55555

I plan to enter. - 55555

Aagh, how hard is it to understand sarcasm. Maybe your school should have Sarcasm Studies. - 55555

That may very well be the reason, but if so it is an Un-Catholic attitude. Must be a pain. Hope it straightens out. - 55555

That's awesome. - 55555

Each of these was written in under twenty minutes as part of a game I've been playing recently with Velox, Kakaru and a bunch of other dudes.The Forest:Not just any forest, THE Forest. The definite article, it stands alone, separate and above all the other forests of the world both figuratively and literally. An immortal place in a mortal world. I could wax eloquent upon the noises or lack thereof, as well as the subtleties of the light or great trunks of the trees, but I have never been there, nor met anyone who has.Which is not to say no one has been there, many have.The Forest stands, as it will ever stand, upon a strangely shaped irregularity of the land, seemingly unreachable by ordinary means. This outcropping (though what it originally cropped out of I would never venture to guess) seems to slowly drift around the world, as a stranger drifts in an unfamiliar town; ill at ease, wandering, and not entirely welcome.In my studies of The Forest I have sought to chart this drift, to find some rhyme or reason, some pattern that I could understand. All the things one might think of (and one, I, did) such as wind, altitude, waterways, geological or environmental consistencies, led to naught. After many, many years however, I did find a pattern, once I had discarded all the probable options and focused my efforts on the improbable.Seven years after the forest was seen in each of these places, something of great importance occurred. Sometimes good things, sometimes bad things, but always events of great import and impact.It has just been seen once more, an unusually swift alteration in it position, near the very capital of our world. I must tell all that I know.The Code:31610 01 04383 92 66473 859 93027 75 032000000000...He sat up suddenly, sweaty and entirely wakeful. He lay back down, to try and go back to sleep, to return to the rarity of slumber.Three-One-Six-One-Zero, Zero-One, Zero-Four-Three...He turned on the light and swung his legs over the side of his bed. it revealed a room in a terrible state, clothing of every level of cleanliness mixed together with no semblance of a system. Papers had spilled from the desk next to his bed into the wastebasket, and from there onto the floor. The light was not harsh and yellow, he'd done away with that one long ago on another night much like this, a night not uncommon to him since he began attempting to crack the code. He opened the double windows wide, and the chill night air rushed in, refreshing him.Three-One-Six-One-Zero, Zero...His fist hit the desk unsatisfyingly, the sound muffled in the stacks of paper.What could it mean? There must be a meaning.He had covered all the possible character substitution patterns, then started testing random encryption keys, then more and more wild guesses.So many of these numbers may be meaningless... Merely to distract from the hidden message...Three-One-Six-One...The message might just be a number, meaningless without prior information...He was no rookie at cryptology, nor at long nights. He had worked for The Bureau since he was 16, having attracted their attention even at that age with his unique abilities.The white, bluish light shown on his face, his head drooped falling once more into sleep...Exchange:So many hours, so many days, so many months had led up to this moment, and yet all was not yet set in stone. it has never ceased to amaze me that despite years of preparation, all can be undone in mere moments. The weather, a disease, a misheard digit, or a careless gesture can bring down years of labor and planning.The night was nearly silent in this part of the city, flickering streetlights lit and my headlights revealed what would naturally have been concealed. Few lights shown in the dirty windows. A light snow was falling.I swung my SUV carefully to a stop parallel to the curb. This was the time, the place, the plan.I looked at the Merchandise stowed in the back seat of the car. I smiled. All would go well, what was I worrying about?The shots shattered everything. The first one or two must have bounced of the windshield, but there were many more than two. The car, the plan, my body were totaled from the merciless barrage.Somehow I retained consciousness, I could still see out of one eye. I knew what I had to do, the Merchandise could not be lost with no reward. In my ankle holster...The car doors had unlocked automatically when I came to a stop. A figure loomed through the shattered, bloodied windshield, silhouetted against the yellow streetlights.I sat up slightly, I knew I had not long to live, whether this figure furthered that cause or not. I clutched the automatic in my hand, thanking Glock mentally for the brilliance of the trigger safety. The door opened, the masked figure pulled me out onto the sidewalk, he put a foot on my chest and levelled his firearm at me.Then he pulled off his balaclava, it was my boss."You broke the plan", I said."This was the plan."I shot him in the face.Fire:It was an early, misty morning. I stood with legions of soldiers in ceremonial dress to greet the new species to our world. I was the Master Of Ceremony's, on dang was it a ceremony. the alien ship looked out of place in the green field they had selected as a landing place. No doubt in the future there would be some kind of statue, or monument here, for it was the dawn of a new era. Or perhaps the ship would stand in this field forever, a testament to this meeting.I kept my face rock solid, as was traditional, and yelled orders at my men, swiveling to the right to flank the ship's exit. This meeting would define our relationship with these extraterriestrials, I was not going to be sloppy. First impressions are important.The doors opened, and our Diplomat stepped forward, a good looking old man clad in his diplomatic regalia.He was the first to die.A swarm of the aliens spilled onto the landscape, and the civilians panicked, running randomly, falling, trampling. They killed as they advanced, running at full speed, one alien jumped each of the people as they reached them.My men stood at attention, motionless. I knew what they were waiting for.They waited on my order. there was more at stake here than one battle, or a few thousand men. This would be war, and not just a war, or a World War, of War of Worlds.Present arms!A thousand clicks of manipulated rifles sounded in unison.Fire!Flight:Spinning through the air. Spiraling through the firmament. The sun caught my eye between the clouds, and swung by.I had done this so long for mere fun that it was difficult to remember this was war.I can feel the air through the stick and the yaw of my craft. I ride the wind. Five feet to my left my wingman movements matched mine. We were in a vertical climb, attaining the altitude we needed for the mission ahead. We had been assigned to escort a flight of heavy bombers. Why only two of us? Too many bombers, too few fighters.Plus I suspect that the higher ups had come to realize the abilities of my friend and I. he'd been a farmer before the war, but he took to the air like a...TAT-TAT-TAT-TATSmall caliber fire ricocheted off my cockpit and fuselage. We kept in perfect formation."Green Beta engage bandits. Repeat, Green Beta engage bandits."This was it.I shoved the stick forward and climbed as my wingman rolled left. I had managed to keep an eye on the bandit. He had the white triangle emblem on both wings.A fellow High Ace. This would be a challenge.He dove into a cloud bank and I followed.Suddenly I remembered the old days, playing tag in the clouds with my dad, before the war...Stuck:The operation had been going well, I controlled all my bodies with my one will. I received the information from my thousand brains, the vision of a thousand eyes. My eyes could only see walls.It had all been a trap. They had lured me here, my army, to conquer and be conquered. A facade of defense, I thought it was unusually weak at the time, set up only to disguise what lay behind. It was a moonlit night, which admittedly was not one I would have chosen, had I that luxury. This operation was one of necessity, I could not wait on the weather, or so I thought. the skies were clear as I flew in my planes and lept simultaneously into the darkness.The fortress was of stone and steel, large and well equipped, but under manned. I assumed this was due to losses they had suffered previously from myself and my few friends. Such a compound is difficult to penetrate, but also difficult to escape from. How was I to know that this was all a setup? That there was no threat to me in this place, as long as I steered clear of it? How had my eyes, my spies, not found this, or my ears heard of this? The secrecy must have been absolute, the precautions many and well executed.I sat down cross-legged on the myriad floors. I knew my fate when I saw it. I had met my match in a thousand minds, my thousand bodies had been defeated.Who would have guess that doors lay underneath every opening? Perhaps "door" is the wrong word, since once closed they would never open.I would sit here until the end, thinking my thoughts.Time:I am Time. The call me Old Father, but I am ageless as death. I close all the coffins. I open all eyes. They have said I'm am relative, I am an illusion, I am like a river. I am like nothing but myself.People speak of not having enough time, or even of possessing too much. Some in prison find it weighs heavily upon them, some elsewhere find it goes all too quickly. Youth to age, age to death.Death is the key to my lock. After death I am no longer relevant, Time itself is past. The petty wastrels, and the mouldering prisoners find that Time is now as a level field. The ocean of Time is stilled.A light flickers and dies, a civilization rises to its zenith, and falls in instant. A match is lit, and lives forever. Languages evolve, stagnate, and re-emerge in a new form. A single molecule of water is immortal in its way, a memory lives on beyond death and love and Time. For memory, life, immortality, all in their way, defy Time. Wars rage across the earth, scars are left, but time accepts all, and obscures all.But for the nonce, my thrall, you are in my keeping and will abide by my laws.Tempus fugitis.Preparation:The future is to me an open secret. I can see and explore the wiles of fate, the results of actions, and trace them to their sources. I can prepare for events that are inevitable, and steer reality from those that are avoidable. I have worked for the cause of good many, many times. Sometimes only a subtle action is needed, sometimes great operations must be executed to avoid disaster. I have once or twice been forced to contact the governments of the world, warning them of a looming dilemma. Both times they failed to heed my tidings. The results were terrible, but the paths were too complex for them to realize I had been right.I could see what would happen, it's the power I have, I don't know why I have it.The many complexities of life are mostly of little import. I see them as a slightly jagged line that, in the end, moves little up or down, with few drastic deviations from the average.But then, on April 21st, 2012, there is a spike. As a level plain is broken by a mountain so is the graph of this world shattered by that day. But it is not the only path, through careful preparation, the world can be moved off this path.My power made clear to me the nature of this catastrophe. The fate of this world came down to one man, a seemingly unimportant soul who lived a quiet life in Alaska. If he were killed the world would spiral into chaos, and evil would triumph for the last time.I must train myself. I must warn him. I must watch him. I must gather aid from those who I can trust. I must disguise his nature and his identity from those he would destroy him. I must prepare.Beacon:"You couldn't have just come into port Sam, not in this fog. You should have looked in sooner," The freindly tavern keeper said as the sailor walked in. The hour was late, the oil lamps had been lit, and all but the most inebriated had long since departed.The sailor walked up to the counter, and sat down wearily., "That's just what we've done, the nearest thing I've ever seen.""I'll tell you the tale."---A mist lay over the shore, so heavily that it was impossible to see the stern of the ship from the mainmast. The seaman in the crows nest couldn't make out the deck two hundred feet below him. the officers were all down below, listening for the sound of breakers on the reefs and rocks, trying to avoid the sound of rending wood.There had once been a lighthouse on the point. For all they knew it had long since been abandoned or destroyed, but the Captain still ordered a look out aloft. He kept his watch well.He constantly scanned from left to right, and right to left, high and low alert to the faintest glimmer in the all encompassing mist.He looked to stern, to starboard, and then, there, in the darkness, was a bright gleam. He called down to the deck below. They knew where they were, they would live to see the dawn.---"So you see, if it hadn't been for that lighthouse, I'd be sleeping with the fishes by now."An odd look came across the landlord's visage."That lighthouse burned down six months ago." Power:I bend over the gasket again. I feel like I've already adjusted this one a dozen times tonight, but it needs tightening again. My wrench, named Orville, is so worn that my fingers are imprinted in the iron handle, but is still solid as ever. I run back to the main control panel, swinging levers to balance the pressure and mentally noting low pressure areas in the system. We need all the power we can get tonight.I reflect, as I slide down the ladders to tighten the gaskets in the lower levels, how strange it is that it should all come down to one night. All this toil could be undone so easily. We are lifting the Spire tonight.Originally we'd planned to raise the Spire in the daylight, but the wind today had been too strong, only dying out after sunset. It had been built on its side, and through the whole process everyone remembered that all could be undone by lifting it erect. The Power Machine is powerful, but unreliable. If the power fails, the Spire falls, and all our labor is undone.I check myself mid-slide down another ladder by locking Orville between the struts, then I frenziedly claw my way upward. An explosion is the last thing you want to hear down here.I get to a catwalk, I have a view of the entire Power Machine.A whole wing bad blown, only eight were left in operation. The steam was already clouding my vision. I would die if I couldn't stop the leak.I ran to one of the main gaskets, swinging Orville into motion, trying to check the flow if not stop it. The gasket was jammed. The thought of sabotage flashes through my panicking mind.It's going to be a bad night.- 55555(And no this wasn't posted on a dare)

I wouldn't mind an extension, but a month seems to long. How about one extra week?- 55555

Fixed. - 55555

I may be there. - 55555

I've made some plans and stuff, hopefully I'll finish what I have in mind. And you can enter more than once you know, since you have a ,lot of time left. - 55555

The Co-op puzzles are better than the single players ones. That one epic level... - 55555

Overdue RendezvousOriginal sketch drawn with pencil ~40 minutes, scanned and digitalized with a tablet ~20 hours. No custom brushes were used.I'm happy that I managed to finish this, and am happy with how it turned out.Next up my AC #18 entry.- 55555

How is it when played with only 3 people total? I've had some fun with Risk over the years (though I pretty much always lose), nad the best one I've played so far is Risk 2210. Is Risk Legacy significantly better? - 55555

IC [Viisi]: My meeting with (my creditor) Toa Velox, and this apparent companion of his youth had suddenly shown signs of becoming a practical discussion. I did not need to think long before answering his query, I had been wondering the same thing for some time now and had formed a hypothesis. "I am not experienced in the ways of adventurers, still less those of mercenaries, but I was always of the understanding that you do not seek after adventure, adventure finds you.""Though naturally there are ways to aid the plans of fate. We could ask the local Turaga for tidings, or wait in some gathering place of the inhabitants with open ears. Perhaps a market, or a bar."Velox heaved a sigh, and seemed to have taken slight offence to this, though I did not mean it as a jibe. The Toa with the poorly repaired Kanohi looked away."Or," I said, almost cracking a smile, "We could dance on the roofs until fate notices us."

Dude yes, do a write up. - 55555

You too man. - 55555

Skype is where it's at recording-wise. I know Andrew uses it for the BZPCast. - 55555

Welcome aboard amigo.- 55555

I watched it so many times. - 55555

Perhaps even grow a goatee? - 55555

Velox and I were talking about this over AIM, and I was saying how my main problem is the awkward wording at times, though I agree with his points about characterization and how the story length is fine how it is. Forgive me for dissecting your story like this, and feel free to ignore my post, but basically I think this is a story worth dissecting, as it was very enjoyable but there were a few things that distracted from that enjoyability: An awkward sentence, and somewhat difficult to smooth out. Possibly: "The hangar doors opened abruptly, and a sliver of light shone through with incandescently blinding force. It angled through the crack into the vast interior." Or something like that. Should really be "shedding light on". Love this sentence BTW, always good to describe the lighting and stuff. I think this should be "meticulous in every detail". I think that any sentence beginning with "so" has to continue into 'that (he couldn't take his eyes off it)". Aagh, I wish I had more knowledge of grammar, I feel like I could do this much better. Probably should be: "Some would think him crazy for how anal he was of its welfare, inside and out, his drive to make sure every spot was clean and that every atom of it was in order." This sentence is really long, and you say 'and even" twice in a row. You say two things in a row that he liked most about the plane in the same sentence. Your use of the word engineered is kind of odd too, I don't think features or design principles can be engineered into something... The sentence is really long, it should probably be split into two. Maybe "he stretched out his hands" and "the wind blowing oh so smoothly", and the word "simply" simply should not be there.Anyway good story. - 55555

IC [Viisi]: Why am I here? A stranger in a strange land, in the company of a chronically drunken Toa of Electricity, rendezvousing with another even more disreputable looking Toa. Who would have guessed when I first became a Toa that I would ever sink so low. But unexpected events breed unexpected events, the first of which was the leader of my Toa team suggesting a raid on a Matoran village. Admittedly he had had his reasons; the Matoran had been causing trouble for centuries, fighting amongst themselves and the violence had begun spilling into other realms. But I knew the real reason; there were weapons of great power there.My team mates went along with him, I did not. I sat out the raid but stayed in the team.Things got worse and worse, my team slowly spiralled into decay, abandoning the Toa code and all that Toa stand for. At last I could take no more, their latest outrage they were planning was too much, not only did I leave the team, but I sought help to thwart its corrupt aims.In my urgent search for assistance I found an inebriated Toa of Electricity, and after extracting him from some unpleasantness I plead my cause and like any true Toa would, he came to my assistance. With one condition however; that I would accompany him for a month in his endeavors.So here I am five months later, my team unwrought and my life a shambles.- 55555

Try using the smudge tool, it's a lot of fun.- 55555