Mirandae

The Spirits Within

Just curious, but what are the rules on secondary characters?

@Mr Rage

What were you thinking about? The only 'rules' so far is what you'll find in the character sheet. They have to be connected to your main character somehow, otherwise you'd need to make a new character sheet.

In some odd posts as we get closer to Ledale [Leddale?], I'll be doing brief inserts of post reflections for the Deep Inside hunt. I hinted within my first post of Liesabet having returned from such two weeks prior to the present; anyone else is welcome to join.

@Rockette

Ok, I won't start it separately, then? As nobody else has picked up on it yet.

I'm around, I am just waiting for Prisk to change scene as I have no active conversations going

@EurmalEye

We're moving relatively fast by my standards, but I'll move us forward soon. Right now we're in a dangerous zone of roleplaying. It's that time when the 'hype' has fully died, so the risk of players dropping is high. We'll power through it, though! My next post has to be pretty perfect to combat this.

The Spirits Within

@EurmalEye
I was a bit worried that I interpreted that wrong in my post, when Celise followed Jomen into the vehicle seats. Hah, but, I got it right after all.

The Spirits Within

@71452K
Hunts are completely optional!

The Spirits Within

@Archangel89@71452K@EurmalEye@Mr Rage@Rockette@Rizza@deadpixel101@Panko
The garage scene is closing. On-going conversations can continue in the APC, so descriptions of it already driving is alright. @Panko can describe arrival retroactively, depending on when the first post comes. The next scene is on the road to Oakridge City, it would be mostly conversational and rather short—might even mix into arriving at the city.

I'll start the hunts in my next post, as flashbacks. @EurmalEye wanted to do Watery Grave, which I'll join. @Rockette was interested in Deep Inside, I'll join her on that as well, unless she wants to do it solo/with someone else.

The Spirits Within

_{O A K R I D G E A C A D E M Y G A R A G E}

“They’re fine. They evacuated to this nearby town a few days ago. My grandparents live there,” Celise said. “Black sheep of the family because he chose Intel? Come on, it’s not that bad. It’s good to be smart and strong, you know.” A strained puff of air escaped Celise’s lungs, as the Armstrong man assisted and finished the stretch. “Damn”, she muttered. The shapes and silhouettes of the world around her became blurred for a second, black and white dots sparkling and crawling before her vision. Montero, the mysterious and handsome man, managed to sneak her by during this brief moment of stupor. Celise’s left eyebrow shot for the stars along with her iconic blank stare of death at Duke’s comment about height. Even though she knew that there were no sour potatoes rotting behind his words, Celise could not escape that eternal anxiety about her tiny stature. There was no way around it, and she had always thought the argument about ‘short girls being acceptable’ was total baloney. However, at this point in her life, Celise sooner or later had to get used to nicknames involving references to her height. ★★★

The driver tapped his prosthetic arm and hand against the door of the vehicle, sitting ready by the wheel, urging the Guardians to load up. He seemed like a ‘no nonsense’ old man with a schedule to keep. He did not say much, however. Celise grabbed her bag and picked up her energy drink. She chucked it all right in front of Ajax, as a response to his comment about water and other such foolery. She knew he was right, but she was addicted—what could she do? As she passed the capable and bantering men, her hand grazed the arm of Jomen, as a becalming motion and gesture. No eye contact, no words, just an expression of her usual demeanor toward those approved. She followed the man of remedy closely to get seated in. ★

The second Celise rounded the rear corner of the vehicle, her eyes instantly fixed upon a beloved who had already arrived. She almost gasped—how did she miss her? Perhaps it was not that much of a surprise. Every Intel person, Lisa in particular, were professionally trained in not being detected. The silver girl immediately reached for her cellular device tucked away, constrained within a slivered pocket. There were two received, but unfortunately missed messages. Some esoteric guilt washed over Celise. She knew perfectly well that these situations, presence of the unknown and unholy places, were intense on Lisa’s perceptions. Celise’s gaze did not disturb from the silhouettes of the resting feral, as she elevated herself into the vehicle by a graceful step. Her presence settled next to Lisa, slow and dubious in her motions, head nestling on the other’s shoulder akin to a lupine cub. Such were the fluctuations this morning. Nobody knew how it worked, nor would they ever know. Celise read the messages on her phone, carefully leaning in against Lisa. Mumbling words escaped her as she read the symbols—a faint smirk on her lips. ★★

A steadfast strike,
On sunken few,
No solemn found,
Blazing Kingdom adieu.

A quick break from the screen of her phone revealed Roland and Montero seated and ready across from herself and Lisa. Her expression remained blank and voice silent. She would have taken a moment for them both, but the air between the beloved and herself not entirely harmonious quite yet. Every morning was an intricate dance of balance, certain days better than others, yet an awesome splendor of mania. To the outside observer, their kinship would appear mystifying, yet following certain common patterns of interaction. Every motion and touch had a multi-layered meaning to them. The tiniest detail unfocused would result in one dictating the other for the rest of the day. Celise’s eyes remained on her phone, its messages and progress in the card game. However, her focus was still on Lisa. The silver girl let her spare hand trail along the other’s, nails gently pressing against the skin, yet occasionally pressing against it with intention. The two knew all of their triggers, points of pleasure and pain, and pressures for desired response or action. ★

Notes

Act, React, Observe, Reflect.

The Spirits Within

@deadpixel101
I admire your effort despite setbacks, but if you feel forced, you shouldn't continue at this time. You're always welcome to come in at a later point in the story—It's an extremely long story! So there is about a thousand moments where it will be natural to get in on things. I'm just letting you know, so that you are aware of the option, and that it's totally cool with me if you'd like to focus on other things for now.

@Archangel89
That's a bummer! But also great! We'll find a good entry for your character when you're ready.

The Spirits Within

@Rockette
Off from here or from work?

@deadpixel101
Giving you a nudge. I hope you're still with us, but if not, that's alright. I won't tag anymore after this one, so that I won't bother you!

Let's B!tch. I feel it's a healthy release for our roleplay annoyances 2.0

<Snipped quote by Prisk>

Well, yeah...being ridiculously good-looking is one of the major elements of Mary Suedom.

@pugbutter

Let's delve into some criticism, shall we?

It must've occurred to you, at some point, that the idea of people roleplaying fantasy stories on an online forum is closely connected to self-insertion. It's quite a significant step from Fan Fiction to Escapism. Knowing that, doesn't it seem counter productive to be frustrated with the concept of 'Mary Sue'? What you are saying is that any character that is attractive is partially a Mary Sue, and therefore illegitimate regardless of its other aspects. There are quite a few other factors that must be met before you can call a character a Mary Sue: lack of flaws, wide range of expertise, dramatic or tragic backstory that hasn't affected the character, natural magnetism that makes the most anti-social characters open up as books. Not to mention that the idea of 'Mary Sue' plays into the current, left-wing political craze whereby a character isn't legitimate unless it's a deformed, LGTBQ+, African-Chinese, Demi-Pansexual unicorn attack helicopter.

Let's B!tch. I feel it's a healthy release for our roleplay annoyances 2.0

@pugbutter
Think about this, though. Would the same group of characters appear more legitimate or interesting if they were ugly? If people are attracted to and obsess about beauty in real life, why wouldn't they in a fantasy? And the people behind the computer screes, who play these characters, are they not teenagers or young themselves? How much depth should you be able to expect from them? I'm not trying to be snarky here, genuinely interested in these questions.

Let's B!tch. I feel it's a healthy release for our roleplay annoyances 2.0

<Snipped quote by Drache>

And the version for public threads: when you read through a thousand interest checks until you finally find one which strikes a good balance between player freedom and a tight, focused plot, with an eloquent, engaging OOC thread, a passionate GM ...

but then you check out the Characters tab and realize you'd be roleplaying with a bunch of teenaged supermodels spending all their IC time shooting off "snarky" one-liners and generally being generic boring cunts with no personality, creativity, or vision.

The number of well-written, well-GMed threads ruined through the incompetence of the general public defies reality.

@pugbutter

Then the majority of films and series must be painful for you to watch. It's truly annoying, indeed.