Valendale

Wow, can't believe there were no comments during all of Book 2, but I guess that's just the state of 2020s BZP. I read Chapter 9 of Book 2 today, and it stood out to me as a particularly good one. First, we had a slightly longer than usual cold open showing how two turaga who were once united in support of the same policy are now united against it, but came to that stance from completely opposite viewpoints. Then we get introduced to Desecrator who was described so perfectly. I had to look up that this wasn't an official Dark Hunter because the description truly felt like something paraphrased from the Dark Hunter book. I'm guessing the other two characters are meant to be the same species as Nocturne. I'm curious to see how the numerous unique characters like that will be grouped together with the Last League now coming into prominence, given how the Barraki have each been given their own species that has a place in the world. Or who knows, maybe it won't come up. The chilling “Choices have consequences.” at the end of that whole exchange also really struck me.

It's crazy how much great music has come out in the last decade and a half since this blog post was made...

Happy for you! I definitely hope to check it out at some point, given how I'm enjoying Embers so far.

Haven't read through most of this topic yet, but I just wanted to check in and say I finished Book 1 and I'm enjoying everything so far. As soon as Ilton and Vhel were in the same place during the final chapter, I knew either Ilton was going to die here, or Vhel was going to get taken out of the picture much earlier than I expected to be replaced by a new threat as the plot moves forward. Seems we're going with the second, but I'm intrigued Vhel is very much still in the picture even if he's incapacitated for a while. I guess I'll just have to keep reading!

Love to see two moccing gimmicks come together, although this is really more like three...This definitely isn't what I was expecting when I opened the topic.

Wow, I haven't seen this guy in a while: Thank you very much for getting us there, StrongGenius.

Wow, I didn't realize there were still unaccounted for plushie sets out there! Thank you for the generous donation Mushy! I'm definitely entering all three raffles.

Love the minecraft stuff on the back. Cool look.

2spooky4me

Same except I saw all those over the course of my entire life instead of half a year.

At first I was thinking of this as something like a mystery in the form of a battle story, with us readers knowing some clever trick will be pulled and seeing all the tools laid out at the beginning, but left wondering exactly how it will be done, but now I'm thinking...maybe it's more something like a shonen manga battle. Either way, I really enjoyed it! Makes me think maybe I need to check out your epic. And for what it's worth, I didn't notice the alliteration at all until it was pointed out.

You know, you're not the first person I've heard say that. Kind of surprising as I never had any issue with it personally, but maybe that's because I was into Dear Dumb Diary and similar works in elementary school. I finished up the manga samplers. I found out my library has an adult summer reading program, so I've started logging my reading time into it for some prizes.

You mean a little early for the 25th Anniversary.

Finished these. Next up I found some "VIZ manga samplers" basically containing a single chapter each of various popular manga from the year they were published.

movie boy

No, beyond the little bit they taught in public elementary school here. Although, I'm sure having that knowledge would help me have an even deeper appreciation for music. I'm a relative newcomer to RYM, but it sort of has that same vibe as BZP in the sense of being a website launched in the late 90s.

See, I said it wouldn't be long before my next blog post. Anyway, despite all my years on BZP, I've never really explored the epics forum much. Now having finished reading BZPGOT and most of the short stories forum, I think it's time to rectify that. But here, I'm more unsure where to get started than I was with short stories, so I'm asking for YOUR recommendations on what's worth reading. I'd say completed or in progress stories take precedence over abandoned ones. Feel free to plug your own stuff if you, in fact bonus points for that because it means the author is still active. I'm also willing to accept recs from pre-2011 BZP if they're archived somewhere. For the feature photo, I'm adding another one of my Scriptorium creations.

The New Definition of Summer Madness

Great little scene! Before reading the descriptions, I initially thought the three pronged thing next to the mata heads referenced the two Bionicle Lego Ideas projects.

Ay, skipper, the design be groovy.

Was browsing the blogs here after the end-of-April "boom" in activity and thought I'd add my own since it's been almost 3 years since I've added anything here, although it's almost the end of May now. In fact, this is actually the longest gap between entries since I started this blog. In many ways my life has followed the pretty natural progression from those last few entries. I'm still working the same job, although I've gotten a promotion and I've steadily gotten better at my work and picked up new responsibilities. I'm still enjoying life in my same apartment and I'm still responsible for my own messes and cleaning. Over time I've added new furniture and artwork to make it more my own. Really, in 2023 I had almost nothing here besides a kitchen table and a mattress on the floor. I'm still a music nerd. If anything I've gotten deeper and deeper into it. If anyone here uses Rate Your Music or just wants to see my tastes you can find me on there here. I got those crowns put on my teeth. Later on, I found a new dentist in my town to go to regularly. Turns out one of those crowns was put on improperly, leading to food constantly getting stuck in a hole near the bottom of the tooth after every meal I ate for about a year. I've gotten that taken care of now too. I never did make any sort of post for Brickfairs 2022-2024. Maybe I'll get around to that, but probably not since I doubt anyone cares. I could do it though since I do have all my thoughts written down privately. I missed 2025 due to being too bummed out about some family stuff. It sucks that that turned out to be the last year in the Dulles Expo Center, but no one knew that was coming. I'll definitely being going this year with it being right in Baltimore. Maybe I'll post about that afterwards. And I don't want to get too all into that family stuff I mentioned, but I'm very glad I've had my cousin as a relatively constant presence in my life over the last 3 years. Recently, she introduced me to a game I've been playing called Scriptorium: Master of Manuscripts, which is where the image for this entry comes from. So there you go! It shouldn't be so long before the next one.

Well that didn't last long. Rough for those few who enjoyed it.

Right, I think it's perfectly reasonable to consider the entire thing as one tentacle either way.

No, I replied specifically the question asked in the topic title. Also topic revival isn't really a thing anymore so don't worry.

While the time where this would have been a dream for me has passed, I'm glad you'll be able to spend an extended time there. Enjoy the trip and thanks for posting!