Min might have goofed by telling Yukiyo to explore the photocopier. Sorry about that.

"Harry Potter and The Unlikely Gryffindor" by "Hera Malfoy"
I stumbled on this by accident last night over at "Sink Into Your Eyes", a "Harry Potter" fanfic site. It had a five-star rating and was in their top-25 listing so I grabbed the whole thing in a lump and saved it to read later.
Well, I read it later, and dear gods I wish I hadn't. I stopped after about two and a half chapters, and that was entirely too late. Quick capsule summary: Draco has female cousin, a couple years or so older than he is, who was taken from her parents by the Ministry of Magic's equivalent of Child Protective Services and put into fosterage during the first Voldemort war; the foster parents are killed and she disappears only to turn up in Texas (of all places) when she's 19, at which point she then goes to Hogwart's as a first year and gets sorted into Gryffindor. She's a goth except she's kept the Malfoy hair, has her own motorcycle, a thick Texas accent, and lots of kewl wicca-themed jewelry. Oh, and she's engaged to marry Draco Malfoy by virtue of a long-ago agreement between their parents. By purest coincidence, she has exactly the same name as the author, and already the beginnings of the Harry-attraction are starting.
You can see where this is headed.
It is also one of the most incompetently-written stories I've seen in a while. Well, that's not entirely fair. "Hera Malfoy" is mostly a fair writer -- no horrendous misspellings or grammatical gaffes -- but she's careless and overconfident as a writer. Every once in a while she'll come out with something like this:

Quote:

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There rising up out of the darkness, was a castle Hera had only thought could exist in fairy tales. There were huge walls made of stone cinder blocks, spinnerets climbing into the sky, and the windows were each burning with torch light.

---

Adam Brown's One War, Three Sisters. Thus far, I haven't found it and I would like to read it. Any leads would be much appreciated.*********
Touched By His Noodly Appendage
www.venganza.org

What are the odds of walking into the pet store today and finding a Legendary SG coloured dog toy? About 100%.
Here is Bolo enjoying being as part of the group as he can be.
Shar Pei kisses to everyone! -Cindy (and Bolo)

If they carry out her sentence I beleive it will be the third such stoning reported this year.
www.worldnetdaily.com/new...E_ID=51602
/QUOTE
Article 104 of the Iranian Penal Code states that the stones used for execution should "not be large enough to kill the person by one or two strikes, nor should they be so small that they could not be defined as stones."
/ENDQUOTE/
howard melton

The dinner had gone perfectly. They'd had delicate French cuisine with portions just the right size. The soft candlelight at the table had danced in their eyes as they gazed at each other. They'd decided to go to his place for "coffee."
Oren sat patiently on the edge of the bed, silk sheets caressing the backs of his thighs. Soft modern jazz played on his stereo, providing what he hoped was a romantic mood. His uniform lay in a heap tangled with Min's jacket on his oversized wingback chair. He watched the bathroom door, waiting for her to come out. The breath caught in his throat as the doorknob turned.
She stood revealed in a dark green lace thing that accentuated her modest but still lovely curves. Her hair was down from its customary pigtails and cascaded down her back as a crimson halo. She glided gracefully over to him in a slink so sexy that Bella Fuego and Jackie Frost would weep in jealousy. He swallowed nervously as she hopped in his lap and kissed him. He reached up to caress her face...
... and she shattered into a thousand pieces. He leapt back from where he'd been sitting, and his bed burst into splinters and shreds of cloth intermixed with feathers and springs. He flung his arms out to catch his balance and smashed the wall into rubble. He fearfully looked down on the pieces of the girl he loved. Fragments of porcelain lay scattered about, half of her face still intact. A hurt expression flitted across the eye and her beautiful mouth.
"I thought you loved me, Oren," she said sadly.
He woke with a gasp, sending the sheets flying from his Promethium-reinforced bed as he sat bolt upright. Sweat laced with the stink of adrenaline ran in rivulets across his wide chest. A bewildered look crossed his face as he oriented himself. 'The same nightmare,' he thought and wept into his hands.
''We don't just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat
them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary.''

-- James Nicoll

For fanfic updates since the othr thread has 22 pages
''We don't just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat
them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary.''

-- James Nicoll

Why don't we have a Great Lakes Legendary on some server?

12/15/06
To: Douglas Sangnoir
From: Mikhael Mitvol
Regards: Suit changes.
Since you expressed some interest in the changes I've made to the suit and the thinking behind them, thought I would send you these notes I made. If you have any other questions, ask away.
--------------------
Since I brought myself and suit here to America, have been exposed to a much wider slice of the whole Superhero community here in Paragon City than existed back in the Motherland. Very interesting and enlightening.
In past, when in the employ of the Soviet (later Russian) military, upgrades to Stalnoy Volk suit had to be approved, which didn't happen often, given dwindling resources. Got bad enough that I was afraid that someday soon, they maybe decommission suit entirely! Contributed greatly to my decision to emigrate. Without suit, cannot walk!
Now, will be able to continue using suit and helping people. And maybe make some improvements? So many tech heroes here in Paragon. Compare notes, yes?
Stalnoy Volk V 1.0
--------------------
Am no supergenius, but familiar enough with the powersuit to work on it and even manage upgrades. Have been keeping up with the techbase in Paragon and considering improvements for suit.
Started with Supergroup colors. Applied clearcoat of electro-activated paint. Stuff comes standard and is used by almost all powersuit heroes in Paragon. Allows techno-armor heroes to change over to Supergroup colors at moments notice. (Heard Looney Toons used stuff on bike at some point in past. Ha! Bike has "secret I.D." as well!)
Stalnoy Volk V 1.0 in Supergroup colors.
--------------------
Satisfied with how that turned out. Got me thinking. Started looking into various materials and hit upon coating that increases armor's resistance to most forms of energy by at least 12%. Little more flashy than used to. But why not? Not like I will stand out after all!
Stalnoy Volk V 1.2
--------------------
Had unfortunate incident recently involving power feed to left gauntlet. Damn Freakshow slicers! Started getting more serious about design improvements. Never liked that main weapon array powerfeed went through cable going outside armor. But it was design flaw I'd resigned myself to back in Russia, since unlikely to be fixed. But now have more freedom to make changes. Should have done this sooner, really! Consulted with some other powersuit heroes and redesigned power feeds so that multiple lines run inside the armor, and made new armor sheaths for the upper arms.
Stalnoy Volk V 1.3
--------------------
No more slicing of powerfeeds. That's good. But having been through a few patrols and missions, noticed a drop in efficiency and power. Couldn't get as much range as before, and even up close not hitting quite as hard. No big difference, but don't like taking two steps back to take step forward!
--------------------
After some testing, decided problem was old capacitors in the gauntlets. Have been getting as much power as I had because generator was dumping it more quickly through old heavy duty cables and could dump a little extra to make up for the slack. But new multiple-line powerfeed wasn't allowing the "slop" to get by.
Have decided that the entire weapons array needs redesign. May as well do whole thing at once. Have discovered completely different projection style on Heronet tech chatboards. Energy blast output through ports on palms instead of around outer gauntlet edge. Is good design. Will streamline armor on arms. And hands still maintain flexibility. Must send letter of compliment to Stark Industries.
Stalnoy Volk V 1.4
--------------------
Redesigned powersupply and chestplate. New overlapping segments more flexible and easier to move in. Decreased weight as well, both in armor and power supply. Fit in new heat dispersion system as well. Productive week!
This may be last upgrade for old suit, though. Need to integrate systems better. Old linkages and joints needing more and more maintenence in order to get out in field. Might need to change entire frame. Will think on this later.
Stalnoy Volk V 1.5
-------------------
After a month of research, decided to build new Stalnoy Volk suit from ground up, incorporating all previous system upgrades and adding in new redesigns. Powertrain and sensor systems have been upgraded. Applied lessons learned on arms to slimming down leg armor and incorporating new segmentation. Air filter systems on helmet improved as well. This is Stalnoy Volk armor Version 2.0!
Stalnoy Volk V 2.0
((This is what comes of being bored and puttering around on the costume creator. I'm not going to make all those seperate little changes for the 3rd costume slot. But I thought I'd give a preview and show how the evolution would go. ))-Logan
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"This kind of thing tends invariably to devolve into the kind of "No, Nakajima, THIS is true power!!" argument that only really works if you're yelling it from the cockpit of a giant robot . . ."
-----------------

The King has hit level 10, and The Mirror Kingdom now formally exists.
I'll be on again later this morning, probably (in 5 or 6 hours, say, after some actual sleep), and sometime after 6 PST, and more on Wednesday. I've got the Shadows friended, so if you're on then I'll send you an invite; if you want to bring a mirror demon character in, either friend King of 3 Shadows and send me a tell when I'm about, or post the character's name here for me to friend, or both. Try to come up with weird names, like something out of Exalted's Yozi or Grant Morrison's Doom Patrol.
The rank structure is brutally simple:
King of Three Shadows
Shadow of the King
Mirror Scourge
Mirror Demon
Mirror Goblin
Only three second-rank members, and all those positions have been filled, so unless one of us decides to drop out all subsequent inductees are limited to Scourge level.
For the rank-and-file demons, I suggest an achievement-based promotion system: everybody starts at Goblin, gets promoted to Demon at 21st level, then to Scourge at 41st level.
Logically speaking, everyone in the group should have a Magic origin. If this is how it works out, don't bother dropping non-magic enhancements in base storage (when we get any), just sell 'em. If you're so inclined, buy some extra enhancements with the Infamy that results and throw those on the pile.
20,000 prestige in the bank already. Might not be too long before we actually have a base...
--Sam
"Paragon City. A more wretched hive of love and justice you will never find in this world." --The King, in a grumpy mood