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That's when the Science Museum opens, so it makes sense. The queue doesn't get too long there, so just meeting outside the front door seems plausible; I think we mostly recognise each other by now.

There's the usual flexibility in when to end the Gathering; we'll probably have to duck out early once the kids get cranky, but anyone who needs to go can go when they need to (if that makes sense).

On past evidence, we'll probably spend the whole day in the Science Museum; it has a range of options for buying food, from burgers to salads to milkshakes, plus a couple of nice 'picnic areas'. There are various things you can pay to access (a practical science area called the Wonderlab, an IMAX screen running space shows, I think there's a flight simulator too), but it seems unlikely we would.

hS

I agree with all of this, although I didn't read this one till after I finished the rest of the series. So most of what I enjoyed were the moments we got to share with the Ka-Tet again. I love the development they share throughout the whole series--they really feel like a family and they seem so *real* and natural. I found myself sliding back into the atmosphere of the setting as if I walked with them. Also, did you read Hearts in Atlantis? I was pleasantly surprised to find a short Roland story mixed in with the others! Namely, Little Sisters of Eularia. (sp.?)
Also. I wonder if Tim's quote, "GET ME OFF THIS [CENSORED] ISLAND" was in the version Roland's mother told him as a child...
Anyhow. Glad to see more Boarders have made the pilgrimage to the Tower!

This was the post in which I asked for an additional writing sample, for reference.

I'm going to lead with this: Permission granted. This piece addresses most of my concerns, so based on my previous post, I'm happy to sign off on this. Good job!

The reason for that 'most' is the characters themselves. I can see you've tried to work in both 'Gibbs is a lizard' and 'Bradbury is Argentine', but the way you've done it is fairly superficial. I can demonstrate this in five words:

Colonel Bradbury’s Old White Lightning

-Why 'Colonel'? You use the Spanish Policía Militar and Subteniente, but then return to English for the booze.

-Why 'Bradbury'? He's Argentine! Here's a list of common surnames in Argentina, actually around the time Bradbury was born. Note the lack of stereotypically English names. Now, he could be a son of immigrants - but then why is he named Caleb? Here's another short list.

-Why 'Old White Lightning'? That's a US English term for illicit booze (ie, moonshine). What's the Argentine term? That was an excellent place to show off his heritage, but you chose(?) to stick with an American term instead.

My point isn't so much that Caleb Bradbury can't be from Argentina, but that there doesn't seem to be any reason to think he is. Yes, he uses a few Spanish terms. But he's still blatantly a Victorian English pip-pip-chocks-away-chap. I don't understand why you would assign him a really interesting backstory, and then essentially ignore it.

(For the record, Wikipedia doesn't list Argentina's variant of moonshine, but points me at Peruvian pisco, or Ecuadorian puro, trago, puntas or fuerte. That took me about two minutes to figure out.)

Gibbs is much the same. He's a giant lizard whose people run the world! Other than 'two of your huuu-man centuries'-type talk, there's nothing to showcase that at all. I can think of half a dozen ways to play off it with the story Bradbury tells at the beginning (his people are so hierarchical that lying like Bradbury did would be high treason! Or they're so used to lying to the humans that he just assumes this is normal! Or he doesn't know what a 'caught marshall' even is! Or he doesn't Get lying because his race can read emotions and sense dishonesty! Or he just figures this is how departments get created in human militaries! Or... etc etc etc); instead, he reacts like anyone else.

Which is fine sometimes; no story can hold up to 'Agent Qaarg, who was an alien, alienned alienishly up to his partner and said, in Alienese, "Hi; I'm an alien."', but if you don't give us anything to differentiate him... why make him a lizard at all?

So that's my concern, and the thing I think you should look into. But Permission Granted, woot woot, on you go. :)

hS

It sounds like you're talking about a schwa, which is a very silly name for what is apparently the most common spoken vowel sound in English.

hS

1/
#How do you say a name like Huinesoron?
#How do you wrap your head 'round all those vowels?
#Here's how to pronounce the elvish 'Huinesoron' -
#A 'Hween' and an 'eh', a 'SORE' then an 'on', that's how!#

Yes, as at least a couple of said, 'hween-eh/ey-SORE-on' is about right. But honestly I mostly pronounce it 'aitch-ess' too. ^~

2/
#Tall and proud and wond'rous fair
#The people of the Dark and Air
#Hold high the iron that they fear
#When the Fair Folk come, don't let them near#

... no?

All right, all right... male, average height, fairly skinny, brown hair with a touch of grey (think Reed Richards - or at least, I always think Reed Richards). Generally a bit of a mess; I tried having a fashion sense once, but it didn't agree with me.

I can neither confirm nor deny the presence of pointy ears.

3/
Well... the other description of me is 'all of that, but with lab coat, goggles, and manic grin', because I'm a professional analytical chemist. ^^ (Actually these days I'm a professional paperwork chemist and lab supervisor, but I still put the coat on quite a lot. And the grin.)

hS

Thank you so much for reminding me of His Marble Darknessness. ;)

hS

A lot of the things you've commented on pretty much told themselves in the midst of the story. Ether's prophecy, in particular, happened because I needed to avoid dumping all the future names into part 15 - but along the way it gave one of my more-neglected characters a bit more to work with, for if I ever need him again.

Thank you for your excellent review. ^_^ I can promise that there will, someday, be a conclusion to the Ispace Wars; I just need to, uh, finish writing all the chapters for it...

hS

Mostly as "Oh god why can't she stop writing" and "Oh god why can't she stop writing angst?"

Or it's just the cool X-Z sounds. Let's go with that.

:P

There's a running tally in the fic, which comes highly recommended by... me. ^_^

hS

I'd give you some pointers, but, y'know, I already included all the characters I could think of.

Yep, Dafydd turned his UT off and then on again. He's not terribly fluent in the Malij language, but as an elf he's pretty good at picking them up. With the UT off, Furimem's response sounded perfectly normal.

hS

... is that humans in Luxury's native Shipverse are clearly descended from bonobos.*

(*All right, 'the common ancestor of humans and bonobos split off from the chimpanzee lineage', nitpicker.)

Which provokes a large number of interesting thoughts that the Department of Analytical Science will have to look into, but most pertinently the fact that Lux looks just like everyone else suggests that something drives 'humans' in every multiverse to look the same. Given that Suvians are a separate species, I'm going to guess it's them: they manipulate humans to look like them, so they can have something hot(t) to molest.

(Also, some years back I came across the delightful term 'monkeysphere' to describe that 150 relationships figure, and I thought you'd like to have it. ^_^)

hS

I’m not the only home-schooled person on the Board!

I mean, I wish I could play. I keep getting a blank screen after I create a character.

Heen-ah-so-ron. Swear to God I have no idea how my brain got there.

1) Exactly how you'd expect: Ay-See. I had a different name when I joined, but we do not speak of such dark matters. :P (Seriously, it sucked.)

2) 5' 5", male. Stocky and muscular, grayish-brown hair (heh, if you think going gray in your 30s is bad, Hellga, try going gray at 15), blue/green/gray eyes, stubbly mustache. Wears baggy shirts with either stripes or fandom things on them, and dull-colored pants/shorts.

3) I mean, I'm extremely stereotypical, so that might help with memes? I embody stereotypes such as 'socially awkward homeschooler,' 'gay dude who loves chick flicks and YA romance,' 'comic-book-reading nerd,' 'crazy Star Wars fan,' 'PPC member who was refused Permission and is too scared to try again,' and so on, in that vein.

That's an impressive amount of time (and an impressive cast of characters you have accumulated over the years!).

Anakin, huh? My favorite Star Wars character is Palpatine (in the first 1,5 movies, while he was the one wearing the only functional brain that entire galaxy seems to share). +

I never wear all black unless I am heading to a funeral. It's my pet peeve with New Yorkers - prevalence of black on the streets. I even bought a hot pink coat to wear in the winter when I head into the city, because I felt my red one was not enough to cut through all the dullness around me. I prefer bright, happy colors (except no yellow/orange, they make me look like a wax figure) and bold patterns. And I wear mostly dresses (I own over 70 of them, in different cuts, colors and patterns).

Wow. I remember playing Doom (mostly Doom 2) and Quake (can't remember which one) with my brother. I wasn't big into the first person shooters, though, preferring strategy and RPG, but probably my favorite of them was Wolfenstein 3D.

1) Hellga is pronounced Anna. Yeah. Though back in the last millennium when internet was young and I didn't use my real name anywhere online, it was HELL-gah.

2) Tall (5'10"), reasonably in-shape woman with eggplant-colored shoulder-length hair (going gray in my 30s kind of sucks, but if I have to color it, I might as well color it something fun) and brown eyes behind pink-rimmed glasses.

3) Most people think I am kind and friendly when they look at me. This is merely part of my job. I am actually very evil (but too lazy to actually do anything evil... other than increasing entropy of the universe, of course). Oh, and I speak English with an accent that I always ask people to guess, if they do ask me where I am from. :)

Thanks!

Yes, the last time I was actually ACTIVE on these boards was more than 10 years ago. Funny how time flies...

Oh, thanks for keeping SIELU alive as the original agent Hellga has succumbed to the monster that is mortgage and its evil friends in adulting. :)

Thanks! I don't think we have ever interacted, but I do remember your name for some reason. Must be the unusual sound combination. Just wait until someone appropriates it as a drug name!

Thanks! Gotta keep that device away from Feanor!

Interesting. I am glad that SIELU is not completely abandoned, and if it does attract some rather... strange... characters - well, it kind of fits with its original intent. And with Poison Ivy's poisonous personality.