foeofthelance

Well, to answer the questions in order, sort of and it already is a rule. By sort of, I mean that when the story starts there are only going to be two universes to start in: The Mary Sue universe, where Foe, Agaib, and the hordes of baddies start out, and the Real World, where Foe ends up crashing and the bad guys start to chase to. The story itself would take place mainly in the Real World, at least until all the major players are involved. Any NPCs would thus be limited to real actors, with fictional characters only showing up by means of the MSU. So you could meet Johnny Depp (Foe crashes in California, so there should be actors/actresses aplenty), but if you want to boink Captain Jack Sparrow there's got to be a reason why he's been sent to kill/stop us. After a bit (I.E. we've screwed each other silly) we'll set off on a tour of the various fandoms. Now that's the plot. This is an orgy however, so there's not really much call to stick to it except in a broad manner, and this is a round robin style game, so plenty of people are going to be doing their own thing any way. IF you wanted to start on the side of the Mary Sues, that'd be no big deal either, just so long as you're prepared to be one of their bishie sex toys. At least for the guys at any rate. More accurately its just a reason to write randomness involving people who post here, and probably will never truly end. If anything, I just pop up with a new baddy. Just like in Power Rangers! (Actually, I'm basing a lot of this on the typical Power Rangers Episode Formula... *Mental Image of Rita Repulsa throwing her staff and yelling, "Make my monster's cock grow!* Better leave that one to Keith though...) As for PvP, there really shouldn't be any. "Bad guy" PCs are allowed to seduce and try to infiltrate the "Good Guy" PCs, who are probably gonna just turn around and try to seduce them. No hitting, fighting, and no killing, unless its a PC. Well, fights are allowed, so long as they end in a draw, are interrupted, or are agreed upon.

I don't plan so much as get a scene stuck in my head, start writing it, and then just not stop writing.

Ive been working in the same resturaunt for close to seven years now. You think retail has it bad? Good grief, the list of complaints. First, its an Italian resturaunt in a heavily Italian town. So everyone orders not off the menu we give them, but off what they remember their grandmother making them. Then there are the people who simply don't speak English. If I walked into a bodega and started asking for rollos I'm sure they'd be horribly confused, but apparently I'm supposed to understand that "rollo with cheese" actually means whole wheat toast, one egg, and swiss cheese? What the frak? And I swear they must all use the same translation service, as they all ask for medium coffee, then look confused when I try to explain we only have large and small. At this point I don't even try to explain it anymore, I just plunk two different sized cups down and let them point. And before anyone thinks I'm picking on just one group, understand I've had to go through this with Chinese, Latinos, Italians, and Russians alike. (we can sort of tell by the way they curse at us, and occasionally based on looks.) The worst though? Happened only a couple of days ago, and was a perfectly homegrown asshole. We recently decided to open for breakfast, which means we open at 6:30 in the morning. We have plenty of signs up proudly proclaiming this fact. Anyway, it's a little after seven thirty, I've got several customers up at the counter sipping coffee and eating sandwiches, chatting with each other and watching Good Morning America, when I hear the door start to rattle. Well, ok, I live in NY, and we're going through a bit of a heatwave. The door is thirty years old, aluminum, and sticks a bit when it expands. There's aguy yanking on the door, kinda looked like Danny DeVito's uglyh bastard cousin, with an ass I could have used as shelf space. I run over to open the door just as he starts walking away, and call him back, since the bosses want to try and drum up business. He starts ranting at raving about how the door is locked, which means I'm a liar since the signs all say we're supposed to be open. I try explaining that the door is stuck, but he's not having any of it. I'm just an asshole and a liar. (Ok, I admit to being an asshole, but only to people I don't like, and certainly not to customers Ive never met before. Not a liar though, I try to be honorable.) I apologize, having nothing better to do as an option and take his order. Sandwich and coffee to go. Ok, I place the order, pour the coffee into a cup, place it and a lid in front of him, and turn to get the milk and sugar for him when he starts ranting at me that he wants the coffee to go. I try and explain to him that it is to go, (its in a papercup!) but that: A) I don't drink coffee, so I don't know how to mix it B) This isn't Dunkin' Donuts. We actually want people to get the right stuff in their coffee, so we let them mix it themselves. C) Even if the other two didn't apply, he never told me how he wanted his coffee in the first place. At this point several of the customers, all regulars, have decided the floor show is much more interesting than GMA, and so are sitting there shaking their heads trying not to laugh at all of this. His order comes up quickly enough, I bag it, ring him up and get him on the way. He gets as far as the door ebfore he starts hollering at me again, accusing me of locking him in. Why? Dumbass was trying to pull on a door quite clearly marked PUSH. But no, I must have somehow locked the door behind him, despite the fact that he followed me into the resturaunt int the first place. B) I swear, the only thing that keeps us sane is the steady supply of porn several of our customers send to my boss...

The Exodus? About what, three, four months ago I think? Sometimes towards the end of winter and the middle of spring, possibly. The forum used to be a lot busier, but we also had a much smaller group, as well. There was an argument between several folks, the details of which are scarce, and probably not intended for public consumption anyway. Needless to say, a large portion of the the major forum players decided that they'd simply had it, and quit the site. The few of us that remained are scattered here and there, with only a few still consistently posting. And while we do seem to be rebuilding, the atmosphere has changed quite a bit, and it makes it a little harder to keep people around as a result.

I dunno. Most people I've met tend to frown on songfics, if only because its disorienting to the reader, especially if they're unfamiliar with the song or group in question. It's one thing to lead the entire story with a snatch of song, or have a character sing a few words, as I've seen both done well, and have actually used the latter in one of my own fics. (A guy was playing chess with his girlfriend's father, and started singing a heavy metal song quietly to try and mess with the father.) But musicals only really work on stage because you're being presented the full song and music at the time. It doesn't really work in a story, especially if there's no narrative connection. What you might try is having the song in question playing in the back ground, so that the character's are hearing it and noticing it, instead of just dropping it on the reader.

Because they're sixteen year old girls? Seriously, there is only so much advice we can give you on this, though you are entirely free to vent at us. Its what we're here for, after all. You miss her, its really that simple. But I'm fairly sure that you'd both be better served if you told her this, and explained why you're upset about it. Don't assume that she's a mindreader, or that she even thinks there's something wrong in the first place. Like I said earlier, I just had this same squabble with my girlfriend, with the exception of the roles being reversed, in that she was upset about my doings rather than the other way around. I had no frakking clue things were that bad until she threatened to break up with me. Simply don't let it get that far! Give her a phone call, send her an email, don't wait for something as temporary as MSN! Do it in a way so that she can't avoid it, and you know it can't be avoided. That's the only way anything will possibly get done. You love her, you think she loves you, so rather than sitting there and coming up with nightmare scenarios, do something to show it!

All right, let me try and break it down point by point. You guys have gone from being with each other 24/7 waking, to her going out with her friends, who I'm assuming were her friends before and during the first bit of your relationship. And now she's seeing them instead of you? Buck up me bucko, that doesn't spell trouble, that just means she has a life outside of you. For all you know, she's trying to catch up on everything that happened when she was spending time with you. What're you doing when she's out? Sitting there moping? Why not get a life of your own? (Sorry if that sounds harsh, its not meant to.) Get a job, read a book, write some fics, do something. That way the next time you two get together you have something to talk about. If it bugs you that much, send her a text message saying "Hey, just thinking of you", or some such. Take a second to stop, breathe, and go do your own thing for a bit. As for getting jealous of guys trying to mentally undress her, why? Its kind of pointless, isn't it? I mean, I could understand if you were crushing on the girl and she were seeing some other guy who was just a lout who did nothing but feel her up. But instead you're the one going out with her. Instead of getting jealous about it, remember that you're the one she chose to go out with, not them. If you do catch a guy looking at her like that, just smirk at him and think to yourself, "Neener, neener, neener! She's mine suckah!" Just don't stick out your tongue. That's in bad taste. The emo kids, I admit, I tend to agree with you, but she does have a point. It is somewhat amusing to make fun of them in an MST3K kind of way... Seriously man, all it sounds like is that you ran face first into a case of life. It happens. Best thing to do about it is to just live it, and see where it takes you.

I think that sort of sums up your problem right there. Why should you be jealous of them? There really isn't any reason, if all they are doing is talking to each other. You're the one she's going out with; you already 'won' as far as the particular rat race is concerned. If they are doing more than just talking, then you still shouldn't be jealous, you should be angry and disappointed at being betrayed. This isn't some attempt to tell you how to feel, but just advice from someone who recently dealt with this himself. My girlfriend and I spent the weekend arguing about exactly what was going on between me and one of my friends. I was dismissing it as not important, because as far as I could tell I wasn't doing anything wrong. She simply took that to mean that things were even worse than she thought, and that I was trying to hide it from her. It didn't help that she had bad experiences with betrayal in a past distance relationship, or that the girl in question is a rather open masochist. It added up to a series of roundabout coversations, where it was finally revealed exactly how bad the various misconceptions had gotten. The moral of the story? DON'T BEAT AROUND THE BUSH! Talk to her about it, openly and directly. Don't just tell her it bugs you, explain why and that you think she's ignoring you. That at least is the problem that you can deal with.

Good to see a friendly face back around here. Now, do we have any idea where everyone else went?

I take your explanations, and support them with my Internet-fu! Warning: Second link is NSFW, mostly because it will lead to time consuming and loss of productivity. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Sue http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/MarySue http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main...onMarySueTraits http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/MarySueTropes Mary Sue: the Typhoid Mary of the Internet. So famously dreaded that I've heard airheaded bimbos, who wouldn't know a fanwork if you smacked them over the head with the printed collection of this site's archive, refer to other girls as "Mary Sues."

http://www.newsmax.com/insidecover/man_sue...omo_code=65BF-1 A gay man is suing two Christian publishers, on the grounds that their use of the term homosexual when describing sins and lists of sins, has caused him undue emotional distress, distancing from his family, and a wealth of other emotional problems. Now, I'm not going to stand up and defend the Catholic church, which I admit has a fairly crappy track record when it comes to tolerance and adjusting its values. I would think, however, that if reading something causes you emotional distress that maybe you should stop reading it?

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/pressass/20080704...ed-6323e80.html Now, I've got no problem with education about other cultures, but I think this is perhaps taking things a little too far, no?

Eh, probably best to let it go at this point Zyx. The lady thinks herself a jester, but merely plays the fool.

Ah, what a fair and fragiln thin skinned beauty I behold. Had I known that such silly works were meant to be a representative of your very being, I admit I would not have been so cruel. My honor weeps that I did not hone the edge of my rapier wit, the better for my barbs to make a clean cut! You have my regrets, madam. I shall do my utmost to prevent a recurrence in the future of these events! But you must admit, your attempt at parody falls flat when you so misunderstand your target. When the depth of your comprehension can be measured in terms normally reserved for the strangest of quarks you disqualify yourself from the ranks of the satirist and descend instead into the ranks of the ignorant. Do not attempt to quibble with this judgement. Your inability to identify even the most base of figures from the series reveals just how shallow your fountain of knowledge truly is. This error has its magnitude compounded when you consider how falsely you portray ORB's creed, and the rather regrettable attempt to distract with real world politics. The series itself portrays the tragedy of what happens when that ideal is betrayed by Yuna's attempts to grab power from itself; and at the same time why it is important to be able to defend oneself even when conflict is not sought; this case in both series when both the Atlantic Federation and the forces of ZAFT attempt bully ORB into doing their bidding. This has little, if anything to do with the Iraq war or the situation in the Middle East in general, though I supposed a case could be made that this illustrates the position that Isreal occupies; either way I can only assume this is an attempt to draw me into a politically charged battle. I fear this is neither the time, nor the place for such an event. And from your own personal opinion, which you so colorfully stated, I doubt it would matter even if it was. In a much more honest tone of voice, I do suggest getting a grip. You really did do a horrible job of trying to parody the situations of the anime. I admit that I am one of the few fans the series has, since I enjoyed the camp, but that doesn't make some sort of diehard Gundam defender. You failed to name anyone of importance to the series. You tried to nitpick things that weren't even there with that line about space and going to another planet. Instead you just posted some aimless rant, with no good cause, and then immediately took offense on the first people to call you on the mistakes you made. To make matters worse, you posted this travesty on a site dedicated to fandoms and writing, as if you desired to spark such a conflict. (Which, to be honest, I am almost sure was the goal.) Now, as far as you or battlepro, I honestly could care less. Who are you to think you have some importance to me? As far as I am concerned you are nothing more than disembodied presence represented by pixels on the screen. As for battlepro, it is neither a game of skill, nor chance. Hack away, it matters not. But if you're desiring to play the wounded victim, than I shall enjoy first inflicting the wounds.

Calanthee, I have to ask...do you actually watch these series? Or do you just pull these from Something Awful and try to imitate them here? This would require an interstellar drive for one thing, something that is quite lacking from anything in any Gundam universe. Besides, you might as well say the same thing about any other space driven show, from Star Trek to Earth 2. Wha-? At this point I'm not even sure you are watching a Gundam series at all, so much as a bad parody of one. There aren't any mutants, for one thing. The Coordinators are genetically engineered, sort of a analogy for the current scares over genetically engineered food. And both sides are fighting to either cause/prevent (depends on who the good guys are at any given moment) genocide. Since I realized you were talking about Seed Destiny, there's also a strong over tone of free will, and the right to self determination in there... I guess if you consider these to be "stupid political reasons" they are, at least for you. As for me and most folks I know, these tend to be a pretty big damn deal. Actually, the plan was to turn everyone into genectically engineered worker bees after he had conquered the place. It was a pretty blatant attempt to take over and make himself god. I'm assuming then that you haven't seen the first series? Lacus was most definitely a driving force for peace...up until a corrupt government had her entire family killed and turned her into an exile. At which point she realized there was a time to talk things through, and a time to clean house. Since I get the feeling you didn't actually watch the series, I think it is worth pointing out that the Lacus who was flying about singing for peace was a fake installed for propaganda purposes. It was trying to kill the real one that was the first clue that Dullindal was evil. *Sigh* Ok, ORB's creed is, and I'm paraphrasing somewhat, "We shall not interfere with the affairs of other nations. We will not invade our neighbors, nor shall tolerate and invasion of our shores." There is actually a little monologue where Cagalli's father point blank explains that pacifism is a fine ideal, and one that she should up hold, but that as the leader of her country it is in fact her duty to defend the ideals of others. If ORB didn't have the means to protect itself, it would just become a victim of its own creed. And Kira's I Object! scene was just damned awesome for being pulled off the way it was. Oh, and it's not anima, it's anime... Anima, as defined by wikipedia: Review Score: 3/10. Nice attempts at humor, but failure to properly summarize makes the mockery ring hollow. Judge's suggestion: Next time watch the damned show!

Plot bunnies from hell? I've got an entire metaverse trying to write itself out in my head at given moment. Just scenes, conversations, and ideas... The characters just never shut up! It's especially bad, since they're etiher romance or SF action, and sometimes both at the same time...

Hmm, Amber and Ashes by Margaret Weis. Then going to work my way back through the 1630 series.

Welcome back SJ. Its been boring around here without you.

I am afraid I must agree. Ah well, when we are, I have the first chapter ready for posting.

Ok. So are we ready to start this then?

Hahaha, not a problem. I admit most of my legal aidness was cribbed from Judge Judy episodes, but from the sounds of things you guys pretty much have everything in hand. The most important part is to make sure all the paperwork backs up your story, and if that's what the lease says, its not even a case.

Pretty much what Greenwizard said, with a few bit extras: As long as your friend has some form of proof that she issued the warning, it's been issued, even if they refused to sign for the letter. The person who (attempted to) delivered it should have some form of record that says whether or not it was delivered or refused. As for the furnishings, they can be sued if they try to remove it, immediately for return or for compensation if they have already disposed of it. Again, it would help if your friend had proof of ownership, such as reciepts or a statement in the lease securing the trailer's contents upon eviction. As for any furniture they may have purchased and installed themselves, that they are allowed to take. As for replacing anything they might have thrown out, I have no clue.

I'm looking for a few good liberal blogs to balance the conservative ones I read. Any takers? I'd prefer something along the lines of the Daily Kos, which I check already, and has at least an open and upfront presentation of opinions. I'd prefer to avoid something like MoveOn, which is little more than a propaganda machine intent on portraying anything Rightwing/Conservative/Republican as being a vicious tool of evil.

Zyx, even if I agreed with you, and I do on some points, I still would have posted my reply in the exact same manner. You won't get Utopia from some guy just standing up and going, "This will make the world perfect! We must do it!" unless some other guy has the balls to stand up next and say, "Shut up before I bust a cap into your ass!". From there you just let everyone pick sides and hammer it out between them. That's basically waht we're doing, sans gunfire.

*Sniffs the air* Eh? Someone is planning a man-made utopia? Again? *Clears throat, cracks knuckles, and stretches.* Hold on to your hats ladies and gentlemen. There's debating to be done! Now, for the sake of convenience, I'm going to intersperse my replies with what I'm replying to. Needless to say I got a few things I disagree with you on when it comes to all of this, and think I can point out where you are making a few key mistakes. Not to say it isn't a bad idea trying to live in peace and harmony, just that as soon as your definition disagrees with someone else's you've already failed. Now, on with the argument! First mistake! Determining that everyone has the same goals, and defines those goals in the same way. Love I'll take, and appreciation as well. Decent enough things. I care about people, and want to be recognized for my efforts on behalf of myself and those I strive for. Not quite sure I want some form of control over them, though, especially since I sure as hell don't want anyone to have that much control over me. (To me there is a difference between following the laws because they are the law, and following the laws because the consequences aren't appealing.) Freedom now, that's a good thing. Something to be a little wary of, since if I have total freedom then I'm sure my neighbor has total freedom, and one of us might just be inclined to abuse that if we got into a disagreement. Safety I don't mind so much, so long as it doesn't interfere with my comings and goings. As for adventure, forget about it! I know adventure, and it ain't pretty. Adventure is sleeping in the mud because the tent sprung a leak. Adventure is pissing your pants in terror, but charging bravely forward to avoid getting crushed by the guys behind you. Give me a good cup of tea, a nice book, and a comfy couch. That's how I want to spend my days. So how do we accomplish this? Not to sound cliché but it's not that hard if we all work together, in this scenario at least. In our world we'd still have to deal with overpopulation and such. Let's say everyone in our imaginary world works together to love, appreciate and keep everyone safe? This I think, would be no problem at all. But freedom here would mean that you would not even be subject to a government. This wouldn't be needed if everyone worked together for love and such. Of course with every man working for the collective as such there'd need to be rules everyone knew. -No stealing -No unprovoked murder -etc. So wait, there's no government...but there's a collective? And it has rules? Who is going to be enforcing these rules? If everyone was willing to follow them in the first place, we wouldn't need them, they'd be instinctive. And how do we determine who broke the rules? Or will we just be accepting any accusation? In that case my neighbor (the one with 90" HD tv, not the one with the old black and white box) stole my tv! Again, there's no government, but there are punishments? Who decides which one gets handed down? Who enforces them and carries them out? Who is going to be protecting me against vigilantes? I know I can count on my good friends Smith and Wesson, but they sleep when I do. There's a reason why people use the 'non-existant' definition. Define 'cheating'. My girlfriend and I have already had it out over this one. I define it as exchanging physical intimacies with another. She defines it as merely being physical, or forming an emotional attachment. Whose definition do we use? This one I actually agree with. Why the hell should I share? That deprives me of time spent with my own belongings. Wouldn't it make more sense to instead aid my neighbors in acquiring their own possessions? Admittedly, food and such should be shared in time of famine to preserve the species, but my books are my books, and I want to read them when I want to. How will wrath increase suffering? All you have to do is make sure you destroy the individual's family as well as the individual. If you're willing to go for one, I don't see why you shouldn't finish the job. If everything was so easy to get, what would the point be? People need to want something before they will try and earn it. Seeing others with it will just motivate them to work harder. Excuse me? How can you demand recognition for your efforts and then claim to not be proud? I believe the term you may have meant was 'conceited'. There is conceit, where a man boasts of an ability that he does not have. Then there is arrogance, where a man boasts of the abilities that he has. And then there is pride, where a man exercises his abilities, but does need to make them known to others, allowing them to speak for themselves. Pride is the bedrock of human nature, it is what drives us. We want to feel proud, we want to make others proud of our accomplisments and of knowing us. This does not prevent us from knowing our duty, let alone doing it. Instead it provokes us into doing quite the opposite, for there is no pride in the failing of others, only in success and achieving the goals laid out before us!