Since our GM fails to actually show up when he says he's going to, I'll just explain what we talked about in his stead. >.> The path leads down to a sort of natural bridge made of stone. THAT is where we're fighting the Basilisk. Jumping downward is taking you somewhere entirely different as the path winds downward, but to the side of the cliff. Basically, Abel should just take the path or he'll be out of the loop for the battle.

Gotcha.

It is unfortunate that I'm running into so many hurdles with you two. I don't mean to, honestly. I guess I'm just trying to do things too differently. I'll have Abel follow along with the others more closely in the future, and since he's a follower by nature it shouldn't really mess with his character.

It's no big deal, really. If it gets to be a problem, we'll talk. For now, I'm happy you're sticking to Abel's character, against what the given route is. We're just trying to guide you in the right direction so you aren't left out of the loop if it deviates too much, y'know? Shouldn't be an issue going forward and we'll try to be more descriptive of what we're doing in the future, like specifying where the path leads instead of just leaving it to assumptions. I figure the last bit was just because Killa wrote it in a way where you thought it descended downward in a zigzag pattern rather than down and to the side of the cliff like he meant for it.

What's that? I managed to post before anyone asked me to?!



But um yes I posted.

*golf clap*



Good job.

Just letting everyone know, I'm gonna be the last one to post in this round since Nevin is the last to go down the path. So no need to wait for me. I think we're gonna do a full round of posts and then move on with the story in Killa's post.

Not really sure what I can do, to be honest. Do I just file out onto the greater space with everyone else?

If you really aren't sure what to do, you don't have to post. I mostly just stopped my post where I did because Ryu and Hero hadn't given me enough leeway to place them at the bridge myself. So once one or both of them have moved themselves down the path, I can move things ahead from there.

Had/having a busy weekend. Will post to get things moving as soon as I can (though probably not today or tomorrow... my busyness has not yet ended D: )

Cool beans.

Well, the internet sucks at my job, so instead of watching youtube (or watching it buffer, rather...) I decided to post while I was on my lunch break.

I am attempting to coordinate with Ryu for his next post. Real life is making it difficult... hopefully we'll manage something soon. One of us shall keep all y'all updated if any further hiccups delay things. I don't foresee it taking too much longer though as it's not that big of a thing.

I posted since Ryu's and Abel's posts kind of required some follow up from me.

What we need next is an Abel post, since he was supposed to be following behind Amalger, and then an Aurelia post because otherwise she's gonna be sitting out the fight if she don't do something soon. :P

You got it. I'll have one up tomorrow morning.

I will post today too (hopefully) :D

I'm gonna make all your lives a little easier when you're posting. It's become apparent that you all have assumed that you can't control the basilisk at all. While I appreciate you all erring on the side of caution, you can have some control so you can conclude your own posts during the fight.

As long as you follow a few guidelines, you can do what you want.

1. No killing it. (that's for me and Ryu to handle. Don't worry, you'll all be involved too.)
2. No causing massive wounds. (This thing is built like a tank)
3. No removing it from the bridge.

I'm pretty sure you can all handle writing reasonable outcomes for your attacks. Me and Ryu have spoken at some length with regards to this battle, so if you're not sure if what you have in mind for a post would be OK, just ask one of us. Also the edit button is a thing, and I'd rather you feel free to make a cool post that needs some minor tweaking than make a lame post that's "acceptable." :P

I don't mean to create a fuss, but you did only give us permission to control lower ranked Grimm.

That aside, I'm having trouble feeling motivated to post after reading that message. The way you spoke about us controlling the Basilisk sounds like we're just posting to post. It seems like our attacks have no impact, and our posts serve no purpose. I don't see how me describing Gwyn's attacks on the Basilisk, and how the creature responds contributes anything to the RP. It just feels useless.

Ryu's mentioned several times that this fight is to show the disparity between the teams. I get that. I don't mind having my character be useless, but I have a hard time wanting to post when it seems like my post doesn't accomplish anything. There's a difference between having my character be useless and having my post be useless. With what you're saying, we could feasibly get away without even bothering to read each other's posts.

I know, that's why I realized I should tell you all that you can have more leeway now. I'm not exactly saying take control of the battle, but I'm not gonna stop you from writing out the effects of your own actions.

And considering I just opened the door for more leeway, you can't blame me if your posts are "useless." Talk to me, talk to Ryu, talk to the other RPers. Work together with someone and make something happen. That's why we have an OOC section (and PMs if you don't want to give everything away). Aside from the killing blow, I'm up for just about anything happening when the rest of you post.

Come up with an idea, run it by the rest of us if you feel the need to, and then go for it and make sure we can't just ignore each others posts.

I would really like for this OOC section to be a little less dead. It's probably not helping with what you just brought up that it is so at the moment.

And I realize that my own habits probably aren't helping either, it's an issue I'm constantly working at to try and leave more leeway for others to make things happen. It's why I'm kinda torn when Lugu throws a wrench into things. I like the spontaneity, but I also don't want the whole plot-line derailed.

Sorry if I came across poorly at any point.

In response to Martyr's concerns, I kind of agree. I know we said you can't control the bigger Grimm, but I think we were talking more in terms of the way we dealt with Beowulves or Ursa. We didn't want flocks of Nevermore swooping in and getting demolished in an instant, for example. As it stands, our team wouldn't be that skilled and, either way, it's unlikely that hordes of big ones like that would be around at this stage. This is mainly miscommunication. For future reference, you can control the big ones to an extent. You can play out its attack to show that you dodge it or you can reference the effect your attack had on it. Just don't pose any huge blows, such as dismembering or killing it, unless you check with us.

Like, with the Basilisk. Its skin is rock hard and our blades can't pierce it. So it'd be too much to say you cleaved into it, for instance. In reference to Gwyn's last post, if you wanted to say something along the lines of it lashing out with its tongue to knock a few of the boomerangs away, that's perfectly acceptable. This battle is meant to be impossible because Killa wants to draw a line from where we are and what our ending goal is. His team is clearly stronger, but our team has more room to grow. We won't see clear results until end game, but he wanted to set that starting point for us.

That being said, Martyr's concern is a real one. Our posts more or less have no meaning in terms of a battle. Killa knows how the fight ends, regardless of what we do now. So, instead, I wanted to focus on posts on something else. I only came up with this reason a short while ago, hence not commenting on it immediately, but I figured it gave a little more credit to our responses than just posting for the sake of posting. As things stand, our team is a cell of four strangers, albeit connected through Nevin's Semblance. While this gives them better synergy, understanding what the others are going for, it doesn't mean that they'll all listen. Nevin is also going to grow through the RP and his Semblance hasn't reached its peak yet. So it's not too farfetched to say that the others might not trust his judgement quite yet. I think that should be the focus on our posts for the time being. Individual personalities outshining the effects of his Semblance. Our characters aren't really a team yet. We essentially have four sets of two strangers each that happen to be working together. As far as anyone else knows, the mention of the two similar types of stones is just guesswork rather than any legitimate claim that they're a full team. Plus, as I've stated, they're strangers. No need for them to immediately trust the judgement and battle prowess of seven people they've never met before.

Anyway, just a thought. I figured, if we don't have much say in the battle itself, we may as well gear our posts towards character development. It helps outline where our team needs to concentrate their effort on and work on improving those areas to have a better end result. Any other ideas, feel free to throw them out there. Was just trying to brainstorm a way to make it feel a bit more needed than the way Martyr described how she feels about her posts.

Ryu explains it well. The only thing I'd say is that while the outcome, to this particular battle, is more or less set in stone, the steps leading to the end can be wildly different depending on what you come up with.