Oh, Miyagi wasn't her sensei at the Facility; there are no icy mountain lakes on Omega. She studied under Miyagi elsewhere, a long time later, and when they parted he was still very much alive.

>As to the markup, my only comment is that for some reason going from
>Italic back to standard erases the trailing space in Firefox, but that
>might just be an issue with the way Mozilla handles HTML vs other
>browsers.

I think that's actually a font problem - italics lean to the right, and sometimes the kerning is wrong and the tilt sort of steps on the trailing space. I use Firefox myself and don't see it happening in this particular document, but I've seen the kind of thing you're describing before.

>Have I mentioned how much I love the way you've worked to show this
>dimensions versions of Wolverine and Sabretooth to be the
>diametrically opposite personalities as defined in their source? I
>think I have, but if I haven't, gosh I love it! Sabretooth dressed as
>Sherlock Holmes!

Jubilee covers it well here, but in general she finds Victor deeply unnerving, on account of he looks exactly like a guy she used to spend an annoyingly high proportion of her time avoiding getting murdered by.

>OOO... One semi related question, timeline wise. Since I'm on my way
>out the door soon and dont have much time to look at the timestamps,
>might this be the triggering event for "I'm going to disney's World?"

Bottle Service was actually a couple of weekends before; the trigger (mentioned in the story) was the New Avalon Knights winning the World Series. It is not a given that Laura and Jubilee are destined for an equally gala evening at the end of Weapon of Choice, though, to be fair about it, chances are they're not going to spend the evening at the New Avalon Museum of Modern Art either. :)

It's slightly sad that the two stories didn't happen in the other order, if only because then Bottle Service would have gone down exactly the same - except that when the Black Hoods broke open the door at the end, everyone in the room would have discovered (with varying degrees of surprise) that Laura had been there all along, completely buried down at the far corner of the bed, and that she does not appreciate being awakened by kicked-open doors. Jubilee and Paige might not even have had to get up.

It would have skewed the bottle count considerably, though, and after what would've ended up happening to the carpet, they totes would have lost their room deposit.

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

You are conflating your big Johnsons here; Walter "The Big Train" Johnson (1887-1946; 2410- ) is the resurrected Washington Senators player-manager who led the Knights to victory in 2411. Randy "The Big Unit" Johnson (1963- ) used to pitch for the Yankees, Diamondbacks et al. and won the World Series MVP award in 2001 while he was with Arizona (the first time). :)

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

Question, was Garrus part of the original Normandy's crew way back when and is on leave from Asgard like Shepard, or is he just a pretty good Palavian cop who met her recently through his work with the IPO?

He was a member of the original Normandy crew, but escaped the ship's destruction (along with most of the rest of the crew). What he got up to subsequently will be revealed, at least in part, if I ever manage to finish Operation Archangel.

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

Ah. I didn't think that was an option since I remembered (and a glance at Shepard's file confirms it) that the original Normandy was lost in the fall of the WDF. But I assume the "how" will be covered along with the "what".

And of course, New Avalon being New Avalon, the horses are probably sentient superbeings in their own right and would only join in and increase the property damage.

-- Bob
-------------------
My race is pacifist and does not believe in war. We kill only out of personal spite.

(Major geek cred if you recognize the sources of all 4 of those races)

The funny part is the second one was the one I had to actually think to remember, and I actually still have all 6 issues of that comic around somewhere.

(Besides, the one Korbenite we could bring in would be, er, specced for SA1 as fast as possible...)

--
Geoff Depew - Darth Mephron
Haberdasher to Androids, Dark Lord of Sith Tech Support.
"And Remember! Google is your Friend!!"

Yes, the second one was the obscurest, but you've given enough data to demonstrate that you can thrown a Spanner into the mix. :)

(I thought the Nazzar might also throw you. They haven't been used in years)

Bill has a girlfriend now, BTW. A gift from Galactus.

And not only did I know that about Bill, but if you get the deeply underrated SWORD miniseries, you not only see her, but see Bill used as a threat. (It's glorious.)

--
Geoff Depew - Darth Mephron
Haberdasher to Androids, Dark Lord of Sith Tech Support.
"And Remember! Google is your Friend!!"

Best use of a mop in a diplomatic negotiation EVER.

EDIT: For the record, this is the scene we're discussing.

---
"Yeah, I'm definitely going to hell/But I'll have all the best stories to tell" -- Frank Turner, The Ballad of Me and My Friends

Insert joke about Tea Party membership here

• I wonder where Laura learned to play the accordion.
  

The same place she learned to Draw the Bacon Comics Way.

--rR

That's a UF thing, yeah, but his smaller form isn't humanoid. It's just smaller. (His aloha shirts have holes in the back. :)

>(Am I confused, or is this bit completely unrelated to the A-plot?)

Yeah. The bit before the credits on Batman: The Brave and the Bold is always unrelated to the A-plot, and this was originally intended to be a Lensmen: The Brave and the Bold episode.

> - Asari crimebosses have been a force to be reckoned with on Omega
>for quite some time, eh?

Well, that particular one has, anyway.

> - I wonder where Laura learned to play the accordion.

Newfoundland, originally, although she picked up the bal-musette style in Paris.

> - Has Deadpool actually appeared onstage so far?

Yup, briefly. He's part of the cavalry in Icebreaker/Thankless.

> - I'm missing nearly all the references at the climax of the
>battle, but it certainly makes an impressive tableau.

Some of it is deliberately... not obscure, but certainly not explicated as completely as it could've been on-screen. The mantra Laura chants, for instance, is the one Guy uses while he's ramping up for the Hell and Heaven maneuver in early King of Braves Gaogaigar episodes, but where she learned it, what it's called, and what the narration implies it does aren't directly sourced from anywhere, and are to be explored later. Basically what she's doing with it is not the Hell & Heaven, but rather achieving the sort of transcendent focus associated with techniques like the Katsujinkenryû Inviolate Soul discipline.

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

And just before that she uses her own varient of the hundred blades technique as well.

Basically by running away and then sending in the Marines. They're scientists, not exterminators. :)

--G.
"I haven't seen Gordo this happy in years."
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

Then they have failed to learn from past mistakes. The way to deal with Acheron xenomorphs is to take off and nuke the site from orbit. It's the only way to be sure.

Ebony the Black Dragon

"Life is like an anole. Sometimes it's green. Sometimes it's brown. But it's always a small Caribbean lizard."

It took me a while to remember where I knew the word "jibblies" from, but now that I have, I have to admit I'm a little taken aback. I could have predicted a good many different responses to the piece (including the most popular choice among forum subscribers so far, an eerie silence), but I wouldn't have posted odds on "giving somebody the jibblies." All I can picture now is Forest Whitaker's character from Good Morning, Vietnam. "I don't know what that means, sir, but it sounds very negative to me."

--G.
"Here it comes again. A-jibbly-jibbly."
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

I would have used "squicked" but that implies more of a disgust. This was less "ick" and more "ow". That is, "ick" was still part of it, but the "ow" was a much bigger part. And there was definitely sufficient shuddering to qualify for jibblies.

I know you probably weren't aiming for this reaction specifically (you did not go into any gory detail about the procedure, for which I am grateful, and kept the focus on the characters' reactions), and I'm the first to admit that I have a very low tolerance for images of pain and torture. Still, not much you can do about visecral reactions.

So, yeah. The bits in the middle gave me the jibblies and that sor tof overshadowed any other reaction I could have.

Oh, nice to see Wheatly though. I actually liked him more than GladOS. He has actual inflection to his voice!

Ah, I understand. Sorry about that, but under the circumstances there wasn't really any avoiding it. I actually rather tried to dodge it - when I wrote the scene where Skuld is talking about how it's all easy-peasy in this day and age, I thought that was how it was going to go down. I only realized the "easy" version wasn't going to work at around the same time Skuld did. After mulling it for a while, I concluded that it was for the best; it gave Gryphon and Skuld more of an ethical problem to confront and it exemplified two of Laura's key features, her endurance and her determination.

I tell you what, though. Weapon of Choice originated as a Lensmen: The Brave and the Bold episode, but by the time it was finished, it was definitely for airing after the watershed only. I suppose that's what I get for committing such a grave format-story mismatch. Laura is actually capable of being quite whimsical, but, uh, not under these conditions.

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

Dramatically speaking it was a good call! After that scene, anything else would just be an anticlimax. My inner author is 100% behind you on this.

I guess you're going to need to figure out if "it was a very well-done dramatic twist that gave me a serious case of the jibblies" is a compliment.

Light, the new avatar of chaos

Cave (1923-1986) was one of Skuld's very early Chosen, back before... well, not to put too fine a point on it, before she knew what the hell she was doing. Though not a science genius of any kind himself, he had such breathtakingly big ideas that she found herself a bit swept away. Only later did it really dawn on her that most of his big, sweeping ideas were also bad ideas, and by then it was way, way too late.

Still, she has fond memories of him, tinged with more than a hint of embarrassment (as one might remember an early boy- or girlfriend who was good times in the event but, in retrospect, turned out to have been a complete hoser the whole time). It's entirely possible that the old Aperture Science Enrichment Center is still there, moldering quietly away in that salt mine in Michigan (though obviously GLaDOS isn't there, since her origins in UF are entirely unconnected with Aperture).

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

Captain Kessler has many admirable qualities. Some of them are even non-obvious. :)

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

offsides

[...] in order to be a realist you must believe in miracles.
-- David Ben Gurion
EPU RCW #π
#include <stdsig.h>

"What the fuck are you doin'?"
"Interrogatin' him."
"Well, what's he gonna tell you, 'I'm dead'?"
"Well, I ain't gonna know 'til I ask him, am I?"

--------------------------
CdrMike, Aperture Science Test Subject #0047