Question The Micro-Scenes Discussion thread

@Katssun

A horribly named concoction of macaroni, tomato paste and meat sauce went into the next. Round pasta and meatballs went into the next after that.

Chef Boyardee Beefaroni - would've been better w/o the macaroni.

Spaghettios with meatballs!

You know, I suspected somewhat early on that this was nothing like a high-stakes robbery. But stealing Ayla's lunch is actually funny. I didn't bother to figure out who's who, however. I suspect one of them is Phase's roomie, whoever she is at this point of time. Probably Vamp, Chou wouldn't do this.

^ Thank you! I was wondering what was going on!

Sir Lee wrote: You know, I suspected somewhat early on that this was nothing like a high-stakes robbery. But stealing Ayla's lunch is actually funny. I didn't bother to figure out who's who, however. I suspect one of them is Phase's roomie, whoever she is at this point of time. Probably Vamp, Chou wouldn't do this.

Only four are meant to be identifiable, I wanted a little plausible deniability mystery involved, even with all the hints.

1-??
2-Bugs
3-??
4-Vamp
5-??
6-Tennyo
7-Jade

@null0trooper: unfortunately, Beefaroni contains Macaroni, so I had to describe it that way. I wanted to cover dinty moore beef stew as well, but was unable to describe it properly.

Katssun wrote:

Sir Lee wrote: You know, I suspected somewhat early on that this was nothing like a high-stakes robbery. But stealing Ayla's lunch is actually funny. I didn't bother to figure out who's who, however. I suspect one of them is Phase's roomie, whoever she is at this point of time. Probably Vamp, Chou wouldn't do this.

Only four are meant to be identifiable, I wanted a little plausible deniability mystery involved, even with all the hints.

1-??
2-Bugs
3-??
4-Vamp
5-??
6-Tennyo
7-Jade

@null0trooper: unfortunately, Beefaroni contains Macaroni, so I had to describe it that way. I wanted to cover dinty moore beef stew as well, but was unable to describe it properly.

One piece of clarification by Jade you mean ALL of J-Team right?

mhalpern wrote: One piece of clarification by Jade you mean ALL of J-Team right?

How Jade acts as overwatch for the team is up to the reader.

The bigger issue is Jade's height. She's easily identifiable. In late 2007, you have two choices, her or Ribbon. Prior to that, it's either a junior high kid or Jade.

3- Hank
1- Charge least conspicuous in any position to monitor Ayla's lunch
5- Kayda

Bugs is the one confirming the Mille-feuille is present in the fridge, but yes, Charge is certainly a option of the three mystery participants.

I do believe timeless could of fit that height requirement but would he ever get involved in somthin like this lol

Those were legitimately funny scenes Kaitha.

(And now I have a complex about the length of my on going project's intro ...)

Thanks,

Ceilidh "Siofra" McKenzie is basically what happened when I thought of inverting "Children don't inherit the same powers as their parents, usually." So Mum is a healer/exemplar, and biological dad is a Quinzel-Osborne rager PDP with touch-telepathy, telekinesis and paragon. Both his and Ceilidh's rages are fueled based on fear, and their carnage is telekinetic based.

Then I decided to make her a twelve year old with the regressed aging, so her personality is basically "I'm trying to pretend I'm seven/ eight so people don't scare me."

The scene with Iron Star came from the idea that "Stupid FSOA person being a jerk to the bad seed aspect." Even though she's met her father once, and it ended with him in the ICU after they raged at each other.

Kaitha39 wrote: Thanks,

Ceilidh "Siofra" McKenzie is basically what happened when I thought of inverting "Children don't inherit the same powers as their parents, usually." So Mum is a healer/exemplar, and biological dad is a Quinzel-Osborne rager PDP with touch-telepathy, telekinesis and paragon. Both his and Ceilidh's rages are fueled based on fear, and their carnage is telekinetic based.

Then I decided to make her a twelve year old with the regressed aging, so her personality is basically "I'm trying to pretend I'm seven/ eight so people don't scare me."

The scene with Iron Star came from the idea that "Stupid FSOA person being a jerk to the bad seed aspect." Even though she's met her father once, and it ended with him in the ICU after they raged at each other.

Most interesting! ... So, Runic, who I guess I thought was canon due to confusing her with Runestrong... Is she Siofra's full sister? ... How did their parents hook up??

Cool opening for each scene, starting them off similarly, and changing quickly!

That bit with the staff running out of ways to KO Soifra was a bit less humorous, 'cause the need to KO Ragers is SeriousBusiness.

But, the healing KO trigger helps mitigate that, which I got after reading the current last scene in the series.

Although, Runic being okay with that is sorta weird, letting people hurt her sister... Oh, no, she just needs to rage, and then be healed... Soifra doesn't have to be injured to rage, just scared?

Runic is her half-sister. Same mother, but her father is her mother's actual husband.
In my original story, which was lost to hard drive failure, Ceilidh manifested just a few weeks before her seventh birthday. Ceilidh's (is the term Half-Dad?) was on deployment in the middle east at the time, so her mum wasn't keen on shipping her off to Whateley, and trained her healing herself. Once Christopher came back, Zara had already gotten Ceilidh's mind entrenched in the "start healing when being healed" mindset. It's been five years since then and Ceilidh's only going to Whateley now because her visit with her Dad happened in Spring 2007. The parents originally wanted to send her in 2009, as Leanna would have graduated and Ceilidh would be 14, and therefore a freshman.

My understanding of the Quinzel-Osborne syndrome is that it's basically 1. Start with one emotion. 2. Brain gets confused. 3. Person feels drunk on new emotion. 4. ??? 5. Destructive rage profit!
So the little tickle of being healed makes Ceilidh's brain say "I remember this feeling! Healing time! What a good idea to blast AAAALLLLL the healings on full strength" It's less of a KO and more of a "Collapse from exhaustion. High risk of TCS"


Leanna doesn't mention the TCS risk because she a) Hates Ceilidh. b) isn't particularly fond of Maggie. Dickinson-Whitman cottage feud is fun!
And no, Ceilidh doesn't need to be hurt, she just needs to feel like she's in actual imminent danger. She's spent half her life around big burly men and monster-like-GSD cases, having lived on RAF Wattisham, so she's not scared of size or shape differences. Compare the situations of
1. I'm telling a big drunk guy to stop messing around and get out of my workplace.
2. I've just clipped the corner of the road and my car's going into a fishtail.
I'm not scared in 1. The guy might hit me, but it's unlikely. In 2, I'm terrified because I have no control over the heavy metal coffin going sidewards at 60mph. Ceilidh would start laughing in 2, but not 1.

(Side note about the hard drive fail; back your work up kids. The only reason I didn't post anything for like, two years was because the hard drive died just as I was completing my first draft. I'm not a prolific writer, so something like 200k words being lost was kinda just /cry time.)

Kaitha39 wrote: So the little tickle of being healed makes Ceilidh's brain say "I remember this feeling! Healing time! What a good idea to blast AAAALLLLL the healings on full strength"

... What does healing magic do to people who don't need healing??

Kaitha39 wrote: It's less of a KO and more of a "Collapse from exhaustion. High risk of TCS"

Kaitha39 wrote: Leanna doesn't mention the TCS risk because she a) Hates Ceilidh. b) isn't particularly fond of Maggie. Dickinson-Whitman cottage feud is fun!

That's less feud, and more actual HATE. "I want my half-sister to possibly / likely die"... That is not funny, at least, not to me... But that might be sorta the point... CerebusSyndrome... ... Or maybe that is feud... I just didn't expect longterm FeudingFamilies type feud...

Kaitha39 wrote: (Side note about the hard drive fail; back your work up kids. The only reason I didn't post anything for like, two years was because the hard drive died just as I was completing my first draft. I'm not a prolific writer, so something like 200k words being lost was kinda just /cry time.)

Oh, so you never posted things? 'Else I'd say to raid my archives and the WebArchives.

Malady wrote:

Kaitha39 wrote: ... What does healing magic do to people who don't need healing??

I am thinking about regen cancer/tumor.

Malady wrote:

Kaitha39 wrote: So the little tickle of being healed makes Ceilidh's brain say "I remember this feeling! Healing time! What a good idea to blast AAAALLLLL the healings on full strength"

... What does healing magic do to people who don't need healing??

I envisioned Zara's and Ceilidh's healing as being like an energiser blast. It was part of why Zara had to actually go to medical school and get her medical doctorate before the NHS would employ her. I assume the difference between Wizard rated healing and Healer rated healing is that the Wizard has to craft a spell to specifically place "regen status" on the subject, but the healer is just projecting their own "regen status". Same effect for the patient, but different traits to get there

Esar wrote:
I am thinking about regen cancer/tumor.

She's got shifter4/exemplar4/regen4 with a BIT so strong it's regressing her aging. Zara's healing is only level 2. I'm assuming the BIT would reassert itself to the point where any regen cancer from Zara wouldn't last long enough to get malignant, and would be put back to normal without danger.

Malady wrote:

That's less feud, and more actual HATE. "I want my half-sister to possibly / likely die"... That is not funny, at least, not to me... But that might be sorta the point... CerebusSyndrome... ... Or maybe that is feud... I just didn't expect longterm FeudingFamilies type feud...

On the one hand, it wasn't meant to be funny. It was meant to be the origin to a "Think before you speak" moment for Leanna. The scene was adapted from the original draft mostly to put Maggie in Dickinson as the new Junior-high-babysitter, because I originally had Tansy in that role, acting as a beleaguered overseer for their antics. This was obviously before E.E. started redeeming Tansy, when she was a spoilt brat butt monkey. Maggie's blood oath is a convenient reason to tap her for that position, especially since the GSD half of Whitman can't be too happy with the way her freak out is about Lanie's new GSD. Carson's moved her half to punish, half to protect her. And where can she send her? Poe? Obviously not. Melvielle? Kodiak lives there, so not a good idea either. Dickinson it is then.

On the other hand, remember something ElrodW once said about Kayda: "She's a teenager. She's going to act stupidly, without thinking." One complaint about Whateley I feel is accurate is that sometimes, the characters portrayed are acting much more like adults than teenagers. It's an easy writing trap, since most writers are adults, and some teens can bridge the gap between child behaviour and adult behaviour.
Leanna hates Ceilidh in that sibling "I say I want you to die but would be devastated if you actually did" manner, and the only two times she's seen Ceilidh be calmed down by healing, one of the parents were there to inject gadgeteer-based calorie serum into the poor girl. She's not actually consciously thinking how bad TCS could be, because she hasn't ever seen Ceilidh in a position of actual weakness. She's got plenty of experience seeing her sister be "exemplar-perfect" however.
Jealousy is prominent in this one. Kinda happens when your nine year old sister reads your maths textbook, then corrects your homework for you behind your back. Every week for a school term. And then Leanna gets suspended for it, because her homework went from "Try harder" to "every question correct".
Try living with a "Perfect" younger sibling who can do no wrong, even for just three years. It'll drive you mad.


And when I said "Feud", I was talking more about the Leanna-Maggie interaction. The Leanna-Ceilidh interaction being a feud should be a given. They're sisters. Half Sisters. Both using Leanna's fathers surname. A certain level of having a feud should just be assumed ^_^. Ceilidh's part is to make sure she never puts a foot wrong, and is the perfect little sister who loves unconditionally. Meaning Leanna is the one who gets in ANY trouble for the fights. See much earlier comment about how she only pretends to act like an eight year old.

Kaitha39 wrote:

Malady wrote:

That's less feud, and more actual HATE. "I want my half-sister to possibly / likely die"... That is not funny, at least, not to me... But that might be sorta the point... CerebusSyndrome... ... Or maybe that is feud... I just didn't expect longterm FeudingFamilies type feud...

On the one hand, it wasn't meant to be funny. It was meant to be the origin to a "Think before you speak" moment for Leanna. The scene was adapted from the original draft mostly to put Maggie in Dickinson as the new Junior-high-babysitter, because I originally had Tansy in that role, acting as a beleaguered overseer for their antics. This was obviously before E.E. started redeeming Tansy, when she was a spoilt brat butt monkey. Maggie's blood oath is a convenient reason to tap her for that position, especially since the GSD half of Whitman can't be too happy with the way her freak out is about Lanie's new GSD. Carson's moved her half to punish, half to protect her. And where can she send her? Poe? Obviously not. Melvielle? Kodiak lives there, so not a good idea either. Dickinson it is then.

...

Leanna hates Ceilidh in that sibling "I say I want you to die but would be devastated if you actually did" manner, and the only two times she's seen Ceilidh be calmed down by healing, one of the parents were there to inject gadgeteer-based calorie serum into the poor girl. She's not actually consciously thinking how bad TCS could be, because she hasn't ever seen Ceilidh in a position of actual weakness. She's got plenty of experience seeing her sister be "exemplar-perfect" however.
Jealousy is prominent in this one. Kinda happens when your nine year old sister reads your maths textbook, then corrects your homework for you behind your back. Every week for a school term. And then Leanna gets suspended for it, because her homework went from "Try harder" to "every question correct".
Try living with a "Perfect" younger sibling who can do no wrong, even for just three years. It'll drive you mad.

Yeah, I can see that kind of sibling relationship.

I thought you'd say '1 year', as its more quippy, but they have been living together for 3 years.

Oh! Right! This is more DramaticIrony, then 'cause I thought Leanna knew and understood the TCS, but no, she's working on incomplete information.

I guess Zara's their mom, but you never actually said that, but that's the only person that 'Zara' could be.

... How did Ceilidh get conceived though? A.k.a how did her dad marry Zara, 'cause Zara seems superhero-ish, even if she's just a superpowered nurse, and her dad's apparently a supervil.

Malady wrote: Yeah, I can see that kind of sibling relationship.

I thought you'd say '1 year', as its more quippy, but they have been living together for 3 years.

Using Ceilidh's ages, Leanna is four years older:
7 - Ceilidh manifest
9- Leanna manifest
10- Leanna goes to Whateley
12- Ceilidh goes to Whateley

Malady wrote: I guess Zara's their mom, but you never actually said that, but that's the only person that 'Zara' could be.

Sorry, I kinda skimmed that in my post. Zara is the mum, Christopher is Leanna's dad. Manuel is Ceilidh's dad.
Side note: Siofra is a name I got from Celtic mythology that refers to a 'changling child.' That is, one who was kidnapped by fairies and replaced by one of their children for the unsuspecting parents to raise in their place. Ceilidh at birth had very, very spanish features. Ceilidh at 7 looks like a photocopy of her mother at that age.
Edit: As in, a very typical Scottish redhead. Leanna is one as well, but Ceilidh looks more like Zara than Leanna does.

Malady wrote: ... How did Ceilidh get conceived though? A.k.a how did her dad marry Zara, 'cause Zara seems superhero-ish, even if she's just a superpowered nurse, and her dad's apparently a supervil.

Manuel and Zara didn't get married. Zara has only ever been married to Chris.
And by intentions and free will, has never cheated on Chris.

Christopher, Manuel and Leanna all went to Whateley in the same year. Chris joined the military, he's a captain in the British version of the MSOC mentioned in HiJacker's stories. Leanna went off to medical school. Manuel... got into a bar fight with some H1 thugs when Leanna was three, earned his red boarded MID doing so, and a month later thought to take it out on his childhood friends. It was very, very much the end of the friendship. He's been on the run since, working as a freelance thug/merc/villain until he learned Ceilidh was his, after which time thought to pay a fatherly visit. He's been living in a prison hospital, paralysed and on life support, ever since.
Ceilidh knows she's a child by rape. She has a bad habbit of eavesdropping on conversations she shouldn't.

Yeah, you can see why I put the comedic microscenes first, right?

Malady wrote:

Kaitha39 wrote: So the little tickle of being healed makes Ceilidh's brain say "I remember this feeling! Healing time! What a good idea to blast AAAALLLLL the healings on full strength"

... What does healing magic do to people who don't need healing??

That's a good question! We've seen Kayda come up short on essence because she's often a healer of last resort (She IS just starting out). Fey originally tended to pull whatever she needs as she needs it, but has become very conscious of a need to tone things down. Bladedancer's still learning, but can probably rely on the Tao to cue her in to how much power to put in.

Metro's going to run through standard triage (his foster mother is a doctor and runs/ran a street clinic), and has 3-4 years of experience reading auras. He might hurt himself channeling the necessary essence for a bad injury, but that's life. His is a fairly generic "return things to working order" spell based on the patient's underlying "pattern", so the magic may work like accelerated regen: stabilize the patient, heal wounds/injuries, start fixing scars/cosmetic defects and "wear&tear". I'd worry that accelerating a BIT-, MATD-, GSD-, or magic/curse/X- driven somatic changes would be the step between fixing injuries and going after scars, etc.

In most cases, there should be a point at which either the essence "feeds back" and the magician stops, "Dude, quit crying, that's a paper cut. They bleed like that." Or, the next logical fix (YMMV on the "logical" aspect) would just take way too much essence to pull off, "I may be good, but I cannot cure adolescence."

I don't recall seeing Lifeline in action. With her phobia regarding GSD possibly now being worse, I could see her trying to "fix" things that aren't technically broken. That, or walking out on the patient.


A blast of undirected healing/regen energy, not necessarily magic (which might be limited by the caster's Intent), could be scary. Reversed vasectomies. Partial regrowth of amputated limbs (now the prosthetics don't fit - hope they had a chance to remove them first) Antibiotic and antiparasite treatments undone, because now the bugs feel fine too!. Accelerated plant growth sounds cool, until you include algae, molds, yeasts, and bacteria: potentially deadly in an operating room, pretty ugly in the shower.

null0trooper wrote: "I may be good, but I cannot cure adolescence."

Steven 'Capsule' McKenzie picked up his crutches, and began hobbling over to his cousin's half-sister.

So, he's descended from Christopher's brother? 'Cause all three of them share a last name?

Malady wrote: So, he's descended from Christopher's brother? 'Cause all three of them share a last name?

Christopher's baseline sister and an H1 jerk. So Steven changed to his mother's maiden name.
Then when his mother remarried a nice guy, his mutation came in secretly. He got thrown out by his mum and taken in by his step-Dad, when she finds out what a teenage boy would do with the ability to manifest not ectoplasm, but real atoms for any chemical he can think of. He gets rated as both a chemical gadgeteer and manifestor.
He was called Dietician in his first draft, cause I'd have him constantly making himself junk food, with the name being him trolling anyone who's trying to lose weight. The fact that it dissolves after a few days like most other manifested materials, means he either needs to start eating normal food before stopping, or else he'd literally starve himself out.

null0trooper wrote: A blast of undirected healing/regen energy, not necessarily magic (which might be limited by the caster's Intent), could be scary. Reversed vasectomies. Partial regrowth of amputated limbs (now the prosthetics don't fit - hope they had a chance to remove them first) Antibiotic and antiparasite treatments undone, because now the bugs feel fine too!. Accelerated plant growth sounds cool, until you include algae, molds, yeasts, and bacteria: potentially deadly in an operating room, pretty ugly in the shower.

I can see how some of that (vasectomies, amputations) would be scary, see Hippolyta's rebar through the chest issue from Spring combat finals, for instance.

But we never had BannedAids or Jobe talk about those issues with the antibiotic/parasite/plants, and if they're projecting the same energy as regen does to it's owner, would it not stand that regens wouldn't have to deal with that kind of thing too? I mean, the human body is supposed to be only 10% actually you. The rest is all microbes and stuff that lives in harmony with you.
While the horror might be interesting fodder for a Hawthorne patient, that's the kind of body horror thing I'd like to paraphase Dan Shive over: "Nothing bad happens with transformation technology, it's more fun that way."

Kaitha39 wrote: But we never had BannedAids or Jobe talk about those issues with the antibiotic/parasite/plants, and if they're projecting the same energy as regen does to it's owner, would it not stand that regens wouldn't have to deal with that kind of thing too? I mean, the human body is supposed to be only 10% actually you. The rest is all microbes and stuff that lives in harmony with you.

Princess Jobe deals in designer toxins and gene-splicing, not in "healing". Even with a devisor antibiotic, I'd bet she'd take intestinal flora into account, depending on what other trade-offs would be needed.

Regenerators regen themselves. A missile to the gut, if they survive it, might heal, but then there might be a lag time until the surviving gut flora grow into/colonize the new tissue. No biggee, because any problem caused by the lack of bugs would be far easier to heal. Regen cells are a bit alien anyway.

I don't think that how Banned Aids' power works was specified, but he, like Seraphim, is definitely focusing on healing the patient his hands are on. A blast of undirected "positive energy" (or whatever) would be the rare case where unfortunate or hilarious results could ensue.

As Siofra's creator you could install whatever limits or drawbacks fit your vision of her, so no harm no foul

@Kaitha39 - Well, snow-white skin makes me think Yuki-Onna, but that's totally the wrong location? But then again, it could happen??

@null0trooper - Oh! Nice prank! ... I so want to know what the Handy Handlady does, 'cause it's a massive change in Generator's powers if she can do healing?

Malady wrote: @null0trooper - Oh! Nice prank! ... I so want to know what the Handy Handlady does, 'cause it's a massive change in Generator's powers if she can do healing?

It's Jann charged into one of Generator's sound-capable disks, the same way Jade treated Chou's injuries in Boston. I didn't find a name for it, so went with something cute and nonmedical that would make Jericho sweat.

Jensen, aka Metro, is a magician himself: with everything lined up and held in place, the spell takes hold much easier. Jade's help wasn't needed, but he did appreciate it, as did the Clinic.

The rest was a gentle reminder to not go pissing off the non-rager UV kids.

null0trooper wrote: As Siofra's creator you could install whatever limits or drawbacks fit your vision of her, so no harm no foul

I'd envisioned it, in normal use now that she knows how to control it, to be like a Dragon Ball Z hand blast. Directed and focused. Imagine a flamethrower controlling a stream of fire.

During a rage however, she's drunk on laughter and trying to telekinetically crush any person she can see. Spike her with the feeling of being healed, and she just loses control of where she sends it. Compare the flamethrower with a molotov cocktail, which just throws fire in all directions. It could be a massive regen-explosion, it could be sending out beams and blasts, it could be some mix or something else. All she actually knows is how to giggle and cackle.

@Null0trooper
On the one nitpicking hand, I thought Jade actually cast herself into Chou's body in Boston, and was directly moving Chou's flesh, as she did to herself in Christmas Elves. It sounded like she was already cast on the disk and travelled across campus, so she wouldn't be able to pick up Joe's flesh.
On the other hand, that is a nice prank. Joe might want to rethink this "Dress weird to take the attention away from my GSD buddies" thing he's got, or at least toning it down.

@Malady: Eliza wasn't part of my previous story, she's literally just something I started writing on Monday? I don't even have any powers or actual appearance in mind. The pure-white skin was just "This is obviously going to not be the same as she's used to" to symbolise the manifestation.
TBH. I'm actually halfway of the mind to make it where she's a projective empath, she just made all the ISIS fighters break down crying, and it was Ruth who killed them all, found the westerners, and arranged for passage to America with the man in the suit...

Kaitha39 wrote: @Null0trooper
On the one nitpicking hand, I thought Jade actually cast herself into Chou's body in Boston, and was directly moving Chou's flesh, as she did to herself in Christmas Elves. It sounded like she was already cast on the disk and travelled across campus, so she wouldn't be able to pick up Joe's flesh.

She would still have her TK, but yeah, it doesn't look like she's been able to add things to her grasp after casting one of the J-Team into a group of objects.

Easiest way then is to keep the animated disk for show, just walk in with Jade invisible (Metro's invisibility spell can cover electronic observation.) If need be, he could task a spirit to add a concealment on top of that to muffle sound perception. Jade then casts a charge into Joe herself and everything's copacetic.

He is capable of channeling a spirit somewhat like Timeless, and Jinn would qualify, but they've probably both been specifically warned against doing that. Both Mads and Jade have memories that are best left buried.

Kaitha39 wrote: On the other hand, that is a nice prank. Joe might want to rethink this "Dress weird to take the attention away from my GSD buddies" thing he's got, or at least toning it down.

Thanks! I think Joe would rethink his methods now that there's a student at risk of running out of effective meds if triggered that way too often.

As a strong advocate of Danny's right not to be humiliated, I can only approve this latest micro-Scenes.

Tbh, I've spent a large part of Danny's scenes in the last couple of Kayda stories wondering when ElrodW is going to show Danny actually exploding verbally on someone, telling them something to the tune of "I am not an animal" or "Stop performing sexual assault on me".

I mean, sure, I can see a teenager taking the kissing without too much complaint, but he's being a lot more passive about the touching, petting, and stroking than I'd expect, especially when he clearly doesn't enjoy it.

The poor guy does know he has a right to say "no", correct? And even if he doesn't, one would have thought Kayda might have had something to say about her little sibling being molested like this.

Kaitha39 wrote: And even if he doesn't, one would have thought Kayda might have had something to say about her little sibling being molested like this.

To be fair, kayda is in her own bubble. She is pretty much oblivious to everything happening around her. Maybe she will realize something is wrong but only after she has finished dealing with her own issue (I mean, something like Carson threatening to put him on the superviolent list because he can't control his spirit might be a "slight" problem for Danny. Him being physically agressed maybe another thing) The other thing is that she has already said (well, narrated) that she thought he deserved it (or at least some of it) for making fun of her after her manifestation. The problem here is that it has happened "offscreen" (and that, as we know, Kayda is not a reliable narrator. A lot of things are born from her self esteem issue among other things) so it has not tarnished our view of Danny. When Kayda tells the audience that he deserves it, we can only say "if you say so", while not fully being convinced.

Regarding whether or not he is enjoying it, I think I remember Elrodw telling us that he enjoyed some part of it. At one point he is planning to write a Danny PoV so it might become more obvious, we will have to see.

Well, he DID get some serious smoochies out of it back in South Dakota... so he's probably quite conflicted about the whole thing. On one hand, yes, personal space. On the other hand... cute girls wanting to spend time (and possibly more) with him. Also, lots of family indoctrination about "being nice to girls," so he has concerns about coming off as an asshole if he tries to set some hard limits.

As you can see, I have decided that the easiest way to get DumbingToWhateley!Mary into Poe was to make her a MTF changeling. I imagine she's thrilled at this.

And yes, Carla's hurting over the fact that she isn't physically becoming female every bit as much as Jade had, but she at least has a surgical option that doesn't require them to find away around both Exemplar lock-in and regeneration.

Sir Lee wrote: Well, he DID get some serious smoochies out of it back in South Dakota... so he's probably quite conflicted about the whole thing. On one hand, yes, personal space. On the other hand... cute girls wanting to spend time (and possibly more) with him. Also, lots of family indoctrination about "being nice to girls," so he has concerns about coming off as an asshole if he tries to set some hard limits.

He's most likely STILL getting serious smoochies. I can't say more, but there's a reveal in K10 P6 that is hugely interesting in a LOT of ways. Actually, there are multiple reveals in 5 and 6, but the ones concerning Danny are in 6.

elrodw wrote:

Sir Lee wrote: Well, he DID get some serious smoochies out of it back in South Dakota... so he's probably quite conflicted about the whole thing. On one hand, yes, personal space. On the other hand... cute girls wanting to spend time (and possibly more) with him. Also, lots of family indoctrination about "being nice to girls," so he has concerns about coming off as an asshole if he tries to set some hard limits.

He's most likely STILL getting serious smoochies. I can't say more, but there's a reveal in K10 P6 that is hugely interesting in a LOT of ways. Actually, there are multiple reveals in 5 and 6, but the ones concerning Danny are in 6.

Is he getting more than serious smoochies? ... Harem! Harem would be soo interesting! ... And hey, why not keep going with the Teen Preg WMG. So yeah. Teen Preg WMG.

To be fair, Arale does have a history with the Monkey King... well, one (very, very loosely inspired by) version of him, at any rate...



And yes, Dr. Miura did try to get 'Doctor Slump' as her codename, but obviously that wasn't going to happen; she has since said that it was for the best, and that it probably would be pretty embarrassing to her now if she somehow had managed to get the rights to the name).

Schol-R-LEA wrote: To be fair, Arale does have a history with the Monkey King... well, one (very, very loosely inspired by) version of him, at any rate...

Ah, I knew I recognized Arale from Dragonball, your micro-scene brought memories back. Would fit right in at Whateley from what I recall of her.

Also Schol, can Carla transform into a car similar to the 80s cartoon character Turbo Teen?

Not familiar with Turbo Teen, but that's pretty much what her power is, yeah. She can manifest rollerskate-like wheels on her feet while in human form as well.

FUUUUUUUUUCK! I just wrote an extended explanation and the forum not only rejected it, it's gone now because I wrote it in the quick edit like an idiot!!!!!!

Anyway... Let's try that again, this time in the full editor and with fewer links. Because fuck me.

Basically, the TL;CP is that this Carla, who is based on an abrasive college-age transwoman who was in turn based on an abrasive talking car who could turn into a woman , is an abrasive teenaged trans-girl who can turn into a car. And Peter/ Mary got bitten on the ass by karma ('car-ma'?), it's funny, so laugh damn it!

I really don't know much more about Arale myself, except that she was (more or less) the main character in Dr. Slump, having been created by the titular mad scientist. I have seen a couple of clips with her in later parts of the Dragonball stories (set around the time of DB Supers) looking the same as ever, and in one animated story (non-canon, I think), she gives Vegeta an impressive beat-down - and causes a huge crack through the Earth in the process, all while cheerfully saying how much she's enjoying "playing with Goku's new friend".

Apparently, Toriyama likes crossing over characters from different series of his, as can be seen with the introduction of Tights Briefs (Bulma's retconned inlong-lost older sister - keep in mind that 'Bulma' is a recursive transliteration of 'bloomers', which in Japanese is 'buruma') as one of the main characters of Joco the Galactic Patrolman, and the appearance of both Tights and Joco in one of the later Dragonball series. However, while Joco is explicitly set in the same universe as DB, I have been led to understand that the world as given in Dr. Slump really doesn't seem to fit in with the other series, so fans of both have some real questions about that.

Over in the 'A little R&R' thread, the latest scene was directly inspired by:

Katssun wrote: You're a bully, or UV at Whateley. You could admit that you were ambushed by the single most insane member of the most fearsome training team, known for defeating their opponents so consistently (excepting two incidents, one recent and not public), or you can admit that you were singlehandedly defeated by a girl who looks two years younger than that, and one year younger than any given member of the Three Little Witches.

Remember than Ceilidh looks two years younger than Alyss does, so the shame factor for that....
And it's not like it's happening in secret. I dare say Belinda is going to put that all over the Whatelely intra-net for people to laugh at.

lol I swear by the time he graduates bloodwolf will have the first reasonable case of Parthenophobia ( www.phobiasource.com/parthenophobia-is-t...gins-or-young-girls/ ) aka fear of virgins or young girls lol

^ Oh! Healing KO tactic! I was wondering what the ball of energy was for. I guess that's Clover, who's the Estelle.

... OH! Lifeline is running herd over the Junior High kids! I didn't make that connection until I supposed that Maggie was Lifeline, and the gaggle of girls were the Junior Highs.

I guess Mega-boy is somewhere else...

We finally see Ceilidh rage! The glows are interesting! ... I wasn't expecting such a sudden end, but our knowledge allows some extrapolation. ... How many characters have you made now? ... There's a lotta girls, but I can't criticize on that front, given my idea logs... It's pretty nice...

Who's supplying all the flight devises? ... Jade?? There's no JH Gadg, or Dev, right??

Right, the "I attack little girls" scar, which is... Well, accurate.

Malady wrote: ^ Oh! Healing KO tactic! I was wondering what the ball of energy was for. I guess that's Clover, who's the Estelle.

... OH! Lifeline is running herd over the Junior High kids! I didn't make that connection until I supposed that Maggie was Lifeline, and the gaggle of girls were the Junior Highs.

Lifeline sent out the ball of energy. It is indeed to trigger a Healing KO. AFAIK Maggie's only power is the Wizard trait, so I'd be really surprised if she didn't work out a spell that could heal from range. Even if it's tradeoff is that it has almost no strength, all she needs is to get the feeling across.

Malady wrote: I guess Mega-boy is somewhere else...

Playing video games or whatever it is he does for fun over in his room? He was established as the only boy in the junior high section. (Although A Little R&R introduced Morgan, it first claims Morgan is a boy when meeting Roulette, then a girl when meeting Ribbon. Could be a sex shifter, given the "I don't care" attitude when meeting Ribbon though.) If you were the only boy hanging out with a load of girls before you hit puberty, you'd probably be somewhat lonely. And a picnic, with a game of lasso-tag? He's likely to pass, citing risk of catching cooties (is that spelled right? We don't really have cooties in Britain, outside of American TV.)

Malady wrote: We finally see Ceilidh rage! The glows are interesting! ... I wasn't expecting such a sudden end, but our knowledge allows some extrapolation. ... How many characters have you made now? ... There's a lotta girls, but I can't criticize on that front, given my idea logs... It's pretty nice...

The glows are just visual effects of the TK. When Ceilidh's sane, it's all blue. Until she decides, while sane, to use her TK to compress space while tearing up the objects inside it, she'll never see the red aura.

Characters? Um... I came up with a few, but some are still coming. I kinda pick a character trope type and then build around it. And as for more girls than boys, well... I find boys are easier to come up with action sequences for, but girls are easier to write drama around. And when you've writen one girl into a 'boarding school, sex-segregated dorm' type situation, it lends itself to making more girls.

Malady wrote: Who's supplying all the flight devises? ... Jade?? There's no JH Gadg, or Dev, right??

There's Little Bee, the sister of Yellow Queen. I didn't specifically plot for who made them though.

slapshots wrote: lol I swear by the time he graduates bloodwolf will have the first reasonable case of Parthenophobia ( www.phobiasource.com/parthenophobia-is-t...gins-or-young-girls/ ) aka fear of virgins or young girls lol

Couldn't happen to a nicer, more deserving guy.
He lives in a universe that's established, implied to be common knowledge, that power increases with how young they manifest. If that was me, I'd be very, very nice to any pre-teen who's confirmed to be a mutant. It's not like it's all that hard a thing to do, either.

Malady wrote: ^ Oh! Healing KO tactic! I was wondering what the ball of energy was for. I guess that's Clover, who's the Estelle.

That's Clover's legal name, though they have not given her surname yet.

OK, so I fudged the timeline. A lot. I was thinking that Lucy was 8 in "Enter the Chaka", and Matt was 6, but it says that Lucy was twelve. Oops.

I could fix it... but that would wreck the punchline. Well, maybe not - assuming Matt is straight, then he would have even more reason not to want to hear his friend drooling over Nick.

Oh, 'Narns' would be short for 'Narnia'; I was figuring Lucy (or Matt) would be a Wiz-2 specializing in portals, but unlike Molly, she would need an existing doorway to form one.

Kaitha39 wrote:

Malady wrote: We finally see Ceilidh rage! The glows are interesting! ... I wasn't expecting such a sudden end, but our knowledge allows some extrapolation. ... How many characters have you made now? ... There's a lotta girls, but I can't criticize on that front, given my idea logs... It's pretty nice...

The glows are just visual effects of the TK. When Ceilidh's sane, it's all blue. Until she decides, while sane, to use her TK to compress space while tearing up the objects inside it, she'll never see the red aura.
...
I find boys are easier to come up with action sequences for, but girls are easier to write drama around. And when you've writen one girl into a 'boarding school, sex-segregated dorm' type situation, it lends itself to making more girls.

So, she's not gonna look at the video? And no one's gonna ask about the auras? ... If it's good for Ceilidh to know, and if Clover considers her a friend, or if it's in Clover's interest to know, Clover's power might nudge that to happen?

It's why I'm focused on the TLW, it's sorta a guaranteed way to get magical mayhem if I need it to do crazy things like bust into alternate dimensions... But, now that I think about it, I guess an older kid could still do something stupid and create the universal breaches that I need for most of my plots... Maybe I should ask Cryptic about Magpie... And his hanging around the TLW doesn't hurt...

*nods* on the character creation stuff.

Kaitha39 wrote:

Malady wrote: Who's supplying all the flight devises? ... Jade?? There's no JH Gadg, or Dev, right??

There's Little Bee, the sister of Yellow Queen. I didn't specifically plot for who made them though.

Well, actually, Al-Feyez is wrong, according to Word Of God, but younger manifestations might just be more powerful, usually, because they've had more practice than the ones who start older.

whateleyacademy.net/index.php/forumscomm...at-whateley?start=10

Kristin Darken wrote: the comment about younger kids manifesting stronger than older ones? Just something said... no evidence backing it.

...

I forgot about Less Than Three, a Devisor and my guess at one of the two unknown JH girls... If she is a JH Girl, she could supply the devises needed, or someone could go asking around for stuff... ... Jade's possibly good enough at general inventing that I guess she could make something for the picnic, even if she's not directly powering the stilts or whatever??

Schol-R-LEA wrote:

Malady wrote: ^ Oh! Healing KO tactic! I was wondering what the ball of energy was for. I guess that's Clover, who's the Estelle.

That's Clover's legal name, though they have not given her surname yet.

Yep! I was wondering if there was some other Estelle, but as we're dealing with the Junior High kids, that's sorta the only option!

Well, I changed it. It should still work, I guess... he'd still be too old by the main timeline (which has him as nine in August 2006), but it might be that his birthday is either very early or very late in the year, meaning he'd be on the cut off point for admission to a given year of school (which can happen, my younger brother was delayed by a year because his birthday is in early January).

More likely, he could have been held back for some reason (not necessarily academic, as shown by what happened to Gizmatic and DNA).

^ Oooh! Early Whateley Academy History! Always cool!

The start of the Gadg / Dev split... Interesting...

This seems like it's going places, but where? I dunno, but I do want to find out!

I think you're right, but if it is going somewhere after this, I'm not sure where. Blame my fickle muse.

This was something of a follow up on an earlier micro , which gave more details about the caper Mephisto pulled right after he recovered from his eight-year drinking binge (including the bit about the 'Professor Morey, Arty' alias), as well as the one on the hacking club and Alan Kotok 's role as the club's first advisor.

Malady wrote: It's why I'm focused on the TLW, it's sorta a guaranteed way to get magical mayhem if I need it to do crazy things like bust into alternate dimensions... But, now that I think about it, I guess an older kid could still do something stupid and create the universal breaches that I need for most of my plots... Maybe I should ask Cryptic about Magpie... And his hanging around the TLW doesn't hurt...

We have Lady Astarte taking students on interplanar field trips and the Amazing Three opening up portals to other dimensions in Gen 1, so a spell or spirit's power could do the job. In theory, any plot element that can transfer people and things to a mutually-accessible plane or world (Dream, Faerie, The Overworld, various afterlife realms, elemental planes, etc.) would suffice to start the journey - after that, it's only a matter of time before some devisor or wizard or entity opens a gate from the Whateley U side.

@Esar - Well, that's interesting, confusing, and creepy! Good job! Not sure how "Blake Newman" plays into it precisely, but some kind of relationship with Alex...

Paradoxically, it was in this advanced state of inebriation that he felt that he truely could see things clearly. He was on the verge of passing out from the alcohol when he left the party, and yet no one really cared about him. Or at least not enough to bother to make sure he would be ok on the way home. He was not even sure they would have taken his keys if he had come there alone by car. For all his so called popularity, his jock status was no more than a shooting star burning through the sky. The fall would be brisk and abrupt, causing a lot of destruction in its aftermath. Maybe it was still time to steer the wheel.

Philosophical!

I'm not sure Alex lived... I'd suspect he died, but the situation between him and Blake is still not fully known, and so could do with some expansion... Unless you want to keep it that way, of course.

I was reminded of the demon Choronzon , which would make for an interesting BIT.

Thanks for the typos Malady, I am not sure I understand what you are saying about the spacing but I assume that I have messed up (again) the punctuation in the dialogues by trying to emulate the way anglo-saxons are writing dialogues. I will have to look up the formal rules.

I just wanted to throw this scene here. I am still writing Parrhesia/Bathos/Zeugma's origin story (I am blaming him/her/them for the codenames, I can't be held responsible for this dorkyness.) appropriately titled "Close to the vest and to his heart" (and I am wondering whether or not I should cringe. Also the problem with an "author" trying to be clever is that sometimes the author is not as clever as he would like himself to be. Hint : the second story is called "Draped in shame and satin". I am pretty sure people will catch on far before Zeugma's formal introduction as a codename. Well, first I will have to finish it and then release it.) I don't think I will reuse the scene as it currently is (because it's mostly a micro-scene and not a real "scene", it would require some arrangements to fit into the middle of a story)

I admit, when I began to write this particular scene, Alex was going to die. It was only meant to show the audience that John Walter (born Grigorije Arsenović) was definitely ruthless and not safe to be around even thought for the MC he was akin to an uncle. If it could throw a potential red herring into the mix regarding the overall plot, even better. Alex had no real impact on the story so I was fine discarding him (The general population being the "real problem", the removal of Alex wouldn't have much impact on Blake's day to day life). While writing it, I have found a better fate for him. he will still play a minor role but one which will fuel the state of mind I am aiming for regarding Blake at the end of the origin story.

Hey Esar are there any more Blake/Anna scenes in the works?

Malady wrote: So, she's not gonna look at the video? And no one's gonna ask about the auras? ... If it's good for Ceilidh to know, and if Clover considers her a friend, or if it's in Clover's interest to know, Clover's power might nudge that to happen?

The 'aura's' or 'glows' were meant to just be a visual clue to the Telekinesis. It's not magic, it's Psi. She knows that her TK is visible, because it glows blue when she's not raging. Everyone who's seen her use TK knows it glows. They won't ask because they already know. Ceilidh herself doesn't know it changes colour, but everyone else does.
She also doesn't want to know about what she does when raging. Think about it, you're a blackout rager. You know you do horrible things that you don't remember. You've also decided the best way to live is to pretend to be half your age, because that's what you look like. An eight year old wouldn't remember what she did wrong last week till you actually ask her (My sister doesn't anyway. She's eleven.)
You'd very quickly decide that, consequences be damned, you'd prefer not to know. Haters gonna hate you anyway. Why ask for the stress? Ignorance is bliss after all.

Malady wrote: Well, actually, Al-Feyez is wrong, according to Word Of God, but younger manifestations might just be more powerful, usually, because they've had more practice than the ones who start older.

whateleyacademy.net/index.php/forumscomm...at-whateley?start=10

Kristin Darken wrote: the comment about younger kids manifesting stronger than older ones? Just something said... no evidence backing it.

Huh, I didn't know about that WoG. I remembered reading it in several of the Ayla stories (I think) so I thought it was true. Yeah, Ayla doesn't know everything, but he knows a lot more than most other people in the setting.

Also, Jade isn't featured in any of the MicroScenes I've written Ceilidh in yet. Leanna is riding herd and proclaiming a gigantic "NO" as a reaction to failing to stop Ceilidh joining the Bad Scenes. From which I've been pulling Iron-Jerkface's hatred of Ceilidh. I'm having a bit too much fun writing more variations on the scene with Ceilidh turning up on a Friday to heal peoples, Iron-Star being Iron-poopyhead-jerkface, and then him being left with Noodle Incident abdominal injuries caused by J-arm for the weekend, as he won't shut up and let Ceilidh repair them for him.
And the nurses don't like having to run around to get a new healer because he's being rude, so they're willing to let him have a terribad weekend using conventional medicine to patch-job him, until he gets fixed him up on Monday.

@Schol-R-LEA: I'm liking the male dolt-ness on Matt. "If she doesn't love me, there's something wrong with her."
I wonder how long until Toni takes him on some 'realistic martial arts lessons' until she has a brother she can be proud of? I mean, Vince isn't doing her any favours there....
@Esar: Awww... poor Alex isn't having a good night is he? Seems like he kinda deserves it though. Sounds like his knuckles at least know Blake as more than just a classmate....

Jarjaross wrote: Hey Esar are there any more Blake/Anna scenes in the works?

Well, Parrhesia/Blake/Bathos/Anna/Zeugma are all referring to the same character so a story is in the work. What I don't know is if and how I am going to release it. At first I was planning on releasing the story in 4 parts (With more or less 10 scenes for each part, I had already mapped out the first two parts in term of scene, for the rest I had the general guidelines) but I kinda know how I work and I am not sure it really suits me. I am rewriting the same scenes again and again. If I don't commit to something it's not going to go far. So I am thinking about working/releasing on a scene by scene basis (and If I post the first few scenes I don't think I will chicken out and not release it. I am strange.) But then I will have to modify the pacing/structure because a 4x10 release is not the same as a 40x1 release. Or maybe I shouldn't care too much about that just yet.

Regarding the release of actual new micro-scenes involving them, my "muse" mostly wants me to write about them at whateley. And she refuses to allow me to write in any logical chronological order (I mean, I have already released two scenes happening post third story ...). So I tend to write those to test a concept or to get a feel on a character (A big chunk of the plot of the first story comes from a Micro-scene that I had begun to write without releasing it in the end). I mostly have 3 micro-scenes directly involving them in mind that I could finish or write.

Schol-R-LEA wrote: OK, so I fudged the timeline. A lot. ...

Oh, 'Narns' would be short for 'Narnia'; I was figuring Lucy (or Matt) would be a Wiz-2 specializing in portals, but unlike Molly, she would need an existing doorway to form one.

So, Amy's an OC, right? ... Cool power idea! ... Portalable Portable Door is an important tool... What counts as a Door?

...

@Esar - On Punctuation:

"Hello!" vs. "Hello !"

It could be interesting for Eliza to meet Sahar.

Esar wrote: It could be interesting for Eliza to meet Sahar.

Happens in the next scene I was planning, which takes place in the Crystal hall and uses the tour group I originally planned for Ceilidh.

Sahar and Hippolyta will both have scenes with Eliza, if only to offer help with translations, though Hipp's opinion on Eliza's lack of education will feature (she's not stupid, but female literacy rates for farming communities in Syria, while not the worst in the world, aren't going to be something Hipp agrees with.)

Side note: In the course of looking up stuff for the next scene, I was pleasantly surprised by Lesotho, Jamaica, Namibia, Malta, the UAE and Guyana. Female literacies rates in these countries are more than 2% higher than male literacy rates. There's a bunch of other countries with 1% higher as well. Considering the vast number of countries with the opposite, and the significantly higher percentages for those rates, +1Internet cookies for those investing in their female children as well as their male children.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_literacy_rate
Toggle the chart by gender difference, ignore all the no data ones.

^ I thought Eliza was Mrs. Grimes. Interesting info-dump on her thought processes. Seeing-A = CIA...

No Telepaths to help explain things? The hard thing is her lack of knowledge, so explanations would need to be stacked ontop of other explains for her to get things...

Malady wrote: ^ I thought Eliza was Mrs. Grimes. Interesting info-dump on her thought processes. Seeing-A = CIA...

Eliza is a student for the class of 2011.
The CIA thing was a pun I was quite happy with, but one that makes more sense when you think about it. She doesn't have a good grasp of English, so she's just smiled and nodded a lot.

No Telepaths to help explain things? The hard thing is her lack of knowledge, so explanations would need to be stacked ontop of other explains for her to get things...

Possibly a telepath inside Whateley. But in the middle of Syria, before the war really kicked off there? Besides, which language do you think in, and therefore are able to telepathic communicate to? The man in the suit doesn't know enough Arabic to convey it with words, so even if he was a telepath, I would doubt he could effectively inform her....

Kaitha39 wrote:

Malady wrote: ^ I thought Eliza was Mrs. Grimes. Interesting info-dump on her thought processes. Seeing-A = CIA...

Eliza is a student for the class of 2011.
The CIA thing was a pun I was quite happy with, but one that makes more sense when you think about it. She doesn't have a good grasp of English, so she's just smiled and nodded a lot.

*nods* ... I should have said "When I first read "Eliza", I thought it was Mrs Grimes looking around some room, until I realized it was your character." ... Didn't realize it was the Homer Gallery until the pile of gold, 'cause I missed the header.

Kaitha39 wrote:

Malady wrote: No Telepaths to help explain things? The hard thing is her lack of knowledge, so explanations would need to be stacked ontop of other explains for her to get things...

Possibly a telepath inside Whateley. Besides, which language do you think in, and therefore are able to telepathic communicate to? The man in the suit doesn't know enough Arabic to convey it with words, so even if he was a telepath, I would doubt he could effectively inform her....

I thought she was in America when the signing took place, but apparently not.

Lord Paramount rules Wallachia, not Walachita. But who am I to talk? I very nearly called him Lord Paramour just now.

I'm enjoying Eliza's POV.

Kettlekorn wrote: Lord Paramount rules Wallachia, not Walachita. But who am I to talk? I very nearly called him Lord Paramour just now.

I'm enjoying Eliza's POV.

...
/Looks left
/Looks right
"Is that a demonic duck of some sort?"
/runs away to ze edit button!

Hey, only as far as the next portal, right? Well, if that universe was still accessible, it would be... and yeah, I guess that Manitoba wouldn't be part of the UCAS, I don't remember off hand.

I never played Shadowrun all that much, but I did read several of the source books. The last time I played, my character was a full-conversion cyborg called... well, in English it got turned into Pierre the Foot. He did not get that name for his Savate skills.

(OK, so my French is terrible, I know; it doesn't mean what I thought it did, though apparently it is still pretty funny.)

Ah, I know I've mentioned that Alan Kotok was a real person (who did indeed pass away in 2006), but I didn't mention that David Silver is, too - he is best known for his improvements in autonomous robotic arms ('autonomous' in the sense of computer-controlled, in contrast to a human-operated waldo) in the early 1970s, especially regarding tactile feedback and fine control. Perhaps I should probe into how the fictional Silver's career diverges from that if his real life counterpart... not sure what I'd do with that, though.

null0trooper wrote: A little something to feed the demon ducks, with the idea that maybe Eliza had Mrs. Hawkins for her class advisor.

---

Schuster Hall, Whateley Academy
First day of classes

I quite like it. A slight bit more eloquent than my mental image of Eliza's POV is forming, but that's not a bad thing. Hawkins being her advisor allows for some real trouble for Eliza's schedule. Given how she bungled Kayda's Avatar class, I'd question if she was allowed another Avatar to guide. I can't tell whether she'd mess it up by not putting Eliza in the intensive English course that Verdant took. She really, really needs it if she's going to stay in America, which is not exactly a polylingual friendly place, as far as I can tell from across the pond.

Only real point of issue is that between the quote from an Imam and the 'raghead' insult, you might be thinking Eliza is a Muslim. I saw her as a Syrian Christian who lives in an area under Kurdish control, as such, she doesn't wear a headscarf, and it was why her family were some of the last from her village to be targetted by the Islamic fighters coming from the south. My (admittedly not-perfect) knowledge of the raids in the Middle East was that first they came for the Muslims, to be 'non-optionally recruited' into the warband. Then they came for any non-Muslims who didn't flee so they could keep the area for the new Caliphate they want to create.
I do admit I might be wrong here. The fighting in the Middle East is a very complex serious of issues that ultimately boils down to "Everyone's fighting over religions, with further fighting over whether you follow their interpretation of the religion."

Of course, whether any of the racist jerks who would actually call someone a 'raghead' would care to distinguish the nuances of whether that term even applies to Eliza, is up in the air. I would assume a teenager who used a racist term wouldn't care to learn what it means, just that it applies to people who look like X.
Case in point; before I came across a post from Kristin stating that 9/11 didn't happen in WU, I'd started writing the scene between Eliza and Sahar being interrupted by Gauntlet ranting about it to them. (Despite only Ziad Jarrah coming from Lebanon, where Sahar is from, and he wasn't in the towers. He crashed into a Penn State field after the other passengers revolted. None of the other 19 attackers were either Syrian or Lebanese.)

Eh, that matter of 9/11 in Whateley is getting more confusing all the time. There was some recent canon mention (I believe it was in Final Trump?) about "Ground Zero" and referring specifically to the WTC... so until they say what exactly happened, I'll stay confused.

Anyway... if bigots lynch Sikhs for thinking they are Arabs, well, the subtlety of a Syrian being non-Muslim will probably be lost on them.

DBZ abridged reference ? dbz Abridged reference.

Kaitha39 wrote:

null0trooper wrote: A little something to feed the demon ducks, with the idea that maybe Eliza had Mrs. Hawkins for her class advisor.

---

Schuster Hall, Whateley Academy
First day of classes

I quite like it. A slight bit more eloquent than my mental image of Eliza's POV is forming, but that's not a bad thing.

Thanks! I ended up getting more descriptive for Mads because this gave me a POV for whom a) he wouldn't look like just be another kid from across the street, and b) his body language might raise warning bells instead of being reassuring.

Kaitha39 wrote: Hawkins being her advisor allows for some real trouble for Eliza's schedule. Given how she bungled Kayda's Avatar class, I'd question if she was allowed another Avatar to guide. I can't tell whether she'd mess it up by not putting Eliza in the intensive English course that Verdant took. She really, really needs it if she's going to stay in America, which is not exactly a polylingual friendly place, as far as I can tell from across the pond.

I went with one of the worst counselors, because like Kayda and Anna, Eliza wouldn't yet know she has options. The "immersion" language course has been mentioned as a Winter Term offering. It may be available for the Summer Term as well, but, yeah.

Granted, my RL voting ballots are trilingual (English, Spanish, and Haitian Creole), but support for Arabic is something I'd only expect in a few communities.

Kaitha39 wrote: Only real point of issue is that between the quote from an Imam and the 'raghead' insult, you might be thinking Eliza is a Muslim. I saw her as a Syrian Christian who lives in an area under Kurdish control, as such, she doesn't wear a headscarf, and it was why her family were some of the last from her village to be targetted by the Islamic fighters coming from the south.

I thought that you were going for that, but a couple of later comments in the second scene had me in doubt - even struck out a mention that she was Suryaye. I thought that might not have been clear to the readers ... and Eliza would be right if she assumed it would have gone over the boy's head.

To be fair, the Imam's quote was something he probably had already memorized. Mads is from a plane strongly (i.e., exactly) like Shadowrun's Sixth World. Being recognized as a practicing magician, even in metropolitan Cairo, wouldn't have gone over well.

Kaitha39 wrote: Of course, whether any of the racist jerks who would actually call someone a 'raghead' would care to distinguish the nuances of whether that term even applies to Eliza, is up in the air. I would assume a teenager who used a racist term wouldn't care to learn what it means, just that it applies to people who look like X.

OMG, she doesn't speak perfect English, and the teach said 'Middle East'! She's gotta be a terrorist or something!

The sad truth is that it only takes one or two rude comments like that to wreck a person's day.

Eventually, I figure Eliza's English will progress to the point that she realizes that some of Mr. Williams' more editorial comments are getting filtered out or rephrased to stick to the facts.

Schol-R-LEA wrote: Hey, only as far as the next portal, right? Well, if that universe was still accessible, it would be... and yeah, I guess that Manitoba wouldn't be part of the UCAS, I don't remember off hand.

I picture Thomas' method of getting from here to there as similar to travel between Shadows in Zelazny's Amber Chronicles. Possible, but not direct, nor safe, but it does allow one to carry things back and forth.

Winnipeg's in the UCAS, but very close to the northern border.

Schol-R-LEA wrote: I never played Shadowrun all that much, but I did read several of the source books. The last time I played, my character was a full-conversion cyborg called... well, in English it got turned into Pierre the Foot. He did not get that name for his Savate skills.

(OK, so my French is terrible, I know; it doesn't mean what I thought it did, though apparently it is still pretty funny.)

Funny can be good, too! Otherwise, there's a lot in the setting that is outright Nightmare Fuel .

Fair enough. It was supposed to be funny (in an ominous sort of way), I just got the specific meaning of 'foutre' wrong, or at least used it wrong in the name Pierre le Foutre. I was aiming for something like 'Peter the Fuck' or 'Peter the Motherfucker' (I have been told that it would be more like "Pierre le Matre-Connard" for that one, but I don't know if that's right either, and it breaks the pun), not 'Peter the Jizz Stain' or 'Peter the Scumbag', but really, they all sort of work.

Schol-R-LEA wrote: Fair enough. It was supposed to be funny (in an ominous sort of way), I just got the specific meaning of 'foutre' wrong, or at least used it wrong in the name Pierre le Foutre. I was aiming for something like 'Peter the Fuck' or 'Peter the Motherfucker' (I have been told that it would be more like "Pierre le Matre-Connard" for that one, but I don't know if that's right either, and it breaks the pun), not 'Peter the Jizz Stain' or 'Peter the Scumbag', but really, they all sort of work.

I don't really think we have an equivalent for Motherfucker, at least not a literal one, I mean some people will just say the insult in english. Maybe in quebec they use Matre-connard but In french french it wouldn't be used (we have funny differences like that : If we are talking about gosses in French it's an informal way to say Children. On the other hand in Quebec it means balls.).

Maybe something like Pierre le baiseur de mère (or maman if you want it to be even less serious).

Pierre le fils de pute (son of a whore) could work depending on the effect you were aiming for ?

OK, I'll take that. Mind you, the whole joke was that his English-speaking clients misunderstood what 'foutre' meant, and thought it was the English word 'foot', so... and yes, I did crib that from Henry V (I had just watched the Branagh version again at the time I came up with him), sue me. I wasn't really sure what it meant, and didn't consider that the meaning might have changed in 400 years until much later, what can I say?

Yeah, the point was that he was a major dick who got his jollies from blowing up schools and orphanages and the whole idea was to see how long it took the GM and/or other PCs to bring the hammer down on him (answer: two game sessions; he got throwing into a bottomless abyss in astral space by one of the people whom he was supposed to be working with). Cyber-psychosis for fun and profit, anyone?

(Dunno why this clip is in B&W, the film was made in 1989 and was definitely in color. shrug It isn't exactly Shakespeare's original, but it does follow it fairly close and the key joke is indeed from the play.)

Today's scene brought to you by the reaction "Why do all these Whateley teenagers in their custom cars keep breaking the speeding laws?" from starting to read "Would the Last one out please turn off the lights"

So I wrote a little scene where a PK Superman and a TK Supergirl, who can both survive the forces involved in a car crash, berate a Wizard, who can't survive without a shield spell, about safe driving.

Side notes:
-In Britain, at 16 you can get a green coloured Provisional License. That's for performing a one-day motorbike training course that allows you to drive motorbikes up to 125CC if you put L-plates on it. Then A B-class license, for cars, can be taken at 17 and features a written test, a reactions test (these are collectively known as the theory test) and then a practical test, where you basically just drive around for half an hour with the tester.
-I'm told they changed it because it was sexist, but at least ten years ago, adding a teenage male to an insurance policy would add between £1000 and £3000 to the annual price of the insurance, and that's just for normal, boring people cars. Adding a teenage girl would only add between £500 and £1500. This is one of the reasons I drove a motorbike for a couple of years even after getting my B-class (Which was about £250 a year for insurance)
-The maximum speed limit for any public road in Britain is 70mph. On motorways, which have three lanes, the right hand (fast) lane will rarely see anyone not exceeding the limit.

For a moment, the only response was a quick glare at the occupant of the child seat buckled next to her, before Runic let the car drift back down to 70, and she took the middle lane, watching as four BMW's and an Audi passed by on her right in less time than it takes to write it. Nobody took the left lane, that was for trucks and lorries, and slow old gits who couldn't go more than 60.

For a moment there, I thought they were driving in south Florida, then I remembered 'lorries' is British for 'trucks'

Not being British, I was surprised to see both 'truck' and 'lorry', but after a moment I seemed to recall that in the UK 'truck' specifically refers to what in the US is called a 'pick-up truck' (i.e., a vehicle a little larger than a typical car with an open-top cargo hold). I may not be entirely right on that, though.

Uhh... are you sure about that horsepower figures? I thought 270 seemed way too high, and went to look up... Wikipedia tells me that the 2.0 engine in the 1998 Clio RS 172 supplied 169 PS/172 DIN horsepower, or 124 kW in more modern units. Even the mid-engined 3.0 V6 put out "only" 230 PS. 170 seems a more likely figure.

Granted, it's the Whateley Universe, so it could be a souped-up devisor engine... except that you specifically stated that it's a "baseline" car.

Sir Lee wrote: Uhh... are you sure about that horsepower figures? I thought 270 seemed way too high, and went to look up... Wikipedia tells me that the 2.0 engine in the 1998 Clio RS 172 supplied 169 PS/172 DIN horsepower, or 124 kW in more modern units. Even the mid-engined 3.0 V6 put out "only" 230 PS. 170 seems a more likely figure.

Granted, it's the Whateley Universe, so it could be a souped-up devisor engine... except that you specifically stated that it's a "baseline" car.

www.parkers.co.uk/renault/clio/hatchback-1998/specs/
Nope, I googled it, looked at the figure for the "Exclusive Renaultsport 172" because it had the 2.0L engine, walked away to make a cup of tea, and then failed to remember the correct figure, adding a hundred bHp.
TBH though, it doesn't make much of a difference. Even a 300bHp car is less than the Whateley kids are making in their "We obey no speed limits" attempts.

Kaitha39 wrote: Whateley kids are making in their "We obey no speed limits" attempts.

Speed of light. It's just a suggestion.

That was great!

Laura should have figured out what Prickles was from the warning of course Jobe would never think of its potential as a prank gift...

Right.

My assumption is that Jobe would make the PricklesTM line fairly affordable compared to the Omnisqueal 5000 due to her belief in biological superiority over technology. The money is made up on selling the nutrient solution.

Laura is also fairly distracted in this scene. She thinks her friends got her a Gizmatic weapon to teardown, she just got out of a "weekend shower" and Tia and Hikaru had a small party on a Friday night that probably went quite late.

That's the benefit to an April Fools on a Saturday!

Katssun wrote: Right.

My assumption is that Jobe would make the PricklesTM line fairly affordable compared to the Omnisqueal 5000 due to her belief in biological superiority over technology. The money is made up on selling the nutrient solution.

Laura is also fairly distracted in this scene. She thinks her friends got her a Gizmatic weapon to teardown, she just got out of a "weekend shower" and Tia and Hikaru had a small party on a Friday night that probably went quite late.

That's the benefit to an April Fools on a Saturday!

This, stuff like this makes me want to do horrible stuff to characters who don't deserve it. Well this and a bit of art I can't link to from this computer.

And I have to agree with the "Glitter sticks to everything" line. I am a sexton at a church and I am still cleaning up glitter from Christmas. Of last year.

Cryptic wrote: And I have to agree with the "Glitter sticks to everything" line. I am a sexton at a church and I am still cleaning up glitter from Christmas. Of last year.

Glitter is the herpes of arts and crafts. It gets everywhere, and it never goes away.

^ I wanna ship Alice and Bob, 'cause they're Alice and Bob!

... Retaliation Prank!? What is it??

I'm guessing it might involve a deal with the devil (i.e. Wondercute) and a number of invisible bunnies spirited into a room and a large gathering of students with glowsticks and wearing pink happi coats on vigil outside Melville.

But that would leave Tanya unscathed, and that cannot do either. She has few weaknesses aside from her lack of confidence in her chest size, and that's just kind of mean.

Arcanist Lupus wrote:

Cryptic wrote: And I have to agree with the "Glitter sticks to everything" line. I am a sexton at a church and I am still cleaning up glitter from Christmas. Of last year.

Glitter is the herpes of arts and crafts. It gets everywhere, and it never goes away.

www.smbc-comics.com/comic/spacefood

Arcanist Lupus wrote:

Cryptic wrote: And I have to agree with the "Glitter sticks to everything" line. I am a sexton at a church and I am still cleaning up glitter from Christmas. Of last year.

Glitter is the herpes of arts and crafts. It gets everywhere, and it never goes away.

That's just the poison ivy of arts and crafts.

Artspeak is the true herpes, lo, for it is all that, and contagious as well.

Malady wrote: ^ I wanna ship Alice and Bob , 'cause they're Alice and Bob!

Really, then, what about Carol? Should she be alone?
Oh, well, there's always Dan.
As long as Eve is not getting in the middle.

Kettlekorn: I approve, this has to be made canon !

@Kettlekorn:

... I really don't want Angela to know her mom's past now... She sounds like a good mom, sorta.

So Jobe strikes again...

Yolandria wrote: So Jobe strikes again...

Not if you are talking about Bloodwolf being sidewinder (you could be talking about a scene I missed).

Jobe show utter disgust at the thought of doing such a thing to a person without their permission.

Edit: I should be more specific. Jobe show utter disgust at even the thought of permanently altering someones sex without their permission in the folder story.

Jobe still did it to Theophany in the same story as a punishment.

So there is that.

E. E. Nalley wrote: Kayda clutched at Elaine and sobbed harder, wailing in grief and ultimate suffering.

Did her father die, or is she getting the life suctioned out of her?

@Kettlekorn: Jelly doughnuts are Serious Bizness!

So - nobody likes the scene about Kayda breaking the Angst-o-Meter (TM)? I figured at least ONE person would say something. At least Jarjaross ....
Guess I'll get back to writing serious non-personal-angsty stuff for Kayda then. Oh well, I tried.

^ Well, UpToEleven and BrokeTheRatingScale are funny all by themselves...

But, if Kayda's feeling that much angst, I'm surprised she's still somewhat conscious or something? Well, it's not like it's fear, which is Paralyzing... Angst is... different...

Unless, the Angst-o-meter predicts future Angst...

Well, y'all have been saying I've been breaking Kayda's Angst-o-Meter, so If figured a microscene on that very subject would be fun. And since I'm done with personal angst... Well, that and pain meds for my torn rotator cuff, and voila.

elrodw wrote: So - nobody likes the scene about Kayda breaking the Angst-o-Meter (TM)? I figured at least ONE person would say something. At least Jarjaross ....
Guess I'll get back to writing serious non-personal-angsty stuff for Kayda then. Oh well, I tried.

Hey now, you just had to give us some time to respond. I think the poor girl could use a long nap...

@Kettlekorn! - Arggbbbhhh... I ship them so much now... But she's got Jerry... :wall:

@Kettlecorn
Lol!

You have Danny in almost as much trouble as some of the stories I've been trying to get Elrod to write

Kettlecorn, that was both funny and cruel, at least cruel to Danny.

Kettle...That was sooo purrfect!

Well at least Nephandus didn't tape him face down in a toilet.

Valentine wrote: Well at least Nephandus didn't tape him face down in a toilet.

I'm torn between actually detailing the events of Iron Star's attempts to pound Nephandus into the dirt, and the various ways Pretty Evil boy beats the tar out of him, or else just leaving them as noddle incidents where Ceilidh has Bobby in her hospital rounds.

If I ever do make one, Bobby is definitely getting swirlied, and J-Arm is going to heavily mention how good it feels to pay that feeling forward to someone who really, really deserves it.

Edit: Anything with J-Arm I write will be written as: J-Arm will come out on top, unless he either instigates the events or else self-sabotages his victory, in which case he'll be made the butt-monkey. So basically he can defend himself, but the world won't let him do anything.

Mainly because in a fight between the self-centered thief J-Arm and the pompous, big headed, bigotted braggart Bobby, you cheer on the referee and the commentators, am I right? ^_^

Even if the commentator is Peeper?

Sir Lee wrote: Even if the commentator is Peeper?

Of course! Eventually he's sure to say something that gets him duct-taped to a chair, a tree, Bloodwolf ...

Sir Lee wrote: Even if the commentator is Peeper?

It's a fight between the male Nephandus and the male Iron Star.

...I'm not sure Peeper would commentate? Or if he did, he wouldn't be saying too much offensive crap, since he knows both of them could do nasty things to him? Or at least, the groups they belong to could on their behalf if he goes too far...

Peeper wouldn't get involved really. Unless girls got involved.

Okay, so I might have gotten up and posted a micro scene to the wrong forum thread while still half asleep. Then again, I might not have. Move along, nothing to see here.

^ Ha! That omake's ending! Lol!

@Kettlekorn - Did she just try to extinguish herself by blowing up the extinguisher? And now she has shrapnel... Eww... Hope she makes it out okay...

Double Post. Anyone wanna report this? Personally, I don't find it worth the mods' time?

@Nagrij: Of Course We Still Love You.

Malady wrote: Double Post. Anyone wanna report this? Personally, I don't find it worth the mods' time?

The Mods will decide what's worth the mods' time, thank you very much!

Speaking as a Mod... I agree, this isn't worth the mods' time.

Malady wrote: @Kettlekorn - Did she just try to extinguish herself by blowing up the extinguisher? And now she has shrapnel... Eww... Hope she makes it out okay...

This is a deleted scene from a non-WU story and it's a bit light on context, but the intent was to imply that she's actually fireproof but going through a painful manifestation of sorts, leading to Zach's misguided attempt to extinguish her because he thought she was burning alive. So, she destroyed the extinguisher out of slightly drug addled anger, not a desire to be extinguished. She was going to survive the shrapnel (with the help of some first aid) and make it through her manifestation, but the sequence of events leading to this scene ended up being different enough that this scene can no longer take place.

For the Halloween costume micro scenes: I liked the scenes, but, really sorry here, I didn't get the costumes.
I will probably headdesk when some kind soul explains.... lol

Wrayth wrote: For the Halloween costume micro scenes: I liked the scenes, but, really sorry here, I didn't get the costumes.
I will probably headdesk when some kind soul explains.... lol

They are from an old cartoon series, Josie and the Pussycats.

Aww Dreamer!

That was setup for a great line, and you spoiled it!

The correct answer should have been "Imp would have been over the moon to see them!"

Phoenix Spiritus wrote: Aww Dreamer!

That was setup for a great line, and you spoiled it!

The correct answer should have been "Imp would have been over the moon to see them!"

Ack! I was trying to block out any memories of the spin-off series, Phoenix Spiritus.

Dreamer wrote:

Phoenix Spiritus wrote: Aww Dreamer!

That was setup for a great line, and you spoiled it!

The correct answer should have been "Imp would have been over the moon to see them!"

Ack! I was trying to block out any memories of the spin-off series, Phoenix Spiritus.

I think that was termed a "reconceptualisation" rather then a spin-off.

Big long mostly meaningless words with vague positive connotations that feel like they came out of a marketing brainstorming session and were run past a focus group always make me worry about where the money is being spent, and if its actually being directed to the right priorities.

@Ka... - So, David is whose twin? 'Cause I'm leaning towards twincest... which isn't wincest...

This is why I think shifters should have there own dorm. That way everyone just understands that consistent gender representation happens to other people.

I think that "twin" was being used in the non-literal sense.

I had Reach dressed as Danger Mouse and Jenny... Ok she was supposed to be Penfold, but I spaced.

Kettlekorn wrote: I think that "twin" was being used in the non-literal sense.

You are correct!

It was a little scene that came about partly when I remembered that bit in El Goonish Shive where Sarah and Elliot play around with his shifting. Only makes sense that there would be a few issues where shifters shift in their sleep, based on their dreams, and then if they're the kind of shifter who mode locks...

null0trooper wrote: "Did you not listen to Earth Mother's warnings about the dangers of magic users?" -- Mrs. Elizabeth Carson.

---

Each year the various "Introduction to" courses included a number of shared lectures. One of these selections was the mandatory introduction to Whateley's Code of Magical Ethics. Each year, seemingly without fail, that particular lecture was routinely evaluated as having the least noticeable impact on student behavior. In this regard as many others, the best the Mystic Arts department could say to this is "We're Number One?"

One of the other selections well-known for invoking a near-universal feeling of "Why do we even bother?" among the department staff is the lecture "Regarding the Dangers of Magic Users". Why this lecture would be given to said magic users, and not about them to the rest of the student body, preferably before said magic users practice their charms upon said student body, is one of Whateley Academy's many mysteries. However, one of the lecture's pedagogic benefits was a last chance to see voluntary looks of shock and horror etched into the demeanors of so many of the arrogant little wankers getting ready to infest mystical academia for the next three to four years.

@JG - Woah. AU... Cool!

Miranda started to cry.

Sad... Well, things should be looking up, after this... Cally's an OC, as well, right?

I hope this is going to be canon.

Sir Lee wrote: I hope this is going to be canon.

If it is, then why post it here, instead of it's own dedicated teaser thread? Then again, that could be one of the thread's services...

Could be that that character is gonna appear, but not like this, and this is a deleted scene or something... Minimal context leads to WMGs...

JG wrote: Would I ever use this thread as a vehicle for teasers?

I haven't done that yet, have I?

Having seen what's in the development queue, I can positively, definitely, without a doubt, state that this being made canon is a most definite maybe.

(Y'all didn't think I was going to spoil it, did you? )

JG wrote: Would I ever use this thread as a vehicle for teasers?

I haven't done that yet, have I?

Don't ask me, I just remember that I've seen things, not always precisely why I've seen them.

elrodw wrote: Having seen what's in the development queue, I can positively, definitely, without a doubt, state that this being made canon is a most definite maybe.

(Y'all didn't think I was going to spoil it, did you? )

WMG: We're getting Cally's story instead... Or Miranda is a Fem! of what's gonna be a Boy! Protag... ... Or get it from Hartford POV instead of Miranda POV or something... ... School POV can't happen? It's not sentient like Erfworld...

For some reason I so want it to be canon that Adam's group ends up singing Hakuna Matata.

^ Nice scene!

Actually, it's "Timon", not "Tamune."

Regarding J.G.'s micro scene... well, would a canon author post a series of micro-scenes and later collect them into a canon story? Naaaahhhh....

I am all aquiver with JG's new microscene. So many questions. My big ones are "Does this mean that we'll finally find out what happened during Erik's high school days that he's been making allusions to ever since?" and "How is Caitlin going to find out about her new sister's presence at Whateley?" shortly followed by "how does she introduce herself to the sister that she may not have even known existed?"

And here I thought it was spelled "Disney cease and desist waiting to happen""Jazzy".
.

JG wrote: Would I ever use this thread as a vehicle for teasers?

I haven't done that yet, have I?

No, you never do that.

Sir Lee wrote: Actually, it's "Timon", not "Tamune."

Ooops, didn't have a reference to name spellings besides Pumba's.

Because someone has to remember about Karen, and Josie, and Bree, and Alberta, and Sted, and...

(Not that I think that the CC (TINCC) have forgotten them, but they haven't even been mentioned for a while. And yes, I know Ponygirl is a fan character who only got a few cameos, but still, the canon version - who has the same appearance and name, and at least part of the same power set, but may be completely different otherwise for all we know - should be around to be seen from time to time.)

Not recently; Karen, formerly Larry, was the 12-year-old whom Merry had to help because her powers (electromagnetic energizer with a high sensitivity to cosmic radiation and sunspot activity) were running wild.

Hopefully, she will show up in canon again, at least in passing. Maybe more than just in passing, now that Renae has shown up again, though I have no idea if she is up to and planning on any new WA writing.

Also, thanks for catching the typo.

^ - Yeah. She still needs a proper Wiki page... ... I meant "Did she appear in Absinthe or something recent, and I just missed her?"

Sorry for being unclear! Good night!

Schol-R-LEA wrote: Because someone has to remember about Karen, and Josie, and Bree, and Alberta, and Sted, and...

Would it be bad to have the response "From Merry, Abyss, Whisper... Alberta? Who's Alberta?"

Garafena

There's also Fireball as another Alberta...

Schol-R-LEA wrote: Not recently; Karen, formerly Larry, was the 12-year-old whom Merry had to help because her powers (electromagnetic energizer with a high sensitivity to cosmic radiation and sunspot activity) were running wild.

That makes another reason that Hawthorne Cottage's showers either need to be electrically isolated from each other or have an indicator light (or both!) for when one of the Light Up Your Life Crew (Antenna, Static Girl, Inductance - who I'd forgotten about, Metro in my stories) is in the shower. I'd hope someone thought of that little detail for the bathroom in Cyberkitty's den as well.

Hm. If running water does cancel or "ground out" certain magics, Eldritch may be on that list too.

Also, shouldn't someone tell Roulette it's the 4th Basement Bathroom that houses the eldritch abominations and not the 1st? Not that she won't figure it out eventually.

null0trooper wrote:

Schol-R-LEA wrote: Not recently; Karen, formerly Larry, was the 12-year-old whom Merry had to help because her powers (electromagnetic energizer with a high sensitivity to cosmic radiation and sunspot activity) were running wild.

That makes another reason that Hawthorne Cottage's showers either need to be electrically isolated from each other or have an indicator light (or both!) for when one of the Light Up Your Life Crew (Antenna, Static Girl, Inductance - who I'd forgotten about, Metro in my stories) is in the shower. I'd hope someone thought of that little detail for the bathroom in Cyberkitty's den as well.

Hm. If running water does cancel or "ground out" certain magics, Eldritch may be on that list too.

Also, shouldn't someone tell Roulette it's the 4th Basement Bathroom that houses the eldritch abominations and not the 1st? Not that she won't figure it out eventually.

That's not an issue. They siphon off the discarded power for the schools use. Hawthorne hasn't needed outside electricity for years.

Yolandria wrote: As much as he is a bad idea...However the concept does have some comedy value. The down side. In the real world he wouldn't live very long.

Ah, Ye of Little Faith!

It is not powers that define a hero, but instead how they are used.

NJM1564 wrote:

null0trooper wrote:

Schol-R-LEA wrote: Not recently; Karen, formerly Larry, was the 12-year-old whom Merry had to help because her powers (electromagnetic energizer with a high sensitivity to cosmic radiation and sunspot activity) were running wild.

That makes another reason that Hawthorne Cottage's showers either need to be electrically isolated from each other or have an indicator light (or both!) for when one of the Light Up Your Life Crew (Antenna, Static Girl, Inductance - who I'd forgotten about, Metro in my stories) is in the shower. I'd hope someone thought of that little detail for the bathroom in Cyberkitty's den as well.

Hm. If running water does cancel or "ground out" certain magics, Eldritch may be on that list too.

Also, shouldn't someone tell Roulette it's the 4th Basement Bathroom that houses the eldritch abominations and not the 1st? Not that she won't figure it out eventually.

That's not an issue. They siphon off the discarded power for the schools use. Hawthorne hasn't needed outside electricity for years.

I'm not talking about how the building is powered, but how the students get cleaned up. In any case, National Electrical Code still would require a common ground for the circuits serving the wall outlets, GFCI outlets in the bathrooms.

Metal pipes conduct electricity. A person might want to think about that before getting into the shower next to the one holding an electric eel's mutant cousin.

@Arcanist Lupus - Nice scene! I guess he arrived because precog or something... I forget his precise powerset...

Ah: whateleyacademy.net/index.php/forum/the-...ead?start=1040#34202

Arcanist Lupus wrote: Odds Mangler and Teleporter. Power has a tendency to activate without warning and teleport them into unexpected situations.

Code name: The Spanish Inquisition

Possibly a fear aura as well? After all, their chief weapon is surprise. Surprise and fear - two chief weapons...

Metal pipes conduct electricity, yes. That can easily be dealt with, by using plastic PVC pipes.

A thornier problem is that water is not that bad a conductor itself. So you would probably have to design a shower system that can be entirely cut off from the rest of the building's plumbing (preferably in a way that connecting pipes are drained of water) before one of the uncontrolled energizers take a shower. That would mean separate hot and cold water containers large enough for a reasonably-long shower, at least.

Or just ground the pipes. A section of metal pipes before pvc ones being wired to reinforced grounding wire. A electrical sensor farther down and up the lines in the pvc sections riged to disconnect the water flows in an emergency.

NJM1564 wrote: Or just ground the pipes. A section of metal pipes before pvc ones being wired to reinforced grounding wire. A electrical sensor farther down and up the lines in the pvc sections riged to disconnect the water flows in an emergency.

Didn't grounding out almost kill Static Girl?

Sir Lee wrote: A thornier problem is that water is not that bad a conductor itself.

Most animals' bodies are even better conductors. Mother Nature is sneaky. Fresh water doesn't conduct as well as saltwater, so some fish lower the voltage and crank up the amperage.

Sir Lee wrote: So you would probably have to design a shower system that can be entirely cut off from the rest of the building's plumbing (preferably in a way that connecting pipes are drained of water) before one of the uncontrolled energizers take a shower. That would mean separate hot and cold water containers large enough for a reasonably-long shower, at least.

Single container + on-demand heater might be cheaper. I have not missed having a hot water heater!

FWIW, the topic came to mind when I asked myself the easiest natural way for nøkken and each-uisge to take down prey without using a lot of magic. Having a moderately-high frequency alternating current mode to make a rider's muscles lock up might even help the effort.

Malady wrote: @Arcanist Lupus - Nice scene! I guess he arrived because precog or something... I forget his precise powerset...

Ah: whateleyacademy.net/index.php/forum/the-...ead?start=1040#34202

Arcanist Lupus wrote: Odds Mangler and Teleporter. Power has a tendency to activate without warning and teleport them into unexpected situations.

Code name: The Spanish Inquisition

Possibly a fear aura as well? After all, their chief weapon is surprise. Surprise and fear - two chief weapons...

Thanks! His probability warping tends to trigger his teleportation at moments that are opportune to stop whatever is happening, but inconvenient for whatever he was doing at the time. (Of course, occasionally it works in reverse, and teleports him away from a boring afternoon straight into a scene where nothing particularly interesting is happening. Or just in time to get punched in the face.) As a consequence, a great deal of his house and personal items (especially his car) are outfitted with sensors to detect the sudden absence of the person who was using them and safely shut down. And he keeps his "instant clothing" bracelet on at all times.

The character was of course inspired by Monty Python's Spanish Inquisition, but as I was writing him he came to resemble Chrestomanci more than anyone else.