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Either user pages or agent pages, if they exist.

Though, every mission of mine links to my user talk page, and I think it's been used once in the many years since I started doing that. I don't know if that's because there's an aversion to it, or because the people who tend to use the wiki tend to be active and thus review when things are first published, or what.

~Neshomeh

Have a pile of multi coloured pens.

Because of our tendency to roll our own mission hosting, and double especially because a lot of stuff has moved to Google Docs, there's no good or uniform ways to leave a review (or even some sort of "I like this") on things that have fallen off the front page or that are sitting on the wiki, such as, say this Young Wizards mission by hS (thoughts: the chocolate scene at the beginning was funny, "only when so inclined" and surrounding was a nice bit of dialogue, the execution method was clever).

Does anyone have any suggestions here? (I don't, really, but pointing out the issue seemed important.)

- Tomash

And we have clearly passed it...
But let's keep going and see what happens.

I laughed so hard at this version of the story, and we clearly need more. Going down that rabbit hole is best decision ever.

But now I think about this, the fact Pirithous is a son of Zeus and wanted to marry a daugther of Zeus... barf.

Ixion and Dia

Ixion was a son of Phlegyas the Lapith king, and of his wife who no-one bothered to name. Typical, isn't it? Anyway, Ixion agreed to marry Dia, daughter of Eioneus, promising rich bridal gifts and inviting Eioneus to a banquet. You'll note that he didn't invite Dia, or even speak to her. Again - typical.

Of course, it turned out that Ixion had no intention of paying the bribe he was offering Dia's dad. He set a pitfall in front of his palace, with a great charcoal fire underneath, into which the unsuspecting Eioneus fell and was burned.

(The gods, of course, receive sacrifices through burning; I have it on good authority that a certain someone whose name rhymes with Blapollo was heartily sick after sniffing this one.)

Though every woman on Olympos thought this a heinous deed, and refused to purify Ixion, Zeus, having 'behaved equally ill himself when in love' (yes, that's an actual quote; some of these mythtellers are on my side), not only purified the wretch but brought him to eat at his table.

I - sorry, Hera, the divine Queen of Heaven, absolutely refused to share a meal with that beast. Luckily, she had Nephele, a cloud-form that she used for... certain... recreational purposes; it was a simple matter to transform it to look like herself, and send it to the meal in her stead.

The Queen then paid a visit to poor Dia. With her father dead, and her husband an outlawed, abusive sociopath, she was in sore need of comfort, and Hera was happy to oblige.

Things were going exceedingly well, when suddenly there was a clattering of hooves. Barely had Hera hidden herself behind a pillar when a horse cantered in, twenty hands tall, crowned with lightning, and very obviously a stallion, if you take my meaning. Poor Dia was caught entirely unprepared, and, well, there are none who can stand between Zeus the Thunderer and his desires.

Yes, Zeus, realising that Ixion's presence on Olympos had left his beautiful wife alone, had sculpted his own, inferior cloud-form and snuck down to the mortal realm to have his way with her. I know the Zeus-cloud was inferior, because a quality cloud-image would never have allowed what happened at the high table.

Ixion, obviously, was utterly ungrateful of his undeserved honours, and planned to seduce Hera. Being completely without a functioning brain, he did this with only the barest attempt at subtlety, and there was no-one in the great temple who didn't know what was going on.

Yes, they all allowed this mortal to outright assault the Queen of Heaven, and yes, very harsh words were had on my - sorry, her - return. The cloud Nephele was built to be receptive to such advances, but someone should have done something. Not least any properly-designed Zeus-cloud - you'd think 'protect my wife' would be priority number one!

Zeus returned midway through the disgraceful ocurrance, leaving poor Dia an utter emotional wreck. Luckily she had a kind goddess to hand to offer her comfort... meanwhile, Zeus surprised Ixion in the very act of his defilement, and promptly claimed that it had all been part of his master plan. It's amazing how often he does that.

The Thunderer ordered Hermes to scourge the mortal mercilessly, and then bind him to a fiery wheel which rolled ceaselessly through the sky thereafter, which frankly was better than he deserved. Poor Nephele was banished to earth before Hera could get back; she bore him a child by the name of Centaurus, who was ultimately the father of Chiron. Then she married a king, got thrown over for a maenad, ended up running a taxi service with flying golden sheep... look, it was all a bit of a mess.

As for Dia? Unlike her fickle husband, Hera is always faithful to her lovers. Once everything had blown over, and Dia had found someone to look after her son by Zeus, Pirithous (lovely boy, not very lucky though), the merciful and just Queen of Heaven spirited her away to the courts of Olympos. A little light cosmetic surgery, and she passed for one of the many nymphs who populate the place. No-one would take the slightest notice of just another nymph heading towards Hera's private quarters... ahem.

((With sincere apologies to Robert Graves, author of The Greek Myths, whose text has been thoroughly mangled for this purpose. ~hS))

I mean, I'd even want to talk about the same level you did!

Spyro 3 remains one of my all-time favorite games. This is a big part of why.

It paints the relationship between you in a so screwed-up way, even beyond the 'official version'...

Science and mythology need the authentic versions of these stories. Think you can spare some time to do so someday?

Those Greeks were so ashamed, they tried to write me - me! - out of the official mythstories, and when they couldn't quite manage that - hello, Queen of Olympos here! - they cast me as the jealous-slash-murderous abandoned wife instead.

Io? Io was mine, my very own priestess, until that husband of mine pulled his cow-transformation trick. Ha! He'd have been better trying that on Europa; she would have appreciated it, unlike my poor Io.

Danae? Mine. Okay, yes, I encouraged her father to keep her safe, but wouldn't you? Women in these murder prophecies never end well.

Leda? Mine, until Zeus got his swan on. Why do you think I was so against Scaphrodite's Helen plot? The girl was practically my daughter!

I swear, I wouldn't have minded so much if he hadn't gone so unerringly for my girls...

In return for your gift, I can in return gift you with the wisdom to conquer your enemies swiftly, rule your subjects prosperously, and woo the lady fair, too, if that's what you're into.

How do you think I got where I am, eh? Waving a big stick and batting your eyelashes are well and good, but only if you're smart enough to pick the best time to do it.

~Neshthena

Some people would say that line of thinking has run to its end. I think this trainwreck needs to continue. For science.

Uh... what about if I offered to let you rule them too? That would include Helen, obviously...

I mean, personally, given the presence of multiverally-aware goddesses, I would've gone for a bigger name than Helen. Luthien, maybe?

_{((... does this mean I'm now roleplaying Lesbian Hera? ~hS))}

In my head I have this pegged as The Flashback Episode, and because of that I've got half an eye open for Chekhovs. I'm assuming on general principles that every single person mentioned is going to come back up; that's just how this sort of thing goes. ^_^

Sergio talks at times here like he's regurgitating a prologue, and I don't think that's accidental. It makes perfect sense to me that a character telling their own backstory would drift into a more narrative tone; it's a mild case of Tom Bombadil way back in Suedom, who could only speak in his canonical lines.

I deeply appreciate the girls' eminently sensible behaviour - when confronted with a question that could be answered by a CAD, Nikki goes right to pulling out a CAD, and when there are questions outstanding, Corolla does the research and forms a viable theory. There's no plot-forced artificial stupidity here.

Favourite line: [We kinda have a bigger problem to deal with here, and angsting won’t solve anything. And the problem is: what the heck is up with this mission?]

... it is possible that Corolla is my favourite character so far.

hS

1) If I valued wisdom in the slightest, I would not be holding this apple right now. Sorry, Neshthena.

2) Kinging is cool. So, maybe Herasoron.

3) Scaphrodite is definitely hot. Can't argue with the logic there.

Final decision: If Scaphrodite can throw in Helen of Sparta, we've got a deal. I mean, pissing off the Spartans has never gone wrong, and that chick has serious resting boat-face.

-Paris

Okay, the navigational mishap made me smile. ^_^

I'm constantly appreciative of the details from PPC history you bring into this story. NASTY may only be a footnote to the tale, but they're something that Corolla should have turned up, so I'm pleased that she did.

Some of the emotions in the latter half of this chapter don't ring quite true with me, but partly that could simply be that I don't know the canon characters. Sergio comes across as more believable than them, so I'm inclined to go with that explanation.

Favourite line: [Couldn’t someone have taken her rifle and copied her handwriting?] Corolla wondered. Sensible!Corolla is best Corolla.

hS

'S'why it bugged me when that Playstation All-Stars fighting game came out and there was no Spyro or Crash as playable characters. I mean, that is some BS right there. And they would've been very easy to do! =]

Those games are some of the few I've actually played through, and the soundtrack is a big part of the reason. If I can't stand how a game sounds, I'm not gonna stick to it, so a soundtrack can make or break it for me. Just about every sound in the Spyro games is charming and easy on the ears—very well designed, in my uneducated opinion. I enjoyed listening to it for hours. {= )

Listening to that track by itself, it reminds me of a CD my brother picked up featuring taiko drums. (Here's an example of just drums.) And then they weave the typical Spyro electronic-ish stuff back in. Pretty cool.

But, that's also part of why I got into Skyrim. The soundtrack, the scenery, and really everything about it is just gorgeous.

~Neshomeh

Please have a pot of black-hole coffee to go with the rest, and a welcome.

Posted it on Blank Sprite 15. To people here, read the story, it's so worth it.

Goodbye again, I guess, and thanks for the help on that one Madoka trollfic i missionned...

It is a very cool game. I wish the presentation had been more polished, but it was memorable nonetheless.

Unfortunately, the Clock Tower boss fight doesn't have much set-up as a character in its own regard. (It is a building, after all. It couldn't really be present anywhere but that room where Mickey fights it.) There's a comment a little before that battle that one of the villains has made it go mad, and afterwards, it has its one line of dialogue apologizing for not acting itself. So I guess you could say the "evil-sounding stuff" represents the madness, while the more normal "Small World" notes are the . . . more normal personality?

Incidentally, the level that features the Clock Tower as the boss at the end has a normal battle theme that also has "It's a Small World" incorporated into it, as well as clock-based sound effects. It's subtle, but noticeable if you pay attention. It's also my favorite track out of the whole game. Give a listen? There's a subtle tune of "Small World" at 0:04, a slow, baritone version at 0:14, and a stronger, dramatic version at 0:39.

—doctorlit should maybe get around to playing the sequel he's had sitting on the shelf for literally years, yeah?

Stuart Copeland (the drummer from The Police) did the soundtrack to the Spyro The Dragon PS1 games - aka. The Good Spyro Games. One of my favourite tracks in the whole series is Fireworks Factory, which really sells the level's themes of rocket ninjas without resorting to tired Orientalist leitmotifs. Check it out here:-

Fireworks Factory (Spyro 3: Year of the Dragon)

I'm really looking forward to the Spyro: Reignited trilogy, whenever that comes out, purely because of the music.

Speaking of remasters, the N. Sane Trilogy had some fantastic music of its own that updated the tracks (which were done by one of the blokes from Devo). This, ICYMI, was the Crash Bandicoot original trilogy remaster from last summer that I drooled over. There's some pretty nice music in there, and one of my favourites is the updated Hang Eight theme, with its jungle surf theme. Another choice track from the N. Sane Trilogy is the updated Road Crash theme, which has a brilliant '50s vibe.

Hang Eight/Air Crash/Plant Food (Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back, N. Sane Trilogy)
Hog Ride/Road Crash/Orange Asphalt/Area 51 (Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped, N. Sane Trilogy)

Hope those are interesting.