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Is the name of my Fallen London fella.

Duel to the death with me! Deliberately send me options to betray me, I'll be right!

I think what we were seeing in Wind Through the Keyhole was, in between the introduction of the story and Roland's own memories, the actual original events the story was based off of, implying that there really was a Tim Stoutheart, and the bits about him were the original events, whereas Roland was actually telling a different version, do ya kennit? Because the gunslinger was sharp--he'd've spotted the connections between his nemesis and the Ageless Stranger of the story. Roland may not have been imaginative, but he was cunning regardless.
And thanks for the link!

I never knew the word for that. It is indeed a very silly name for that sound.

-Helsinki

Yeah, he's great. So's... Oh man. Too many great castmembers to choose from.

I can, however, point to the two quotes that, more than anything else, define the books. "We are falling, and light is but a memory," and, "if the path to salvation lies through the halls of purgatory than so be it!"

That should give you an idea of what you're getting into.

I'm Calliope of the Vale - if you end up not being able to contact me, zip me a message with your name and I'll drop a Calling Card.

(Also, for those who care, I have achieved Person of Some Importance (POSI) status. Which mostly just means I have access to a few more questlocked areas and can get addicted to laudanum.)

Also, there are lots of other characters who are morally ambiguous but very sympathetic and might make you cry, because this is 40k and we cannot have nice things, only varying degrees of tragedy.

There's this one guy, Ignis, who's written as kind of a psychopath savant. He does not understand other people's feelings, nor does he appear to share many of them himself, but he tries. He is extremely good with numbers, though. He groks the arcane geometry and arithmetic of the universe and uses it to pull off crazy schemes with precision down to the fine decimal points. Also, he has a robot bodyguard who only speaks binaric, so we never understand what he says, but he appears to have more emotions than Ignis. I love them both, and their interactions with the other characters.

~Neshomeh

I remember that HoMM3 felt weird when I first got it because I spent countless hours playing HoMM2 for a couple years, but I ended up liking it more and now I think it is definitely the better game. Though the version on GOG is not the same as the original 1998 (?) version, they made Castle less, ahem, Sue-ish, otherwise it was way easier to win playing that city vs. any other. It still is, though.

I never played the original XUD, only TFtD. I remember that I kept getting stuck, until my Dad got the saved game from one of his colleagues, and from his saved point mid-game I was able to play to completion. When I replayed it as an adult some 10-15 years later I was able to actually win it on my own start to finish (though I did read some tips on development). The trick is to choose the right development strategy and to ruthlessly dismiss any recruits who are subpar.

It's definitely on my to-watch list!

Hi, I used to be Maxewell. I'm changing my username here and most other places, because I've had it for an *absurdly* long time.
Too long.
You don't wanna know how long.

I've been thinking about changing it for a couple years now. I've never really gotten around to it. I recently heard the name, and thought: "Hey, that sounds really nice." It kind of flows off the tongue, at least for me. So, for my next couple of posts, I'll be sure to write in somewhere at the bottom that I was formerly named Maxewell, just so people remember. That's all, friends.

- Helsinki

(Oh, and by the by- nicknames and any variations of Helsinki are fine too!)

The Ahriman Trilogy is what I've been reading of late. I am halfway-ish to the end of the final book, and... jeez.

Okay, for 40k fans, it is, IMHO, better than A Thousand Sons. That should be enough.

...For the rest of you, do you like morally ambiguous characters? Villain protagonists who are sympathetic enough that you can't decide if they're anti-heroes? Homestuck-esque temporal shenanigans? Grim darkness in the far future? Pretty good writing? If so, it's definitely worth reading.

Uuhh... no, I don't know enough to have any criticisms... Just... kinda in awe of your total overanalysis here?

Not SURPRISED, mind, because it's you, but in awe.

I'm qwertyuiop924 (Yeah, I know...), and my underlying account name is "thoth/9". Yeah, it's different. Because storynexus and weirdness.

I'm StarSong212 (it's a burner account, though, because I'm planning on Seeking). When I start my permanent account (which will likely not be for a while because I haven't even started Seeking yet) I'm planning on calling it something along the lines of TheRenegadePriestess.

Because, y'know, I write one, and he's sort of maybe in the process of discovering his sexuality. Also there was that whole thing with him in the Badfic Game. And it's an interesting thought experiment!

Beware: I'm thinking way too hard about sexuality in an alien species from a YA series. Continue at your own risk.

So. Andalites. Sex. How do they? Assuming mammalian reproductive anatomy, because it's easier and there's no canon information to the contrary (why would there be?), we do know certain things that provide clues, such as the fact that they used to live in herds, but after finding out crowding together in big cities was a bad idea, they tore those down and went (back?) to living in family scoops, with just one nuclear family unit per scoop, IIRC. They appear to be monogamous, which fits with the pattern of living in nuclear family units rather than in large social groups. We know they're rigidly hierarchical, though that could be more cultural than biological. We know there is some fairly significant male-female sexual dimorphism, with the males being larger and stronger, and sporting impressive weaponry that can only be for defense or for male competition, since they're grazers. The latter is my bet; it fits with everything else, and I don't recall what they had in the way of natural predators, though I'm pretty sure there was something.

I can guess that, as a former prey species, copulation would likely be brief and to the point. With competition between males determining exclusive access to a particular female, there would be no need for a ton of sperm to compete with other males' sperm, therefore no need for large gonads (they could very well be internal; no one ever comments one way or the other, AFAIK) or a fancy penis, or for more copulation than is necessary to conceive. Andalites are not as social and don't congregate like we apes do, so no socio-sexual behavior.

We know they can and do work together in groups, though, for military purposes and probably others. They have friends. They can empathize with others, even others not of their own species. Maybe this is easier for juveniles than adults, an echo of something like a bachelor herd with a bunch of young bucks running around together until they break off to mate? At adulthood, their rigid social structure likely functions to keep things running smoothly between individuals who would otherwise prefer to have their own space. They're given a psychological territory to occupy rather than a physical one.

We never meet very many female Andalites, do we? Hard to say much about their fertility, whether or not they have a heat cycle, or anything like that. I think it would fit that they would have one, though, and would only be receptive to sex while fertile. If you're strictly monogamous and only mate to reproduce, that's all you need. Andalites ritualize everything, too, and I think that would fit in well with sex being for babies, not for fun. (That doesn't rule out other expressions of affection between cycles, though; palm-kissing and whatnot.)

Anybody want to wander down this crazy fan-theory rabbit hole with me? Who remembers things that I don't to expand or poke holes in my ideas? {= D

~Neshomeh

Huh. I'll keep my eyes open for that.

In the meantime, if you have Netflix, check out The Dragon Prince! It's by the same people, and has a lot of the same charm as A:TLA with fun characters and an interesting new fantasy world. The animation style is a little strange—I think my friend told me it's 2D painting skinned over 3D frames? It's pretty, though a bit jerky. It's a little distracting at first, but I got used to it. Only one season at present, alas. I look forward to the next one.

~Neshomeh

1. Neh-SHO-mah (Last syllable is basically a schwa, and the first one tends that way, too. It is indeed quite a common sound in English.)
   
   2. I'll do you one better: recent-ish photos from the 2014 Chicago PPC Gathering. Also featuring Phobos and Irish Samurai.
   
   But, if you can't access Photobucket (which I really need to leave anyway): 5'5" white woman, 33 (but people keep asking me if I'm in school), skinny, dark brown eyes and glasses, a whole bunch of short, straight, dark brown hair (I get it cut once in a Rachel Maddow-ish style in the summer and let it grow out over the year; it ends up sweeping back over my ears), kinda heavy eyebrows, kinda pointy nose, more leg and less torso than is sensible for my height.
   
   I try to wear flattering shirts ("blouses" if we must) these days, for work and because I like it. I find interesting things in various colors and patterns in resale stores. Tend to favor blues and reds, but I can go for just about any color except yellow, bright orange, or bright/too-yellow green, since they can make my skin look greenish or jaundiced. Usually pants, often grey or black, but sometimes a long skirt; my usuals are khaki, dark olive green, and blue.
   
   On my left hand, a white-gold engagement ring with a white- and rose-gold wedding ring (visible here). On my left wrist, a sterling silver cuff bracelet inscribed with "not all who wander are lost." (Serious Tolkien buffs will note the missing word "those" between "all" and "who.") I also often wear a necklace. My default is a little silver dragon curled around a green cut-glass stone (this guy).
   
   3. I dunno. You'll just have to get to know me better and figure it out. {= P
   
   ~Neshomeh

1. My username is easy to pronounce, not much to say there.
   
   2. Appearance: Average height, Caucasian, brown hair, and blue eyes, borderline overweight. I also wear glasses and prefer dressing casual in jeans and geeky t-shirts. I never go anywhere without my iPod, due to having something of a YouTube addiction. An all-around geek, basically.
   
   3. Not sure if I have anything meme-worthy, so I'll just go with this: I am not a people person - being shown what people are capable of at a young age kinda messed me up a bit - so I'm rather cynical also somewhat OCD (possibly issue to being Autistic) and borderline paranoid. I tend to prefer fiction to reality and have a whole bunch of weird interests and opinions, which may or may not be contradictory.
   
   So yeah, that's me in a nutshell.

I just got HoMM3 off GoG recently. Can't wait to play it!

TFtD, you say? I have XUD, and that game's tough as nails. And seeing as TFtD is often seen as "XUD but harder"... *shivers*

Yay! Another DT fan in the PPC!

I know what you mean about "sliding back into the atmosphere." Every time I've read one of these, my inner thoughts start to take on Mid-World speech. I have to be careful when I'm speaking not to let any "say trues" or "do it please yas" leak out and confuse people.

I have a copy of HiA, but haven't gotten to read it yet. I had heard about that short story . . . Nice to know I have one last little slice of Mid-World to look forward to!

That's an interesting question, actually. One the one hand, Gabrielle doesn't strike me as the type to curse, though she had so little screen time, it's hard to really say. On the other hand, swear words do tend to become more and more acceptable as a culture advances, and Mid-World is pretty far in some Earth's future, so maybe that word's not as obscene in Mid-World as it is for us today?

Incidentally, since I'm not sure you would have cross across it Wiki-walking, I'm going to link you to the one piece of Dark Tower-related fiction under the PPC's umbrella. It's a role-play from after Agent Halley got stranded in Mid-World for a while, which may or may not have existed as a published story at some point; we'll never know for sure, since the Bad Role-play Department has vanished from the internet. Anyway, here's the link. (It continues into the comments.)

—doctorlit bemoans that most Stephen King-based fanfiction is just too good to mission

I hate multi-player games, I never play them. And I don't play much now anyway, I just don't have time - but sometimes it's nice to spend an hour or two with an old favorite. The best old game is still XCOM:TFTD and even if graphics are outdated, game is the best. I liked the Might and Magic and Heroes of Might and Magic series though I haven't played any that were released after 2001 or so - I like M&M 7 and 8, and HMM3 - I loved HMM2 but I grew to love HMM3 more. And I always will have a soft spot for Warlords which I also haven't played in probably 25 years - it had fully customizable units, something I don't recall in any other games. My best friend and I had a ball coming up with all kinds of them... I also have a soft spot for Barbarian - that's a true oldie, from the 80s, but when my parents took me to work they would park me at a computer with Barbarian, Digger and Tetris on it and it was fun. Then the Lost Vikings came out sometime fairly soon after that, too...

Now I played the old Warcraft 1 and 2, but never any of the new versions - I never really got into them anyway, I played them mainly because my brother did. And Dungeon Keeper, and Allods, and Diablo 1 and 2 and other games that I can't remember anymore, but the MM/HMM were the ones I played the most.

...But Twistey's a huge fan. So that's something for you guys to get on about.

What sorta strategy and RPG? I'm always looking for more games to play. And more people to challenge at Warcraft 3...