itachi-san

You're not seeing it in every line I'm sure Not jelly or storm either

Too angry to laugh at the silliest joke Too dumb to even get it Too shy to ask about the punchline Too sick to even enjoy it Too tired to concentrate on the lines Too hysterical to talk Too smart to see the humor in it Too easy for me to look down on those

T, v, M, A, v, D, I, v, G, I, v, I, I, v, R, _, _, _ what are the next three characters and why?

At first I make things wet Then I'm an even choice After that I fill and set Before I end, most rejoice At last, pleasure they get Expressed in a naughty voice

unreality, the thing is, I didn't make Drone do anything that you couldn't have undone in a sentence or two. i.e. Drone sees Hinata again and realizes he doesn't like her. or: On second thought, Drone didn't trust Neji and decided he would never be friends with him - these are just examples of how you can easily counter something you don't like and set the record straight. I suggest that a little power-playing be acceptable. Then if need be, when you see your character has been made to do or feel something you don't think fits them, you can write a counter in your next post. Using the example above, I suggested Drone might start to like Hinata in my post and then in your post you could easily write it so that it was just a fleeting emotion and Drone would never like her. Then I would know and I would drop that idea. And if we happen to like someone's outside idea about our characters, then that's pretty cool because it mirrors social reality in that others' influence shapes our character. Just a side note. If you had written that Zetsu got up and ran at Drone's order to hide from the Heralds, I wouldn't have minded at all. I wouldn't have agreed with Zetsu's actions being in character though so I would have written a counter-balance where Zetsu realizes how careless he was being trusting a stranger and acting on impulse. Another side note. I wasn't mad at all. It's definitely hard to convey tone when writing on forums. (I doubt I could ever get mad on this forum anyway) I'm just not a fan of the limitation on writing. I feel like as long as nothing permanent is done to a character we should have a reasonable amount of control over them. You obviously disagree though, and since this was all your idea, I'll concede. I just wanted to clarify where I was coming from. So you're up next and then I'll go along with how you write your next post.

I think that was a rhetorical question about 'enough' and no, I didn't write it. Found it here

Actually you're the one who began power playing Zetsu and I tried to take the power back. You assume Zetsu will jump at the words of a total stranger... I've developed him into a philosophical thoughtful character, not a panicked careless one. Zetsu doesn't even know what the heralds are so there is no way Drone could have scared him or even got him to run away. When the heralds arrive, I'm sure your experienced character and my wise character could have both thought of a way not to get caught. Edit: Also, I don't see how this can work if there is no power playing to some extent. How can I tell a story about characters interacting if some of the characters are immobile and mute because I can't make them do anything? I would never do something drastic to anyone's character...

But then you wouldn't have evidence for the crime of which the suspect would be convicted, only conspiracy or unlawful possessions. You're just reducing the amount of time the man is arrested for. Instead of say 20 years, he gets a few hours. Sure, a few hours is better for him, but reducing an inconsequential variable's value won't solve anything. You need to address the logic behind the arrest, not the terms of the arrest. Maybe it's not that simple after all The OP states that if the future perpetrator is not arrested, then he will definitely commit the crime. So, telling him all this information will not prevent his actions. Then, once the crime is in progress and he is arrested, that's what our real/current law enforcement does anyway and has nothing to do with this idea. All in all, some good thoughts. Let's see if we can expound a little though. The logic is that knowing a suspect will commit a crime later, they now arrest and convict the suspect of the crime he hadn't yet committed. So basically, is this process logical knowing that the future visions of crimes are indeed true?

Dearest creature in Creation, Studying English pronunciation, I will teach you in my verse Sounds like corpse, corps, horse, and worse. I will keep you, Susy, busy, Make your head with heat grow dizzy; Tear in eye, your dress you'll tear. So shall I! Oh, hear my prayer. Pray, console your loving poet, Make my coat look new, dear, sew it! Just compare heart, beard, and heard, Dies and diet, lord and word, Sword and sward, retain and Britain. (Mind the latter, how it's written.) Made has not the sound of bade, Say -- said, pay -- paid, laid, but plaid. Now I surely will not plague you With such words as vague [plaque?] and ague, But be careful how you speak, Say break and steak, but bleak and streak; Previous, precious, fuchsia, via: Pipe, snipe, recipe and chair, Cloven, oven; how and low, Script, receipt; shoe, poem, toe, Hear me say, devoid of trickery, Daughter, laughter, and Terpsichore, Typhoid, measles, topsails, aisles, Exiles, similes, reviles; Wholly, holly, signal, signing; Thames, examining, combining; Scholar, vicar, and cigar, Solar, mica, war and far; From "desire": desirable -- admirable from "admire," Lumber, plumber, bier but brier: Chatham, brougham; renown but known, Knowledge done, but gone and tone, One, anemone; Balmoral, Kitchen, lichen, laundry, laurel; Gertrude, German, wind and mind; Scene, Melpomene, mankind. Tortoise, turquoise, chamois-leather, Reading, Reading, heathen, heather, This phonetic labyrinth Gives moss, gross, brook, brooch, ninth and plinth, Billet does not rhyme with ballet, Bouquet, wallet, mallet, chalet. Blood and flood are not like food, Nor is mould like should and would, Banquet is not nearly parquet, Which is said to rhyme with "darky." Viscous, viscount; load and broad; Toward, to forward, to reward. And your pronunciation's O.K. When you say correctly croquet; Rounded, wounded; grieve and sieve; Friend and fiend; alive and live. Liberty, library; heave and heaven; Rachel, ache, moustache; eleven. We say hallowed but allowed, People, leopard; towed but vowed. Mark the difference moreover Between mover, cover, and clover; Leeches, breeches; wise, precise; Chalice, but police and lice. Camel, constable, unstable; Principle, disciple; label, Petal, penal, and canal; Wait, surprise, plait, promise, pal. Suit, suite, run circuit, conduit, Rhyme with "Shirk it" and "beyond it." But it is not hard to tell, Why it's Pall Mall, pall mall. Muscle, muscular; gaol, iron; Timber, climber, bullion, lion; Worm and storm; chaise, chaos, chair; Senator, spectator, mayor. Ivy, privy; famous, clamour And enamour rhyme with hammer. Pussy, hussy, and possess. Desert but dessert, address; Golf, wolf; countenance; lieutenants Hoist, in lieu of flags, left pennants. River, rival, tomb, bomb, comb; Doll and roll and some and home. Stranger does not rhyme with anger, Neither does devour with clangour. Soul but foul and gaunt but aunt Font, front, wont; want, grand, and grant, Shoes, goes, does. Now first say finger, And then singer, ginger, linger. Real, zeal, mauve, gauze, gouge, and gauge; Marriage, foliage, mirage, and age. Query does not rhyme with very, Nor does fury sound like bury. Dost, lost, post, and doth, cloth, loth. Job, job, blossom, bosom, oath Though the difference seems little, We say actual but victual. Seat, sweat, chaste and caste: Leigh, eight and height, Put, nut, granite but unite, Refer does not rhyme with deafer. Feoffer does, and zephyr, heifer. Dull, bull; Geoffrey, George ate late, Hint, pint, senate and sedate; Scenic, Arabic, pacific; Science, conscience, scientific. Tour, but our, succour, four, Gas, alas, and Arkansas. Sea, idea, guinea, area, Psalm, Maria, but malaria. Youth, south, southern, cleanse and clean. Doctrine, turpentine, marine. Compare alien with Italian, Dandelion with battalion, Sally with ally; yea, ye, Eye, I, ay, aye, whey, key, quay! Say aver, but ever, fever, Neither, leisure, skein, deceiver. Never guess -- it is not safe; We say calves, valves, half but Ralph! Heron; granary, canary, Crevice and device and aerie; Face, but preface, but efface. Phlegm, phlegmatic; a**, glass, bass. Large, but target, gin, give, verging. Ought, out, joust, and scour, but scourging Ear, but earn, and wear and tear Do not rhyme with here but ere. Seven is right, but so is even; Hyphen, roughen, nephew, Stephen, Monkey, donkey, clerk, and jerk; Asp, grasp, wasp; and cork and work. Pronunciation -- think of psyche! Is a paling stout and spikey? Won't it make you lose your wits, Writing groats and saying grits? It's a dark abyss or tunnel, Strewn with stones, like rowlock, gunwale, Islington and Isle of Wight, Housewife, verdict and indict. Don't you think so, reader, rather, Saying lather, bather, father? Finally: which rhymes with enough-- Though, through, plough, cough, hough, or tough? Hiccough has the sound of cup. My advice is -- give it up!

I actually thought that the time disparities were intended as part of the sprinkled truths in the story that this is an artificial reality. So maybe it takes 3 Earth days for a baby to grow up into an adult in Epsilon, and in our minutes months could have passed for Epsilonians Also, Hinata wouldn't be flashing hand signals at Neji Drone introduced himself and then answered Zetsu: "Epsilon-0... the supposed home of the DEITY System, the force that runs everything. But that's a lie- it's all a lie. We are all part of the DEITY System- it's a computer program... but you don't know what that means, of course. I didn't either, until I washed up here with my brother. But now my brother is dead and the Heralds know you're here. We have to go!" As the voices and ideas in their heads began to calm down or at least got to a point at which the newcomers could slightly ignore them, it became easier to think and move and all three regained their composure. Neji's bandage slightly slipped revealing to Drone that the boy had indeed lost his eyes. Drone felt a mixture of admiration, empathy and maybe even the seed of friendship for this poor kid who must have endured difficulties on par with Drone's. Drone thought that Neji was probably 7-10 years younger than he. He helped Neji up, but then caught a careful glance of the enticingly tousled Hinata as she slowly rose to her feet, blinking hard in an attempt to clear her head. Drone almost let Neji fall as he leapt past him and helped the beautiful girl up with a gallant hand. As Drone spoke with the siblings, beginning to like them more and more, Zetsu still remained sitting cross-legged in the sand. Zetsu leaned on one knee, raised a thoughtful fist to his chin and sighed, "Hmm... well Drone, you have a gentle aura, there is truth in your speech and there is certainly something special about this island. ...Something special indeed." Zetsu then rose to his feet as if he was weightless. Drone couldn't help but stare at the man as if he were watching a magician. Zetsu walked with such purpose, a steady gaze hitting Drone, and then scanning toward the center of the island, it was nearly impossible to ignore his presence. "One thing about me Drone... I never leap before I look, even if I've leaped the ravine a thousand times before. These heralds you spoke of, I'd very much like to meet them."

Those are they. Hmm... woulda been more believable if you only answered one of 'em <_<

Good work everyone! It's been very balanced, that's cool. Here's the stats so far: The toughest 2 remain... 0o0o0o0o0o

These get progressively more difficult so each answer is worth as many points as its number. If you get #7, you get 7 points and whoever has the most points when these are all solved is the smartest *ahem* I mean the winner. Also, only one of these is original so remember that cheaters only cheat themselves 1) 3 C of R (I, S, M) 2) 3.26 M L Y in 1 M 3) 1 M Y is 88 E D 4) 34 L, 16 V and 14 S in S 5) 4 S in M (P, M, A, T) 6) 2 E P on a S 7) 5 F in a L of I P 8) 2 D in the N P A 9) 2 H F in a P S M 10) Over 8,000 R M on B D There may be multiple answers to some of these so I'll just accept the first legitimate answer for each.

It seems to me that the cold truth is that the President's identity doesn't really matter. Big money controls almost all the politicians, and definitely the ones with a lot of power. So much money is being made off of the war and off of our horrible medical/health care system, wasted tax dollars and social security, etc... Things would be the same whether Bush was ever president or not. The two parties have developed opposite connotations, but that is just a facade. They all listen when the big money talks. How else could anyone get elected in the US? Ron Paul tried to run on morals and standards and got laughed off the stage by the media and most of America. As for Bush, he's just a figurehead who listens to and does as those around him say. He seems like a good guy and I believe that he cares for the country and has gotten a bad rap as being a bad person. Bad president - yes, but I think any candidate in about the last half-century has been pretty bad. Obama and McCain are both awful candidates. Senators shouldn't even be allowed to run for president (at least no one should vote for senators in the primaries).

"my last is a united state" should be "my whole is a united state" then. Makes more sense. I don't think it would change the difficulty.

If you make a list of 10 things Chuck Norris can't do he will come to your house and do them all. Then he roundhouse kicks your stove in half Chuck Norris took a picture once, it was worth one word...FEAR! Chuck Norris doesn't go to a bar to pick up chicks, he goes to pick out chicks! If Chuck Norris' roundhouse kick doesn't kill you, the whirlwind it creates will! Chuck Norris eats transformer toys in vehicle mode and poops them out in robot mode. When Chuck Norris runs with scissors, other people get hurt. Chuck Norris challenged Stephen Hawkins to a game of tic tac toe and won in two moves God gave the world light because he was afraid to face Chuck Norris in the dark. chuck was watching tv when a Trix commercial came on. So infuriated by this he traveled to the studio and round house kicked every small child he could find and when he was done he said silly kids Trix are for Chuck Norris Chuck Norris WAS a playable character on Street Fighter, but due to a glitch he was taken out. Every button pressed would make Chuck perform a one hit K.O. roundhouse kick. When asked about this glitch Chuck Norris simply replied "That is no glitch." Chuck Norris found the needle in the hay stack! John Rambo is based on Chuck Norris' childhood... only its censored I once saw Chuck Norris Eat a Rubics Cube and poop it out solved. Chuck Norris can talk about fight club Mr T pities the fool, Chuck puts them out of their misery Chuck Norris was the first to prove that we all look the same on the inside. Chuck Norris lives in a round house Chuck Norris IS RIGHT BEHIND YOU. Always. It doesn't matter how fast you turn your head to see him. The phrase 'dead ringer' refers to someone who sits behind Chuck Norris in a movie theater and forgets to turn their cell phone off. Viruses have to let Chuck Norris run his course. The only man to get inside a Black Hole and come back was Chuck Norris, and that's because he's the one who punched it into existence Walker Texas Ranger was an attempt by Chuck Norris to show his gentle side Chuck Norris calls a 'no holds barred', any weapon, to the death, 20 ninja street brawl... a lazy Tuesday afternoon Chuck Norris can crack a walnut with his eyelids. When Chuck Norris goes home to relax he doesn't sit on the couch, the couch slides under him and reclines. Chuck Norris is so tough his poop scares flies away When Chuck Norris came out of the womb, he declared himself his own Guardian. Chuck Norris once stared at a carton of orange juice because it said concentrate, it exploded violently Chuck Norris once punched a hurricane in the eye. Chuck Norris can do 100 chin-ups...with his chin. When Jesus turned water into wine, Chuck Norris turned that wine into beer.

Chuck Norris can cut a knife with a watermelon. Chuck Norris once went skydiving, but promised never to do it again. One Grand Canyon is enough. When Chuck Norris sneezes, he doesn't say "Atchoo" he says "DIE EVERYONE!!!" because that's what happens next. Chuck Norris has 3 knees on each leg and can beat you without using them. Chuck Norris puts the laughter in manslaughter. Chuck Norris is like a dog, not only because he can smell fear, but because he can piss on whatever he wants. Chuck Norris doesn't have blood. He is filled with magma at an extremely volatile pressure. "Brokeback Mountain" is not just a movie. It's also what Chuck Norris calls the pile of dead ninjas in his front yard. Those aren't credits that roll after Walker Texas Ranger. It is actually a list of fatalities that occurred during the making of the episode. In Texas, the code word for "death penalty" is "bed time story with Chuck" When Chuck Norris sees a fire, he doesn't put it out... he makes love to it and never calls back. chuk noris is global warming......... this is Chuck Norris finishing the joke since the bum who began it is now dead for misspelling my name. Not in my Chucktatorship!

Come on, check out the second sentence you quoted... <_<

Three months had passed since Sasori's death. Zetsu and his apprentices had stayed in the village after being cordially invited to return to the tribe. Zetsu was made one of the village elders and was highly regarded once again. He had just left his hut on his way to the raft and was glowing with joy about the voyage on which he was about to embark. Neji and Hinata walked through the village toward the newly finished raft as well. Neji could be easily seen in the crowd due to the cloth that was always tied around his head to cover his empty eye sockets. He could also be spotted by the instrument he carried with him. He invented it himself during his breaks from Zetsu's training. He called the instrument a guitar and wore it by a leather strap across his shoulder. The guitar had become quite popular in very little time. It was even becoming incorporated into the music during important ceremonies and most children had already made their own with some initial instruction from Neji. Everyone was proud of the young boy's skill and purpose in spite of his new handicap. Hinata could be picked out of the crowd fairly easily as well because of the scroll bag she now always carried with her. Since her injury that rendered her mute she had become a remarkably capable painter and writer in her off-time. She had invented painting on a portable, disposable surface and called the material paper. She always carried scrolls with her and expressed herself via written word. Hinata once painted a portrait of Zetsu for him; he now always keeps it tucked into his robe near his heart. Upon reflection one recent night, Zetsu was perplexed about how that was the only object he ever thought of as his own possession, for no one else in the village, and to be kept safe for as long as possible. He was both worried by his feeling about an object of DEITY and comforted by the thoughtfulness of the gift. This would be one of many conundrums he would ponder during his daring voyage across the sea. The three arrived at the raft after the farewell ceremony the village held for them. Zetsu was filled with satisfaction as they pushed off and began rowing toward the distant island. The trip was easier than he had expected. Days later they hit shore. The wind was tearing at their clothes which were making loud flapping noises anywhere there was the slightest bit of loose clothing. As Zetsu gracefully jumped from the raft into the low sea water and then onto the sand he felt so many different emotions all at once that he was as speechless as Hinata. "Blessed DEITY I have come closer to being with you." Suddenly Zetsu felt a sharp pang in his head. He fell to the ground convulsing and saw that Neji and Hinata did as well. Words and ideas were flashing into his head like lightning bolts. Things about artificial intelligence and Epsilon 0. Then there was blackness. Zetsu opened his eyes to a youth in his mid twenties. He had a disheveled appearance and he said his name was Drone. He was excited to have the company, but Zetsu could tell the excitement was masking something else. Something awful most likely. Just what happened to this kid? Zetsu thought. Then he realized he had been asked a question and answered Drone in a proud and dignified tone: "My name is Zetsu. These are my apprentices Neji and Hinata. I am a village elder of Epsilon 13 and a former Shaman. We came here seeking the truth about DEITY. A truth that was initially revealed to me in a fore-telling dream. Now that dream has come true and I have met you, a foreigner from a land unknown to me and my people. So please Drone, tell me. Where are we?"

Did you hear about the blonde Grizzly Bear? It stepped on a hunter's trap, so it chewed off 3 paws and 2 legs just to be certain it was free.

Right on. I like that. I'll write the story later today;)

You got it! good job Edit: oh yeah, I forgot about the second part... any takers on that one now?

Thanks. It seems the good old "I before E except after C" rule isn't as foolproof as it would have us believe Yeah, that's Epsilon 0. Meeting Drone sounds like a plan, but I may stall a bit to keep up with the individual story.

I'll add a line to go along with the primary riddle in the OP: Though smoky, I will never billow I could drop enough straw for a pillow And easily collect what had spilled Unless of course I was being carried By a young lad who struggled and tarried On account of his slight build Add her to me and I help keep secrets