I think Aemoten is is decidedly between "please just let me pass out somewhere" and generally not thinking all that much since he isn't really able to, and being intent on reaching Zerul as quickly and painlessly as possible (which also includes doing whatever Etakar wants because, well, Etakar doesn't actually obey anyone and it is easier to just go for it [also plot reasons]).

Jack, do Jaelnec and Olan stay back or move along? Do you think either of them would initiate conversation before Domhnall, Iridiel or Aemoten (or Etakar does whatever he would do next)? Might help with figuring out where to leave that other half-post and how far we take things...

Sorry for the delay! Moving back into the things of "normality" took a little longer than expected.

Floor's all yours, Yoshua!

Well, I'll have to fill in for those two during the fast-forward, of course, but I don't think either of them would engage the other group in current time.

Am I to assume they'll stay back enough to not be visible for Iridiel and Domhnall (as I figure is the case with Thaler)? Or will they (or either of them) at least come along (and stay mounted)?

Olan will stay by Thaler, wherever she ends up being, and will probably dismount, whereas Jaelnec will go with Aemoten to meet them, only dismounting if Aemoten does so as well.

^ Any updates on that thing you mentioned in the collab?

Hey folks. I'm sorry for not having shown much of a lifesign these past few weeks, but I've actually been quite badly ill, and couldn't do much of anything, thus also not writing any kind of post. The good news is that I did not actually die, so I can get back to business as usual. Which is probably still quite slow, but not as bad. Will get to a Prophecy post really soon though.

Damn, Ashgan. Since you are somewhat passive presence to begin with I quite did not suspect something might have happened to you (not yet, anyway ... though I'd probably have tried to track you down once I realized you've been a bit *too* quiet for a bit *too* long). I hope whatever it was is gone for good now...

...Just some time ago, I was actually wondering whether I should gather phone numbers and contacts from/for at least a few people I know over the net just to have some alternative means of reaching them, and if that doesn't work, either, to be able to reach someone who knows them in real life just so I'd have some means of getting to know what happened or is going on should they suddenly disappear off the face of the net entirely and no longer respond to even e-mails. I'd hopefully never need such contacts, and I am not going to use them unless I have to, but at least those would be there.
- Note that as soon as someone informs me that they do not wish any further contact, I will leave them alone for good... At least letting people know that you're breaking contact rather than just disappearing without any sort of closure and leaving people wondering whatever they did wrong or what happened is also something I consider minimal human courtesy.
(As for why I was having such thoughts ... a person over the net's online friend was taken to hospital in a serious condition recently, and I've been following the progress of things since... And relatedly I realized that there are people I care about to significant extent who could just disappear at one point if anything happened to them, but for me making a dedicated and slightly dubiously legal effort to track them down.)

So yeah. As for me, I'm still sort-of intending to finish our collab-post-thing with the aid of others, just been a bit preoccupied and also somewhat foggy and demotivated. (May be weather, may be something else. Not ill, though, nor physically tired - just thinking doesn't work too well. Feels like Spain.)

Sorry for the delay! Moving back into the things of "normality" took a little longer than expected.

Floor's all yours, Yoshua!

Noted, real busy for today and tomorrow, but I'll see if I can get up a post soon.

So, I've made some space in my RPing schedule. Though, if I'm being honest (which of course I am), I plan to start school again during the second part of the summer. I don't think it will hinder my RPing much, but you can never be too sure about these things.

Either way, I wanted to briefly apologize for my earlier hesitancy: Sorry. I'm sure you understand.

Secondly, I wanted to know if now would be a good time to inject Gregory back into the story. I haven't caught up in the IC entirely, so I'm not sure where you are currently. But that can be ascertained rather easily; can't it?

The main group is in Zerul and on way to the city by the same name (currently at last stop before Zerul City, just to pick a couple of individuals up), the people they're going to meet up are in Zerul City. I'd say Zerul City would be the best place to put Gregory in (he'd most likely be seeing the rest of the people "tomorrow" morning).

(Hmm... Once I get that other half of my post up, I assume it'd be Jack's turn with Jaelnec and Olan? Also this week has been a bit ... busy, to say the least.)

I probably should have posted already - I have been in the "should post" stage for some time, actually - but somehow it has not stricken me as urgent enough to warrant setting aside time in my (also) rather busy schedule these days to do so. I'll get it done - when it's necessary if not before - but until the exam rush is over, my presence may be slightly erratic.

That aside, I feel that I must regale you all with a tale that stands as an example of my life, all completely true. I've just returned from celebrating my parents' wedding (apparently my father decided that they should be married on their 30th anniversary), and as is custom on such occasions I opted to wear my best suit. The ceremony went nicely, as did the reception - which lasted around four or so hours - , and despite of numerous close calls and plentiful foodstuffs with toppings and the like that could easily spill and stain my suit, I got through it all without as much as a crumb getting on it. Once my parents friends and our more distant relatives departed the reception, our closest family was all that remained for a less formal dinner. Note that at this point I felt certain in my achievement and took off my suit jacket and unbuttoned my shirt, allowing myself a little reprieve from the tension of wearing expensive clothes.
As it would happen, however, about half an hour after my decision, the others seemed to decide that they wanted several series of pictures taken in the garden of the newlyweds, including a series with their children and grandchild, including me, posing with them. So I put the jacket back on and fixed my clothes, to look nice for the last time of the day before I could finally relax.
I went outside to find my parents already being photographed, and took up position by the house - a fair distance from the outcropping roof, and far from any adjacent trees, it should be noted - and waited for the imminent time when I would be required to stand beside them. It was a chilly afternoon, and the bright green of the willow behind my parents stood in sharp contrast to the gray sky, and stray strands of hair kept being stolen away from my ponytail and float eagerly on the lively winds of the day. The air smelled damp, as there had been a number of brief rainfalls throughout the day. The only sounds that could be heard were those of cameras clicking and my family quietly conversing.
Then I feel something like a light tap on my right shoulder, hear a subtle "tuck" and think I register movement by the right side of my head. Confusedly I look behind me, thinking that someone threw a small stick at me (which was the source I found the best match between the sound and feeling), but there was no one there. Next (with a delay of maybe a second) I grew annoyed that someone would throw something at me like that when I was wearing my best suit. Then I noticed there was something on the suit, on my right shoulder, and wondered what a small stick could have left on it.
I looked. Threw off my jacket to hold it in front of me to get a better look, exclaiming (loosely translated to English): "That just isn't happening!"
After the entire day, after I had taken it off and set it aside, after having survived numerous hazards that could have stained my suit, after having put it back on and gone outside - away from everything that should have posed a risk towards it - and about to pose for a picture with my parents... a passing bird decided to take a shit on me. On my shoulder, down my back, in my freakin' ponytail; birdshit everywhere. Needless to say, this was a recurring joke told throughout the evening. How unlikely was that? they would marvel, laughing all the while. I was lucky because it was so unlikely. Yeah.
And the moral of the story is this: if you wear an expensive suit, the entire universe is going to make sure it gets stained. And: I am an exceptionally lucky person, apparently. Sure doesn't feel like it, though.

Well, there is a saying about getting rich when a random bird happens to shit on you...
(Though indeed, luck seems to be one of things the definition of which seems to vary greatly from person to person.)

That seems to be the thing with clothes... The more you seem to care about not getting anything on said garment and the more special the occasion has to be for it to be brought out, the more likely it is that something will happen to it. (If you think more carefully, you realize things vaguely like that in the purely mechanical happen usually too, but those things aren't exactly memorable. Quite some years ago now, I happened to witness something mildly similar - I was talking to the person at the time -, but not at a wedding, or any too significant event, just in front of a mall where we and our group were waiting for the bus, and he was not wearing anything more significant than a rain jacket ... but that's something I'd never have had the reason to dig up from my memory if there was not some resemblance. People just stand in the wrong places every now and then, and birds or their byproducts aren't exactly uncommon (ask any car).)
...I sometimes wear those business-jacket-things (whatever you classify those as - one is actual women's suit jacket, one I don't even know what tries to be as it's definitely not the material you'd expect for something formal, and so on and so forth...) - not at home but for when I just haven't bothered to change clothes yet, but quite often when I have to go out for semi-official reasons, especially if I have to actually talk in front of the people (most of said people couldn't care less what I wore, so I could just stick to my typical jeans and T-shirt and it'd make no difference, but I suppose something or other of societal expectations has stuck around and throwing a jacket on in addition isn't that much of an extra effort). During university I used to do occasionally wear something like that just because, at other times being fully casual (there were actually a surprising number of people - both men and women - who wore suits daily, whereas the rest seemingly just showed up wearing whatever they had had on at home). In the end, I tend to quite often show up to formal events in clothing that I wear anyway.
For the most glamorous events, I'll, however, put on a black dress - yes, I do actually wear dresses and skirts, if rarely, though not really casually, as those simply get in the way of sitting and even walking a bit too much for my tastes. (I also wear jewelry, mainly silver and black silver - rings on my right hand, earrings, necklace, more rarely bracelets -, and that on daily basis. What I never do, though, is wear makeup, and not because I don't bother to put it on - leaving the looks-debate aside, it just has this rather distinctly unpleasant stale smell and furthermore I can't really not absentmindedly wipe the damn dust and muck off my face. If I somehow manage to keep it from traveling onto my sleeve, I'll soon want to run my fingernails over my face just to get it off. Also, the right side of your nose itches now. As does a spot on your left cheekbone, and one above your right eyebrow. And the left corner of your mouth. And then a couple more random places all over your face. And you think you might have somehow gotten some dust in your eye...)
But I am digressing. In any case, nothing has ever happened to either the black dress or the likewise black formal jackets, though there certainly have been plenty of opportunities and plenty of things show quite well on black, too. The one time I decide to wear a fairly expensive light-colored skirt gifted to me to an event with rather strictly upper-end dresscode, though? I somehow manage to get something on it not sure when or what) which I am now quite certain cannot be removed without melting the fabric. Naturally. I guess I should take the hint and stick to black formal clothing as the world doesn't want me displaying any other color on those occasions ... either that, or whatever deity is responsible for such coincidences has long given up on trying to watch me when I am wearing something black and formal because I do it anyway. (Though, my white pants seemed to survive the few events I've attended them quite fine ... I suppose there really is no sense in trying to make up a logic.)
- The first thing I thought of when I saw suits mentioned, though, was that any person wearing such here on what is now yesterday would probably risked heatstroke or worse, given that the weather here has decided that I'm now living in Spain. I actually took a cold shower a couple of times, and then sat around trying not to water damage keyboards and hoping that my own long hair, being wet, would keep me cooler for at least for a while. (Helped, too, but only for about twenty minutes at a time. Actually dried off that quickly...) I even considered moving my main working station downstairs, but in the end decided that migrating the entire setup would be a bit more trouble than it's worth. Ah well, at least it is night now, and back to what can be described as reasonable T-shirt weather. At 3 AM.

(But I shall go to sleep now and cease my rambling. Probably sleep in the guest room, since my usual bedroom faces east-south-east...)

@The New Yorker: Would you prefer a scene set up for your character, or would you like to introduce him yourself (provided Jack's not asked you in PM or you him)?

So I'll get a post up tomorrow barring I forget or something equally troublesome. Just a bit overwhelmed from work and keeping up with a whole slew of other things.

Sorry for the wait.

Apologies for the double post, but I have some questions.

So I know sniffers are capable of ordaining a fairly large amount of information from someone via their essence/magical energy, but I'm curious as to how much a skilled magus could ordain via their magical senses. I'm obviously asking due to my character being a skilled mage haha.

Would he, for example, be able to feel anything in regards to the power or nature of the two simply from the energies that dance around and through them? I figure that people have something of an aura and if a mage can detect the use of magic if their senses are keen (which I'on's are in their own right) can they detect anything else?

I'm mostly asking because I started writing my post and recalled the bit that you added, Dark Jack, which pertains to what Morgan is capable of detecting via his sniffer abilities and I thought to myself "Would I'on sense anything about them from their magical energy? Would they be exerting tiny amounts of it unconsciously? Would he be able to detect these amounts due not only to his general skill and sensitivity, but due to his knowledge of necromancy and the more fine-tuned manipulation of energies? Would he be able to sense anything at all with said abilities, or do those essentially possess no bearing on things unless weaved into what I would imagine an excessively complex spell that might be able to glean such details?"

Things along those veins came to mind so I thought, rather than just assume and write it into my post, I'd ask so my knowledge of the subject could be expanded and my post enriched by the information--and if not enriched, corrected before I broadcast the actual mistake by submitting the post to the thread haha.

Get back to me when you can. I wish I had thought about this days ago before everyone had already been waiting for my post for awhile (sorry about that by the way), but oh well, the mind is fickle at times...or at least mine is.

I'm rambling.

Anywho, I'd appreciate some answers/elaboration on the topic when either Dark Jack or Shienvien get the chance. I imagine both of you have some knowledge on the topic.

In the meantime I'll save what I had written for my post till I have a proper understanding of the aforementioned lore.

I'll edit and add to it as needed once my understanding is sufficient, in my opinion, and then post it up.

Sorry for the further delay Jack, Rhae...Merc. I assure you it was not intentional ^^;

Mages do have some ability to feel magical energy in others, though it is by no means as accurate or strong as the sniffers' ability to sense the same. Necromancers are especially attuned to sensing (and manipulating), magical energy, other mages less so. Even regular people can sometimes pick up when there is an unusual amount of magical energy permeating the air or someone is harbouring absolutely vast amounts of it (although they likely wouldn't necessarily realize what it is other than a strange sensation, not unlike that which you might feel right before a powerful thunderstorm).
Gerald as a fairly skilled necromancer has been described to sense magical energy and pick up presences to the point of knowing where people he cannot see are via it (and being rather disturbed when he met the one soulless being he could not sense due to it, well, lacking a soul and hence your typical reserve magical energy) - as long as there is not too much background-noise, such as the magical energy of the trees of the Anaxim forest was, anyway. To a lesser degree, he can also pick up the general type of magical energy someone has in them (not sure about elemental alignment, but he could tell a demonspawn apart), as well as he managed to deduct that Aemoten has excellent self-control due to his soul being in turmoil while he remained externally calm and collected (note that he wasn't awake during the latter). He also "reached out" with his soul at one point to sense things better, and could pick up that the three-quarter demon's human side was in control once more.
I'on would not be as good as Gerald at such things - mostly since he isn't a necromancer ... or at least as dedicated and skilled necromancer -, but he'd still fairly easily know when someone has unusually weak or powerful soul and similar. I'd assume he might not be able to immediately pick up that the more mortal demonspawn is a demonspawn by her being near alone unless he specifically focuses on sensing it, whereas the more demonic one would be quite evidently a demonspawn? And yeah... Living beings do "leak" a bit of magical energy, or they'd be "invisible" for someone sensing souls.
Jack correct me if I'm off at any point, as always.

Ehh... And no need to apologize for rambling. I do so myself often enough. (As long as I don't insist on replying solely in commandline error-messages, all is good. I know how to take breaks and not actually overwork myself.)

On another note, I actually have a somewhat serviceable post, just waiting for ASTA to greenlight it.

Hmm no, it seems you pretty much hit the mark on that one, Shien. The only thing I really feel like adding would be that a sniffer's sense of magical energy - and the information one can derive from observing this - is actually one innately possessed by all living beings, though to vastly different degrees. Sniffers have extraordinarily keen senses in this regard, but others - especially mages, and necromancers even more so than other magi - have the same abilities. It's as Shien said: even regular people can pick up on unusually powerful presences, which is also one likely explanation as to why people seem to automatically put distance between themselves and the demonic duo.

So basically, all of the information that can be garnered by a sniffer could potentially be gained by others as well; a masterful necromancer would be able to sense an amount of information almost as great as that of a sniffer, a master mage quite a bit less than that, a regular person very little... and tarken are, of course, all the way down at the bottom of that particular ranking. It would take almost deity-level power for a tarke to be able to sense it.

Thank you both, @Shienvien, @Dark Jack. I figured they'd be able to detect a good deal, it's interesting that a mage of high skill could perhaps match a sniffer's abilities, very interesting actually. I'll work on my post today and get it up by the end of the day barring something terrible happens or I get writer's block (both unlikely events really).

I figure he'll detect the power of the two, particularly the more demonic of the pair, and pick out the details of the female via her eyes and other telltale signs such as the ones mentioned by Ixion...or maybe it was Morgan, via monologue in their post(s). I hadn't gotten through rereading the lot of them as I was working through each chronologically so I could write I'on's reactions and whatnot, then get to any response he might make vocally and/or through his actions.

It's funny because part of me is enjoying I'on, but thinks I should rewrite his CS to revitalize my interest in his character a bit more, another part of me wishes I could test out/play another character. It's mostly because I have a habit of playing anywhere between 3 and 6 characters in any given RP I'm in (drives me mad, but I enjoy it immensely at the same time). It's also because I tend to continually get an influx of interesting ideas for characters...and I follow the impulse to create and explore those characters more often than not.

Granted, if I could find a place that an NPC served a given purpose or would be ideal to introduce to enrich things, I'd likely jump at the chance to develop another character. A big part of my wanting to has a lot to do with the fact that the lore for this world is absolutely amazing (props Jack. Not sure if I've ever stated my thoughts on that out loud, but yeah...I guess I did now :P). Makes me want to play around with more ideas/concepts and possibilities in general.

If given the chance I'd spew any number of ideas for characters, or compile a bunch into one and play it without a second thought. Anywho, I suppose that will at least make me less...unhappy if I'on ever dies as it'll just mean I can devise a new character >:-3

Not sure how to end this post. So I'll just do it abruptly.

End.

Hmm... I suppose this makes either Jack or ASTA next on the companions' side with Legion potentially posting at some point, too (whoever gets to it first), Jack in the Kaedan-collab, Ashgan with Jillian, and ... who in Zerul? Mercinus?

I also wonder whether the demonspawn the two deo'iel are looking for is the same one who made a very brief appearance (though without any played character contact) in the IC all the way back.

And, since it briefly came up in Yoshua's post - why do we have one proper played character limit (aside of someone going and making a single-minded army of their own characters)? Given that I, too, on most occasions prefer to play several at once (and switch between them as is appropriate depending on who actually has something they want or need to do; having several characters also alleviates some other character-related issues), and already have rather prominent NPCs/secondaries besides my main character...

And, since it briefly came up in Yoshua's post - why do we have one proper played character limit (aside of someone going and making a single-minded army of their own characters)? Given that I, too, on most occasions prefer to play several at once (and switch between them as is appropriate depending on who actually has something they want or need to do; having several characters also alleviates some other character-related issues), and already have rather prominent NPCs/secondaries besides my main character...

Ah, well that's because -...
I mean, clearly the reason for that is -...
That rule is there because -...
...
Yeah, okay, there really isn't that much point to that rule being there anymore, when I think about it. I originally included it because there firstly were a lot more players in the RP - and many players with multiple characters equals me having a lot of stuff to keep track of - and secondly to function as a safeguard against the kind of player that ended up making loads of characters and pretty much populating the entire cast with himself. You know, like I'm doing... but I'm the GM, so I'm supposed to do that. Heh.
But now that you've brought it up, I realize there's nothing stopping me from removing that rule, and governing the amount of player characters in a more case-by-case style; I still have to accept characters, after all, so I'd have the option of simply saying "eh, don't you have enough?" if it comes to that. Not that I expect it will.
So yeah, disregard that rule from now on.