The Restaurant at the End of the Universe

Can you tell me the story of your first answer on this site?

It says you will on your profile

Still less IDed than Magi-Nation, though. scifi.stackexchange.com/…

@Stormblessed Surely! cracks fingers

I discovered SFF through Stack Overflow (zero originality, so far)

Just link the twenty previous times you've said it.

I spotted a funny Worldbuilding question on the HNQ and went on to check what other sites there were, and I ended up lurking on SFF

@Alex no!

(I had no account so far)

I mainly lurked story-ID because it seemed fun but I never found the answers

And then one day

Some guy asks for like, my top 1 favorite fantasy book

So I create an account, start writing an answer which I wanted not to be too nooby (so not just "I think it's Ewilan")

Well the rendered output was still a bit nooby: ugly plain link, no publication date, etc

scifi.stackexchange.com/revisions/183833/1

And then!

Horror!

The OP had self-answered FIVE MINUTES BEFORE I DID!

and his answer was even noobier than mine!

scifi.stackexchange.com/revisions/183831/1

There wasn't even the title in it!!

@Jenayah Wow, only eight minutes too late

7:22 PM

So yeah here's the story of how I joined the site when I eventually knew I had an answer, but had to face a "oh lol I found it actually" :(

At least we now know your favorite fantasy book.

Truth be told, OP's answer is one of the only "buried self-answers at the bottom" which you'll never see me posting here with a "love-needed for that self-answer to rise to the top" xD

@Alex you knew it before.

Oct 22 '18 at 17:33, by Jenayah

Although as far as I'm concerned, I truly doubt anything will ever entertain me as much as the Ewilan books did. Probably my first contact with fantasy, and still my favorite fantasy series :D (@lephe knows them too eheh)

And even before:

Aug 13 '18 at 8:37, by Jenayah

La quête d'Ewilan, which you might know if you can read French... Definitely my top 1 fantasy book series ;D

love-needed for this self-answer to rise to the top.

12 hours ago, by Alex

@Jenayah Must have missed those. Or forgot them. Or ignored them.

7:27 PM

:P

@Jenayah This will be annoying for future searching.

why?

It has no text.

true, but the replies had the word "enemies"

Can you have alt text on images here?

7:28 PM

Eh.

Just to be sure:

With Friends like these who needs enemies?

@Stormblessed not sure. Perhaps @Mithrandir knows

[![An instant-film photo of Lee Harvey Oswald crossing his arms.][4]][4] [4]: i.stack.imgur.com/AlBNx.jpg

That doesn't work

@Marvin I recognize less people that I'd have thought.

[![An instant-film photo of Lee Harvey Oswald crossing his arms.][ i.stack.imgur.com/AlBNx.jpg]][i.stack.imgur.com/AlBNx.jpg]

You remind me, @Jenayah. I tried to buy a copy of the books you identified when I first came here (Catherine Fisher's Incarceron) but it turns out the thing is not printed anymore. A shame, really.

7:32 PM

@lephe well, crap. What about the library?

Or ordering it in English on Amazon?

@lephe What? I never read those, but I thought those were really popular

Well I think I'll end up buying an English one, because having the paper is much more enjoyable.

Or leboncoin or stuff

@Stormblessed Not sure if there were in France, to be honest. I mean, it's not printed in French.

@Stormblessed in chat no

7:35 PM

For wwhat it's worth, never heard of it before I IDed it. Never heard of it afterwards, either.

@lephe I mean in America

You can have rollover text for links in chat, though.

@Jenayah It's quite good in my opinion. Or at least, it was when I read it 7/8 years ago. ^^

noted ;)

The prison has the oppressing feeling, it's clear from the first chapter that the place is like death. Really liked the ambiance.

7:39 PM

@Marvin I only spotted one Carpenter reference so far. This is disappointing.

Hm. There is a 1990 Total Recall reference. That'll make up for it. Hey, no Terminator?

@Jenayah The band?

@Jenayah It seems to be biased towards Star Wars

TBH, Terminator doesn't deal that much with aliens. But I can't spot any Predator!

@Stormblessed where?

@Jenayah Forgot punctation

What's "Carpenter" in that case?

Ah, no. The band has the Diva from 5th element, a Star Trek character which I guess is Data from TNG, and others I don't recognize.

@Stormblessed Carpenter is my favorite movie director. The guy who made Escape from New York, Assault on Pretinct 13 (ask @NapoleonWilson), They Live, Prince of Darkness, etc, etc. :D

And who did not make any movies after 1996. You hear me? Not. Any!

the reference in that case beinig the "They Live We Sleep" tag at 9 from the diva

@Stormblessed but yeah, it's super biaised towards SW

@Jenayah Lucky for me, that's all I know :P

7:51 PM

Is that Starfire at 9' from Superman?

@Jenayah Which direction?

well... 9

I don't know how clock directions work in English?

right of Superman

@Jenayah Oh, we don't say 9' to mean o'clock that I know of, got it

:thumbsup:

Adamant

Clock

Clock directions are the same, but they're measured in ounces.

7:59 PM

Nevermind. Found the Predator

Adamant

So that's 0.317 o'clock in US units.

A: Who are the (numerous) patrons of the Warp Core Cafe?

8:15 PM

0

There are at least four Modal Nodes members on the balcony behind the cafe sign. Groot is on the edge of the bar's counter. The Millenium Falcon, USS Enterprise, Star Destroyer, Death Star II are what I recognize in the top front window. Cloud City (?) in the furthest right part of the bottom of...

I should edit when @Skooba has a key, this answer is currently horrible to read.

A graphed version could help

0

Q: Is Toontown canon?

In the movie Who framed Roger Rabbit, all cartoon characters working on Hollywood reside in a cartoonish "kind of physical place" (described here as a pocket dimension) called Toontown. This includes Disney characters as well as Looney Tunes, MGM's Droopy and even Betty Boop, Felix the Cat and Wo...

8:28 PM

cracks knuckles let's do this

@Jenayah I found an exploit for large image files 😈

urgh, I shoudl probably autmoate this

26 lines' gonna be long

@Jenayah Copy and paste the 26, then replace the letters (maybe use Docs or Word for search+replace?)

... I was going for Python but that works too xD

8:38 PM

@Jenayah Python... disappointment in language choice

(It's fine but the formatting sucks, in my opinion)

For that kind of quick fix Python's good

I'm also bad at it

You can patch up a program in no time that does the ugly stuff

@Jenayah I guess

@Stormblessed Isn't that the image I shared here the other day?

yesterday, by Mithrandir

"Warp Core Café", by Jeff Carlisle.

@Storm J9 - R2-D2

G/H6 - Data

M3 - Quark

8:48 PM

@Mithrandir editable :P

Q: Will ablative propulsion missiles be good for space combact

0

I was searching about near future sci fi wepons which can have super long range (50000km+). It seams like no wepon fits the bill except missiles but i cant put a powerful enough engine on a missile. So ablative propulsion was the only way. Tough sf had some impressive numbert on it. Ablative pe...

hard-sci-fi

0

Q: Where is the ninth Honorblade?

In Words of Radiance, Tarvangian tells Szeth that Kaladin must have one of the Honorblades to explain his using Stormlight. to which Szeth responds "one of the other 7 is missing?" The problem is that nine were left after the Heralds broke the Oathpact and szeth has one, so where is the ni...

cosmere stormlight-archive

J2 - Porgs

L5 - Guinan

just edit it already ;D

H3 - TARDIS

@Jenayah pain on mobile

fair enough

Q: Do we want to require CW answers on (any? some? all?) mass-ID questions?

8:52 PM

K12 - Ackbar

Slartibartfast

0

We've had a number of questions on this site of the form "Here's a picture with dozens of characters/items from sci-fi and fantasy - can you identify them all?" Such questions have generally been welcomed by the community as a chance for everyone to work together and have fun. In that spirit of...

discussion policy community-wiki locked-posts

K/L8 - Chewbacca

N8 - ET

W8 - Yoda

H2 - possibly T'Pol?

@Jenayah remember to include universes of origin!!

they're eponyomus :P

but fair point

K7 - Garak

8:59 PM

@Jenayah Stuff like Twi'lek isn't recognizable to a lot of people.

J11 - Spock

@Stormblessed not a name I know, so not my addition.

Although with such a name that's gotta be Star Trek?

@Jenayah That was an example

K/L11 - C3-P0

Star Wars

They're blue, Jabba has a bunch of them as slaves

9:05 PM

Feel free to edit mine into it. Also feel free to make it community wiki. You won't get rep from it, but it'll be easier for everyone to edit.

J8 IT'S WILL SMITH

But Rep

Meh rep, who needs rep?

@Mithrandir Me, I guess

(I want to be able to edit anywhere, need hundreds more for that currently)

Er edit any post w/out needing approval

H9 - Marvin

9:09 PM

So @Stormblessed have we broken your notification inbox? ;p

@NeoDarwin careful, you squished two previous edits :/

lol

X12 is a Porg as well, da?

@Jenayah Yes

woops squished Ackbar

gonna fix that

this is impossible

9:17 PM

done

What do you mean

Squish?

@Mithrandir we're doing great so far. Ultimate Space Battle was a MESS

Neo... :(

Not identifying, getting an edit in

Just tell me what does Squish mean M

In this context?

Overriding previous edits

scifi.stackexchange.com/posts/205117/revisions

revisions 38 and 28

9:20 PM

Please fix my mistake

Stormtrooper in k10 and k9

Not k11 and k12

sheesh xD

Danke

uh @Mithrandir did we make the same edit? scifi.stackexchange.com/posts/205117/revisions rev 46/47

uhhh

we broke it :D

9:24 PM

nope, my edit vanished

@Mithrandir Yeah, it's empty! Weird

F3-4 - Diagona (Star Wars)

N8 - Rocket? (Guardians of the Galaxy)

K5, a lightsaber?

hand in L12?

hey that's the Orville thing

Q: 80/90s UK children's drama series about an "alien" boy with radio weapon

9:38 PM

1

I've been trying to track down a live-action children's TV series (or short story perhaps) from the 1980s or 1990s, probably on CBBC or CITV. A few people I've spoken to IRL have suggested The Boy from Space or Sky, but I'm pretty sure it's neither as a lot of the details don't seem to match. T...

story-identification time-travel tv

ah no it's not

hey that's a Stargate

Who are Paul and Alf?

well Paul is from Paul and Alf is from Alf

blue logo in G2... I know it but can't place it

H4 - Jeff Carlisle (I am totally serious)

Paul (film)

Paul is a 2011 British-American science-fiction road-comedy film directed by Greg Mottola and written by and starring Simon Pegg and Nick Frost. The film is about two science-fiction geeks who meet an extraterrestrial being, voiced by Seth Rogen, with a sarcastic manner and an appetite for alcohol and cigarettes. They help the alien escape the FBI agents pursuing him, so he is able to return to his home planet. The film contains numerous references to other science-fiction films, especially those of Steven Spielberg, as well as to general science-fiction fandom. Paul was released on 14 February...

This?

9:45 PM

yeah

Project ALF

Project: ALF (also known as Project: ALF, Part 2) is a 1996 American made-for-television science fiction film directed by Dick Lowry which serves as a sequel to the final episode "Consider Me Gone" of the 1986–1990 sitcom ALF. It was broadcast in the U.S. by ABC and in Canada on CHCH on February 17, 1996. The film was released on DVD in 2005.None of the original cast members of ALF were featured. The only actor to appear in both the series and movie is Paul Fusco, the voice and puppeteer of ALF, and Beverly Archer, who played Mrs. Byrd in the former and Dr. Carnage in the latter. Project ALF was...

This?

@Jenayah

ALF (TV series)

ALF is an American sitcom that aired on NBC from September 22, 1986, to March 24, 1990. The title character is Gordon Shumway, a sarcastic, friendly extraterrestrial nicknamed ALF (an acronym for Alien Life Form), who crash-lands in the garage of the suburban middle-class Tanner family. The series stars Max Wright as father Willie Tanner, Anne Schedeen as mother Kate Tanner, and Andrea Elson and Benji Gregory as their children, Lynn and Brian Tanner. ALF was performed by puppeteer Paul Fusco, who co-created the show with Tom Patchett.Produced by Alien Productions, ALF originally ran for four seasons...

but it's the same character

Q: Short story with a time loop initiated by aliens stuying humans for one million years

2

Back in the 80s I read a story in an anthology book, in which unseen aliens "invade" Earth and force everyone to relive the same day over and over. They do this in order to thoroughly study humanity and find out what makes us tick. At the end of 1 million years (!), the experiment will be over an...

story-identification short-stories time-travel

-1

Q: Did Horace Slughorn work with Dumbledore at other times?

So, all Potterheads like me know that Slughorn worked during Harry’s sixth year, and some think he worked during James and Lily’s years, but is it possible that he worked with Dumbledore at other times?

harry-potter movie

A: How to ask a good story-ID question?

well, off to diner. Hope that won't get too much of a mess by the time I come back :D

Rand al'Thor

0

Sorry, no idea what the anthology cover looks like. It's been 30 years since I read it!

This guy is very lost.

I blame @Jenayah :-P

Q: Sentient sword seeks out modern to fight ancient feud

10:10 PM

1

I read a novel in about 1980 about a guy who was sought out by a sentient sword (named Sapia? Sepia?) to continue an ancient feud. The guy was, unbeknownst to himself, a descendent of one warring faction and was being recruited to kill with the sentient sword descendants of the other warring fact...

story-identification

10:21 PM

what's the

that's new

Well... At least that proves he followed the link?

I mean, when you think of it, I've pointed to that guide... Probably ~200 times at least.

And I never got an Announcer badge, meaning, if I understand that correctly, that not even 25 persons went and checked it.

that would depend on how consistently you've been using the link with your ID

always.

so yeah

great...

At least 50 times with my current template; google.com/…

10:41 PM

@Randal'Thor do I still get upvote rep?

Q: Why are the Captain Marvel trailers portraying the Kree as heroic?

0

Here's what we know about the Kree so far in the MCU: From Guardians of the Galaxy, we've got Ronan, a warrior who's the villain because he upholds the ancient traditions of his people, and sees their recent peace treaty with Xandar as a betrayal of these principles and traditions. While he nev...

marvel-cinematic-universe

nope, it's CW

Duck

(hence why I voted before it was made ;) )

Hey, is that me or there's like zero video games so far?

The artist mentioned on Facebook that they were trying to get a higher res version up online somehow.

10:48 PM

that'd be great

Should characters only be mentioned for one square each?

@Jenayah Yeah, I think it's all movies

And TV

.stackexchange.com

@Stormblessed I think they should be mentioned in the cell they appear the most, with a comment along the lines of "continued in N4"

@Stormblessed meh... There's some great space stuff in video games too

Mass Effect

See comments: facebook.com/JeffCarlisleArt/…

@Jenayah I completed the trilogy just a few months ago, after having played the first two years ago.

Halo

the Dead Space ones

10:54 PM

@Jenayah Super Ducking MARIO GALAXY

that too

Best game ever

End of discussion :p

... FTL :D

@NapoleonWilson so? :)

Why do these humongous images always look like made for the sole purpose of...a SciFi.SE CW question?

@Jenayah I thought it worth mentioning (the implication was that I agree it's an excellent series).

@NapoleonWilson maybe the artist is hiding behind one of them pseudos... :P

@NapoleonWilson :thumbsup:

10:56 PM

@Jenayah Then it must be the one complaining the loudest about rep loss on the meta discussion. ;-)

And while I'm at it...

@Jenayah What if... I'M THE ARTIST (dramatic music)

COMMANDER SHEPARD - The song (OFFICIAL VIDEO) by Miracle Of Sound

►

@NapoleonWilson :P

And connecting back to an earlier much appreciated chat message, I hope you have seen the one with the Carpenter characters...and possibly contributed some answers.

@NapoleonWilson I spotted the "They Live We Sleep" tag (actually, I think that's even the first thing I spotted), still looking for others. I'm surprised not to see a Thing in this.

or are you talking about an other image?

11:00 PM

@Jenayah @Mithrandir @NapoleonWilson Anyone recognize the guy Tarfful (gray wookiee at K8) is strangling?

@Jenayah I'm talking about the image specifically for Carpenter films. It's an older question.

Q: What SF&F movies are referenced in this gif?

9

This adorably badass gif is the work of Truck Torrence, aka 100% Soft Obviously, the whole thing is a reference to John Carpenter's They Live, and it appears that all the references are to Carpenter films: The hamburger in snow on the sign at the bottom is a reference to John Carpenter's The T...

story-identification movie character-identification john-carpenter

nu-uh

way before my time for me to have participated :)

But... Let's see if there's some missing stuff in that ;D

@Stormblessed one of the Mars Attacks aliens, strayed off from his I10 companions?

I'm still stuck on that blue logo...

Anyone recognize the female Vulcan at H2?

11:07 PM

@Jenayah Which one?

The one right under the "They Live We Sleep" tag.

So...I assume that's not just the normal Pan Am logo then? ;-)

@Jenayah That's definitely Pan Am but with a spaceship

Pan Am, that's it. But IIRC it was adapted for a SFF show

NapoleonWilson is right

11:09 PM

I think I saw a question here about it...

2 hours ago, by Mithrandir

H2 - possibly T'Pol?

Pan American World Airways

@Jenayah 2001

Pan American World Airways, originally founded as Pan American Airways and commonly known as Pan Am, was the principal and largest international air carrier and unofficial flag carrier of the United States from 1927 until its collapse on December 4, 1991. It was founded in 1927 as a scheduled air mail and passenger service operating between Key West, Florida and Havana, Cuba. The airline is credited for many innovations that shaped the international airline industry, including the widespread use of jet aircraft, jumbo jets, and computerized reservation systems. It was also a founding member of...

I assume all the things I see have been found by other people already anyway.

@Stormblessed YES!

A fictional Pan Am "Space Clipper,"[145] a commercial spaceplane called the Orion III, had a prominent role in Stanley Kubrick's film 2001: A Space Odyssey and was featured prominently in one of the movie's posters.

11:11 PM

go edit it :)

What abound the logos around Zorg, behind the Diva?

Is that the dude from the Mr. Roboto music video by Styx? O_O

where?

Next to the Atari logo on the left?

deffo

go edit, along with Atari ;)

Who is the fellow in D10?

11:16 PM

> You're wondring who I am, machine or manakin?
> With parts made in Japan, I am the modren man!

He's not Auto from Wall E, I think

Is it the robot from Jabba's barge/palace?

> I've got a secret, I've been hiding...under my skin.
> My heart is human, my blood is boiling...my brain IBM.

No, not that

Guy in D12 looks like Martian Manhunter when looking quickly...

@Jenayah You can take the honours, I'll just continue listening to an awesome song. ;-)

11:18 PM

@Jenayah Yup

Alright

J7. Clown looks familiar.

And now I'm trapped in my 80s playlist, hmpf! o_O

> At school they taught me how to be, so pure in thought and word and deed...they didn't quite succeed!

Is L9 Jessica Atreides from the Lynch Dune? The clothes seem off but the haircut is quite telling.

Q: Fantasy book, group of women meets group of (mercenaries?) men, has a shipwreck scene

0

I've tried to find it a few times by Google, no luck. I read it at my public library once in highschool (15 years ago?), it was in the fantasy section, right in the middle so I assume the author was somewhere in the middle of the alphabet. It's a small library so they get rid of books that aren't...

story-identification books

Wow, people are really slow, I thought all the obvious ones I found would already be answered. That question is 4 hours old.

11:32 PM

deffo, even the pose is right

@Jenayah Heh, true.

First result for "Jessica Atreides"... We know which model artist used ;)

The Gigolo bot from AI, the bad guy from Galaxy Quest.

Odd that there's Pierce Brosnan and Sarah Jessica Parker but no actual Martians.

there are Martians

from Mars Attacks

Oh, but somewhere else then? They seem to cluster stuff together. All the Babylon 5 people are in one place.

11:36 PM

yeah sec

K9 and I10

I think

SW stuff is all over the place ;)

Oh, yes, K9 indeed.

not sure who's the lady behind (still K9). Uniform looks Star Trek-y.

Gheez, that's tedious to edit. Can't we just all give one-line answers? ;-P

Right...

Asking for trouble much? :D

@Jenayah From the haircut, that might actually be Paul Atreides himself...in pre-Muadib Atreides attire?

Oh god, and some people use brackets without italics while others use comma with italics. :'(

11:42 PM

possibly.

@NapoleonWilson hm?

And some give years while others don't. Think I'll better stick to chat and don't engage in the editing mess. ;-)

@Jenayah In the individual edits.

gonna have to give an example, I'm afraid

W7 is Arthur Dent from the most recent HHGTIYLFGJHFO or whatever.

@NapoleonWilson meh we'll sort it out at some point... When the adrenaline goes down

Is L6 Tintin (from 2011)? @Jenayah

11:45 PM

The dude from Galaxy Quest is in KL7.

The Gigolo bot (Jude Law) from AI is in LM6. I wonder where the kid is, though.

@Stormblessed haven't checked yet but I doubt it, not much space stuff in the comics, not a single thing in the movie IIRC

@Jenayah yeah, none in the movie

I never read those comics, but I loved the movie

no, that's definitely not Tintin, the tuft isn't tufty enough

Heh, someone even copied my colloquial use of the word "dude". You know, that's not actually that...dude's name. ;-)

Awww, a cute bird thingy from The Last Jedi.

the Porgs?

@NapoleonWilson I copy-pasted your chat message. Blame yourself for not being specific enough :D

11:52 PM

@Jenayah I was...chatty. ;-)

I was lazy :D

@Jenayah I figured, looking at the formating mistake. ;-P

oh, where?

The list isn't a list, but all in one line, right behind the letter.

Same for H3.

And G2.

And H5.

and how did that make you figure... what?

11:56 PM

@Jenayah It was a jokey response to your "I was lazy" message. I figured...your laziness. Like in...to figure (out) something, to guess.

<--------- completely lost