolf insignia was
proudly emblazoned, and each of the jinzouningen stood bearing these crests with the dignity befitting Japan's great weapons. Saito's eyes roamed over
the machines, taking in each detail, each facet of their armor, each weak point of their joints, each partially-concealed weapon.

"They're pretty cool, aren't they?"
Sanshiro's voice brought him crashing back into himself. "Which one is yours?"

Saito looked over the machines once more before
pointing at the third from the left. The barrier-breaker weapon gleamed just beneath its arm, ready to fall from its hidden sheath into the left hand - his
best hand. Just under the wolf-crest was painted '03' in brilliant white, but even without it, he'd noticed the signs. It was ready for him.
Sanshiki - his jinzouningen - Katsura Saito's!

Hey, Sweno, if you have a handy moment, I was wondering if I could get a look at Clank's build? Screenshots of the enhancement tray screen are really all I
need as I'm looking primarily at power choice. Since Fox's redside farm seems to be getting off the ground, Largo may end up being one of my first
characters built with an eye towards long term, rather than short term, effectiveness in his powers. And while I have a basic image of what he's gonna end
up like, Clank's build is so similar to what I'm looking at doing(only major exceptions I can see are possibly going Scirocco instead of Scorpion for
P3), that I figure it'd help my long term planning.

No rush on this, as Largo has a long, hard slog to 50 and his destined confrontation with Terrence.
---
"Oh, silver blade, forged in the depths of the beyond. Heed my summons and purge those who stand in my way. Lay
waste."

Grant Morrison's concepts for
Japanese superteams in Final Crisis

I....I'm not even Japanese and *I'm* offended by these.

That said, the supergenius genki girl who made a freaking warsuit with power-hammers in her spare time to go fight evildoers is actually quite charming. I can
only conclude that Morrisson stumbled onto an actual Japanese hero concept by pure accident.
---
"Oh, silver blade, forged in the depths of the beyond. Heed my summons and purge those who stand in my way. Lay
waste."

Today, I have discover that in February 2008, ADV decided to cease publication of one of my favorite magazines, Newtype USA. It replaced it with something
slightly different called PiQ which expanded their coverage of Anime, Manga, and other Japanese goodness to include the American equivilant. As expected, the
reception was luke-warm and PiQ itself is no longer in publication.

So, that said, can anyone recomend a good publication that covers Anime, Manga, and other Japanese goodness? It'd be easier for me to keep track living
here in Japan, except I can't read Japanese.

This...needs some explaining.

I was working on the Hero Sandwich picture, getting increasingly frustrated with redrawing Terry's arm. I think it works now, actually - but at
the time I was like, BUGGER THIS, I need to stop and draw something else.

Earlier today, MicroShade talked to me about drawin' his VEATs. I met him in a well-lit area of my choice, and got screencaps.

Now...for a while, I've been thinking that with a sufficiently good screenshot, I can dispense with about half my usual work process. I don't
need references. I can just blow the screenshots up and sketch over them. Granted, this would demand a final image of higher detail level, but given
I'm not penciling as much, that's not a problem.

The thing is...I'd need really really good screenshots. So to do this, I'd probably need to specifically screencap someone else's character - with
the detail settings I want, in approximately the pose I require. Not the exact perfect pose - I mean, there's only so much emotes can do
- but close enough. Should be possible, right?

So as of this afternoon, I had suitable screenshots banked. So I thought...eh, what the heck, worth a go as a break from the main work, right?

Yeah...well...ideas, y'know, they...get out of hand.

Lady Spiders - WIP



Original screenshot's there for comparison. As you can see from the partially coloured Bane Spider (Arachnia Tormentia), it's not a direct imitation of
the screenshot...but you can see where the basic figure work comes from. I obviously took the screenshot as a guide for the main body and basic angle...then
winged it for the arms, mace, hair, and so on.

This is probably cheating, but the dudes who do the Ultimates for Marvel use a similar technique with photographs, so pardon if I don't feel
guilty. =P

Thoughts? Is this good? Bad? Ugly? Cheapass? What do you think?

EDIT: I should note that the screencap I did is zoomed it; the final image will be full-body for the two and partial body for a third figure, unless I change
my plans.
-- Acyl

John McCain chooses Alaska governor Sarah Palin as his running mate.

--The Twisted One

Some have expressed an interest from time to time in the texture and sound mods I've mentioned that I've made to my City of Heroes client. Well I
finally got around to compressing the entire thing and uploading it.

Here ya go.

http://tinyurl.com/5qu2pm

This is a rather large file. 77mb zipped.

Some of the things it contains:

-- The Latest version of the map upgrades from Vidiotmaps.com.

-- Sound mods for Pocket D. replacing the music in there.

-- Sound mods for the Openings of City of Heroes/City of Villains

--Sound mods that remove some of the annoying hums of powers (superspeed and a couple of the more annoying forcefields)

--Sound mods for female "jumping grunts". (If you're curious what I replaced them with - some sound files of Helena from DOA2 I had access to)

--"Classical Art" replacements for all the generic art you see in bases and mission maps. You'll see LOTS of interesting stuff, including the
Mona Lisa!

--Some costume mods ((WARNING. One of these is NOT SAFE FOR WORK. It changes the "Eden" and "Bikini 3" patterns so that you can make a
"nude" toon. Included for completeness sake, and because I KNOW Jackie Frost wants it. ^_^)) Check out the Emblem mods, there's a Superman and
Batman symbol in there! Plus a good "United Nations Laurel".

Also - if you want to do your own mods for the opening screenshots and music (and the music for Pocket D), I REALLY recommend the following program:

City of Heroes Splasher

Check it out.