BrokenPromise

Symphony of Espers

And the last operation post is up. Downtime is officially in effect.

It's going to be roughly two weeks (IC) until the next big operation. You may write solo posts and collabs to fill in what your characters are doing during that time. Alternatively, December is a crazy time of year, you might opt to just take care of IRL stuff.

Thank you everyone who filled out the survey. It has given me some insight into where I should put my energy. If you haven't already, it isn't to late to do it, and I'd be glad if you did.

Bounties are coming at a later date, so stay tuned for those.

The actual duration of downtime will depend on several factors, mostly how long everyone wants it to last. As we near the end of the second week I'll check in to see if everyone's ready for the next operation or if they want more time to write stuff/tend to Santa things.

Merry Christmas!

Symphony of Espers

_{@Izurich@Crusader Lord}

While Lilliah eyed up the safe, Silmeria explored the rest of the building. depending on how thorough her search was, she might find plastic explosives rigged up near the station's supporting walls. but her sweep of the fourth and third walls would reveal that what remained of the Cobra Gang had departed. If not from the fire escape, then from the rappels.

Going much lower than that was dangerous, as the second floor was turning into a mixture of tear and mustard gas. So searching that floor would have to wait. Though later when they investigated, they would find no trace of Sofron. The only hint that they had was that there was a charred ring on the floor, as if someone had burned a circle into it. Otherwise, no one saw him escape the police station.

---

_{@OwO@FamishedPants@mantou@ERode}

After Klava snubbed Apollo, and the proper exchanges were made between Samuel and the rest of the espers, the freelancers moved outside to see what the food trucks had. Only Aria had been a little premature with her observation, as the trucks were all contained specialized personnel like medics and a bomb disposal crew. Among them was Binky, who looked exhausted, but alright.

”Another successful operation? Fritzi should have your funds transferred over to your account already." Though Binky could see by Klava's determined stare that she wanted something else. ”Oh, the coffee and snacks?" Binky pointed at the fourth floor. ”Didn't she say that in reference to the commissioner's office being right next to a kitchen?"

All eyes turned back to the building. All the gasses were starting to spill out of the second story windows. Just how bad did they want their snacks?

---

Fritzi poured herself a hot cup of coffee before walking towards the fridge. Just as she had anticipated, there were tons of snacks up here. Crackers, candy, donuts, even someone's birthday cake. The police wouldn't miss a few items. It could be written off as vandalism by the Cobra Gang, if the paper pushers were worried about it. Driving off mundane criminals wasn't really what they were set up for. Who was going to miss a donut?

She took a seat by the window and looked out at the espers standing outside. Hmm, maybe she should bring something down for them? Eh, they were all paid. If they were that hungry they could come up to her, or order out.

Grimoiric Heart

Stripes

Stripes

Name: Silvia O'Sullivan • Age: 17 • Nationality: USA

Appearance: Silvia appears listless most of the time. Despite this, she keeps up good hygiene and makes sure she looked her best wherever she goes. Did the wind just blow? She'll brush her red hair. Did she just eat? She'll look in her pocket mirror to clean her teeth, which are by far the best among all magical girls.

Barring her outfit, the only notable difference between her magical girl and true forms is that her eyes are green instead of orange, and her hair is a bit less dynamic out of costume. Silvia likes to keep up with trends, and sometimes even sets them. She never wears anything too outlandish, but she's something of a fashionista. Normal clothes paired with the right accessories make her look pop.

Description: "Apathetic" is probably the first word that comes to mind when people see Silvia O'Sullivan. She's not an excitable person, and doesn't go out of her way to get to know people or engage in small talk. There are no people, magical girls or otherwise, that she reveres. What few times she does choose to talk to people is out of pure necessity. Furthering her studies is more important than any human interaction. But even then, she does not seem to get excited when she gets a good grade, nor does she seem disappointed when she scores low on a test. She only displays emotions in extreme cases, like that time a student punched her in the face, or when she caught a whiff of someone's hallucination spell.

Ever since she was very young, her parents had always told her what she should be doing. At least, in terms of her school learning. She was an average kid with average grades, but her parents were determined to make sure she studied hard and got perfect grades on everything. They were going to make sure their little girl went to the best school, entered the best collage, and became more successful than all her peers. They would comb out all of her weaknesses to prepare her for the "real world."

That didn't leave much room for her own interests, but she was respected by many and had a lot of people who considered her their friends. She honestly didn't care for most of them. But she did have a friend in Japan that she would write to from time to time. The internet was an amazing place, and it was nice to talk about her problems with someone who was removed from her immediate circle of acquaintances. She enjoyed her friends company so much that she would go visit her one day. Her parents offered to take Silvia to Japan if she did well on her end of year tests, which of course, she did.

But when Silvia met with her friend, she could see that she hadn't been entirely honest during their talks. Silvia had been told that they had a perfect life with a nice home and lots of friends, but when she met face to face with her friend she was working impossible hours in some dead end job. Her colleagues didn't respect her, she had no friends, and she had been trying to pretend she was something she wasn't online in an attempt to reach out to someone. The deception didn't bother Silvia, as she had undersold many of the positive parts of her own life. Her friend gave her a book with tears in her eyes, calling it a memento for her visit. Once she got back to the states, her friend clarified that she handed the book to her because it was cursed, and she needed to get it out of her life. This was kind of strange to Silvia. She she also felt a bit betrayed, because her friend had essentially tried to pass all of her misfortunes onto her with this book. She would never write to her friend again.

Though a foreign school in London seemed to be interested in taking in a transfer student like Silvia. Her parents had been trying to get her into Marrywell Academy for a while, and were quite pleased that they were finally able to get through. Had her former friend's book passed what was left of her good luck to Silvia? Even after a few years she can't say.

It's hard to gauge what Silvia's likes and dislikes are. She does seem to have an interest in culinary arts, as eating is one of the few things she expresses joy in. She's almost always studying, and will join just about any sport she can. The more competitive a sport is, the better. Physical activity isn't something she's shy about engaging in. Her dislikes are also hard to pin down, but she doesn't like talkative people. Especially talkative people that can't tell she's trying to concentrate on something else.

She hasn't really been impressed with the Grand Ministry. Silvia has observed a reverence towards members with stronger grimoires, some of which look down on those with weaker stories. She feels that people should be respected based on the power of their character rather than some book they got by chance. Where she to hold the Book of Omen in her own hands, would people treat her any differently?

Grimoire's Title: Hyakumankai Ikita Neko • Classification: Fable

Description: "The Cat Who Lived a Million Times" is a folk/children's story written in 1977 by Sano Yoko. The book is mostly watercolor pictures, but does of course feature a story. It tells the tale of a tiger striped tabby who lived a million times, always getting reborn to an owner they don't care for. Every time they die, their owner cries, but the tabby never does. But on their millionth life, they have no owner. They are wild, and thus free to go wherever they please. He eventually meets a white cat who he falls in love with, and for once. Though over time, the white cat grows old and dies. Then the tabby cries a million tears before dyeing themselves. This time, the tabby does not return to life.

The story is believed to be Buddhist allegory for enlightenment, as they believe that we are reincarnated several times in earthly bodies before we reach enlightenment. Because the tabby was never able to love anyone other than themselves, they were unable to achieve enlightenment and were forced to live as an effectively immortal cat for 999,999 of its lives. Though the story does not outright spell this out for the reader. Some could easily come away with a different moral. Maybe what the story was actually illustrating was that the tabby was invincible until it decided to start caring for someone other than itself. You can read the story here.

The story is not especially well known, and is also relatively new as far as fables go. However the story has been referenced in other media. In cowboy Bebop, one of the main characters recalls the story of the "tiger striped tabby," which is a summery of "The Cat Who Lived a Million Times." Regardless, it is pretty weak, even by a fable's standards. Though it does possess the power to make Silvia very strong in the right situation.

Abilities: This grimoire enables its holder to take on the features of the tiger striped tabby in the story.

• While this tome doesn't offer immortality, Silvia becomes stronger in proportion to how outnumbered she is, relative to the power of said opponents. This effects all of her spells and arcane abilities, but has no effect on mundane skills granted by the grimoire.

• However, her power is divided among any allies who are in the vicinity. That is to say that they get stronger while her own power wanes. This effects all of her spells and arcane abilities, but has no effect on mundane skills granted by the grimoire.

• The tabby in the story had several lifetimes to acquire skills, but Silvia is still on her first. Regardless, she can learn abilities from opponents that she fights. This can be anything from a martial arts styles, a spell, to some monstrous ability, but she needs to witness them using it while she's trying to fight them. Anything she learns is relative in power to her grimoire rather than her opponent. Her learned powers so far are:

• Greater Than the Greatest of Tigers: This ability came with her grimoire. When she's alone, she can turn into a giant tiger that can rip most pageless apart in just a few swipes. Though as more allies join her in combat, the transformation becomes weaker. She can maybe muster a tail and some ears, and her finger nails become as tough as tiger claws. Not quite as menacing, nor as effective in combat.

• Magic Missile: Something she picked up sparring with a magical girl who fought with a D&D scenario as their grimoire. Silvia can conjure eight magic missiles that home in on her target. Every ally who fights along side her cuts the number of projectiles she fires in half until she can only fire a single missile at a time.

• Performer's Balance: Another find during a sparing match, this time against a trained circus performer on a precarious arena. Silvia has incredible balance and can maintain her footing almost anywhere. She can even do some stylish flips, but typically won't because that's a good way to get hurt. Skills of this nature typically will not weaken when Silvia is among allies.

Misc:

Lone Tiger

Enlightenment

• As tidy as Silvia tries to dress, her witch hat in magical form has a patchwork point on it. She believes that is because she was not the first person to use this grimoire, and is actually the tip of her former friends hat sewn onto her own. She hasn't done anything to try and fix it.

Note: made a small edit to her abilities to clarify how her power exchange works with allies.

Symphony of Espers

_{@The World@ERode}

”Oh good, she’s safe! I should ask her for her name later.”

The honey dipped, blue powdered, vomited on, stinky sock scented esper breathed a sigh of relief. It seemed like in the end, everything more or less worked out in their favor. Her mana reserves were lower than she would have liked, but it was understandable if one were to realize what they had gone through. They fought against ape men, bee cultists, and contractors. It was one of those encounters you told people about and they’d think you were high off something.

It probably wasn’t the best idea to let the mist girl handle the drain cover by herself, but if she felt like doing it, Luna wasn’t going to stop her. She was a delicate flower, covered in a host of substances. She could break a nail or damage her fair hands trying to lug something like that around. Then there was the fact that she was bleeding out of a wound in her back and didn’t have the mana available to heal it. She’d just have to tough it out until she found a safe place to detransform. Billy was here now, and the queen bee had been defeated. They should be safe so long as there weren’t any other magi around.

Oh, and there was the portly middle aged man who was being held at gunpoint. What to do with him.

”Welp, I guess you can go home to your family. Hopefully you’ll go home, have a drink, and realize this was all a dream.” Luna was never sure how mundane people dealt with memories of her after she was gone. She knew if she experienced a night like this she’s question if it actually happened. ”So um, you can go home now.” Tetrad pulled the keys out of the dozer and pocketed them. It probably wasn’t going anywhere, but she was a little shaken up by all this. ”You have two sons, you said? You’d better go see them.”

Kind of sucked that the only men here were either the cultists rolled up under the bulldozer or that one guy in a hard hat. Oh and there was Billy too, but he really didn’t count. It seemed like it was going to be a girl’s night out tonight. The crane driver turned out to be a puppet, and the other bulldozer operator.

”Oh! Shoot! Is he alive? Or even a person?” Before joining the others, Luna decided to take a look at the second bulldozer operator. He could be dead, he could be a corpse puppet, he could be a balding fifty year old man, or he could be a cute guy who knew where the best beer and pizza was. Either way, she wanted to find out.

Luna

21 | Female | Maverick | Fortune
Pit Boss | Staff | Arcane | High Roller
Croupier | Graceful
Gambit | Gravity | Draw 4
[Weightless, Suspend], Damage, Heal, Push, Transplace, Extend, Purify, Zone, If: Friend , Else

DAMAGE: E | SPEED: C | SENTINEL: D | 750

PHYSICAL: E | ARCANE: C | CHAOS: D | 126

Is there clearly something wrong with my RP ideas?

-You're a new user, which is a bit of a flight risk. People don't want to join an RP if there's a chance their GM will up and leave on them.

-Your OOC for your RP is poorly formatted. The first paragraph or so of an interest check should hold my hand and tell me what your RP is about and what I'm playing as. You have a few bullet points followed by several images that are all different sizes and look like they are from a bunch of different movies instead of the same world. A well formatted OOC is as close as you can get to a resume for GMs.

-Fandoms and genres attract people with certain interests. If I make a romance RP, people are going to expect their characters to grow closer to others. If I make a pokemon RP, people are going to expect anime aesthetics and for it to take place in Pokemon's world. Making everything real and putting it in America strips Pokemon of its draws. You can absolutely bend a genre/fandom one way or the other, but go too far and you'll lose everyone. My Danganronpa RP had nothing to do with hope's peak or even high school students, but I made sure to keep the core experience alive by keeping the anime aesthetic and basing the entire thing around a killing game. If you're going to make a fandom RP, it's important to understand the fans and know what they want.

Symphony of Espers

Aaaaand that's it for this operation! I hope everyone had fun and the winter blues isn't getting anyone down. Don't worry, christmas is just a few weeks away!

Nothing is going to happen for another week. I'd like everyone (if they so desire) to wrap up their scenes. React to what you want to react to, leave, strike a pose, offer to go out to eat, anything you want. Don't expect me to adress much in my next post. Because at the end of the week, I'm going to end the operation phase and start Downtime.

Downtime is essentially off-Operation time in the RP. You are free to have your esper do side work, engage in slice of life activities, as well as a slew of other things. You're even free to abstain from posting if you please. Though it's recommended to write during this time since there won't be any opperations going on and it's a great way to develop characters outside of the big operations.

These types of posts are often arranged on collaborative writing platforms such as Google Docs, but can even be done through PMs if you hate doing things the easy way. If anyone's unfamiliar with collaborating for posts, I would be happy to elaborate further.

Also during this time, I will be making updates to the DoCS, Melody Cost Calculator, and scheming with the Co-GM for future operations. I don't know how long downtime will last at present, but getting the following in order will be a priority.

-Rework healing notes.

Healing was broken when the RP started, and that was largely because I didn't know how the players were going to interact with it. Presently it's just made in a way that is super expensive at lower ranks, even for stuff that really shouldn't be that expensive to heal to begin with. I've talked to our resident healer boi @OwO and shared my thoughts with the Co-GM, and I believe I have a solution. I'll reveal more when it's implemented, but the short version is that all heal notes will be able to heal all wounds, but the more expensive ones will heal the more serious wounds faster. Wounds will also have a rank dependent on the grade of the attack, which will necessitate stronger healing spells to fix them.

-Rework damage notes.

Less a re-work and more updating the DoCS to better reflect how [Damage] and [Damage X] work in IC. Given how few people have taken [Damage], I feel like I may have undersold the amount of damage it can do while overselling X. So I'm going to better illustrate how these notes work, as you'll typically be fighting espers and monsters with magic.

-Rework "static grade" notes.

There are lots of notes that have no reason to cast them above bronze rank. I want to change that.

-Implement the auto-updating Melody Cost Calculator

Once again, healing boi @OwO came to the rescue, this time with his vast knowledge of google docs. The new MCC is going to be the sort of thing you copy once and forget about it. All of your copied MCCs will communicate with a master document that I can make changes to, which will effect the melodies in everyone's MCC in real time. So even when I add new melodies or make cost changes, it will all carry over!

-If there's time...add more notes!

I have some note ideas, but I don't want to hype them up before I know I can add them. But I'm thinkin' about it.

And of course, you can let the GMs know you are making changes to your notes if you wish to swap them out. Just remember the current operation has to end first.

More details about Downtime will come later once it is in effect. While I would like to ask everyone to wait until the end of the operation to start posting downtime collabs, you are free to start writing as soon as you like. And speaking of starting, I think I'll contact a few of you right now.

@Majoras End I know you're going to be busy next week, but we can finish the current scene in a collab if you'd like.

@The World Marrie is free to eat pizza with the Mavericks if she so desires.

@SilverPaw Fritzi is gunna wanna talk to Jaqueline after this operation.

@Ponn I'd like to break in the new kid, if you'd like.

@Crusader Lord@Izurich If you choose to open the safe, we can do a collab should you choose to bring the box to Fritzi or Viper. Or maybe you just open it up and play with its contents? who knows? WHO KNOWS!?!?!?!?

More details for any of these collabs can be found via PM/DM.

I think that's everything.

OH YEA!

There's going to be a survey on the discord. It's recommended that everybody takes that when it drops, but no rush if you can't do it this week. I don't even have it up yet. But I will!

EDIT: Survey is up.

Symphony of Espers

_{@Izurich@Crusader Lord}

Silmaria didn’t wait to act. She took aim and fired at the masked woman as soon as she was able. The first round slammed into Viper's hip, which shredded her pants clean off. She seemed to be wearing some skin tight short-shorts underneath her armored pants. She hadn't recovered before another bullet struck her in the head, disintegrating her bandana. Nearly every article of mundane clothing had been blown off of her body, save for her esper uniform.

”Oh well.” She said before snapping her fingers. In that instant, her body turned into a yellow cloud. Any extra shots Silmaria had fired would not find purchase in Viper's flesh.

Meanwhile, Liliah examined the safe. It had seen its share of abuse, but was still holding shut. Though there was no reason it wouldn’t open up when struck by an arcane melody or even a potent enough instrument. That was provided Liliah wanted to get inside. Who knew what sort of thoughts tumbled around the head of a monkey? Only Luna and Marrie knew.

---

_{@SilverPaw@TheGMbby}

Jacqueline asked Su about her resistance to physical attacks. ”I hurt, but I survive.” Su may be resistant, but surviving a pistol shot at point blank range was tough on any esper. Regardless, she remained calm despite looking down the barrel of her opponent’s weapon.

”Taking pity on me, huh?” Rottweiler regarded Jaqueline with a tip of his head, as she had offered to contact her boss. ”Can’t say I was expecting that.”

Fritzi responded to the summon immediately. “I didn’t want a hostage situation.”

Su pressed her ear against her own shoulder to activate her com. ”I fine! We under control!”

“Good, because the government doesn’t negotiate with terrorists. Well, save from a few times during the Iraq war, but that’s not a mistake I plan on repeating.”

”Now really time for this?”

There was a short pause over coms. “If he surrenders, we may be able to work out better arrangements for him and the blood mage. I'm not the law, but I'll be responsible for all paranormal related incidents once this operation concludes. Making the blood mage's life more comfortable is well within my power. But I can’t send in any medics until the area is secure. So it's really up to Rottweiler. My hands are tied. I could try discussing things with the top brass, but experience tells me they aren't going to give him a better bargain.”

Su squinted at Rottweiler. ”You hear that?”

Rottweiler shrugged. ”Sounds like Lada’s best chance is if I surrender now.”

”It is.”

With a shrug of his shoulders, he pulled his gun away from Su and shifted it in his hand. He presented it to Jacqueline. ”I guess we’re all done here then.”

Su looked at the inmates that were walking all over the place.”Back in your cells!”

There weren’t too many complaints. As ridiculous as Su might have looked, she did have a very real looking gun, which wasn’t to say Jacqueline’s warpick was any less intimidating. It wasn’t like they could escape.

Lada let out a noisy cough. She might just survive.

specs

32 | Female | Gemini | Steel Gaze
Bipartisan | Handgun, Greatshield | Physical | Bullet Window
Dragon Breacher | Kevlar Vest
Debris | Wind | Locally Sourced
[Storm , Flight ], Push, Pull, Build, Purify, Restrain, Damage

DAMAGE: D | SPEED: E | SENTINEL: C | 500

PHYSICAL: D | ARCANE: D | CHAOS: E | 132

---

_{@FamishedPants@mantou@ERode@OwO}

It was a troublesome scene to be sure. With Cobra’s thumb resting directly on the button, there were few things the freelancers and Silhouette could do that wouldn't trigger an explotion. But none of the espers present were willing to just let him walk out.

Fortunately, the hallway filled with espers was perfect cover for Klava to prepare her melody. Cobra was too distracted to focus on someone he had partial visibility of. He also couldn't see her melody spawning in. So she was able to get the drop on the snake. Her knife bit into his shoulder, which weakened his grip just enough for Protector’s melody to pull the detonator out of his hand. They would spend the next few seconds fumbling with the detonator to ensure it didn’t go off.

Meanwhile, Klava was about to discover that the rocket launcher and the detonator were not King Cobra’s only weapons. With a hiss, he turned around and opened his mouth. He bared fangs, not that of a cobra, but of a vampire. His teeth were about to sink into Klava’s wrist when shadow magic took over his body. His entire head passed through her arm without inflicting a single wound. The reason for this was Silhouette. His sword had a sinister glow to it, and that glow coiled around Cobra when he touched him.

The snake had a moment of intangibility, and was prepared to use it to make a swift escape. But there was more to Samuel’s tactic as his allies would soon see. Silhouette tossed his sword forward causing it to intersect with Cobra’s location as his intangible melody wore off. The sword was now piercing Cobra’s chest much deeper than it would have had Samuel thrown the sword at him normally. The vampire shivered when the sword appeared in its flesh, and sank to his knees.

”This is bullshit!”

Samuel grabbed his sword and wrenched it out of Cobra’s back, slicing the vampire open from their shoulder to their heart. Then with a kick, Cobra fell onto his chest. His body managed to hold together, but the growing pool of blood under his body let everyone know he wasn't getting back up. Cobra attempted to gurgle something into his radio, but wasn't able to get anything comprehensible out. He did get a message back.

”Quit fooling around King! ...King? King!? KIIIIIIIIING!?!?!?” With news of Cobra’s death spreading to the other gang members, it was likely that the few who remained would either flee or surrender.

Showing up a bit late to the scene was Apollo, who was holding a really sweet piece. Something gold plated that probably didn’t do anything for the weapon’s accuracy. But it sure made him look cool!

The operation had been a success. None of the agents died, the police station was still standing, and they managed to avoid a hostage situation. That was even including the surprise appearance of hostile espers and a blood mage.

While Cobra’s body remained unmoving, it was hard not to miss the two perfectly round scars on the back of his neck...

---

_{@The World}

A blast of light and sound, and from there, Marrie was free once more, her singular Melody’s trajectory masked by the barrage of projectiles sent from Tetrad’s direction. Bound further by honeyed restraints that seemed to persist even upon its caster’s demise, Tetrad collapsed against the jelly-belly of the construction worker, watching as the freelancer’s form disappeared in the blink of an eye…

And reappeared right in the cockpit of the demolition crane. Her actions were precise, controlled, even as her conscience grappled with the murders that she had committed. Apex Predator punched through leather and foam, scraping into the metal underneath as Marrie spat out her order, moments before twisting her body away to vomit out what remained of her breakfast. She hardly had a chance to glimpse at who exactly was sitting behind the controls. She hardly had a chance to think, so caught up as she was in her own guilt and self-pity.

But there was no human in front of her. No flesh-and-blood being, no cultist, no furry.

Only a corpse-puppet, the top half of their head sliced off to reveal a cluster of arcane machinery, their drooling mouth affixed into a permanent smile. Marrie’s mercy, informed by her own desires and her morality, had caused her to miss the mark at the very last second.

The crane smashed into the support pillar.

The roof of the warehouse gave out a long and tortured shriek.

And then, darkness, violent and oppressive, took over.

…

…

…

And then, a beam of light!

Marrie could hear the sound of the sheet metal panels being dragged and cast aside. More and more light shined through the rubble before Marrie’s eyes were overwhelmed by the high beams on an old Cadillac. It wasn’t long before she heard Billy’s voice.

”I say, I say! If it ain’t the little esper who could!” As her eyes adjusted to the light source, she could see the silhouette of a massive hand reach out for hers. ”Glad you stuck with it, kid! Unfortunate we had one of our own run off. Just means you get part of her take. But who’da thought there would have been an illusion spell cast on the entrance to the place?” With a chuckle, he swung his finger towards the manhole ”Anyway, Operation ain’t over yet, kid. Ya need to get inside first.”

And as Marrie pushed herself away from the unmoving corpse-puppet, she could see it. Though it had been imperfect, Tetrad and her own actions had resulted in only half the warehouse collapsing, with the motley collection of shipping containers that had been hurled about and the bulldozers that had been crashed and commandeered culminating into a miniature array of ‘secondary’ support pillars, strong enough that any extensive rubble was held up.

As for the manhole itself?

It laid unblocked and pristine, the entrance way to Bastion beckoning forth the champions of this battle royale.

---

_{@Majoras End}

Fable was already a swift esper. But under the effect of his melody, he was even faster.

This was a situation where he had to make every second count. The crabs were not fast, but it seemed like a few hundred showed up every second. They were starting to show up faster than they could move.

The blue crab strummed its ukulele as Fable drew closer. It was impossible to read the crab’s emotions, but its capsule shaped eyes were focused straight on the approaching esper. His arrival was noticed. But rather than fleeing, the crab charged forth.

The crabs in the street surged under its body, elevating it as the scattered crabs came together to form a pyramid with their leader on top. The construct elevated the crab leader up to Fable’s level. Now it did not hold its ukulele like an instrument, but like a giant club. Things were moving so fast that Fable didn’t have time to react, but he didn’t have to. He just needed to make sure his thrust hit his target.

And a decisive blow happened in an instant.

The sound of metal scraping across metal brought everyone’s attention to the blow. A ukulele slathered in amber oil fell out of the sky and clattered against the ground. But when they cast their eyes to the other end of the street, they could see Fable. His shoulder was dripping with oil, but his one good arm gripped a rapier that had been thrust through the heart of the behemoth. The blue crab flicked its legs about before ceasing all movement. The remaining crabs retreated in a matter of seconds, and the slain ones seemed to turn into dust. The street lamps revealed no more crabs that night.

”Seems you hit its weak point for maximum damage.” With a sigh, Binky’s Esper state ended. The now much shorter girl ran a hand through her hair before pulling a stop watch out of her shirt. ”And with just seconds to spare.”

“You alright, gear boy?” Elroy hurried over to Fable. He may be a clockwork soldier, but his body was still much like a humans. If it lost too much oil, he would seize up and die like a human running low on blood would. “Looks like he cracked you a bit, but you showed him, didn’t ya?” The esper laughed. “Doesn’t look too serious, have a heal on the house!” His hand lit up with flames, but when he touched Fable, the wound on his shoulder closed. He could feel the gears in his arm were turning normally again.

”This should be a decent pay out for you guys, let’s take a look.” Binky looked at her tablet. ”Pac-A-Fist handled evacuations, and I’ve got Immortal Volcano and Cthulhya on extermination.” She looked at Fable. ”Did you forget to sign yourself up for the operation?”

“Hah!” Elroy gave Fable a light punch with his gauntlet. “You were white knighting green doc huh? Gotta remember to accept the bounty if ya wanna get paid.” He shrugged. “Give gear boy my cut. He did more of the work.”

”That won't be necessary, I can make a few edits.”

Cthulhya, or Mary as ze had introduced zirself, stood off to the side twiddling zir thumbs. “Elroy?” Ze continued to avert her eyes. “Do you have time now?”

“Right!” He laughed before nudging Fable. “We were discussing something, and then we got word that the Crab Rave was here.” Mary’s eyebrow twitched when Elroy brought Fable into the discussion, but did little else. “I’m sure we can all help out. So! What happened?”

“The white princess, you took her place on stage?”

“Violin girl!” Elroy laughed. “Did she get stage fright?” Mary opened zir mouth to speak, but zir face only scrunched up in response. Tears ran down zir cheeks before Elroy placed a hand on zir shoulder. “...What happened?”

Mary struggled to calm down and explain what happened next.

---

Betty looked through the gap in her stall door to see if all the men in the restroom had left. Nope, they were still there. At this point she was wondering if she could make up some story about being a babysitter. Yes! She just left some baby wipes in the stall and needed to go back to get them. If only she had something on her that could pass as baby wipes. Perhaps she just came in to grab some toilet paper? But if that was the case, why did she come into the boys room? It didn’t look like she could lie her way out of this one. But she really didn’t want to leave Elroy up there for too long. It was bad enough he had to take over at all. Perhaps she should march out there and get it over with. But when Betty unlatched the stall door, someone else pulled it open.

”Yipe!“ Betty stumbled backwards and fell onto the toilet seat. She was still holding her cup of joe in one hand. ”I um, I was in here because! I got confused!“

Obstructing her way was a blond German wearing a regal looking suit. The cape looked a little tacky, but a lot of these “friends” that walked around here dressed like it was Halloween. His eyes were also closed, which was slightly unnerving. Was he blind? ”Forgive me, I didn't mean to startle you. But you identify as your birth gender?”

”Yes!“ Betty lowered her head. ”I was having a panic attack, I must have entered the wrong restroom.“ That must have been what happened. Wew, that was easy. She needed to relax so that she could think about situations like this in the future.

The man let out a heartfelt chuckle. ”That is fine, so long as you realize I wasn’t trying to invade your privacy.” His lips curled into a smile before he extended his hand. ”I’m Justin, by the way. And if I do say so myself, you are an amazing violin player. The others don’t know what they are missing out on.”

”Really?“ Betty smiled back. ”I’m usually much better than that, but I’m glad you liked it. Wait until you see the rest of my set!“She reached out and took Justin’s hand, and allowed him to pull her onto her feet.

”I actually don’t think that’s going to happen.”

When Justin opened his eyes, Betty opened her mouth. But nothing came out. She just froze with a look of shock on her face. Her heart was pounding out of her chest, but she couldn’t move her limbs. Over time, even the desire to move didn’t register. Her arms relaxed, and her cup fell to the floor, splashing her legs and dress in warm coffee. She was aware of her surroundings, but her mind was in a fog. It was as if her emotional responses had been disconnected from what she was experiencing. Once the tinge of fear subsided, she had no desire to do anything. Her inner monolog had shut down, and she could only process what was going on around her. Betty was cornered in a bath stall, but it was impossible for her to decide how she should feel because of how hazy the past few minutes had been. She couldn't remember anything, and she had no desire to dig through her mind to find it.

”What did I just see?“

”You know Betty, I don’t ask for permission anymore.” He stroked the side of her arm with his gloved fingers. ”If I want something, I take it. If I want someone to do something, I make them do it.” He traced his finger up to one of her shoulder straps and slid it off the edge of her shoulder. ”I know everyone likes a tan complexion these days, but I still like a pale princess.” He traced a finger along the top of her bare shoulder, and stopped right at the base of her neck. ”I’m just a bit surprised I found something like you here. You deserve so much better than this, Betty.” His hand slid around the back of her head. ”You’re going to be mine now.” Justin lowered his mouth over her flesh.

Betty could feel his hot breath before the kiss of his tongue caressed her flesh. But what got her to wince was the hot pain in her neck. The sensation was similar to catching her skin on a thorny bush. But even with this unknown sensation coursing through her body, she was unsure how to react, and it was about to get much harder. Her consciousness was fading. But she would not drift into a dreamless slumber. Rather, the world started to feel less real. Betty was no longer the one controlling her body at all. Now it merely did anything this strange man desired of it. She found her self reciprocating the painful kiss with a hug, and didn't let go until he was done.

”You taste wonderful, Betty.” Justin pulled a small handkerchief from his breast pocket to dab his lips. ”I'm going to have to exercise a lot of restraint to not just drain you in a single sitting.” After tucking away the handkerchief, he took Betty by the hand. ”Now, how about we go home?”

---

Mary had zir eyes closed. “...So after I told him where she was, he walked into the boy’s room. Then later, he came out with her.” Ze sniffed. “I wanted his phone number, but he was really rude to me! He said I was ‘as wrong as my parents were when they made me’ when I said it would be cool to trade phone numbers. And she was being kind of mean too! But, but....”

Elroy snorted. “What? What!?”

“She um.” Mary pouted. “She had bite marks on her neck, like a vampire.”

“Why didn’t you say something earlier!?”

“I-I don’t know!” Mary stammered. “She was mean to me, and the Crab Bounty was time sensitive!”

“Hngh! Never mind!” Elroy ran back towards The Great Escape. “I’ll see if I can find any clues.”

Meanwhile, Binky approached Fable. ”A vampire named Justin? I wonder if that was Justin von Carnage. If it was, it’s just a matter of time before we run an operation to execute him. Shame about the girl though.” She pulled out a tablet device. ”Thank you for the assistance earlier. Just tell me your handle on Shimr and I’ll transfer the funds.”

I hate to say it...

Mmmmm, forgot Bango made that topic for a second. I remember everyone coming together for that thing, and it's just as true today as it was then.

What are some of the most confusing/cringiest OC's you have ever encountered?

Like Dinh, I give most cringe characters a pass because they are often the product of inexperienced or young writers; people who don't have the life experiences or wherewithal to make good characters. So the generic stuff everyone does is of little interest to me. But I've been in the RP scene for a long time and I have a few worthy of being shared. Though I think I'll just share one for now.

This first character is one of my own creation. His name was Gail. As my very first RP character, he was a little bland. Just your average half demon/half angel hybrid that had his wife captured by an evil demon and taken to hell. Don't worry! He had every intention of rescuing her. I think in terms of first characters I did pretty well. He was likeable, cared about people, and wasn't edgy at all. His end goal was the retrieval of his wife rather than some dark quest for revenge.

Then why am I talking about him here? Well, I think where you drop your characters is pretty important. You see, I apped this guy for a Devil May Cry RP. Which is funny, because I never played Devil May Cry, even if I watched my brothers play it. I don't know how he got accepted, his lore doesn't work with the world at all. His backstory features time travel and alternate dimensions, and he works under a vampire guild master who is responsible for eliminating planner creatures like demons.

Man, old me had some unbridled creativity, but really needed to learn about how lore works.

Also, he fought with two scythes. He just kind of held them like they were giant hatchets and swung them around. I needed to learn how weapons worked too I guess.

I made my character SEVEN. FOOT. TWO.

@yoyohayli

While that does seem like it could make for a cringy, obnoxious character, I kind of feel like the RP creator was sort of asking for it.

Symphony of Espers

@Ponn

Accepted, move her cute butt over to the character tab.