Ryuugi just posted a Sailor Moon/Nobilis snippet over on Spacebattles (https://forums.spacebattles.com/posts/43731904/), and I figured some people in this thread may like to read his follow-up post about Usagi as a starting Nobilis character:

https://forums.spacebattles.com/posts/43756903/

Quote:For those who don't know, Bonds, Afflictions, and Imperial Miracles are major parts of Nobilis and how it's played, in that they are used to define aspects of the story, as well as elements of the character. Bonds are things the story is trying to prove true. Afflictions are things the story accepts as true. And Imperial Miracles are broad strokes, summaries, and asides--statements on the general direction of the story. To use the example of the Trojan war, Odysseus' wits are a Bond, as something the story is trying to demonstrate and express, whereas Helen's beauty is simple a fact that it accepts; there's a woman who's face could launch a thousand ships, the end. An Imperial Miracle, then, is something like Eris throwing the apple, to cause things to escalate and break down.

Going into this story, I gave myself some rules--there were things that had to happen and things that couldn't happen and I'd just build everything around that. First, I wasn't going to give her any extra points at 'chargen', because I don't think I need to, but I was still going to make sure Usagi herself was appropriately absurd. Second, the goddamn theme song has to play into the Bonds and Afflictions somehow. So here's what I did.

Bond: Fighting evil by moonlight, winning love by daylight, never running from a real fight—I'm the one named Sailor Moon! 5

That's a Bond. It's something Usagi tries and strives for, something she works at, something you can generally accept about her--she fights evil, wins love, doesn't run away when it counts, and is Sailor Moon. Those aren't inherent facts of the setting, they're things you can try to contradict, but be advised, she will punch through just about anything that tries to say this isn't true.

Affliction: I will never turn a back on a friend, I am always there to defend, I am the one on whom you can depend—I’m the one named Sailor Moon! 5

This, on the other hand, is something the story accepts as a fact. She's someone who stands by her friends, someone people can and do trust in, is always there to protect people, and, again, is Sailor Moon. This is stone-cold fact, up there with the laws of thermodynamics, and unless it's backed by serious mojo, it'll ignore anything that says it isn't entirely, up and including reality. But oh, the villain says, how can she always be there to defend when she's here on Monday and goons attacked the previous Sunday? Except she can get from Monday to Sunday, if needs must, as if she had Perfect Timing, if needs must, because she's always there to defend. It's that level of True.

But both those things aside, a lot of it's tied up in her power, too. Usagi's a Persona-based Power, because I couldn't really see Usagi creating or destroying Love, of her imposing it on someone or taking away. But she's still the Power of Love, the shape of it, and the proof of it's power and I felt that was important, so I gave her Persona 3, such that she can Emulate love freely, but a Lesser Enchantment would take a bit of power and a Greater Enchantment would take a lot. Persona 3, in and of itself, may be middling as Persona Powers go, but something I try to stick to was what Jenna Moran said about Passions and Skills; namely, there's no point in using more skill points, when you can just choose better skills. I try to stick to that and that's why I also chose to build Usagi as a chargen character, rather than some vast Excrucian. Persona 3 is enough, if you know how to use it.

Except it's more complicated than that. See, Persona 3 cost nine skill points out of twenty-five, but where are the other sixteen? They're in her Gifts. Or rather, her Gift.

Treasure Gift: The Sailor Senshi: 16 Points
Treasure 9-level miracle, automatically activates when appropriate, effective almost anywhere, and has a flexible, loosely defined ability. Uncommon. Three Strike.

Yeah, some min-maxing might have been involved, but in this case, it made sense to me--I wanted most of Usagi's effective power to be in her friends, in her regalia, and in the miracles they can make happen through who and what they are. Because a Treasure 9-level Gift like that opens up a lot of options for her, as it allows her to use any Treasure miracle up to that level*, but it's biggest, subtlest effect is the Imperial Miracle it leaves running. For them, this isn't an active, constant thing that they're constantly enforcing, either, it just is.

Because when you get right down to it, that's what Usagi's power boils down to--a general statement on what the story is about. It's something fundamental, but also vague, like all Imperial Miracles--a statement of direction and fact, but an open-ended one. Needless to say, it can't say anything like 'Everything will work out in the end,' because that's a result and not a direction or story. But she can say that this is a story where things can work out in the end, if people try hard enough, if they fight for it and believe in it and hold on. And, what's more, she can give those who fight for love and justice and never give up a pretty heft edge over those who don't**.

And for the most part, that's what she does. She makes a statement about the story and world around her, about light and love and hope, to the general effect of 'This is a magical girl story.'

And a lot of other people can comment on that! She's not the only one with Imperial Miracles to throw around, after all, even if her's is a bit ridiculous. They can append elements or add to that to shape the story further. Lord Entropy, for example, could set his own Imperial Miracles into motion, and say it's the nature of things to get worse and go wrong. He can color that story, saying it's a Magical Girl story, yes, but that it's like PMMM or one of the many dark magical girl shows--hell, he could make it like Sailor Moon, where everyone she loves periodically dies or is turned against her. They can hurt her that way. Potentially, they can even kill her.

But no one can look at Usagi's story and just outright say it's not a magical girl story. No one can look at her and say love and hope and friendship aren't powerful or important with her around, because they're important in general, but she enforces their importance and preserves it. Usagi's far from the only voice speaking, but she is a voice, and a powerful voice and she shapes the story she's in as a result.

So, for example, circa just before the start of this story, Usagi turned aside a major incursion by the Excrucians, a full on assault that nearly broke through, and got a great deal of attention as a result--and she did it by shuffling through her Estate Properties, drawing on the power of her Bonds and Afflictions, and shaping the story of the Sailor Senshi into a weapon that says 'As long as stars can continue to be born, war won't end. The darkness calls to the light, and the light calls again to the darkness. Is this the will of the galaxy? Saying I'll end the war...Will that be the end of everything? I won't give up. Everyone always told me... At the end of war there is hope and the future. I'll make our future. So don't you abandon hope. Believe. Our star of hope will never disappear. As long as it keeps shining, we'll be all right. We won't be defeated.'

And someone can turn around and just say 'Actually, you will be.' They can! But they better bring their A-Game and prepare to take some hurt, because you will start running into free, 8-Strike attacks and cheap greater miracles if you ride that train. It's much easier to play with the story, to shape and guide it like any other Imperial Miracle, but if you run head first into that thing, well...it can be unpleasant.

So Orderic Nuestry wielded Loss against her, to try to tear those she loved away from her, to try wipe away everything great about her, to try to unravel her. Raginhart Tribunas tortured her beyond words with Agony, hurt her beyond mortal definitions of pain, and kept doing so to try and break her. Teja Heimerich left her breathless in the Void, stripped everything away, and cursed her with breathlessness, tying the Not around her like a noose and leaving her to die. Marozia Carolin tried to twist her against herself and the world and everything she loves with Harmfulness, poisoning her and trying to corrupt her. And, hell, even Iolithae Septimian Lied to her about the world.

And it hurt. It hurt her terribly. She walked away from that fight near death, with all the Afflictions and Bonds to show for it. She's still suffering from a curse of breathlessness and for awhile, she was suspicious that it might have been a lie when Iolithae Septimian told her she wasn't Iolithae Septimian, until she remembered that she was the one named Sailor Moon. Orderic and Raginhart left her bedridden after the battle and Marozia made her jump through hoops in a battle to define natures. It was a bloody, drawn out fight and by the end, she was on the verge of death and in recovery for weeks.

But she still won that fight.

*Which, long story short, means the Senshi are still around and, as a whole, they and Usagi are fuck off dangerous, particularly when they're in tune with her Bond or their own Imperial Miracle, which isn't really hard. As a rule, they can justify their way to Usagi's side from basically anywhere and throw down just fine in miraculous combat with free Level 6, 7, and 8 miracles with some permanent Strike behind them. Dat shit's scary, yo, but also rule's legal.

**Specifically, something like a persistent 3MP discount on everything she does, which can mean a pretty abrupt jump in ability; roughly equivalent to having a 3 in Aspect, Domain, and Treasure, in fact, at least in the proper circumstances, and a much heftier boost to Persona that changes things a lot. Usagi's Persona 3, is normally just enough for a Lesser Emulation, but can reach a Greater Enchantment with a major effort--4MP, essentially, in a vacuum. But if an Excrucian menace lays waste to the people of such and such place and Usagi's fighting them, Usagi could spend a single point to pull out a Greater Enchantment and go 'Love never dies' to raise the fallen, no problem. Or, she could pull off a Lesser Enchantment or Lesser Emulation and just pump a lot into Strike--particularly if you run ashy of her Bond, in which case that miracle will punch through damn near anything.

But in story, she's not her getting a discount--she's drawing from shocking, unseen depths of power in the face of adversity, as a magical girl.

xxxxxxxxx

Fun fact, I honest to god wasn't kidding about Jenna Moran dropping a Sailor moon example. In the Story of Treasure, as an example of a Level 8 miracle, she said ‘If you’re a sailor-suited warrior of love and justice, and you have a magical grail, maybe you can use this to flood the grail with love energy and bring a bunch of dead people back to life or redeem the hosts of Hell.’ And at that point, I just had to.

But I decided to go with the classics for Love; namely, 1 Corinthians 13:

Estate Properties:

• Love is patient and kind
  
• Love does not envy, does not boast, and is not proud.
  
• Love does not dishonor others, is not self-seeking, is not easily angered, and keeps no record of wrongs.
  
• Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth
  
• Love always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
  
• Love never fails.
  
• Love never dies.
  

Some of those might seem like a bigger deal than others, but honestly, all of them can really stand out once they get some miracles behind them--as always, Nobilis is a game that rewards creativity over simple power. Being tortured by Orderic or Raginhart? Love always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Being turned into a horrific monster? Love does not dishonor others, is not self-seeking, is not easily angered, and keeps no record of wrongs. Being strangled to death? Love never dies. Pop a Lesser Enchantment or Emulation and you can get a lot of mileage on Afflictions alone, and with an Imperial Miracle, suddenly those are Greater Enchantments and Emulations, for the same cost. And in a pinch, while following the principles of her own story, she can even do stuff like a Sacrifices of her Estate to make an enemy envious, boastful, or proud, and lead them to fall into story traps and such.

TL;DR: Nobilis is all about finding your niche--and abusing the hell out of it.

Get your copies of the five books before they're sold out.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/entertainment/can...-1.4509203

*OK.  So.  It's a dream,* Shinji thought.  *It's got to be.*

The last thing he remembered was going to bed, so suddenly finding
himself standing up and dressed in front of a perfectly ordinary-
looking door was understandably disorienting, at least until he
realized that he had to be dreaming.

That he'd never realized he was dreaming *while* dreaming before,
at least not without an Angel being involved, did occur to him.
But the Angels had been beaten back, completely and permanently,
more than a year ago, so he was pretty certain that one couldn't 
be involved now.

*So...* he wondered.  *What's going on?*

The door declined to answer.

Shinji slowly turned around and decided that whatever his
subconscious was up to in this dream, it was decidedly *not*
playing fair.  White walls, white floor, white ceiling -- an
unfamiliar one, he thought with a small smile -- and no windows 
or other doors.  *Okay, so... either open the door or have the
most boring dream I've ever had.*

He had to admit that with his life there was some *attraction* to
the idea of a boring dream.

However, he knew perfectly well what Asuka would say if he 
*didn't* open the door.  Plus, he had to admit to a certain 
amount of curiosity about what his subconscious had in mind.  So 
with a little laugh at his hesitation, Shinji reached out, 
grasped the simple brass knob, and opened the door.

On the other side was a room out of a movie -- dark wood 
paneling, built-in bookcases filled with books of all sizes, 
colors and ages, and several chairs and sofas arranged in a 
semicircle around a fireplace in which a fire was blazing 
merrily.

He'd barely taken that in when he realized there was someone in
the room -- two someones, actually, the backs of whose heads he
could see over the back of the sofa on which they sat.  From the
hairstyles he thought they might both be women.  One had hair the 
same color as Misato's, but what little of her skin he could see
was a warm coffee color.  The other had hair of the most 
improbable shade of pink, and at the sound of the door closing 
behind him she stood and faced him.

Shinji's breath caught for a moment.  Ah, yes, definitely female.
Brilliant blue eyes in a heart-shaped face, perched atop a blue
jacket of a decidedly military design, red biker shorts and...
Shinji tore his eyes back up to hers -- he wasn't going to admire
anyone's legs other than Asuka's, not if he was going to survive
the inevitable telling of this dream in the morning.

"Um, hi?" he half-asked as the pink-haired girl -- and girl she
was, not much older than him if he was right -- smiled broadly.

"Oh, hey!"  To his surprise she suddenly grabbed the back of the 
sofa and vaulted it, pivoting over the overstuffed upholstery and
dropping neatly on the carpet behind it.  The other girl turned 
to follow her with a fond, amused smile on her face.  She had 
amazing emerald eyes, Shinji realized before the pink-haired girl
regained his attention by sticking out her hand.  "Shinji, right?
I'm Utena."  When he failed to take her hand, she grabbed his and
shook it anyway.  "I'm your sister."

*Yup, definitely dreaming,* Shinji thought.

                            * * *

Several minutes later Shinji found himself surrounded by more
people than he was normally comfortable being around.  Moments
after Utena had introduced him to the dark-skinned girl --
Anthy, her name was, and he was a bit stunned to learn that she
was Utena's *wife* -- the door had opened again to admit three
more people who were energetically chattering.  Immediately
uncomfortable, Shinji tried to slide back against one of the 
bookcases, but Utena hooked her arm around his before he could do
more than twitch, and drew him gently but inexorably forward.

The new three were two girls and another guy, who all quieted
down and studied him speculatively when they spotted him on
Utena's arm.  "Hey," said the guy, who was a Westerner with messy 
black hair, striking green eyes behind round glasses, and the 
faded remains of a nasty scar on his forehead, "Is that...?"

Utena smiled.  "I finally found him.  Ladies and gentleman, may
I present our no-longer-missing sibling, Mister Shinji Ikari."

"Brilliant!" the guy responded while grabbing his hand and 
enthusiastically shaking it, Western-style.  "It's about time you
showed up!  Now us guys are only outnumbered two to one, instead
of four to one.  I'm Harry -- Harry Potter," he added, releasing
Shinji's hand.  "And in case Big Sis here hasn't gotten to it,
I'm your brother."

"Um," Shinji offered.  "Hi?"

"Oh, for..." said the smaller of the two girls.  She was slender
and delicate and tiny, with wavy dark hair and hazel eyes no less
striking than Harry's.  "Can't you see you're crowding him,
Harry?"  She elbowed Harry out of the way -- he gave a very
dramatic-sounding "oof!" but grinned at Shinji as he did -- and
to Shinji's surprise stepped forward and very gently hugged him.

"Right, and *I* was crowding him," Harry muttered with obvious
amusement in his tone.

Shinji went very still, not quite sure even after all he'd been
through how to react to a stranger -- and a girl, at that! -- 
hugging him.  "Hi, little brother... I'm your sister Bibi 
Summers," she said when she released him and stepped back.  Then 
she screwed up her face in concentration.  "At least I think it's 
'little brother'.  I mean, physically and mentally I'm like 
twenty-sevenish, but I'm really only five years old, so..."  She 
shrugged.  

"Five years old...?" Shinji managed to ask before the other girl,
a tall, voluptuous brunette with her long hair in a high 
ponytail, laughed.  

"Well, I know for a fact that he's 'little brother' to me," she
said with a chuckle.

"Well, that's because you're a thousand years old to Bibi's five,
Grandma," Harry snarked good-naturedly.

"Watch it, wandboy, or I'll kick your butt again," she riposted
in exactly the same tones.  "There's still some life in these old
bones."  Shinji noted that she didn't look any older than Bibi
or Utena.  "Hey, little bro.  I'm Kino Makoto, the oldest and 
best of your big sisters."

Bibi made a raspberry noise while Utena called out, "Hey!"   To 
the side, Harry chuckled.

"They're always like this," he said when Shinji glanced at him.

Would anybody here happen to have any original production artwork from the Gunsmith Cats OAV series? (cels, settei, etc.)

Just asking... but if you do, please let me know privately.

Because I am perennially bored at work (especially towards the end of the month) I end up trawling various boards for something interesting to read. So I'm in Sufficient Velocity's Worm ideas thread and look what I find:

Quote:I think this might have been suggested somewhere else, but what about a power based around soundtracks?

Apparently, there's a free version of Acronis Ransomware Protection available now.

https://www.theregister.co.uk/2018/01/26...rotection/

Does anybody know anything about this software? Is it any good at what is says it does?

Bob,
    I've been on your homepage and the forums, and Symantic/Norton is having to block the Bitcoin miner javascript.
Norton is showing PUA.JSCoinminer when accessing both the homepage and the forums.  The files are coinhive.min[1].js and worker-asmjs.min[1].js

I still get near 80% CPU usage even with Symantic/Noton blocking them, but fortunately when I close the tab(s) to your pages it stops.
I am about to clear my cache and reattempt accessing your pages...
..And it still happens.

I will be sending this post via email.

Yours Sincerely,
Cobalt

Okay, who here (besides me) already knew that today is Robbie Burns Day?  

Fun facts:

• In Ottawa, you're likely to get your haggis for the celebration from a French-Canadian butcher if you don't make it yourself.
  
• There's a Scottish butcher shop and bakery in Whitehorse, Yukon that's expecting to sell 200 lbs. of haggis today.
  
• And there's a butcher in Calgary that sells 300 pounds of haggis each day in January.

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/friendlyath...in-church/

The basic gist of it is an attempt to replace 100% of the mentions in Missouri state law of "marriage" with "contract of domestic union". Including converting all marriages done in the state into "contract of domestic union", with the added idea that churches can choose if they report they've performed a marriage to the government.

The bill is a Death Star sized document. I can see several problems with it.

First: The idea that only a church can do a marriage. This is in part because marriage is a legal identity, with a lot of benefits attached to it through a large body of law, both common and explicit, while domestic/civil union doesn't have such.

Second: This is a deliberate and radical misalignment of state law from federal law. This potentially yanks out the rug from under anyone who's married in Missouri in terms of things like taxes and other Federal institutions. Doubly so with the attempt to make it 100% retroactive, which would at minimum annoy a lot of bureaucrats and lawmakers.

Third: I haven't even tried to find how they handle out of state marriages. Do they merely recognize them as "contract of domestic unions"? Or are they going to decide to no longer recognize such because the language no longer aligns?

I'm fairly certain the "marriage is only a church thing" is kind of a gimme for challenges, and is really intended to be struck down, with the hope that they can retain the "it's domestic unions now" and basically do the whole, "blame the gays, they're the reason we had to burn the whole legal framework to the ground."

I'm not saying this just as a problem because I'm in a same sex marriage right now... I'm also considering that my parents will be affected by this (45+ years, married in Missouri).

It's audacious, but I'm not surprised that someone's finally attempting to "take the marriage ball and go home", with little to no regard to HOW MUCH DAMAGE it will do to just about everyone in the state. And given that I'm not sure what the interactions are like legally, I'm thinking Missouri just added about ten years to my desire to avoid the place.

I have UBlock on, and it claims this site is running a cryptominer, but it must be a false positive.

Was wondering if anyone else got a similar message.