You and I are thinking alike, then! Their midnight discussions will be crucial to their development, IMO.

Any other NPCs you want to introduce before we move the story along?

Ooh, I just had a thought. Since Ed has had an opportunity to show off his character to Sofie, why not give Sofie a chance to show off her character to Ed? Maybe we can have Ed fall sick or something, or maybe when we get on the ship, he gets totally lost and has a lot of difficulty learning the subject matter. Then Sofie can come to his rescue and help him get back on his feet.

What do you think?

You know, I've got half a mind to skip the school stuff altogether. Most of the adventures I'm concocting take place after Ed and Sofie acquire a ship.

@Thinslayer

AND IM BACK! Sorry I've been really busy lately and have huge writers block :(

Shall we do a timeskip then? Or...

The ideal timeskip would be to "That evening, they returned to the dorm exhausted." After their midnight heart-to-heart talk, we'll timeskip again with "The day came for them to start their externships as crew aboard starships."

Will that work?

@Thinslayer

Yeah! Also an update from my side may come slow, I'm emotionally wrecked and so so tired. I'm so sorry for delaying the RP I just don't think I can manage it. I'll be back by Thursday ish and hopefully I'll feel much better.

Hey, I understand. I'll try to have that new post up by then. Get yourself some rest, okay?

Dang, Sofie made a good point. The longer I think about it, the less justification I can find for Ed's actions beyond "I just feel like it." And if I have to think about it, so does Ed. I'll try to post soon. ^_^

EDIT: I think I figured out what his response should be.

Crud, I am SO sorry for the long wait! I won't pretend I've been doing anything productive - I've been on a World of Warplanes kik for the last week, and haven't had much desire to write during that period. I get on these "kiks" for a few weeks every several months, so it's kind of cyclical. My previous kik was was NieR: Automata. It's died down a bit now, so I'm ready to write again.

I have an idea. RPs rarely seem to use an episodic format, and I think it would help considerably, since it's easier to come up with a short plot than to map out an entire story for a human playerbase. So what I'm thinking is this: We'll come up with some interesting situation, create a short story around it, and wrap it up so we can start another short plot. With each one, the characters should be working toward a larger goal, which we can expand on bit by bit with each episode.

Down to experiment with me?

@Thinslayer

Hey, it's no problem! And World of Warplanes? Seriously?! Judgement aside I think that the episodic format is a really cool idea so I'm down to do it :)

Sweet! So, we need to do a timeskip, and I'm not sure how to proceed from the current hook. Tentatively, I'm thinking it'll look like (and this is a very rough draft)...

"Ever since that day, Ed and Sofie studied together on more amicable terms. Ed relied on Sofie for her remarkable intuition and superior knowledge, and such were her abilities that he often wondered whether she was really taking this course anew. Since they had much material to study, they had little time to develop their friendship, so by the time they were ready to board their first starship, they still knew very little about each other. They both applied for crew positions aboard the [ship name pending], captained by an old war vet named [name pending]. [More description pending]."

"Their first job was [to be determined]."

Still working on it. :P

I'm also attempting to build a lego model of our starship in my spare time. Wish me luck!

@Thinslayer
I'm responding probably tomorrow!

And also how impressive! That sounds like great fun. Ah, to build with LEGOs again...I've missed it.

@Thinslayer

Hey Thins, I might actually be a bit late in my response if ya don’t mind. Too many irl things going on for me to respond sadly, and I’m still a bit stuck on what to write. Hopefully I’ll write something within a week (!!!!) hopefully less.

I’m so sorry for the inconvenience but I really am super busy and have a lot of things to deal with at this time.

Also, I was always curious is it: Thins Layer or Thin Slayer (which makes more sense but eh)

Yet again, so so sorry!

I developed my username from a combination of my real-life physical build and my favorite Halo game mode - Thin Slayer. Very rarely do I play any games lacking combat mechanics, so the Slayer part is more often appropriate than not. I mainly picked it for the Cool Factor. :P

As for what to write...I can definitely see how you developed writer's block. I'm getting writer's block just thinking about what you should write, lol. That's what took me so long to respond your OOC post, actually - I was mulling over story options, couldn't think of anything, and forgot to reply. xD

Take your time, ineffable. We'll work something out together. ;)

I think I've still got writer's block, and I am so, so sorry for making you wait so long! I came up with an idea, though, so the writer's block is going away soon. The Raving Maiden will be a repurposed Warp Fighter, a relatively small vessel designed for about 3-6 crew members. Made up entirely of SEED, Warp Fighters are a form of artificial life, complete with a brain and central nervous system. This gives them a tremendous amount of survivability and autonomy, at a cost of computational performance and reliability. Their substantial individuality is both a blessing and a curse; it can make them supremely capable or unfortunately stunted. The Raving Maiden is among the latter, designed as a combat ship, but with little of the mental capacity for one. Thus, she was robbed of her Q-Core (Quantum Singularity Core - a black hole, basically; an immensely powerful reactor) and turned into a civilian vessel.

These features are not broadly known, however. Warp Fighters are better-known for their transformation abilities (which the Raving Maiden lacks, due to not having a Q-Core), and are rather famous for their sleek and powerful humanoid forms. When the troops needed heavy armor and firepower on the ground, the Warp Fighters filled that role. Their designers wanted them to take on a more tank-like appearance for ground combat, but the humanoid form was the Warp Fighters' own choice, and the designers had little say in that. :P

In short, the Raving Maiden is a character all on her own. ;)

Our first mission: Locate the Raving Maiden's Q-Core!

Hey there, it's absolutely no problem! Real life is super busy for me right now too so I totally understand where you're coming from. Your idea is perfect! I like it a lot. I had a friend who was into sci-fi explain everything to me and I think that your idea matches with everything in our story. Thank you so much for coming up with it, I really appreciate you doing that. The Raving Maiden is wonderful so I'm really excited to toy with her in the upcoming parts.

Thank you again for thinking about all of this and good luck with your writer's block! :)

Had to get something written before Labor Day ended. From here, I'm thinking Sofie could join Ed and discuss their roles on the ship, maybe their opinions of Darcy and their contract with him, and possibly a romantic moment.

@Thinslayer

It may take me a bit long to formulate a response, forgive me. Just a heads up in case you were wondering where I got to :)

It may help to step back and consider the character you're playing. It almost feels like Sofie's reverting back to the Pureheart archetype you've been trying to avoid, and I think it's strangling her character. Picture Sofie how you first introduced her - alert, nimble, and dangerous. I don't picture her waiting for things to happen to her. The kind of person who can dodge a surveillance state and reach across the stars is the sort of person who you'll find at the center of events, the initiator.

Make her the protagonist in her own story. She should be fighting Ed for the limelight, not just sharing it with him.

Sofie has just been given the (metaphorical) keys a starship. She has a Training Pilot License and can fly wherever she wants with it, provided Darcy is present. Oh, and she has a copilot named Ed or something. What does Sofie do?