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Or so you think. On-topic though uh I'll be returning sometime soon. Whenever that Matoran thing starts or maybe before if I'm feeling motivated.

Over 13, subscribed, don't really care since I never read it. Though it would bother me if, as J46 suggested, bonkles comics return and I couldn't get those.

I'm in.

The Fault in Our Stars: Because people like it and it's Now A Major Motion Picture. Pretty good. The Metamorphosis: Didn't want to start summer reading yet; knew this was a classic and that it was short. It was weird. Like, weird. The Kite Runner: Read this one for school. A good read, but man, that was rough. Interestingly, one of the reviews on the back noted that the narrative contains "no frills, no nonsense, just hard, sparse prose" (The Washington Post Book World). Personally, I felt there were a number of points where Hosseini went overboard on the diction - not necessarily in a way that detracted or distracted from the narrative, but not exactly fulfilling the review's description. Currently rereading The Great Gatsby because AP Literature yaaaay I liked it the first time but taking notes and making charts isn't exactly my idea of a good time.

Do you know the muffin man?

So this past week Best Buy had a buy-one-get-one sale on a handful of 3DS games: Bravely Default, Mario Golf, Disney Magical World, Yoshi's New Island, Tomodachi Life, Zelda: ALBW, Mario Party, Kirby Triple Deluxe, and Pokemon X/Y. As an added bonus, the white Wii U Pro controller was on sale for $30 - $20 off its MSRP. I heard about these deals midway through the previous week, but I was out of town through this Tuesday and was decidedly too busy Wednesday and Thursday to worry about expanding 3DS library. Come Friday, however, I decided that grabbing Nintendo goodies on the cheap is always a good thing and headed off to Best Buy with the intention of picking up Bravely Default and Yoshi - the former because I've heard little but positive reports about it from the cool people on this website and others, and the latter because I'd played the GBA rerelease of the original Yoshi's Island back in the day and had rather enjoyed it. I already owned Zelda and Y, and the rest of the games weren't of any real interest to me. I also planned to spring for a Pro controller, since I anticipated playing Mario Kart, Smash, and other stuff (Zelda, Mario, Metroid?) with it. Naturally, both of the games I wanted, as well as the controller, were sold out. No problem - I'd just order them online. Heh. Got home, went to Best Buy's website, and found myself unable to purchase the controller - no shipping options available, it said. Moreover, it also told me that no stores within reasonable driving distance had the item in stock. As for the games: I had, in fact, looked up the sale on Best Buy's site earlier that week and found a category within their online store that displayed the games involved in the sale. When I navigated to this page again, the only thing on the page - inexplicably - was Mario Golf. I then decided to research the price matching policies of Best Buy's competitors and found that Target would match both online prices and printed prices in sale sheets. Walmart and Toys R Us would only accept the latter, though Walmart's website noted that they would match printed prices even if one did not have the ad in question with him - which was good, since, as I noted before, I was out of town last weekend and thus did not receive Sunday's paper and the Best Buy ad contained therein. I drove over to Walmart - which is just down the street, fortunately - and found that, while they had both Bravely Default and Yoshi in stock, they lacked even a space on their shelves for white Pro controllers. Hoping to accomplish all of my purchases in one fell swoop, I headed back home and looked up the controller on Target's website to ensure that the store I went to had them in stock. However, the white controller was not included in their online catalog (though the black one - which was not on sale - was), and I can only assume that they no longer carry the item. TRU's website produced similar results - though there was a page for the white controller, it was out of stock at all locations. I decided to call it a night. The next day - today, that is - I had a plan: I would go to Best Buy and request a rain check on the controller deal, grab one of this week's ads, and head next door to Target, where I would purchase Bravely Default and Yoshi. Best Buy, however, was unable to grant a rain check: they could not guarantee that the controller would be in stock again, and, after searching two different systems of inter-store shipping, determined that the item could not be shipped to the store or to my home from any of their locations. Somewhat disappointed, I headed over to Target, ad in hand, but - as it turned out - Target was out of stock of Yoshi, which made the BOGO pointless. Fortunately, I knew from my adventures yesterday that Walmart did have both games, and so later in the day I returned to Walmart and requested a price match on the deal. After the employee I spoke with asked her manager about the situation - and after her manager asked her manager about the situation - they agreed to match the deal and I headed home $40 poorer and two 3DS games wealthier. That left the controller. As no physical retailers in my area seemed to have it, I researched online retailers' price match policies and found that Tiger Direct would match other online retailers' prices, including Best Buy's. However, upon calling their customer service, it was revealed that this particular price match would not be honored because it was below the "actual price" of the item - that is, they wouldn't make a profit on it. Mildly disappointed, I gave up on the hunt, assuming that Nintendo would eventually drop the price of the item in question, given that $50 for a game controller is fairly ridiculous. Besides, I reasoned, it's likely that the cheaper Gamecube controller set to be rereleased alongside Smash 4 will be compatible with most of the same games as the Pro controller in the future. I could just get that instead - and it would serve to replace the malfunctioning Gamestop-brand (bad idea) GCN controller I currently own. On a whim, I looked up the Pro controller on eBay, expecting perhaps some slightly lower prices that usual from those who had bought them on sale with plans to flip them. New Black Wii U Pro Controller: $20.98. Free shipping.

The folder will automatically become public after a certain period of time - usually a day or two, I believe. Until then, you should deeplink the images - that is, link directly to the image file by clicking the image in the folder until it's on a blank/white background. The URLs you link to should end in ".jpg", since that's presumably the file extension of the images.

There's something wrong with that link. This one should work.

Great use of purple. The lower legs are pretty neat also.

on topic pls

This raises an interesting question: must rahkshi/kraata be created by Makuta, or can they reproduce? That is, is there now a finite number of rahkshi that could eventually go extinct?

Transistor Yeah that's it.

Nineteen Eighty-Four. Thought-provoking and a good read, but #### that was depressing. Next up: The Fault in Our Stars, since I finally managed to get a copy from my library. The county's library system shares books between its facilities as needed and has over two hundred copies of that particular book. I nonetheless had to wait over two weeks after putting it on hold before a copy was available. This had better be good, haha. After that I plan to read The Metamorphosis and then read The Kite Runner and reread The Great Gatsby for summer reading.

IC: "Got it," Iraanus said, signing a quick wave of acknowledgement towards Viloz's already-retreating form. In a single smooth motion he slapped another ruki onto the counter next to his own and lopped off its head. "Not being dead, always a good thing, yeah?" He paused, considering the fish he was preparing. "'Cept for you guys. Sorry."

IC: les poissons, les poissons, how I love les poissons love to chop and to serve little fish first I cut off their heads, then I pull out the bones-- a mes oui, ça c'est toujours delish Iraanus' blade met the counter with a sharp thwack. first you pound the fish flat with a mallet, then you slash through the skin, give the belly a slice, then you rub some salt in 'cause that makes it taste nice He rather wished that this particular victim of his knife were a Makuta-worshipper rather than a Ruki.

I vote Jag.

So the second Best Buy Smash Fest was today. I initially hadn't planned on going, as no Best Buy anywhere near my house was hosting it. Moreover, I was scheduled to take the ACT from eight this morning until one this afternoon. The ACT, for the record, sucked. I took the SAT back in May and found it a much more … intuitive test; I guess that's the best word for it. While the SAT constantly keeps you on your toes with twenty- and twenty-five-minute sections of math, reading, and writing, the ACT smashes all the questions for each subject into four tedious sections which you have from thirty-five minutes to an hour apiece to complete. My brain went dead after about half an hour of math and it was downhill from there, ultimately culminating in my failure to finish the last sentence of a rather mediocre response to the essay prompt, which is the last section of the test. The SAT puts the essay first, which I much preferred, doubtless due in no small part to the fact that with the SAT I wasn't plagued by the knowledge that those who had opted not to take the writing section were leaving just as I was beginning to write it. Guess it doesn't help that I got out of school almost a month ago and hadn't opened my SAT/ACT study book since. Heh. Anyway, throughout the test I was aware that today was the day of the Smash Fest and was contemplating how awesome it would be to go. After eating lunch and taking some measurements for shifting the furniture around in my room, I went back and checked the participating locations on Best Buy's website. Upon plugging the addresses into Google Maps, I found that there was a Smash Fest about an hour from my house. It was about 2:20 at this point, so I texted a friend of mine who's a fellow Smash enthusiast and we decided to go for a road trip. I grabbed my keys-- This was when the problems started. My keys, you see, are not in fact my keys, and it seemed that my dad had taken his car to run an errand. It was about ten minutes before he got back, and I took off around 3:00. Unfortunately – I hadn't figured this fact into my time estimations – my friend lives in the opposite direction of the Best Buy to which we planned to go. Between picking him up and the heavy traffic and heavy rain we encountered on the way, it was 4:30 by the time we got there – the Smash Fest was set to end at 5:00. We headed to the back of the store where the demo was set up. Some of the aisles had been partitioned off to form a waiting line along the wall – we didn't notice and went down one of these aisles; a Best Buy employee informed us that we had to go around to get in line. Fortunately the line wasn't long – only fifteen people or so. We got in line and waited for about two minutes or so – and then another Best Buy employee supervising the line told us that we had to get out of the line; the people in front of us were the last they were letting through. I assumed he was joking – we had just gotten there, there was half an hour left, we were, after all, only two people, and it's not like there was a crowd behind us who would clearly push them past the 5:00 end time. After he repeated himself several times – and was backed up by the same employee who had just told us where to go to get in line – we realized he was serious. In shock, I went and used the bathroom and then we wandered back over toward the video game section – it's not like we were going to leave right away after driving an hour and a half to get there. My friend picked up a Fifa game on a PS3 and messed around with it a bit. It was not, dare I say, a fitting substitute to Super Smash Bros. Around this time we ran into a group of four who it seemed had arrived shortly after us and had also been turned away. According to one of them, an employee had claimed that the game shut off automatically at 5:00, which I found surprising and not wholly convincing. They left; we stuck around – it was quarter to 5 at this point, and I wanted to see whether the remaining line would, in fact, take up what remained of the time window to get through their matches. And then, like the angels announcing the Messiah's birth, a Best Buy employee brought us tidings of great joy: the last people in line were a party of two and we could join them for a four-player match. We thanked him profusely and high-tailed it over to the Wii U, where we were handed Pro Controllers. I chose Greninja; he chose Villager; we played against Mega Man and Link on the randomly-selected Pilotwings stage. (You could choose your stage, but we opted for the random button). Playing with a Pro Controller was weird for one accustomed to using a Wii remote + nunchuck for Brawl, largely because I kept dodging when I meant to jump. Greninja was fun to play as – and he pulled through for a victory. We only had time for one match – after that, two other people who had been there before did a one-on-one match. I'm fairly certain this was not standard practice, but there were no hard feelings – they had, I learned, been waiting for a chance to play a competitive-style match since the demo opened at 9:00 am. As in, they were going through the line over and over again for eight hours. They also managed talk the employees – or possibly the Nintendo rep – into letting them take home the Smash Fest sign, which is pretty cool. Dedication pays off, I suppose. I recorded most of their match on my iPod, and someone from the eight-hour group did the same with his phone. I got the impression he'd been doing so all day, but the Nintendo rep informed us (with about half a minute left) that we weren't allowed to record it. We didn't get a chance to play the 3DS version, which, now that I think about it, seems a bit odd – no one else was playing it there that I saw; you'd think the employees supervising the event would have offered my friend and I (as well as the group of four who showed up after us) the chance to play the 3DS game if there wasn't time for us to play the Wii U version. Eh. In any event, guess who's got a 100% win record for Smash 4.

I got the impression that there'll be figures for every character in the game.

In which an old face resurfaces in a rather unexpected location.

OOC: IC: A pair of emerald eyes flashes through the gloom of descending twilight. The glow of a heartlight pulses faintly beneath a coarse cloak wrapped about a being's slim frame. The garment's tail swishes out a plaintive cadence on the leafy ground, a rhythm nearly masked by the faint crackle of twigs beneath the being's feet. In the darkness before the dawn Lekua. In the swirling of the storm When I'm rolling with the punches and hope is gone Leave a light, a light on Lekua. That is his name, though months have passed since he last was called such. Lekua. Lekua glances to his left. A glowing pair of green eyes meets his own. A dark silhouette emerges from the gloom. A Matoran. Lekua. Millions of miles from home In the swirling swimming on When I'm rolling with the thunder but bleed from thorns Leave a light, a light on Leave a light, a light on Lekua's lips part around the beginning of a question, but the apparition takes a silent backward step and is gone. Lekua's mouth falls closed. His cloak ripples as he turns back to his course through the jungle. The section of Le-Wahi through which Lekua is traveling is an old one. The brush is thick and the gargantuan trees reach heights that would be invisible even in the brightness of day. About the bases of these behemoths gathers a faint but gradually thickening mist. A brakas screams in the distance. Another gives a reply, this one incredibly close. The alarm bells of Ta-Koro peal in Lekua's ears. The headline flashes before his eyes as Stannis' voice echoes from the grayness: Ta-Koro Guard Kapura Dead. Leave a light, a light on Leave a light, a light on A narrow stream materializes before him, and as Lekua leaps across its breadth its gurgle becomes the words of the Ta-Matoran. I don't suppose any of you happen to be called Aurax, or Jarkil, or Lepidran, or Kamnu? A vine brushes his shoulder, and through the swirling fog the Makuta's shadowy tentacles again drag Nuju into the abyss. The brakas screams again, and Lekua hears not the cry of a monkey but that of the rahkshi advancing upon Onu-Koro. The Illusion rahkshi lunges through the mist, as immaterial in the surreality of the twilight jungle as its conjurations had been the night of the attack. Lekua leaps toward the phantasm, blade drawn. His foot catches on an unseen root and the rahkshi dissipates as he plunges through the fog, lands in a roll and springs to his feet at a full sprint. Lekua's cloak snaps through the air as he vaults his way up to the lower levels of the trees, flying effortlessly forward through the jungle. Leaves rustle and branches tremble in his wake and then he, too, is swallowed in the mist. ----- As the foliage thins, the fog does the same. It is replaced by a soft rain that drizzles nigh-inaudible on the bare ground. A pair of emerald eyes watches the gentle downpour distort the moonlight as their owner enters the grove, droplets rolling off the tail of his coarse cloak. A dark silhouette emerges from the gloom and Lekua finds an arrow knocked a bio from his throat. He scans the figure. A mook. In the darkness before the dawn In the darkness before the dawn Leave a light, a light on Leave a light, a light on "Who are you, and what business do you have here?" the mook inquires. "I am a gladiator," is Lekua's quiet reply. His shoulders rise and fall beneath his cloak. "I have come to gladiate." The mook nods, but her weapon remains trained on its mark. Her head signals Lekua to proceed further into the moonlit grove. He does so, and she follows. "Quite the security system," Lekua murmurs. "Never can be too careful," says the mook. The two melt into the rainy night.

Fantastic use of trans-dark blue. I don't see that color very often and it looks great on this.

I assume you mean Canis and myself rather than Canis and Kohu, correct?