Housepets!

Jenny has an MLP somewhere in her apartment. Just the one.
Jaken likes the fact he doesn't have any black fur as it makes him unique.
Hannabelle is happier than she'll ever say to be here as she was considering 'other ways out' due to encroaching illness and extreme boredom.
And Corp? Well, there's the thing Lego knows of...
Sana fears not being taken seriously AND being taken too seriously as either can get in the way.
Seena hopes her baby will be able to live in whichever universe it grows up in.

Rika keeps up with every patient she had helped during her nurse days. Most of them text or call every now and then.

Traci has an older sister and a younger brother. She doesn't really get along with either of them, but she still loves them.

Eira used to be a paramedic. She's currently in a long-distance relationship with her former partner, who is currently planning to move to the Beacon the next time it visits Earth.

Hivemind is sometimes concerned about his anti-corruption subroutines and their functionality. Any time he feels wrath or rage, he inspects the subroutine to make sure it's keeping that rage from turning into hatred, violence, or unnecessary retaliation. He has not found any problems so far.

Before the champions became an official group, a shadowy world government agency decided they were too dangerous to be allowed to roam free, and so captured all of the original founders. Morgan was the first to escape. They used a sedative to knock her out while they gave her water, but after a while she grew resistant to it and woke up while the water was being given to her. She used the half-cup of water that remained to brutalize the guards and break everyone else out. Not really minor, but probably not going to be mentioned in-game.

Titan and Recon consider themselves to be best friends, even though Recon literally knew nothing about Titan and Titan can't tell anyone anything without the person, and whatever continent they are on, exploding violently.

Titan also used to be a normal human being. Even frail. When she realized she was getting stronger at a massively rapid rate, she went to Hivemind for help. Hivemind built her armor to keep her power under control.

It's common knowledge that lycans used to prey on humans in pre-medieval times. What isn't common knowledge is that ancient lycans used to have the ability to eat humans whole as a way to avoid detection. A missing person doesn't raise the alarm as much as a half-eaten body in an alley. Over time, after lycans were hunted to near-extinction and stopped preying on humans, this trait was no longer needed and slowly died out. Only about 10% of lycans (about 50 lycans in total) still have this trait. Randy and Eira are both part of that 10%. Eira isn't aware of this, and Randy obviously doesn't talk about it and even more obviously doesn't use the trait. Only Morgan and Hivemind know about this. Randy and Eira are able to hide themselves better partly because lycans with this trait have even more malleable and flexible anatomy than those without it, letting them change their shape and appearance to a greater degree than normal.

Gadgeteer has a very slight and not serious crush on (almost more like admiration for) Kol due to her obvious strength.

Archangel's ability to shoot radioactive lasers from his eyes and mouth isn't really a glitch, but it is a rare trait for his species.

Likewise, Wyvern's liquid napalm-like fire fuel is a rare trait for his species. Normally the fuel is faster burning and not as sticky.

Sal-Hleel secretly enjoys human media. He has been known to play human video games on mute in his cabin, and has been known to discretely watch soap operas. Any time he was caught, he would claim he was researching human culture for work.

So, I have a question, are we allowed to have characters that can use magic? Or is it strictly normal or superpowers, Because I have an character:

Name: Quij J. Nokuri
Codename: N/A
Color: #FF4040
Type: Main, I guess
Species/Breed: Human
Gender: Female
Age: 52 1/2 years
Neighborhood: Beacon of Hope
Powers: While technically it's magic, she can turn herself into fireflies (I mean fireflies plural, she becomes at least two hundred, not just one.) and can move objects without touching them. She can also see the future while drinking herbal tea
Weakness: as soon as her hands and mouth are out of the equation, she's useless
Appearance: She has rather pale skin with a rather skinny build, dark green eyes, and ragged black hair. She usually will wear a velvet dress with raven feathers at the ends of the sleeves, but sometimes might wear something more simple.
Personality: She is a kind woman who loves to drink herbal tea and watch birds. She seems to find anyone over a year younger than her a kid
Other Notes: She used to live in Chelford, England; has a British accent; and was a schoolteacher
S.P.E.C.I.A.L. Stats:
Strength: 4
Perception: 6
Endurance: 6
Charisma: 7
Intelligence: 8
Agilility: 7
Luck: 5
Power: 6 (I'm not too sure, though)

Late response to the question, but Tatiana sometimes feels oddly out of place being a liquiform, where she sometimes longs to have a face, to not be locked perpetually inside a metal body that can't normally feel. She usually ignores these feelings, not really sure as to why she even feels that way at times.

Hawkfang42 wrote:So, I have a question, are we allowed to have characters that can use magic? Or is it strictly normal or superpowers, Because I have an character:

Ever hear of the Scarlet Witch?

Magic is allowed so long as it has rules and weaknesses like any other power.

That said, I encourage you to slow down with the character introductions, for your sake and mine. You already have two characters and it hasn't even been two pages since your introduction. I have to compile and respond to all of these, you know.

I'm in the process of writing a mini-update at the request of a bored player. In this update, I will only reply to the side stories going on right now, and only those in which everyone involved has posted.

i was under the impression most of us were waiting on you getting the newbies up to speed, considering there's little more than idle conversation going on otherwise. the evacuation could have been completed 5 turns ago otherwise, and i'm running out of ways to say 'So and so doesn't do anything other than head for the exit because they want to leave'.

Well, only one of the new players is with the main group. I suppose the main group is waiting on things to finish up with him, but they're also finishing up with Kolt/Quint. The team should be on it's way within the next couple turns, if not the next full update I do.

Sorry I can’t post tonight guys. Had a really long day at work and I’m super tired. I should have something up tomorrow.

I'm realizing thanks to Buster that I need to hurry up with some of these side stories, so I'm going to do something I rarely do and write a second small post covering a couple other characters I was originally going to wait for.

Added a Sana/Seena scene to my last post. I'd forgotten to have her reply to Colorado.

By the way, if you're curious, the Campbell-Lamont feud is real and it really does go back that far. And yes, they really did slaughter each other. The Dunoon Massacre in the 1600s is particularly famous. As far as I know the sting has mostly gone out of the feud these days, and the clans have intermarried, however I imagine it's quite possible that there would be some members who'd carry it on, just without the slaughtering bit.

am i seriously the only one getting constantly thrown off by how normal the former steelhaven cast's side plots are compared to everything else?

i mean, over here we have mostly serious family drama, meanwhile planet side things have been so over the top absurd it feels like we've been doing a victory lap over the shark tank after nuking the mother of all fridges by comparison.

Granted, it is family drama with their deceased relatives while on a day trip to Heaven, so it's still enjoyably insane.

yeah, but compared to a superhero story that jumped the shark the moment a necromancer showed up riding a dune sand worm thing, and has been constantly trying to one-up it's own ridiculousness with each arc since, it's still pretty tame.

Corp just has years of training to help him act like it's all perfectly normal.

Keeva was a prisoner until a few weeks back. She's acting normal because she was stunned by the Steelhaven. She's well beyond stunned by the Beacon.

Sarah cares about her charges. She's not cared to examine much else yet.

Meanwhile we've punched out Cthulhu twice using starter gear.

You know you all love the over-the-top absurdity.

Besides, "Jumping the shark" only applies as a term for stories where Jumping the shark is considered out of the realm of the universe's reality. From the very beginning, and even Earlier when I described the game in the OOC, it was clear this world was far more imagination driven than reality driven. This universe is built so that anything, no matter how insane, awesome, or over the top things get, it still fits well with the rest of the insanity.

Liz is going to explode the moment she’s alone, because the way Hivemind worded things kinda implied that death has no serious consequences, and yet everyone from this universe still acts like it does, and that’s just the start of the logical problems Hivemind dropped on her.
The only reason Lewis isn’t going to do the same is because he’s trying to act like none of this is happening, just fiddling with his tablet and trying to ignore everything he’s currently hearing,

Death still means something. No one can know for sure where they will end up, as many people are blind to their own vices. And if Diligitis's domain is full of sunshine and rainbows and pie and unlimited love, imagine what the ashen pits (odium's realm) or the blood market (cupiditas's domain) are like.

And then there's those like Nocturl, who've died and haven't had their passports stamped...

CyberDragon wrote:Death still means something. No one can know for sure where they will end up, as many people are blind to their own vices. And if Diligitis's domain is full of sunshine and rainbows and pie and unlimited love, imagine what the ashen pits (odium's realm) or the blood market (cupiditas's domain) are like.

I know that, but Liz doesn’t. She just hears Hivemind mention the twins visiting their dead family like it’s no big deal, and, without any evidence that suggests otherwise, comes to the conclusion it isn’t a big deal, and then things spiral from there.

Anyway, back to the issue of escalating insanity, expect things to escalate even more. The next full arc I have planned takes things even further, with an even bigger bad, even better battles, even more heroes, fighting for even higher stakes than the ones today.

Uuf, I'm not sure I like the sound of that, Cyber.. But count me in anyway!

Also, I feel like I need a third main character (Dan is more a secondary at this point..) but I don't want to overbear you with yet another new person..

Oooh, sounds awesome Cyber!

Maybe Liz would feel more comfortable on the frontier? Its about 90% "Firefly Meets Cyberpunk" other than gifts and psyonics, but they're pretty straight forward. no elder gods, magic, or 'anime science'.

Possibly, but you did say it's also a dystopia. As weird and insane as this universe is, it's not a bad place to live once you get used to the bonkers Bunny-Ears lawyer physics.

well what else am i supposed to call a galaxy wide military state that lets it's less useful or populous worlds fall by the wayside and has large portions of known space dedicated to sapients hunting each other because of one of it's member races? there isn't really a good term for "okay, maybe it's not completely clucked, and it's actually reasonably nice as long as you avoid 3/4 of it, but it's still extremely screwed up in the grand scheme of things"

Yeah, judging by the way you’ve described it, Liz would much rather prefer the Beacon over the frontier. At least the Beacon has hope.
EDIT: I swear I didn’t realize the pun until after I posted.

I honestly thought it was totally intentional. After all, the Beacon of Hope's whole purpose is in it's name, and hope is a major theme of the game and the universe as a whole.

Can't have one without the other. Where there's great hope, there has to be great despair. And vice versa.

Ugh...

From now on, nobody ever ask me to do a partial post again. It messed up the flow of things and made it nearly impossible to compile everything.

~\Rook/~ wrote:Uuf, I'm not sure I like the sound of that, Cyber.. But count me in anyway!

Also, I feel like I need a third main character (Dan is more a secondary at this point..) but I don't want to overbear you with yet another new person..

You've been around since almost the very beginning. I have no problem with you creating one more character. I just wanted Hawk to go a bit slower and play for a bit before introducing a third main.

EDIT: FINALLY DONE. Sheesh, that took 4 and a half hours to write!

While looking at the marvel database page for Hank Pym, I realized that my superhero in this who can change his size coincidentally has the same first name as Giant Man's dad.

you know, given that the laws of physics here aren't nigh unbreakable physical absolutes, maybe they're a different kind of law.
like if you're breaking entropy too often men in armored white labcoats with black safety goggles and badges that say 'science police' show up and arrest everyone.

and then they show up on liz' doorstop asking if she knows where chris is since his restoration of the Steelhaven was technically a misdemeanor, since restoring the disintegrated sections required breaking conservation of matter. her specifically because she's the one who's head it would probably mess with the most.

Oh man, if breaking the laws of physics were a crime, Hobomancer would be universe's most wanted. I wonder how you arrest someone who considers logic, physics, and reality a polite suggestion at most?

with a lot of dedication and perseverance.

Judge: Hobomancer, you are hereby charged with retconning your first arrest warrant out of existence, breaking out of prison by convincing your cell door that it didn't have a lock, and imprisoning your arresting officer by responding to the statement of "you are under arrest" with "no u." How do you plead?
Hobomancer: Not guilty, your honor.
J: The evidence is clear. I hereby find you not guilty of all charges... wait...
H: Well thank you, judge. I must be going now. *picks up cane and opens it like an umbrella, holds it up, and floats out the window like Mary Poppins.*

I love how I first called the apostle Hobomancer as a joke over a year ago, and now everyone just kinda agrees that’s his name.