Discuss.

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So yeah, gots me a wacom guize!!!

Like a wave crashing against a rock, a hush fell over the crowd. The silence was uncomfortable yet necessary as the sound of a distinctive walk echoed the field. The crowd was mostly paupers and veterans from past wars that looked on with anticipation. The stage was not that fancy, but it served its purpose with dignity. To the right of the stage emerged a tall figure dressed in uniform, marching with determination. As his face became visible to the crowd and up roar emerged. Men cheered, women cheered, children cheered, babies cheered. The man reached the podium grasping it intensely. His eyes were closed as he looked up and his chest expanded. As he exhaled he opened his eyes and they immediately zeroed in on a lone hill in the distance. Tears came to his eyes as he hesitantly pulled the podium's microphone towards his lips. "I do not deserve this award..."

Like a wave crashing against a rock, bodies fell into the trenches. Private Jason Mills stood in awe as the sound of each body dully hit the earth. His hands were shaking and his legs were shaking and his gun was shaking and his boots were shaking. His commanding officer pulled him by the shoulder and yelled out commands, but shock had rendered him temporarily deaf. A fierce slap to the face brought back his hearing. "Dang it Mills! We need a plan to get out of these god forsaken trenches now! You're the squadron's battle planner, now plan for the next course of action!" yelled the officer. He hated his officer so much, but he loved him unconditionally. He loathed his raspy voice, but knew it was his motivation. Mills knew his next course of action. "We'll have three soldiers make a b-line towards that hill to draw enemy fire while the rest of us make haste to fall back so we can call in an airstrike. If all goes well, we can retrieve the soldiers with few casualties." Mills spoke confidently. The officer shook his head. " That is too many casualties, I'll do it on my own." He spoke solemnly. Mills looked at him with disbelief and wanted to reconsider the plan, but was too late. The officer jumped out of the trench and began running, and the remaining soldiers ran in the opposite direction. Mills followed the other soldiers while watching the officer draw fire. As the squadron waited for the signal to call in the airstrike, Mills watched as the officer was shot down at the base of the hill. His determination was so strong that he began to drag himself up hill. The soldiers look to Mills for the call. He looked back. "Call it."

"Boom!" "Bang!" "PROWWW!!!" The enemy trench was destroyed. Not waiting for the smoke to clear, Mills ran into the cloud of debris to retrieve his officer. It was not until the smoke cleared that the officer was spotted laying against a tree on the top of the hill. Mills rushed to him and kneeled. "Are you okay?!" Mills received his answer visually as the officer slumped over and revealed multiple exit wounds in his back. Mills silently stood up and snatched the dog tags from the officer's neck.

He pushed the microphone away for a moment and brought it back, this time with his voice clear and calm.
"Sergeant Jason Mills Sr. was a brave man who gave his life to his squadron. My battle plans were the cause of this. Not only did I lose a great officer because of my mistake, I endangered my whole squadron, but most importantly, I lost a father." The man pushed the microphone away for one final time and walked away, but not before taking one final glance at the hill.

This is a failed attempt a story for this month's MWC.
"Pshhhhhh.... ZZTT! Trick or Treat!"

A small boy stood at the door of a giant mansion with his steam powered candy container extended, eagerly awaiting any delectable treats the resident of the house. As he waited he surveyed his surroundings. The yard was mainly desolate and instead of trees there were mechanical art pieces that had sharp blades hanging from them. The boy had been standing at the doorstep for a good three minutes before he decided to leave.

"Guess nobody is home..." The sound of steam releasing from his container drowned out the sound of the door opening behind him. As he began to walk off he felt a bony hand on his shoulder. The boy jumped and turned around to see a tall skinny pale man with a mechanical arm standing over him. He stood up and looked at the man in amazement. The gears in the mechanical arm all moved in harmony, like clockwork as the man extended it to reveal sweets.

"Sorry my boy... I was in the middle of an experiment... I can't believe it's already Halloween! Time ticks away very swiftly in my laboratory!" spoke the man in a broken tone. He tilted his head and watched the boy's candy container open and close, and sure enough the boy took notice. The man seemed to drool slightly at the sight of moving machinery and his eyes were fixated on each individual gear.

"Boy, what is your... name?" The man smiled.

"Josiah... what's yours mister?" Josiah wearily questioned, not really wanting to give away any personal information.

The man's smile turned into a wide grin as he shook his head and backed away. "No, no, no... there's no importance in my name at the moment... why don't you just come inside and see what I've been working on?" Josiah hesitated, but his young adventurer spirit beckoned him into the unknown. "Okay."

The man grabbed Josiah's arm with his mechanical one and walked towards his front door. Josiah looked back as he entered the house and noticed that the art pieces seemed to wilt over the walkway behind him and block any possible escape. Josiah gulped as the door shut behind him.
The interior of the mansion was amazing, there were pipes, gears, cogs, and various other components working all together like a clock. Josiah noticed that there was a lack of any sort of organic substances on the interior of the mansion. The floors were not of wood, but clear glass that revealed a series of complex pipes and tubes steadily working. The walls were the same too, it was as if the whole house was a machine. Amazed by the house, Josiah failed to notice he was released from the grip of the man, and he was ten paces ahead. Josiah watched the man walk with an almost inhuman limp, in fact it was! his leg was probably mechanized too. It was not as obvious with the sounds of steam and grinding machinery deafening it. As

Josiah caught up he noticed the man steadily looked back at him to see if he was following and slightly snickered as they began to descend a spiraling stair case. Josiah felt as if it was taking hours to reach the bottom and he was partially right because the stair case was spinning in the opposite direction that he was walking. The man was no longer in view and Josiah had just had about enough of whatever this man was planning.

"Mister, sorry, but I've gotta get home... maybe another day?" he yelled downwards in hopes that the man would hear him.

Suddenly the air around Josiah became dense and Goosebumps began to form on his skin. He looked at his arm and began to rub his Goosebumps away. When he looked up, everything in the house was still. No machinery, no noise, no man, and worst of all no escape. The doorway behind him was gone and there was only a rusted wall. He noticed that everything around him was rusted too, the pistons, cogs, and pipes were all rusted and dead. He decided to descend the stairs completely, now that they were motionless. When he reached the bottom he looked around and there was nothing except a chair on a platform, besides that it was as if he was inside of a glass box surrounded by pipes and gears.
That's when he heard the noise. This noise was common, but for some reason it was bone chilling. He quickly turned to the stairs to run, but as he ran up the steps he saw it. There was the man. Dragging himself down the steps with a sickening grin as the parts in his mechanical arm and leg creaked and grinded against each other. Josiah's legs gave out and he tumbled backwards down the stairs knocking himself out on the way down.

He awoke with the feeling of moist breath panting on his cheek. He looked around and he was strapped into the chair with various needles sticking in and out of him. The man's forehead was pressed against his looking into his eyes with that same sickening grin. "P-please mister, let me go..." The man just laughed and stepped back, creaking with every step.

"This mansion isn't just any steam mansion... it runs on water of course... but it's greedy from where it gets it's sources..." The man chuckled. Josiah knew where this was going and tried to get up and escape but only caused himself to be punctured further by the needles.
The mansion boomed to life as blood trickled out of Josiah's legs. The pistons once again began to pump, the cogs once again began to turn, the pipes once again began to exert steam. Josiah's screams fell upon the ears of only one as his skin began to dry and wrinkle, his joints became painful to move, and his eyes began to sink in. The man silently watched as Josiah fell back into the chair motionless... eating his candy.

Don't you love it?

I'm using my brand new Studio Desktop Quad Core Duo!!! This baby Roars like a lion then purrs like a kitten. It's not that bad for a computer that was built by Dell Six gigs of RAM, 620 GB of Hard Drive space, etc. I'm loving my new widescreen HD monitor too!

I'm at it again guys, I feel like writing a story, but this time I want to make it a long one. So hears the pitch:

Hundreds of years after World War three, earth has begun a new. Not only has many things we hold dear perished from existence, but reality itself is beginning to fade. All around earth's atmosphere, rifts in the space time continuum are opening up and releasing mysterious creatures from their depths. Luckily, our main character Raiju Germanicus Augustus Tetsuka, grandson of Caesar Tetsuka the first man ever to study the creatures from the rift and son of Kyo Tetsuka who followed in Caesar's footsteps, is now going to due what was considered the ultimate taboo: Uncovering the truth of the rift themselves. With the help of a rag tag group of friends, Raiju will head out into the great wide open and discover the truth, no matter what the cost.

Now this is just a sketchy pitch on what I have in mind, but I'm pretty positive about the idea. What does the NG community think?

The answer should be clear.

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I'm not dead.

So I saw the movie adaptation of Watchmen and I have to say, it was really good in my opinion.

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Also, video.