C James

Oh no you don't! You've just given me the perfect means to hoist you by your own petard... I can start polls too, ya know!

I remember Houston's traffic all too well; yipes! I made the mistake of coming in from San Antonio, hetting Houston's ourskirts at around 4pm, heading for Galvaston (requiring going into the City from the west, then heading out Southeast). ARGH! It was horrible! There was freeway construction that made it even worse... I gave up and found somewhere to have a meal, and took my time. I think I finally got to Galvasston around 9:30.

ACK!!! Now, now, we all know about statistics, and how they can be used to distort things!! This is indeed an antipodean conspiracy! First, you set out to question Shadowgod's precious title, and now this!

Awww, hrmmm, well, I dunno, that could be too! Especially if Tequila is involved... Okay, who ends up as couples at the end... Or as Graeme suggests with the last one, a trio?

Yes, we really must have an official celebration here in the forum when our postaholic editor hits 500! And humph, I'm not in denail; I'm a lurker, I tell ya, a LURKER! Hrmmm, I suspect a conspiracy; first, the unwarranted accusations that I use cliffhangers, and now seeking to tarnish my precious reputation as a quiet and shy forum lurker...

That;s one possible outcome.. I can't be definite, otherwise that would be a spoiler! And what about poor Vladimir; the engineer? The opposing group could be DVITE's...

I think Graeme is right on the money here; Being online is a form of anonymity, which makes things far easier in some respects. It also has it's downside; the internet is more prone to flame wars and personal attacks due to people feeling less caution than they would face-to-face.

Now that friendly greeting between the two guys is more what I had in mind! All I can remember about Brisbane airport is it had a little stand, selling some darn good pineapple milkshakes. But that was over 25 years ago! (I was nine years old). What I do remember is it was right on the coast, and as you took off (if using the westbound runway) the port of Brisbane (not the city itself) was on your right. Okay, who leaked the start of Ch 11? Personally, I'd be more worried about the Bunyip than Drop bears, but that's just me. Too bad Dimitri doesn't seem to be very humerus; I can think of some great pranks he could pull on Vladimir... But stating facts is as close as I can come to a spoiler... The Echidna does not like spoilers, so if I gave a real one, I'd be turned into a pincushion! Awww, Steve, (Hmmm, am I sensing a common theme here) surely you don't think I use cliffies? I'm sure Dimitri and Vladimir will enyoy their sightseeing vacation in Australia! What will they see?

Ahhh, but Lrites and Srites were (and still are) two factions within the domaholics, pertaining to events in one story. Plus, that was fun! Hrmmm, for LTMP, we could have DTSTITE's.

Hey! Wait a second here! I'm a lurker, not a postaholic!!!

I feel the need to add that I haven't actually said in the thread that Dimitri and The Scar are villains; they might very well turn out to be the good guys. Sure, they have a few flaws, but who doesn't? BTW, Dimitri and the engineer (Vladimir) have landed safely in Brisbane. I'll trust our aussie contingent to give them the traditional friendly welcome?

But you and Graeme are postaholics, while I am a lurker! I don't want you to feel left out, so I'll call you a postaholic too.

As we have two dedicated groups, this sound like an ideal solution to me, too.

That is a very, very good point!! You're right!

I like that idea!! I'll have to leave FTL's thread in the main forum (a sub-forum for a single thread would be kind of bad) but yes, I agree on that; that would be great!

Great predictions Ieshwar!!! I think you and Graeme got that, and I'll go re-read the thread and see who else... (but why do you keep calling me evil? ) Whether they kissed or not is still an open question; their lips did touch... Is that a kiss? Hrmm, I'm thinking I should start taking notes and give shout-outs to the closest predictions when the chapter comes out? Would that be something fun we could do? I can state definitively (please forgive me for a very minor spoiler) that there I can't comment on much of this, but Graeme pegged one point right on the money; Things are different for celebrities, including sexual opportunities. Welcome to GA, and to this forum too!!! Helen can pick costumes very well. Picking Peter Pan for Jon was my favorite bit.

I think we should have had an additional poll choice of "No, because it's Shadowgod's fault" too. After all, if everything is his fault, we can blame him both ways, right? To be honest, I've wondered about this issue. At some point, a separate forum for purely non-story-related threads might be a good idea, but so far, we don't seem to have too much thread clutter. We've only got 25 total threads so far. One thing I do want to say though; I LOVE having seperate chapter threads for each chapter. Is that working ok for everyone? In the FTL thread, it was very hard to look back. But in eFiction its one thread per story, so I couldn't do any other. If I start running multiple stories at once (which i do plan on here later this year) then it might be worthwhile to separate the two stories into their own subforums. Would that sound ok? CJ

And besides, I'd look awful in feathers... And yes, they have been plotting to tar&feather me... Why yes, I already do; it's in my member profile so it pretty much defines me: Just a quiet, shy, retiring forum lurker... Herd.... ROFL!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thanks Mike!!! I'm so happy that someone agrees with me, and doesn't want to see Shadowgod deprived of his title... It's already in the posted text, just not clear enough, so I'll mention that what The Scar had to move fast on was the opertunity to get the plutonium, plus there is something else, unspecified, but it isn't a bomb component, and we'll learn of it when he reveals his plan. All I can say is, it isn't a simple plan. BTW, one thing about Guntar; remember who his actual employer is; it's not Helen, it's Instinct. Sure, she could ask, and he might... or, he might not. They are his employers, but she's their manager. Either way, I wouldn't want to be in his position. Great question, Steve! Only "antici...pation" was named in part after a song. (though, as y'all can now see, anticipation fits in other ways as well ) I'm not naming chapters for song titles (with the exception of one of Instinct's titles for a later chapter) as I'm trying to stay away from real-world bands. Their opening act, for example, will be fictional.... and interesting. There really isn't any theme to the titles; I just look for something that fits. However, if you look, you will notice that all the title fit with, and describe, a main theme of the chapter. So, my titles are spoilers, in a way (and I hope the Echidna doesn't read this...) BTW, a typo on my part: The title of the next chapter is actually Wild Wild Night, not nights. The room location being Jon's rather than Eric's suite wouldn't affect your theory; and it's a good theory! I'm not evil, or sly!

Thanks! (and Thanks about the jeans too, Wildone!) Yep, the costumed and photo-shoot outfits were choosen with care. I figured everyone would be expecting swimsuit shots. Thanks! Cliffhanger? CLIFFHANGER? Shadowgod, did you sneak another cliffhanger in while I wasn't looking? No, it does not! I'd never dream of poaching on your turf! :P Yep, same here... I actually read Connor's quote three times and couldn't find the error, so I pasted it into a PM to ask him, and viola. AAARRRGGHH!! Sorry everyone... I'll upload a fixed Ch 10 when Ch 11 goes online.

Thanks! I normally don't blab the next chapter title this early, but I will this time becuase you just gave me the perfect lead in. The next chapter is entitled: Chapter 11! (oh, yeah, it;s also called "Wild Wild Night".) Huh? Me? What did I do?? Helen's the one who interupted 'em, not me! Well, it all depends on how you define a kiss; their lips DID touch (those of you who said so were quite right!) And as for the typo, OOOPS!!! This is especially embarrassing... I made the same darn typo two weeks ago! Thanks for the heads up on it though! Jan, I sure agree with you on the first half of that, but not the second. This was my goof. Worse, due to me being slow and some confusion, not all the team has been at work on this one. Shadowgod made one overall suggestion, not a full beta, and due to an utterly idiotic goof on my part (sending an email to the drafts folder instead of to him) he didn't even get to see it. Also, Emoe and Bondwriter turned this around is absolutely record time. I really wasn't expecting it to be online until this weekend, at the earliest. The worst part is, I made that SAME darn typo in last weeks's chapter, (thankfully, Rick caught that one) but let's be honest here; These typos do sneak through occasionally, but they wouldn't if I didn't make 'em in the first place. This is one thing I won't share credit for, and remember my motto: Any remaining errors are mine alone. Mine, I tell ya, mine mine mine!!! And I managed to do it when I'm describing his frst glimpse of the freaking cover shot! Okay, I can help with the Scar a little, based on what's posted... He is in Paraguay, arranging a coup, one that hasn't occurred, yet. He doesn't have the billions, yet. It may be inferred that he expects to have them soon. He's mentioned in passing that he's an arms dealer. That's where it is safe to assume his money comes from, though you can safely say he's no billionare at the moment. HE was able to come up with the millions used to lure the plutonium sellers, but he still has that. Though, from the way it's portrayed, you can assume that's most of his current money. As for :jerry: :jerry: aww, come on; all he did was snap at Eric, once, when Eric sure as heck deserved it! If I was hosting a party and somebody did that, I'd do one heck of a lot more than yell at them. However, look what Jerry really did that evening... (Hint; when he was talking to Brandon.) Yay

Hi Woody!! Helen does have a knack for timing, doesn't she? Thanks Camy! Eric's "special relationship" with tequila was mentioned once before (as a bit of forshadowing of this chapter, actually) back around ch 3, I think; When Chase is telling brandon about how he came out to Jon, Eric is mentioned as someone to never trust when he's on tequila. I just had to get him into black leather pants somehow. LoL And of course, Chase in a skimpy leather loincloth has Brandon's attention. Brandon certainly seemed to enjoy helping Chase with the painting. What? I'm not evil... This is their first kiss with each other; you can't rush such things... Jon and Eric are definitely drunk, and eric is kinda nuts when drunk, especially on tequila. Aww, Barbra tripped on her whip... Have you no sympathy? Brandon is bunking in the second bedroom of Jon's suite; Jon's is the only one with two bedrooms. Eric's suite is in the middle, and Jon and Chase's are at the opposite ends of the row of three. Chase's has the hot tub. And yep, they are now realizing that their feelings are mutual. And Jan, I never use cliffhangers.

???? But, but, but... you, Graeme, are a renowned postaholic! While I am a shy and quiet lurker...

Chapter update; thanks to our team, the chapter is ready, and has now been formatted and mailed in. It's far too late for Joe to be awake, but hopefully it will go online sometime Wednesday (US time).

Awww, but I'm always quiter.. its part of being a lurker...