Hey Andreyich,

Thanks for the interest. As of now we're booked up full, but there's always a chance we'll have an opening next time we land. On occasion, Cap'n likes to play 'Air Lock Roulette'...it ain't pretty, but a little turnover amongst the crew keeps everyone sharp.

So please keep in touch!

Thank you and noted. I'll likely be playing some sort of deserter from the army hoping on this ship he can find respite from the authorities hunting him

that said its hard to keep up with active OOCs like this one so I'd appreciate a ping if a spot opens

...its hard to keep up with active OOCs like this one so I'd appreciate a ping if a spot opens

I'll reach out to you, bud.

Hey @Gunther great thoughts and dreams from Hook’s head. One note: it appears that the dream was posted to the “Character” tab instead of the “IC” tab. Would you mind moving it over there? Thank you sir, and he and Cal should get a post together to finally meet!

Hey @Gunther great thoughts and dreams from Hook’s head. One note: it appears that the dream was posted to the “Character” tab instead of the “IC” tab. Would you mind moving it over there? Thank you sir, and he and Cal should get a post together to finally meet!

My only excuse is, it was midnight when I posted that and I was pretty tired.

Hook's dream is one of those pivotal moments that I'm going to read at least a couple more times. A very engrossing read that ties nicely to some of the character subtleties mentioned in your earlier work. Well done, Gunther.

Agreed! Great job, Gunther!!

I posted a quick solo going into morning since Sail mentioned that in our chat. I can change anything I need to. She's pretty much alone the whole time, and I end with her leaving her room so the day is our JP oyster! ^^

Happy Saturday, all,

Sorry I've been scarce of late. Work and help[ing my daughter move kept me pretty tied up for the past few days, but I should be more accessible for awhile now.

As I'm writing the mysterious Ms. Baker for this episode, just a word to let you know that both she and that deckhand I write are available for JP.

But now, I promised I'd clean the laundry room. Later!

It goes without saying that 2020 was a completely awful year.

In addition to all the suffering we as humans shared, I was struggling under the weight of a massive writer's block. For the last half of the year I found myself utterly unable to string thoughts and words together in anything resembling a storytelling approach. The vicious nature of the cycle was glaringly obvious, but that insight made the equation no more avoidable.

Sail can't write = Sail is depressed = Sail doubts his ability to write = Sail can't write

It was Wolf who rescued me from the trap. Early in December, when we both talked about the two weeks' Christmas slowdown, he suggested that we dust off a couple of our characters for a short lived holiday RPG. It sounded like a fun exercise.

It was excruciating.

A character whose skin I'd worn like a glove now felt odd, stiff, and ultimately forced. The thoughts he shared no longer held that easy fluidity of our previous time together. Six months spent in my left brain had severed all the connections, leaving me with the same obvious answer to this challenge as to that awful cycle.

(If) Sail loves to write
(and) Sail misses writing
(then) Sail must suck it up and write every day.

I set a goal of one page per day. By this time (March), Wolf and I had moved to a third 1x1 plot, and the muscle was beginning to limber up once more. Thanks to his constant input and support, I finally began to feel comfortable again, not only in the skin of an old character, but with the return of plot and scene inspirations that I'm now impatient to write, both in and out of our forum.

Here's the moral of the story. The other day, one of our writers said, "I need to do something with my character." Consider this: We are at the beginning of (hopefully) a long road together. We all know and love the base material that inspires this game. If you're finding yourself stymied with a new character who doesn't yet feel natural, I encourage you to take that character down to the baseline. Chances are they have a job aboard China Doll. Begin there. Tell us about their job and how they approach it. What aspects written into their CS will come out to play while they work? What will they think about? What will they remember? Thanks to Gunther, we can also ask about what they might dream at night?

As the GM's/mods (I prefer 'hosts'), Wolf and I are always available to either bounce ideas or JP/collab. Our first goal here is that all of you have fun writing in FF2V, and we're working hard to place everyone in a position to shine. The journey is just beginning. Flex that muscle...and keep flying.

Sail

Thank you for that, Sail. I know I hit writer's block from time to time. The main reason I engage in this hobby is to keep my creative juices flowing. When the book I am writing slows down, I come here for a bit.

With that said, if we continue to write on a daily basis, the activities aboard the China Doll, we will leave, and it will die. I feel it is time for a time skip. The ship should arrive at New Melbourne. Hook wants to go shooting with Abby and fishing with Captain Strand.

One more thing, as a writer, I must point out when stating the title of a ship, book, periodical, television show, movie, etc., it should be italicized. You'll notice any reference I make to the China Doll, it is such. For me this is not a game or a role play, but a Creative Work of Fiction (CWF). We are all authors collaborating on a story.

Well, I suppose we need to open the back door of the sausage works for a brief tour. Wear gloves and masks, and no touchy...

Our plan for ep. 1 is primarily intended to introduce the boat, and to permit writers the chance to both introduce and grow comfortable within the skins of their characters. Participation at this point has been great, and we're so thankful for the folks who've been able to leap into the deep end of the pool. We have a couple writers who've had some difficulty (hence the point of my scree) and are hopeful that they'll be able to place themselves within the story.

Our original plan involved a pretty large time skip. In fact, we weren't going to see a landing on New Melbourne at all. However, with Hook and the Cap'n planning a fishing trip and the Skyes working up some of their own shenanigans, we've changed the ep plan to accommodate. Given what we know people are writing now and the plot we're addressing, I do see a time skip coming, albeit a short one.

I'm grateful for the refresher on the use of italics. As a writer, perhaps I've taken to the abuse of bb code when I should've been abusing bourbon. While I will make a personal effort to adhere to more established practice, I won't ride herd on what or how our member writers choose to emphasize in their own posts. FF2V was created as an RPG (role playing game.) We live in a 'verse where, as Abby might put it, "proper dik-chun don't always go 'round here," and posted accordingly in our game info brief.

I've got to say that I'm thrilled some of the group appear to be as passionate about what we're doing here as I am, but I've learned to temper that passion with gratitude for the time and energy that may limit our individual involvements. I know the Cap'n would agree when I say that we're so happy you guys are here, and we can't wait to see where you'll take us next.

Keep flying,

Sail

Shenanigans!

New Melbourne will be a blast! Looking forward to it!

See Ya Laters, Shennanigators.

You scamps! I'd tousle all your hair, but it looks like you're using product...

Hey~ New post from Pen/Cal/Mysterious Box!

I'm thinking it was before the rave in the galley. But I'm working on a Pen post that runs concurrently with it. xD

Thanks, Aalakrys!

Ship time's a bit fuzzy in this episode, but from what I can see it hasn't impacted character subplots or the overarch. From what Wolf and I know at this point, we're pretty close to our first "Time Warp." (It's just a jump to the left...consult with Cyd for the entire dance.) After that, the thrilling conclusion of Episode 1..Gateway!

So...Episode 2. We're starting out on New Melbourne, laying over for a few days while we await a nice load of fresh tuna to haul for a customer. That means everybody can get some time on planet. Here's what we know:

1. Hook and the Cap'n are going fishing.
2. The Skyes have got some skullduggery planned.
3. Abby needs to go buy some socks.

What trouble are you getting into?

Pen will probably want to go shopping for fabrics, cords, babbles, seashells, and the like. What she calls 'meandering' through the market to see what is what.

Happy Thursday night, you lovely people! We have a couple "heads up's" that'll affect all of you over the next few days.

On SUNDAY NIGHT just before midnight, Wolf and I will be dropping a post or 2 that'll point us all right toward the climax and conclusion of Episode 1. If you've got JP's or character subplots brewing that you were planning to have completed before we land on New Melbourne, now's the time to get them up and posted!

(NOTE: We're not total nazis...if you've got something really good cooking and need a bit more time, PM or GChat us and we'll take it up with our attorneys.)

TIME SKIP: The aforementioned Sunday night, after Wolf and I post, we'll jump ahead...roughly a 48 hour period, though surface time on our slice of NM will be roughly 3PM.

CLIMAX/CONCLUSION and YOUR PART IN IT: We've broken the episode finale down into 2-3 JP/Collab sessions. We're looking to run these next week, Mon-Thu, depending upon who is available any given night. Plan on beginning 10PM EDT (Sorry so late, but we're accommodating as many time zones/work schedules as possible.) We'll try to keep each one brief, hopefully no longer than 1-1.5 hours.

WHAT WE NEED FROM YOU: Please let us know which nights you're available. PM, OOC, or GChat.

To accommodate schedules, we may be writing this out of sequence (like shooting a TV episode.) Looking forward to seeing how this goes, and this crew in action!

Regards,

Your humble GM's/Mods/Hosts/Megalomaniacal Fiends

Regards,
Your Friendly Neighborhood GM's/Hosts/Super Villains

SEASON 1 FINALE, Scene 1, "Fish and Chips" has been posted!

We're good to go for Scene 2 tonight at 10PM. You can find the GDoc and Discord links in the FF2V Chat.

Hope to see you there!

Thanks for running it, mods! I seriously had a blast, and have spent waaaay too many nights staying up waaaaay past my bedtime plotting and playing the what-if game with my fellow Shenanigators. Can't wait to see what the next episode brings!