I was a bit on the fence about whether or not I should purchase the next game in the special updated version or if I should just wait for the late release mass market version, but they were clear that there were a bunch of things in the special version that would never be available again. It wasn't on the free-net, either. Yes, I checked, and I know I shouldn't. It's just--I was a little leery about purchasing anything that came packaged in an actual, verified and certified, human skull. Seems like bad juju, you know. Sure, sure, you can laugh at me for living in the modern century and having a bit of the old world superstition, but it's how my grandma raised me. And believe you me, after you've seen the bad (or good) come back around on the person who did it, you get a little more careful. It's reassuring in a way. The police, the government, and society in general might not be able to regulate anyone anymore, no matter how many surveillance cameras they put up, but no matter if you think they got away with something, it's all going to circle back on them. So that's why I hesitated before I bought. Some bad juju you get from doing something blatantly bad. Some you get from doing something that you can kind of whitewash to yourself to try and make it look good, but it really isn't. Buying a human skull had the latter feeling. But my granny died a good ten years ago, and I'm a grown woman, and I really, really, really wanted that latest, greatest, never to be repeated game. So I sprung and bought it. Unfortunately.


Inspiration: Googled "Flaming" -> http://www.forbes.com/sites/zackomalleygreenburg/2013/04/16/the-flaming-lips-explain-new-album-the-terror/ (Yes, they're selling a 24-hour-long version packaged in a SKULL.)
Story potential: Low.
Notes: Eh.

Your mission for this year is to worship Odin. He stared at the fortune cookie in his hand, his eyebrows raised. Well, that was a new one to him. Usually they just told him his lucky numbers, or said he'd meet a handsome stranger (that one had turned out to be his boss). They weren't prone to delivering marching orders. Of course, a long time ago he'd started following or searching out the ways that fortune cookies told him. It started when he was maybe 22, just out of college, and a fortune cookie had told him that the sky would empty over his head. He'd happened to lookup at just the right time to see a window-washer spill his bucket fifteen stories above. A quick sprint into the doorway of the building had kept his new interview suit from being ruined.

Inspiration: cvalenti talking about worshiping Odin, myself looking at a cleaning mission, and remembering gunn being unhappy with a fortune that gave her a direct order.
Story Potential: High.
Notes: Neat. Super-neat. Nifty, maybe-a-novel-length good idea neat. My main concern with it is whether it would tread too close to territory owned by Terry Pratchett, Neil Gaimon, and Tim Powers. Of course, I'm a firm believer that there are no "too old" ideas, just tired writers.