Rafale

Ace Combat: The Global War

Lost Cause said
OK, so having gotten my new PC running I tried emulating ACZ again. No frame rate problems but some severe issues with textures and sound.

Normal emulation problems. Some games run better with an emulator than others, and it seems like ACZ is one of them that has compatibility issues.

Katawa Shoujo (Disabled students RP)

I still feel like shit for "comforting" Misha.

GEARS - Mecha Sci-fi with Anthro characters. RP in a detailed, story-driven world.

Got a post up, explaining the synchronization and start-up procedure for Raisa's GEAR after it's not been used for a good while. If it's a bit too farfetched, tell me and I'll rewrite it, but I quite like it myself and I tried to remain reasonable in my explanations of things.

GEARS - Mecha Sci-fi with Anthro characters. RP in a detailed, story-driven world.

One of the many differences between how Iyulian GEAR pilots and Landren GEAR pilots was immediately evident as Raisa dashed down the hallway. Unlike a few of her comrades who almost leisurely strode down to the hangar, Raisa broke into a brisk jog immediately after leaving the briefing room, as per Iyuli military tradition, which was an effort made long ago in an attempt to cut the time between briefings and deployments to as little as possible. While it left her somewhat winded when she climbed into the cockpit of her state-of-the-art GEAR, she was definitely one of the first to arrive. As she awaited clearance from the technicians to activate the machine, she decided to compare her comrade's machines to her own Sanya. Lithe in form and with an almost vulpine-esque head, the streamlined body of the Flanker formed a deep contrast to the other machines, which looked decidedly more rugged, with the exception of the Saxknot, which looked particularly smooth and strangely bat-like. After a moment of waiting, a technician below her gave her a gesture of confirmation and she sat back in her seat. With a snapping noise, a set of wires connected from the upper part of her seat into her helmet and the familiar loading circle appeared as the helmet and thus her PADD connected to the GEARs own systems.

After finishing the loading process, it promptly asked her to finish synchronization. Raising her left hand, as demanded, she touched each of her fingers to her thumb and then made a fist before doing the same with the right hand. All good. Legs were controlled via scanning surfaces on the bottom of the cockpit, so all she had to do was stretch her legs as much as she could and then make a position similar to kneeling in order for the machine to judge the length of her own legs. Then, she had to move her head around; from side to side, rolling on her neck, looking up and down and turning from left to right with the aid of her back, which caused the machine's own head to move around, and the view on the HUD to change. The only step after this was to say a series of different sounds in order to facilitate recognition of voice commands, no matter the speed at which they were spoken or the intonation. Finally, the synchronization instructions gave way to the normal HUD, giving the exact same view as the 'eyes' of the GEAR would see.

At the end of the day, all this synchronization sure does make the movements of the Flanker look very realistic, but, boy, does it make using him tiring...Raisa quietly belly-ached to herself. Indeed, the near-exact synchronization of the pilot's movements with the Flanker's own body definitely made for extremely organic movement, especially the head movement, something that many other GEARs still lacked, mostly due to the inherent fatigue on the pilot. Thankfully, if the pilot grew too tired, the Flanker could be switched to traditional control methods, but that would be taking a large chunk of the machine's capability away from it; with the ease of movement allowing for excellent close-combat capability. Anyway, it was smooth sailing after synchronization, with most of the checks being done by the L/OS and any problems immediately being reported to the pilot. In all of the Flanker's testing, use with Iyuli and her own training in the machine, the checks had never had a problem and she left a good amount of confidence in it. As it finished the checks, the L/OS automatically disconnected from external power and did a two second check of traditional fallback instruments.

With a chime of confirmation, the systems moved onto starting up the artificial muscle-system and the sound dampeners meant to silence the sound of the UHD batteries powered on to remove the sound. For pilots just transferring into the Flanker, this usually made them wonder if the machine was actually on, as there was little to no noise of the machine audible from within the cockpit. In her father's own words when speaking at the reveal of the machine, it 'makes you feel as if the GEAR is an extension of your very body'. Eerie. Raisa remarked as she thought back on the words. Suddenly, her thoughts were removed from the subject by the sound of her system requesting for a final confirmation, a prompt appearing in the center of her HUD.

It is necessary to answer the following question to start FLANKER
Do you agree to make true biological synchronization with FLANKER?
YES/NO

With a sigh, Raisa hit 'YES' and she gritted her teeth as she waited for the inevitable sharp pain that would go into the back of her neck, where a needle of the machine would take a blood sample from her and inject nanomachines that could allow the Flanker to further synchronize with her body. As the needle pierced her skin, she thought back to the particularly grandiose presentation her father gave a few months ago, when, thanks to synchronization with the GEAR on display, it broke into the exact same movements as her father upon the mention of synchronization, 'This true biological synchronization; it is true melding of organism and machine, life and death, white and black. After TBS, every single breath, movement and heartbeat is also felt by the GEAR. Everything felt by the GEAR is felt by the pilot. This... is the future.' he had once said, as the Flanker broke out of its glass display case and mimicked the paces of the man, its chest moving in response to his own breaths, to the awe of the audience. Unknown to them, he actually had a set of scanners in his pants to make up for him not being in the cockpit, but otherwise the display was very much a real demonstration of Flanker's abilities. After a minute, the needle removed itself from her neck and a sort of liquid bandage was sprayed onto her neck.

With the TBS finished, her identity was confirmed and the GEAR was allowed to move. Her first gesture was to check for the weapon she would use on the mission; an Avto-30 assault rifle that she would keep for medium to long range combat in case it was needed. Once she had confirmed it was there, she began to walk. With movement of her own legs, the GEAR naturally moved forward, in a fashion similar to her own strides when out of the machine. She arrived at the door and spoke over comms to the rest of her group. "Private Biryukova reporting. Launch preparations complete. Standing by for deployment." Raisa was quickly responded to by the team's leader.

"Okay, team. Good job. Ken, take off and set up a holding pattern while we deploy. Everyone else, here's the skinny - Warlock, take Bell, Stone and Kelsea as your scouting team. Maxwell, position yourself so you're able to relay comms between the recon team and the main unit, as well as providing tactical fire support if necessary, and targeting for Kradis or any of the rest of us for long-range support to cover the recon units' retreat. Everyone who ain't in the recon unit is wi' me. Our job will be to move up behind the recon team and spread out to provide flanking cover at a medium distance, and to secure the rear area of the battlefield, and prevent them from bein' outmaneuvered. First things first, we gotta move away from the ship. On the double, move out. Positions' updated on yer L/OS HUD." Nodding, and with the machine doing the same movement, she moved out onto the lush countryside landscape. Forthwith, Raisa was captivated by the dreamy landscape, but she decided to keep it as an afterthought as she prepared to follow Blade. As the GEAR pilot awaited and looked over the landscape, she found herself taking a deep breath, a futile response to the gorgeous area as she was in the cockpit of a machine, but 'Sanya' emulated the movement nonetheless.

After War, Before Peace (Military, Alternate History/Post-war RP)

That sounds definitely very reasonable. Sorry if my sudden appearance messed things up. I was just a tad excited to get into inter-player interactions, didn't want to have to wait to do another post.

World of Dieties: Desnia

Yay, it's Aristo!

The Closed World (Fantasy, Persona 3/4 inspired RP)

Before I get into what this RP is about, I shall tell you a small story about how I came up with it;

Recently, I took a school trip to the south of France, to see Roman monuments and ruins in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region. It went pretty well, but on the way back, my iPod Classic's HDD crashed, so I was left with only my PS Vita for listening to music. However, the only thing I had on my Vita was, aside from games, the OST of Persona 3 FES and Persona 4. Suddenly, as the TGV was speeding alongside the absolutely beautiful mountains in the countryside, with Persona in my ears, Romans and medieval France on my mind, and reading a book on spies, I had an idea for a Persona inspired RP, in a fantasy setting. So, after reaching Paris, having a dinner of sushi and boarding the train to head back to my home-region of Normandy, I started writing the first thing that came to my head was regarding the setting (which, if the RP gets interest, will definitely be expanded upon).

With the story of my school trip aside, here's what I wrote, and the music I was listening to when I wrote it:

In a train station at a dawning hour of the autumn morning, a single figure was waiting. The cold air bit at him, his cheeks growing rosy as did his nose. He stood in a freshly washed uniform that had not a single wrinkle on it and had not yet adopted the shape of his body, the platform beneath his feet had many cracks through which weeds and other vegetation grew. While the station itself was well-lit, the surrounding city was left unlit save for a few candle lights shining through the windows adorning the houses in the sleepy town.

It was foggy. In fact, thinking back on it, it was very much possible that this "man" was in fact a woman. The _____'s uniforms, while differing between the sexes, could perhaps be confused for one another from a distance...

Actually, our narrator may just be blind.

Returning to the situation at hand, this unknown character, alone in the deserted station, seemed to be awaiting his or her train; a reasonable assumption, if we consider the location. With the fog of the morning creating a thick veil over the area, the features and exact look, feelings and emotions emanated by the figure were vague at most, but an observer could possibly and barely see that this person seemed at least somewhat excited to meet their new fate. Something in the way they stood gave off an aura of security, confidence and acceptance; acceptance of what fortune had chosen for him-slash-her.

Suddenly, lights could be seen through the fog as the awaited train approached. In response, the unknown character picked up their lightly packed bag and headed towards the edge of the platform. The train came, only a single car following behind it. The machine's brakes groaned and it pulled in up an almost supernaturally perfect fashion directly in front of the character.

Not a single man descended from the vehicle to make the figure enter, but the person quietly entered nonetheless, not letting the nonexistence of an escort subtract from their noticeably good mood (or was it?). Before entering, however, the character took a look around, and with the fog now steadily dissipating, the character's features were now able to be seen in detail, even by our perhaps blind narrator.

This "character" is you.

Feel free to ask any questions regarding the setting and RP and I'll be happy to answer them. I know this post is a bit light in terms of explanation, but I prefer to either surprise people or let them know about things they feel that they need to know through answering questions.

World of Dieties: Desnia

I'll do a post in a bit so I can start Alicia's and Ryko's ADVENTURE!!!!!

After War, Before Peace (Military, Alternate History/Post-war RP)

IC post is up; my longest post since the Guild came back up. Very proud of it.

After War, Before Peace (Military, Alternate History/Post-war RP)

Whirrr... whirrr...

Kyung felt a slight vibration from his pant pocket and removed the outdated Nokia cellphone. Gingerly pressing on the green answer button, he put it up to his ear as he took cover behind a tree and crouched down, making sure to keep his pistol at the ready. "Iseul here." He hastily spoke, not wanting to make much noise. "The infiltration was a success it seems. How's the plane?"

"It managed to leave the airspace without any trouble, thanks to the altitude. Pretty good HALO jump if you ask me. Have you done this before?" An associate of his client, speaking with a south east Asian accent answered him. Kyung smirked at this.

"In a different time and a different place, with a different name. Anyway, how about you give me the details on the objective?"

"His plane went down about a click north of your current position. It's probably crawling with NWA, but I'll need a few numbers from the plane for the time being. Be ready for anything getting over there. It's mostly jungle and the plane crashed in a clearing, but the NWA have probably set up a perimeter around the area. Any questions?" The South Korean commando silently thought it over for a moment before asking a question about the target. "I'll read from the file. Alright, he's a JASDF pilot of little fame, named Aoi Kurotsugi. He deserted shortly after his unit was 'sold' to our private army. We have not an idea about his reasons, but it is essential that we capture him."

"Why?" Kyung asked in regards to the essential nature of capturing the pilot.

"Classified information. Now then, I think you have a mission to get on with. Keep in mind that throughout the mission, you will have no support from us. The phone cannot call us, as the number will change every time. Once you have captured Kurotsugi, proceed to Buka Town for extraction. When you get there a man posing as a NWA soldier will guide you to a boat that will take you to our nearest base in Polynesia. Good luck." Without even waiting for Kyung to respond, the call was ended. He put the phone back in his pocket with a shrug and put his pistol and knife in his hand as he looked around the area. From his ridge position, he could easily see the smoke bellowing from the crash site and an NWA convoy moving along a road towards a coastal town in the distance that Kyung assumed was Buka Town. Taking a look at his watch, he made note of the midday hour before beginning his descent down the ridge. Carefully keeping away from parts that looked like they would easily give away, he reached the bottom of the ridge with little problems and began a walk towards the crash site, keeping an eye out for NWA troops.

Being only a short distance away, the trip took little time and Kyung found no resistance until reaching the clearing. At least ten NWA soldiers walked in the area, patrolling around the plane as they awaited it to be taken away. Kyung took a position in a bush and decided on his course of action for clearing the area. Immediately, he took note of a soldier standing precariously close to a bush from where Kyung could easily grab him. He also took note of a particularly large spider making its web on a tree nearby and a plan hatched in his mind. Holstering his pistol and sheathing his knife, he quietly moved over to the bush. He waited for the soldier to let down his guard in his figure before grabbing him from behind, holding his mouth closed and hitting the safety on his rifle as he pulled him away from the smoky clearing. Along the way, Kyung put the man down on the ground, having fainted from a heavy hit Kyung had placed on his head. Kyung estimated that the man would awake in only a few minutes considering the hit and build of the soldier, so he took little time in picking up the spider and placing it on the man's chest, quickly returning to the opposite edge of the circular clearing right after.

When the spider reached the face of the man, a scream erupted from outside of the clearing and six of the troops went out the clearing, leaving only three watching the opposite edge of the clearing to Kyung. Removing his Pentax Optio W60 digital camera from his fatigues, he moved out of the brush to take pictures of the plane's markings. Remarkably, the plane was in excellent condition despite the crash and the serial numbers and markings were as clear as day. It was an F-15J Kai, a modernized version of the F-15J Eagle used by the Japanese Air Self Defense Force, as evidenced by the modifications around the intakes. Kyung took multiple pictures of the markings on the wings, fuselage, vertical stabilizers before quietly moving to the other side to take photos of the rest of the plane. Returning to the side without any NWA patrolling, he climbed up to the cockpit to look for any clues in his search.

The first thing he noticed was the tell tale signs of blood on the ejection seat and the fact that the ejection seat hadn't been ejected, telling him that the pilot had obviously left after the plane crashed. It was now that Kyung noticed a very faint trail of blood leading away from the plane. Aside from this obvious way of tracking down his target, he also observed the instruments, but being used to the F-15A variant of the plane, he found himself somewhat lost due to the F-15J being a variation on the F-15C, which made for quite a few changes compared to the plane he had once flown over Afghanistan. Shaking his head, he descended from the cockpit, but suddenly, a voice rang out. "You there, freeze!" Kyung jumped off the cockpit and took cover behind the plane as the soldier opened fire. The ruined Eagle took most of the fire, but Kyung still took no time in dashing towards the brush, shots ringing out from behind him. He was heavily out-numbered, so he sprinted into the jungle, not looking where he was going and continued running until he was sure that he had lost the troops. Breathing heavily, his older body was practically screaming at him.

Kyung fell to his hands and knees and spent a good minute catching his breath before raising himself with a groan and detaching his AKS-74U from the strap he had been holding it on. In the distance, he could hear sounds of searching as the NWA troops moved towards him. Breaking into a jog, he began to head further away from the crash site, the short carbine in hand and not looking behind or below him as he escaped the enemies. It was thus how he suddenly found his feet tied thanks to a trap laid on the ground. His face hit the dirt with a thud and his weapon landed out of reach.

"Anatahadaredearu kamo shirenai?" Kyung was surprised to hear a voice speak in Japanese from behind him. However, unknowing of the Japanese language, he remained silent. The unknown person seemed to be reasonably ticked off by him not answering and was kicked in the back as his captor yelled at him, "Darekaga anata ni shitsumon o suru toki imaimashī Nachisu, kotaeru!"

"English.. do you speak English?" Kyung muttered as he recovered from the kick. His captor gasped as he realized that Kyung wasn't one of the NWA as he noticed his uniform and accent.

"God! I thought you were a Nazi! Who are you?" The man quickly began cutting the cords as Kyung responded. He spoke fluent English, to Kyung's appreciation.

"Kyung Sang Iseul. I presume you're Aoi Kurotsugi?" He pushed himself up when he was unleashed from the trap and looked at his captor. A short man, he was wearing a black and green flight suit with orange highlights and the Japanese flag on his left shoulder, and he still had his helmet on; white of color with a single orange star decorating it. Curiously, from what Kyung could see under the helmet, his target had a rather effeminate face. He also had bandages across his forehead and right eye and on his right forearm where he had removed his glove, revealing a dainty looking hand.

"That's me. How do you know my name?" Kyung carefully considered his words as he shook the bare hand of the pilot.

"I'm here to rescue you." A look of unease took to the pilot's face as he removed his helmet, letting some mid-length hair fall down, held back by the bandages.

"Do I really need rescuing?" Aoi said, turning around. "Honestly, I'd rather continue to Australia." Kyung sighed, not especially wanting to argue, but also not wanting to reveal the true purpose of him being there.

"Fine. I know a guy in Buka Town who can take us there. You have a weapon?" Aoi gave a slight expression of distrust before answering his latter question.

"Just my P220. Mind passing me that M1?" Aoi gestured to the rifle slung on Kyung's back. He shrugged as he checked the rifle.

"Can you shoot with your injuries?"

"Of course. I'm a lefty shooter and besides, I shoot better than most guys in the Rikujō Jieitai. I'll lead the way to Buka. I got my bearings pretty well before crashing." The Japanese pilot gave off an air of confidence as he was handed the rifle, which he slung over his back before taking the extra magazines. Kwan nodded and Aoi began walking confidently ahead and he followed in turn, shouldering his AKS-74U which he had recovered from the ground. They walked in silence, so Kwan decided to look over the pilot. His stare quickly fell to how he walked.

There's something peculiar about it, but I just can't place what it is... He thought to himself. Aoi then turned around and looked at him, before sneering and confidently jeering. "Who're you looking at, Mister Iseul?"

"Nothing, let's keep going. We'll stop in a bit to try to find food and drink. You hungry?" The pilot made a bothered look and kept walking as he responded.

"I'm kind of peckish." He said in a quiet tone, almost inaudible as a group of jet-black helicopters passed overhead. They both ducked in near synchronization and they spent a good minute on the ground before rising up again and silently continuing their walk. As they marched, Kwan kept a watchful scan of the jungle, looking for any dangers. Suddenly, he noticed a man and a woman a few dozen meters away, with an advanced looking machine with them. Silently, he moved up behind Aoi and tapped him on the shoulder and gestured towards the soldiers. He then gestured to a covered position nearby and after nodding, Aoi dashed over to this position. At the same time, Kwan quietly began to move towards the trio.

Once he was in audible range, he briskly spoke. "All three of you, don't move an inch! I've got a... erm... sniper, watching this area. Tell me who you all are and no one will get hurt." He menacingly bared his AKS-74U and he saw the equally menacing glare of the scope from the rocks where Aoi had positioned himself. "I'm not with the NWA, if you're wondering." Kwan tried to assure them, hoping to gain an ally or two, but he quickly realized that baring weapons and threatening them wasn't the best way of doing so. I'll put the weapon down once I know who they are... He thought to himself as he looked the strangers over, awaiting their responses.