Essence

Don't Piss Off the GM: Gary's Tale

This will be fun.

Shattered & Scattered

Edited 'Live just to insert the blurb from the Interest Check.

Knights academy

Sorry, all -- cancel Rain. I like this concept, but honestly there's just too much to read every day to keep up. Peace!

Project Titan: Chapter 2

This is dying fast, and I have the impression that it's because the creator has a very strong idea of what this whole environment looks like and is supposed to be, and hasn't shared that at all with us. We're on a ship, sure, and there's AIs and humans, sure, but...what's the point? What's the mission? What are the short-term and long-term goals? Are we still on the ground, or have we taken off yet? Is the ship even on the ground, or was it built in a spacedock? Do the AIs have a magical digital playground they can interact in, or are they only allowed to exist in meatspace?

There's a lot of potential here, and basically zero realization.

Knights academy

Rain caught a snatch of words from Issac's conversation -- "elite combat class." Without hesitation, she promptly broke away from the detritus that was the rest of the third-year class and made her way up to Vladimir.

"You're teaching elite combat this year, right?" She smiled charmingly. "I'm feeling...like I need a challenge. What do I have to do to get into the fourth year's elite combat class?"

Shattered & Scattered

Name: Oliver ('Live) R. Jewelson

Age: 25

Appearance:

Personality:
Negative

• Cavalier: prone to discounting (or acting like he's discounting) the consequences of his actions.
• Greedy: easily distracted by the possibility of gain, usually in the form of treasure or magic.
• Liar: often just makes crap up off the top of his head for no reason at all -- particularly when it doesn't seem important.

Positive

• Honorable: keeps his word, as long as it was freely given.
• Optimist: sees -- and helps other people see -- hope in dark situations.
• Opportunist: spots opportunities where other people see only problems.
• Easygoing: not prone to being overly tense or worried about the future.
• Smooth: transitions easily from one activity, one emotion, one lie, etc. to another; rarely ruffled or emotionally off-balance.

Origin: Hullen: the Capital: Aria. Raised a merchant, but didn't have the wherewithal to stick with it; ran away from his traveling parents to take up permanent residence in Aria. Tried his hand at several entry-level occupations, but realized that the easiest money was taking it from the honest, hardworking people around him.

From the Interest Check thread: Oliver R. Jewelson -- 'Live -- was a starving thief, living off of the meager coin he got by fencing the goods he stole from the houses he broke into. A one-time mugger with a penchant for knocking out decent folk and taking whatever they had on them, he got lucky and took a small crystal shard from a corpulent nobleman. He noticed rapidly that when he held the shard just so, he could walk up behind just about anyone and K.O. them without drawing any attention.

He rapidly evolved from mugging to burglary, figuring sneaking in and taking the good stuff was easier than risking accidentally clubbing some tough guy and getting his face beat in. Unfortunately, 'Live tried to shoot the moon and steal directly from the Royal Family. They had defenses his talents couldn't penetrate, and he woke up to find himself without the shard and with a long stay at the dungeon.

Then, suddenly, he received an unusual pardon: a commission. Go with these couple of other locals, and help them find more of the shards. He would be given his shard back -- the assumption was that having one would make finding the others easier -- but all of his traveling companions would be acutely aware of his history and have strict instructions to take him out (and take his shard) if he got out of hand.

The theory, it seems, is that the shards tend to end up in the hands of powerful people -- so the country wanted a thief on their side to help liberate them. He's not stupid -- he knows that, at the absolute minimum, if they get their country's gem back together, the economy will improve. Even if he ends up back on the street, he'll have better targets for his skills. His dedication to the quest might not be as focused has the others', and he is easily distracted by targets of opportunity, but he is determined to see his country restored to its former glory.

Spells:
Somebody Else's Problem: 'Live's signature spell. Doesn't exactly render him invisible, but rather convinces everyone around him that someone else needs to deal with him. Doesn't work on targets who believe that there isn't anyone around to back them up, but is quite effective on city streets where there's a lot of potential backup, even if none appears to be in the immediate vicinity.

Slight of Spell: If he's aware of a spell coming at him, 'Live can redirect it to another target that's within arm's reach.

Shadow Juggling: 'Live can reach into a shadow and pull out a few 'balls' of shadowstuff. These act basically like hard rubber balls except that 'Live can dissipate them at will.

Knights academy

Rain's heart stopped for a moment as Issac glanced at her. She saw a look in his eye, almost like...resignation? She would show him. She could do it...a whole week without making any of the first-years miserable. She could do it.

As the thought crossed her mind, some miserable wretch tripped in front of her on his way to the first-years line. Rain sneered and grabbed the child by the scruff of the neck, practically wrenching him onto his feet. She glanced back at Issac, and gently brushed him off.

"Loser." she whispered as she smiled beatifically and patted him on the back. "Get back to your ranks, now, k?"

Knights academy

Alexjits, no offense, but that last post of yours is so devoid of punctuation that I had to read it several times to understand it. Can we agree that periods are good? :)

[edit]"A trigerable explosive would do,but he'd prefer a gas. Much less messy, and it left the corpse intact." -- I like James. [/edit]

Code Of The Sword (Samurai/Fantasy/War) OOC

Eddy was surprised to see that someone had elected to actively defend the lighthouse -- a group of women came riding down upon them, naginata and bisento at the ready, determined to halt their mission. There was no reasonable way that two samurai could stand against twenty mounted warriors, even if they were merely bushi. As they approached, however, Eddy could see that they were in fact samurai themselves -- their tight formation and precise weapon grips gave their skill away.

Eddy glanced at his companion, and in the seconds remaining before the female contingent arrived, he reached under his cloak, armed the bomb, and handed it to his companion. "I'll buy you the time you need -- just get as close to the port-side of the lighthouse as you can. You have thirty seconds. I'll see you on the other side."

The samurai nodded and began to sprint. Eddy threw a quick message to Orochi's communicator: "Bomb delivery compromised." When he heard no response, he had to assume Orochi had been killed. Things were not going well for the Theimos -- too many surprise elements stacked against them. First the assassins in the reeds -- ronin, most likely. Then these mounted women. The intelligence the Theimos had received had been completely bunk. Either that, or it always was a suicide mission.

Eddy hated suicide missions. This would make his third, and he was amazed at how upset his superiors were when he survived. When would they stop sending him on these stupid missions?

The first mounted warrioress got within stabbing range, and tried to lance Eddy. He stepped forward and to the side, getting within her range, and ducked under her horse. As the beast reared, Eddy stepped out the other side, deftly lopping off the blades of a few of her companions' bisento and using the fact that he had his back to their commander's horse to keep them from getting too aggressive.

Eddy sighed. This whole 'lone injured defensive stand' thing was getting to be a specialty of his, and it was one he'd really like to stop practicing.

Knights academy

Reina came to the courtyard from the opposite direction as everyone else, walking daintily around the side of the castle and approaching from behind the line of teachers. She tapped Ar'kar on the shoulder and slipped in the opposite direction just to see him glance around, then winked as he realized what had happened. As she made her way to the crowd of third-years -- small as it was -- she strained to pick Issac out of the even-smaller crowd of fourth-years. He was talking to a fairly monstrous fellow, and Rain decided it was best to leave them be. She did listen in enough to catch the spiky man's name -- Jargon -- and idly wondered if he could finally be the one to properly challenge her at arm-wrestling.

As she took her place, she sneered at the third-years to either side of her. A peon to her left and a weakling to her right. Who honestly thought illusions were the path to success on the battlefield? Whatever. Her armor and weapons were stored properly, she had already set up her hammock amongst the trees, and the day was almost as glorious as her hair. This was going to be a good year.