Question Things Found in the Whateley Lost and Found

Nope. I will admit that I took some liberties in the description, as it isn't actually described in detail in the original. However, this description seems... appropriate given both the owner, and the author of the series. Indeed, the lack of a florid description of it is a bit out of character for this writer, for all that he spoke in his many editorials and manifestos of the need for SF and fantasy to focus more on characterization over the glitz and gee whiz of the Golden Age authors...

I will say that it predates Judge Dredd by a bit less than a decade. Also, while this series is mostly independent of the author's other work, is does play a role in the larger Cycle even though the contemporary setting is out of sync with most of the other parts.

Schol-R-LEA wrote: Nope. I will admit that I took some liberties in the description, as it isn't actually described in detail in the original. However, this description seems... appropriate given both the owner, and the author of the series. Indeed, the lack of a florid description of it is a bit out of character for this writer, for all that he spoke in his many editorials and manifestos of the need for SF and fantasy to focus more on characterization over the glitz and gee whiz of the Golden Age authors...

I will say that it predates Judge Dredd by a bit less than a decade. Also, while this series is mostly independent of the author's other work, is does play a role in the larger Cycle even though the contemporary setting is out of sync with most of the other parts.

A tough one to pin down, as there are numerous needle guns in fiction. British author publishing in the 1970s with a major Cycle of works? That rules out Pierre Christin and Valérian.

Would it belong to Jerry Cornelius?

I haven't read enough of Metal Hurlant/Heavy Metal to know if similar weapons were featured in Airtight Garage, but some nasty variations on the theme show up in Heavy Metal.

Yes, the Needle Gun was Cornelius' version of the Black Sword in some stories. Others had it as a 'vibra-gun' instead, but either way, it was more than just an ordinary weapon, as Jerry was the mid-20th century incarnation of the Eternal Champion.

It first appears in the opening scene of The Final Programme, in pretty much a word-for-word retelling of "The Dreaming City" (the first Elric of Melniboné story in print and one of Michael Moorcock's first published stories, depicting the fall of Melniboné when Elric, the rightful emperor, went to unseat the usurper Yyrkoon), but with a 1960s London Mod Scene setting and aesthetic. And trust me, that was the least peculiar part of the book.

I should add that the ending of The Final Programme is weird. And I mean Twin Peaks, Zardoz, End of Evangelion. series finale of The Prisoner weird. But really, really cool. I understand that there is a film adaptation of the novel out there, but I've never seen it.

My impression is that Moorcock is a lot like Alan Moore in some ways, which might be why they seem to hate each other's guts. He's also sort of like David Lynch, and not surprisingly, they don't get along either, AFAIK. Oh, and Moorcock apparently put a 'Captain Cornelius' in at least one Dr Who novel he'd written under contract as a long-time foe of The Doctor whom we somehow just hadn't met before...

A 160cm long wooden stick with a thickened end bearing a few small projections. One could almost see it as being some sort of stylized broom, in an abstract Art sort of way.

A gold metal statuette of a female humanoid holding a stylized lightning bolt.

A boxy chromed gun with a rectangular block hanging down in front if the trigger and a red oblong aperture for its muzzle.

A pair of impractically large disco ball earrings.

Oh, and both of these are still outstanding:

A collection of issues of Annelen der Physik from 1905. A careful review of them will find that four of the articles which ought to appear in them are missing, though it doesn't seem as if any pages were removed, and the issues' tables of contents don't list them.

A large silver key, decorated with roses and ivy vines. Some of the vines are chased in gold, copper and bronze, and are tangled in a way that gives the impression that they grew rather than being carved.

Schol-R-LEA wrote: A 160cm long wooden stick with a thickened end bearing a few small projections. One could almost see it as being some sort of stylized broom, in an abstract Art sort of way.

To serve man.

Schol-R-LEA wrote: A collection of issues of Annelen der Physik from 1905. A careful review of them will find that four of the articles which ought to appear in them are missing, though it doesn't seem as if any pages were removed, and the issues' tables of contents don't list them.

What you'd expect to find when you travel through time to execute an unassuming Swiss patent clerk. What they didn't expect? Now that is a different kettle of cats. ("Target One", Frederick Pohl)

A angular gun which refuses to shoot unless someone is mentally disturbed. Very cyberpunk in appearance.

Astrodragon wrote:

Schol-R-LEA wrote: A 160cm long wooden stick with a thickened end bearing a few small projections. One could almost see it as being some sort of stylized broom, in an abstract Art sort of way.

To serve man.

Za?

No, seriously, I have no idea what you are referring to. Especially if it is a Twilight Zone reference, because I don't remember anything like that in it that episode.

What I had in mind? Far, far more obscure than TZ.

null0trooper wrote:

Schol-R-LEA wrote: A collection of issues of Annelen der Physik from 1905. A careful review of them will find that four of the articles which ought to appear in them are missing, though it doesn't seem as if any pages were removed, and the issues' tables of contents don't list them.

What you'd expect to find when you travel through time to execute an unassuming Swiss patent clerk. What they didn't expect? Now that is a different kettle of cats. ("Target One", Frederick Pohl)

I wasn't thinking of any specific story, but otherwise, yes.

Some Outstanding L&F Items, plus a repost of the one I did earlier today in case it was lost among Schol's ramblings:
- A large handgun with the word 'replica' written on the side.

- A small blue crystal in the shape of a sphere. May have properties allowing teleportation between worlds and the animation of plastic models.

- A kermit the frog doll. It makes a great leader.

- A Smith and Wesson M1917 'Hand Ejector Second Model' with a modified sight blade and a chunk missing from the grip

- A Kunai with a chain attached to the back

- A sword with a hilt made from bone, and a bunch of strange runes along the blade.

- A pair of metal die, built to hang from the ceiling of a vehicle. They do not have standard die symbols on their sides.

- A business card with Paul Allen written on it

- A silver Rolex Submariner. It appears to be magnetic. You catch a whiff of vodka from the metal.

- A blue box with a triangular key-hole in it. The cube appears seamless, and is made from a shiny metal simular to aluminium in appearance

- A silver lighter with a skull on it. Stinks of cheap beer, cigarettes, spilled lighter fluid and blood.

- A copy of Morris Dancing Monthly

- The front half of a cat. The cat seems perfectly happy, and seems to be unhindered by the lack of it's hindquarters. It does everything a cat with both halves of it's body would do, including grooming itself, and does not seem to have any medical complications. Otherwise, it is missing it's entire rear half.
- A moose head, slightly ratty, and constantly falling off the wall onto unsuspecting individuals.

- A small, green clay dragon with a pen and notepad

I'll rewrite the next one, due to my inexperience with bullet calibres:
- A supermassive revolver of hand-cannon size, with wood grips and a iron body. It has a four-shot capacity, and each bullet is a 22mm round. Suspiciously, despite only holding four rounds, it has been seen to fire six without reloading...must be supernaturally enhanced.

- A blue bangle that occasionally glows

- A gold computer chip with a eye motif

- Three keys, one copper, one silver and one crystal

- A robotic head that looks like half chewed pencil eraser

- A walking cane which doubles as a grappling hook and a flare gun

- A angular gun which refuses to shoot unless someone is mentally disturbed. Very cyberpunk in appearance.

CrazyMinh wrote: - A silver Rolex Submariner. It appears to be magnetic. You catch a whiff of vodka from the metal.

This is one of the items that Q gave James Bond, during the Connery years, i think.

I can't remember which of the films it was in, though i vaguely remember it being used to undo the zip of the dress of the "Good Love Interest" character in the closing scene.

Correct!!! I remember watching Connery’s depiction of the famous spy all the time when I was in High School. The recent Bonds have been quite meh. Certainly not as many fun gadgets!!!

I recognize Harry Potter's wand, but most of the rest of these I don't recognize.

One pair of silver slippers found near the stack of gold donated by Gloria Guzman.

The moose head that keeps falling from the wall... I have a vague memory of it being from some old adventure game? Possibly one of the "Leisure Suit Larry" series?

The cane/grappling hook thing reminds me of Daredevil, but I don't think he ever included the flare functionality into it. Perhaps Old Bruce from Batman Beyond? He did walk with a cane, he was always fond of gadgetry, and grappling hooks were kinda his thing.

The hanging dice might have been from one of the Space Quest games, probably "Roger Wilco and the Time Rippers."

Nope, Nope, Nope, Nope, Nope. All wrong.

Maybe this will help: 'I learn English from a book'.

CrazyMinh wrote: - The front half of a cat. The cat seems perfectly happy, and seems to be unhindered by the lack of it's hindquarters. It does everything a cat with both halves of it's body would do, including grooming itself, and does not seem to have any medical complications. Otherwise, it is missing it's entire rear half.

Did Cat and Dog get themselves separated?

Nope. The cat one is rather obscure. Kudos to whoever can do the detective work to figure it out.

Schol-R-LEA wrote:

Astrodragon wrote:

Schol-R-LEA wrote: A 160cm long wooden stick with a thickened end bearing a few small projections. One could almost see it as being some sort of stylized broom, in an abstract Art sort of way.

To serve man.

Za?

No, seriously, I have no idea what you are referring to. Especially if it is a Twilight Zone reference, because I don't remember anything like that in it that episode.

What I had in mind? Far, far more obscure than TZ.

I'm still curious about what Astrodragon thought I was referring to. I will say that what I had in mind has an indirect connection to the newly added artwork, in that a certain basic polygon is significant in both. And 'crystal' plays a role as well, though it was a life-threatening one (indeed, a life-ending one, at the last page of the story, though the character's extended survival was surprising. Must have been the horny horse urine.)

Also, the silver key? Let's just say I am rather ashamed to have taken so long in getting around to reading a certain author's books. If we ever meet again, I think I will have to apologize to her.

Schol-R-LEA wrote:

Schol-R-LEA wrote:

Astrodragon wrote:

Schol-R-LEA wrote: A 160cm long wooden stick with a thickened end bearing a few small projections. One could almost see it as being some sort of stylized broom, in an abstract Art sort of way.

To serve man.

Za?

No, seriously, I have no idea what you are referring to. Especially if it is a Twilight Zone reference, because I don't remember anything like that in it that episode.

What I had in mind? Far, far more obscure than TZ.

I'm still curious about what Astrodragon thought I was referring to. I will say that what I had in mind has an indirect connection to the newly added artwork, in that a certain basic polygon is significant in both. And 'crystal' plays a role as well, though it was a life-threatening one (indeed, a life-ending one, at the last page of the story, though the character's extended survival was surprising. Must have been the horny horse urine.)

Also, the silver key? Let's just say I am rather ashamed to have taken so long in getting around to reading a certain author's books. If we ever meet again, I think I will have to apologize to her.

I was referrring to the 'sticks' used by the aliens in the short story 'To Serve Man'

some more hints. The * symbols are letters in key words for the hints you will have to figure out:
- The moose head is hung in a T***r.
- The dice are gold, and belong to a lovable r***e
- The keys are needed to unlock 3 h****n t***s
- The cane belongs to a villain. It's also a **n
- The robot head is a s***e
- the cat will have to be found with h*****c d*******e w**k
- The cyberpunk gun is linked wirelessly to the s****e system
- The revolver is called the s********

This might make it easier

Astrodragon wrote:

Schol-R-LEA wrote:

Schol-R-LEA wrote:

Astrodragon wrote:

Schol-R-LEA wrote: A 160cm long wooden stick with a thickened end bearing a few small projections. One could almost see it as being some sort of stylized broom, in an abstract Art sort of way.

To serve man.

Za?

No, seriously, I have no idea what you are referring to. Especially if it is a Twilight Zone reference, because I don't remember anything like that in it that episode.

What I had in mind? Far, far more obscure than TZ.

I'm still curious about what Astrodragon thought I was referring to.

I was referrring to the 'sticks' used by the aliens in the short story 'To Serve Man'

Ah, I am not familiar with the original story. Indeed, I was unaware it had been a short story originally, knowing only of the television production, and I do not recall any such items in that performance. My apologies.

But then, fair is fair, as I doubt anyone here is familiar with the series I was referring to (other than possibly Sir Lee, who I seem to recall has discussed it, or perhaps it was the related series about the sex doll, I dunno), and even then it is such an obscure item (though one with significant impact on the back story, and related to much more substantive devices later) that even those who do probably would need to revisit the comic to be certain. I probably shouldn't be going quite so out of left field as I am now. Even with the hint I gave, it may be too much to ask of anyone, really.

I will mention that the series has a major (but not main) character who shares a name with a Whateley POV character.

CrazyMinh wrote: - A Smith and Wesson M1917 'Hand Ejector Second Model' with a modified sight blade and a chunk missing from the grip

How did Professor Jones manage to lose it this time after getting it back from Belloq?

CrazyMinh wrote: - A sword with a hilt made from bone, and a bunch of strange runes along the blade.

A cursed shortsword?

CrazyMinh wrote: - A silver lighter with a skull on it. Stinks of cheap beer, cigarettes, spilled lighter fluid and blood.

Property of one Barney Ross?

CrazyMinh wrote: - A moose head, slightly ratty, and constantly falling off the wall onto unsuspecting individuals.

CrazyMinh wrote: - A walking cane which doubles as a grappling hook and a flare gun

And for James West it brings all the girls to the yard.

Now I'm wondering what is the supposed series about a sex doll I possibly mentioned... the only ones that come to mind are Fictionmania-style stories which are all, to the best of my knowledge, stand-alones and not related to anything else.

null0trooper wrote:

CrazyMinh wrote: - A Smith and Wesson M1917 'Hand Ejector Second Model' with a modified sight blade and a chunk missing from the grip

How did Professor Jones manage to lose it this time after getting it back from Belloq?

CrazyMinh wrote: - A sword with a hilt made from bone, and a bunch of strange runes along the blade.

A cursed shortsword?

CrazyMinh wrote: - A silver lighter with a skull on it. Stinks of cheap beer, cigarettes, spilled lighter fluid and blood.

Property of one Barney Ross?

CrazyMinh wrote: - A moose head, slightly ratty, and constantly falling off the wall onto unsuspecting individuals.

CrazyMinh wrote: - A walking cane which doubles as a grappling hook and a flare gun

And for James West it brings all the girls to the yard.

1. Yes. It is Indiana Jones's pistol which he loses at the beginning of Raiders of the Lost Ark
2. Even I've forgotten what I was talking about. Forget it people. That lost and found is off limits
3. No
4. Yes. Amazing those Japanese Moose Heads
5. No. Unless you clarify what you meant there, I can't tell what it is. As far as I know, no.

CrazyMinh wrote: 5. No. Unless you clarify what you meant there, I can't tell what it is. As far as I know, no.

James West in "Wild, Wild, West" had a cane which doubled as a grappling hook and a flare gun.
He was also the designated girl magnet.

No, though that movie was really good. It's more of a contemporary thing. Full of monsters and scythes. It's been mentioned in these stories actually!

Sir Lee wrote: Now I'm wondering what is the supposed series about a sex doll I possibly mentioned... the only ones that come to mind are Fictionmania-style stories which are all, to the best of my knowledge, stand-alones and not related to anything else.

I must have been mistaken, then - though it is possible you knew the first webcomic but not the second, which wasn't so much a sequel as in parallel (universes). They are related, as was another series more directly associated with alternate versions of the first series' characters, but the way they do probably only makes sense to the author.

And maybe not even her. The first story apparently came out of a dream that she became obsessed with chronicling, and she's admitted that while the whole story was sort of known from the outset, she didn't fully understand it herself. Which is part of why the art for the original series was so odd - she had no experience as a comic artist when she began, but she was driven to tell the story, and she'd had done some basic artwork for some 2D platformer games, so she used on old package she still had from her game developing days.

CrazyMinh wrote: No, though that movie was really good. It's more of a contemporary thing. Full of monsters and scythes. It's been mentioned in these stories actually!

Oh, derp. That's Torchwick's cane, obviously.

CrazyMinh wrote: No, though that movie was really good. It's more of a contemporary thing. Full of monsters and scythes. It's been mentioned in these stories actually!

You know, I think you are the first person I have ever seen to describe the "Wild, Wild West" movie as "very good."

Kettlekorn wrote:

CrazyMinh wrote: No, though that movie was really good. It's more of a contemporary thing. Full of monsters and scythes. It's been mentioned in these stories actually!

Oh, derp. That's Torchwick's cane, obviously.

Am I That obvious?? Yes, it's Roman Torchwick's Cane from RWBY.

Sir Lee wrote:

CrazyMinh wrote: No, though that movie was really good. It's more of a contemporary thing. Full of monsters and scythes. It's been mentioned in these stories actually!

You know, I think you are the first person I have ever seen to describe the "Wild, Wild West" movie as "very good."

Hey!!! I appreciate a good steampunk movie!!! I mean, cyberpunk is better, but steam-powered technology is classic!!!

CrazyMinh wrote:

Sir Lee wrote:

CrazyMinh wrote: No, though that movie was really good. It's more of a contemporary thing. Full of monsters and scythes. It's been mentioned in these stories actually!

You know, I think you are the first person I have ever seen to describe the "Wild, Wild West" movie as "very good."

Hey!!! I appreciate a good steampunk movie!!! I mean, cyberpunk is better, but steam-powered technology is classic!!!

Don't you mean TV show?

null0trooper wrote:

CrazyMinh wrote:

Sir Lee wrote:

CrazyMinh wrote: No, though that movie was really good. It's more of a contemporary thing. Full of monsters and scythes. It's been mentioned in these stories actually!

You know, I think you are the first person I have ever seen to describe the "Wild, Wild West" movie as "very good."

Hey!!! I appreciate a good steampunk movie!!! I mean, cyberpunk is better, but steam-powered technology is classic!!!

Don't you mean TV show?

Err... Wild Wild West is a movie. Wait, there's a follow-up TV show???

*le sigh*...

"The Wild, Wild West" was a classic TV show back in the Sixties, from 65 to 69. The main character was named "James West" because the "elevator pitch" of the show was "James Bond in the Old West," jumping on the 007 craze that was going around back then. There were also two TV movies in the late seventies.

The 1999 movie starring Will Smith was based on the series. Casting Will Smith caused a bit of controversy, because the original James West (played by Robert Conrad) was, well, not black. Fandom of the show adopted essentially two different approaches to deal with the discrepancy:
1. The fan theory that "James West" is just a codename, and that there was more than one agent that used that codename. (A similar fan theory has been used to explain the longevity of the 007 franchise and the considerable differences in personality displayed by the various actors who played the character).
2. Simply ignore the 1999 movie as non-canon. The main reason supporting that approach, believe it or not, was not the casting of Will Smith. The main reason was the giant mechanical spider that producer Jon Peters insisted on putting on the film (after trying and failing to put one in pretty much every film he produced. )
(This was the guy who wanted to produce a Superman movie where Superman was a dark and broody character, wearing black, and did not fly. Seriously. Somehow Kevin Smith was attached to the project as screenwriter... you can find around the Web his tale of the bizarre conversations he had with Peters, where he attempted to salvage something that had at least a vague resemblance to Superman...)

Right. The movie did have it's issues. I mean, the story was shit, the humour was shit, the characters: also shit...but the special effects were pretty good, and the props were well done. I last watched that movie when I was eleven or twelve, so forgive me for not remembering the name of the main character.

I'll have to look up that old TV show however. I don't think Netflix stocks it here in Oz (we don't have half the content that's available in the US due to copyright laws and conflicting distribution contracts (Stan might stock it, and it might show up at some point on Free-To-Air, so I'll keep a eye out)), but I'll see if I can find a DVD copy on a online store somewhere.

I've also got some new ones for you guys. Here is a bunch of fresh items to show up in the Lost and Found area. Boy, this place must be a labyrinthian warehouse, with strange items showing up on a daily basis!!!

- A chain with a bunch of worn dog tags on them. There are a variety, so telling which one belongs to the owner is difficult to determine. They appear to be from both WWI and WWII, which seems to indicate that the owner fought through both wars, considering that there appears to be two tags belonging to the same owner. They're quite old, with tarnish suggesting that they were made decades ago. Bloodstains are present, from both the owner and from others. They have the same scent as the skull-lighter that came into the lost and found earlier. Both seem to be from the same owner.

- A massive battlesuit, with a shoulder-mounted dual MLRS pod, heavy armour, and a massive double-barrelled cannon of some sort. A symbol of a circle bisected by a line joining a smaller circle touching the top of the first circle is displayed prominently on it's chest. It has a boxy head, with a antenna attached to the side. Strange alien writing is written on the side. A massive circular unit of some kind is mounted on the back, possibly a particle accelerator of some kind. On it's back, below the circular drum is a cooling system of some kind. Locking pins on the feet (which are shaped like hooves) suggest that the suit needs to brace severe recoil for the cannon it carries. The suit is about 2 to 2.5 times the height of a average adult male.

- A elegant gold circlet meant to be worn around the head. It has a thin headband made up of organic vine-like curls, which then connects to a emblem shaped like a rising sun, made up from slender spikes. In the centre is a blue gem, which a magic user to tell to be holding innate magic. When worn, the user can throw rays of fire from their hands.

- A flute made from bone. The skull of a small bird has been moulded into the pipe, becoming part of it. When played, nearby people become terrified by magical means.

A gold-colored crown with "CTRL+C" in red on the front.

Schol-R-LEA wrote: A gold-colored crown with "CTRL+C" in red on the front.

Wouldn't that make it difficult to brush and floss?

Schol-R-LEA wrote: A gold-colored crown with "CTRL+C" in red on the front.

The Copycap, from the intro sequence of Grrl Power.

Sir Lee wrote: A collection of car keys with unusual logos:
- One could be mistaken for the logo of a brand of rum, or possibly an e-mail client software. - The Batmobile (null0trooper)
- One with the silhouette of a chesspiece; - KITT (E.E.Nalley)
- One with an elongated "M" with curved legs; - The Mach 5 (E.E.Nalley)
- One with a circular white roundel bordered in blue, featuring three black bird silhouettes around a red upward-pointing chevron;
- One with a roaring feline head in a circle - The Thundertank (E.E.Nalley)
- One with a borderless circle with an inscribed, down-pointing arrowhead; the part of the circle above the arrowhead is blue, and the rest is red.

No takers for the remaining two car keys? OK, let's have it...

- The first one is the Saint's Hirondel, logo as portrayed on the cover of Automobile Quarterly, 1st Quarter 1972 .
- The other one is Michel Vaillant's car key, from the homonym French comic series. Obviously he drives a Vaillante, a car made by his family's company. The logo,is shown prominently in the comic and also in the 2003 movie .

A suitcase. Contents include a tuxedo, a silver windbreaker, a box of cigars, a U.S. Navy officer's uniform and an weird hand-sized electronic gizmo that looks like it was made of LEGO pieces.

Kettlekorn wrote:

Schol-R-LEA wrote: A gold-colored crown with "CTRL+C" in red on the front.

The Copycap, from the intro sequence of Grrl Power.

Yep.


A scratched up 78 RPM gramophone record, stained with a mixture of inks. The song on it is a rather merry tune.

A thin metal bar with two ball-shaped ends. The owner used to put a lot of stock in its importance, but he's long since transcended that particular crutch, as well as the limits he once believed he had due to it. He's certainly become a better person than he was when he needed it.

A particularly large, gnarled, and grotesque avocado, and two dinner forks with blood on them.

A pot of extremely thick and highly radioactive coffee, sitting on a huge stack of print-out fanfold paper with a lot of indecipherable COBOL code.

An extremely macho looking set of orange leather bandoleer straps attached to an similarly colored banana hammockloin cloth, stained with gun oil, sized for a man standing about 188 cm and smelling faintly of vodka, vermouth, and haggis just kidding about the last part -after all, sheep's intestines sounds revolting to the person in question - but it is a clue which should shake, rather than stir, a memory.

Kettlekorn wrote: I was rummaging through the lost and found bin and found a battered black top hat with motorcycle or maybe aviation goggles wrapped around it. They've got silver frames and black leather backing, and the lenses are the wide triangular sort, not circular. I found some loose hairs inside the hat that are definitely not blond.

Tracked down the owner. They belong to Linda Perry of 4 Non Blondes.

Sir Lee wrote: A suitcase. Contents include a tuxedo, a silver windbreaker, a box of cigars, a U.S. Navy officer's uniform and an weird hand-sized electronic gizmo that looks like it was made of LEGO pieces.

Quantum Leap

Astrodragon wrote:

Sir Lee wrote: A suitcase. Contents include a tuxedo, a silver windbreaker, a box of cigars, a U.S. Navy officer's uniform and an weird hand-sized electronic gizmo that looks like it was made of LEGO pieces.

Quantum Leap

Wait, that’s from the show with Captain Archer???

A revolver. Careful examination indicates that while it has been fired many times, only on chamber has ever been loaded.

A 1911 Colt .45, and a blood-stained US flag. If you know the scene, you might wonder the reasons why he did what he did, too, though a better mind than yours couldn't detect the dark pattern to it that knight - all he could do was step outside to give some privacy.

CrazyMinh wrote:

Astrodragon wrote:

Sir Lee wrote: A suitcase. Contents include a tuxedo, a silver windbreaker, a box of cigars, a U.S. Navy officer's uniform and an weird hand-sized electronic gizmo that looks like it was made of LEGO pieces.

Quantum Leap

Wait, that’s from the show with Captain Archer???

Yeah, but the suitcase belongs to Rear Admiral Al Calavicci. All the clothes mentioned are stuff he wore on the series pilot. I thought that describing the Ziggy link was making it too easy...

Valentine wrote: A revolver. Careful examination indicates that while it has been fired many times, only on chamber has ever been loaded.

Does it belong to Rally Vincent of Gunsmith Cats?

Schol-R-LEA wrote: A 1911 Colt .45, and a blood-stained US flag. If you know the scene, you might wonder the reasons why he did what he did, too, though a better mind than yours couldn't detect the dark pattern to it that knight - all he could do was step outside to give some privacy.

for clarification, that's a M1911, right???

Uhm, yes, sorry for that. Model 1911. I know next to nothing about firearms.

(Actually, the original didn't specify the type of gun, nor was the artwork clear enough to determine the model, as all that was visible was a still-smoking silhouette. I doubt the author would have known, or cared, as the type wasn't relevant. However, it seemed the type most likely to have been used by the individual who would have owned it, who was identified only by their rank and actions, as well as based on the time period of the story - I am fairly certain that they were no longer standard issue by then, as that had been a bit of a controversy around that time, but it would still fit what little is said about the character. The sole picture in which he sort of appears is currently on a relevant trope page, I should add.)

null0trooper wrote:

Valentine wrote: A revolver. Careful examination indicates that while it has been fired many times, only on chamber has ever been loaded.

Does it belong to Rally Vincent of Gunsmith Cats?

It's a bit older than that.

Valentine wrote:

null0trooper wrote:

Valentine wrote: A revolver. Careful examination indicates that while it has been fired many times, only on chamber has ever been loaded.

Does it belong to Rally Vincent of Gunsmith Cats?

It's a bit older than that.

From about 1880 or so? Belonging to one John Watson, MD, late of the Surgical College of Her Imperial Majesty Queen Victoria's army of Afghanistan and India before being invalided out for a leg injury, perhaps?

Schol-R-LEA wrote:

Valentine wrote:

null0trooper wrote:

Valentine wrote: A revolver. Careful examination indicates that while it has been fired many times, only on chamber has ever been loaded.

Does it belong to Rally Vincent of Gunsmith Cats?

It's a bit older than that.

From about 1880 or so? Belonging to one John Watson, MD, late of the Surgical College of Her Imperial Majesty Queen Victoria's army of Afghanistan and India before being invalided out for a leg injury, perhaps?

Not that old. Split the difference or so.

Sir Lee wrote: *le sigh*...

"The Wild, Wild West" was a classic TV show back in the Sixties, from 65 to 69. The main character was named "James West" because the "elevator pitch" of the show was "James Bond in the Old West," jumping on the 007 craze that was going around back then. There were also two TV movies in the late seventies.

The 1999 movie starring Will Smith was based on the series. [...]

Perhaps I should mention that in the "Mighty Art" PBEM campaign (not using any specific rule system, so it was less a classic tabletop RPG than a joint storytelling project) which I mentioned long, long ago in this very thread vis a vis the Holy Grail and a certain noble Prussian family bid to "Do the Devil's Work" regarding it (look up the novel The War Hound and the World's Pain and its sequels for context), the head of the Secret Service who had sent young Tom off to join the group being collected by Mr. Holmes and Mr. Bond ( Mycroft Holmes was the main organizer of this version of the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen in his role as the current 'M' - part of why the League was being formed was because the British government needed someone to fill the void left by his brother's apparent death - but Campion Bond was his right hand man despite both of them being anti-social pricks who hated each others' guts) was none other than the original James West. I seem to recall that it was mentioned that Sawyer's first partner was the Will Smith version of James West, who was described as have been an orphan whom the senior West had adopted.

Too many digressions, dear.

When a game starts with The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen investigating the spread of supernatural disasters across London following the Whitechapel Murders as 'explained' in From Hell , while deliberately messing with the canon by combining the versions of the characters and stories from the graphic novels with those from the two films (which were so loosely based on them that they were barely recognizable), then throws in Lovecraft, Moorcock, the original Gaston Leroux novel version of the Phantom of the Opera (who admittedly did appear in Moore's original LoEG regarding their encounters with Le Hommes Mysterieux, the French counterparts to the League led by Fantomas and Arsenne Lupin, Sr.), and the Highlander series, with liberal additions from anywhere and everywhere (including an OOC appearance by Roland the Headless Thompson Gunner, who got told off by the ghost of Alan Quatermain for anachronistically being there at the turn of the century - that was something I sent to the discussion list for a joke, though, not actually part of the game), things get... weird.

Still too many digressions, I'm afraid,

Man, Sawyer really pissed off Holmes at his debriefing when he basically said, with a naive bluntness, that the debacle at Oscar Wilde's farewell party was due to a conspiracy among the Freemasons... with Mycroft sitting there, his Masonic lodge pin on his tie... and the fact that it was true didn't really help, as neither of them had any idea what was actually going on. Tom's talk about getting mysterious messages from Quatermain's ghost didn't help his case, either. I forget who was playing Sawyer, but he and Becca (the gamemaster, who was running Mycroft as a NPC) had a ball with that exchange.

Was... was that entire paragraph a digression?

Meanwhile, Captain Nemo (whom I was playing, in addition the young Graf Maximilian von Bek, who admittedly didn't know know at the time of the brawl that his brother had died back in Germany, and that he was about to inherit the family title and the supernatural responsibilities he was running away from) was busy reading up on Freemasonry to see if he could figure out what the ones who attacked Lavinia Whateley were doing, as well as talking it out with his first mate Mr. Ishmael . The normally stolid Nemo was a little freaked out, because some of what happened during the fight was a little too reminiscent of the time he came too close to that sunken city in the south Pacific, or the disastrous expedition he led into the mountainous regions of Antarctica (the latter is actually mentioned in the back-story parts of the LoEG graphic novels, BTW, and I understand that in the later books his daughter Janni, who inherited the role of Captain Nemo after his death, travels to the Mountains of Madness alongside fellow pirate Broad Arrow Jack following her father's notes to find some lost something or other; I added the former, as I figured Prince Dakkar in his younger days was the sort to dismiss the stories about Ry'leh as superstition until he tried sailing the Nautilus there himself)...

You're doing this on purpose now, aren't you.

(For those confused by the reference to Nemo as Dakkar: while his real identity wasn't given in 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, it was revealed in Jules Verne's 1874 sequel Mysterious Island that Nemo was a dispossessed Indian prince whose family had been made outlaws by the British for his father's role in the Sepoy Rebellion of 1857. So that is actual original canon, though it is likely that Verne added that twist later, as he originally simply described Nemo as a swarthy man of stern and brooding countenance - or something to that effect in the original French, I suppose.)

Oh, and in the LoEG canon, Janni Nemo married Broad Arrow Jack, and their daughter Hira married the son of air pirate Jean Robur; their son would in turn become the third Nemo in 1987.

I give up. Good night!

It's a bit too soon for me the collect the outstanding ones again, so with no more adieuado let's see if you can bumble your way into detecting the answer to this one: a large diamond with a distinctive rosé-colored flaw at its center, shaped like a jungle cat.

Is it called "Moon River?" No, maybe "Baby Elephant's Walk?" "Peter Gunn?" "Days of Wine and Roses?" "Hatari?" Man, I'm pretty sure Henry Mancini made a song for it...
No, I know! It was a Blake Edwards movie! Maybe... "Victor/Victoria?" "10"? "Breakfast at Tiffany's?" "Operation Petticoat?"
No, it starred Peter Sellers. "Dr. Strangelove?" "Being There?" "Casino Royale?" "Lolita?" "The Mouse that Roared?" "Murder by Death?" "The Party?"
Man, it's on the tip of the tongue...

Funny thing is, David Niven was supposed to be the star, but got upstaged.

So I think I can accept your non-answer, as you surely (not Shirley) would come up with the name if I gave you another clue, so I'll simply leave these Dead Ants over there.

Schol-R-LEA wrote: It's a bit too soon for me the collect the outstanding ones again, so with no more adieuado let's see if you can bumble your way into detecting the answer to this one: a large diamond with a distinctive rosé-colored flaw at its center, shaped like a jungle cat.

The Pink Panther?

Yep. Sir Lee seems to have known, too, but decided being coy and letting someone else say it made more sense than a direct answer. I can heartily endorse this in a case like this.

A suit of power armor for an exceptionally large human, with two rocket pods on the shoulders and a laser cannon on one arm. The paint is white with blue trim, and the emblem on the shoulders and left breast depicts a large charcoal gray cat against a starry background. The emblem on the right side is appears to be a rank badge composed of a stylized horse in white on a red background, with a white blazon over the silhouette. The helmet for it lies off to one side, and there is a great deal of blood along the inner collar of the torso.

(Actually, I may be mis-remembering that last part, as it is more likely that he'd removed the armor for that last confrontation. It still works as a clue to the wearer's identity.)

A pair of sunglasses which cause the wearer to make pithy comments when putting them on.

A lunchbox Thermos bottle containing a rod of dry ice with the same diameter as a U.S. quarter.

Oops, my description of the rank badge was mistaken, looking closer it looks like it is supposed to be a negative-image silhouette version of the same leaping cat figure. I think.

Schol-R-LEA wrote: A pair of sunglasses which cause the wearer to make pithy comments when putting them on.

Do they belong to a certain Stephen Dallas, esq.?

Schol-R-LEA wrote: A lunchbox Thermos bottle containing a rod of dry ice with the same diameter as a U.S. quarter.

Showing your Real Genius?

Sir Lee wrote:

Schol-R-LEA wrote: A pair of sunglasses which cause the wearer to make pithy comments when putting them on.

Do they belong to a certain Stephen Dallas, esq.?

No, not even the right millennium, I am afraid. Though whether his job is better than pimping or clubbing baby seals (both things which Dallas' law practice compared to at times) is up for debate, at least by those who are fed up with how inaccurate the portrayal of said investigative profession is depicted in the Floridian series I have in mind.

Bek: Ah, if only I were as cunning as Chris Knight. Yes.




Note that with the mirrorshades in question, it is the gesture of putting them on that seems to trigger the snarky witticisms. Also, in this instance the correct pronunciation of the word 'series' probably should sound a lot like 'dumpster fire'. Pete Townshend oughta sue.

Oh, no! I figured it (you certainly gave enough clues) They belong to The Ego! The reason why there's no superhero group headquartered in Miami-Dade County! The reality warper who somehow makes every single criminal case his crime lab ever investigates to be, somehow, about him. Guy is bitten by a dog? Turns out that the dog's owner is involved with Colombian drug dealers who, yes, staged the whole thing just to get at him. Even when it's related to one of his colleagues, he finds a way to steal the spotlight! Coworker's sister get murdered? No, somehow he started dating her a few episodes previously, so now it's his grief that matters. No super worth his cape wants to deal with the limelight hog named Horatio Caine. That's why they are headquartered somewhere else -- Orlando, Tampa, Cocoa Beach, Pensacola...
YEEEEEAAAAH!

Well done, Sir Lee! Though the CSI franchise was already riding on a broken Suspension of Disbelief even before he drove that series' storyline into the Everglades, Raoul Duke style. The OLMQ (Obvious Lies & Misrepresentations Quotient) of most series such as NCIS, Bones, Criminal Minds, Law and Order, etc. rarely goes above three major lines of horseshit per episode, which can be annoying sometimes but usually won't break disbelief too badly. While Grissom in the original CSI was pushing four or five, the Miami series broke the scale by often having that many before the opening credits roll over the sound of Townshend fellating the mic in "Won't Get Fooled Again" (an ironic choice for a theme song if there ever were one). All as delivered by the most smug cast on TV since the original Dallas.

And for those who don't know the series, Sir Lee isn't kidding about the man bitten by dog storyline, or the cow-orker's sister thing. CSI: Miami makes the most outrageous Team Kimba moments and most contrived-seeming coincidences in the WA stories look like a team of unnamed nuns from the order of Our Lady of Perpetual Submissiveness who have never had anything unexpected happened to them ever.

Fortunately, I usually could duck out of the room whenever my father started watching it, but there were times I was obliged to sit through that wreckage because he often needed help with things in those last few years. Even more fortunately, he preferred NCIS and L&O:SVU, so the times I ended up listening to it from afar weren't too often - though I shudder to consider why he liked the latter so much, and I wish I could forget what he thought the collars worn by Abby Sciuto in the former signified.

(Don't ask. Suffice it to say, shortly before I moved to Georgia to help him out after I ran out of cash and his health problems started, one of his, ah, female companions left him - breaking a contract she'd made with him in doing so - and her explanation was that he was 'too Gorean' for her ; if you know that term and the sort of people who make personal contracts in such a context, reading that is probably terrifying, as that involves crossing the absolute boundaries of someone who claims not to have any. Even on his best days, he seems to have treated SS&C as 'pick two', which is just horrible.

Sorry about that, I just needed to get that out of my system. Given that I am not poorly disposed to that community, I would probably show a lot more equanimity about it if it weren't, you know, my father, or if he didn't go out of his way to make me uncomfortable about it while claiming I was trying to repress his personal life, despite the fact that I was helping him run his adult toy business at the same time... er, again, I apologize.)

Schol-R-LEA wrote: Well done, Sir Lee! Though the CSI franchise was already riding on a broken Suspension of Disbelief even before he drove that series' storyline into the Everglades, Raoul Duke style. The OLMQ (Obvious Lies & Misrepresentations Quotient) of most series such as NCIS, Bones, Criminal Minds, Law and Order, etc. rarely goes above three major lines of horseshit per episode, which can be annoying sometimes but usually won't break disbelief too badly. While Grissom in the original CSI was pushing four or five, the Miami series broke the scale by often having that many before the opening credits roll over the sound of Townshend fellating the mic in "Won't Get Fooled Again" (an ironic choice for a theme song if there ever were one). All as delivered by the most smug cast on TV since the original Dallas.

And for those who don't know the series, Sir Lee isn't kidding about the man bitten by dog storyline, or the cow-orker's sister thing. CSI: Miami makes the most outrageous Team Kimba moments and most contrived-seeming coincidences in the WA stories look like a team of unnamed nuns from the order of Our Lady of Perpetual Submissiveness who have never had anything unexpected happened to them ever.

Fortunately, I usually could duck out of the room whenever my father started watching it, but there were times I was obliged to sit through that wreckage because he often needed help with things in those last few years. Even more fortunately, he preferred NCIS and L&O:SVU, so the times I ended up listening to it from afar weren't too often - though I shudder to consider why he liked the latter so much, and I wish I could forget what he thought the collars worn by Abby Sciuto in the former signified.

(Don't ask. Suffice it to say, shortly before I moved to Georgia to help him out after I ran out of cash and his health problems started, one of his, ah, female companions left him - breaking a contract she'd made with him in doing so - and her explanation was that he was 'too Gorean' for her ; if you know that term and the sort of people who make personal contracts in such a context, reading that is probably terrifying, as that involves crossing the absolute boundaries of someone who claims not to have any. Even on his best days, he seems to have treated SS&C as 'pick two', which is just horrible.

Sorry about that, I just needed to get that out of my system. Given that I am not poorly disposed to that community, I would probably show a lot more equanimity about it if it weren't, you know, my father, or if he didn't go out of his way to make me uncomfortable about it while claiming I was trying to repress his personal life, despite the fact that I was helping him run his adult toy business at the same time... er, again, I apologize.)

Well, at least YOU spent the time watching a terrible show doing something productive. The last time I watched a terrible show, I ended up with four hours of my life lost forever, a broken TV and a broken heart. Also a hatred of a single TV company that has lasted for 11 months now, soon to be one year.

The shades belong to Brent Sienna, former snarkmaster of PVP Online, and currently loving husband and father

In some ways, that would probably be better than the answer that Sir Lee correctly gave, or at least, a less obnoxious person the Lead Investigator Caine. Though I will admit I don't know much about the webcomic PvP Online, so perhaps not.

Seriously, even the Walkyverse version of Mike Warner isn't as big an asshole, and being an asshole was he defining quality. The Dumbiverse version is marginally mellower, but not much.

And I want to again apologize for my outburst last night. I went far, far into TMI territory.

So... any answers on any of the other ones outstanding? I'll probably start collecting them to repost on Sunday or Monday if not.

I will add one more though, but given one of my earlier comments, it ought to be easy: a formerly white 1972 Cadillac with a dented hood, a trashed rear axle (what, twice in a row?), a torn up convertible roof, a ruined electrical system, a pie overturned in the rear passenger seat and a significant amount of lake water in the trunk. Oh, and the tire pressure is insane. Next time he's gonna go with a Mercedes instead.

Here are all my outstanding ones, I think. Note that I have expanded upon, and corrected, some of these entries.

A 160cm long wooden stick with a thickened end bearing a few small projections. One could almost see it as being some sort of stylized broom, in an abstract Art sort of way. It relates to a somewhat obscure webcomic by an inexperienced artist with a background in game programming, and who would have resided in Poe were she a Whateley student.

A gold-colored crown with "CTRL+C" in red on the front. The Copycap, from Grrl Genius, mimicked by Kettlekorn

A gold metal statuette of a female humanoid holding a stylized lightning bolt.

A boxy chromed gun with a rectangular block hanging down in front if the trigger and a red oblong aperture for its muzzle.

A pair of impractically large disco ball earrings. Note that the earrings and the chrome zap gun above have a common source and a similar origin, though both went far afield from their original commercial purpose. The statuette on the other hand is unrelated, as it came from those other guys across the street, so now you No. Excelsior!

A collection of issues of Annelen der Physik from 1905. A careful review of them will find that four of the articles which ought to appear in them are missing, though it doesn't seem as if any pages were removed, and the issues' tables of contents don't list them. a version of the journals from a timeline in which Einstein's 1905 papers were never published, solved in a relative manner by Null0Trooper.

A large silver key, decorated with roses and ivy vines. Some of the vines are chased in gold, copper and bronze, and are tangled in a way that gives the impression that they grew rather than being carved.

A suit of power armor for an exceptionally large human, with two rocket pods on the shoulders and a laser cannon on one arm. The paint is white with blue trim, and the emblem on the shoulders and left breast depicts a large charcoal gray cat against a starry background. The emblem on the right side is appears to be a rank badge composed of a photographic negative of the leaping cat design on a red background. The helmet for it lies off to one side, and there is a great deal of blood along the inner collar of the torso.

A scratched up 78 RPM gramophone record, stained with a mixture of inks. The song on it is a rather merry tune. A looney melody, even.

A thin metal bar with two ball-shaped ends. The owner used to put a lot of stock in its importance, but he's long since gone Beyond that particular crutch, as well as the limits he once believed he had due to it. He's certainly become a better person than he was when he needed it.

A particularly large, gnarled, and grotesque avocado, and two dinner forks with blood on them.

A pot of extremely thick and highly radioactive coffee, sitting on a huge stack of print-out fanfold paper with a lot of indecipherable COBOL code.

An extremely macho looking set of orange leather bandoleer straps attached to an similarly colored banana hammockloin cloth, stained with gun oil, sized for a man standing about 188 cm and smelling faintly of vodka, vermouth, and haggis just kidding about the last part - after all the person in question said that sheep's intestines sounds revolting, or maybe that was some Egyptian dude working for the Spanish government - but it is a clue which should shake, rather than stir, a memory.

A US Army service pistol, and a blood-stained US flag. If you know the scene, you might wonder the reasons why he did what he did, too, though a better mind than yours couldn't detect the dark pattern to it that knight - all he could do was step outside to give some privacy. Related to a picture is currently used as a trope example image on TVtropes.org. the gun used by the General who was selling weapons to the Mutants Gang to commit suicide, and the flag Batman used as a shroud for him, in The Dark Knight Returns. Oh, hey, we can edit older posts again!

A formerly white 1972 Cadillac with a dented hood, a trashed rear axle (what, twice in a row?), a torn up convertible roof, a ruined electrical system, a pie overturned in the rear passenger seat and a significant amount of lake water in the trunk. Oh, and the tire pressure is insane. Next time he's gonna go with a Mercedes instead.

A large diamond with a distinctive rosé-colored flaw at its center, shaped like a jungle cat. The Pink Panther, from the Blake Edward (wait, is that backwards?) film of the same name, deduced by both Sir Lee and Mister D

A pair of sunglasses which cause the wearer to make pithy comments when putting them on. Horatio Caine's mirrorshades, from CSI: Miami, smugly investigated and related by Sir Lee

A lunchbox Thermos bottle containing a rod of dry ice with the same diameter as a U.S. quarter. Chris Knight's 'slugs' for free vending machine coffee, from the film Real Genius, brilliantly researched by Bek D. Corbin

Oh, and yet one more new one: Several pallets of crates marked "Property of UC Berkeley" and labelled with DoE serial numbers, containing a total of 1024 Playstation 2 units. They served the EECS and NE departments well, but got replaced with a cluster of 16,384 Raspberry Pi 3s last year.

Schol-R-LEA wrote: Here are all my outstanding ones, I think. Note that I have expanded upon, and corrected, some of these entries.

A large silver key, decorated with roses and ivy vines. Some of the vines are chased in gold, copper and bronze, and are tangled in a way that gives the impression that they grew rather than being carved.

Is this the key used by Randolph Carter in "The Dreamquest of the Unknown Kadath"?

Mister D wrote:

Schol-R-LEA wrote: Here are all my outstanding ones, I think. Note that I have expanded upon, and corrected, some of these entries.

A large silver key, decorated with roses and ivy vines. Some of the vines are chased in gold, copper and bronze, and are tangled in a way that gives the impression that they grew rather than being carved.

Is this the key used by Randolph Carter in "The Dreamquest of the Unknown Kadath"?

Heh, I should mention that one to the author if we ever meet again (hmmn, maybe can I scrape up the money to get over to Atlanta come Labor Day weekend? Prolly not; oh well, even if I could I don't know if that person will be there this year, though I am guessing so). But no.

Schol-R-LEA wrote:
A US Army service pistol, and a blood-stained US flag. If you know the scene, you might wonder the reasons why he did what he did, too, though a better mind than yours couldn't detect the dark pattern to it that knight - all he could do was step outside to give some privacy. Related to a picture is currently used as a trope example image on TVtropes.org.

Are these from the scene in The Dark Knight Returns, where the US military officer kills himself, as he'd sold weapons to the Joker?

Mister D wrote:

Schol-R-LEA wrote:
A US Army service pistol, and a blood-stained US flag. If you know the scene, you might wonder the reasons why he did what he did, too, though a better mind than yours couldn't detect the dark pattern to it that knight - all he could do was step outside to give some privacy. Related to a picture is currently used as a trope example image on TVtropes.org.

Are these from the scene in The Dark Knight Returns, where the US military officer kills himself, as he'd sold weapons to the Joker?

Yes, though it was to the Mutants Gang, not the Joker (who I am pretty sure hadn't broken out of his catatonic state in Arkham at that point of the story).



The TVTropes page in question is Leave Behind a Pistol , as the implication was that either the general had a convenient warning that Batman was coming, or else that Batman had more explicitly let the general 'take the honorable way out' by that trope - and Batman's comment about it ("I almost asked him why...") strongly implied the latter. Either way, it was a bit of a controversial image, as it implied that Batman allowed or even facilitated the suicide.

Pretty much everything Frank Miller did was controversial, if not at the time, then in hindsight. And yes, I did love much of his 80's work at the time. As I matured, I look at it with a more jaundiced eye, noticing the distasteful stuff that was not so obvious when I was a young nerd.
In comparison, the works of the other name associated with the so-called "mature revolution" in comics during the 80's, Alan Moore, have aged much better. Even if Moore himself is a bit of a loon.

Sir Lee wrote: Pretty much everything Frank Miller did was controversial, if not at the time, then in hindsight. And yes, I did love much of his 80's work at the time. As I matured, I look at it with a more jaundiced eye, noticing the distasteful stuff that was not so obvious when I was a young nerd.
In comparison, the works of the other name associated with the so-called "mature revolution" in comics during the 80's, Alan Moore, have aged much better. Even if Moore himself is a bit of a loon.

Now what makes you say that, Sir Lee?

Mind you, David Willis did like to take aim at Miller at the time:

Sir Lee wrote: In comparison, the works of the other name associated with the so-called "mature revolution" in comics during the 80's, Alan Moore, have aged much better. Even if Moore himself is a bit of a loon.

What, no love for Alan Moore's contemporaries, Neil Gaiman (Black Orchid, The Sandman) or Grant Morrison (Animal Man, Doom Patrol, St. Swithin's Day)? I'm not sure either of the Big Two would have touched Warren Ellis with a ten-foot pole without "mature" titles doing as well as they did.

The comic book audience shifting from Baby Boomers to Generation X might have also contributed to a shift in tone. It's too bad that more recent writers haven't grasped the concept that deconstruction is an analytical tool, not a goal in itself.

- A small purple sticker with 'Good Luck, Nao' written on it in Japanese Kanji. A cartoon girl is drawn underneath.
- A ring with elvish writing around the inside, and a large gemstone mounted on the top. It thrums with magical power. May be carried by a young man.
- A yellow badge with a smiley face on it. The badge is stained in such a way that it looks like it is crying blood.
- A firetruck. Normal, except for the fact that the tank is filled to the brim with 3785 litres of shampoo.

null0trooper wrote:

Sir Lee wrote: In comparison, the works of the other name associated with the so-called "mature revolution" in comics during the 80's, Alan Moore, have aged much better. Even if Moore himself is a bit of a loon.

What, no love for Alan Moore's contemporaries, Neil Gaiman (Black Orchid, The Sandman) or Grant Morrison (Animal Man, Doom Patrol, St. Swithin's Day)?

Gaiman and Morrison didn't really break through until several years after Miller and Moore, at least in the US. The difference can be extremely fine looking back, but was quite obvious if you were reading the books back then.

It's less clear in retrospect because Morrison actually has his first pro work before Moore... But his work prior to Zenith, if not Animal Man, is a lot more sparse and minor than what Moore was doing.

A jar filled with nickels labelled 'Your Mom'.

A graphing calculator the size of a room poster.

A chart of someone's sexual orientation on the Kinsey scale, with only one data point.

A bowl of Cadbury Creme Eggs in milk.

A VHS tape of The Sound of Music.

A woman's hat, an empty bottle of whiskey (now filled with remorse, recrimination, and 'your mom' jokes), and a handheld sensor which definitely isn't measuring magic, no, certainly not.

Fragments left over from a broken motel bed frame.

A torn and bloodied blouse with a yellow strip of cloth tied around the chest.

A Howie style lab coat.

A hoodie sweatshirt with the University of Indiana logo.

A bedpan and a pile of pizza boxes covering up an unwillingness to face a personal problem (oh, wait, that only gets mentioned in a different universe, one with regular spironolactone treatments a much better skin-care regimen).

Two visas marked for travel from the US to Bulmeria, a box of Chick tracts, and a theological tract from the Jews for Jesus.

Schol-R-LEA wrote: A Howie style lab coat.

Just like Dr. Horrible wears!

null0trooper wrote:

Schol-R-LEA wrote: A Howie style lab coat.

Just like Dr. Horrible wears!

While that is true, he is not the redundantly-named mad scientist I had in mind.

In fact, all of the ones in that post go together. Even if divided into at least partes tres.

And just remember, a ninja's sword cannot be sheathed until it tastes blood throws away the tube of KY

CrazyMinh wrote: - A yellow badge with a smiley face on it. The badge is stained in such a way that it looks like it is crying blood.

Alas, poor Edward Blake... I knew him, Daniel.

Oh, hey, we can edit older posts again. Cool.

And you might want to peer at an earlier post from the day before for more hints on post full of related items. It's... something. Or someone.

Schol-R-LEA wrote: A jar filled with nickels labelled 'Your Mom'.

Sounds like a very Mike thing to have.

Schol-R-LEA wrote: A bowl of Cadbury Creme Eggs in milk.

Yikes! That seems like a quick trip to congresswomanhood.

Schol-R-LEA wrote: A hoodie sweatshirt with the University of Indiana logo.

Smells like Walky.

Schol-R-LEA wrote: And just remember, a ninja's sword cannot be sheathed until it tastes blood throws away the tube of KY

Ninja Rick is the best.

Wiigiii!

Though in this case, the hoodie was Danny's, from early in Roomies!, whereas Walky's was gray and light blue with the yellow SEMME stripe. An understandable mistake.

Also, unrelated to those: a movie studio contract dated 1976 with an ending stipulated as "none, and we mean it, you'll never stop making the sequels even if we need to call on the power of the Ark of the Covenant (which we found in old warehouse) to reanimate your decaying body to do it." Can you guess the signatures on it, and how many years of accordion lessons it took to tell this story?

Sir Lee wrote:

CrazyMinh wrote: - A yellow badge with a smiley face on it. The badge is stained in such a way that it looks like it is crying blood.

Alas, poor Edward Blake... I knew him, Daniel.

Yawn!!! Good morning, and if you meant Watchmen, then you are entirely correct!!!

Wow. First thing I do in the morning is check the forums. I have no life.

Going back to the post from... huh, was it really just yesterday morning? Right, while the source(s) should be clear to all those familiar with a certain webcomic author, would anyone care to give detailed exposés on what characters and storylines the other items relate to, or should we just be moving along now?

A framed drawing of some Alan Moore fan art of the slash-y variety, and a note from an irate fan who should have been more specific when she commissioned the piece.

Wait, "Alan Moore fan art?" Do you mean fan art drawn by Alan Moore? Or fan art of Alan Moore-drawn comics, such as Maxwell the Magic Cat ? Or fan art featuring Moore himself in all his bearded glory?

Sir Lee wrote: Wait, "Alan Moore fan art?" Do you mean fan art drawn by Alan Moore? Or fan art of Alan Moore-drawn comics, such as Maxwell the Magic Cat ? Or fan art featuring Moore himself in all his bearded glory?

Well, the angry note says that yaoi of the second sort was what they expected. It definitely wasn't what they got.

Bearded glory? You don't know the half of it. Literally.

(or maybe you do, and are just being coy again, oh my, such ghastly behavior from you if so.)

Schol-R-LEA wrote:

Sir Lee wrote: Wait, "Alan Moore fan art?" Do you mean fan art drawn by Alan Moore? Or fan art of Alan Moore-drawn comics, such as Maxwell the Magic Cat ? Or fan art featuring Moore himself in all his bearded glory?

Well, the angry note says that yaoi of the second sort was what they expected. It definitely wasn't what they got.

That sounds like one or both characters were Promethea, although I can see why the ladies might favor a younger Steve Traynor over the older.

Oh, no, not in the actual picture. The person who commissioned the piece did specify "Alan Moore YAOI" (the customer's all-caps; according to both Wikipedia and TVTropes , it technically is an acronym, but few write it that way) without mentioning a specific character. The note does say that all our Yaoi Fangirl wanted was a picture of two or more male characters having sexy-times (as the word 'yaoi' implies).

The exact wording? Kinda important, as noted by the title of the comic I am referring to.

The specific strip, I mean, not the series. The webcomic series in general was definitely not about gay comic book protagonists and the women who love them.

(I am dropping plenty of hints, but that doesn't do much if no one knows the series, I guess.)

Schol-R-LEA wrote: (I am dropping plenty of hints, but that doesn't do much if no one knows the series, I guess.)

It turned up as the second entry in a Google search. Nope, not one of the comics I've ever followed.

I'm still of the opinion that the patron got off lightly.

null0trooper wrote:

Schol-R-LEA wrote: (I am dropping plenty of hints, but that doesn't do much if no one knows the series, I guess.)

It turned up as the second entry in a Google search. Nope, not one of the comics I've ever followed.

I'm still of the opinion that the patron got off lightly.

I suppose, yeah, it could have been much worse.

No, wait, Moore himself has done worse. Consider Rorshach's origin story. Or what happened between The Comedian, the first Silk Spectre, and Hooded Justice. Or most of what Evee went through. Or pretty much anything involving Hawley Griffin in League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, especially how Hyde puts an end to his evils.

(Or should that read, 'an evil to his...' ...nope, not gonna say it, that would be "dude, not funny" territory, no matter how well-deserved one might argue it had been in terms of poetic justice. Brrr.)

So yeah.

For those who haven't looked, the comic in question is this one from Ghastly's Ghastly Comic (the series subtitle for which is "Tentacle Monsters and the Women Who Love Them"). The series is hilariously raunchy. Saying that it is NSFW would be rather an understatement, and it just got Moore and Moore extreme as time went on. I'll put the picture below in spoilers, but if Kristin wants to remove it as too extreme, I won't argue.



I am sure that if you offer to play a round of Google Seppuku with Unca Ghastly, he'll show you his Canadian Buck Cake recipe.

Christ almighty, that is messed up.

He's right: who WOULD want to schilk to that???

Let's start over (again). I'll skip the Walkyverse ones, as the general theme was correctly identified by Kettlekorn, though I may give some explanations about them later.

• A 160cm long wooden stick with a thickened end bearing a few small projections. One could almost see it as being some sort of stylized broom, in an abstract Art sort of way. It relates to a somewhat obscure webcomic by an inexperienced artist with a background in game programming, and who would have resided in Poe were she a Whateley student.
  
• A gold metal statuette of a female humanoid holding a stylized lightning bolt.
  
• A boxy chromed gun with a rectangular block hanging down in front of the trigger and a red oblong aperture for its muzzle.
  
• A pair of impractically large disco ball earrings. Note that the earrings and the chrome zap gun above have a common source and a similar origin, though both went far afield from their original commercial purpose. The statuette on the other hand is unrelated, as it came from those other guys across the street, so now you No. Excelsior!
  
• A framed drawing of some Alan Moore fan art of the slash-y variety, and a note from an irate fan who should have been more specific when she commissioned the piece. - A drawing of two Alan Moores having buttsecks with each other, from the webcomic Ghastly's Ghastly Comic, bleached out of memory by Null0Trooper.
  
• A large silver key, decorated with roses and ivy vines. Some of the vines are chased in gold, copper and bronze, and are tangled in a way that gives the impression that they grew rather than being carved.
  
• A suit of power armor for an exceptionally large human, with two rocket pods on the shoulders and a laser cannon on one arm. The paint is white with blue trim, and the emblem on the shoulders and left breast depicts a large charcoal gray cat against a starry background. The emblem on the right side is appears to be a rank badge composed of a photographic negative of the leaping cat design on a red background. The helmet for it lies off to one side, and there is a great deal of blood along the inner collar of the torso.
  
• A scratched up 78 RPM gramophone record, stained with a mixture of inks. The song on it is a rather merry tune. A looney melody, even.
  
• A thin metal bar with two ball-shaped ends. The owner used to put a lot of stock in its importance, but he's long since gone Beyond that particular crutch, as well as the limits he once believed he had due to it. He's certainly become a better person than he was when he needed it. Truly, he's a Marvel.
  
• A particularly large, gnarled, and grotesque avocado, and two dinner forks with blood on them.
  
• A pot of extremely thick and highly radioactive coffee, sitting on a huge stack of print-out fanfold paper with a lot of indecipherable COBOL code.
  
• An extremely macho looking set of orange leather bandoleer straps attached to a similarly colored banana hammockloin cloth, stained with gun oil, sized for a man standing about 188 cm and smelling faintly of vodka, vermouth, and haggis just kidding about the last part - after all the person in question said that sheep's intestines sounds revolting, or maybe that was some Egyptian dude working for the Spanish government - but it is a clue which should shake, rather than stir, a memory. - the 'Exterminator' outfit worn by Zed (played by Sean Connery) in the film Zardoz, exterminated by Bek D. Corbin
  
• A formerly white 1972 Cadillac with a dented hood, a trashed rear axle (what, twice in a row?), a torn up convertible roof, a ruined electrical system, a pie overturned in the rear passenger seat and a significant amount of lake water in the trunk. Oh, and the tire pressure is insane. Next time he's gonna go with a Mercedes instead.
  
• Several pallets of crates marked "Property of UC Berkeley" and labelled with DoE serial numbers, containing a total of 1024 Playstation 2 units. They served the EECS and NE departments well, but got replaced with a cluster of 16,384 Raspberry Pi 3s last year.
  
• A movie studio contract dated 1976 with an ending stipulated as "none, and we mean it, you'll never stop making the sequels even if we need to call on the power of the Ark of the Covenant (which we found in old warehouse) to reanimate your decaying body to do it." So let the soda bubble, baby. - Luke Skywalker's 'long-term contract' form the song "Yoda" by Weird Al, cancelled by Kettlekorn

That last one sounds like something George Lucas signed.

The second to last one is the 'Exterminator' outfit worn by Zed in Zardoz

The Playstation units are clearly from a Beowulf cluster, but I don't think anyone keeps track of the major installations anymore.

for the PS2 units:

www.geek.com/games/researchers-create-a-...upercomputer-553365/

CrazyMinh wrote: for the PS2 units:

www.geek.com/games/researchers-create-a-...upercomputer-553365/

The article references a build at University of Chicago, not at Berzerkeley.

null0trooper wrote:

CrazyMinh wrote: for the PS2 units:

www.geek.com/games/researchers-create-a-...upercomputer-553365/

The article references a build at University of Chicago, not at Berzerkeley.

Actually University of Illinois at Champaign/Urbana, or about 2 miles from where I am as the Chickenhawk flies.

Also, the cluster I had in mind was fictional. I am pretty sure that the author thought it was only a joke... at the time, at least.

Sir Lee wrote: That last one sounds like something George Lucas signed.

He was one of them... but the most important person was one who didn't sign it, he just told the story (though it wasn't where it begins; he sang about that decades later).

Bek D Corbin wrote: The second to last one is the 'Exterminator' outfit worn by Zed in Zardoz

I think you mis-counted, it is third from the last, but for this one

An extremely macho looking set of orange leather bandoleer straps attached to a similarly colored banana hammockloin cloth, stained with gun oil, sized for a man standing about 188 cm

Yes.



The rest of that

and smelling faintly of vodka, vermouth, and haggis just kidding about the last part - after all the person in question said that sheep's intestines sounds revolting, or maybe that was some Egyptian dude working for the Spanish government - but it is a clue which should shake, rather than stir, a memory.

was a bunch of references to other things Connery did in his career, specifically the Bond films and the role of Ramirez in The Highlander, where the one character who wasn't a Scot was the one with the Scottish accent.

Schol-R-LEA wrote: A movie studio contract dated 1976 with an ending stipulated as "none, and we mean it, you'll never stop making the sequels even if we need to call on the power of the Ark of the Covenant (which we found in old warehouse) to reanimate your decaying body to do it." So let the soda bubble, baby.

"Yoda" by the Weird Al, it is. Hamil, other signator was.

It just occurred to me that some of the younger members may not know the song Yankovic was parodying in that (for that matter, some of the older ones might not, either, since a lot of stations refused to play it back in the day - though given the focus of this group, I expect most would have heard it before). So for your edification, I present "Lola" by The Kinks , originally released in 1970 on the LP (remeber LPs?) Lola vs. Powerman and Moneygoround, Part 1. The lyrics in the video aren't exactly right, I think, but close enough to give the gist of it.



The song is a bit odd for Weird Al, in that it was a direct parody of a much earlier song, rather than either a parody of something contemporary, or a 'style parody' of something older (e.g., "Craigslist" - interestingly, Ray Manzarek did the keyboards personally, which AFAIK is the only Weird Al song in which one of the ones being mocked performed on the official release, and IIRC it was Manzarek's last credit before he died). He has done some others like that, such as "Jurassic Park" (based on that infamously inexplicable hit from 1968, "MacArthur Park" by Richard Harris), but it is unusual enough to stand out when he does.

Schol-R-LEA wrote: It just occurred to me that some of the younger members may not know the song Yankovic was parodying in that (for that matter, some of the older ones might not, either, since a lot of stations refused to play it back in the day

IIRC, the original version got banned from airplay in the UK because it named a commercial product in violation of some broadcasting regulation. ("where you drink champagne and it tastes just like Coca-Cola. C-O-L-A, cola. Lo Lo Lo Lo Lola!")

Lou Reed's "Walk On The Wild Side" didn't pull any punches regarding the subject matter either.

Schol-R-LEA wrote: Also, the cluster I had in mind was fictional. I am pretty sure that the author thought it was only a joke... at the time, at least.

Near these crates stands a 3m tall robot resembling a Timber Wolf/Mad Cat Omnimech, having a cockpit sized for an Adelie penguin (apparently added later during a rebuild) and a striped power tie. It's armed with Cease and Desist orders and Amicus briefs.

null0trooper wrote:

Schol-R-LEA wrote: It just occurred to me that some of the younger members may not know the song Yankovic was parodying in that (for that matter, some of the older ones might not, either, since a lot of stations refused to play it back in the day

IIRC, the original version got banned from airplay in the UK because it named a commercial product in violation of some broadcasting regulation. ("where you drink champagne and it tastes just like Coca-Cola. C-O-L-A, cola. Lo Lo Lo Lo Lola!")

Lou Reed's "Walk On The Wild Side" didn't pull any punches regarding the subject matter either.

The BBC doesn't allow "product placement" of any sort, so some songs are banned for simply mentioning a brand name. So Lola used Coca Cola in the original, but cherry cola was used in the single so it could be played on the BBC.

Some old Outstanding L&F Items, plus some new stuff

- A small blue crystal in the shape of a sphere. May have properties allowing teleportation between worlds and the animation of plastic models.

- A kermit the frog doll. It makes a great leader.

- A Smith and Wesson M1917 'Hand Ejector Second Model' with a modified sight blade and a chunk missing from the grip Indy’s gun from the famous boulder chase at the beginning of The List Ark

- A pair of metal die, built to hang from the ceiling of a vehicle. They do not have standard die symbols on their sides. Poor Han...

- A business card with Paul Allen written on it

- A silver Rolex Submariner. It appears to be magnetic. You catch a whiff of vodka from the metal. James Bond's buzzsaw/magnet watch from Live and let die and The man with the golden gun

- A blue box with a triangular key-hole in it. The cube appears seamless, and is made from a shiny metal simular to aluminium in appearance

- A silver lighter with a skull on it. Stinks of cheap beer, cigarettes, spilled lighter fluid and blood.

- A copy of Morris Dancing Monthly

- The front half of a cat. The cat seems perfectly happy, and seems to be unhindered by the lack of it's hindquarters. It does everything a cat with both halves of it's body would do, including grooming itself, and does not seem to have any medical complications. Otherwise, it is missing it's entire rear half.

- A moose head, slightly ratty, and constantly falling off the wall onto unsuspecting individuals. The moose head from the lobby of the hotel in the episode of Fawlty Towers 'The Germans'.

- A small, green clay dragon with a pen and notepad

- A supermassive revolver of hand-cannon size, with wood grips and a iron body. It has a four-shot capacity, and each bullet is a 22mm round. Suspiciously, despite only holding four rounds, it has been seen to fire six without reloading...must be supernaturally enhanced. Hellboy’s Sameritan

- A blue bangle that occasionally glows

- A gold computer chip with a eye motif

- Three keys, one copper, one jade and one crystal The keys from Ready Player One

- A robotic head that looks like half chewed pencil eraser

- A walking cane which doubles as a grappling hook and a flare gun Roman Torchwick’s cane from RWBY

- A angular gun which refuses to shoot unless someone is mentally disturbed. Very cyberpunk in appearance.

- A small purple sticker with 'You can do it, Nao' written on it in Japanese Kanji. A cartoon girl is drawn underneath.

- A ring with elvish writing around the inside, and a large gemstone mounted on the top. It thrums with magical power. May be carried by a young man.

- A yellow badge with a smiley face on it. The badge is stained in such a way that it looks like it is crying blood. The Comedian (Aka Edward Blake)'s Smiley badge, from the well-renowned watchmen comic and the movie version by Zac Snyder

- A firetruck. Normal, except for the fact that the tank is filled to the brim with 3785 litres of heads and shoulders shampoo. The fire truck from Evolution

- A large plushie of the 'Cheese-Kun' mascot used by Pizza Hutt to advertise in japan. A long green hair is stuck to the side.

- A 1982 Delorean DMC-12 car. It resembles the one from B2tF, but has a red, oscillating scanner behind the radiator, and -while it has flight capability- it does not sport the 'garbage-power unit' that the flying version from the 2nd B2tF movie sported. It also seems to have the ability to phase through solid matter. You suspect it is related to the keys from earlier... Parzival’s modded Delorean

- A large spaceship, with a squiddish design, and three sweeping tail-fins that form triple rings along the back of the ship. Sleek and graceful, and has absolutely none of those damm stupid carousel. The ID ECV-197 is printed on the hull. (I'm pretty much throwing this one out there guys. If you don't get it, I'll be very disappointed.) The USS Orville

- Another large spaceship, which resembles a smooth conical body with two sweeping engine pylons. The ship when seen from above vaguely resembles a broken tennis racket.

- Yet another spaceship, thankfully a lot smaller than the last two. It has a bulbous read section attached to a body that is fat and looks to be ideal for transporting large amounts of cargo. Two swivelling main engines are attached to the rear, and the cockpit raises up over the forward cargo bay doors to form a neck of sorts. She's old, she's rickety, she's one of the few of her kind still left around, she's barely flying as it is, but that's something at least.

- How many spaceships can you fit into the lost and found??? This one is far bigger than the previous ones: 'as big as a city' would be modest. She's a warship, and has obviously seen many battles over her lifetime. Her hull is missing armour in sections where she's seen damage and there hasn't been enough time to fabricate and fit new plating. Her flight systems are archaic, with wired telephones and analogue technology sharing space with spacefaring technology. She can carry a fleet of fightercraft, and launch them into combat with ease. She looks like she's been through hell, and if the strain on the engines is any indication, she's been running with an enemy hot on her heels. The Galactica from BSG.

Let's see if I can clear a few of these for you...

CrazyMinh wrote: - A pair of metal die, built to hang from the ceiling of a vehicle. They do not have standard die symbols on their sides.

Han Solo's Dice

CrazyMinh wrote: - A supermassive revolver of hand-cannon size, with wood grips and a iron body. It has a four-shot capacity, and each bullet is a 22mm round. Suspiciously, despite only holding four rounds, it has been seen to fire six without reloading...must be supernaturally enhanced.

Hellboy's Gun, The Samaritan

CrazyMinh wrote: - Three keys, one copper, one jade and one crystal

The three keys needed to get Jame's Halliday's Egg

CrazyMinh wrote: - A firetruck. Normal, except for the fact that the tank is filled to the brim with 3785 litres of heads and shoulders shampoo.

The Firetruck to defeat the alien at the finale of "Evolution"

CrazyMinh wrote: - A 1982 Delorean DMC-12 car. It resembles the one from B2tF, but has a red, oscillating scanner behind the radiator, and -while it has flight capability- it does not sport the 'garbage-power unit' that the flying version from the 2nd B2tF movie sported. It also seems to have the ability to phase through solid matter. You suspect it is related to the keys from earlier...

If this has to do with the three keys earlier I'd guess this is Wade Watts's copy of the B2tF Delorean

CrazyMinh wrote: - A large spaceship, with a squiddish design, and three sweeping tail-fins that form triple rings along the back of the ship. Sleek and graceful, and has absolutely none of those damm stupid carousel. The ID ECV-197 is printed on the hull. (I'm pretty much throwing this one out there guys. If you don't get it, I'll be very disappointed.)

The USS Orville

CrazyMinh wrote: - How many spaceships can you fit into the lost and found??? This one is far bigger than the previous ones: 'as big as a city' would be modest. She's a warship, and has obviously seen many battles over her lifetime. Her hull is missing armour in sections where she's seen damage and there hasn't been enough time to fabricate and fit new plating. Her flight systems are archaic, with wired telephones and analogue technology sharing space with spacefaring technology. She can carry a fleet of fightercraft, and launch them into combat with ease. She looks like she's been through hell, and if the strain on the engines is any indication, she's been running with an enemy hot on her heels.

Possibly the Battlestar Galactica

DanZilla wrote: Let's see if I can clear a few of these for you...

CrazyMinh wrote: - A pair of metal die, built to hang from the ceiling of a vehicle. They do not have standard die symbols on their sides.

Han Solo's Dice

CrazyMinh wrote: - A supermassive revolver of hand-cannon size, with wood grips and a iron body. It has a four-shot capacity, and each bullet is a 22mm round. Suspiciously, despite only holding four rounds, it has been seen to fire six without reloading...must be supernaturally enhanced.

Hellboy's Gun, The Samaritan

CrazyMinh wrote: - Three keys, one copper, one jade and one crystal

The three keys needed to get Jame's Halliday's Egg

CrazyMinh wrote: - A firetruck. Normal, except for the fact that the tank is filled to the brim with 3785 litres of heads and shoulders shampoo.

The Firetruck to defeat the alien at the finale of "Evolution"

CrazyMinh wrote: - A 1982 Delorean DMC-12 car. It resembles the one from B2tF, but has a red, oscillating scanner behind the radiator, and -while it has flight capability- it does not sport the 'garbage-power unit' that the flying version from the 2nd B2tF movie sported. It also seems to have the ability to phase through solid matter. You suspect it is related to the keys from earlier...

If this has to do with the three keys earlier I'd guess this is Wade Watts's copy of the B2tF Delorean

CrazyMinh wrote: - A large spaceship, with a squiddish design, and three sweeping tail-fins that form triple rings along the back of the ship. Sleek and graceful, and has absolutely none of those damm stupid carousel. The ID ECV-197 is printed on the hull. (I'm pretty much throwing this one out there guys. If you don't get it, I'll be very disappointed.)

The USS Orville

CrazyMinh wrote: - How many spaceships can you fit into the lost and found??? This one is far bigger than the previous ones: 'as big as a city' would be modest. She's a warship, and has obviously seen many battles over her lifetime. Her hull is missing armour in sections where she's seen damage and there hasn't been enough time to fabricate and fit new plating. Her flight systems are archaic, with wired telephones and analogue technology sharing space with spacefaring technology. She can carry a fleet of fightercraft, and launch them into combat with ease. She looks like she's been through hell, and if the strain on the engines is any indication, she's been running with an enemy hot on her heels.

Possibly the Battlestar Galactica

All correct.

CrazyMinh wrote: - The front half of a cat. The cat seems perfectly happy, and seems to be unhindered by the lack of it's hindquarters. It does everything a cat with both halves of it's body would do, including grooming itself, and does not seem to have any medical complications. Otherwise, it is missing it's entire rear half.

Does the front half fade in and out, with just to grin showing some of the time?

CrazyMinh wrote: - Yet another spaceship, thankfully a lot smaller than the last two. It has a bulbous read section attached to a body that is fat and looks to be ideal for transporting large amounts of cargo. Two swivelling main engines are attached to the rear, and the cockpit raises up over the forward cargo bay doors to form a neck of sorts. She's old, she's rickety, she's one of the few of her kind still left around, she's barely flying as it is, but that's something at least.

The Firefly-class commercial transport Serenity.

I really should answer a few of mine, too:

A large silver key, decorated with roses and ivy vines. Some of the vines are chased in gold, copper and bronze, and are tangled in a way that gives the impression that they grew rather than being carved.

The key to the hiding place of the Hope Chest, which Evening Winterrose arranged to be sent to October Daye after she (Winterrose) died.

A boxy chromed gun with a rectangular block hanging down in front of the trigger and a red oblong aperture for its muzzle.

Rom the Spaceknight's neutralizer.

A pair of impractically large disco ball earrings.

Chalk this one up to bad memory; I was thinking that the jewelry originally worn by Dazzler included this sort of earrings, but apparently it was more the bracelets. On the cover with her initial appearance, she is wearing hoop earrings, not disco balls, but an oddly place disco ball to her right may have given me the impression that it was something she was wearing.

The bling was supposedly the source of her 'special effects'. IIRC, Phoenix figured out that this was a cover which Alison Blaire was using to disguise her sound- and light-based mutant powers.

Also, I thought that it was because Kitty Pryde had insisted on trying to meet Dazzler backstage following a performance, but I never read that particular issue of X-Men and got it wrong. According to this , they were following a mutant detection by Cerebro, which is what led them to the show, and Kitty wasn't involved directly (though a call for help from her did come in around then, apparently; she wasn't an X-Man at the time, as her parents hadn't decided whether to send her to Xavier Institute yet).

Remember how I said those two entries were related? Well, what is often forgotten is that both of those characters were originally created as merchandising tie-ins. The ROM action figure did reach the market, though only briefly, but the Dazzler album (to be performed by studio musicians, with Bo Derek playing a "KISS meets Donna Summer" character for public appearances, lip syncing the songs? Dunno. Apparently they initially wanted Grace Jones, but she declined, and the comic character didn't end up resembling either of them.) and doll were shelved when the Disco fad it was meant to cash it on collapsed before the project got anywhere, leaving Marvel with a character and no tie-in.

This was a bit awkward, as several of the writers, including Tom DeFalco (who developed the character concept, and went on to write the Dazzler series) and Chris Claremont, were already making future plans for the character. Not to be dissuaded, Claremont inserted a stripped-down intro story into the ramp-up to the Dark Phoenix saga, which I have heard was shoehorned into the story line with all the finesse of a hippo in a broom closet.

Eventually, both Rom and Dazzler got better stories, as their advertisement origins faded into history.

CrazyMinh wrote: - A large plushie of the 'Cheese-Kun' mascot used by Pizza Hutt to advertise in japan. A long green hair is stuck to the side.

That would belong to C.C. from Code Geas.

Schol-R-LEA wrote: On the cover with her initial appearance, she is wearing hoop earrings, not disco balls, but an oddly place disco ball to her right may have given me the impression that it was something she was wearing.

The "oddly placed" disco ball is part of her necklace.

Kettlekorn wrote:

Schol-R-LEA wrote: On the cover with her initial appearance, she is wearing hoop earrings, not disco balls, but an oddly place disco ball to her right may have given me the impression that it was something she was wearing.

The "oddly placed" disco ball is part of her necklace.

D'oh! You're right, it is.

CrazyMinh wrote: Some old Outstanding L&F Items, plus some new stuff

- A small blue crystal in the shape of a sphere. May have properties allowing teleportation between worlds and the animation of plastic models.

It could belong to Larg:

CrazyMinh wrote: - A silver lighter with a skull on it. Stinks of cheap beer, cigarettes, spilled lighter fluid and blood.

It's not John Constantine's, Dean Winchester's, or Lobo's. Hm.

CrazyMinh wrote: - A copy of Morris Dancing Monthly

Paging Arnold J. Rimmer.

CrazyMinh wrote: - The front half of a cat. The cat seems perfectly happy, and seems to be unhindered by the lack of it's hindquarters. It does everything a cat with both halves of it's body would do, including grooming itself, and does not seem to have any medical complications. Otherwise, it is missing it's entire rear half.

"Josie", a.k.a. SCP-529

CrazyMinh wrote: - Another large spaceship, which resembles a smooth conical body with two sweeping engine pylons. The ship when seen from above vaguely resembles a broken tennis racket.

Millenium Falcon, belonging to Han Solo, not those other people.

Schol-R-LEA wrote:

A pair of impractically large disco ball earrings.

Chalk this one up to bad memory; I was thinking that the jewelry originally worn by Dazzler included this sort of earrings, but apparently it was more the bracelets. On the cover with her initial appearance, she is wearing hoop earrings, not disco balls, but an oddly place disco ball to her right may have given me the impression that it was something she was wearing.

This is why I thought it wasn't Dazzler.

Also, I'm fairly certain I have X-Men #130.

W/r/t disco: Marvel would have had to move faster than even the record companies to get a tie-in. The genre was already a shambling husk by 1981. eMpty TV just put a stake through its heart.

Sir Lee: Yes, it's Serenity

Null0trooper: No, it's not Larg, though you're on the right track with anime. Yes, it's Arnold rimmer's Morris Dancing Monthly magazines, referenced whenever the writer need to remind us of his skewed and often ridiculous hobbies. No, the cat is far more obscure. No, the other spaceship is not the millennium falcon. The lighter is far less obscure that that, and it's owner is of a breed relevant to...oh, that's giving too much away. Have fun figuring that out!!!

Kettlekorn: yes, it is C2's Plushie from Code Geass. She's often seen hugging it or using it as a pillow.

And nullotrooper?? Say these out loud and you might get a hint:

in a lower pitch
Duh-doh-duh-dah-da-dah-do-der-der-doh-deeeerrrr...

in a higher pitch
der-do-da-dah-deh-da-da-doh-daaaaa....

CrazyMinh wrote: - Another large spaceship, which resembles a smooth conical body with two sweeping engine pylons. The ship when seen from above vaguely resembles a broken tennis racket.

This somehow reminds me of Starfleet engineering style -- the mention to "engine pylons", the "looks like a tennis racket from above..." but which class?

The description makes no mention to a two-part hull, so that would seem to exclude the Constitution-class and later Enterprises (although the secondary hull makes for a nice "racket handle"), with the possible exception of the Sovereign-class Enterprise-E, which has a more integrated primary and secondary hulls.

The Intrepid-class has a more integrated primary and secondary hulls, and the Voyager did get lost in the Delta Quadrant, so it might end up in the Whateley Lost & Found... and the body IS smooth, it IS sorta-conical (although I think it looks more like a clothes iron than a cone), and when looked from above the "disk" section is a sort of elongated oval like a tennis racket (instead of circular like, say, a badminton racket)...

The NX-class pre-Federation Enterprise lacks a secondary hull, so if you look at its disk section as "conical" it might fit the description... but it seems a bit of a stretch.

It surely can't be the Defiant, which has no "pylons" as such.

If we open the search to classes not seen as prominently in canon, there are all sorts of possibilities.

Meh. I'm going with the U.S.S. Voyager.

Sir Lee wrote:

CrazyMinh wrote: - Another large spaceship, which resembles a smooth conical body with two sweeping engine pylons. The ship when seen from above vaguely resembles a broken tennis racket.

This somehow reminds me of Starfleet engineering style -- the mention to "engine pylons", the "looks like a tennis racket from above..." but which class?

The description makes no mention to a two-part hull, so that would seem to exclude the Constitution-class and later Enterprises (although the secondary hull makes for a nice "racket handle"), with the possible exception of the Sovereign-class Enterprise-E, which has a more integrated primary and secondary hulls.

The Intrepid-class has a more integrated primary and secondary hulls, and the Voyager did get lost in the Delta Quadrant, so it might end up in the Whateley Lost & Found... and the body IS smooth, it IS sorta-conical (although I think it looks more like a clothes iron than a cone), and when looked from above the "disk" section is a sort of elongated oval like a tennis racket (instead of circular like, say, a badminton racket)...

The NX-class pre-Federation Enterprise lacks a secondary hull, so if you look at its disk section as "conical" it might fit the description... but it seems a bit of a stretch.

It surely can't be the Defiant, which has no "pylons" as such.

If we open the search to classes not seen as prominently in canon, there are all sorts of possibilities.

Meh. I'm going with the U.S.S. Voyager.

No, it's not a starfleet vessel. I should rephrase the description

A large starship with a ventral and dorsal profile resembling a broken tennis racket. The main hull is a conical cylinder, while the curved engine pylons flare outwards from the main hull. White colouration.

CrazyMinh wrote: No, it's not a starfleet vessel. I should rephrase the description

A large starship with a ventral and dorsal profile resembling a broken tennis racket. The main hull is a conical cylinder, while the curved engine pylons flare outwards from the main hull. White colouration.

Like the Andromeda?

null0trooper wrote:

CrazyMinh wrote: No, it's not a starfleet vessel. I should rephrase the description

A large starship with a ventral and dorsal profile resembling a broken tennis racket. The main hull is a conical cylinder, while the curved engine pylons flare outwards from the main hull. White colouration.

Like the Andromeda?

It's not the andromeda. Less flat.

CrazyMinh wrote:

null0trooper wrote:

CrazyMinh wrote: No, it's not a starfleet vessel. I should rephrase the description

A large starship with a ventral and dorsal profile resembling a broken tennis racket. The main hull is a conical cylinder, while the curved engine pylons flare outwards from the main hull. White colouration.

Like the Andromeda?

It's not the andromeda. Less flat.

Less flat. That rules out the NSEA Protector too.

null0trooper wrote:

CrazyMinh wrote:

null0trooper wrote:

CrazyMinh wrote: No, it's not a starfleet vessel. I should rephrase the description

A large starship with a ventral and dorsal profile resembling a broken tennis racket. The main hull is a conical cylinder, while the curved engine pylons flare outwards from the main hull. White colouration.

Like the Andromeda?

It's not the andromeda. Less flat.

Less flat. That rules out the NSEA Protector too.

You actually just got it. Achievements in ignorance, am I right???

Updated list:

- A small blue crystal in the shape of a sphere. May have properties allowing teleportation between worlds and the animation of plastic models.

- A kermit the frog doll. It makes a great leader.

- A business card with Paul Allen written on it

- A blue box with a triangular key-hole in it. The cube appears seamless, and is made from a shiny metal simular to aluminium in appearance

- A silver lighter with a skull on it. Stinks of cheap beer, cigarettes, spilled lighter fluid and blood.

- The front half of a cat. The cat seems perfectly happy, and seems to be unhindered by the lack of it's hindquarters. It does everything a cat with both halves of it's body would do, including grooming itself, and does not seem to have any medical complications. Otherwise, it is missing it's entire rear half

- A small, green clay dragon with a pen and notepad

- A gold computer chip with a eye motif

- A robotic head that looks like half chewed pencil eraser

- A angular gun which refuses to shoot unless someone is mentally disturbed. Very cyberpunk in appearance.

- A small purple sticker with 'You can do it, Nao' written on it in Japanese Kanji. A cartoon girl is drawn underneath.

- A ring with elvish writing around the inside, and a large gemstone mounted on the top. It thrums with magical power. May be carried by a young man.

- A large plushie of the 'Cheese-Kun' mascot used by Pizza Hutt to advertise in japan. A long green hair is stuck to the side. C2's Plushie from Code Geass

- Another large spaceship, which resembles a smooth conical body with two sweeping engine pylons. The ship when seen from above vaguely resembles a broken tennis racket. The NSEA Protector from Galaxy Quest

- Yet another spaceship, thankfully a lot smaller than the last two. It has a bulbous read section attached to a body that is fat and looks to be ideal for transporting large amounts of cargo. Two swivelling main engines are attached to the rear, and the cockpit raises up over the forward cargo bay doors to form a neck of sorts. She's old, she's rickety, she's one of the few of her kind still left around, she's barely flying as it is, but that's something at least. The Serenity from Firefly

- Another starship, this one more recognisable. It looks like a bevelled trapezium-shaped wedge with a stubby triangular body on the back attached to two angular engine nacelles. It doesn't look like a warship, although it's design may have evolved from one or rather from a design that was scrapped in favour of the said warship's compact design.

- Yet another starship. This one is less advanced than the previous ones, being more like a feasible NASA vessel than a science fiction spacecraft (although it is still sci fi). It is largely composed from long sections of truss-work, with a few modules bolted onto the frame. A few glass dome modules are connected in places to the main body, alongside many cargo modules. The Valley Forge from Silent Running. A cargo ship repurposed to carry the last of earth's plants.

- Where do these things keep coming from??? This one has two wings connected to a oval body with a navigational deflector on the front. There's a tailfin, and the wings have two upturned sections at the tips. It looks like it came out of a 1960's Space Opera TV show, with accompanying low-budget special effects.

- A small rock, slightly mottled and chipped. However, it seems to disobey gravity and fall in a weird way...

I'll explain this one as well, now, as no one seems to have taken not of the hint I gave in the "Silly Mutants" thread.

A 160cm long wooden stick with a thickened end bearing a few small projections. One could almost see it as being some sort of stylized broom, in an abstract Art sort of way. It relates to a somewhat obscure webcomic by an inexperienced artist with a background in game programming, and who would have resided in Poe were she a Whateley student.

Lupiko's 'improved broomstick' from Unicorn Jelly , a series written by Jennifer Diane Reitz (who also used to have a domain called transsexuality.org, which... well, let's just say that being a transwoman herself didn't make her the expert on all things gender she thought she was, and passing off personal anecdotes and prejudices as hard fact is generally a bad idea).

Lupi had made it when she was at the Moon Pool Academy , trying to show that all the rituals used by Witches were just covering up the same sort of 'rational' approaches used by the Alchemists, but when she showed it to her instructors, the headmistress took her aside a scolded her for it. When she asked why, the headmistress explained the reason why female Wiccans and male Alchemists were required to keep their practices separate (because a war involving high technology had destroyed the Worldplate they had previously lived on ; it later turns out that this isn't how it actually happened , but it gets complicated). Lupiko has a screaming fit over this deception, and gets expelled, only to find that her mother had died while she was at the school. This trauma was part of why she hated flying later.

A .45 revolver with a box of bullets. The revolver looks standard, but the bullets have an odd silvery sheen and are marked with numbers 1-10.

CrazyMinh wrote: - Another starship, this one more recognisable. It looks like a bevelled trapezium-shaped wedge with a stubby triangular body on the back attached to two angular engine nacelles. It doesn't look like a warship, although it's design may have evolved from one or rather from a design that was scrapped in favour of the said warship's compact design.

Damn, I know what you are talking about, but I can't find the ref. I read somewhere that the initial designs for the Defiant were more conventional-looking, and when they chose the compact design instead, the original design was reused for another role. But I can't find the name of the class...

CrazyMinh wrote: - Yet another starship. This one is less advanced than the previous ones, being more like a feasible NASA vessel than a science fiction spacecraft (although it is still sci fi). It is largely composed from long sections of truss-work, with a few modules bolted onto the frame. A few glass dome modules are connected in places to the main body, alongside many cargo modules.

Uh, the Valley Forge from the movie Silent Running?

Sir Lee wrote:

CrazyMinh wrote: - Yet another starship. This one is less advanced than the previous ones, being more like a feasible NASA vessel than a science fiction spacecraft (although it is still sci fi). It is largely composed from long sections of truss-work, with a few modules bolted onto the frame. A few glass dome modules are connected in places to the main body, alongside many cargo modules.

Uh, the Valley Forge from the movie Silent Running?

Yep. I love that movie.

Astrodragon wrote: A .45 revolver with a box of bullets. The revolver looks standard, but the bullets have an odd silvery sheen and are marked with numbers 1-10.

The gun only has ten shots right, and then it's useless against the enemy??? Who are vampires???

No, its a normal 6-shot revolver. There are more than 6 bullets in the box

An alluring plum-colored full length dress, for someone rather taller than the proportions would indicate. The chest has plenty of room (though not quite enough for one of the wearer's companions), but it seems unexpectedly narrow in the hips.

A hairclip made from a silvery metal. One gets the impression that it is quite powerful, more powerful than, say, a rotary mini-gun.

Gaah, I just realized I got confused about who owned the hair clip. The relative power thing is still valid though. Mind you, it does show up later in the story than I was thinking, so that's probably part of it.

Chalk it up to me being a dumbass again.

However, the hint that it is related to two Gen 2 students is still relevant, even if not in the way I was thinking. Maybe if one of them finds it, she can give it to, oh, Shisa, I guess.

(But definitely don't give it to Hikaru; she's sensitive enough about those jokes already. Though the ambiguity of the original owner might make it more confusing than anything.)