Good call. I need to work on being absurd again.

I guess I'd be willing to do that, as long as that is what we'd be doing. Mostly I'm good at remind people what other people are doing. With the Avatar of Lost walking about, it gets dangerous to forget about people. Unless you actually want them to be forgotten, in which case it become impossible to forget them.

So yeah, I'll keep the other two plotlines brewing, but we can make the one that has majority interest the main one.

As for an idea that popped into my head while reading all this: what if the artifact really was all/very powerful, and Thand hid it with the corpse of his old lover back when he still felt emotions like love in order to ensure the man he was evolving into would still have some motivation to protect her grave? Just a thought.

I like it. But I'm not really in charge around here. I'm more of the court jester.

By the way, people can feel free to do whatever they want with Howard. Or not. He was an entirely spur-of-the-moment idea. Have him be eaten by the dragon for all I care. >:)

Psh! The "person in charge" is the person who goes writing the story! None of this "in charge" stuff. At the very least, I hope it's not me. But yeah, the idea sound like a potential good one to me.

Also, I totally blame TLTE-the-character for turning the dragon undead, yes. And, as usual, I'll have to resist hugging Ben to death. Finally, Howard is awesome! Darn you all for racking my brains to meet the bar you're setting!

I should be sleeping -- yes, despite what some may think, I do in fact sleep!

I'm glad the dragon turned undead; that was way too easy of a fight!

Question, probably particularly for TLTE: Do you think it'd be good if Howard was a surviving NeScholar? I'm conflicted about this myself, so I wanted to see what you thought.

EDIT: This has been a fun start to this new story-arc so far.

Sir, I see your story idea and raise you a sub-plot.

Would you guys mind keeping JM and JMX01 in the plot while I'm in-active? Also it's be awesome if Soriel stayed nearby as well.

Done and done. Keeping track of side characters is part of what I do.

Speaking of which, I have my reasons for sticking Young and Benjamin in the middle of nowhere in a log cabin. What reason? Well let's see: child of the store with a man that doesn't believe in the story, plus character that exists to be developed and a character who exists to develop other characters. Yeah, there's going to be nothing romantic, but I think the two of them have a lot to gain from each other.

Ack, I totally posted after Ben without realizing it! I'm off to edit my post...

EDIT: And edited! Mostly I just had it take place before Ben's post and then have Soriel tag along and make sure to note that Ben and Young seemed to be missing. I think that fixed everything up. If not, hooray for plotholes!

I'll probably be making a story-post soon, though JM mentioned he had some stuff written up, so I'll probably be waiting on that (though none of you have to do so). Until then, a question and a ramble:

Question-
Is Amal assumed to be with TLTE, or back with the others at the former Haunted House of Heroes?

Ramble-
Some thoughts I had with NeS. Some of you might already have seen this.

Time in the NeS:
First thing to get out of the way is the concept of time in the NeS. Dealing with the concept of time in the NeS is difficult at best, for several reasons. One, with some exceptions, the NeS is written in the present tense. It’s supposed to take place more or less in the “present time” and the events that occur are meant to be happening right as they are being read. Two, time obviously works differently in the NeS than it does in the real world, though the differences wouldn’t necessarily be so obvious – months may go by in a single summary paragraph, and it might take (p)AGES for one day to go by. This is further complicated (though simplified for us writers) by the fact that references of times and dates are, for the most part, not mentioned and, in places like Hell, time runs completely on its own nonsense manner, which Jim Seven has only described as “weird” and can get tied into the normal world of the NeS. Important protagonist characters may be able to live forever in the normal understanding of living, according to TLTE, and characters in general may not actually die (which in the story-world of NeS, isn’t really death but a choice to move onto an afterlife) but become Forgotten and, eventually, into NeShades (which may be the NeS equivalent of ghosts). The short, though, is that the past is unknown and the future is uncertain, and since the present can be an infinitely small point in any given time, what does that leave us?
In the story world of the NeS, this leaves us with the mundane understanding of time – things just happen and the stuff that happened can’t be changed and the stuff to come are varying levels of possibilities – the fantastical understanding of time – where characters can travel back and forward in time (though the NeS has, for the most part, adopted the mundane understanding even in this aspect, which I think is best), slow down, speed up, etc. – and the meta-fictional understanding of time. The last is, perhaps, the most significant to the NeS. If we think of the NeS as a living rough draft that can be change at any point, if we think of how a reader reads through the story and a writer writes through it, the concept of time in NeS, like much of the NeS in general, becomes very malleable. Even without any literal edits made, readers and writers alike can simply forget plot points established or not forsee the most logical events to come, which often manifest as plot-holes. The further back or forward in time we go from any given present point, the more unknown, uncertain, and malleable something becomes. This is sort of an extreme of “perception is reality” in this case.

The NeS Genesis:
With that said, my general thoughts on the NeS Genesis are pretty simple. “In the beginning, there was nothing. Then, a big bang occurred and after 4 billion years, the Earth finally came about and man evolved…. – POST – So on the first day, God created light… and on the final day, he created man. – POST – When man was created on the 4th day… -- POST -- …and then the Titans were overthrown by Zeus and… -- POST –….” Etc. etc. More so perhaps than in any other point of the story world that would eventually be known as the NeS, plot holes riddled the beginning of existence. This has the interesting effect of making all accounts of creation true. Arkng Thand, known back then by some unknown name, is among most accounts that could be gathered, the first human, though, and thus likely the first Character Anyone Cared About. After all, gods and aliens and Plot Personified are all there to serve and tell the story of humanity in one fashion or another. Personally, I secretly imagine that, known only to Thand now, he had a moment in his life much like the first stories of Genesis, but with one key difference – that he, not Eve, took the apple, as he thirsted for knowledge.
As time advances, plot holes start to tame. Thand, known as Theos, is able to shape the Earth with his bare hands still, though, and advanced civilizations still manage to rise in the confusion, such as Atlantis, before mysteriously sinking into the sea. By approximately 2,000BC or so, we begin to finally approach “known history” where plot holes have decreased enough for its history to more or less line up familiarly with most of the real world’s understanding of its history, with Ancient Egypt, China, etc. following events in history not too dissimilar to our own. Mythical events, alongside real events, continue to occur though, even to the “present day” such as the events in the Odyssey and Journey to the West and the like. At some point before the birth of Christ, the Greek gods such as Ares rise and fall in influence. The rest, of course, is history.

Robots in the NeS:
Despite how I’d love to please you, Galvastein would not be the first robot to exist in the story world of the NeS, though he would likely be the first “scientific” one to be. No, the first robots would be traced back as far as the ancient times not too long before the first “known history” with the Taxman.
Likely created by Thand, the Taxman, as with all “robots” prior to the Industrial Age, would be better known as golems – automatons powered not by scientific principles but by magic and other supernatural forces. The beginnings of the use of numbers and the growth of tools and technology – arguably a defining aspect of humanity – would rise from the Taxman and the use of taxes throughout civilization. Other primitive golems, or more likely non-humanoid technologies such as wheeled carts, weapons (which would evolve to types like Fred the Uber Blade and the Chessire Zippo) and the like cropped up to assist humanity. However, our understanding of intelligent, independent automatons would be rare throughout most of human history up until around the Industrial Age.
By the Industrial Age, scientists began applying scientific principles and mass production into producing what we would start recognizing as robots. At first, they would simply graft onto parts of living bodies so as to “cheat” intelligence and independence into them. Frankenstein and Galvenstein would be among the first prototypes. The dependence for living tissue would begin to be faded out over the decades until approximately the 30’s, where the need for war machines during World War II and the very beginnings of computer technologies as we’re familiar with would finally make living tissue unnecessary for (relatively) intelligent and independent robots.
Throughout the 50’s, robots would continue to be refined and mass-produced by magnitudes more than ever before. Most saw their use on the battlefield or in the workforce, and were treated with little respect, still considered the property of evil geniuses, mad scientists, and the like. By the 60’s and 70’s, however, in the United States, robots began to gain enough intelligence to become aware of their plight and began a movement not unlike the Civil Rights Movement, led by an unknown robot leader (NOTE: while I do not have anything in mind, I can tell you now that said leader was NOT a Robot Martin Luthur King Jr. or Galvatron or his ancestor. Said robot probably has an entirely different and encapsulated story of its own). Like its real-life Civil Rights movement, robots in the US eventually won some rights as citizens – enough to be able to enroll in NeSu and become professional heroes like Galvatron and Jumpbot. However, robots are still more often than not treated as second-class next to humans at best, and at worst, no different than the non-sentient tires Joe Shmoe kicks when his car breaks down. In other parts of the world, of course, even minor rights have not been earned, complicated in part by the rampant classism that occurs throughout the story world of the NeS.

Classism in the NeS
When I mention classism in the NeS, I am not referring to the dominance of the rich over the poor, though that, just as in real life, is an issue in the world of NeS. No, by classism, I mean that between the “main characters” and “minor characters.” Classism has, for the most part, gone unchecked in the story world of NeS for several reasons. First, only a minority of people believe and correctly perceive the story-nature of their existence at any given time. As the story-world of NeS is a pseudo-nexus for other stories, multiple “religions” have cropped up – a group that calls themselves Posters have various sects of NeSianity in recent times, another group might believe that there is no One Story, another thinks that there is no “story” at all (influenced likely by the prevalence of ‘straight’ real-world fiction), various real-world religions might have sects of their own that tie in, believing that the Bible is a literal history book of their world, and so on. And since, on one level or another, perception is reality in the story world of NeS, they all have varying levels of truth, making it very difficult to pin down just which qualities make up a “major character” and which make up a “minor character” – qualities that change across cultures, times, and individuals. Second, said qualities are mixed in with actual classism, racism, etc. so accusing someone of persecuting a minor character could likely be persecuting on being poor or black instead, and what might be NeS-classist in one context might be racist in another context, or even both. Third, even a character perceiving correctly does not guarantee that said character will not continue to think and act NeS-classist regardless.

Aliens in the NeS
They exist. They don’t appear in the present story-world of NeS much for several reasons though. Most importantly, as with anything behind the NeS, there’s little meta-fictional room – both real-life and stories told relatively rarely have aliens visit present-day Earth, they usually come in secret, in relatively small numbers, stealing cows or visiting kids named Elliott or the like – significant events in the story-world of the NeS will almost always run parallel enough with real-life history and the stories they tell. This is also in part because of history of the Earth during the 20th century – when aliens were discovered on the moon and on Mars, there was a short but violent conflict, upon which nearly every Moon-person and Martian was wiped from existence by humans (taking place between the 20’s to the 70’s, where humans eventually began colonizing the moon and Mars for their own), giving other aliens that might be able to visit the hint that contact with humanity, for good or ill, was a Bad Idea for now. Their number may still be among those like the Trans-Terra-Terrorists, or individuals like Bug, but they will remain incognito for fear of being unquestionably removed from existence by humans (who, among their NeS-classist and other ways mentioned earlier, would not tolerate another race equal or greater than their own consciously or not.)

Story-wielding
Story-wielding, also known by other labels such as the power of the Writers, sensitive to the Metaphorce, and the like, is not something only found in certain individuals – the ability to wield the story can be found in any character (though this could be argued on the basis that the meta-fictional physics of NeS encourage NeS-classism and thus appoint such to a select few Major Characters). Storywielding is not meant to be a substitute for unchecked magic – it has its own strengths and weaknesses, tactics that can be exploited, etc. that are dependent on the meta-fictional nature of the NeS. In short, just as a writer may be able to write anything they wish but won’t be “recognized” as memorable or ‘good’ by other readers, a Storywielder is only as effective as their ability to wield the story in an engaging manner to the reader. In the NeS, there are three ways of understanding ways to wield the story – through elements of story like Choice, Chance, Conflict, Context and Convention, through powers of a “moderator” or editor alongside “administrator” or publisher, and through the roots of NeS that run parallel with Star Wars and the Force. Since I’m lazy, I’m just going to copy the portion of Geb’s profile that relates to this – a lot of it will look familiar, but I recently edited it not too long ago in a way I hope will make the nature of storywielding more understandable:

META-STORY
CONCEPTS: Gebohq is plagued to be something of an Everyman (see Convention and in part Choice). However, he'll also love enemies when there is no 'reason' to love them and press on in a hopeless situation when there is no 'reason' to press on (as in truly, unquestionably hopeless).

CHOICE (Who is your character? What choices (or lack thereof) define them, or could define them?)
Heroic Coward -- He is simultaneously a hero in the layman and literary sense as well as a coward, often attempting to run away from trouble in more ways than one. His cowardice can be both conscious and reflexive, and is special in sometimes turning his cowardly characteristics into something heroic. His choices range from the obvious "standing his ground brave versus running away from death" to the less-obvious "afraid to let evil take over him or the world" to heroism being bad and cowardice being good and any other number of applications. See "Persuade" in Misc./Notes for possible applications of his story-wielding with this.

CHANCE (What events revolve around them, plot or otherwise? What elements outside of their (and your) control have particular significance to them? What chances are you willing and hoping to take with them?)
Anamonic Scrabble -- During any given situation, Gebohq is often able to continue onward. While this allows future events to provide new opportunities for Gebohq, those opportunities may not always be sensical or favorable. In other words, Gebohq always has a chance, but that chance could make things crazier than desired. Gebohq often escapes situations seemingly unconsciously using this quality, especially as it ties with his applications of Choice and Convention. Despite its apparent applications to benefit him, harmful applications would be an intriguing twist of chance as well. See "Jump" and "Speed" in Misc./Notes for possible applications of his story-wielding with this.

CONFLICT (How does their point-of-view(s) challenge and co-exist with everyone and everything else? What conflicts do you see arising in and out of the story with them?)
Positive Perception -- Unlike his sister, Gebohq often sees the positive in himself, others, and his surroundings. While this does allow him to use the best there is to his advantage, this also tends to have the side-effect of being almost naive, gullible, or unwilling to fight. There is an inherent conflict from this that arises straight from Christian ideals and in the logical challenge between such things as loving your enemy and the responsibility to do good. See "Heal," "Absorb," and "Sense" in Misc./Notes for possible applications of his story-wielding with this.

CONTEXT (Where and when do they interact, and how are those settings significant to them? What is their context in and out of the story?)
Context Sensitive -- He is very tied into the story and the environment he is occupying. Usually, he resides in the modern, everyday understanding of our world, but one filled with meta-fictional magic-physics and absurdly comedic, yet enigmaticly dramatic, backdrops. In this "home" context, Gebohq is often reflects his setting due in part from his applications of Chance and Convention, and relates to this home context even in other settings. Still, he is dependent on his context as he draws many of his strengths from his context. See "Sense" and "Throw" in Misc/Notes. for possible applications of his story-wielding to this.

CONVENTION (Why do they exist? What themes do they bring forth? What conventions are you following and fighting against with them?)
Protagonist Syndrome -- Gebohq exists significantly as a main protagonist to the Never-ending Story thread and, because of other factors and elements, carries this "syndrome" even outside the NeS. He follows many of the typical conventions averaged across stories: he is identifiable and often ultimately successful, but he is also a magnet for trouble and overall weaker in any number of things. These same characteristics are also "fought" as implied by 'syndrome' - he's "identifiable" as a white, male American, he can be stupidly successful when he shouldn't be, he'll be in conflict after conflict and yet somehow become even more cowardly, and so on. Besides the themes already mentioned in the above story elements, a related theme with romantic love and his tragedies with it are also touched on from time to time.

MISCELLANEOUS/NOTES
On story-wielding - Gebohq's story-wielding power has always been difficult to define. However, continual attempts at guidelines have been made, with the latest being presented below:

1) First and foremost, if it seems like a means of wielding the elements of story and plot, it'll probably work. A strong attempt to correlate his story-wielding with the elements of story that were written should be evident in the Meta-Story parts above and in the linked Elements of Story itself. Instead of imagining a cleric appealing to God or a druid to nature, imagine appealing to the story. Instead of manipulating arcahic elements such as fire and water, imagine manipulating choices, chances, conflicts, contexts and conventions. Instead of chanting some ancient language or writing magic runes, imagine saying or writing metaphors, similies and analogies instead.

2) If it seems like an action that a "moderator" of a forum could take, it'll probably work (part of the "story-wielding" stemmed from my position as moderator on the ISB). Moderator powers include editing and deleting posts (altering the past - similar to Absorb/Destroy below), and deleting, closing and "sticky"-ing threads (making settings more or less accessable - useful for "gebbing it"). Administrators can do the above plus ban/unban members among other things.
NOTE: It may be easier to view the powers of forum members, moderators, and administrators to that of writers, editors, and publishers, respectively. This is actually more relevant to the meta-fictional nature of story-wielding.

3) If it seems like a power a Jedi could use with the Force, it'll probably work -- think of it as wielding the Metaphorce. NeS has its roots in Star Wars, particularly the Jedi Knight games. Since this is likely the easiest understanding and application of story-wielding, here are likely "story wielding" powers, adopted straight from Jedi Knight/Jedi Outcast/Jedi Acadamy games and the names of the Force powers (ex. instead of Force Jump, it would be Plot or Story Jump):

NOTE: Whenever "Element" is mentioned below, it is a catch-all for the Elements of Story mentioned above -- choice, Chance, Conflict, Context and Convention.

Jump - Instead of leaping superhuman heights and possible applications of flight, he could "jump" from one Element to another in a meta-fictional sense. The jump could be similar to a break in a paragraph of a novel, a camera cut in scene of a movie, or moving to another level in a game (all examples of jumping with Context). Gebohq has been known to jump out of a plot-hole that he was trapped within the NeS.

Speed - Instead of moving at superhuman speeds, he could move faster or slower in relation to an Element as needed. Descriptions of his actions could be shorter or longer to simulate speed or slow-motion, choices and conflicts could be given more or less weight depending on how "fast" they go, and so forth. Gebohq has undoubtedly used this to further his "gebbing" as well as applied multiple uses at the end of page 50 of NeS.

Sense - Instead of having superhuman senses, he would sense Elements better than others (though this would not necessarily make him Genre Saavy consciously). Concrete details may become more apparent to him, but he may also be able to better sense drives and points of views of characters as well as be able to call the "I have a bad feeling about this" with some accuracy. Gebohq has likely used this application like a sort of "Danger Sense" so as to better "geb it."

Throw - Instead of having telekinetic powers of pushing, pulling, throwing and the like, he would be able to manipulate Elements on a meta-fictional level. Perhaps Chance is unconsciously manipulated so that luck is on his side, or objects are "cut and pasted" from one spot to another.

Heal/Drain - Instead of being able to magically heal or drain the life of oneself or others, he would be able to "heal" or "drain" the elements of the story itself on a meta-fictional level. Plotholes could be mended (as Gebohq has done before) or created at will on purpose. Gebohq has likely been "all better" far quicker than logical by unconsciously draining the story and creating a plothole in the process.

Persuade - Instead of being able to magically "mind trick," "blind," or "grip" people, he could use the Elements on a meta-fictional level to persuade others to either ignore him, making himself "invisible" within a story, or focus their attention on him, making him something of a bard or bait. As with any persuasion, non-magical or otherwise, this ability works better on the weak-minded or weak of character. Gebohq has probably used this unwittingly from both his "gebbing" and his protagonist syndrome kicking in.

Absorb/Destroy - Instead of absorbing magical effects or creating them for purely destructive purposes, he could become like a writer and "write" or "erase" the Elements on a meta-fictional level. In the spirit of the story that he comes from, to "write" would be to "absorbing" what "improvising and rolling with what others have written" would be to Gebohq improvising and rolling with events on a meta-fictional level. It is unknown if Gebohq has used this application beyond possibly the end of page 50.

Protect/Rage - Instead of a magical barrier protecting someone or going into a magical 'beserker rage', he could use the Elements to protect himself with a Hero Shield (Convention, which he's quite likely done) or act on nothing but his character drive above everything else (an example of Choice).

Epic post.

You realize I'm going to have to somehow resolve this with Benjamin's memories when I next post?

Thank you for including Benjamin as a major character in your story. As a small point of conflict, Krig is actually a short viking. It's just that no one dares mention it out of fear of being pummeled. Posts concerning him normally use the word stout for a reason. Not even the narrator is immune in NeS.

Oh well, need to get to get so I can post in the morning. Need to post tomorrow, otherwise a certain someone will rocket the plot past all the character development.

Uh...er... yeah, Krig! Why you got to be all for pushing plot? Don't you know plot is the enemy?



(Excellent, no one suspects a thing...)

Ben, just remember that he spent most of the time rolling around in a hamster ball.

Actually it is neither you nor Krig, Gebohq. The comment was a neighborly rib jab towards someone else entirely. Not that I'm asking for no one to post. Please, post! If what you post interferes with what I'm writing, that's the nature of the NeS. I'll adapt. Continuity is a chain: what comes next relies with what came before it.

And yes, JM, I realize he spend most of his time in a hamster ball. This is also the first retroactive history addition to his character by someone other than his writer. Also he wasn't just in the hamster ball. Him, JMX01, and Krig also walks away with some jewels which will act as physical evidence when he starts trying to deny stuff. But that's just me.

how dare you insult me good sir

Well maybe if you weren't such a stickler for serious plot and drama, Tracer, we wouldn't insult you!

As usual, nice post, Ben. I'll have to dabble with Young and Ben myself sometime soon.

Also, in case anyone was wondering, here was my thought process about the last post I made:

TLTE is right when he tells Geb that Thand was planning to be purposefully hit for the reason TLTE said, but it's not the whole of it. Thand was also setting up the whole situation to have Rachel join the group. He doesn't want Geb and the others disturbing his former love's remains, and unrelated, he also didn't just decide to help Rachel become a character to be able to show her love for Geb out of the blue. So basically, I see Thand setting up various situations for Geb to further think about his relationship with Rachel and, eventually, talk to him directly about love in general. It'll showing Thand's altruistic side hopefully while also having opportunities to show Thand's human side (not necessarily through emotion, but I do think it's vital that Thand's strength of character should come from his humanity, as I think it's what makes him one of the best potential antagonists I can think of in NeS or elsewhere).

Personally, I'm hoping to not only use this story-arc to build Thand as an active pseudo-antagonist, but to explore Geb's "lack of potential" in romantic relationships.

As for where the story might go from my post on, it should be obvious that Geb will continue on with them -- even if Geb saw them as villains, he's all about loving your enemies and redemption and such. He'd also likely be afraid to disagree with Rachel (or the others). But it should be a nice first step throughout examining his relationships, romantic or otherwise, and the things he might be afraid of more than for his life.

Now I go tinker with Thand's profile a little and probably not make TLTE very happy. >.>

EDIT: mostly just wanted to fill out the meta-story stuff in his profile which I've now done. I hope this helps out the other writers while staying true to what I hope TLTE and I agree on. Please speak up if you have any questions, comments, etc. about Thand, and TLTE and I will try to answer them/edit the profile as needed.

I fully intended to post about the developing antagonism between antiheroes and the more 'vanilla' protagonists - an interesting idea raised in your last post, Geb, made me think of Marvel's Civil War crossover. But then, I've always been a Tony Stark fan - give me Stark over Steve Rogers any day!

So I was going to do that, but BM gave too good an opportunity to a) develop Losien's character, b) fill in the plot hole of how she always goes missing, and c) tie emerging story threads together.

The future protagonist of the NeS; will it be Gebohq? Will it change? Has it changed already? This was exactly what I wanted to contend in the last pages of this thread. It's exciting that we were thinking along parallel lines, Mr. Mahir. And I think that Losien is an underused Heroine; she could really kick some tail, given proper attention.

So Amal is still with TLTE then? Because I should probably edit my previous post or make a new one explaining his (lack of) role when Thand showed up, especially if Thand is supposed to have been his 'Uncle' from when Amal was found in NeShattered.

I'm also quite concerned that I seem to be in a dry spell for funny.

The thought had occurred to me - but I think as Amal grows rapidly older, he may be regarding his 'Uncle' with growing suspicion. TLTE has effectively taken his place as surrogate family figure.

Ah, Geb, I see that you think I've made Antestarr look schizophrenic in his intentions for Losien. Contrary to what you might think, I had read his intentions closely, but I made the executive decision that - if we can accept that he wants Losien to lead from the front to make her a better and more credible lead - we can link up several divergent plotlines at once.

Actually, I agree, but it was different from what Ben posted all the same. My last post was actually mostly my attempt to regain funny (though I don't know how well I succeeded) which I tried doing mostly through addressing some inconsistencies, such as Antestarr's decision and Voodoo's search for Ben and Young. Speaking of Young, I can definitely see her considering Ante's cause against the writers now that she's seeing the pain they're apparently putting Ben through by denying him his freedom.

Also, I think you might be confusing schitzophrenia (abnormal perception/expression of reality such as hallucinations and paranoid delusions) with Dissociative identity disorder (i.e. multiple personalities). I used the former as a joke that he's simply aware of being watched by audience and authors, not that he was acting out of character, hence why he said "but that's beside the point."

Well, the fact that it is beside the point is itself beside the point, making me wonder if anything we discuss is not parallel to, or at least leaning next to, the point.

Fearless Leader, if you're trying to be funny again, I humbly suggest that pedantry is not the way to go

I think I need to be slapped from one of Tracer's trouts and then admit myself to the funny farm. That's where I go to learn how to get my funny back, right?

Another attempt at humor. This time, I just picked up a situation and ran with whatever was on my mind.

Also, if any of you are interested, I gave Ping_Me (the guy currently doing the NeS webcomic) a bunch of random "plot-important" notes on the first 6 pages of the NeS thread that the comic will be covering. I went ahead and attached the .doc file here for anyone who wants to read it. If anyone wants to talk to him about the comic, I can probably give you his contact information if he doesn't mind. I was most surprised to find out that there was an opportunity to reference Thand within the story material in the first 6 pages via a Karate Kid parody I made back in the day. Crazy!

So in response to Ben's last post, did we all want to make the armory in NeShattered, or should there be some other explanation (Amal was mistaken, his location was moved over the years, etc.)?

I mostly ask because if we do go with NeShattered, I presume we'd have the story move to the NeShattered thread itself, in which case I need to finish the page-condensing I was aiming to do (I'm trying to move all the wedding storyarc to just the 2nd page). I also must admit I find it strange that the armory would be in NeShattered, though I suppose it's strange in the first place that Amal would know about the armory otherwise.

I'm still digging the Young/Ben scenes.

So since Thand is Amal's uncle, does that mean he has had siblings that call Amal their son, or that someone Thand married had siblings that called Amal their son? Could this make Amal a sister-son of Thand?

Also, while I have another potentially interesting setup conflict next with Thand, I feel the group needs a more comic conflict first (if only to draw Krig back to make another post) but I'm failing to think of anything to work with that would be fun(ny), despite numerous methods to wrack my brain with something. I ain't giving up yet though! You all may see something yet, but until then, please beat me to it!

We don't NEED to make Amal a literal nephew to Thand. There are many times in real life when very close friends of the family are called Uncle/Aunt by little kids. It's just easier to understand for little kids rather then explaining why someone who isn't family is treated like family. The point is now that they know the Amal's Uncle was Thand, they now have no clue who Amal's real parents are... or if he has real parents.

NeShattered... forgot that name while writing. In any case, remember that NeShattered is a possible apocalyptic future for NeS, so what exists in one might exist in the other. That was the point that I was trying to make in my comments regarding 'shame the world was a desert when you were there'. So we don't NEED to go to NeShattered. I certainly wasn't planning on it when I made my comment.

And a more comic conflict... not sure I can help. Sure, I've written a few decent ones, but they where all written because I was inspired. Bad things happen when you force inspiration.

And thanks. I love writing the scenes. They both need more development. Still, need to direct my attention elsewhere, otherwise I'll become self focused. I just really wanted to get the wood cutting scene in.

About the whole nephew thing: true. It probably would make more sense if he wasn't a literal nephew anyway, but I'll leave that up to whomever -- I imagine TLTE will deal with that.

As for the armory location/NeShattered, I had forgotten that it's a parallel world a thousand years in the future. Though it does mean that the location would be in London, unless Gebiyl's re-imagining of NeShattered moved him there, which could be the case, though leaves Amal's revelation a bit useless. Heh, I'm thinking about this way too much.

Yeah, forcing is bad. I keep learning that the hard way, which is something I'm doing my best to avoid this story-arc.

I will NOT guide Santa's sleigh with my nose so bright.

Merry Christmas to all NeS writers/readers. I'm very proud to be associated with you all, and this great story.

(P.S. - I never intended for Thand to be a literal uncle to Amal, so I suggest we continue with Ben's suggestion)

Merry Christmas, everybody!

Geb, liked your post, but who's this new villain? Am I meant to remember him/her/it? Just point me in the right direction so I can keep it going?

The reference to the Forbidden Fortress of Forbiddeness is just to a random minion of the Spooky Taco -- nothing terribly important, really (you can see the post they're mentioned in here, which in turn Antestarr ripped from the game Serious Sam, which you can see here and which I 'modified' as being "mummified" in this case). I was just throwing that reference for kicks. Also, if there was question about it, the "bad guy" is actually Gebohq, and "Gebohq" is Rachel, trying to keep one hand hidden. The ravens and such are purely there as a distraction. Hope that helps.

Hey all.

Because I intend to get a NeS-related project of mine done before August, my plan is to cut myself off from a lot of the internet, TV, and such to work on my project I hope to have done by then. This would also mean the NeS though, and so my extreme plan of action was that I'd only be posting BUMPs once every 2 weeks (if need be) so as to keep myself focused on my project.

I won't be gone or anything, but I will be writing a lot less. Not exactly an easy decision on my part, but I feel this project is important enough to warrant it.

Wow, this place has changed a lot in ten- no eleven years. Geb's done a lot of work around here.

Anything I've done wouldn't be possible without everybody else that has written on the ISB and NeS during that time.

The current nature of the forums is a coincidental nail in the coffin of the NeS. Please see the latest story post for its closure.

EDIT: So today's April Fool's had Massassi in Twitter format, so I had to improvise with the character limit. Still, every joke has a grain of truth to it... >.>

SECOND EDIT: Also updated the NeS update section as of April 3rd.

I promise to make a post this week.

Hooray!