May you and Rachel and your lovely girls share many, many more!!!! ">

Whether you are in the United States of America or not, we wish everyone safe travels, love, and joy. Friends are on the top of list of things we are thankful for. For you cooks and hosts and hostesses, remember, perfection is happiness with loved ones and friends, so don't worry so much about whether the centerpiece is perfect, or about the thumb in the middle of the pie. Relax, feast and fellowship! "

Growing up in Austin, Texas, and traveling the road between Austin and cities to the north like Waco or Killeen, I often found myself in the company of the wonderful men and women of Fort Hood. To me, these are not "unknown faces", they are neighbors. To many they are fathers, mothers, lovers, children. Today a manman murdered many and wounded many others at the base. My prayers are with all of the Fort Hood community - Sky Link to the News Story: Gunman Kills 12, Injures 30 at Fort Hood Please pray for these families tonight. It may be one of the largest bases in the nation, but it has the heart of a small town where everyone knows everyone.

Posted in MEMORIALS

On the right you'll see a list of Fate's Angels. These are angels in the theatrical sense, people who have donated funds to help keep the site running. So, please thank them when you see them. Angels receive no special privileges, rights, or gimmicks. They support the site so they can continue to have a place to play with minimal interference from management. If you want to become an Angel, look for the donate button on the main gate menu. It will take you to a login page, and then to a paypal page.

Posted in NEWS

Posted in SPECIAL EVENTS

By Invitation of his majesty, Alexander Goldenshield, the Lion of Crusadia, you are invited to join citizens of Crusadia and the neighboring enchanted lands in the celebration of a good harvest. There will be food, drink, dance, jesters, fire-eaters, and fortune tellers. For the braver ones there will be archery contests, jousting, feats of strength, and contests of courage and balance befitting any knight. ">

Dakota King has informed Fate's Followers that 40 years ago today Monty Python Debuted their Flying Circus. Thank you Monty Python for 40 years of laughter!

Posted in WAY TO GO!

First, the Fates want to welcome the room, 'The Double Eagle'. If you are a patron of Nia's, you already know Reno Starhopper. Reno has started a Western-Genre roleplay room called "The Double Eagle." I hope all of you will stop in, and pick up some great games in his room. Second, a very near and dear friend to the patron's of Nia's, Robin, has been unable to join us very often because the time zone differences between London and the USA make gaming together almost impossible. Robin has come up with the idea of using the Nia's forum to start a little "forum posting game". A lot of you are probably already familiar with this style of play. If you aren't, its simple. You just make your posts a little longer, put a little more thought into them, and post them into the forum. If you haven't tried the forums yet... go to the room selection menu at the portal of gates. Next to the rooms name is an icon for the homepage, and next to that is an icon for the forums. Forum games will be considered independent of in-room play, but can mimic in-room play if you like. In other words, if you die in the forum, you aren't dead in the room unless you want to be, and vice versa. Happy gaming!

Posted in NEWS

If you want something to be posted right here at the main page in this section, send it to Sky or David and we will try to help you out. If you don't have our address, just send it to fateslabyrinth@gmail.com. Be sure to include what your relationship to the site is. (Room Owner, Moderator, User.) Be sure to include a VALID EMAIL ADDRESS THAT YOU CHECK. Remember, this is the front page of the site, and the site owners reserve the right to refuse to post anything or to edit things for site-appropriate content.

Posted in NEWS

I think I've got the comments section of the page fixed. Click on the word comments near the end of posts. Click on leave comment. Enter a name and an email address and then submit your comment. The Fate's Reserve the right to delete comments we find inappropriate for the front page so think before you post.

Posted in NEWS

From CNN on September 15, 2009

Story Link: Johns Hopkins student kills apparent burglar with sword

Story Highlights

Suspect died at scene

He had severed left hand and lacerations to upper body

Students confronted man in their garage, police say

He lunged at students,

one defended himself with samurai sword

Posted in NEWS

Patrick Swayze lost his battle with pancreatic cancer on Monday at the age of 57. Born in Houston, Texas in 1952, Patrick Swayze was an American song-writer, dancer, and actor who rose to fame after playing a lead role in "Dirty Dancing," and later in "Ghost." In 1991 he was voted the sexiest man alive, and in 2008 he was diagnosed with state IV pancreatic cancer. Swayze was 18 years old when he met the love of his life, who was a student at his mother's dance studio. In 1975 he married her. Our condolances go out to his wife and other loved ones. Patrick Swayze, and his wife Lisa Nieme dancing together at the 1994 World Music Awards. ">

I was at home that day, talking on the phone to a dear friend who told me, "I need to hit the road. I have a meeting at the bank, and I am going to drop Kathy and her friend off at school on the way into town. I'm doing lunch with Danny. Any messages for him or Mickey?" Danny and Mickey (Michelle), are friends from Brooklyn, New York. Danny worked in World Trade Center. Ken banked there. Off the phone, and not eager to get to my chores, I turned on "The Today Show," and my computer. As I watched Katie Couric and Matt Lauer laughing, I saw a plan fly into the building shown behind them. To this day I wonder if it was a window or a projection screen. I think a window, but I'll never know. As they were trying to get accurate reports onto the news, my phone rang. It was Ken again. I could hear screaming in the background, hysterical. His message was short and sweet. "I'm safe. Don't worry. Got to get Kathy's friend to her mother." I later learned that the screaming was Kathy's friend. Her father worked the WTC, and she saw the same news show I saw, and she knew her father's office was in the section of the WTC that was hit. Like the rest of the world I watched the news unfold with utter horror griping me. I made a few calls to try to locate various friends who were scattered around the areas hit. Amazing how small the world becomes with the Internet, and how huge it seems in a disaster. I prayed and prayed, and when the second tower came down, I mourned because I was positive Danny, an internet friend of almost 5 years, was gone. As it turned out, he made it out. When the first tower was hit, his boss had cleared the office, and just about the time they reached the ground level, an all clear was sounded, but the elevators were still off line. Danny's boss had grabbed him and said there was no sense walking up those stairs, and suggested they grab coffee down the street while they waited for the elevators to come back on. Danny said he was just a few feet away from the building when it started coming down. He, and thousands of other New Yorkers, walked home over the Brooklyn Bridge, in some scene he says reminded him of a bad sci-film film. His cell phone was useless, and by the time he finally walked in the door, Mickey was a hysterical basket case, certain he'd died at ground zero. I counted myself lucky. I had not lost any of the three friends I was positive had been in that building. Then stories started to come in. Michael posted on a forum I ran, asking for prayers. The first friend I ever made on line, Michael had grown up in Brooklyn, and wore his accent proudly. He was an accountant, but his firm had moved him to Houston a few years ago. I had forgotten that he and his wife still had family there, until I saw his request. Michael's family were fire fighters. His brother was missing. Then Barbara called. She was crying hysterically, but she was alive to cry. Barb lived in Boston. She's missed her flight that day. Her coworkers had not. Marie was next. A nurse who worked at the Pentagon, Marie was off that day, but her brother, also in medical service, was there. I didn't know what to do, but I felt I had to do something. I went to work, and there I learned of a student from New York who was stranded in Texas. Her father was one of the thousands who worked in the WTC, her mother was not answering the phone. the student had flown to Texas, and now all planes, nation wide, were grounded. I watched as professors and vice presidents and secretarys and provosts scrambled to find a way to get her home. In the end professors packed vans with food and counselors and emergency workers and drove her home. Then another call. Did I remember Barbara? She had been at the party at Jane's? She was on the plane. Years went by. The damage count continued to grow, not in deaths, but in lost lives none the less. Danny changed jobs numerous times after September 11th, torn between his beloved New York and a growing paranoia that the government had somehow done this. Mickey had a total nervous breakdown, and was hospitalized for awhile, then Danny moved them all to North Carolina. Hundreds of students transferred out of the University, no longer willing to live so far away from home. Friends and relatives who had spent their entire lives doing emergency rescue went to New York, and came back changed. They drank, they cried. They quit their jobs. Its eight years now. Mickey and Danny are in California now. They miss New York, but they don't feel like a target is painted on their backs. Ken tells me that Kathy's friend is a college graduate, and a wife and a mother. She's moved on. The friends and relatives have gone back into the rescue operations and back to the Hasmat teams. Some have become officers in the military. Life goes on. But what happened that day --- will never be forgotten.

Posted in MEMORIALS

Disney Aquires Marvel Some of you may remember the old WebChat Broadcasting System. A first-of-its-kind collection of web-based chat rooms that freed chatters from the /commands of IRC, allowed graphics, and served as a wonderful home-away-from-home for millions of internet users. Well, WBS sold to Info, and Nia's survived, along with most of the other WBS rooms. Then Disney bought WBS. The "hands off" promise that Disney made to WBS was not so much hands "off" as it was "in the mouse's hands". Control that mods used to have was yanked out of their hands, rules came down from above, and the demand was, "We won't force you, but if you don't comply, we'll close you." They closed WBS. So, it is with tears of sorrow that I read they have aquired Marvel with the same promises they once made to WBS.

Posted in MEMORIALS