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  Compromised Account on Wiki
Posted by: Bob Schroeck - Yesterday, 10:08 AM - Forum: Fenspace - Replies (5)

I just discovered that someone using BlackAeronaut's account on the Fenspace Wiki has posted a page containing 300K of what looks like link spam, including some very suspicious-looking links at the back end.  It definitely doesn't belong on the site, and I have concerns that his account may be compromised.

Since I have the privileges to do so, I'm going to temporarily block BA's account; I will also delete the page in a few hours -- it's been there since 3/11, it's not going to hurt to leave it up long enough for someone else to look at it and tell me that I'm off base about it (as unlikely as I suspect that to be).

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  2016-12-20: New City, Old Problems
Posted by: robkelk - 03-30-2025, 09:04 AM - Forum: Stories - No Replies

New City, Old Problems
by Rob Kelk




Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
December 20, 2016
2:34 pm ET



For the second day in a row, they were doing research at the library, trying to figure out what had happened to them. He waved her over to the computer that he was using. "You need to see this."

"I don't think I need to see anything on a computer. That's your specialty."

"You need to see these Lycos search results." He showed her the screen.

"Sailor Moon... There's an anime about Sailor Moon?"

"And look here." He pointed at one line. "Tsukino-san... No, that has to be wrong. She can't be Sailor Moon."

"How did they know?" she asked in a shocked whisper.

"Are you telling me Tsukino-san really is Sailor Moon?"

"That's right. I figured that out a while ago."

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"It wasn't my secret to tell! Besides, I never asked whether I was right, and she never actually told me."

He cleared the search, and searched for his own name. A few minutes later, he was crying. "Comedy relief? Is that all I am?"

"Not to me." Naru took Gurio's hand in her own and held it for a moment. Then she sat down beside him. "Can you show me how to make this search page work? I'll help you find her, or maybe some of our other friends."


* * *


"You two aren't thinking of leaving, are you?" Mayumi Osaka looked at the ravens sitting in the corner of the storeroom. "It's far too cold out there for you to survive."

"Caw!"

"That's good." It amused Mayumi to pretend to have a conversation with the birds while her daughters Naru and Naruru were out doing ... whatever it was they were doing. Probably shopping for Christmas presents. She wasn't about to chase the birds out of the building, even if it wasn't too cold outside for them to survive; they had been there first, after all. "Just don't hide any of my gems, please."

As she picked up a box of bracelets to take to the shop display floor, she thought that the ravens were looking at her with some amusement. It must have been her imagination. She stepped past the curtain and into the shop itself. "Perhaps one of these would be more appropriate as a gift for your friend, Mr. Donaldson."

As he looked through the selection, he half-distractedly asked, "Have you been open long? I don't remember there being a jewelry store here last year."

"Oh, we've only been open for a week now. We were lucky to get the lease for as low as we did, even if we aren't directly on Bank Street."

He smiled. "I remember when this used to be a coffee shop, a couple of decades ago. They're in the Byward Market now. I think you found a lucky place to set up shop, miss."

She laughed politely, her hand over her mouth. "Nobody's called me 'miss' since my older daughter was born."

"Oh! I think she'll like this one," he said, pointing to a silver bracelet with a wave design worked into the metal. "Sometimes I think she spends all her time in the water."

"She's a professional swimmer?"

"No, she'd a medical student. She loves swimming, though."

"Ah. Would you care for a gift box to go with the bracelet?"

"Yes, please. And, if you wouldn't mind, please put your shop's business card into the box."

Mayumi smiled. "Of course!"

Once the necessary business transaction was completed and Rob left the shop, turning on Fourth Avenue to walk back to Bank Street, his polite smile turned into a grin. Not only had he finally found a Christmas present for Ami, he'd also found one for Usagi - assuming Mayumi Osaka was a displacee. Considering she'd named her shop "OSA-P", Rob thought it was only a matter of time before he, and Usagi, had a chance to meet Naru.





8:37 pm ET


Mii was carefully taking the well-lit roads back from campus. She didn't want to run into another one of those ... things ... that had nearly killed her just after Halloween. She knew that, even if the strike force had been allowed to manage a 100% success rate in killing the sluagh in the Horde's stronghold last week, it was highly unlikely that all the sluagh in the area had been there. And even if they were, more would no doubt show up eventually from other cities.

She would have taken a bus home, but she wanted to do some window shopping along the way - and, if she was lucky, actually buy some gifts for her friends. She'd just have to trust her luck.

Unfortunately, her luck didn't hold. While looking down a side street, she saw one of ... those things ... approaching a young couple from behind. A quick look over the rims of her glasses showed that anyone else nearby could only see a rather scruffy human - but nobody else was nearby.

Mii really didn't want to be attacked again, but she wasn't about to let innocent people come to harm. "Hey! You!"

The sluagh turned to look at her jog toward it. So did the couple - teenagers, a boy with thick glasses and a girl with wavy hair.

"Yes, you!" Mii continued as she got her cellphone out and hit the speed-dial button for Kuroko. "Why were you sneaking up on those two?"

"Mind your own business!"

Mii heard the line connect. "Hello?"

She spoke louder than before, to make sure Kuroko could hear her. "I am minding my own business! And I was at Calabogie last week!"

"You're one of them? DIE!" The sluagh dropped its mystic disguise and leapt at Mii.

The teenaged girl said "Oh, no, not again..." just before she fainted.

Mii dropped her phone and punched the sluagh, throwing it off-balance enough to miss attacking her. Spinning on one foot, Mii kicked the sluagh in the back.

It didn't go down.

"Oh, shi-" Mii's curse was cut short by a concrete cinder block falling from nowhere onto the sluagh's head. That was enough to knock it out.

"I apologize for taking so long to arrive," Kuroko said as she teleported to Mii's phone, picked it up, and handed it to her.

Mii smiled. "I'd say your timing was just right." She turned to the teenagers, only to see the boy carrying the girl up the steps to one of the nearby shops. She raised her voice again. "Are you two okay?"

"We're getting out of your way!"

"Out of our way? Why?"

"Konori-sempai..." Mii turned back to Kuroko, realizing from the use of her family name that they were still working, then looked where she was pointing. "...would you happen to have any more concrete blocks?"

"Not with me, sorry."

"Then we have no choice but to kill all three of them."

"When did they start hunting in packs?"

"When haven't they?" Kuroko replied, then muttered under her breath, "They aren't running away."

"They're calling our bluff," Mii answered in the same voice. Out loud, she asked, "How many spikes do you have?"

Kuroko lifted her skirt with one hand and ran her other hand along the bandoleer she had strapped to her thigh, teleporting the iron spikes into her hand. "Enough."

That was enough to get the sluaghs to run off, away from Bank Street and toward the river.

"We're going to have to deal with them eventually, you know."

"We should deal with them right now. They'll be easy to find if we act fast. Would you go get Sailor Moon, please? I'll see to the bystanders."

Kuroko nodded and teleported away.

As she walked over to the front of the shop where the boy was still watching, Mii said, "I think that's all of them for now. What did your friend mean by 'not again'?"

"When we were in Tokyo, Naru was attacked by monsters a couple of times. What were those things?"

"They're called sluagh. An acquaintance of mine told me that they're Fair Folk that were killed but didn't die completely."

"They're yokai that were turned into yurei?"

Mii thought for a moment. "I think so, yes."

"How did you see the first one? Are you a miko?"

"No, I'm an esper. But my glasses were a gift from a megami."

Just then, they heard from a distance the cry "Moon Healing Escalation!"

"An esper? You're a Newtype?"

Mii shook her head. "I'm not that sort of esper. Oh, but it looks like your friend - Naru - is waking up." She turned to the girl. "Are you all right, miss?"

"I'm okay, thank you. Are you all right? You were attacked instead of me."

"I'm fine. Your friend tells me your name is Naru. I'm Konori Mii."

"And I'm Umino Gurio," the boy added. "Mii was saying that she's an esper."

"Like a Newtype?"

Mii giggled; an odd sound from the usually-serious young woman. "Maybe I should ask for a giant mecha. No, I'm not that kind of esper." She noticed a movement on the sidewalk, then spoke into her phone. "You'd better hurry up; the one we knocked out is starting to wake up."

A second later, Kuroko appeared, holding Sailor Moon's shoulder. "Over there."

"Moon Healing Escalation!"

Naru looked up. "It's her. It's really her. Usagi!"

"Naru! What are you doing here? And Umino! Oh, but... I'm not -"

Mii laughed. "It's too late to deny it now, Tsukino-san."





9:18 pm ET


"well," Rob said, "I was going to give Usagi your business card as an early Christmas present, but I see she's already learned that you're here. My name is Rob Donaldson. It's my job to help people like you adjust to being in this reality. Welcome to Refuge, and please call on me if you need help of any kind." He offered his business card to the newcomers.

"Mayumi Osaka, and I'm happy to meet you." She formally accepted his card.

"I'm assuming that you'd like to meet more people like yourself who have found themselves here. I believe I can still get invitations for you to a black-tie event that's being held on Christmas Eve, if you can attend a formal party on short notice and you're interested in going. How many invitations do I need to request?"

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  I did a thing (and you can too)
Posted by: AvrosRaven - 03-27-2025, 11:36 AM - Forum: My Apartment Manager is not an Isekai Character - Replies (16)

I wasn't sure if there was a thread for people's writings that were KanriKyara related, so now I made this. Speaking of which, here's something I wrote (My self insert. take it or leave it, Bob Tongue

Raven stepped off the plane, stretching his hands behind him.
“It’s nice to be back in SoCal… ok I barely remember living here, but it’s still nice…” he said, quietly groaning in pleasure as his muscles stretched out. His bones creaked. It hadn’t been a particularly long flight, but it was still enough to make his legs fall asleep.
“I wonder what shenanigans I’m going to get up to while I’m here…” he thought as he walked into the airport proper. He picked up his bags, then set out for Rutgers University.
The ride down to the dormitories in the Uber was quiet. Lines of trees blurred past him, and it put a smile on his face. He had always liked the natural world. Besides, seeing so much green was really nice when he compared it to Arizona, with its rocky greys and browns, and small, compact trees struggling to survive. Here, though, trees grew tall and proud, a stark difference to what he was used to. It was a nice difference though, and he appreciated it. It was a good change.
The car stopped about 20 minutes later. Raven ducked his head out of the car and took his bag from the trunk. He thanked the driver, and tipped him too. Then he ran a hand through his hair as he looked up at the building in front of him. A gust of wind swirled around his body, lightly chilling him. Douglas Garden, a place that had recently had a large uptick in tenants for no apparent reason. A sly grin creeped up his face. This was going to be fun.
Raven stretched after knocking on the door. A man, maybe late thirties, early forties, opened the door. Raven plastered on his “I love people” smile and stuck his thumbs in his pockets.
“Hello! My name is Raven, it’s a pleasure to meet you! Well, it’s not my given name, but here…” he said while he pulled some papers from his bag and handed them to the older man.
“Well, it’s nice to meet you Raven, we’re glad to have you here. Welcome to Douglas Garden, my name is Bob Shroeck, but you can just call me Bob, I suppose,” Bob said in response as he took the papers. Raven stood expectantly. Bob raised an eyebrow looking at the papers. An awkward silence ensued.
“Errrm… can I live here?” Raven asked in an attempt to break the silence. Bob jumped slightly, but smiled.
“Yes, you may. Come in, come in, we’ll just get the tenant contract ready and you’ll be good to go,” he said, waving Raven in. Raven let out a sigh of relief.
‘Well, I’m certainly glad that’s over..’ he thought before following his new landlord into the main office.
The contract signing was anticlimactic. Just a couple of scribbles later, plus a handshake, and he was officially a tenant of Douglas Garden.

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  No story, just an elevator pitch and a title
Posted by: robkelk - 03-25-2025, 02:53 PM - Forum: Future Steps - Replies (1)

Looney Toons gets caught in an arcade game, in Dig Doug.

(I never said it was a good title...)

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  Simulacrum song... extended!
Posted by: robkelk - 03-25-2025, 02:47 PM - Forum: The Game Everyone Loves To Play - No Replies

Because sometimes you just need an ally team for over 16 minutes.

Assuming, of course, that Doug doesn't hear this one until after DW XII.



Geki! Teikoku Kageki-dan [Extended] copyright © 2019 by Sega

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  five hundred some Guests, is that unusual?
Posted by: classicdrogn - 03-24-2025, 09:11 PM - Forum: Forums - Replies (2)

I don't keep track of such numbers usually, but that's like four times as many registered users as there are total. Did we get slashdotted or something?

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Question Need a name for a fictional cake shop
Posted by: robkelk - 03-23-2025, 06:10 PM - Forum: Other People's Fanfiction - Replies (9)

Preferably a punny name. Definitely a short name.

I had come up with "Just Desserts"... but today I learned that that's a real cake bakery in San Francisco. It's almost as old as I am. So... no good for the story.

Any ideas for a replacement?

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  Editing my profile
Posted by: AvrosRaven - 03-21-2025, 01:14 PM - Forum: General Chatter - Replies (2)

Ok, I'm just curious, how in the world would you edit your profile? I cannot find the button.

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  GIMP 3.0 Released
Posted by: robkelk - 03-21-2025, 08:47 AM - Forum: General Chatter - Replies (3)

It's not dead yet...

Announcement and download page for GIMP 3.0.0

Review at The Register

(This is a ".0" release, so I won't be grabbing it, preferring to wait for the ".1" release and let other folks find the less-obvious glitches. YMMV.)

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  My Own Fan fics
Posted by: AvrosRaven - 03-20-2025, 06:15 PM - Forum: Other People's Fanfiction - Replies (4)

Hey yall finally figured out how to make a post, so im just gonna say that you can find my fan fics under AvrosRaven on AO3, I currently have 3 up, 1 is complete work (Albeit very short), and the other two are unfinished. Im working on a fourth in conjunction with the other im working on. now, for descriptions


Isekai'd to the West: Ordinary girl gets isekai'd to the American Wild West (using my terrible geography knowledge), where she meets two new friends and sees some very recognizable anime and manga characters (at least to her). Currently finished with the first little arc (about 10k words). Working on arc 2 now.

A Ranma Self Insert fic, why not: about as chaotic as it sounds, its mostly my "get the funky writing brain cells out now so we can do other writing later" and its somehow kinda evolved into something really oddly convoluted. if it makes no sense, its kinda on purpose. also, fair warning, lots of cursing and language.

Steris Ladrian vs. The Advertising Robots: A quick 400 word fic that i wrote when a friend of mine on a discord server (17th shard, actually, im a brando sando nerd) was complaining about getting these spam bots in the comments of her fics that she'd posted. so i did this in honor of that and hopefully to cheer them up. 

Inuyasha: Path of Light: Ok, this one isnt up on AO3 yet, and im still working on the first chapter, but its recently broken 1k (yay!) and its a question of "what if Naraku had a redemption arc?" (more specifically Onigumo, the human that kinda kept Naraku together) Ive always loved Inuyasha since i started it, and Naraku is just such an interesting character. He's a total mad lad, and its wonderful. this story will follow the canon fairly tightly. Or at least as well as I can remember.

yup! thats all of them! If i end up writing anymore fics, ill let you guys know.

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