TwiLyghtSansSparkles

It would, come to think of it. Either way, Funtimes won't be happy about this. If the Museum isn't destroyed, she'll be less vengeful, but she'll still be inclined to destroy any MEE operatives she runs into. (Meaning Mommy probably shouldn't rely on Funtimes to spare her.)

*Fixed. With Nighthound accusing her of sabotage, she'll see helping Lightwards destroy the MEE as the perfect opportunity to prove her loyalty. Of course, that will take backstage to the fact that she'll be mad as Calamity and ready to destroy a lot of somebodies.

And if, on the off chance the Ballooner survives, Funtimes will hunt him down for destroying her handiwork. If he has friends, she'll hunt them down too. It would probably be safer for the MEE at large if the Ballooner fails in his plan.

I'm going to spoiler this just in case. This community is open enough that I don't see it starting a fight, but I'll spoiler it anyway.

What I find most interesting about this is that Sanderson isn't secretive about his faith, and yet he's built a pretty religiously diverse fan base. There's some "Christian lit" that's frankly alienating to those outside the church, or even to those within it if they don't happen to share the author's exact views. (Remember what I said about Protestant denominations splitting hairs? That hair-splitting can get pretty exact, down to "we're going to start a whole new denomination because we disagree with our parent church's interpretation of this one verse.") I've read quite a few authors who let their stories get lost in the message, to the point where I'd be reading it, thinking "Nobody who disagrees with this author's religious beliefs is ever going to finish this." That Sanderson can be so open about his faith, and write books that explore various facets of religion, without alienating people who don't share his beliefs is a testament to his skill.

I'm with Kobold so far as the Catholic/Protestant options go. See, I attend a Protestant church, was raised Protestant, and by all means should label myself Protestant...but within Protestantism there exists a pervasive anti-Catholic bias. They don't hate Catholics; they just don't quite consider their methods of worshipping God quite good enough. I don't buy into that, and I think all the hair-splitting Protestants do with denominational differences is silly. So I think simply "Christian" would more accurately describe my beliefs.

If the captain is smart and doesn't insist on Honor Before Reason that gets her entire crew stranded millions of lightyears from home, then I'll have no need to mutiny. But seriously, if Tom had done that, I swear most of the crew would've cheered and declared him Emergency Interim Captain while Janeway was demoted to Wet Blanket. Edit: Aw, I remember Tom/B'Elanna. My memories of that show are mostly positive, but I always wondered why Janeway didn't try and find a better solution that would've kept the Ocampa alive and allowed her crew to head back home.

Did anyone else watch Star Trek: Voyager when it was on? I saw it as a kid. Basically, the story is that a starship is, through completely avoidable circumstances, stranded out in deep space, millions of light years from Earth. It'll take the crew decades just to reach the Gamma Quadrant (they're in the Delta when the series begins) but the Captain knows her pilot, Tom Paris, can find wormholes and other cheats to get them home. Captain Janeway and Tom Paris didn't always get along. Sometimes, they had fierce disagreements, one of which (IIRC) landed Tom in the brig. Tom always acted like Janeway had all the power there, and if they were in the Alpha Quadrant, she would have been able to call down the Admiral and other Captains and probably more than a few janitors, too. But they weren't in the Alpha Quadrant. They were in the Delta Quadrant. The only reason they remained a Star Fleet ship is because Janeway insisted they play pretend until they got back home. She had no idea how to pilot a starship. Tom did. Now, here's what I don't understand: If Tom knew how to pilot a starship that Janeway had no idea how to fly, why did he let her boss him around? If I were Tom, the second Janeway started bugging me, I'd just go "I will turn this ship around!" Ta-da. End of argument. Tom Paris wins.

Is Kobold like the Mythbusters-type scientist cousin who shares all of his smart ideas through jokes?

Shallan and Vivenna are actually really pretty girl's names, come to think of it. And Kaladin even has a "normal-sounding" nickname in canon!

Forum Mother? No way. I'm not nearly wise enough. Forum Crazy Big Sister Who Loves Pugs Too Much is more accurate.

It's definitely an interesting power, though it could be truly incredible in the hands of someone who isn't too timid to use it. Well, one way Susan uses her clairvoyance is to give herself a taste of an individual's personality. If she were on Roshar, for instance, she would be able to determine that Kaladin is stubborn, brave, and more than a little brash by glimpsing a number of potential futures in which he mouths off to Adolin, and she could determine that he knows better by noting that he ultimately holds his tongue. (Mostly.) She could determine that Shallan is a scholar by noting the sheer number of potential futures where she chooses to study plants rather than idly watch the scenery pass her by, and glean other tidbits about her personality by studying the futures where she chooses to let her thoughts wander. She couldn't see inside either Shallan or Kaladin's heads, of course, but reading their facial expressions and hearing what they say to their companions would tell her plenty. Stombaugh would use his retrocognition in a similar manner, though he would arguably be even more powerful in this regard. He wouldn't know every detail of an individual's past instantly, but the more time he spent with them, the more he could learn, and the more his notes would improve. This would take his capabilities beyond mere blackmail (though he would certainly use that when necessary), allowing him to effectively predict an individual's future based on their past choices. He wouldn't have the precision Susan does, but the broad sweeps he did have would allow him to plan accordingly. There are far, far more applications retrocognition would have in a battle for control over a city, but that is one of them.

I second this motion.

Remember how in the original draft of my WIP, Stombaugh was a precog like Susan? Now I'm considering making him a retrocog. (So yes, Kobold, he'd be like Backtrack, if Backtrack were a badchull. ) Thoughts?

We could go to Roshar and shock them with our uncovered safehands.

Chinese and Korean for me.

I like this idea. We could all bring food drawn from our favorite memories. We'll be fine so long as everyone doesn't bring meatloaf.

Let's meet up in the exact center of the country. We can-- Wait. There's a few international Sharders. We have to meet in the middle of the world.... So...the Atlantic Ocean?

Once or twice. But the dorm rooms aren't worth it and I need to cook all my own meals because of allergies, so I just grit my teeth and go with the stuff living at home brings.

My car is from before the days of free wifi, unfortunately. And my job requires me to shower daily, so that plan is a bust. But I'll be able to move out soon, though.

The librarians where I interned were awesome. The branch director was one of the warmest, friendliest people I ever met, and her only ulterior motive seemed to be improving the library to make peoples' lives better. The YA librarian's big campaign was to instate a library bus so teens and others without access to reliable transportation would be able to access the programs they wanted. Everyone there wanted to help others in some way, and they were open to new ideas and new points of view. So good people do exist; you just have to know where to look.

It might be... Seriously, though, I'd rather spend time with you guys than with my parents, and I'm glad I'm past the age where they can ground me from the computer for spending too much time on it.

I found far more Christian allegories in those books than I did attacks on the faith (namely, zero attacks at all) and the series was a heck of a lot more fun than many more blatant allegories (Narnia being an exception; those books are pretty obvious with their symbolism, but they're well-written and I found them quite enjoyable).

Wow. My mom is almost exactly the same. I disagree with her about a LOT more than I used to, but I just pretend we agree on everything because she doesn't discuss new ideas; she turns them into a straw man and sets it ablaze. In the past, she'd lecture me until I cried and then berate me for crying. I thought my dad was better for a while, but then I realized he agrees with her on everything. He just says it more diplomatically than she does.