[Herr D]

Dragongirl? She’s hot. Well? [considers off-color joke about wings] You should probably design a special blend of Tums for her if she’s going to eat in public–bad form to roast the waiter.

. . . and her eyebrows–did she burn them off?

[Herr D]

. . . and is it linked to the ‘most ever users on line’ being a name instead of a number?

[Herr D]

–yeah, me too. Searching searches the BLOG, not the inbox–? Hey, guys, is this a WordPress problem?

[Herr D]

I’m sure she means follow site rules, keeping it no worse than PG-13 . . .

NO ACCOMPANYING FUNNY TEXT?! Blimey. If I enter, I’ll be tying one funny bone behind my back–
Thanx, btw, for the mention–oo–what to do? . . .

[Herr D]

I woke up from an unplanned nap convinced that Freud, Dali, and Picasso had once shared a dream and ‘dream-mailed’ it to me across the ether. It looked a lot like, well . . .

http://i1067.photobucket.com/albums/u438/jamais5/HerrD-FreudDaliPicassoDream_zps57765b43.png

I may need to cut down on the candy JUST a bit.

[Herr D]

*ams? If you don’t want this, PM me and I’ll take it down–it does include boots . . .

David Birnham was unfortunate enough to be born with osteogenesis imperfecta, a very serious condition. (Mr. Glass in “Unbreakable” had that.) Not to be outdone, he grew up to be a software designer and hardware inventor. He invented a brand-new device that repels biohazard waste like blood and saliva electrostatically. This invention brought in enough money for his entire family’s medical bills for life, and a small lifelong income. He promptly started adding the ‘StayClean’ to all of his latest work.
He’d always loved country line dancing and fantasized dancing the ‘Boot Scootin’ Boogie’ but never dared even practice once. He suddenly realized one day that VR gloves could be reversed. VR gloves could always be padded–but they could be IRL gloves! If maglevs can hold up entire trains, then they could repel and attract boots from and to gloves. So all he needed was a program to convert footage to computer directions to a wireless network within magnetic emitters sewn into padded, mechanized gloves and boots. He made them himself. Just because he could, he added the ‘StayClean’ module to it. Then he got a friend to stream footage of all the dances he wanted onto a tablet, networked it to the ‘DanceSet’ prototype, and arrived in the underground parking garage for a country dancing club. He was all ready for a wonderful night of risk-free, non-embarrassing, perfectly danced night with no broken bones. He HAD included in the software modules showing the computer to keep the same distances from others shown in the footage . . . so no problems, right?
Ahem. Well. It all would have gone fine if a local hacker hadn’t at that very moment illegally streamed a Jackie Chan movie. At the EXACT SAME frequency as the prototype’s wireless network.

http://i1067.photobucket.com/albums/u438/jamais5/PrototypeAccident_zpse2d88f2e.png

There were no survivors in the parking garage. A week-long investigation figured out what happened. The ‘DanceSet’ is still just as clean as ever. The hacker has been arrested on charges of voluntary manslaughter.

[Herr D]

David Birnham was unfortunate enough to be born with osteogenesis imperfecta, a very serious condition. (Mr. Glass in “Unbreakable” had that.) Not to be outdone, he grew up to be a software designer and hardware inventor. He invented a brand-new device that repels biohazard waste like blood and saliva electrostatically. This invention brought in enough money for his entire family’s medical bills for life, and a small lifelong income. He promptly started adding the ‘StayClean’ to all of his latest work.
He’d always loved country line dancing and fantasized dancing the ‘Boot Scootin’ Boogie’ but never dared even practice once. He suddenly realized one day that VR gloves could be reversed. VR gloves could always be padded–but they could be IRL gloves! If maglevs can hold up entire trains, then they could repel and attract boots from and to gloves. So all he needed was a program to convert footage to computer directions to a wireless network within magnetic emitters sewn into padded, mechanized gloves and boots. He made them himself. Just because he could, he added the ‘StayClean’ module to it. Then he got a friend to stream footage of all the dances he wanted onto a tablet, networked it to the ‘DanceSet’ prototype, and arrived in the underground parking garage for a country dancing club. He was all ready for a risk-free, non-embarrassing, perfectly-danced night with no broken bones. He HAD included in the software modules showing the computer to keep the same distances from others shown in the footage . . . so no problems, right?
Ahem. Well. It all would have gone fine if a local hacker hadn’t at that very moment illegally streamed a Jackie Chan movie. At the EXACT SAME frequency as the prototype’s wireless network.

http://i1067.photobucket.com/albums/u438/jamais5/PrototypeAccident_zpse2d88f2e.png

There were no survivors in the parking garage. A week-long investigation figured out what happened. The ‘DanceSet’ is still just as clean as ever. The hacker has been arrested on charges of voluntary manslaughter.

[Herr D]

. . . that old Blackfire magic that he weaves so well . . .

[Herr D]

As a suggestion, something that might be no challenge but a great assist? One of the reasons perspective is so hard in hm is that the Background / Shapes stuff is all either 2d or gradient. It’s actually really tough to line up diamonds for an off-center cube. To take a hero fight INSIDE, I would think some generic Tetris 3d shapes would be really helpful. An off-center cube, hollow or solid. A washing machine shape–perspective cube with a ‘lip.’ A cube with legs would easily become anything from a safe to lab apparatus.

[Herr D]

Mmmmm. Add preferred hair, eye color and whether generator has any external fuel source or attachments to anything besides body. Have you made any visual decisions about the tech?

I might enter this. My schedule is uncertain.

[Herr D]

This is a shot from round 27 of a local dance-off. Zobey makes a twisting thirty-foot ‘jetais’ toward the next glowing panel. Zobey is one of a three-armed, three-legged, three-eyed, three-gendered species. They always do well in these competitions–the name doesn’t translate well, but it’s essentially like ‘Dance, Dance, Revolution’ in a free-form, basketball-court-sized stadium.
http://i1067.photobucket.com/albums/u438/jamais5/Round27_zps5ac74f47.png

The light bill per round could run a city block for a day.

@Keric: Interesting that I haven’t seen many surfers here–? You may be filling a void.
@Maaz: pain and caffeine deprivation? That translates to most carbon-based species . . . laziness translates to EVERYBODY.

[Herr D]

This is a shot from round 27 of a local dance-off. Zobey makes a twisting thirty-foot ‘jetais’ toward the next glowing panel. Zobey is one of a three-armed, three-legged, three-eyed, three-gendered species. They always do well in these competitions–the name doesn’t translate well, but it’s essentially like ‘Dance, Dance, Revolution’ in a free-form, basketball-court-sized stadium.
http://i1067.photobucket.com/albums/u438/jamais5/Round27_zps5ac74f47.png

The light bill per round could run a city block for a day.

[Herr D]

Regardless of what it all means, welcome dblade; I’m going to go pray she didn’t disrobe and roll down another cliffside . . .

[Herr D]

This one takes a bit. If you’re in a hurry, scroll to the end.

Item use went Floor: K-pattern plus insignia ‘factor‘, M- tattoo plus energy ‘factor’-even. Legwear: K-hairbow halves (!!) , M-buckler and neck piece (!)-switching armor location was good, but less ingenious, goes to K. Insignia: K- insignia (striping it !), M- repeated striped energy (!!) -M. Tie.
Backgrounds: no backgrounds–tie.
Backstory: M has one–M.
Name: tie. The apostrophe thing is cool, but so is the name scrunch.
Posing: Both are out of doll stance, which is, like, the first hundred points. M’s got the look of a warrior who just cocked his sixteen-soul shooter and can’t help but look at it’s power, giving his opponents the chance for a fruitless head start. The custom armor was obviously a lot of work. K went for the simple look, and I only know from experience that it was more work than it looks like at first. She looks like she is ready for anything and will outrun me. Tie.
Mystique: M’s energy vs. K’s Insignia drape. Tie.
Asymmetrical Flair: M’s warrior only needs a buckler on one arm, hinting by exclusion that the energy wielded is primarily offensive. Interesting. K’s created a diagonal look that I personally love down to the artfully mismatched shoes. K wins for flair.
Simple cool points: supernatural alien shogun vs. feline femme fatale–tie.
Nat-picking: Excellent hair choices for both. K’s mismatching the eye color and ear placement goes a long way toward hinting that Tigirl has mutant powers. M did a lot of patterning and resizing work to get that armor on the shoulders to look like an upper-body twist. Tie. NICE TOUCHES, GUYS.
Nit-picking: –K? I don’t see how the knife stays on her belt. Is that a ‘hip bone’ at the right side of her belt along with some upper leotard or is her scabbard happy to see me? Maybe that belt should have been two pieces joining under the loincloth? –M? I have to ask–would his eyes have been white if the background wasn’t? It can be a good design choice, but here it’s just too ambiguous for me. How did you do all that wonderful work around the breastplate and leave it alone? Even ‘masking off’ its right edge and tipping it a few degrees counter-clockwise would have been such a major improvement. Seriously, go look at sheering off his breastplate’s lower right edge with the inner edge of a massive crescent like Insignia Tech at 185 degrees rotation. You’ll be glad you did. —Tie.

Guys? I think this is the longest comparison critique I’ve written for this contest. I want both of you competing here regularly. You bring enough apples and oranges to the table for a week-long fruit salad!
Looking back through it, I have to value backstory over minor flair, since the three items were used less toward the flair, and more toward the general awesomeness that the backstory made.

Maaz? Congratulations. Pick three!

[Herr D]

Don’t be left aloooone, oh no!

Actually the last song is “Cleanin’ Up The Town” by The Busboys, but it was very important to the first movie “Ghostbusters.” Great piano.

The first song was ‘Blue on Black’ by Kenny Wayne Shepherd. Then the one most people wouldn’t need to guess? ‘Stray Cat Strut’ by the Stray Cats.

[Author]

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