wild-kitsune — Roleplayer Guild

I'm really sorry for being so absent guys. I know after all these years nobody wants to see Feral die, myself least of all, but between work school and family I just haven't had the drive nor the time to really get meaningful posts in. I blame myself in part for taking on so much (since I'm controlling Neon, Torva, the entire council, the guards at the Colosseum, the judges, the other competitors, etc, etc), and I think in the future I'll try to keep things a bit more manageable for myself.

Part of that, though, deals with newer players, and to that end I'd appreciate some advice from other legacy RPers. In an attempt to be welcoming, I find that the best way to deal with new players is to give them NPCs to talk to in the hopes that they'll eventually have enough interactions with the core group to allow me to dial back and let things happen naturally. It may be my storytelling, or it may be the natural distrust of new players among the core group, or it may be some combination of multiple factors, but I think what we need to do is decide if we want to keep Feral as an open RP.

I've always wanted to keep it open because there will always be a somewhat steady flow of people coming and going, but at the very center of the story the players have been consistent for years now. I think for management purposes it might be easiest if I stop accepting new players entirely, but I wanted to let everyone else voice their opinion on the matter.

As for a post coming, I don't want to mess with what Har has been working on, and maybe we can work together to merge stuff, but at the very least I should get you guys a resolution of the games and a small jump to the vote from the council. There's a lot on the table right now and it wouldn't be fair of me to let it go ignored. If I promise, for really real, to have a substantial post up before the weekend, can you guys grant me that much faith and just hold off for a little bit more?

One by one people left Shade's home, even the injured pegasus, until it was just Neon alone with the servants. As she waited she gathered notes on what she planned to saying to the council, trying to figure out what the best plan of attack was. Her head was like a busy street corner, the constant banter of voices drowning each other out until it was almost white noise. Perhaps this was how her father kept his sanity, Neon thought as she filtered out the indecipherable babble from her own thoughts. Then again... she never did consider her father a sane man.

Pushing the thought of her father out of her mind, Neon rolled up a parchment, sealing it with her family's crest, and stepped outside. If she wasted any more time thinking she might not even get the chance to speak with the council, and with the inventor's games taking up most of the city's attention, now was never a better time to gain an audience. She chose to walk this time, waving off a carriage that was loitering around the neighborhood looking for customers. The cold air was sharp, but not biting, and each breath of fresh air helped calm her nerves. By now word had spread of their arrival, and far fewer seraphim stopped to stare as she navigated her way towards the Council of the Righteous.

If it were not for Mokk's deep gravely voice Neon would almost have certainly walked right past the daeva. Startled slightly, she turned towards the daeva while instinctively taking a small step back. At first she did not recognize the daeva, but upon making eye contact she was immediately taken back to Malum's castle. This was the one who Torva fought, although she couldn't remember why. Was he defending Malum? Or just looking for trouble? His presence in Adalrich unnerved her, as if ill winds had begun to blow trouble to their doorstep. Cautiously, she took the sealed missive from Mokk's scaly hand, although the daeva showed no outward sign of aggression. On the contrary, it had all the appearances of loyalty....

Neon sliced open the missive, a claw digging underneath the wax seal of some noble she didn't recognize. It seemed like some sort of status message, most of the content going well over Neon's head. She began to lose interest as she read, openly wondering if Mokk had confused her with a queen who actually gave a shit, until a particular paragraph seized the breath from her lungs. “R, speed up the project or we'll lose our war. The mad tiger was close. We can modify the research but you need to finish that cure. There's no telling what it could do to us if it goes out of control. We need a contingency plan in case the dig proves fruitless.”

“Mad Tiger” had to be a stand in for Renji, meaning whoever had written this letter had been deeply involved in his artificial feralism research, if not the one behind his funding. For Neon and the party this was a huge break, and the first actual lead they had acquired since finding the weapons in Renji's basement. Glancing at the seal again, she still couldn't figure out who's seal it was, but upon closer examination it shared many similarities with seals from a particular region, specifically Boaz. For the first time in her life Neon was glad Sergio forced her to pay attention in her geopolitics lessons as a child.

Glancing from the parchment to Mokk, the stunned look on Neon's face all too obvious, she began to speak, her lips pausing as if to give her brain a chance to catch up. “Where did you find this?” Then she realized... the council! They have to see this! “Wait.. I mean don't wait... I mean... follow me!” she said, darting off towards the council as she shouted behind her. “You can tell me when we get there. I need to show this to the council as soon as possible.”

The council seemed to expand magically as Neon ran towards the large ornate steps as the surrounding buildings fell from her peripheral vision. Taking the steps two at a time, she sprinted right past Kayla without responding. Upon reaching the top steps, she paused and turned. “Kayla?” Walking maybe halfway between Kayle and the main doors of the council, Neon found herself tugged in many directions at once. “Aren't you supposed to be meditating under a waterfall or something?” Her eyes darted between Kayla, Mokk, and the missive as she heard what Kayla had to say.

Torva clenched Hagumi's hand as Chii stepped up to the judges, the array of death machines whirring and crunching while others belched fire just beside them. She seemed so small, so fragile from the stands, and even some seraphim around them openly questioned how anyone could allow a child to risk their lives over a contest. He had to remind himself that it was not that long ago that they pursued Chii through the skies as the dragonness spewed acid and chewed on the remnants of her captors. Bravely, she stepped forward with confidence as the judges, somewhat hesitant as they listened to Cadogan's slurred explanations, but nevertheless bound by rule, rolled the first of the machines up.

The first, and most basic of machines, tested the armor's resistance to piercing damage via a metal spike wound by a spring. With the pull of a lever, the spike shot forward like an arrow, slamming against the armor and sending Chii flying backwards and the machine itself reeled in the opposite direction. Once Chii had recovered, the judges examined the armor, finding that not only was it perfectly unscathed, but that the testing device had become dented in the process.

Impressed, and somewhat emboldened, the judges than rolled out the second device, a large vice-like machine designed to test impact and crushing damage. Escorting Chii into the center of the machine, two burly seraphim began turning large cranks, each causing the machine to compress. A faint groaning sound echoed throughout the hushed stadium as the vice pressed against Cadogan's armor, the silence cut by the high pitched sound of ricocheting metal as one of the rivets burst. With a wave of a hand, the lead judge recorded the measurements of the machine and then Chii was released from its grip.

By the end of the barrage of tests Chii looked somewhat worn but otherwise unharmed, save for some bumps and bruises from being tossed around. Remarkably, Cadogan's armor looked even better, a few burn scars and scratches but otherwise no worse for the wear. Torva let out a triumphant howl as the scores were updating, putting Cadogan squarely in second place going into the final round. The seraphim who had taken first in the previous round had not competed in the armor division, placing he and Cadogan into a close race for first. Looking at the scoreboard, some contestants immediately dropped out, aware that they had no chance of breaking the top 10 with only one round to do. Consequently, some fans filtered out of the stadium as well during the break between rounds, providing the group with some much needed breathing room in the still-packed stadium.

The third round, the exhibition round, began after a few hours, with contestants lining up to show off their latest gadgets before the judges. The seraphim in first, having not yet been judged in the final round, took a few moments to approach Cadogan and wish him luck. “You've done quite well for yourself,” the blacksmith said, keeping his distance to avoid to smell of alcohol, “extremely well for a human, but I'm afraid this is where we part ways.” he added confidently as he patted a small device wrapped in cloth. “I'll be waiting to see what you have to show before going before the judges, if you don't mind. I always like going out with a bang.”

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