Old Man

Re: I have a dream. (and MAN was it wierd!) Makes sense, but I haven't had to do that for at least a year. Different guy, too. Shrug. Mostly that was a very emotionally charged dream--desperation and guilt.

Re: I have a dream. (and MAN was it wierd!) The men seated across from me in the booth tried to be reassuring. The bald one did all the talking. "We'll take care of everything," he said, among other things. "All you have to do is this one favor for us." I just nodded and wiped my sweaty palms on my pants. I didn't want to say anything. Inside I was freaking out, and if I opened my mouth, I didn't know what would come out. Without a word I stood up and walked out. As I left the train car I settled down a bit. At least now I had a course of action. Just follow the plan. I headed across the trainyard and found the car I was looking for. Inside I met up with a handful of my coworkers. This was a run of the mill commuter train car with booths and tables, much like the one I'd just left, only more dimly lit. We chatted for a bit, and I was able to pretend a little that everything was fine and normal, just another business trip like any other. Eventually, some of them headed to the bar in the adjacent car, and I was left alone with the one engineer that the bald man had talked about. It had to be now. I drew my sword from under my jacket. "I'm sorry, I have to do this," I think I said. Bewildered, he said nothing, just drew his sword. He was good, but he still couldn't believe what was happening, and so he didn't put up much of a fight. I stepped inside his swing, right up against him, and stuck my sword up into his ribcage. There was resistance, but I pushed firmly, and sank the sword right up to the hilt. There wasn't much blood, at least not that I could see in the dim train car. He sat down heavily, then lay down on the bench, still wearing that same unbelieving expression. The sword was still stuck through his torso. He spoke quietly, telling me about all the things that would have to be done to finish up the projects he was working on, as though I weren't the one who'd just killed him. He took out his passport and some other papers and laid them on the table. Then he closed his eyes and stopped moving. I took the papers and headed into the other train car with the others. They didn't ask me where the engineer was, and probably assumed he'd be along in a bit. Ironically there was a pair of uniformed police officers here too. Numbly, I pushed past them and sat at the bar, putting the passport and paperwork on it. One of them was the restaurant bill, so I handed the bartender my credit card. I don't remember if he gave it back to me. I suddenly realized that leaving my victim's passport out in plain sight was probably not the smartest thing to do. I picked it up and left the train, half stumbling in shock. I'd just killed a man, a good coworker, a friend of sorts, and for what? Vague promises from a bald stranger in a train. I walked on down the middle of the dark, wet road. Why did I kill him?

Re: A Game Of Questions What exactly are you putting in your wheat pancakes? Can I have some?

Re: "Neat" Pictures Wouldn't that be "Thith"?

Re: The "Nice Happy" Thread Yes, like that. Exactly.

Re: A Game Of Questions If you have to specify some type of unusual bell for the saying to make sense, doesn't that kind of ruin it as a colloquialism?

Re: A Game Of Questions How does that make sense? Aren't most bells completely opaque?

Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it... I think you have a point, but I would modify it to say that the demise of the short story market is part of the problem. If you can't make money writing short stories, it's hard to break into writing as a career. There are exceptions, N.K. Jemisin being one of them, but I think there might be more N.K. Jemisins if there were more than half a dozen avenues for publishing short stories for money.

Re: A Thread for Random Musings The union here might go on strike. What am I going to do? I can't afford that.

Re: "Neat" Pictures Target demographics.

Re: The "Nice Happy" Thread Mine's making snarky comments in a particular online gaming forum.

Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it... All that has to happen is for Sansa to snap, tear off her rose-colored glasses, throw them on the ground and stomp on them. She is... well placed for that now.

Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it... I question the constant addition of new POV characters, which is confusing and makes it harder to relate to anyone. But otherwise I was pleasantly surprised, I didn't get the sense that the plot was careening out of control the way it seemed in AFFC.

Re: Quote of the Week From My Life. I've noticed that Putin has evolved into some sort of Russian Jack Palance. It would be really cool if he weren't, like, evil.

Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it... Finished A Dance with Dragons. Sucked.

Re: The BEST Beastiary Critter to Summon I'm not sure I'd consider a bang that gave me crabs "best" in any way. OP makes a compelling case, though I think the "best" critter to summon would vary according to circumstances. Sometimes you'll want to summon something with a ranged attack, or something that can fly, or...

Re: "Neat" Pictures Stop saying that!

Re: Musings on Random Musings

Re: Musings on Random Musings God, that would be nice.

Re: Star Hero 6th Edition: my first take Anyway, to veer back on topic--does Star Hero go into any detail about character actions during ship-to-ship combat? I feel as though this is an area that's been glossed over in so many games. There'll be character combat, and ship-to-ship, but the part about roleplaying characters during ship-to-ship often seems like it's reduced to a skill roll here and there. Ideally PCs should be able to have a significant and ongoing impact on ship-to-ship, a hell of a lot more than "extraordinary crew" used to have in SFB.

Re: A Thread for Random Musings I like these people well enough but I wish they would leave my cube to have their friendly conversation.

Re: Star Hero 6th Edition: my first take What, no Silent Death? Amateur.

Re: Conan: The Current Movie in Progress..... Squeesquaw?

Re: Conan: The Current Movie in Progress..... It occurs to me that this film will be released in 11 days. Squeeeeeeee!

Re: So I want to "build my own solar system" (for things like astrology, solstaces, e