BrokenPromise

When is a RP Deader Than Disco?

I just want to get some opinions from other RPers on a matter. What separates an inactive RP from a truly dead one? And when is a RP well and truly dead in your book?

@Cleveraptor

You know how you have a tendency to drop out of an RP without giving any warning to your partners? That RP is dead to you but inactive to your partner. See? It's all based on perspective.

In all seriousness, I believe that is one of those distinctions that can only be made with hindsight. A roleplay that sits dormant for 4 years before the GM or your partner open it back up again is inactive, while one that sits dormant forever is dead. Though if you ask me, people and their tastes tend to change over time, and so a long absence from an RP can change its intended trajectory. Say you and I started an RP with dinosaurs that was just some mindless body horror, but after a four year hiatus I decide I want all the carnage to mean something and start writing the dinos as allegories for my character's struggles. It's not really the same RP, yet is is.

I think a better question would be not asking if an RP is dead, but if it's something I could see myself picking up again. I'll never know what the other side thinks unless they tell me, which is a rarity in group or 1x1 RPs. Recently I took an RP that the GM shit canned and started running it with 75%-ish of the original players. It's far outlived the original RP, has a lot of the same characters, but I wouldn't say it's the same RP. It's all very abstract, kind of like how there's no material difference between a corpse and a living person. All the same materials are there, the only difference is that one rots and the other is sleeping.

Though perhaps instead of exploring the existential state of an RP, maybe you just want to know how long I wait on an RP before moving on. But I think that's had the hell answered out of it so I won't be redundant.

Symphony on High

What's up everyone? This is the BP man here!

“No pressure, no diamonds.”

― Thomas Carlyle, Scottish essayist,historian, and philosopher. Basically what most internet users think of themselves as minus the Scottish ancestry.

Opperation is more or less over. You can start working on your esper’s upgrades. Pyramid level up system, etc etc. Some of you forgot to upgrade so I'll make this simple: You should have one Diamond, one Gold, one Silver, and one Bronze glamor. This is going to be the last upgrade for this chapter of the RP so try to get it done in a timely manner. There may be a 1-2 month wait time before the last op but there's going to be a lot of crazy stuff going on in the meantime. The sooner you can work out what you want, the better. Also, Diamond is kind of a broken tier. There's a good chance I'm going to have to rework existing Diamond characters like Oros and Elroy, so don't worry too much about getting feedback. The sooner you get something to me, the better.

Remember that you can carry a friendo's trinket to use in a really emotional and sad way. Just think of how much more impactful Himiko's death would have been if she had used her BFF's charm to power up before delivering her final attack, or maybe their BFF is out there holding onto Himiko's gift, knowing that once they use it, there won't be anything left of her. And then in using it, it can be a way of the character finally moving on. Yea, it's great stuff, and you losers should totally try to make friends. But yea, bronze for backups.

PR upgrades/downgrades will be announced later once we see how Noah does and if anyone else turns their back on humanity.

But yes, I have a lot of collabing to do. so many collabs. I may be writing collabs like the president writes executive orders. You can feel free to workshop your own stuff too. Everyone likes to do collabs but nobody likes to be the one to start them for some reason.

Uhh, but just to start I guess I'll list what I have to do.

COMPLETE!-Noah VS Trixy/Boteg
COMPLETE!-Asher and THE NUNS
STARTED-Gemini post operation briefing (This is probs going to involve just Ashley : C)
-Maverick Alternative post operation party (Just Ciri... Man, Maverick and Gemini have just as many player characters now. That's sad. But we can't start until the Noah fight progresses.)
-Something with Finn C:
-Sooooo many things with Marrie, but it's her fault for going pacifist route like this is Undertale.

Might do a hunt later, but yea, got some stuff to work through.

Symphony on High

"I just wish I could have pushed him."

— Mika Fang

@Ponn@Majoraa@TaintedMushroom

It may have seemed strange for Mika to ask what was going on right behind her head, but that was a testament to how intently she was watching the nuns. She didn’t look away from them for one second, despite how relaxed they seemed.

Mika was not relaxed though. As superior and inferior “talked” behind her back, she found her hands tightening into fists.

No one really takes me seriously.

Yet Ashley keeps you by her side in every job we take on.

You really still don't get it, don't you? You don't see it?

You’re the one who’s blind to everyone’s feelings but your own.

Ah yes, pity how my theory about how the behemoths behave was correct.

A broken clock is right twice a day, but we don’t know how this is going to play out.

I'm sure there'll be another one you lot can kill with glee next time.

The only one living out their power fantasy here is you, dummy.

And I fear with the way things are going, there won't be a time.

You’re just trying to be annoying now.

Hmm... Protecting behemoths is grounds for getting fired, is it not?

No, Finn. Being a liability by constantly disobeying orders and getting mad when Ashley slaps your wrist is!

Consider this my formal resignation from everyone. Don't wanna keep jinxing everyone I meet, right?

Oh look, we agree on something.

Let this be the last time we meet as allies.

Good, you'll help us far more on their side than ours.

"Whatever." She curled her lips. There was so much she wanted to yell about, so much she wanted to rub in Ashley’s face, but there was no point. Her anger was only building and-

What was that fluttering through the air?

As if Peace Train was curious, it floated up to it so that Mika could catch it in her hand. It was a jacket. Did it belong to Himiko? It looked like something she’d wear, and Mika couldn’t see her anywhere else on the battlefield. It was no surprise she had finally fallen. Mika had believed Himiko was on borrowed time, and her prediction came true. But it also brought the world back into focus. This was Pax Septimus. Everyone was fighting in a never ending conflict that nobody understood. Because the fighting never ended, continuing to fight lead to certain death. Her mother died, Angelie died, and now Himiko died. Mika had no intention of stopping, so she would die too. She knew she wasn’t as experienced as her mother was, and she only survived four operations here. This was Mika's third, so her number was coming up.

Mika slipped her arms through the jacket. The white tattered jacket looked a little weird with her Arabian style outfit, but it felt nice to wear something that belonged to someone she knew. Even if she was an idiot, she died trying to protect something. She deserved to be remembered, even if it was just for the small time the current espers were alive. She’d have to recover her Grimoire soon.

”It looks good on you.” Lexi commented, but she was ignored.

The corner of Bobo’s lip crooked upwards. She took the cigar she was smoking out of her lips and handed it to Asher. Then she pulled out a fresh one to smoke herself. ”I knew I’d be tempted to light your face on fire if I gave you a fresh one.” But the joke fell away as soon as Asher revealed how confused he felt. ”Eh? Are you sad or something?”

”Yes! We can explain everything to you. Lexi clapped her hands together. But let’s do that once we get out of here.”

Mika fretted her brow and pointed. "Don’t leave with them." She warned. "You’re a cool guy, and I don’t want to fight you later because they lied to you. You saw what they did to Angelie."

Then a familiar voice that belonged to a nun, but not those present spoke up. ”I thought it was hard to see with the smoke screen.

The trio were enveloped in smoke. Mika took a step back and raised her claw defensively, and just in time to defend from Lenore. She flew out of the smoke and collide with Mika before hopping back into the smog. Nova’s gravely laugh ripped through the air before the smoke, the nuns, and even Asher, were gone.

"He had better listen to me." Mika said while pointing at where Asher had been moments ago. "I’d hate to get betrayed twice."

@The World

Below, the priest plummeted. Even if he was just a corpse, he would turn into one hell of a mess if he hit the ground. Surely the vatican wouldn’t be happy to learn of Raphael’s death, but they could swallow it better if he was returned in good condition like his bravery warranted. Marrie was running low on mana, but she pushed herself as far as she dare go. She caught the giant gargoyle and nearly plummeted to the ground herself. But she was able to slow her decent enough that neither her nor cadaver were damaged by the fall.

But once the adrenaline wore off, Marrie remembered something. Dead espers revert back to their true form once they’re slain. Maybe their instruments or outfits remain in some instances, but if Raphael was keeping up this transformation, that could only mean…

”Than you.” The Priest attempted to stand up, but he found himself stumbling. ”We were unable to slay the demon, but the Holy Roller-” He raised an eyebrow. ”You didn’t come to my summons. Why are you here?”

Kurai Majokko: Tsundere Gekido

“Maybe I do wish to curse some of you, Kiyo.”

— Rei Ishiko

Roche was strangely happy today. It wasn’t hard to tell that something good must have happened to make her change like that. Rei, as Roche would likely notice, was also in a sort of rare form. While not as apathetic as Tsubomi, it was rare for her to show much emotion. She tended to stay on a narrow spectrum somewhere between “confident smile” and “disappointed frown.” These expressions could be entirely read by looking at her lips, as her eyes always stayed the same size and her brow was fixed in place. This only changed in very extreme cases like when she risked having to eat Suki’s food or was joking around with Willow. Though something must have been up, because her eyebrows sunk a bit when she saw Roche.

“The crematorium has been busy.” Rei concurred with the rule keeper, but that wasn’t what she wanted to discuss. “Is Hibusa town not big enough for you anymore? I understand you ventured out to slay stronger miseria with a few detention members. It seems you ended up destroying a beach as a result.” She rolled back her shoulders before sliding her hands into her pockets. “You know the rules, Roche. That could have killed someone. As interesting as it was, a group of light girls see us as a threat now. Not just any group of light girls, you managed to upset the GEMS. They come from the City of Light.” The GEMS wouldn’t have been a familiar name to Roche, but all dark magical girls knew that light girls from the City of Light were a nuisance. They had much better teamwork than the solo light girls that haplessly wandered into Hibusa town, and rumors painted them as being a good deal more aggressive too. “They’ve already attempted to capture some of ours, and have their eye on Hibusa town. I have a hard time believing you would endanger the club like this.”

"My second and third favorite people in the club!”

— Suki Oyama

Suki was shocked. Not by the sudden appearance of the purple skinned magical girl, but the fact that she bothered to say hello to her. She immediately took a hand off of her book and waved it over her head. "Hi!” Was all her brain could muster before Nyxia said something far more normal. Before she could answer, Kiyo made her presence known, answered for her, and then made a comment about Roche’s tardiness. "Uh…” She looked back at Nyxia. "Yea, I had fun. But I brought Tsubomi with me. I don’t really have any sex toys unless you count my body pillow, but I haven’t taken that old thing out in public in years.” Yes, shortly after becoming a light girl, Suki started hanging out with her “real friends” and left her pillowy partner at home. It brought a smile to Suki’s face just thinking about it. It had a pillow cover that looked like a magical gir. On one side she was smiling bright enough to shine through clouds, and on the other side was a “battle damaged” variant where she was laying on her back with an unsettled expression on her face. She had initially named her pillow Miki, but eventually ended up changing her name to Lada. It was unfortunate that she couldn’t recover her before retreating. She wondered what had happened to it. "Hey, you guys like fairy tales? I always thought Rapunzel was kinda cool.”

Suki immediately opened the book to Rapunzel’s chapter. Rapunzel was barely the size of the letters on the adjacent page, but the tower filled the space completely. There was just enough space to show the night sky, and the back of the prince that would scale Rapunzel’s golden braid.

Kurai Majokko: Tsundere Gekido

“May you find this next arc… Interesting.”

— Rei Ishiko

Summer drew to a close, and fall began. The leaves were already starting to change color and good girls and boys were helping rake the yard. Some were even thinking ahead to halloween and the load of festivities that were to come. For bad children, the season was one for tricks as well as treats, and the Hibusa girls found themselves on the defensive.

It started a month ago after an attempted ambush. Some light girls had attacked some of the club members. They were driven off, but ever since that day they had been encroaching on their territory. Not within Hibusa town directly, but the roads and rural communities surrounding it were starting to see more light girl traffic. It had always been Rei’s rule that Hibusa town was theirs, and those pesky light girls could have anything beyond. That was why the forest and the mountain were left to the frog princess to croak about in. If she really wanted to she could flush her out of the trees, but who cared about the mountain? There were no miseria to hunt there. But it no longer felt like they were merely neighboring a frog obsessed priestess, no. A noose had been lowered around their neck, and, while they were not strong enough to tighten it, Why allow them to think they had them trapped? That would only give them more hope, and hope was what emboldened light girls to be more annoying.

Rei stood outside her classroom. There was no reason to visit the club at this time. She had to be somewhere with Willow and only really needed to speak with Roche. A busy schedule could be a hassle sometimes.

"Wow! Feels like I missed 7 3 months weeks of school posts!”

— Suki Oyama

It was that time of the week again.

Suki had already shown up in the detention club. Her swift approach was less because she wanted to hide from Roche and more because she had heard that boss baby might be dropping by. It wasn’t super uncommon for Rei to be here, but she was still quite busy doing whatever it was that she did. At the very least, she was sure to take interest in getting stronger. Though at the same time, Rei had to know what a giga miseria was. There was no way someone as strong as her couldn’t have encountered them in the past. So why didn’t they ever bother to try fighting them?

She probably had her reasons. Suki picked up a book and started reading. Though the book she picked up was one on old fairy tales, and instead of reading she was just looking at pictures of the princesses.

Symphony on High

”Thanks guys…”

— Regina Bates

@Ponn@Majoraa@Vertigo@The World@Nakushita@TaintedMushroom@Kero

With the arrival of Tony, a lot of attention shifted over to the giant orange monster.

Ashley gave a few orders before charging her wand up. While green techno energy gathered at its tip, Tony was already starting to sprint away. For someone of such large stature, he was pretty quick. His comparatively tiny legs were more than enough to help the hulking feline find refuge. Before he could get too far, Marrie fell beside him.

?

With Tony being so tall, Marrie had to hop in order to cast her melody on Regina. The wound on the back of her head started to heal, and her eyes fluttered closed once the “stabilize” part of her melody took effect. The brightest fires burn the shortest, and it shouldn’t have been a surprise that Regina was a glass cannon, nearly done in by a single attack.

Though freeing Regina from Tony’s grasp would be more difficult. She needed to plant her feet on Tony’s back and pull. All the while his fist, which was closed around Regina’s legs, refused to let go. He ran for the back alley while thrashing about, but Marrie wouldn’t let go.

!

As impressive as Tony’s size was, his unusually thick back muscle made it difficult for him to reach around and snatch Marrie. Normally the feline would run on all fours and nobody would be able to hang onto him, but he was carrying cargo that needed to be delivered. The fur beneath Marrie’s feet shook when Tony roared, but she still held on for dear life.

Tony thrashed, Marrie held on, and then her shadow turned into a bird and pulled on her. The bird pulled on Marrie’s legs, and her grip on Regina’s arm started to slip. She slid down her elbow onto her wrist, then her palm, and then…

The bird and Marrie fell backwards off of Tony. She landed on her back, which was pressed against the shadow creature.

But Marrie could feel Regina’s hand in hers. But then why did she feel so light? And why did her own legs feel so warm? When Marrie propped herself up, she could see that she was holding Regina’s hand and little more. Behind her elbow was a stump that dripped crimson.

Regina couldn’t scream right away. The shock induced paralysis prevented her from doing anything, but she was wide awake now. Tony looked over his shoulder at Regina and noticed the wound, then shot Marrie a glare that could freeze water. But his eyes swiftly readjusted to the neon green glow from the back of Peace Train. He dove into the crevice as the beam whipped around the corner. While the cat had disappeared from sight, the blood thrown up on the wall had not. The cat howled before, presumably, limping out of sight.

Things were no less chaotic on the train. Raphael and everyone who followed him hung on for dear life, but the train’s spinning stopped soon enough. The only visible opposition was a single esper.

”Looks like we get a break.” Raphael growled. His demonic wings were pushed over to the side due to the spinning, but as the train slowed, they started to even out. ”I’ll take this one, you-”

But after a furious blast of light, Raphael’s position exploded. His silhouette, minus one wing, was sent flying off the train in a trail of smoke. He fell from the train like a meteor, but the coast was clear.

"What the…" Trixy flew up beside the train on Boteg’s back. She sighed when she realized there was no trace of Himiko. "Isn’t that just like my suitors to up and disappear." She leveled the rocket launcher at Noah. "Well, I can make you disappear too!"

Noah could feel Crazy train curve upwards. With so few people on its back, it seemed like it felt content to vanish into the sky. But what was Noah going to do?

Meanwhile back on the ground, while Tony had fled proper, Penumbra lingered for a bit longer. The blue-haired bleeding heart did only focus on retrieving Regina, so she figured she hadn’t seen her yet. Though as she had watched the two beams shot out towards her co-worker, the assassin was curious. The golden one. It felt a bit too overkill on an already weakened esper, but it did keep the Ruinous Meteor from recovering so soon. Kudos to whoever fired that. But the green one that managed to actually hit him, it seemed more…focused? Was that the term she was looking for? Eh, it didn't matter.

But Penumbra was very curious. Especially when she watched the dear preacher get knocked off Crazy Train despite his devilish power up.

She did warn the guy.

”Hm. Heeeey, Ramona???”

The young devil appeared nearby soon as she called. She handed Elroy over to her. ”Make sure this one doesn’t lose an arm either, I’ll meet up with you both in a sec!” With that taken care of, Penumbra went off to catch up to the trains.

”So, zombie face.” Bobo addressed Asher while trying to light a new cigar with her flamethrower. ”You blowing this popcorn stand?”

Mika's eyes bounced back and forth between the two before. "Orion? Was that an explosion? Did Crazy train crash?" This was, of course, in response to Himiko's final melody.

How many RPs do you have at the same time?

That largely depends on how much you like to write, how much you write for a given RP, how much time you spend chatting in the RP discord, etc.

Generally, people who write longer posts tend to post less frequently, especially if they have a busy schedule. There are also other factors. While I enjoy being in a few RPs at once, I have noticed that when I try to join too many my quality suffers.

Battle Toyale — Christmas Rumble!

(Quite frankly, I wish the mask covered more of it)

— Kurosame

She noted the crack in the window, though there was little that could be done about it now. Perhaps if she knew more about the modern world she’d consider tracking down some FLEX SEAL to patch up the crack, though that would require her to care about the damage in the first place. A highly sought after art in her own world was called Kintsugi, which was the art of repairing pottery with gold. The idea was that an object’s imperfections are what give it personality and, thus, made them more attractive. She had no doubt that there would be a lot more “personality” spread about this toy store before she was finished.

During her flight to her destination, she had witnessed several spectacles. It was difficult to take in every brutal fight, as Kurosame very much wanted to anticipate any attacks that might come her way. As convenient as it was to soar above the chaos like this, it did leave one vulnerable. Lightning always strikes the tallest tree in a forest, but whatever stands above the grass in a field. Speaking of being a giant among the grass, there was a rotund octopus sitting before some green folk. It stood out only because of how strange the spectacle was.

Before long, Kurosame landed on the shelf. The water she had rode in took a long cylindrical form behind her back, almost like a serpent floating in the air. It felt good to breathe again. She brought up her sword and looked around for the mask she seeked. She looked into the clear packaging to see if any of them were wearing a mask of any kind, but there did not appear to be a mask present.

Then a voice, but not like the one she had heard before. It was followed by a green glow emerging from the bottom of the shelf. She was no stranger to dealing with Yokai and could instantly tell that this was a strong one. At the very least, it was something that she didn’t want to just wait around for. She kicked one of the boxed toys off the shelf, and growled as a cluster of melted hands coiled around the box and pulled it in.

This was not something she could engage in close quarters combat.

She kicked a second box off the shelf, this time using it as a distraction so that she could swiftly make her exit. She jumped off of the shelf as melted tendrils pulled the second toy in, and Kurosame’s hydro powered “flight” kicked in when her water rushed up beside her and guided her to an even higher shelf on an adjacent side of the isle.

Now it was easy to see what was chasing her. This amalgimation had to be a Gashadokuro, or at least a toy-like version of one. Though this youkai was made out of melted toys instead of bones, it had all the other traits like it’s need to increase its size at any cost. Their primary, if only weakness, was a purifying ward. Kurosame didn’t have access to those, but she did remember what the voice had told her about the mask. If it had the power to grant one great speed and reflexes, than maybe this abomination would be easier to defeat if the mask was removed.

That, and it was what the pirate had come here to plunder.

She cast out her hand, and the water serpent descended on the Gashadokuro. Kurosame was confident that she could wrestle the mask off of the amalgamation's face at this range. Water could become any shape it wanted, and under normal circumstances, she couldn’t see this creature stopping her assault. Though if it did, it would reveal one of its abilities to her, and that had value too she supposed.

Symphony on High

"No need for both banners to appear back to back, right?"

— The Bates

@Ponn@Majoraa@Vertigo@The World@Nakushita@TaintedMushroom@Kero

Gemini and the freelancer’s mostly stood their ground, but there was still a bit of movement on top of the trains.

Marrie had opted for a slow and conservative approach to getting the Immortal Volcano’s attention. She called a beam from the heavens to strike Elroy’s shield and place her in front of him. He paid the mist froth on the front of his shield little mind and plumbited down towards his target. Marrie’s timing wasn’t perfect, it was impossible to be. When she appeared in front of Elroy, her “feet” were off the ground and she fell a few inches onto the train. While she managed to touch his shield with her knife, she was thrown onto her back, and Elroy flipped through the air before coming to a stop just a few feet away. He turned around, clearly intent on charging again, but his face went from teeth clenching anger to mouth open surprise.

"Mist girl!?" He hovered in place, listening to Marrie’s words. Once she had finished, he lowered his shield an inch and crossed his brow. "Usually we work together. I keep her safe." He looked past Marrie. "But you’re right, mist girl, I’ll carry her to the back and meet you there."

Regina hadn’t said anything since she collapsed. She struggled to get to her feet, but Lenore kept her eye elsewhere. ”We’re going to destroy this train, right?”

"That’s your mission, nun. I’m tasked with keeping the other train running." There were no more words as he scooped up his sister and ran through the smoke screen.

Meanwhile, Lenore’s gaze shifted to Ciri. ”Now that’s interesting…”

When Ciri’s melody went off, its shadowy magic seeped into the train, making part of it intangible. Such a massive object couldn’t possibly become totally Intangible, but it was able to work on part of it. The “train car” that she was on became intangible, but so did Ciri due to the AoE nature of her melody. She fell through crazy train and towardsTrixy, who was still on top of Boteg.

"I’ve got ya, baby!" Trixy reached out her arms only to discover that she couldn’t have been further from the truth, as Ciri fell right through her. Marrie fell down shortly afterwards, and she did manage to land in Trixy’s arms. She raised an eyebrow. "You uh, weren’t the one I was hoping for, but…" She stared at Marrie for a moment. "How old are you?"

Ciri continued to fall. She had become tangible again, and looked like she was about to splatter herself all over the roads of pax septimus. Then a sparkler harmlessly smacked into her back, and she began to bounce in the air as if a bungie had been attached to her. Vertigo was starting to set in as she violently bounced around, but she wouldn’t be eating pavement today. Then a giant hand reached out and plucked Ciri out of the sky.

”Nice shot, Tetrad!” Billy kept a firm grip on Ciri, even as the harsh rain pelted them.

”That was awesome!” She laughed from her motorcycle.

Bill kept his eyes on the road while he addressed Ciri again. ”How do we look up there? Anyone defending Crazy Train?”

Soon as he had asked, a pair of melodies had flown out from the direction of Peace Train back to back from each other. The twins hurried over to stand beside Ashley once she ordered them to keep Crazy Train from running into anything. They did their best to keep a close eye on the behemoth’s movement patterns, just to make sure they weren’t haphazardly wasting mana in the wrong places. With the scene becoming more hectic by the minute, they could only hope everyone would get the hint already to get off, killing Crazy Train or not.

Everyone that was presently on crazy train had disappeared from view, save for Himiko. On its way out of the park, Crazy Train noticed a hotel that would be perfect for scraping against. The GEMINI espers concentrated their mana on the hotel as the behemoth attempted to rid itself of the fleas on its back. The hotel only hummed as the creature brushed against the magical barrier. Himiko wouldn’t be able to wait and see much longer, as the train spun like a corkscrew while it passed. The shadow wall dissipated, and even the smoke walls didn’t hold up. It remained to be seen if Himiko had gotten out alright.

The nuns and it were missing too.

As were the Bates.

Or at least Regina was, as Elroy fell out of the sky like a comet. His flesh was cracked and oozing with lava, his clothes smoldering like dying embers.

”Woops!”

A darkened figure suddenly emerged, quickly moving under him with her arms reaching out to catch him. Despite being smaller, she seemed to have no trouble holding the wounded brother in her arms. ”Hey, I think you’ve missed one!” She called out with a chuckle. Her form slowly turned back into someone only Raphael, Asher, and Noah would recognize from prior.

Penumbra had followed them onto the trains. She spared a glance over at the group gathered onto Peace Train, and gave the aforementioned three a knowing smile.

A second shape hopped off of crazy train, though this one was big and notorious enough to be recognized by anyone. Big Tony had only made a few appearances, but it seemed like he had chosen to appear during this operation personally. Intel didn’t do his size justice. HE was twice as tall, twice as wide, and four times as muscled as the strongest esper present. Like any feline, he landed on his feet, and he had Regina slung over his shoulder. He looked up at the assassin flying overhead and scowled, or may that was just how he always looked.

”You have got to be kidding me…” The Timekeeper, though keeping quiet and to himself for the most part after the rest of the freelancers showed up, couldn’t help but react to the sheer fucking fact that both the Bates got their shit wrecked near instantly by a pair of new arrivals. He quickly stood straight back up, hands tightening around his weapon. The…weirdly familiar woman was one thing, but he was more concerned over the literally bigger issue that had accompanied her. Of course the Hand would show up eventually.

”So, any bright ideas on how to fight THAT thing!?” Finn called out to Ashley, and who he assumed was Raphael.

”They’re protecting that demon.” Raphael pointed. ”We can’t get distracted. We need to stop it to thwart their plans!”

”You can’t be serious-!”

Peace train was starting to pull away from Crazy, but that didn’t stop the priest from jumping onto it. Even as it spun through the air, he kept a firm grip on it.

”...Alright! Okay! Cool! Not as if everyone’s been going off of HUNCHES and a lack of solid evidence instead of oh I don’t know ACTUALLY USING THEIR SKULLS!? WE DON’T EVEN KNOW IF THAT THING’S ACTUALLY DEADLY YOU IDIOT!!” Wasn’t really a point in yelling at the proverbial brick wall, but Finn couldn’t exactly help himself.

Mika watched the display and groaned. She turned to Ashley. ”Orders?”

Meanwhile, Lexi had been listening to Noah's story. ”Interesting! And yes, it doesn't seem like Gemini is that interested in attacking peace train. We're fine!”