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Scaling Up

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Well there is the Military Secretary to the Commandant of the Marine Corps in the US and in Britain and India there are also apparently Military secretaries.

Historically though in US history military secretary was a actual real position in the the continental army and the later US army authorized by congress though it is one that no longer exists in the US army and was only associated with the headquarters of the commander in Chief with the position carrying the rank of colonel much as the aides-de-camps in the headquarters held the rank of lieutenant colonel.

George Washington had four of them during his time as Commander in Chief of the Continental Army.

Don't really know when the position ended as it was still a active official position in the US army during the entire US civil war.
 
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A fine chapter, but I'm at a loss as to what the "don't eat while reading this" warning was about. There was nothing particularly gross or disgusting in it, nor any shocking revelations. Warning attached to the wrong post maybe?
 
Kobald's with P90's?!? That is waaaay to cute to be allowed! *WantAPicture!DemandsAPicture!* Someone, please draw this!! I'd do it, but the stick figure is the height of my artistic skills... Well, maybe coloring in-between the lines if I go reeeeaaalll slow!
 
Ruby Boule said:
A fine chapter, but I'm at a loss as to what the "don't eat while reading this" warning was about. There was nothing particularly gross or disgusting in it, nor any shocking revelations. Warning attached to the wrong post maybe?
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The Simpson's call out in the middle. The last time I did something like this, I put the warning in the post after it.

As the Appearance of Marge caused several spittake reactions over on the CTC, and with my editors, I included the warning.
 
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Kryslin said:
The Simpson's call out in the middle. The last time I did something like this, I put the warning in the post after it.

As the Appearance of Marge caused several spittake reactions over on the CTC, and with my editors, I included the warning.
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So, funny thing is, I had somehow missed that entire reference on my first read-through. Completely. Didn't even blip >>
 
DestinyPlayer said:
So, funny thing is, I had somehow missed that entire reference on my first read-through. Completely. Didn't even blip >>
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And I find this to be the funniest reaction of all! :grin:

Then again, Simpsons reference memes had kind of flooded the area I live in for a few years a while back, so it was a bit of a minor shock that the in story reference wasn't obvious to everyone...
 
Took me a second to get the reference and I'm honestly not surprised Burns finally got caught. Though I'm wondering if this is a competent Homer or actually Simpsons Homer because the latter is definitely not competent enough to be working at a nuclear power plant.
then again I haven't seen an episode of that show in years so I wouldn't know if he's improved over time or not.
 
Draxsis said:
Took me a second to get the reference and I'm honestly not surprised Burns finally got caught. Though I'm wondering if this is a competent Homer or actually Simpsons Homer because the latter is definitely not competent enough to be working at a nuclear power plant.
then again I haven't seen an episode of that show in years so I wouldn't know if he's improved over time or not.
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The little bit of 'feeling' I got from watching the handful of episodes was that Homer started as a conscientious hard-working person.

What we see even from the first episode could arguably be what happens when every time a report about a problem or error gets put in, nothing happens.

Sort of like the original iteration of Worm, no matter what awesome stuff existed, nothing ever seemed to change for the better. Every installment was and then it got WORSE.

Even when the protagonists and viewpoint characters thought they had made it, they were still looking over their shoulders for Karma riding the swift horse for all the things they had done to get to that point.

So thematically, I could easily see the plant Homer worked at in-story here. I could also see one of a dozen parties without even trying that would love to fix the Simpsons' lives (for good OR ill).

In fact, Charles Montgomery Plantagenet Schicklgruber Burns would be an IDEAL candidate for Darker Powers to take and turn into a dragon, a devil, etc. Just saying... :p

Also, he kinda *does* look like a dragon...
 
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Wageslave said:
The little bit of 'feeling' I got from watching the handful of episodes was that Homer started as a conscientious hard-working person.
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A lot of Flanderization happened as the series went on. Homer started out at a far more realistic level of goofy, but his level of manchild got played up more and more as time went on.

Some of Homers history really drives this home. His first job was the powerplant (High paying union work), until all his debts were payed off, then he went for his dream job, then after the surprise appearance of Maggie he went back to the power plant because his dream job didn't pay enough. That's where the "Remember, You're here forever" sign came from, Burns taunting him after he had to beg for the job back.

Homer was supposed to be a suburban stereotype, his whole family really. But they all got turned into caricatures over time. He started the series run as a bumbling, but well meaning blue collar worker living the suburban life.
 
Immortality is a trap, just ask Tia. She's lived through a war that nearly wiped out her entire people, and now gets to watch as her people slowly die out. Then she'll get to continue living once her people are gone.
 
I never understood why people think being immortal would be such a great thing. Hell, you aren't even given a guarantee to eventually be rich. Let's say I became immortal right here, right now. I am barely making ends meet, often with only a few pennies left at the end of a given month. It's been that way for the last 20 years, and doesn't look to be changing anytime soon. I can't afford to go to collage to learn a valuable trade skill. As such, I'm stuck working a dead end job of one type or another. Why would that be different in 200 years? Or a thousand years? After all, if in any given month I'm barely getting by... there's nothing to set aside to create that nest egg.

Maybe my possessions will eventually become valuable antiques? Yeah, great plan. And once it might have even worked. Not so much anymore though. Nothing is built to last these days. Instead it's built to break down and get thrown away within 3 to 10 years. Hell, the original Gameboy has a serious issue for collectors. The screens are literally rotting due to the ink used for their ink-dot matrix graphics. And the plastic is also rotting.

Hell, I recently had to get rid of my old PS2. The disk drive stopped working. And when I took it in to get fixed, the entire assembly had broken, with several of the parts needed no longer being available. Even worse, it turned out some of the assembly had rotted away. Do you own a gizmondo? Well, those are quite literally rotting away to nothing as well. So with that in mind, what will last long enough to become a valuable antique? And even if something might become a valuable antique, how would you know what to keep and what to get rid of? The things that become valuable are... kind of random.
 
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FaerieKnight79 said:
"... meep"? At least, that's my guess. Kobold speak Draconic, so it'd be the same way a dragon would say that phrase. Then again, that phrase may not exist in draconic. After all, what could possibly make a dragon feel the need for brown pants?
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The D&D ecosystem is a pretty messed up place.

Dragons are scary customers, but they are not alone, the 'top' of the food chain is more like a rock paper scissor lizard spock chart.

Especially for younger dragons. It takes a few hundred years for full power to really set in.

And even then, there's some nasty stuff hanging out in the outer planes. There's a few places Tia and Bahamut could wander in and not only not be top dog, but get outright bullied.

You know your cosmology is a scary place when actual deities still have to be scared of things.
 
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