BrokenPromise

Symphony on High

@Ponn@ERode@Vertigo

A mere teenager did not have the power to shove around a mighty esper. However, an emotionally unstable monster could. Only if they wanted to. Though Amanda seemed to be fine with the small distance between her and the assassin’s accomplice. She eyed the handkerchief with some suspicion. Like a small forest animal, she leaned forward and sniffed at it from a distance. Unlike a small forest animal, her eyes were bloodshot, and the light shining through the shattered window shimmered on her dried tears. She quickly snatched the handkerchief before sliding back into her corner. Amanda wiped under her eyes, but more tears were coming.

Estelle spoke to Amanda, but she seemed distracted. Her eyebrows raised as if she had been startled by something. She turned her head to look out the window and sighed. When Estelle asked if she had a place to stay, she nodded. ”Yes.”

With some effort, she stood up. Her arms were wrapped around her father’s torso, with the handkerchief hanging between her fingers. She fought back her tears before making her way towards the exit. An exit that the pounder was no longer blocking.

“Magical Dream Princess would never leave anyone.” Pink Pounder lowered his blade, suddenly sounding somber. She is a pure soul that cannot see the evils of this world, let alone the city. I am merely her sin eater, here to get tarnished in her stead. But if she wishes for me to remain out here, I can but obey her command.

MDP did not answer Ashley, and continued to watch the exchange between Estelle and Amanda. Fritzi was quiet for a time, then a long, tired sigh escaped her lips.

”I already told you the dangers of letting the patrons live. Is there a reason you’re asking me again? Are the remaining ones particularly cute? Maybe ask one of them if they’re into middle aged women for me?” Her tone shifted when she heard about the daughter. ”So he does have a daughter? We had some inconclusive evidence… Finn really stepped in it this time, didn’t he?” She not-so-cheerfully chuckled. ”In a way, I guess this works in our favor. Saves us from having to get permission to enter his house.” She cleared her throat. ”Agent Orion. We do not have the facilities to safely hold Dante’s daughter. Her father was a sandman, and her mother is more than likely a succubus. Regardless if she’s one or both of those things, she will be very dangerous if her powers manifest. She could move through walls, or curse Timekeeper again, provided she isn’t the one who did it from the start. Question her maybe, take her out for an ice cream if you must, but she’s not going to forgive us for today. If she doesn’t run straight to the Hand, she'll join Maverick Alternative.” What little joy was present in Fritzi’s voice left.

Boteg turned away from the window, suddenly surprised to see Ciri and it behind him.

Pink Pounder stood like a statue, his back to the smoldering diner.

The remaining gang members watched Boteg, save for the shadow wizards, who had just squashed the last of the fires before recovering their unconscious homies.

MDP’s mouth was slightly open. Her eyes wandered over the carnage inside.

Amanda sniffed, ignoring her surroundings and just trying to get outside without dropping her father. She looked like a silhouette by the open door, with daylight spilling in all around her.

Fritzi gave one final order.

”She needs to be eliminated, with extreme prejudice.”

---

@The World@Nakushita@TaintedMushroom@FamishedPants

Asher emerged from the smoke wall that still permeated the main hall. It smelled and tasted like shit, but the shotgun wielding pyromancer wouldn’t show it. If he was going to show his discomfort, it would have been for his smoldering hands. But that was like, weak.

Marrie on the other hand was taking things a bit more seriously. She fired up her magic senses and gazed at the large machine in the center of the room.It became evident immediately that it was a generator. The magical energies inside the machine were set up to create a “perpetual motion machine” that turned a turbine and powered the church. Though the machine required mana to function, and it wasn’t clear where the machine’s supply was coming from. There was a magical battery of sorts. There were interfaces on both ends of the machine to take and expel mana, which was stored inside the machine like a battery. Whatever was used to charge the generator, or what the generator could be used to power magically, did not appear to be present. As rough as the generator looked on the outside, it had to be a new-er construction. The bolts that held it to the ground hadn’t rusted yet, and some of the floorboards had been reinstalled, possibly to run wires or pipes under them.Was that why the construction workers were here? But then where were their tools? And where would they get parts to make something like this? It didn’t seem like any of the nuns were making use of this machine.

"Now I really feel popular."

— Mika Fang

Mika sighed. Himiko and Justin stuck to her flanks as she approached the podium. She’d have preferred if they spread out a bit, but was relieved that Justin had Himiko’s attention for the moment. It meant that she could let them speak amongst themselves without giving them her full attention. She was sure the danger had passed, but Justin was proving to be useful by protecting Mika from another annoyance. She’d smile if she could get Angelie’s severed head out of her mind.

Once they arrived at the podium, it was apparent that the papers on top of it had not been placed in any deliberate fashion. They had been shuffled and flipped through during a quick search. Though the pages appeared to be some nearly incomprehensible babble, exactly the sort of thing that might make up a mad esper’s diary.

BLADE DIARY

Duke Rhinecliff ain’t so suave.

Jesse James is named after those team rocket losers.

Ayana is a parody of herself.

Get bent, Jenny!

Crystal looks familiar.

If only the grand magistrate had time for Ananta Aroa.

I thought we were done with pokemon losers, but Chloe Rothschild has a snubbull.

Dunking on Kate would be too easy, pass.

I cannot mock Emily, wherever she is.

Mika thought about recording the page, but wouldn’t have been surprised if none of them actually existed. She also doubted it was a cipher, given how many other pages there were. Sometimes, insane people just rambled about insane things.

But the podium had another curiosity. It was quite wide and had a trap door on the back of it. This might be where the microphone or a speaker could be stored, but when Mika opened it up, that wasn’t what she was greeted with.

Behind the trap door was a stone engraving that took up the entire space inside the podium. There were depictions of various animals. Wolves, bears, foxes, squirrels, snakes, even an antelope and a moose could be found in the engraving. It was difficult to tell where one creature ended and another began. None of the animals looked happy, almost as if they were all conjoined into one massive suffering mass. The stand out, literally, was a small pointed beak from a song bird. Beneath the beak was a narrow trough that led into a hole, which presumably led even deeper into the surface. In the bottom of the engraving, someone had chiseled a message: “BloOd fOr tHE bLOoD gOd pUDdy!”

She raised her eyebrow and looked to Himiko.

STORYCRAFT: For Roleplayers

Collaborating Like a Total Boss

Play by post roleplaying conjures images of people writing stories together. Surely, you wouldn’t have much of an RP if you planned on writing the whole thing yourself. For an RP to get anywhere, Players need to work with each other and the GM. A post may be submitted to an RP, but it’s up to those posting afterwards to incorporate it into the expanding narrative. Roleplaying depends on cooperation. It’s one of the things that makes this hobby so interesting.

It’s no surprise that some players wish to collaborate on a single post, often called a collab. It’;s interesting how divisive the topic of collabs can be. Few players have a neutral opinion about them. Merely whispering the word brings some to euphoric bliss while others cringe in disgust. Like anything in a roleplayer’s toolbox, there are times when collabs work very well, and times they don’t.

I’ve written how to do collabs in the past, but I allowed myself to be affected by the anti-article sentiment at the time. I was afraid of telling people how to write because I didn’t want to be viewed as some know it all who thought that their way was objectively the best way to do it. However, people that feel that way about article writers probably aren’t article readers, and their opinions shouldn’t be considered when setting out to inform others how to write. I think most players understand that these articles are a starting point rather than some strict code that must be followed at all times.

If you care to look at the old article, you can find it here. It’s recommended reading if you’re totally lost on how to write a collab. But for the article you’re reading now, I don’t plan on retreading old ground. I’m more interested in how collabs pertain to story craft.

---

It’s not a stretch to say most collabs don’t read right. It’s not that you can’t figure out what’s going on, but you can usually tell something is a collab without being told. There are enough oddities to give it away even if you don’t know who plays which character.

I’m going to show you a snippet from a post in one of my roleplays. It was a collab written by Mate and Ginger, who are two of the best roleplayers I’ve ever had the pleasure of writing with. I don’t believe either of them speaks English as their primary language, which just makes their English roleplaying that much more impressive. They’ve written many beautiful posts, and I wish we could still write together.

Some context: Marianne is a herbalist, Daimyon is a poet. They’re trapped in a killing game, which is a stressful situation. Daimyon lost his notebook, started getting super stressed, but Marianne found it and they got to enjoy a rare sweet moment in hell. This is the tail end of their discussion.

“I also promise to try and help that.” Marianne couldn't help but smile a very peculiar smile at noticing his serene expression. ...he was so vulnerable like this. It was definitely different to see someone relax, in this tense atmosphere. It was...familiar.
Seizing the opportunity, she gently thumbed over his bottom lip before her arms moved around the taller man's neck, and he could feel her body pressed flush against his as she (on her tiptoes) gave him as protective an embrace as she could manage.
“I promise you will not have to be alone anymore, Daimyon Londe.”

His smile was only broken for a moment by a surprised look as Marianne, quite suddenly, hugged him, before it returned to extend on his face wider than ever. His mind failed him this once—he had no idea what made the woman do such thing, but he did not complain. He wrapped his arms around her to answer the gesture, giving her a few gentle pats on the back.
“You see...life is cruel at times, but...it's also a hell of a story writer.”

He let them linger like this for a few more precious seconds before finally breaking away. Daimyon straightened out his clothing with a few quick motions and once again stood up tall, his hands tied behind his back—his signature stance, and the lively smile returned to his face.
“Thank you for everything. In a way, I'm...glad it was you who found it. Now...” He swiped up the opened notebook from the table, closed it and smoothly slid it into his shirt pocket. “...I don't know about you, but I am rather hungry! Shall we head back to the break room?”

“Ah! Most definitely! I find myself quite famished…!” the herbalist replied when the couple’s hug came to a close, her attention being torn away from the corner of a neatly folded piece of paper jutting out of the notebook that just disappeared into Daimyon’s shirt pocket. A kind of heat rushed to her cheeks with a stray thought and made her a smidgen giddy, even as she nodded enthusiastically up at her companion. He had ‘rescued’ her when she first landed in this place. It was only a matter of happy coincidence that she could do something similar for him. “Somehow, in this place, I never seem to be able to have a proper breakfast. Perhaps that will change today. ...after you, Daimyon. May your smile never cease and your silver linings never fail you.”

Here’s a link to the full post if you’re curious.

It’s not hard to read this snippet and figure out what’s going on. It’s a tender hug in what feels like a pretty shitty situation. But you can tell when someone else starts writing. Not only do we get a shift in the point of view, but time seems to rewind so that we can experience the same events from a different perspective. The order of actions is something like this.

-Marianne hugs Daimyon,
-Marianne speaks
-Daimyon reacts to being hugged
-He responds
-He lets go of her
-He picks up his notebook
-He says something else
-She responds to his response as she is released
-She responds to something else and continues speaking until the end of the collab.

But this is easier to follow:

-Marianne hugs Daimyon,
-Daimyon reacts to being hugged
-Marianne speaks
-He responds
-She responds to his response
-He lets go of her
-He picks up his notebook
-He says something else
-She responds to something else and continues speaking until the end of the collab.

This time travel, or “record skip” as I like to call it, only really happens in collabs. This isn’t the most egregious example I could find, but I feel it’s relevant for our discussion. Mate and Ginger can write better than I do, yet their collab post has this weird out of order flow that is never present even in novice roleplaying posts. This happens because they aren’t as experienced with writing collabs. Each one is treating their sections as tiny posts that are lined up end to end. If it was sevral posts you wouldn’t notice a problem. But the lack of page breaks causes the reader to stumble into the next “post” where both the perspective and timing are different. A different approach is necessary to avoid these errors.

And that’s what this article is based around: methods for minimizing and removing defects in collabs. It isn’t difficult to do once you know how. You just need a cooperative partner who cares about the quality of the writing, or is willing to put up with your standards regarding collabs.

This should go without saying, but talking it over can avoid a lot of headaches. Especially if you aren’t familiar with your collab buddy, and especially if they’re new to writing collabs. You don’t have to go over every point with a fine comb, it’s just nice to get everyone on the same page. I like to discuss how often we plan on adding to the collab, what we’d like to do, and any concerns we may have. We can always talk more about events as they develop, but those are some good points to start with.

A simple and effective way to deal with record skip is to “splice” adds into other people’s adds. I had the pleasure of writing with FroggRFlowR on a magical girl RP. For this scene, we decided to have our characters meet untransformed. My character, Suki, is a delinquent that was trying to break into a storefront. Their character, Sayuri, is a model student. She spots Suki in the act, which sparks this interaction between the two in which Suki tries to explain she left her homework in there and totally isn’t trying to steal anything. This next part is a single add for the collab written by FroggRFlowR.

“I'm sorry," she managed to say between fits of laughter. "I'm a bit uh... tired. I worked late last night," she added with a chuckle. "So, it's like that, huh? Haven't we crossed paths before...? I'm sure I've seen you around somewhere." Sayuri paused to ponder, tilting her head with a finger resting on her chin. Then, she had a eureka moment. "I bet we both go to the same school!" Sayuri's eyes lit up as she came to this realization. With great enthusiasm, she clapped her hands together in triumph before gently taking Suki’s hand. "How did I never notice you before? I absolutely love your outfit!" She expressed her admiration while examining Suki's fishnets and frilly shorts, running a finger along the unique fabric. Suki may have been accustomed to people reacting with mockery or confusion to her goth look, but Sayuri's fascination was entirely sincere. A longer look at Sayuri, and Suki might notice; they were not so different. Sayuri's attire was just as striking, though it leaned toward vibrant colors instead of the dark and gloomy.

This is actually a nice add.When they initially wrote it, they told me that they weren’t sure if they had gone overboard or not. It’s an understandable concern. There’s a ton of points in there where Sayuri does something that should provoke a reaction out of Suki. If I were to just write a response to this, I would have to repeat most of this paragraph just to get all of the reactions Suki should have in there. But in addition to some record skip, it almost feels like Sayuri is interacting with a doll for her parts. It’s as if Suki is waiting for the paragraph to end so that she can rewind time and get her own reactions in there. Most of Suki’s reactions aren’t going to change the trajectory of what FroggRFlowR wrote, and it would be too time consuming to restrict them to only writing up until Suki can respond.

So we splice.

All you need to do is type your add directly into theirs and format as necessary. Once I wrote my add, the collab looked like this.

“I'm sorry," she managed to say between fits of laughter. "I'm a bit uh... tired. I worked late last night," she added with a chuckle. "So, it's like that, huh? Haven't we crossed paths before...? I'm sure I've seen you around somewhere."

"Come to think of it, you look a little familiar too.” Suki rubbed the back of her head.

Sayuri paused to ponder, tilting her head with a finger resting on her chin. Then, she had a eureka moment.

"I bet we both go to the same school!" Sayuri's eyes lit up as she came to this realization. With great enthusiasm, she clapped her hands together in triumph.

"There’s only one school around here.” Suki folded her arms. "But that’s probably it, we just- Eh- Ah-” She stammered as Sayuri gently took hold of Suki's hands.

"How did I never notice you before? I absolutely love your outfit!" She expressed her admiration while examining Suki's fishnets and frilly shorts, running a finger along the unique fabric. Suki may have been accustomed to people reacting with mockery or confusion to her goth look, but Sayuri's fascination was entirely sincere. A longer look at Sayuri, and Suki might notice; they were not so different. Sayuri's attire was just as striking, though it leaned toward vibrant colors instead of the dark and gloomy.

"...Heh.” Suki’s pale skin was starting to change to a warm shade of red. "Yea I uh, I don’t really dress like this when I go to school. Uniform codes and everything.” She pulled away from Sayuri and folded her hands over her chest. "But yea! Guess I’ll have to return home empty handed.” She chuckled.

Damn, I think I could have edited this better.

The caveat to doing adds like this is that sometimes it can feel like one character is ignoring the other. Though this can be easily rectified by not adding a ton of details or dialog that the other character would respond to. Alternatively, the previous player (or you, if they trust you) can just make a second pass of edits so that their character’s actions feel more natural. However, I feel that not doing that works here since Sayuri is very excited about making another friend and Suki is kind of meek, so getting talked over a little bit isn’t out of character for her.

Though I can also see this being problematic if you are writing a collab with a ton of players. That’s usually never a good idea, but this will really compound the amount of work that needs to be done if everyone needs to react to everything. Be selective about what you respond to. It’s fine to have everyone respond to something together. Instead of everyone individual recoiling from some horror, you can write “The team recoiled” or “Everyone but X recoiled” if you have a snowflake in your midst.

If you’re curious, the full collab is here. I don’t think it’s my best work. I mean it reads fine and it’s a nice scene between two characters, but we didn’t really talk about whose perspective the collab should be from. So it starts out deep inside Suki’s point of view before switching to a deep Sayuri point of view, before kind of switching back to a light Suki perspective. I think what happened is that FroggRFlowR read my initial add, and mimicked that style with their own add. Then I mentally decided to mute Suki’s inner monolog as much as possible, and FroggRFlowR kind of did the same for their character. Since I was the more experienced collab writer, and because this was FroggRFlowR’s first collab, I should have talked to them about perspective so that we were both on the same page.

On the topic of perspective, let’s talk about head hopping. Something else that tends to happen in collabs is that everybody writes from their character’s perspective. This comes natural to “advanced” writers who can fill half their posts with their character’s personal observations. It’s harmless, and even beneficial when everyone is writing their own posts. However, it can be a little jarring to constantly be thrown back and forth between perspectives in a single post. This also tends to cause record skip, as everything that happens is getting re-explained by other player characters in the collab. Head hopping is a pet peeve of mine so it bothers me more than most players. But it does contribute to a lot of other problems when not used correctly.

Head hopping is simple enough to defeat. Simply decide whose perspective the post should be from and stick with it. Many times you can still write from other characters' perspectives through subtle cues or careful wording. Your non-PoV (point of view) character might look at a rockface. You may be tempted to write “He knew he couldn’t climb it”, but by writing it as “it didn’t look like he could climb it”, or “everyone knew he couldn’t climb it”, or even “He must have known he couldn’t climb it”, doesn’t frame the narration as the character’s thoughts. It becomes a neutral observation that any character in the scene could have. Alternatively, use subtext. Maybe he anxiously rubs his arms, or scratches his head in confusion. Not everything can be expressed through a non-PoV character, but sometimes that’s okay.

But there is an alternative method to minimizing the damage head hopping can do, and that is to just embrace it as a feature.

I can’t think of a collab that I’ve seen that demonstrates this, but there is a part in the novel “Shōgun“ by James Clavell that’s an excellent example of this. It’s a fifty year old book, but I’ll avoid spoiling it. i haven't finished it either, so you’d better not either.

An English pilot named Blackthorne is captured by some samurai and forced to pilot a ship to some place in Japan. At one point, they weather a storm and lose someone overboard. They make it to land and decide to see if they can recover the body because Blackthorne is making a fuss about it. The samurai decide to appease Blackthorne and many of them leave the ship with them. Among them is a daimyo named Yabu, who Blackthorne doesn’t like very much for reasons I won’t cover here.

The search is narrated through Blackthorn’s perspective. He searches and searches before spotting the sailor’s body off a steep cliff face. During the trip, Blackthorne noticed that the samurai were very protective of him and wouldn’t let him near the cliff edge. Likely because none of the samurai know how to sail, and if he were to perish, so would the rest of them. To test his theory, he looks off the edge and is promptly pulled back and scolded by the samurai.

So Blackthorn gets this brilliant idea: If he makes a big stink about recovering the body, will Yabu be forced to climb down there and get it? The Japanese are proud people, and a daimyo isn’t going to look weak in front of their soldiers. Blackthorne makes a scene and pretends that he’s not going to leave without the body. Yabu offers to go and down he goes. Blackthorn watches him climb down, hoping that he’ll split his head open on the rocks. We could have stayed viewing everything from Blackthorn’s perspective. But instead, Clavell opts to switch to Yabu’s perspective, and this makes things much more interesting.

While he scales down the mountain face, it’s revealed that he is entirely aware of what Blackthorn is doing. He knows Blackthorn had no intention of climbing down, and wanted Yabu to do it to endanger his life. However, he’s chosen to go along with it because he knows that if he is successful, Blackthorne will be forced to respect him as he was able to do something he could not. Also, climbing steep rockfaces like this was something the people of his village did for fun. Yabu wasn’t getting played, Blackthorn was. And we stay with this conniving schemer until he reaches the body of the sailor, only to discover he’s alive. Should he return with him, he knows Blackthorn will have no choice but to respect him.

What happens next? You’ll have to read the book to find out.

Without Yabu’s perspective, we’d have a pretty one note scene with Blackthorn “tricking” Yabu into possibly killing himself to recover a body. However, Yabu’s perspective makes the scene a lot more complex with an interesting reversal. It’s Blackthorn getting played, not Yabu. If you’re going to head hop, do it with purpose. Don’t do it just to show us another take on something that’s already been covered earlier in the collab. Don’t do it frequently. Make sure the information we’re getting is enriching the scene and not just making it longer.

It’s been a while since I’ve seen this next one, but it happens occasionally and use to be something I did all the time. I call it “Forum Chat.” I refuse to dig up my posts on an old RP forum, so instead I’ll just write an example here. No context necessary.

“Hey Bill!” Bob said. “How’s it going?”

“Pretty good.” Bill responded. “I got all of my taxes done and I’m about ready to break into a beer!”

Bob laughed. “I’m glad you’re doing good, Bill. I should probably do my taxes too. The end of the year is coming up.” Before he could think about his taxes much further, he shot Bill a glare. “Hold on, beer? I thought you quit that stuff because what it did to ya? Didn’t you beat up a kangaroo?”

“Hey! You still have time to do your taxes! I’ve got an accountant that can help you out if you need it. Her name’s Stacy, and that girl has me in stitches every time she tells me one of her farm jokes!” He turned the bottle of beer over in his hand. “Yea, I stopped drinking because it made me hate the outback. Too hot, those kangaroos always looked so stupid. But then I found God, and it’s a lot easier to control my anger now.” He sighed. “But between you and me? That kangaroo deserved it. Everybody forgets that he almost punched out my son.”

“I could use some help doing my taxes. But I would need to find my missing receipts first. I think I left them in your truck.” Bob smiled. “That Stacy girl sounds like a hoot! I don’t suppose she’s available, is she?” He raised an eyebrow. “You only hated the outback when you were drunk? That sounds kind of weird, I’m not sure if I believe you.” With a resigned sigh he added. “And that kangaroo wouldn’t have punched your boy if he wasn’t a jerk. As far as I’m concerned, he got just what he deserved!”

“Yea, I think you did leave your receipts in my truck. They got left in there after the move and I haven’t had a need to drive anywhere.” Bill raised his glass and winked. “You bet Stacy’s available! She can be a little elusive though.” Bill fretted his brow. “And hey! You didn’t use to live in the outback the way I did! If you had my life, drinking would make you hate it too!” Then he got even angrier. “And my son didn’t deserve that crap! You take that back, you son of a cow devil!”

I’m not sorry.

But yes, Forum Chat. You likely noticed that Bill and Bob were discussing multiple topics at once. Kind of like how we chat/debate on forums. Nobody talks like this in real life, and it feels unnatural. It tends to come about when players respond to multiple points in a single add.

This is one of those cases where an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. While you can go in there and edit things, it’s much easier to just not let it appear at all. If you need to react to multiple points in a discussion, you can always splice if you don’t think your character’s reaction would warrant another reaction. You can also just ask whoever you’re writing with what direction you’d like to take the collab in, or offer to circle around back once a particular thread has been explored. Though this is the sort of thing that if you know about it, it tends to just not happen.

Not really a collab error, but here’s a way to address a headache regarding collabs. In my old article I caution against staging collabs in big spaces where a lot of characters are present. The only reason why I advise doing that is because it’s easy to “cheat” players out of reactions that they could have. But there’s actually a way around that if you write your collabs on a pad/doc and trust everyone on your discord server. You can drop the link there where everyone can access it. This lets you write your collab while letting everyone else keep up with it. They can give you pointers and have their characters jump in momentarily if needed. Once I had a character do a presentation in front of all the player characters and it was fun to have them jump in and out of the collab as it went on. Just remember who the collab is primarily with. You shouldn’t be waiting for everyone to react to your every add, otherwise your pace will slow to a crawl. You only need to consider players that are actively participating in the scene.

Your last line of defense against collab errors is editing. Once everyone is done writing, everyone involved with the collab should look over it and make any changes they deem necessary. Unless everyone trusts each other, make sure to talk to everyone involved before editing something big or someone else’s part. I find that editing is typically left up to one person, and they usually don’t want to step on their partners toes. As a result, they will only edit their own parts. Most people I’ve written with are perfectly okay with allowing you to correct typos and rearrange things so that they read better. Just don’t go overboard to the point where you’re totally re-writing their parts. Without their permission anyway. Communication is important, you know.

If you pay attention to how everything flows, you edit carefully, everyone involved is happy with the outcome, the stars align and the old ones accept your offering, then you’ll have a great collab that everyone will enjoy reading. Don’t forget to get a post in for next week.

At this point, I imagine some of you are thinking something like: “That’s very interesting, Sir. However, while I would love to try employing some of these ideas in my next collab, I don’t think I could get my collabing partner(s) on board with it.” To which I would say something to the effect of: “Ok.”

Collaborations require cooperation, and sadly, that’s not something you’re always going to get out of your partner. Even sadder, a lot of people are afraid to even make suggestions because they don’t want to be told no or just don’t think it’s worth the hassle. Let me tell you a story.

I once wrote with someone I’ll refer to as Mr Long. Mr long was a fine writer, posted swiftly, and was a social butterfly that was always in the mood to talk. If there was a negative to Mr Long, it was that he could be high strung at times, and it wasn’t always clear what was going to set him off. We wrote a collab together, and I will not soon forget the experience.

The collab was an awkward thing to craft. Regardless of what I wrote, Mr Long would reexplain everything through the lens of his character. At one point I wrote a multi-paragraph description for how a location looked, and then his character observed every detail with their very next add. Record skip was unavoidable. He didn’t believe in splicing, and they insisted on writing deeply from their characters point of view. Even if there was nothing worthwhile to contribute, they would dedicate a paragraph to their character looking something over, only for the character to realize they didn’t have any idea what they were looking at. I wanted to talk to him about this, but he kept bringing up how it was okay for me to turn his character into a human trafficking victim and all that entailed. It made me uncomfortable, but he doubled down and told me how much he would enjoy it if we went through with it. I was going to call the collab off, but “fortunately” we had a third player present. They were not part of our private discussion, and Miss Short more or less made it impossible for Mr Long’s character to befall the fate they were hoping for. By that point I just wanted to finish up before Mr Long discovered a way to course correct.

This was a nightmare to edit, largely because of Mr Long’s additions, but Miss Short also liked to write from her own character’s perspective and didn’t splice her adds. I ended up removing a lot of what I wrote just so that anyone reading didn’t have to read Mr Long and I explain everything twice. My feeling was that nobody could get upset if I only deleted my own writing, as I didn’t feel like getting Mr Long’s permission to edit his parts. It would take far too much work to have the collab reach my typical standards, so I decided to release it after making only basic edits. It didn’t get any praise, but nobody complained either. I called that a win, but rather than triumph, I only felt relieved that it was over.

At a later date, Mr Long brought up the collab again in the RP’s community discord. My feelings regarding the collab had mellowed, and I felt like I could talk about it in a semi-public space without it getting weird. I mentioned that I thought the collab was a little long because of how much was reexplained by the characters. Mr Long responded, in too many words, that they like long posts. That it brings them joy to see the most pointless details take up paragraphs on a page. Quantity is quality to Mr Long.

I didn’t bring up Mr Long to dunk on his writing philosophy or degenerate fetishes. I bring him up to illustrate two points. One is that a partner you can communicate with is worth more than a “good” writer, and also that good writing is a subjective thing. Yes, through storycraft you can make your writing appeal to the masses. But at the end of the day, how important is that? If you’re writing a 1x1 RP with someone in PMs, is your primary concern the unwashed masses, or the only two people who will ever read it? The answer to these questions will be different for everyone.

And even different depending on the situation. As someone who’s basically a “Forever GM”, I’m constantly trying to keep my players motivated. That means keeping to a strict posting schedule that I expect everyone else to follow. There are times when things are good, but could be great if I had just a day or two longer to look over what I wrote. When these situations arise, I do not let the perfectionist in me win. I punch him in the face, along with the post button.

That said, I will always strive to write the best stories I can under whatever constraints I have. It’s just important to realize that not everyone is as excited about storycraft as I am. I wrote a lengthy set of articles on it after all. That doesn’t mean you can’t grow as a writer or have fun with those less serious about the hobby.. Accepting that everyone enjoys different aspects of this hobby is necessary to making great collabs. Ultimately, This is a social hobby and you’re not going to get very far writing all by yourself.

And with that, we’ve come full circle.

Collabs are not easy. They demand attention to detail, teamwork, and a situation that allows them to be practical. But when done right they can be very rewarding. Over the years I’ve had a few good posts, but when I think about the highlights of an RP, my favorite posts are almost always well written collabs. Nowhere else are you going to see duels between rivals, political intrigue unfold, or friends turn to lovers, all without interruptions in a single post. I try not to turn down an opportunity to write one. So strive to write excellent collabs. Because if you can master that, you can master the rest of this hobby.

---

That took a little longer than I wanted it to. Was it worth the wait?

This is the planned end of STORYCRAFT. I may add more topics down the road but I’m going to call this series finished for the moment. Thanks for reading along, and don’t forget to post in an RP this week.

Kurai Majokko: Tsundere Gekido

Roche and Nyxia had come up with a plan easily enough, but now they would need to track down the others. Roche couldn't rightly drag anyone anywhere without putting her hands on them first.

---

The mascot stopped purring and began walking back towards the school grounds, not that it was apparent at the pace Tsubomi had set for herself.

'^'

._.

>_<

Its screen continued to change as they walked. Eventually they came to an intersection between some suburban homes and the mascot “glared” at Tsubomi.

-_-

It approached a nearby house, or more specifically, a fence. Leaning against the fence was a bicycle. It was rare for people around here to leave out anything, but there was a faster mode of transportation just laying outside. Sure, it was kind of girly, even for a girl. It had a white frame with a pink seat and handlebars, along with tinsel tassels and a glittering decal of a unicorn. It was in pristine shape and didn't have as much as a scratch on it. Even the tires were clean and showed no sign of dirt. Whoever parked here had to be unfamiliar with the area. The mascot rubbed up against it while looking at Tsubomi. Then it climbed on top of the seat and hopped into the basket on the front of it. All without breaking “eye contact” with the lethargic student.

Then a nearby bush moved.

Leaves flew into the air as a pink haired girl lunged out of the bush. Armed with her trusty bug net, she managed to swing it over the mascot’s head.

”Gotcha!”

o_O

The mascot tried to wrestle free, but the metal loop on the bug net was caught on the back of the monitor, preventing escape. With a twist, the net was turned over, and the mascot with it. They were flipped out of the bike’s basket and fell completely into the net.

”That’ll teach ya ta shit on mah bike!” She placed her foot on the bike’s tire and swung the bug net over her shoulder. There was a grin on her face, and her other hand was balled into a fist and confidently pressed against her hip.

X_X

”And whaddaya doin’ 'ere, kid? Aintcha got homework ta do?”

---

"Socializing is bad!”

— Suki Oyama

When Oros the Joyful learned that she could make anyone she wanted infatuated with her, her mind filled with possibilities. She could turn everyone in a classroom into her little darling, transform the school into a giant harem, or even turn the entire town into her kingdom! It all sounded good on paper, until she set out to actually try it. Humans just couldn’t take the potency of her spells. After a single kiss, they’d lose consciousness. Having your date go to sleep the second you want to do something intimate kinda sucked. But Oros had her methods.

She was standing against the sink in the woman’s bathroom. Each of her arms held two girls and the five of them stood in a huddle. They were pawing at the side of Oros's face while she tried to tell them how her week was going.

"...And at first I thought winning the tickets would be a blessing, but I couldn't convince her to go with me.”

A girl with a long ponytail leaned in closer. ”I would go with you, Oros.”

"Aww, Takeko! I could roll a cinnamon stick through honey, then sugar, then honey again, and it wouldn’t be as sweet as you are!” She kissed the girl on the lips, and she collapsed at her feet. "But I don’t know what I could have done differently! This all started because I pulled one over on her partner, like she wanted me to! But she’ll stick by that bully! I don’t get it!”

Another girl with a bob cut stepped over Takeko and hugged Oros. ”It was all part of Bedshaker’s plan. You were led to look like a monster in front of Nyx.”

"I couldn’t agree more Koneko! Your wisdom is only matched by your beauty, which outshines the stars like the rising sun!” Another kiss, and Koneko collapsed on top of Takeko. "B-but I don’t know what to do now. Nobody in the Detention Club seems to like me.”

A petite girl with shoulder length hair jumped onto her. They wrapped their arms around her neck and swung off the ground. ”Make your own club!”

"It’s not that simple, Isamu. If nobody likes me, than who’s going to join my club?”

”I would!”

Oros smiled. "That’s because your heart is as deep and warm as, um, my mouth?” Suki placed her lips over Isamu’s. Before her tongue could slide out of her mouth, Isamu lost her strength and slumped to the ground. The pile of girls was starting to get pretty high. "Seriously? Is there an end to this vicious cycle?”

"Yes.” Tatsu, a teacher Oros managed to snag, positioned herself in front of her. Oros didn’t typically try to snag faculty members but she had always liked Tatsu’s style. She was just so effortlessly cool all the time and seemed invincible. Even better, she was a smoker. Obviously she never did it on the job, but Oros had caught her doing it a few nights while waiting for dates. Seemed Oros wasn’t the only lonely person in this town.. "You must realize your self worth.”

”My self worth?” Oros pointed at herself. ”You’re not just trying to make me feel happy, are you?” It wasn’t uncommon for those under her curse to just spout nonsense in an attempt to make her feel better.

"No, I am being quite serious. But self worth is self worth. You need to find something you value.” Tatsu placed her hands on Oros’s shoulders, and Oros slowly leaned backwards into the sink. She draped herself over her, with their noses almost touching. The weight and warmth of her body sunk right through Oros’s uniform. "You need to become a miner, and really dig inside yourself to find it, but I know it’s there.”

”Eh, Miss Sugiyama? That kind of sounded like some bullshit you’d see in a feel good tv show.”

"Is it though? If you don’t dig, you’ll never find it. But maybe I can take the first few scoops of dirt away for you.” She began to close her eyes. "Ex marks the spot.”

”Wha-”

Suki was too shocked to properly appreciate Tatsu’s warmth and taste. By the time she was ready, Tatsu pulled back and wiped off her mouth. "Can you keep digging?”

”M-Miss Sugiyama? You’re still awake!?” Oros smiled. ”Are you a magical woman? Have you-”

Tatsu collapsed on top of Oros. Then she slip off of the deranged magical girl and fell onto the pileup behind her. None of the girls in the pile looked happy. Each one was laying in an uncomfortable position, and the expression on their face voiced that discomfort. Even the cool, immortal Tatsu looked like little more than a sacrifice laying on top of an altar. Her face was exhausted, and her arms were draped back in weary acceptance.

Oros stepped around the unconscious bodies and departed from the restroom as fast as she could. She dove out the window and scrambled home as fast as she could go. She tried to not think about what just happened. She tried not to cry. But like everything she tried to do this week, she failed.

Can't upload animated gifs? (Solved)

@Light the Dark@LegendBegins This indeed will work for my purposes. And it seems like APNG is a much smaller file size than GIF, so it's a win all around.

I guess this is solved unless APNG format breaks down the road. Thanks guys!

Symphony on High

@Ponn@ERode@Vertigo

When a fire is extinguished and the arsonist is executed, few people search for the match that started it. Finn was too fast to be stopped by anyone, and nobody wanted to stop him. Ashley and Estelle were too busy dealing with the aftermath, Magical Dream Princess was just waking up from her trance, Pink Pounder didn’t care unless he got too close, and the dragon seemed more interested in what was happening inside than the boy fleeing. Finn might have gotten a few judgmental glances, but the only people that could feel the weight of his sins was himself.

The Pink Pounder gave Ashley a thumbs up, even as the blood of several gang members dripped off of his crooked sword. Violet, however, did not react to Ashley’s praise. As soon as her eyes were open, she stood up and looked inside the building. She skipped her way over to the window and jumped inside. Pink Pounder was about to follow her, but she raised a finger, signaling him to stop. The wizards all seemed to be relieved by this.

Ciri’s outburst seemed to be ignored by most, save for the Pink Pounder. He spun on his heel and shouted at her. “LEAVE MAGICAL DREAM PRINCESS OUT OF THIS!” His body quivered with rage. Every square inch of him was splattered with blood, save for his pristine shield.

Fritzi listened to Ashley’s report. ”I was anticipating things would go south. Maybe not this far south, but the cleanup detail is en route.” Fritzi was keeping her jovial tone up, but she didn’t hide tired sigh. ”I’ll see if I can get a hold of our runaway tin-can soldier. In the meantime, your mission is not over. These monsters are foxy, and it’s very possible that Timekeeper’s curse wasn’t placed on him by Dante directly. We know he employs succubus as waitresses. Finish your investigation before returning to HQ. It would be a shame if the only thing we managed to do was create a power vacuum with all this.” Then a bit quieter, Fritzi grumbled. ”Why was he so packed? Monsters don’t even like to be out in the middle of the day.” Then Fritzi spoke up. ”You’re going to write a detailed report when you get back. Can I get you anything else, ma’am?”

During the entire bar brawl, one corner of the bar had always had exactly one cowboy, dryad, and wizard. Despite belonging to vastly different gangs, they all sat together without fighting. The only time they did anything was when the wizard raised a magic shield to absorb the blast of a fireball. They had been watching Ashley, but their eyes turned to one of the broken windows. A man with a dragon head and a tuxedo was standing just outside.

”Boteg you old dog!” The cowboy slapped his knee. ”We was waitin’ to play cards with ya!”

”Were you dumpster diving again?” The dryad placed her hands on her hips. The feathers on the back of her neck raised when he looked at her.

”Thinkin’ we’ll need to find a new joint. Don’t suppose a burning building is a great place to play.”

But the dragon, Boteg, only gave them a glance. He seemed far more interested in the grieving girl.

Amanda did not react when Estelle initially embraced her. Dante’s daughter hid her face behind her arm and cried into her father’s remains. But as she calmed down, she noticed who was hugging her so tenderly. She shrieked and pushed out of Estelle's grasp, before using her feet to push herself into a corner. Her arms were still clutching what remained of Dante, and her face was as red as a cherry. Even if she wanted to be comforted, only a fool would let an esper, and especially a gemini esper, touch you. Nothing was stopping them from blowing you up with a melody, or worse, robbing you of all your energy so that they could drag your tired corpse to one of their experimental labs. Though Amanda seemed content with this setup. A little bit of personal space, with Estelle kneeling just a few feet outside of it. When there was a break in the sobs, she surveyed the room. Then she looked back at Estelle.

”Where is he?”

---

@Majoraa

Finn could run, that was something he was really good at. How many times had he just taken to the streets in no direction at all? How many times had it helped? The answers to both of these questions were very different.

But the bigger issue was that Pax Septimus was just not a safe place for espers to just run around. Even if one could ignore the looming presence of the Hand, espers were just sort of destined to run into each other. Sometimes they were friendly, sometimes they weren’t.

That oni girl looked like she was running from something. Or chasing something. Maybe whatever she was hunting was still around, and Finn… Just so happened to run into something.

He fell backwards, a piece of buttered toast was laying on his chest. And before him stood…

"Problem?"

— Oros the Mad

Oros groaned. "Oh come on! I’m supposed to run into someone important with that trick!" She reached for the slice of toast and pulled it off of Finn. "Shit, and of course it lands butter side down. Could you do me a favor and run a lint roller over yourself every so often? Is this barbecue sauce or cowboy blood?" She took a bite. "Cowboy blood… I guess you’re forgiven." She continued to talk while chewing her food. "Are you alright? You look like you just did something very ‘you’ a few seconds ago. I’m kind of running late, but you’re dating Betty, so I can spare a moment for you Romeo." She took another bite. "Befides, if profifly hifafious!"

Even if Finn felt and looked like he was on the verge of screaming, he was still able to shoot the one esper he was wanting to avoid a quick glare. At this point it was expected of his luck to force them to literally run into each other. So it was some damn miracle Oros was willing to spare him cause of… Betty? That’s twice now the Mad had brought her up in relation to him, what was so important about her to this woman? And he and Betty hadn’t even had their first date yet!! His expression soon broke into a frown, his bottom lip quivering. God no, he can’t break down crying, not here, and not in front of Oros of all people. But yet once he could manage to speak, he could stop his voice from trembling.

_{”...W-What’s wrong with me…?”}

---

@Kero

Noah Anderson had only recently become an Esper, and only very recently became a freelancer. She had been enjoying the sights that Pax Septimus had to offer. The historic district was the city’s single biggest draw, but there were plenty of eateries and parks to visit as well.

It was just a shame she didn’t get to see it all before the diver showed up in town.

It was a colossal monster that was spoken of in hushed whispers, and the reason some parts of the city were still off the grid. Only recently, Noah’s room had working power again. It wasn’t uncommon to see volunteers distributing food and water to the recently homeless, and repairs had only just started on many buildings. It made for an unusual tourist experience, but at least her new side hustle would be getting some action.

But what to do? As a Freelancer, all Noah had to do was open her Shimr app and ask where she should get started. Several espers said that the “Great Escape” was a nice place to start. The Bate Twins regularly appear there and it’s the largest hangout for freelance espers in the city. It has a humble hometown feel, they serve breakfast at every hour, and the orange juice is good. Raphael the Righteous Hearted had also been spotted there a few times. Some of the app’s users noted that Noah looked like a nun, and thought that it might be worth seeking someone who worked directly for the pope. Though many more users said that he was more likely to be found visiting the local churches, if not assisting with the distribution of supplies to the hopeless. In mere seconds, an esper had taken a picture of Raphael doing just that. He was at an intersection on Fifteenth Street ensuring everything was in order.

The good thing about being a Freelancer is you usually had choices, but that was also the issue. Noah had to decide if they were going to try and catch up with Raphael or meet up with other freelancers in the Great Escape.

Of course, just walking around was also an option. There was a rumor that espers who wandered were destined to run into another esper, if not a monster. Then again, this city was plagued by horror worshiping cultists, a weretiger mafia, among many other unsavory sorts. So just “walking around” was ill advised. However, it could prove to make for a very interesting event.

---

"I feel popular."

— Mika Fang

@The World@Nakushita@TaintedMushroom@FamishedPants

"I see." Mika hated to admit it, but the burning guy was kind of cool. A little rough around the edges and not a subtle sort, but definitely someone who rose to the occasion regardless of how insurmountable it seemed. His line about making things work sounded similar to something her mother might have said, except in perfect english. He’d probably survive a total of three operations. That was how many her mother had survived in Pax Septimus. "Let’s keep our eyes open. Trap or not, there should be some clues."

It was a shame they hadn’t managed to kill a single one of those nuns. But their presence here told her something. Lenore had been working with Justin von Carnage, and he had been working for the hand. Oros was not working with the Hand. In fact, she had given Ashley some information regarding the Diver before that operation. Moreover, Sovereign was working with Oros, and she refused to hand Mika over to Lenore even though she had a perfect opportunity to. This could have been an act to earn favor with GEMINI, but-

Oh great, Sovereign was speaking to her.

As Mika had predicted, one of the first things the money obsessed esper did was tease her because she tried to save Sovereign’s life. At least she seemed appreciative of the gesture, even offering her a “request” in the future. Mika was about to thank her for the offer, and be glad the verbose esper had decided to keep things short for once. But then she went on to add that she thought Mika should leave GEMINI when she gets tired of being “bossed around” and should “join up with her” along with other things that sounded like a joke. But when it was time to laugh, Sovereign didn’t.

This girl…

"Are you okay?" Mika raised an eyebrow. "I just want to kill as many monsters as I can before I die. I do not think you are going to help me do that from what I have seen." Sovereign’s performance was rather lackluster. She had killed a few of the construction workers, but it almost felt like she was holding back. Like she wasn’t willing to put in as much effort as everyone else. She was fortunate that Mika found her too irritating to yell at. Otherwise, she would have been much more vocal about her poor performance. But they still had a job to do. Sovereign was a hard one to judge. She was reckless, so her number should be up in an operation or two. But it was weird. Mika got the impression she was being catty. It was possible she could outlive everyone here.

But all of that left her head when Marrie brought up her partner. With a groan, she hopped down from the balcony and walked towards Angelie’s severed head. "No." She said with a sigh. "Dead is dead." She lifted the head up while trying not to look at the stump. Though she inadvertently got a glimpse and noticed it had all been charred black. That smoke nun must have struck her with a melody once Lenore transplaced with her. Again, she lamented the fact that they hadn’t killed a single nun. Angelie might have been annoying, but all of the other agents had been fine sending Mika on an operation without any backup. She would have expected Ashley to be fine with it, but even Estelle and “that cute boy” were fine with placing one of their own in the hands of strangers. She really was alone now. Though maybe that was for the best. Maybe there was some merit to what Sovereign had said. It was every esper for themselves, and the ones that didn’t think that way ended up like Angelie and her mother. That was how she knew Marrie was only going to survive two more operations, and Justin would be lucky if he survived one. How he survived this one was a miracle.

Well, that was a lot of crap Mika really didn’t want to think about until she got back.

Mika placed Angelie’s head with her body, then turned to everyone present. "Oros didn’t hire those nuns. Let’s keep looking and see if we find something." And with that, she headed to the back of the church to inspect the cathedral. It looked like there was a podium with a script on it.

Symphony on High

@Kero This was accepted months ago, and I'm too excited to look it over to see if you did a switcheroo on me. You didn't do a switcharoo on me, did you? Either way, have her take a pilgrimage to the character tab.

Symphony on High

Hey hey people, GM update here.

“I wish to preach, not the doctrine of ignoble ease, but the doctrine of the strenuous life, the life of toil and effort, of labor and strife; to preach that highest form of success which comes, not to the man who desires mere easy peace, but to the man who does not shrink from danger, from hardship, or from bitter toil, and who out of these wins the splendid ultimate triumph.”

― Theodore Roosevelt, gigachad

While operations are still going, the fighty part is over(?), so you can start working on your esper’s upgrades. Pyramid level up system, one silver becomes gold, can’t be a supplemental glamor, you’ve all done this before.Oh! But one change. I’m not going to force anyone to post their updates on the forum. You can send Majoraa or I a PM/DM and we’ll weigh in on it and get back to you with a yay or nay. That’s probably easiest for everyone. Of course I won’t stop anyone from slapping their updated glamors in the OOC. You do you, rockstar.

Speaking of supplemental glamorous, You guys can talk amongst yourselves and make a bronze glamor with an esper you feel your character connected with. I think I gave everyone the go ahead at the start of the operation, but there wasn’t much time to review anything. At least the nuns got theirs done on time. Anyway, we’re announcing it plenty early this time. So go use the power of friendship and stuff.

Also, some of the espers have performed well enough to upgrade their PR, but I’ll cover that once the operation officially ends. Along with patch notes, though there’s not a whole lot happening in that department.

Anywho, it’s going to be a few weeks before freetime officially starts, so feel free to have your espers do esper stuff. I’m not going to patronize you, I know you fellas know how to RP.

Mahou Shoujo No 30 Dai- a spoof rp!

@Villamvihar I think we're all waiting on the GM. But since their last post was about a month ago and the last player post was about two weeks ago... It's looking like we all belong to Sienna's coffins.

I don't mind, they're kinda cozy.

Can't upload animated gifs? (Solved)

@LegendBegins A'ight. Thanks for letting me know.

Can't upload animated gifs? (Solved)

Nope! Just started trying it today. I would like to clarify that the images aren't turning into static ones, it's just outright refusing to upload them and throws up an "unsupported file type" error.