Doing it right...

[jwhouk]

Psst: replace "burger place" with "Dunn Brothers Coffee..."

Done!

(I don't even know how to pay for that pun...)

Coffee and a Kahlua?

[Just Old Al]

EDIT: I was kinda hoping to take the Tesla back to the estate, while Rowdy took one of the Suburbans or the Bentley... And Hades no to the Vanquish...
Will write more when more wakey...

Sorry, Tesla was closest other than the crackerbox, and they needed to be GONE. The Vanquish was in the parking garage and believe the 'Burbans were as well.

[Dave]

(I don't even know how to pay for that pun...)

Coffee and a Kahlua?

Since there's a hyperstimulated Centurion in the storyline, a Roman Coke might be more appropriate?

[Sgt. Howard]

(I don't even know how to pay for that pun...)

Coffee and a Kahlua?

Since there's a hyperstimulated Centurion in the storyline, a Roman Coke might be more appropriate?

"Drinking Rome and Coca Cola,
The bath-house is tha Spa
Centurion and Sphinx tha
In the Bilb-lio-thek-kia!!!

[Sgt. Howard]

"We did it!" Justin smiled at his Wife.
"Yes... we did it... I'm very thankful I'm not pulling bullets out of you on our honeymoon," his Wife responded.
They kissed.

In another section of the building, another re-union was coming about-
"How?... how can this possibly be?" Brian Wahnee asked the twenty-something year old in front of him.
"Where do I begin? And I am asking myself that question, not you... first of all, you need to know that I am not human... I am not even mortal. I was ancient before your ancestors crossed the land-bridge over the Bearing sea to come into this continent. There was a prophesy that had to be fulfilled... and I made your Father part of it... and you, in the process... and I would 'die' at a natural time for me, to bow out and let your life be what it had to be for the prophecy to be fulfilled,"
"But... what ... 'prophesy'... did I fulfil? I've done nothing remarkable in my life, nothing at all... how can...?"
She held up a hand- "Not you... your Daughter... Shelly Bean... SHE is the one who changed everything and put it to rights. It is... complicated... and in truth, I'm not sure I know it all... but there it is,"
"But... how could you be my Mother?" he said as he gestured to her form.
In a twinkling, she became the slightly older librarian, the Woman he barely remembered from what seemed ages ago, and held out a slightly shaky hand while offering a teary smile.
"...Mother?!? MOTHER?!?MOTHER?!? "
"Come here, my little hooligan,"
"MOM?!"
The two hugged, tears flowing freely... Neil limped on over, standing by while the two embraced.
Slowly, Brian recalled himself and tried to grasp it all... it was much to fathom, to say the least.
"So...(sniff) ...this is ... an ... illusion?..."
"Yes and no- I am your Mother. That can be proven with a simple test. What I normally look like would frighten the strongest men... except THIS idiot," she snickered with a nod at Neil, "Who took it upon himself to teach me my manners,"
Brian looked at Neil- "Are you whatever SHE is?" he asked.
"No- I am a mortal who has a trick to stay immortal,"
"I'm confused,"
"My name is Gaius Cornelius Antonia-I served Rome in the early First Century. I am over two thousand years old- I tripped across this lady when I was about your age, and things happened I could not predict,"
"You're not even old enough to shave- how am I to believe this at all?"
"Look at your Mother,"
Brian turned around to see a large hairy hindquarters- looking up, he saw the large female top that went with it. Then he notice the wings-
"A...a sphinx? I am the son of a Sphinx?"
"better that than a son of a bitch," laughed Brandi as she ambled up to the trio.
Brian looked from Sphinx to Brandi- looking at Brandi, he asked, "You're OK with this?" pointing at his Mother.
"Actually, no I'm not- Phix, get it together, we've got mundanes approaching," she commented.
Phix was immediately the twenty-something redhead.
Brian watched this all happen... "I... I... I think I need to sit down," was all he said for some time.

[jwhouk]

(Watch out, Brian! They're going to pull out their sunglasses in a moment...)

--- (I had to find a way to add this, sorry...) ---

Bud and Tepoz found Justin and Shelly. After hugs were exchanged, Shelly asked, "So - it's finally over?"

Bud only nodded in reply.

"Wait a second," Justin thought. "Tepoz disabled all those reporters back at the apartment by making them all instantly drunk, right?'

Tepoz nodded. "Why do you ask?"

"Well - if you did that to Bolethius' minions, too - much later in what I'm sure is going to be an epic tale for MIB to go through - wouldn't that make it a 'Chekov's Gin'?"

There was a pause before a loud groan was given all around. Shelly Gibbs-smacked her newlywed husband.

Somewhere, a man named Dave started smiling - and couldn't quite tell why...

---

UPDATE: We're pretty much at Chapter 35, and have about 216,000 words written. 300k doesn't sound unreasonable.

[lake_wrangler]

♩ ♪ ♬ ♭

And, they're coming to take me away, ha, ha
They're coming to take me away, ho, ho, hee, hee, ha, ha
To the funny farm where life is beautiful all the time
And I'll be happy to see those nice young men in their clean white coats
And they're coming to take me away, ha, ha
To the happy home with trees and flowers and chirping birds
And basket weavers who sit and smile and twiddle their thumbs and toes
And they're coming to take me away, ha, ha
To the funny farm where life is beautiful all the time
And I'll be happy to see those nice young men...

♩ ♪ ♬ ♭

[Edit: now that I know which musical notes characters are allowed on the board, I was able to add them to my post...]

[lake_wrangler]

Why is it that when I try to insert musical notes characters, it shows up in the preview, but gives an error and won't post, when I hit "submit"?

[FreeFlier]

Why is it that when I try to insert musical notes characters, it shows up in the preview, but gives an error and won't post, when I hit "submit"?

Because it's a computer . . . therefore it hates you.

--FreeFlier

[GlytchMeister]

Why is it that when I try to insert musical notes characters, it shows up in the preview, but gives an error and won't post, when I hit "submit"?

Because it's a computer . . . therefore it hates you.

--FreeFlier

Computers will only do exactly what they're told. The person who made these forums and wrote all the software (phpBB and Bookworm?) never told the computers involved with running this website to recognize music notes. So they don't.

[lake_wrangler]

Why is it that when I try to insert musical notes characters, it shows up in the preview, but gives an error and won't post, when I hit "submit"?

Because it's a computer . . . therefore it hates you.

--FreeFlier

Computers will only do exactly what they're told. The person who made these forums and wrote all the software (phpBB and Bookworm?) never told the computers involved with running this website to recognize music notes. So they don't.

That's all fine and dandy, but then why will they show up when doing a preview, but not when submitting?

According to the character map, it's U+1F3B5 (for a single note), and U+1F3B6 (for multiple musical notes). If it didn't show up in either Preview or Submit, I would understand, but to show up in one but not the other is what annoys me...

That, and I'm pretty sure I've seen other people use musical notes characters in posts before...

[lake_wrangler]

Test: ♩ ♪ ♬ ♭

Apparently, I had to use different ones for the board to accept them...

[lake_wrangler]

It looks like only a certain range of musical notes are acceptable to the board. I found more, and they would not work...

[lake_wrangler]

Point of order: I don't think Brian would have known his mother, as a child, and therefore would not recognize her now...

That scent thing, perhaps. He might feel something familiar about it. But seeing her as an old Native American woman and recognizing her? Not a chance.

The Library was no place to raise a rambunctious little guy like your dad. It was a hard decision, but earth was a much better place for him to grow.

So Bia, most people write you off as thoughtless, emotionless bitch, but the way you helped keep an eye on Phix's son on earth, so noble!
I mean, when Phix herself was told that it was for his best to stay out of his life. I mean, going through all the work to change form to be his childhood friend, then 'grow old' with him.

[Sgt. Howard]

Point of order: I don't think Brian would have known his mother, as a child, and therefore would not recognize her now...

That scent thing, perhaps. He might feel something familiar about it. But seeing her as an old Native American woman and recognizing her? Not a chance.

The Library was no place to raise a rambunctious little guy like your dad. It was a hard decision, but earth was a much better place for him to grow.

So Bia, most people write you off as thoughtless, emotionless bitch, but the way you helped keep an eye on Phix's son on earth, so noble!
I mean, when Phix herself was told that it was for his best to stay out of his life. I mean, going through all the work to change form to be his childhood friend, then 'grow old' with him.

Hmm.... it really doesn't say anything except that Phix got pushed out of Brian's life and Bia became his childhood sweetheart... it doesn't say that she abandoned him totally... does it?
About that scent thing, you would be amazed at how easily you can teach yourself to recognize others by scent AND how long you will retain that memory- scent is the most primitive sensory system on the shortest cranial nerve

[jwhouk]

She was roughly in her 20's when she died...

[lake_wrangler]

Point of order: I don't think Brian would have known his mother, as a child, and therefore would not recognize her now...

That scent thing, perhaps. He might feel something familiar about it. But seeing her as an old Native American woman and recognizing her? Not a chance.

The Library was no place to raise a rambunctious little guy like your dad. It was a hard decision, but earth was a much better place for him to grow.

So Bia, most people write you off as thoughtless, emotionless bitch, but the way you helped keep an eye on Phix's son on earth, so noble!
I mean, when Phix herself was told that it was for his best to stay out of his life. I mean, going through all the work to change form to be his childhood friend, then 'grow old' with him.

Hmm.... it really doesn't say anything except that Phix got pushed out of Brian's life and Bia became his childhood sweetheart... it doesn't say that she abandoned him totally... does it?
About that scent thing, you would be amazed at how easily you can teach yourself to recognize others by scent AND how long you will retain that memory- scent is the most primitive sensory system on the shortest cranial nerve

Like I said, the scent thing, I would believe. But Canon says that Phix was told to stay out of Brian's life, and the emotions all around that whole scene with Bia and then Nudge would seem to imply that she did just that.

She was roughly in her 20's when she died...

And in that very post, we find:

He looked back down at the headstone of his wife. Hers had been the hardest to take. His dad had been in the nursing home at the old Abbott Hospital for a few years when he finally passed; he'd made his peace with him and accepted his death. His mom – "Phyllis", a name that always seemed odd to him – he had never known. He'd only come to the gravesite on occasion, mostly with his dad. His dad had never really lingered at the site, and thus he never did himself.

So that even in established fanfic canon, Brian never knew his mom. He might, perhaps, recognize the scent, but would not recognize the appearance, nor the phrase "Come here, my little raider"...




By the way, please see this nitpicking as my appreciation of such a finely crafted story, and my hope that my small contribution would help keep it as the top notch creation that it already is, via elimination of a small discrepency.

[GlytchMeister]

Maybe he can get the familiar sense, and she can let something slip during the heat of the battle? "Get away from my son" or something?

[lake_wrangler]

Maybe he can get the familiar sense, and she can let something slip during the heat of the battle? "Get away from my son" or something?

That would certainly work for me. That way, he didn't really know in advance, and didn't "recognize" her, but having heard her, combined with that familiar feeling, he was able to put two and two together, even though it made no sense to him, and he had to check it out. Inconsistency resolved, similar reunion awaiting at the end, with some minor details modified to make it fit.

[Dave]

Maybe he can get the familiar sense, and she can let something slip during the heat of the battle? "Get away from my son" or something?

That would certainly work for me. That way, he didn't really know in advance, and didn't "recognize" her, but having heard her, combined with that familiar feeling, he was able to put two and two together, even though it made no sense to him, and he had to check it out. Inconsistency resolved, similar reunion awaiting at the end, with some minor details modified to make it fit.

Maybe not something as blatant as "get away from my son", but some particular (and uncommon) turn of phrase that she had used during his early childhood?

Not necessarily "hush my grits" or "Shazbat!", but something along those lines... phrasing plus tone of voice plus smell could add up to enough.