Welcome to Drakken Hallows
I
miss working at game studios because even in boring tasks you feel more alive. So,
I have been putting stories and art up here over the years. This site is
older than some of the people visiting it. While exploring my ancestry in May
of 1998, I was asked to come up with a name for a new branch of my family
house. I had just found out the people who told me I was not adopted but
their son despite looking nothing like them, lied to me and I was British by
birth. I wanted to rage but it would solve no point, so I looked into my
actual ancestry.
My mom side are the Harris family of Northern Ireland related to the queen
who just pasted. My father a child of church hill who had moved to the US to
get away from politics in the United Kingdom. They had a son without being
US citizens, so they got deported and I became a ward of the
state of Pennsylvania.
I did not find out until I was on a mission for the Department of Defense
because my pregnant girlfriend needed money for something and the military
would not advance me money against my salary but let me plan what
is called a suicide mission. Meaning the way, it was planned it was
assumed that greater than 60 percent loss of life. I had three choices one
the government of Belarus had a drug dealer problem. They asked Russia, and Russia
told them to stop whining. They asked the US and whoever planned wanted to
backpack across Europe which besides taking years to walk that far would
have gotten them arrested in the first country because unlike the US the EU
does not like long guns, only pistols. The other two options looked bad. So,
I am thinking the way to look like this is not a military operation is
pretend to be playboys pretending to be military. I got them to advance me the
20 grand operating expense and went to baileys grand in Atlantic city
about an hour away from McGuire where I was stationed.
I wanted to see if I could pull off a gambler image. They had
a pinochle tournament going on and while they said they were normal card
decks on the blackjack table I ran the river about every forth hand I
started with 20 grand at 8 am and by 1030pm had 250,000 or so being one of
those people that always takes half my winning and puts it in the other pocket
so to speak I cashed out 123,098 dollars and got a tax receipt and left it
in the room they comped me as a high roller. In 1998 it was a stupid amount of
money. I got up to six million the second day and they told me they would not
give me a marker or nothing but I got to keep the money I cashed out the first
day so I took the money not wanting to get banned and screw up the mission I
planned before it even started. It also gave me the idea that bringing a few
sealed pinochle decks might not be a bad idea. So having the plan to rent high
end cars and drive across Europe gambling no one had a clue we were military.
To most of Europe military guys were low paid grunts.
Someone at headquarters put the team together. I ran into Earle and Ryan in California
in 2009 and other than getting older, neither changed much. We had a Hawaiian
woman on our team, but I have not tracked her down to get her permission to
mention her. So, we land in Aviano AB Italy.
The first thing we did was go off base and buy some fashion clothing at a store
my high school art teacher suggested because she had had designs one year at
fashion week. We spent more money than we would have in the US for clothes. I
had leather pants, a rayon shirt, and boots. There were jokes by my team, but
it helped when renting the car the dealership ignored them when they walked up
and greeted me and asked what I was looking for. I wanted a shiftronic Porsche
because I had read about them. They had 1997 911 939 Porsche Tiptronic model.
Once they came back from the store, we bought clothes at and this time asked
the girl what to wear, they got helped right away. Earle wanted a Ferrari and Ryan
wanted a Lambo. I remember them laughing at me for my choice, up until our fourth
member opened her mouth and did something so stereotypical of woman at the
time, she asked for an automatic. I thought the guy renting us the cars was
going to have a stroke. I said you can ride with me the car I got is basically
a paddle shifter with an ecu. She looked at me and said “that means what? I
grinned and said I feel special it means it drives like a car should and lets
you decide if the car is going to shift for you or let you override it when you
need it.
So we go back into the base and make our first report to update everything is
smooth sailing. We find out that gambling in Europe is very different. One in
most casinos everyone was their own bank and if a person won, they got paid by
everyone else and what would be the house in the US only made chips and sometimes
delt the cards.
So I want to see piccadilly circle with the punk rockers so while Earle and Ryan
go visit Amsterdam, I drive up to the ferry and cross into the UK. I am looking
at the punk rockers and get arrested for impersonating a member of nobility
with the police officer saying I had plastic surgery because I have scars from
wearing a halo when I broke my neck.
I spend may through June in a suite. A nice set of rooms but a cell for all
intents and purposes while they did the DNA based on blood samples they had of my
parents’ birth parents. I got to meet the queen when it was almost done, and
she said you look like your mother. Of course, I said my mom’s never been to
the UK. She said we will see. I am right of course. She was which led into
distracting from what I was supposed to be doing to an extreme level. I didn't
have a time frame and cell phones and social media didn't exist yet. I couldn't
visit only living uncle because he was out of the country at the time and the
further ones I met. Then when I asked about my father family one of the assistants
assigned to help me while the British government decided what to do with me,
made arrangement for me to travel to Denmark and Sweden. I don't remember Denmark
as it was almost thirty years ago and Sweden was a major impact on my life. I
get to Sweden and they are not willing to let me in the country, as Benjamin is
the name of saint and not a legal name but the paperwork from the UK said my
father held swede citizenship. This was such a crazy problem so I said do I
have to legally change my name and can I change it back? At which point on, the
people involved say you are willing to change your name just to visit our country?
I said for sure. This led to a bit of back and forth and visiting Norway where
some of the linguists were working on recreating old Norse as modern day Norsk.
The number of old grey-haired guys calling me boy must have stuck because I
decided to see what I could create starting there.
Benjamin being a saint’s name but Borde being close and byo being an actual
rune, I decided to upgrade saint to divine. I might have been in a mood
but took a play on Greek rain that got women pregnant. When I was a freshman in
high school my girlfriend and her girlfriend went to a concert and promptly got
adopted by the band and we toured with them until they recorded the next album.
So women just slept with me for reasons I will likely never understand.
So it was divine water falling through the blessing dawn upon the killing
waters cold waters of the northern fjords in the presence of a grand waterfall.
Byö Ord eth/Ð aseir or Byórðæįr the ö becomes ó when two in a row.
Byö or bring your own
Ord or Óðr as the word of God or the husband of Freyja or Freya
eth or ð / Ð meaning this
Æsir or æįr meaning the Gods and Goddess of the Norse Icelandic and
Germanic pantheon
Ya old Norse when you write it as runes is almost as bad as kanji in the
different meanings it takes as it gets concatenated.
I visited Bergin because one of the linguists lived there and pictures of it
now are crazy, it looks like it has been a developed city for centuries but in July
of 1998 it was a fishing village with one car and a tractor.
So, on paper I am Norwegian and Swede citizens under the name Byórðæįr
Vas'Ðrakken I fly back to the UK and get sent to an assembly in Northern
Ireland. They were talking about how to pay their taxes, and I thought one
woman was being forced to marry her brother so I said rather than have you
marry your brother if you need a suitable husband, I will marry you. She
grinned and said nay not having to marry my brother, but I will take you up on
the marriage offer if you’re serious. I found myself married and back on
mission shortly. I was supposed to be back in the UK once my military service
was up in august of 2001. I still need to get back there and fix things. Even
it means making sure she gets have of the money the publisher was paying me for
my novels published in the UK.
I got to Belarus and we talked to the government people and they talked in
circles but ended up giving us rough directions but didn't want to send anyone
with us in case we pissed her off more. So, we are in what felt like a tavern
out of novel complete with huge rifle over the fireplace, trying to find out
information about the drug dealer and if she was real and actually terrorizing
the region. It took a week, but we finally found someone willing to tell us
anything and he told us to go up the opposite slope and look through binoculars
you should see enough. Only I didn't have anything like that because I just
didn't think of it. I was so worried about not getting shot by the Russians
that I didn't have a plan other than go there and ask questions. I asked the
bar tender who was also the owner if the scope and I could buy it. He laughed
at me and said it is not for sale but if you steal and leave with 10,000 dollars,
I will not say anything until you’re long gone. You have to steal the whole
thing not just the scope. Earle went of a tirade, and I cut him off and said it
is only money I have a bag full we don't want them killed before she is dealt
with. He blinked and said oh. We left the money on the bar when we went to
sleep that night and sometime during the night there was note slipped under the
door to dig through the wood pile for our missing luggage. We got the rifle and
went up the slope, and this is something I had to piece together after the fact
because what we set in motion fixed Belarus for the better part of twenty
years. I looked through the scope and saw a woman in a bloody smock and a pair
of fireplace tongs shoved into the belly of what looked like a solider of Belarus.
I reacted and pulled the trigger talking to Earle and Ryan later they said I
pulled a magic trick and the bright light that happened when I fired the 16 mil
Russian anti-tank gun at the plate glass window looked like flash of light in
the early hours of the morning. It took a lot longer to get up to the position
the local had told us to use to look across the valley and I talked to people
who decided God smote the devil, and dozen similar themes including the US
military and flow into the valley and bombed the villa. I don't know when I got
back, I got pulled into the briefing where the US military uses a polygraph
machine with an extra lead that when you talk about what they want you to
forget they press the button and you get shocked on all fingers causing the neurons
in your brain to cloud over and potentially crack. I couldn't be hypnotized so
that was what they did. The women doing that one was very new at it, and I got
shocked at random times and forget my kids’ names and birthdays by Michelle
thorsteinson-richards her phone number and address and the account number of
the account where I stashed the gambling profits in Chișinău, Moldova. The
joke is on everyone as most of it is Gold Press from the French Mint and there
is not that many of us left that have ancestry to French nobility that were not
killed during the French revolution, that can cash the stupid things at full
value. I had two left in my luggage when I got back and military seized
anything I did not have documented, but they decided they were casino tokens,
so I shrugged and went with it. Michelle tried cashing them at the airport and
in New York City and got a two-million-dollar red dress and lingerie. She
freaked when she realized what they were actually worth. But I was told by my
boss that I could not approve any more leave for myself until I had spent six
months actually at my command doing my job. This did result in me having six
months of leave saved up when I got out in 2001.
I got out the military when I got in a pissing match if I told the truth to my
chief when I said I was on the list to move off base with my girlfriend and
then didn't mention she had already decided to stay in NJ for the education but
likely more because her grandmother was living there able to take care of the
kids when she needed a night off.
I worked with René when he came down to cater an event for the 305 Aerospace
Medical squadron and there ended up more people than he was told and setup was
not done so I sent two people that I didn't trust to do it by themselves and put
together they would get everything needed. I offered to cut potatoes or whatever
René needed. He was impressed to see a squadron commander roll up his sleeves
and wash and peel potatoes. So, when the event was done, he said the Salsbury
steak style cheeseburgers were divine anytime you’re tired of playing soldier
boy come work for me.
So, I am supposed to be doing a bunch of different things depending on who you
asked but the chief who used the commander was called back to the pentagon
likely to talk about the problems the unified weather forecasting hubs were
causing. Chuck said you’re the commander right. Apparently, they were supposed
to have me put on my officer reserve rank hat again and hold the fort until Randolph
sent someone new. Instead, the chief got an old army buddy to out-process me as
honorable separation. I wanted it to be done and just went with it. I had a
bunch of stuff that didn't get done before they signed off on the paperwork
like paying my travel card. So, I drove to my foster parents’ house in Manahawkin
from Tucson Arizona, I took my time to see some sites, and I was on terminal leave,
and no one was telling me what to do. So, I got the Manahawkin on the 10th of September
2001 at 830 at night and called René up and said I'm not going to be awake tomorrow
to start work can we push it back a week. He laughed and said for you anytime.
I will be here. The next morning, I got a call from my foster mom to turn
on the tv. I said nothing was on when I surfed through the channels and my
computer is still packed in my car. Just some movie in bad taste. She said it
is real. I'm half asleep so it takes a few minutes to realize she is saying the
plane hitting the towers on the TV really happened. I was almost at the top of
the one tower starting work as a chef at the restaurant at the top of the
world.
Clearly, I have something I have to do. No idea what it might just be design
the best MMO ever. Who knows.
I have a couple pages I'm in the process of cleaning up and updating. The about
me and dev history are the crazy impact I had on the industry. Pivotal points
in gaming changed because of little things I did or said. Usually, I just
didn't stop, and someone got angry at something, and I had to move to the next
project and or company.
The MMO persona page was wow and final fantasy 14 chars and harry potter char.
I updated the wow stuff, but I have like sixty characters but really play about
five and use more for crafting. I leveled a bunch of characters during the
legion remix when it was about two hours to max level. Final Fantasy 14 I have
been playing since the beta like with world of warcraft. In final fantasy I was
the only western player in the group players to make it to level fifty for each
job first. The western client was six months behind the Japanese one, so it was
my stubbornness that got my paladin to fifty through the class quest which got
fixed later. We had a special effect on our teleports, and I said it was wrong
to hold something like that to a handful of players sure it would be cool but
as soon as we use it we will be hated by the entire server. The other players
agreed with me and Yoshida said done all players get it. Now that we have
said it live in front of fan fest we cannot go back on it. I grinned and said
just make them earn it and laughed. That caused the developers to look at stuff
like special gear a little different there is still stuff that is crazy to get
but if you’re willing to work at it you can get most stuff even later after the
events are over. Though you may have to pay for it or wait for the event to
happen again. There is less fear of missing out.
So one last thing when I was at Ocean College in 2003, I was working side jobs
to pay for my living expenses and went to a seminar on windows 2003 server. I
went because they were raffling off a copy of server 2003. I was in the
presentation and it was duller than can be and went outside the room the presentation
was in to go to the bathroom and when I came back to go in, I ran into a young-looking
guy and was talking to him when he said could have given me a copy, he was interested
in what we were speaking about. I blinked and said “how do you have it is not
out yet. He said I am Bill Gates. I laughed and said you look nothing like the
picture of Bill Gates. Which was right behind him. The joke was on me when I
came back out after not winning the raffle he showed me his driver’s license
and he was bill gates, but he got me to give my contact info to Bill Nelson who
was added as contact to my MCP Microsoft certified Professional profile as a
contact. When Xbox came out, he was on my friends list. Which was fine until I
slept with his daughter at SIGGRAPH 2013 the right brain left brain one, and
she asked for my Xbox profile not my phone number, but I figured I didn't have
any friends in my friends list they were all on steam. Only for her to come
back maybe ten minutes later screaming why do you have my father in your
friends list. I blink and say there shouldn't be anyone in my friends list I
play on steam mostly.
The long and short that killed the relationship but both were in my list until
I was having a bad time and tried getting ahold of arulian when I was having
trouble the VA was trying to fix the damage the polygraph machines did when I
was active duty and I needed a next of kin. Major Nelson shows up in any Xbox
game I play as a friend still. I just came across photos of her last night
I have to figure what site I have them on.