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Plank Sinatra
Member
the reaper won't come when you're ready for him
STATUS: deconstructions are fake lol 3 yrs ago
- Last Seen: 9 days ago
- Joined: 10 yrs ago
- Posts: 1517 (0.43 / day)
- VMs: 10
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- Plank Sinatra 10 yrs ago
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3 yrs ago
Current
deconstructions are fake lol
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3 yrs ago
"return of the mack, you know that i'll be back." in his bed, joe biden lurches awake, wild-eyed. many a year he has watched, waited for the mack's return. hes as ready as he will ever be. he t-poses
3 yrs ago
Today Show 9-11-01 ~ Live on NBC as Tragedy Occurred [s l o w e d + r e v e r b]
1
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3 yrs ago
40 hours into the mass effect remaster. gameplay is good but not sold on the plot changes. wish garrus would stop saying "reaper? i hardly know her!" laugh track on the normandy is a weird choice too
6
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4 yrs ago
fine, since you asked so nicely officer, i will confess my crimes. since i was seven years old i have refused to match any socks in my sock drawer. i practice sock hookup culture. i am a slut
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Most Recent Posts
Yikes. I guess people aren't into goth girls because they're chatty, right?
Nicole let it be for now, half because she was trying to decide whether or not she dug Astrelle's vibes, too, and half because she was currently wondering whether invoking the name of a crashed airship onboard one currently in flight was, itself, a case of bad vibes. She gulped down the nibble of sandwich she was working on - just in case they were really crashing, so she wouldn't have to die with food in her mouth like a slob - and, when the turbulence settled itself, took a bite of another. In the absence of the Wing of Justice, the girls started to talk to themselves about daytime cartoons and their families, in the same breath.
It was interesting hearing everyone's backgrounds and perspectives. They were all so alien to Nicole. The vibe philosopher finally set down her sandwich and chimed in, a little sheepishly.
"I guess I'm the weirdo," she explained. "I was an only child, and uh..." She looked around, especially between Penny and Dana. "I don't really know what you're talking about with Alexis and Glenda or whoever. I'm an Eradicator II: See You in Hell kinda girl."
Nicole giggled too, sitting up straighter and kicking both her legs up over the armrest of her chair. She decided to try and enjoy her sandwich a little bit, since she wasn't sure when they would get to eat again upon arrival. Her stomach fluttered between bites, though, and she already knew she would be unable to finish even half. In the relative solitude of her cabin, between thoughts of excelling in school and dropping the ball on kisses, focusing on the occasional pangs of hunger had kept her grounded. But now she was here, and he excitement of it all - new classmates, new cities, a complete shift in the course of her life - had pretty much killed those cravings. Instead, she settled for breaking off little pieces of focaccia and nibbling on them while Astrelle spoke.
"Two years ago," she responded in the affirmative. "My parents and I went as a reward for, uh..."
She snapped her fingers, still trying to remember. So much of her childhood revolved around one good cause or another. They were all worthwile, but each demanded its own energy from her parents, and each had involved Nicole in whatever small way she could. The scope compounded; sometimes it could grow exhausting juggling it all, and that was for her as a kid, handing out stickers or selling chocolate bars or whatever. She knew it had to be worse for her folks. So by the time she had discovered her magical potential...well, that just meant she had to find the energy somewhere.
"Some benefit or another. I think it was, like, funds for the Castor families?" Now that she thought about it, that sounded right. Castor had been an airship that had disappeared around that time, carrying some minor dignitaries amidst a flock of innocent civilians. Since the brunt were from Valentia, multiple benefactors from her sister city had gone about raising funds as relief for victims' families, the Cognoscenti family among them. Riiiight. "We spent about a week. I spent a lot of the time with my parents or at the arcades, but I managed to sneak into a club or two and hear some music between all the speeches." She grinned playfully.
Nicole watched the other four girls introduce themselves, each of them getting a big smile and a cocked head to denote varying interest levels. Penny and Dana seemed like sweet girls, a pair of chatterboxes that reminded her of the kids in her neighborhood back in Hasta. Children had always sensed something about Nicole that she herself was ignorant of, and had tagged along with her in the hopes that she would invent an adventure for them to go on. When she was twelve or thirteen, it used to bother her more. After she discovered her magical potential, though, she found it more exciting. Children were super-spreaders when it came to adventure and fun, and Nicole had found herself easily infected by their zeal. Penny and Dana seemed like two such fun-loving girls, and Nicole was sure they would be friends in no time.
On the other hand, she definitely wouldn't need Victoria Glass' help to point out the nobles. They were both gorgeous, and completely at odds - light and dark, both seeming to want nothing to do with the other. Vanna's lineage would be familiar to almost anyone alive. She had never seen a member of the Duodecim this close before, and Nicole would be insane not to be a little bit starstruck. But Vanna seemed down-to-earth enough for a member of one of the planet's most celebrated, powerful families. Maybe it was a 'second daughter, not an immediate heiress' kinda thing. Secure the bag and forge your own path, that sounded good.
The other girl, Astrelle, was the only one who hadn't called out where she hailed from, but if Victoria's words to her hadn't clued Nicole in the Lennox daughter's accent definitely would. Her eyes brightened when she realized there was a girl who was (in a global sense, anyway) just down the road from her onboard. It would be nice to have someone else who had some idea of things she was talking about, if she ever talked about home. She waved her fingers at the other Venusian, with her cheek still balanced on her knee, and shot her a big, friendly grin.
"Hey," she said good-naturedly, lifting her cheek up to balance her chin on her crooked knee again. She wrapped both hands around her right ankle after she was done with her greeting wave, rocking back and forth slightly. "I know who you are - well, like, your family, at least. How often do you make it over to Hasta?"
Flight. Real flight. It was hard not to be enraptured by the sensation.
She had been on an airship once before in her life. Gullfaxi. It was a name she would probably always remember, like she remembered her mom's name or the street she had grown up on, one name among many that were integral to the young woman she had become. She and her parents had taken Gullfaxi from Hasta to Valentia as part of a delegation on a charity drive. Her parents had been involved in so many over the years it was hard for her to remember what they had been campaigning for, but whatever it was they had pummeled their own prior fundraising efforts and were rewarded with a trip from one end of Venus to the other via the skies. The ship had been overcrowded and noisy, buzzing with activity, and occasionally the ship's speakers had erupted with feedback-laced instructions or unhelpful points of interest about the two Sanctum Cities their voyage would take them through. Nicole had loved it. She had also reconciled herself to the journey being a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. So chalk up the current voyage as another reason to be stoked beyond measure about the whirlwind path her life had taken over the last few years.
Still, she would miss Hasta. From her secluded cabin on Laurus' port side, with its token little viewport above the bunk, she could see bands of rain so fleeting that she could still count the individual drops on the glass. It made her think of home, of how the rain would pour and pour, kissing the city's famed magitech lights until each light source was framed by its own halo. At night, during storms, all those lights seemed to meld into one ethereal jewel. Many a couple had been minted under the glow of Hasta's lights in the rain. Nicole was a sucker for that crap. In her last month at home - whenever her parents weren't smothering her in joyful tears and hugs, anyway - she had resolved to kiss a boy from her neighborhood under those lights. She'd been planning it in her head since childhood, down to the second, and with her future uncertain she decided this was her last, best chance to let him know how she felt. So four nights ago, the last time it had rained in Hasta, she went out for a sandwich and a pastry with her childhood sweetheart, and there, under the lights and the pouring rain--
Nicole Cognoscenti, future Ars Magi and champion of humanity, freaked out and fist bumped him.
Fist. Bumped. You frickin' loser.
She had spent the four days since in a fugue state, stuck between wonder and horror at her two divergent situations - at her future at Nova Lux, learning alongside other girls like her, and disbelief that a spineless loser such as her hadn't just melted into a puddle and fled down a storm drain in shame. She had been replaying the moment in her head for all four of those days, and here, in the solitude of her cabin, she was replaying it now. Her mother's reaction had only made it worse. She could still see the look on her mom's face fall from glee to sympathy to stifling laughs at Nicole's pathetic justifications ("Hey, a fist bump is...basically knuckles kissing, right?") for her cowardice. Her own mother knew what a simp she was. As much as she loved Hasta, she knew there was no staying after that.
She was thankful for the knock at her cabin door, pulling her from her thoughts.
When she, and a small assortment of other girls, had assembled in one of the larger cabins, she took a minute to look them all over with an excited little grin. She leaned onto one of her bare legs, knee drawn up underneath her chin while the other stretched out, and took a sandwich half. At a glance, it looked like she'd taken ham. She took a couple halfhearted nibbles, but most of her attention was on the gorgeous woman before them. A real Wing of Justice, tall and graceful and offering guidance. She had never imagined herself cut out for anything like this, so when she left the offer open for questions from the floor, a quiet lull settled over the recruits. Nicole wondered if they were all as awestruck as her, but given the noble bearing of a couple of her fellow girls, she doubted it. It seemed like everyone was just waiting for someone to break the ice. Only the next bands of the storm filled the silence of the cabin.
Leave it to Nicole Cognoscenti to...well, if not seize the moment, fist bump the hell out of it.
"Hey, guys," she said amiably, lowering her sandwich from her mouth and stretching her other leg out. They crossed at the ankle, and she gave a little wave in the direction of a couple of the girls. "My name's Nicole Cognoscenti, out of Hasta. So if any of you want a line on next season's fashions or anything, as long as it doesn't break my bank we can go shopping for them together. Che fai? I hope we can all be friends soon."
I think obviously everyone wants as many people to play the game as possible. Most of the sheets look great for damn sure. I think Onarax's point about character retention is an important one too. But it's pretty obvious we're dealing with a game that exploded in popularity, probably more than Inedible was expecting (I've been there) so it's hard to blame a GM for wanting to pare things down to something manageable. There are a couple of ways around this, depending on what we want for group size. A co-GM is an idea that might take some weight off Inedible's shoulders, especially if they're already considering two groups within the game.
Another possibility, if we do get pared down to 4-6 players, is to just assume that everyone else is still in the school. It is an academy, there's got to be more than half a dozen girls enrolled at a time, right? If retention becomes a problem and someone drops, all the sheets here have already been given at least a tentative thumbs up - poll who's still interested who might not have been immediately picked and then give them a chance to slide into the action.
When I was thinking of Sanctum cities to pick for my CS, I kind of figured in my head most of them had originally been built on the backs of ruins of major cities, or repurposed from old cities that would have been able to support arcologies in the first place - places like New York City or Paris. Hell, New Vegas was able to do just fine for itself in Fallout without any magical girls. Unless you count my bae Veronica.
Another possibility, if we do get pared down to 4-6 players, is to just assume that everyone else is still in the school. It is an academy, there's got to be more than half a dozen girls enrolled at a time, right? If retention becomes a problem and someone drops, all the sheets here have already been given at least a tentative thumbs up - poll who's still interested who might not have been immediately picked and then give them a chance to slide into the action.
Come to think of it, Hasta is literally on top of (or right next to) Paris. Sure, most of humanity's cities got wiped off the map and the Sanctum cities were built to house people, but it would be hilarious (and yet heartwarming) to see the City of Lights not only survive the apocalypse, but thrive (even if they changed the name for some reason).
When I was thinking of Sanctum cities to pick for my CS, I kind of figured in my head most of them had originally been built on the backs of ruins of major cities, or repurposed from old cities that would have been able to support arcologies in the first place - places like New York City or Paris. Hell, New Vegas was able to do just fine for itself in Fallout without any magical girls. Unless you count my bae Veronica.
@Inedible just for the record, what exactly are the Six that founded the NOI? Separate entity from the Duodecim, right?
I R I S
"Details?"
Iris didn't like the idea of holding onto this ring for a second, but Cedar was looking a little anxious. Her heart went out to him - the last half hour had been a whirlwind, and he had taken saving Ruskali to heart maybe more than any of the recruits. But what details were a pair of brand-new Zephyrs really going to determine from something like this? And he wanted them to split up, go chase some armadillos while she tagged along with Archer - sans the ring? It was weird. Iris watched her new comrade's hand twitch; she wanted to chalk it up to nerves, but...
"You go ahead and figure out what's up with the buildings," she said amiably, standing up to her full height and rolling her shoulders and legs. She could feel herself wanting to hack up a lung, damned smoke... "I'll catch up and give this to Archer, see if she wants more help. I'd feel better if she had it on her. We'll tell her about this guy, since neither of us really wanna risk touching the poor bastard, and then we'll look at it with her together later, yeah?"
She smiled and squeezed his shoulder.
"Don't worry about it. We'll be able to get some rest sooner rather than later. Just keep your chin up."
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