Explanations of various taglines on S∂ ever since I decided to go with obscure and fun rather than informative…

Ponies and robot knights have eaten my brain
[2011 Mar 31 – 2011 Dec 14]

My Little Pony and Spiral Knights. I still watch S1 of MLP.

I’m barely getting through tomorrow…
[2010 Dec 23 – 2011 Mar 31]

From “Hard Candy Christmas”.

No more denying.
[2010 Dec 21 – 2010 Dec 23]

Gods help me, PTSD kicks my ass all the time.

Fate favors more than the foolish and mad.
[2010 Sep 27 – 2010 Dec 21]

Bayushi Hisako’s flavor text from L5R.

Shootin’ at the walls of heartache, bang bang
[2010 May 31 – 2010 Sep 27]

A lyric from Scandal’s “The Warrior.”

D:
[? – 2010 May 31]

Signed, Sealed, Delivered
[2010 Mar 23 – ?]

Health care passed.

Be your twenty strongest.
[2010 Feb 28 – 2010 Mar 23]

Based on the Mantis temptation card, “Yoritomo Ascends” (see complete art by David Horne).

One of the reasons I like the Legend of the Five Rings CCG is due to how they flavor even the card rules text (not just the flavor text). Way back in the early days, Magic the Gathering use to do this too, but nowadays MtG is rather staid in its wording.

For instance, an MtG version of this card probably would have said, “If you control 20 or more Samurai, remove the 20 of them with the highest Force from the game. If this removed 20 Samurai, you win the game.”

But the L5R version reads: “If you control 20 or more Samurai, remove the 20 of them with the highest Force from the game. You do not need them, for you are your twenty strongest! If this removed 20 Samurai, you win the game.” (Italics mine.)

This may sound like a boast, but it’s tied into L5R’s complex storyline. Yoritomo, the champion of the Mantis Clan, was told by the Dragon of Water to bring himself and twenty of his strongest men to fight at Oblivion’s Gate right now.

Your twenty strongest samurai. Yoritomo removed his helm, looking across his lands’ battered beaches. The last few Mantis samurai—weary, bloodied, and beaten by the Phoenix—turned their eyes towards him. They were prepared to fight once more—and to die, if he but asked them. Twenty bushi to save the Empire… and if they went to war now, Yoritomo knew, they would never return from Volturnum and the Shadowlands. Without samurai, the Mantis would fall—his clan, his loyal bushi, and all of his accomplishments.

His clan. His twenty strongest samurai.

He could not let them go.

Yoritomo turned to the Dragon, lifting his kamas from their sheaths. “I am my twenty strongest samurai!” he roared. “Take me, and I shall show you how the Son of Storms faces death!”

Spoiler: He died. Body counts tend to be high in L5R fiction.

Wielding the Dark Sword of Bitter Lies Since 2007
[2010 Feb 08 – 2010 Feb 28]

The Scorpion of L5R are true Anti-Heros, as opposed to Heros with Bad Publicity. This is especially true for the School of Bitter Lies, members of which are usually viewed as insane folks whose swordsmanship is only preternaturally excellent because of very good luck.

This seems particularly fitting as “the story of my life.” Though in my case, “good luck” can sometimes just mean “And I narrowly escaped with just the clothes on my back.”

Talk to the Palm of a Thousand Burning Miseries
[2010 Feb 05 – 2010 Feb 07]

Inspired by the flavor text from the Legend of the Five Rings CCG’s “One with the Flame”: Your technique is strong, but no match for the Palm of a Thousand Burning Miseries!

Mostly I was miserable and angry at the time, but on the behalf of other people on both sides of a rather fierce little debate. My loyalty, once won, can move mountains. But on the other hand, plate tectonics shoving mountains together does not, on the whole, make for a peaceful state of mind.