I appreciate the in depth thoughts, co-captain [@flux]. I agree that the story has come a long way in just three months, it's been a great time and I'm invested in every single person's characters, and I think the options you laid out will be good for keeping it going hopefully until captain Esty's safe return. 

I'll put all my thoughts in a hider:

[hider=Yankee thoughts]
[u]General Continuation:[/u]
As far as wealth generation during aid crisis, perhaps that could go to a player vote/opinion. Especially if we pause war/wars during that time, it might be better to pause all mechanics just during that time and focus just on story and dealing with the lack of aid. This would make things a little easier for you, too. The wealth and personnel are generated from drugs or taxes (or other ways), but I think it makes sense if that wealth/personnel that would normally be generated and going to whatever faction rules said districts, to instead go towards the citizens/etc in that district. Like say in a district that makes money with drugs, the "people buying the drugs" (the mechanic itself) has to conserve their money for the now increased cost of food and other necessities that a pause in aid would mean.

Does that make sense? Honestly, I don't mind if the wealth generation continues during the aid crisis, its just something I thought of.

As for Esty's characters, Vincent and Ezra have "unknown" districts (and Vincent was just detained) so I think they would be fine no matter what happens in the end. I would motion for Antonia's Jeweled Bank to be "locked down" though (maybe not with monsters but just super guarded since the jail, police HQ, and mayor's seat of power is there). Doesn't have to only be one or the other, could be mix and match of options 1 and 2. 

And for myself, well, yes I will PM you ^^

[u]Game Battles:[/u]
Unless everyone agrees to it, I would say we stick with free-form action rather than a dice mechanic. I like the dice rolling when its relevant, but as far as I can tell Esty meant for the battles to be more true to "arena" style writing. Basically, going into the battle without an outcome in mind, writing the fight as it goes with no outline, and determining the winner based on how the writing goes. This is is my first RP together with Esty so I can't speak for her, but while I don't think she would be upset at more dice mechanics in fights or anything, I think her vision was definitely more free form for taking territories.

[u]Going Forward:[/u]
I concur that "non-canon"/beach day is a good idea. Will keep people's characters in action so to speak and keep interest while being low stakes, and an option to show a different side to everyone's characters. Will be a lot of fun. I also agree with ERode that maybe it shouldn't go into the main IC section of the RP, so I would be fine with a giant google doc to decide what to do with afterward lol. Or even separate thread...? Making as a present sounds sweet, and commissioned art is above and beyond, so thank you if you do go through with that. 

Aid crisis sounds perfect for a mini-event, so all good there. It would really hammer in that Nocturnia is isolated and has unique issues to deal with [i]besides[/i] super powered trouble makers. I know that I would love to see people/characters handling that and trying to juggle logistics, hopefully its of interest to everyone else too.

It would also be a good time just to see some nice character writing from everyone as people regroup and talk after the days events and how they plan to handle things moving forward.

[u]You (and me!)[/u]
Its clear that you are having fun with and love the setting flux, and you already stepping up with ideas is a good thing. It is understandable though if it turns out you don't think you can, or don't want to, keep a GM-like role indefinitely. In which case, I would be fine with the RP going into a hiatus until Esty is back. You are right in that a lot of the time games like this don't survive a hiatus, but I have confidence we can keep up for a little longer at least. I would really hate to see the hard work everyone put in stop, so we'll see what we can do!

We together have all those pre-written posts to go a little longer at least too, in the interim, and can put those out any time before, during, or after the aid crisis depending on how far that goes. 

As for Adel in the long term, I will say that he is in a very unique position in regards to the RP's goals ahaha, but I will leave the details to PM.

[u]Book?[/u]
That could be something to work on if people decide we'd rather hiatus/wait, but I'm not sure about the other traditional things that come to mind when you think of "book" like publishing whether just to a different online site. That would be a whole other can of worms (especially when you factor in the players that are no longer with us). Certainly rewriting sections and working together to format chapters and flow might be fun though, as a project in general. 
[/hider]

Ultimately I think the direction for Esty's absence is a fine one and hopefully we can keep interest alive until their return. Like I said, personally I got very invested into this RP very fast and I really love reading every post. Though if we do end up needing/preferring a break/hiatus I'll be back for when it kicks off again ^^