I will admit I never read the story the first time around (By the time I had returned you had already posted at least 3 excerpts and I felt too lazy to dig them all up) but now that I have read it, it is pretty good.
Credit for my various avatars goes to Dashwood,Cealocanth,Kwarkpudding,Randomizer,kpengu in,Alarra,Bisected8,zimmerwald1915, and Thanqol.