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Post by StellarWind Elsydeon on Sept 7, 2010 7:03:47 GMT -5
A young man - somewhere in his twenties - is sitting at his desk and drawing - an occurrence that is quite common for this particular young man, as it is for the man behind the man, but we will not discuss the man behind the man as it's a bit too early in this storyline for it to get that meta. So, let us return to the one who is at the moment drawing as opposed to the one drawing the one that is drawing. (That is, of course, assuming that whatever the one who is drawing isn't someone else who is also drawing, leading to an infinite recursion loop -) You'd continue along this thread, but there is an agitated British audience in your mind demanding that you GET ON WITH IT. As you can see, his arms are in perfect working order, negating the need to retrieve them from some rudimentary unit of storage. He also perfectly aware of what his actual name is, but he will humor you and let you guess what it is. You can also guess what he's actually drawing if you want to. Chances are, you may actually be right. He's in a pretty random mood as far as art goes.
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Post by StellarWind Elsydeon on Sept 9, 2010 8:27:08 GMT -5
You attempt to execute a FRACTAL INFINITE LOOP maneuver, which fails due to a critical META/ANTI-META CONTAINMENT BREACH. The HONEYBEE PROFESSOR facepalms at your efforts. Closer inspection reveals that the display cabinet does not hold a dragon, but a very detailed and articulated MODEL of the young man's personal favorite SENTINEL UNIT from what is possibly his favorite ANIME SERIES of all times. That show has everything - action-packed epic battle scenes involving fearless hot-blooded PILOTS interfacing with giant biomechanical SENTINELS to combat the threat of the XANDRIUM - shapeshifting NIGHTMARISH INVADERS that are actually much more than they appear. DEEP SERIOUS PHILOSOPHICAL MOMENTS alongside WACKY HUMOR, Complex VILLAINS (or are they villains?) and some exceptionally fine WORLDBUILDING - but with 85% less the EMO that this sort of series tends to facilitate. Pfff. EVA Is so damn overrated. He is hardly a collector of merchandise, but when he found this thing, he couldn't resist the purchase simply because it was way too SWEET for its own good. It's pretty much the closest thing to the real thing one could possibly find - and it would probably take THE END OF THE WORLD to convince him to part with it. He's quite comfortable with the thing's location in the display cabinet and sees no reason to carry it around with him for now - though he did take care to save the thing's CAPTCHALOGUE CODE when he first purchased it, even though it would probably be useless. I mean, it's not like there is a system to produce real items from these garbled sequences of letters via some form of ALECHEMY. That would just be silly. There is only one real response to this particular guess. Horatio Caine jokes aside, he finds himself in a state of mild amusement at the guesses... One of them got pretty close, but WAY wrong great house. So let's save you from your brain-wracking and simply inform you that his name is actually COLIN ATREIDES. His CHUMHANDLE is biomechArtisan - which defines him pretty well. He's always been a creative artistic sort - something which takes up a few of his central fields of interest: DRAWING, WRITING and MUSIC - most of which tie into a central love of WORLDBUILDING. The 'Biomech' part is pretty self explanatory - being a huge BIOLOGY geek with a SCI-FI edge lead him to take great interest in esoteric ALTERNATIVE BIOLOGY and BIOMECHANICS. Many of his drawings seem to draw upon aspects of the biomechanical - and he honestly doesn't care if some people are creeped out by what his art does to otherwise ADORABLE, MARKETABLE CRITTERS. This is a pretty normal day for him, and as stated above and before, sitting down and drawing for a while is a rather usual pastime for him - but since you've gone and interrupted his drawing by saying something that simply made him have to put on a pair of sunglasses and jam to "Won't Get Fooled Again", he might as well re-captchalogue his MECHANICAL PENCIL and find something else to do. Any bright ideas?
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Post by StellarWind Elsydeon on Sept 10, 2010 19:01:36 GMT -5
This post sees a format change to second person rather than third-person because it kinda feels more natural for this manner of RPing xD. Okay, so the POPULAR VIDEO GAME REFERENCE was strictly unnecessary, but you felt like doing that. Still, that was a good idea. Always good to have a solid musical instrument around. You pause for a minute to ponder the IMPLICATIONS of this particular trend of thought. Are you indeed just a CHARACTER in someone else's story, a product of the deranged imagination of some HIGHER BEING, and all that you are is contained in the thoughts of some mysterious WRITER who takes some strange pleasure in philosophical interludes and the grinding of the FOURTH WALL into FINE SUBATOMIC DUST? You spend a little more time pondering the possible attributes of FOURTH WALL DUST as a renewable source of NARRATIVE POWER when you realize that there could be a simple way you could find out. Time to draw out some answers. You whip out your handy CAPTCHALOGUE TABLET, the core component of your TABLET MODUS. Though it also has the functionality of an ARRAY MODUS, allowing you to captchalogue and retrieve items at any time, it may also be operated in a more ARTISTIC manner by drawing the item one wishes to retrieve or captchalogue. You proceed to draw a highly complicated unit that would serve as a TRANS-FOURTH-WALL COMMUNICATOR... ... only to be reminded that you cannot create items out of nothing and if there is no item like the one you wish to captchalogue nearby, all you'll get is a GHOST IMAGE with the captcha code of the real thing. Blast, if only these things could somehow be USED to, say, ALCHEMIZE items into being using these codes... Le sigh. Well, now that you got explaining your SYLLADEX to those people behind the fourth wall, you might as well explain your STRIFE SPECIBUS. Except that on that matter you've hit somewhat of a snag. You've tried various SPECIBI before, but none of them felt exactly RIGHT. Over the years you've amassed quite a collection of the things, and until you find the RIGHT ONE you alternate between them depending on your mood. You still don't know exactly which is the right one, but you feel that your DREAMS may hold the key - as there is that one recurring image you keep getting... ... Yeah. It goes a little something like this. Anyway, it may be a good idea to select some kind of a specibus in the meantime. So, without further ado, you open up your STRIFE PORTFOLIO and take a look at some of the available options. So many OPTIONS and SELECTIONS! Any ideas?
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Post by StellarWind Elsydeon on Sept 10, 2010 22:10:14 GMT -5
You select and activate the wrenchKind STRIFE SPECIBUS. It'll do for now, though you should probably pick a weapon with a bit more of a bite. Mmmmyep. This will do quite nicely. After putting away your trusty PIPE WRENCH you figure you might a well check on what's going on the interwebs. And as luck would have it, someone is looking for you on Pesterchum. Well, let's see what this guy wants, then. -- forteHolder [FH] began pestering biomechArtisan [BA] --
FH: Bluh bluh bluhhh. FH: Oh, sorry. FH: Kinda havin' a rough moment over here. BA: Happens to the best of us, really. BA: So, I take it this isn't an issue of the sort you can solve by lightly poking it with some kind of thin, lightweight blade weapon? FH: No no, it’s not the stabby kind, it’s the nostalgia kind. FH: I just found this toy I used to play with a lot. He was lying on the floor! I could have thrown him away or stepped on him maybe! FH: I miss being a kid! Everything was cool. BA: Heh, I know that feeling - I had quite a bit of that before I moved here. Nostalgia has a tendency to be awesome. BA: But, well, y'know. Growing up happens and then you look back at the stuff you thought was the coolest things ever... and wonder what the hell was the creator on. BA: Did that ever happen to you? xD FH: Yeah I guess so. It’s just hard, you know. FH: Being a young adult and growing up. FH: It’s hard and nobody understands. FH: (/blʌ blʌ/) FH: Anyway you still have your dragon toys so you don’t get to talk. I can’t believe you have the time to put those things together. BA: Dragon toys? BA: ... OH! The Sentinel Unit. XD That's a pretty recent purchase actually so I can't really say much on the nostalgia level of it. BA: And as for the time... well, as a great man once said, "Time is an illusion." BA: DID take a bit of time to put together. SO worth it though. FH: Sentinel unit? What’s this, from one of those worlds you are all the time building? FH: Congrats on the “Best Setting” award by the way. It’s no “Audience Favorite” but it’s pretty cool too I guess. BA: Heh, thanks. Kinda not a big deal though. I mean, only... like... ten of the other stories on the entire bloody forum had anything you could call a 'setting'. BA: Kinda like the title I got out of it, though. 'Synchronizer of Living Metal'. Pretty awesome and appropriate of them. Who'd have thought. BA: What's the one they gave you again? FH: “Duke of Decay”. FH: Which I thought was kinda weird, but whatever. I guess the judges felt I ruined the competition by being so amazing that all future contest winners would pale in comparison! FH: But seriously what the hell is a sentinel unit. It sounds like a robot and I’m pretty sure what you’ve got is dragons. BA: They are and they aren't. They're bio-mechanical constructs, though their organic component does stem from DNA extracted from these biometallic Dragon Fossils. BA: It's kind of very contrived and elaborate. There's a whole story arc explaining the science behind it, but yeah. I could fangasm about this show for hours. Might as well quit while I'm ahead. xD FH: Oh right, I forgot. FH: ANIME. FH: Man I have just been running the otaku gauntlet today! How close do you live to Shiro-chan? You two really ought to get together for some nerd-dates. Slam some sake, watch some magical girl adventures, you know, maybe practice a little calligraphy. No? BA: The origin of the series doesn't matter to me as much as the fact it's actually a good piece of sci-fi. BA: Not everyone who watches the occasional anime is obsessed with everything Japan coughs up, y'know. >< FH: Okay, okay, I get it. FH: Actually I owe Shiro one anyway. He taught me this amazing Japanese name for the new weapon I’m gonna give my character from the writing contest. FH: It’s such a great weapon oh my god FH: I’d say get ready for the next installment, but THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS READY FOR THIS. Your socks are going to just go flying off into the stratosphere, try as you might to affix them to your feet. BA: Eheh. Well, looking forward to see what you come up with! ^^ FH: Thanks man, I appreciate that. FH: I’ll probably go finish it off right now. You’ll feel the earth tremble. FH: Talk to you later!
-- forteHolder [FH] ceased pestering biomechArtisan [BA] -- [/font]
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Post by StellarWind Elsydeon on Sept 15, 2010 9:30:19 GMT -5
You've already stated that you are QUITE COMFORTABLE with the Sentinel Unit's location in the display cabinet and that you SEE NO REASON TO CARRY IT AROUND WITH YOU for now. NO means NO, and if anyone has a problem with that, bA PITIES THE FOOL. That's it. You execute a SPECIBUS FLIP to birdKind and proceed to FLIP THE ANNOYING AUDIENCE WHO WON'T TAKE NO FOR AN ANSWER the proverbial BIRD, HARDCOAR. You then re-flip it to wrenchKind and SKIP THE BLOODY CUTSCENE. You're a busy man, you know. Good grief. Some people. You pause to contemplate this idea over what remains of your MUG OF MOCHA. There is certainly some merit in this idea. It's been a while since you''ve used this particular SPECIBUS and you should probably brush up on your WRENCH skills. But not here. You need somewhere with a lot of space where there is less chance of damaging something you care about. You fold your laptop's screen, sending it into sleep mode, and head out to the BACK YARD. You see, you have a little place of your own - a small house somewhere in a relatively isolated location at the outskirts of a FOREST, at a convenient distance from some nondescript CITY which you try to avoid as long as you can help it. There are no other houses in the immediate vicinity. This leads to the fact that NATURE is, quite literally, Your BACK YARD. And being quite spacious, it is an excellent location to practice some SWEET STRIFE MOVES. You may never know when you might have to fend off some strange CARAPACED CREATURES from no where, after all.
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Post by StellarWind Elsydeon on Nov 6, 2010 10:24:51 GMT -5
You love the smell of IMAGINARY TRAINING ROBOT SMOKE in the morning. It smells like VICTORY. You've always had an active IMAGINATION, especially when it comes to creatures and worlds - though battle scenes also came rather naturally to you - an it seems that the more SPECIBI you've practiced the use of, the more vivid your DAYDREAMS became - though still not quite as vivid as your actual DREAMS are. After all, they can't be while you are still AWAKE. You spend a while longer practicing combat against other opponents using different strategies. In your mind, that is. In the real world, you're just striking the motions at non-existent targets. You'd honestly rather not. The NESTING BOX (for that is what it is) is home to a rather large OWL who is peacefully living her life in your back yard - and considering how owls of her species are rather rare in your area you'd rather not disturb her. Besides, you've honed your Wrench-fu skills sufficiently by now. Time to head back in.
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Post by StellarWind Elsydeon on Nov 19, 2010 14:21:22 GMT -5
Yes, it's about time someone moved the damn plot along, isn't it? You rarely get any MAIL for a variety of reasons - the out-of-the-wayness of your house for one, the fact you conduct most of your business through E-MAIL for another. Nevertheless, you do have a MAILBOX, which you've customized to fit your tastes - just in case you may have to disfigure someone with a mailbox (which is what your mailboxKind SPECIBUS is for, but that is a story for another time). For a change, however, you are expecting a delivery. Oh. And your appropriately bladey flag is up today! Let's see what the heck did you get. Ahah! The ENVELOPE containing your prize from that FORUM CONTEST. Within it you find one of those compact 2-CD boxes which contain the two application discs: CLIENT and SERVER. You haven't been personally following the hype around this game - it sounded too much like a cross between a Sims knockoff and a MMORPG for your tastes when details about it first leaked. If not for the dreams you couldn't care less. But your dreams... You've seen this image one time too many. Different worlds each time, but the same barrage of meteors that seemed to come out of no where - out of what looked like SPIROGRAPH GATES. The end of many worlds in what was referred to as a RECKONING. You were studying them in your dreams - you knew it would happen to the world you came from too eventually. You have seen many other things in your dreams - you've seen many different worlds - some similar to your own creations, others vastly different. You've seen shadows of a great mystery binding them all together. Your dreams, in combination with your waking imagination, have been a huge inspiration to your WORLDBUILDING - but when you saw the SPIROGRAPH LOGO on a site detailing the game and some more information about it - everything clicked into place. There was more to your DREAMS than just that - and this game may be your ticket out of this planet before the FECAL MATTER impacts the proverbial ROTARY COOLING DEVICE. You get the feeling this is going to be one hell of an adventure. And that you probably need to get in touch with some of the other winners and GET THIS SHOW ON THE ROAD. You wonder who else got their claws on this game yet...
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Post by StellarWind Elsydeon on Feb 5, 2011 11:50:00 GMT -5
Don't be silly. You can't CAPTCHALOGUE a proverbial device. It is a METAPHORICAL CONSTRUCT, and even if you tried CAPTCHALOGUING it, you'd end up with another GHOST IMAGE. There's little point to lugging your inventory with the SPIRITS OF ITEMS PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE. However, you proceed to captchalogue (and deploy) an actual cooling device. It is, after all... Your BIGGEST FAN. Yeah. You pause for a second to ponder how UNWIELDY this particular FAN is as a WEAPON. For starters, it's horribly UNBALANCED. Second, its BLADES are protected by this GRILL, preventing their usage in combat - and even if they weren't, the thing's ENGINE utterly depends on being plugged into the mains. Now, if you were to somehow remove the grill, supply the thing with a remote power source and possibly reinforce those blades while lightening the whole thing, ooooh yes. The WHIRLWIND OF CARNAGE you could UNLEASH upon your foes... yes... NO! Such a weapon could easily BACKFIRE if you WEREN'T ULTRA-CAREFUL with it. You like your limbs INTACT AND ATTACHED TO YOUR PERSON. Besides, it would look like a giant PINWHEEL, and that would be just plain ridiculous. Speaking of ridiculous, you wonder which one of those characters you should actually CONTACT about this, for lack of better definition, GAME. Oh gods why are those two the first ones that came to mind? Is it the white hair? It has to be. Shiro-kun... Yeah, it's likely that he has already gotten his hands on this game through some CONTRIVED SET OF CIRCUMSTANCES probably involving his 'ninja' of a father. He would be the natural first candidate to contact, if it wasn't for the fact that knowing him, he is probably out dicking around with that CASTLE or something and probably not available for chat. It would be JUST THE SORT OF THING that he would do when one actually needed to talk to the guy. And as for Reba... Why her of all the strange folks on EXOPHTHALMIC ARCHIMANDRITES involved with that contest? Truly, the woman was an walking enigma - and you were never quite sure on how to initiate a conversation with her. Perhaps later.
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Post by StellarWind Elsydeon on Feb 11, 2011 13:36:43 GMT -5
Well, you'll figure out who to contact later. First thing to do is sit down, stretch, and check the status of the session on the EVENT TERMINAL- wait. You mean... your... laptop? Wait. What?You must be a bit more TIRED than you thought. Maybe your STRIFE PRACTICE wore you out. No, this can't be right. You've never felt quite like this - like you are AWAKE IN TWO PLACES AT THE SAME TIME and they CROSS OVER in an errant way. Although, the truth is that you have been rather UNNATURALLY TIRED recently regardless of how much sleep you've been getting. Your DREAMS seem to be having an unusual sense of URGENCY to them as of late - which made you chalk this off as the effects of STRESS, though you aren't quite sure what's stressing you out. You turn your eyes to your desk for a moment, and take a look at the envelope your SBURB CDs came in. Something catches your eye all of a sudden. The postage stamp, actually. It's a beautiful piece of work - a tribal-style OWL standing on a branch with a moon on its background. You wonder if the senders chose it because they knew you were fond of OWLS or Wait what the hell-... Who could be contacting you right now? You don't recognize this chumhandle. Might as well answer them and see what they want. -- lunarWindrunner [LW] began pestering biomechArtisan [BA] --
LW: It started, hasn't it? The events leading up to your session. BA: ... My... session? LW: The game. You got the game, right? SBURB. BA: Yeah, the game got here. BA: Um, sorry, but who exactly are you? I figure you're from the Exo seeing as you know about the competition winners getting the game and all but I've never actually seen your screen name. LW: From my point of view, we've known each other for a while, actually, but there is little time for me to explain just how. Let's just say that we'll meet pretty soon and that it all has to do with the game. I kinda contacted you to warn you. BA: ...Okay, now this isn't creepy at all. But then, I've been having a pretty surreal couple of minutes, not that I'm sure why I'm telling you that. LW: Yes, that's what I'm here to warn you about. You're out of synch, Synchronizer. BA: Out of synch with what? LW: With your dreamself. It's not healthy to be in Parallax Mode for this long. There are certain consequences. LW: Like what you saw now. Your dreamself's perception is starting to leak into your waking self's. That's what happens when you're both awake at the same time - usually one is asleep while the other is awake. LW: Something is heavily troubling your dreamself and you need to figure out what it is, preferably before you enter. A synchronizer that is out of synch with himself is not much help to anything. BA: ... BA: Okay, seriously, what. How did you know about what I just saw? Who are you? What exactly is the meaning of all this? LW: I can't explain it now, I have very little time left. Just calm your dreamself down somehow, or at least abort the Parallax. When you'll see me again, I will bear a very different name. I look forward to our next converation. LW: Goodbye for now... and... thank you.
-- lunarWindrunner [LW] ceased pestering biomechArtisan [BA] -- [/font] ... You aren't quite sure what just transpired, but this stranger's words ring in your ears. You may need to discuss this with SOMEONE WITH A LOT OF LIFE EXPERIENCE... Or at least a KEEN INTEREST in the TRULY WEIRD. An unknown hand places a Syncrystal Data Core into an Encoder. The device churns to life as something slowly materializes inside a cylinder. As soon as the process is complete, it will automatically be sendificated to where it needs to be. The rest is in the hands of Paradox Space.
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Post by StellarWind Elsydeon on Feb 24, 2011 16:01:38 GMT -5
You pause to ponder this. "LIFE EXPERIENCE" and "TRULY WEIRD" instantaneously make you think of REBA... but nah. She probably has enough on her plate without having to deal with WEIRD DREAM SHIT. You figure you should probably contact someone you know better and can trust. He probably has enough BLOOD in his ETHANOL STREAM for at least a semi-sensible conversation right now. -- biomechArtisan [BA] began pestering prismaticFashionista [PF] --
BA: Hey, Bustin, do you perchance know anyone with the chumhandle lunarWindrunner? PF: sup colin hows the drawing going? PF: uh don't think so PF: whyd you ask? BA: It went okay for a bit, then everything kind of sort of went downhill. BA: It was a bit of a metaclysm, to be honest. BA: Anyway the reason I'm asking is that this LW person randomly contacted me out of no where and said some things about me being out of synch with my dreamself or something. BA: I'd probably think of that as a trolling attempt of some sort, but it didn't feel like someone trying to pull my leg. This felt genuine. BA: Plus the timing of it... PF: what the fuck is a dreamself? PF: whoever it was was trolling you so hard PF: i mean who ever heard of a dreamself PF: the closest thing to a dreamself is the drunken stupor when all i see is green BA: ... Did you just say Green? BA: ... This is going to sound ridiculously random, but is it like... kind of just under the surface green? Like one of those fiber-optic cables? And changes hues sometimes, every once in a while even changing color completely? PF: yeah sort of PF: it's like sometimes it's bloody vibrant PF: and sometimes its like a dull glow or something PF: it's hard to make out properly PF: i only ever see it when i pass out from being tanked PF: how do you know so much about it? BA: My dreams do that. A lot. The battle grid I imagine when I practice strife moves has the same sort of effect. And... BA: Yeah. Right before this LW person contacted me I had a few green flashes. Like... In reality. My room just morphed around me for a second into the sort of scenery I get in my dreams. Event monitors, control panels, trackers showing a hell of a lot of worlds... BA: I've been feeling crazy tired lately too. Almost like I'm awake in two places at the same time and wherever it is I'm at is starting to leak into real life. BA: It's almost like Inception gone horribly wrong. @_@ PF: man that is fucked up PF: i only see green when i've been drinking PF: event monitors? PF: what are they showing? what events? PF: i'm sort of confused right now PF: are you sure you havent been drinking? PF: oh wait no you don't drink do you, sorry BA: Effed up it indeed is. BA: As for the Event monitors... well. They show a lot of things. Worlds, people - downright alien most of the time. But there are lots of recurring elements. Gold and Purple moons, for example. And... Well... BA: Worlds being scythed clean of life by massive meteor bombardments through... well. Portals with a Spirograph pattern. BA: I've been having a hell of a lot of recurring dreams lately in which I've been observing these monitors. Studying patterns and the like. And whatever it is I notice seems to be worrying me more and more. BA: Things have been getting more and more stressful/urgent with every passing night, too. BA: Then I wake up feeling like I barely even slept. Sometimes the energy drain just hits me later during the day, but yeah. PF: hold on PF: spirograph PF: funny blue circle thing? PF: looks like a flower in the middle? BA: Not always blue, but yeah. Like the logo for this bloody game that we all won. Only reason I took some interest in it actually. BA: You know me. Sims/MMORPGs ain't my thing. But this is just... TOO surreal to be a coincidence. PF: the spiral thing PF: i've seen it before PF: in the green PF: i just thought it was a fucked up flower PF: what PF: fuck PF: sorry colin PF: someone's messing around my house PF: gotta go kick my friend out i think PF: wish me luck
-- prismaticFashionista [PF] ceased pestering biomechArtisan [BA] --Well. That was informative. You think. It might be a huge damn coincidence that both you and Bustin seem to have similar visions when SEMI-CONSCIOUS, although in your case there are no MIND ALTERING CHEMICALS involved. You hope.
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Post by StellarWind Elsydeon on Feb 26, 2011 21:06:14 GMT -5
Huh! Look who's pestering you! -- wartimeStrategist [WS] began pestering biomechArtisan [BA] --
WS: Hey, Colin. WS: You got a minute? WS: Kitten got upset at me. WS: And I found something that seems like it'd be right up your alley. BA: Ohai, Shiro. Yeah, I think I've got some time. BA: I'm guessing you've finally gone and checked out that castle? Figured it mocked you for long enough.WS: I'm laying on this stone bed actually. BA: ... Does it, perchance, have a symbol on it? WS: Yes! A red gear-looking thing. BA: I've seen this on a few event monitors in my dreams. Had some pretty disturbing connotations. WS: Wait, event monitors? WS: What have you been doing? BA: It's hard to explain. I've been having some major recurring dreams for a while. Observing events unfold on screens. The monitors are different but there's a whole lot of recurring elements. BA: Spirograph gates, planets being bombarded, two great armies fighting over some glowy blue thing... BA: And the more I think of it... BA: The more it seems to have to do with the game. BA: I think we're next. BA: Maybe that's why my dreams have been so urgent lately. WS: Well, assuming you haven't been doing LSD or any other hallucinogens... WS: I'm inclined to believe you! WS: You don't lie to me a lot, and you wouldn't joke about something this serious. WS: If you think this game is important... WS: AND that we're the next ones... WS: I guess we should get started! BA: Shiro, this is ME. If I didn't think it's important would I bother with an MMO Sims Knockoff? WS: ... That's so true. Here, let me get up and head back to my house. WS: So uh, do we know anything about this game? WS: I mean other than the box cover blurb? BA: From what I gathered, there's client-server ring, where the client does adventurey RPG stuffs while the Server manipulates the client's environment using resources gathered by the client from beating minions, quests, etc. WS: My REAL house? BA: Tl;dr. Client mines for fish, Server builds towers in the air. WS: ... Wait. WS: You're going to edit my house? WS: And build a tower made of mined fish? BA: Oh yes, and everything bleeds gushers. Jack Thompson must've gotten to the developers. BA: I think... BA: That the game has a tutorial of some sort. BA: Some kind of spirit guide. I've seen a bunch of those too, they take all sorts of shapes. BA: Problem is, whatever shape THEY take, the random encounters acquire traits of too. WS: Oh. WS: Look, Colin. WS: I know I've got this whole chess motif going on... WS: But the thing is, I'd really rather jump into this game. BA: Yeah, I think that would be a good idea. WS: So I've got the disc in. BA: Which one? WS: I'm running the client, and I've only found one applicable server. WS: You, I guess? BA: So it would seem. BA: I am running both apps but can't connect to a server yet. WS: Here we go! WS: Connection made. BA: ... Yep, I'm getting a connection request here. BA: And... Go![/font] Is... that an Uzumaki poster on that wall? WS: ... So you can see me. BA: Yep. In all your white haired glory. XD WS: Uh. WS: Hi, I guess! WS: Well, you should start deploying whatever you can into my environment.
[/font] You swear to gog, if anyone in this session is going to try to contort themselves into a spirograph, you would be even more disturbed than you already are. DRR DRR DRR. You proceed to deploy the items available to you with your available GRIST. You've seen some of them before. ALCHEMITER, PRE-PUNCHED CARD, TOTEM LATHE, CRUXTRUDER. It would be up to you, as a SERVER, to guide your CLIENT PLAYER in their usage. Good thing you've encountered this sort of madness before. Welp, time to pop the cap off the CRUXTRUDER. After all, you can't really bring an ENTRY ITEM into existence without extruding a CRUXITE DOWEL to carve first. Good thing this house has an abundance of large, heavy objects. ... Oops. Well, no matter, it needed to be PROTOTYPED PRE-ENTRY anyway. You'll find something appropriately living to give it its secondary characteristics later. WS: ... What... What is that? BA: ...I think we just prototyped your kernelsprite with a chess piece. BA: Specifically, the knight. WS: ... Oh. WS: Yay? BA: I'd be more worried about that countdown there.Yeah. This countdown is rather ominous. Time waits for no one. You proceed to guide Shiro through extruding a CRUXITE DOWEL, feeding it to the TOTEM LATHE and having it carve a TOTEM by the pattern on the PRE-PUNCHED CARD.You then proceed to drop it onto the ALCHEMITER... ... And soon, his ENTRY ITEM makes itself known: ... A shiny white KATANA, looking like it is made of glass. Huh. Well, you hope that he can figure it out. Time is running out. BA: Did you figure out what to do with that thing? WS: Well, I haven't really figured it out. WS: But I've only got like 5 minutes, apparently. WS: And gog dannit it's getting really warm! BA: Bloody shiny, this Katana. BA: I wonder... WS: So do I. BA: I don't recall seeing anything like it in any session I observed. BA: But it usually involves shattering something. BA: The entrance does, I mean. BA: We just need to figure out WHAT. BA: And how. WS: Let me try shattering the Katana! WS: SHIT fuck. WS: Okay that didn't work. BA: Stronger than it looks, eh... WS: Wait, when this meteor thing hits, what's going to happen to me? BA: You'd evaporate into a whiff of hydrogen, ozone and carbon monoxide. Unless you manage to enter in time.... Time? Hang on... You suddenly remember something. Every session you've seen had a player affiliated with Time - and nearly always they were affiliated with the color RED. It appears to be a universal constant. Time is Red. Shiro found one of those accursed stone beds and it had the RED GEAR symbol on it. The countdown on his CRUXTRUDER is red in color... Hell, he probably is the time player for this session. But that is odd - his leitmotif is WHITE, not red. But THINK, Colin. This is SHIRO we're talking about. If he has the potential, he's PROBABLY UNAWARE of it. He needs to figure out a way to bring it out of himself. Pierce the WHITE and let the RED emerge to the surface. The flow of time. The flow of red... The flow of... Blood. Suddenly you understand EVERYTHING. Red out of White. A Katana. That is so bloody appropriate for His Almighty Otakuness. And from the OVERLY-DRAMATIC PRE-SEPPUKU MONOLOGUE he's been prattling at you as you've been typing your thoughts at him to balance them better, he may have unwittingly figured it out too. BA: And so... It begins.
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Post by StellarWind Elsydeon on Feb 26, 2011 22:11:29 GMT -5
Wait, what was that? It sounded like some kind of a muffled THUMP, as if something large and feathery fell. You rush out to see what it is. No. It can't be. But it certainly is. She's dead and there's nothing much you can do about it. There are no signs of external trauma, no blood. You're no VET - but you've seen these sorts of symptoms, and something about the dead mouse nearby seems to confirm it. The owl was a second-hand victim of POISONING. She must have ventured out further than usual to hunt and captured a poisoned mouse. It must have taken some time to work. You wouldn't be surprised if she was already weakening as she flew to her nest, the toxin coursing through her veins. Already dying, until she could not hold on anymore, and collapsed down from the perch of the nesting box. Lousy stupid deities-damned humans and their rodent culling attempts. Someone is going to pay for this. You pick up the owl and carry her into the house. The least you could do is take a good look at this bird before you bury it... Or maybe, just maybe... Resurrect it. You need to find yourself a server player. SOON.
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Post by StellarWind Elsydeon on Mar 5, 2011 14:42:53 GMT -5
You pause for a moment to contemplate this MADNESS. No. Just no. Besides. Bird-hats are so NATIVE AMERICAN CHIEF or SEMI-INCOMPETENT KID WIZARD'S GRANDMOTHER material. And you're pretty sure you are neither. That's absolutely right. We can't just leave the MURDER WEAPON in the SCENE OF THE CRIME. Others may be hurt if it is left unattended. You proceed to BAG AND TAG the POISONED MOUSE and take it to the CRIME LAB for FURTHER INVESTIGATION. Or so it would have been if you actually had a CRIME LAB or indeed any sort of a LAB. Though you're quite convinced you totally should have one. Failing that, you do the RESPONSIBLE THING. The general out-of-the-wayness of your house would probably be a problem for things such as GARBAGE DISPOSAL. As a result, the house seems to have its own INCINERATOR system for disposal of garbage. It's actually quite a system - you're not entirely certain about the specifics, but apparently the organic components of whatever is dropped into the incinerator are broken down into some form of gas that can be later used for ENERGY PRODUCTION whilst the waste material that cannot be broken down is melted down into some form of GLASS. The combination of that with SOLAR and WIND energy significantly lowers the amount of energy your house actually needs from the MAIN POWER GRID. There are a lot of little things like that made to make the house more SELF SUFFICIENT. Most likely, because of the house's ORIGINAL OWNER. The house you now live in is actually a HEIRLOOM - left for you by a RELATIVE of yours, one PROFESSOR CHARLES L. ATREIDES. He was a bit of an eccentric, though a brilliant scientific mind, well respected in the community. You've met the man only a few times in your life - and you always wish you had a chance to talk to him more. You clearly must have left some impression on him, though, as when he PASSED ON a couple of years ago, he left his house to you. You've moved in rather shortly after and, oddly enough, immediately felt RIGHT AT HOME. You've never really given much thought as for why, or for the odd sense of FAMILIARITY the house seemed to inspire from the moment you've walked into it. You figure you might as well give the owl a thorough observation. A look through your MAGNIFIER shows the owl to be surprisingly utterly devoid of any PARASITIC CREATURES. Part of you wonders whether there were any that simply DROPPED OFF as a result of the POISONING - though you can't really find too much evidence there ever were any. Barring her rather DEAD state, the bird is rather well groomed. ... Huh, that's strange, it seems a few patches of darker feathers form a marking on the wing. Probably just a MEANINGLESS COINCIDENCE, but still cool. You proceed to take a few PHOTOS, some magnified, as well. You suppose you might as well tell them. You get back to your computer and fire up your internet BROWSER of choice, ANDRAS. You've always wondered why are there so many different browsers with essentially the same functionality but a different VAGUELY MYTHOLOGICAL MASCOT - but eventually eventually just picked one with an ICON you liked. Can't go wrong with OWLS. There is no need for you to start a new topic, though. You've had a thread about this owl ever since she occupied the nesting box. While you haven't been LIVESTREAMING the interior of the box, you did keep a regular LOG of the goings-on of its inhabitant, which has gathered a MINOR FOLLOWING. You proceed to report the owl's tragic demise in a heartfelt way, posting these latest images alongside a small rant about the mindlessness of selfish people who giveth not a damn about what results may their actions have on the immediate environment and wildlife - and a short note of gratitude to nature for allowing you to observe such a magnificent, rare bird - even for a little while. You sign off with a small illustration of an ANGELIC OWL flying off into the heavens. You then proceed to LOCK THE THREAD. You honestly don't want it to be overtaken by OFF-TOPIC SPAM. Well. I guess that there's nothing more you can do until you can find a SERVER player. Might as well get back to SBURB and check what has Shiro been up to. Oh for fuck's sake- You look at your GRIST CACHE. You are not amused. Only two IMPS worth of GRIST and he's already burning it all on MERCH. And you're supposed to BUILD like this? Pretty snazzy trenchcoat, though.
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Post by StellarWind Elsydeon on Mar 9, 2011 9:46:15 GMT -5
Good thinking. This MAGNIFIER/DESK LAMP could probably have a lot of interesting uses in ALCHEMIZATION - assuming you could find a PORTABLE POWER SOURCE for it. Yeah. That would be the first thing you will probably generate. Somehow. You'll probably have to DRAW on the power of your IMAGINATION. But later. As for the photos, you can't quite CAPTCHALOGUE them seeing as they're on your DIGITAL CAMERA, which you've already RECAPTCHALOGUED after you temporarily DEPLOYED - though you find that is rather obvious and therefore did not take any need for ONSCREEN REPRESENTATION. It's just the sort of things you carry around on you. One good thing about the SYLLADEX SYSTEM with some form of ARRAY MODUS FUNCTIONALITY: it makes carrying things around much easier. You don't have enough GRIST to move the bloody ALCHEMITER even if you wanted to. But honestly, it's not that big a deal - he'll need to get more GRIST anyway, and though this spree creates a minor setback - he'll catch up. You should probably remind him that as his server player, you will need GRIST too, though. -- biomechArtisan [BA] began pestering wartimeStrategist [WS] --
BA: ... We need to talk. WS: Oh, hi Colin! WS: I'm alive, see! BA: Yeah, I figured you would be. SBURB has a clever way of screwing with all our minds. BA: Look, I have a bit of a request. Ease up on the alchemy. It's certainly cool, but Grist doesn't grow on trees WS: ... WS: But I've made all of this cool stuff! BA: ... And cat ears. BA: Loving the Trenchcoat, though. WS: Well, the cat ears were kind of hard to resist. WS: And I am digging the trenchcoat. WS: Who knew that Vocaloid and Mecha had such amazing results? BA: Anyway, those weren't the huge Grist-drainers. BA: That spiral abomination though... Seriously, I hope for your sake none of the locals find it and start a crazy spiral cult. BA: Gurren's bad enough, but crossing it with Uzumaki? WS: I was wondering what would happen. BA: Let's just hope you haven't single-handedly doomed the session. WS: Either I would end up with a flat disc, or I would end up with this... thing. WS: What I was amazed with, though... WS: Was just how much grist it took! BA: Yes. That's kind of the problem. Grist isn't just used for alchemy. BA: I need some of it too, so I can actually build your house up. My duty as the Server player and all. WS: The coat, the ears, and everything else cost maybe one or two grist a piece. WS: But the Uzumakey? WS: It cost almost twenty of each! BA: It was certainly The Drill that Pierced our Grist Cache. BA: figuratively speaking, of course. WS: Yeah. WS: I am sorry about wasting our resources, though. WS: I'll try and be more frugal in the future. BA: Well BA: It's not that big a deal, really. It just means you need to kill more imps. WS: I guess so. WS: And there seems to be plenty of them running around down here! BA: I suppose Level-Grinding is a center-piece for every RPG. WS: Oh yeah. WS: I have played Final Fantasy XII. BA: Marvelous world-building on that game, even if the climate zones make utterly no sense. BA: The cast felt like Aladdin Meets Star Wars, though. BA: ... Speaking of worlds, that's certainly an interesting planet you got yourself into. WS: Yes it is! WS: It's fine if you mind th- BA: ... That is some killer lag right there. WS: Sorry. WS: I heard something really strange, and this thing formed in front of me. BA: Thing? WS: It's a temporal distortion block. WS: They litter this place like no one's business. BA: Huh. Do you suppose it's a natural feature of this planet? Like the thunderstorms bloody everywhere? WS: I don't know. WS: The residents here seem to be rather afraid of them. BA: Hn. WS: These cute little guys are practically running in circles every time one lands. BA: Something tells me it isn't then. WS: Yeah, but think of how humans react to thunder and lightning. WS: Even though it's totally a common thing, we still lose our shit if it strikes close! BA: Maybe you should ask the locals for information. You know, Rule #1 of RPGs: Talk to everyone. WS: Do... WS: Do they speak english? BA: I'm not sure. See, this is where even my dreams get fuzzy - every player seemed to end up in a fundamentally different world than the others - I think every player's quest is tailor-made for them. WS: That's... WS: That's... WS: That's so cool! I can hardly believe it! WS: ... That wasn't intentional, I swear. BA: That said, if there's a quest, it probably means something's amiss and there's probably some kind of boss monster behind it. WS: Probably something that's been here a long time. WS: Something deep within the ground. WS: Ah well. WS: It's a shame I can't captchalogue these things! WS: If I could, I could probably mix them with all kinds of items! BA: ... then again... BA: Maybe that's a good thing. BA: The last thing the world needs is MORE Spiral Obsessions. WS: God forbid we mix the Uzumakey with the time blocks. BA: ... I could see THAT... BA: *sunglasses* BA: SPIRALLING out of control. BA: In any case, I should probably figure out how to find myself a server. WS: Knowing you, you'll probably end up with some damnable narcissist as your server player! BA: ... Remind me, after I've entered, to alchemize into existence a whole array of ambulatory eyebrows with their own Health Vials... BA: and contact you simply so I could raise them all at you. All the eyebrows. All of them. WS: Oh. WS: Well, thanks for checking in on me. WS: Isn't there someone you know who has been active lately? WS: Someone we both know? WS: Who also won a spot in the competition? WS: For having her story be absolutely... WS: *Starglasses* WS: Sweet? BA: You know... BA: That actually could be a good idea!
BA: She's one of the few people I know on Exie Archie who have as much interest in Nature. WS: Yup! BA: .... Do you suppose she'll manage to get her game on time, though? BA: Her aunt and all... WS: I think she'll do it. WS: Even if she may be a bit crazy, I believe in her. WS: Her journey's gonna be a bit bumpier, but I'm almost positive she'll do just as well as the rest of us. BA: Oh, I know her heart's in the right place. BA: Besides, if there's one thing I've learned, is never underestimate the power of Pink Fluffy Unicorns Dancing on Rainbows. WS: If there's one thing I'VE learned? WS: It's that you should never underestimate the power of Rainbow Robotic Unicorns. BA: ... No shame. No shame whatsoever. But that's how it is... BA: Always. WS: Hey. WS: Speaking of Kitten. WS: I'm having a tiny problem. WS: She's uh... WS: She's upset with me. WS: I think. BA: How so? WS: Well, she started talking to me all about how she knew something. WS: Something about this symbol that I totally know now! WS: The symbol for the place in my dreams. WS: But when I approached her about it, she got very... odd. WS: And started talking about someone she'd promised to. WS: Of course I'd gotten a little upset because she didn't want to talk to me about it, and apparently me being upset made her all kinds of upset. WS: And now I can't get a hold of her at all. WS: And.. And I feel kinda bad about it. BA: She's probably dealing with something in real life. BA: Maybe her aunt. WS: But she seemed generally distraught about me being unhappy. BA: You two are pretty close, aren't you? WS: I'd like to think so. BA: If I felt like I made one of my close friends unhappy, I'd probably be upset too. BA: Maybe the issue will surface again and resolve itself later when you're both ready. WS: I... WS: I guess so. WS: Thanks, Colin. WS: You're awesome. BA: Anytime, Shiro. ^^ Glad I could be of some assistance. WS: Anyway, I think I'm gonna start talking to these guys. WS: They're actually pretty close by, now. BA: Good luck! WS: Bye!
-- wartimeStrategist [WS] ceased pestering biomechArtisan [BA] --
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Post by StellarWind Elsydeon on Mar 23, 2011 14:52:32 GMT -5
You lead the FRESILISK REVOLUTION against the BLACK EMPEROR who orchestrated the destruction of your GREAT HOUSE from the back of SHI-TECHULUD. It was his hand that was pulling the strings all the time, and the time for VENGEANCE has come. The LAND OF SPICE AND SAND shall become THE CENTER OF THE PARADOX SPACE, and not even the GUILD that abused this world for ages will stop you. And you know why? Because you're the QWISATS GODDAMN HADERACH and that's just the way you roll. LONG. LIVE. THE FIGHTERS. (Yes, you are very much aware how SILLY this interlude was and how your planet is definitely not THE LAND OF SPICE AND SAND. We will be back to our REGULARLY SCHEDULED PLOT as soon as possible.)
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Post by StellarWind Elsydeon on Apr 6, 2011 7:34:32 GMT -5
Enough of this horseshit, you should probably start building... Hold on... This game wants HOW MUCH for stairs?! This is completely fucking ridiculous. You proceed to build LADDERS between the new levels you've crafted upwards toward the FIRST GATE. You proceed to have this CONVERSATION YOU'VE ALREADY READ. Sheesh. Go figure who let this kind of idiot run forums. Your CLIENT PLAYER expresses a newfound enjoyment of destruction which mildly worries you as well as his concern for the progress of the game, when suddenly... ] JEGUS CHRISTBUCKETS. One moment he's A SERIAL KILLER OF IMPS, the next moment he FLIPS OUT about accidentally killing a bug. You'll never understand this guy - but this will allow you to test your theory that this game can actually REVIVE THE DEAD. You proceed to SECOND TIER PROTOTYPE the KNIGHTSPRITE with the recently slain MANTIS and watch it evolve into a rather awesome looking MANTISSPRITE. It appears to wish to speak to Shiro, so you leave him to it and move on to continue your CONSTRUCTION for now. Someone needs to!
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Post by StellarWind Elsydeon on Jun 13, 2011 9:19:04 GMT -5
As the sun rises over the desert landscape of a ravaged world...Something, undisturbed for centuries within its crystalline coffin, awakens from a long sleep. A thing that does not belong awakens into its new home.And thus, draped in the mantle it was sealed with, it begins its journey to a destination that it and only it knows. It may have missed its mark - but it trusts to Paradox Space that it is exactly where and when it needs to be.
The Eye was seldom wrong, after all.
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Post by StellarWind Elsydeon on Jun 18, 2011 16:55:29 GMT -5
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Post by StellarWind Elsydeon on Oct 29, 2011 12:27:15 GMT -5
Drifting in Paradox Space, A ways away from the kingdoms of dark and light, is a third world enveloped in mystery. OCCLUM. A world unaffected - or perhaps, equally affected - by the whispers of the OUTER GODS and the creative crucible of SKAIA. A prismatic realm, iridescence altered by the flow of data. Though not too dissimilar to the warring realms - it too has spires that pulse with the essence of PROTOTYPING, a shackled moon and towers upon it wherein PRINCES dwell - it has no direct involvement in their battle. Nevertheless, its presence within a session (a rare event indeed) is a potential game-changer for both sides... and thus, is not to be taken lightly. Indeed, OCCLUM is the monitor of this elaborate game of chess - both SPECTATORS and CLOCK rolled into one. Agents of both PROSPIT and DERSE occasionally visit this realm to engage in intricate webs of ESPIONAGE and COUNTER-ESPIONAGE, for OCCLUM is a neutral zone, and the information it holds is free for all who wish to observe it. And a vast wealth of information it is, for the EYE OF OCCLUM sees beyond the limits of its own session, scrying into different and distinct sessions with ease. The AGENTS see little use for this ability, though there are those to whom it is of the utmost importance. One such individual is this young man, one of the four PRINCES of the moon, currently asleep in an OBSERVATION DOME in his tower. He has been awake for days on end now, frantically observing segments upon segments of various sessions in search for answers... A search that began upon discovery that it was his world that was to be, in a manner of speaking, next. A tall female enters the OBSERVATION DOME clad from head to toe in silver. Her outfit already altered by a PROTOTYPING - the session has begun. She finds the PRINCE deep in slumber: he must have exhausted himself at last. She anticipated this would happen sooner or later, though she knows that it will not be the last time this sort of thing happens. Taking the PRINCE in her arms, she carries him back to his bedroom and deposits him there. THE OVERSEER shall be pleased. The princes must be kept safe until they all awaken. Satisfied with one duty performed, the female returns to her other duties. We shall learn more about her later. And now, deep within the core of Occlum, THE EYE silently reorients, turning its gaze to the very same PRINCE in what one would call the waking world, some time - about 30 or 40 minutes - into the future from where this story left him last. We have been sidetracked long enough. The time has come for us to follow its gaze. You are now Colin again, about 30-40 minutes into the future, and you've just nearly had your arse handed to you on a silver platter. You've recently entered THE MEDIUM in a sequence of events that will be recounted in detail later, perhaps when you catch your breath - and shortly after your arrival you were attacked by a pair of UNDERLINGS - CORE IMPS specifically. Seemingly typical first-encounter enemies, the sort you've seen appear before in many sessions. But in no session you've watched in your dreams have you ever seen imps FUSE into a larger, more dangerous UNDERLING - nor have you even imagined that such a thing was possible. ... Until now. This new creature has pushed you to your very limits and only barely have you managed to survive and defeat this beast - at the cost of your trusty PIPE WRENCH, the sleeves of your favorite JACKET and further collateral damage to what was once your back yard. Now, with your HEALTH VIAL nearly depleted, you find yourself catching your thoughts as you catch your breath. What the hell, SBURB. You knew that each session was tailored specifically to challenge its player - that much you have learned from your observations - but you've never expected the game to pull something like this on you. You've done exactly what you were trying to avoid: you took the game for granted. Seems the game has played you. Ultimately, your observations were useless. Whatever edge they may have given you is clearly nullified by the game re-writing the rules, just for you. You've underestimated it... and it nearly cost you your life. ... Huh? SENTINOWLSPRITE: Stand up, Synchronizer. The game is not over yet. COLIN: Of course it isn't, but it was one hell of a close call. SENTINOWLSPRITE: Have you learned something from it? COLIN: Two things really. Always expect the unexpected, and never underestimate the sheer dickery this game can stoop to. SENTINOWLSPRITE: Think of this as a fulfillment of a destiny, Colin. Much like what happened to me. COLIN: To you? SENTINOWLSPRITE: It was an average day of hunting, for me. I did not expect to come upon a morsel that would end my life as an owl. And yet, I have... And my death facilitated my transformation into what I am now, what I was destined to become. The same for you and these Core Imps. You did not expect their fusion, but from it you've learned a little about the nature of this world - a little that will help you realize your own destiny. COLIN: Yeah. Except that dying would be quite detrimental to that destiny. SENTINOWLSPRITE: Death is not something to fear, Colin. Take it from someone who's been there. But now is not the time to entertain death. Your calling, Synchronizer, is that of life - though it is a form of life alien to our homeworld, yet common to this one. Or at least, it was. COLIN: Was? SENTINOWLSPRITE: Things in this world are not as they used to be - shattered by events set in motion through machinations of warring worlds. It has since settled into an uneasy balance - a volatile one. A small shift in the balance of power may change everything. SENTINOWLSPRITE: Your coming was foretold, Colin. You are the Synchronizer - the one to shatter the balance, only to reforge it, stronger than it has ever been. COLIN: And I suppose that you are my guide through this mighty prophecy arc? SENTINOWLSPRITE: I shall be here to guide you, as much as I am allowed - but this is, first and foremost, your journey. Much about it you may glean by speaking to the Consorts of this land and learning their ways. COLIN: Funny how RPG cliches seem so much less amusing when you're actually knee deep in them. Right down to the 'talk to everyone'. Where can I find these Consorts? SENTINOWLSPRITE: Make your way up to the First Gate. Your answer lies there. COLIN: If I survive long enough to get there. I'm going to need a better weapon. SENTINOWLSPRITE: You must take on the weapon meant for you, Colin. To that your dreams do hold the key. COLIN: I'll see what I can do.
COLIN: Hey... Thank you. I needed that conversation. SENTINOWLSPRITE: You've done much for me over the years - it is my way of repaying the favor. SENTINOWLSPRITE: So... Shall we begin this journey? COLIN: Yes. I think it's high time we did.
[/font]
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Post by StellarWind Elsydeon on Dec 20, 2011 18:01:35 GMT -5
Oh, good grief. You've almost forgotten. You climb a few RUNGS up your ECHELADDER (apparently, the FUSED IMPS were worth more experience points?) to the rank of RIPPLESTARTER. Your GEL VISCOSITY and CACHE LIMIT rise, and you harvest some boondollars. You're not quite sure what the hell are those used for yet, but you'll figure it out sometime. Yes, you aren't exactly the most adventure-ready for now. For one, you need a new weapon. More importantly, you need your LAPTOP - not only it is your only way of communicating with other players, but also, you need to keep an eye on your CLIENT PLAYER. Or at least, his house. You begin to realize this is going to be a bit more difficult than you expected. So you head back into your house. Good, no Imps in your room, yet. But someone IS attempting to pester you. Best see what he wants. You ask SENTINOWLSPRITE to keep an eye out for things while you sit down and crack Pesterchum open. -- forteHolder [FH] began pestering biomechArtisan [BA] --
FH: /psssssssst/ FH: Hey, Atreides. Smart one. Mr. Answers. My eye in the sky! FH: Do you have a minute? I have a question. FH: Actually, come to think of it, two questions, but one of them is really quick. BA: Oh hey, Flynn. Yeah, how may I be of assistance? BA: Other than being an Alan Parsons Project song, that is. XD FH: Well the really quick question is: have you talked to Bice recently? FH: Actually, really quick sub-question: do you know Bice? delphicVoyager? I'm not sure whether you guys are chums. BA: Yeah, I do know her. Haven't gotten around to talk to her lately, though. Irons, fire, etc etc. BA: Why? FH: /oʊ ʌ:/ FH: Well, never mind! It's fine. She's probably fine. I'm like 80% sure she's fine. FH: I just need to be about 20% surer that she's fine. But hey, you haven't talked to her, no big deal! FH: How -- How are you? Are you fine? FH: Is everything fine? FH: (This isn't my other question but I'm sure we'll come upon some graceful way to transition to that.) BA: Let me put it this way. I've just had a sequence of close calls with Death involving Meteors, Imps and... Whatever the hell the thing they fused into was, I've been momentarily disarmed, and now I need to find a new weapon so I could level-grind and harvest enough Grist to get anywhere in this game. BA: Words fail me. Really. BA: Wake up in the morning, thinking it's just another day and the next thing you know you find out the owl nesting in your backyard is dead, there's an incoming boulder-sized chunk of stardust with your name on it, and it's up to you to restore balance to a world half inhabited by biology's worst nightmares and half inhabited by sentient machines that would make SKYNET cold-sweat. BA: MLIA. FH: What, you're playing the game now too?? Sheesh! FH: No, that's okay, I forgive you. FH: /aɪ min/ FH: What I meant to say is, I /kəmɛnd/ you for showing such initiative! Yeah! The more intel we can gather on this game early, the better, I say!! FH: So, what, you're hanging out with Whitehearst? Have you not found him yet? There's totally a thunderstorm wherever he is. Can you see dark clouds off in the distance?? You should go find him. FH: You know. Because he'll get a GAME OVER in like five minutes without someone guarding his back. BA: Nothing resembling a thunderstorm. There is however a rather ominous-looking floating castle. BA: Not that it really matters. Shiro's on a different planet. FH: Really?? Are you sure? Planets are pretty diverse. FH: Biomes and all that. Maybe he's just on a different continent. BA: I don't think so. BA: If I'm getting this correctly, each player in a session gets their own planet and their own personal quest that's designed to challenge them - and apparently all these quests connect somehow into one big cluster*eff!* which is... whatever this game is about. BA: You know, besides evading meteors and all that jazz. BA: But yeah... I can't really see Shiro right now - he's out exploring his planet and my view as a server player is sort of restricted to his house at the moment. BA: Judging by the Grist Cache, though, he seems to be out fighting underlings still. FH: Man, we're all on different planets? How are we ever going to find each other? FH: What are we now, astronauts?? This sucks! FH: After I heard from Whitehearst, I must have kinda gotten the idea that playing the game would mean we'd all get a chance to meet each other face-to-face. And, you know, I thought that sounded legit! I was totally looking forward to that, especially / / FH: um, FH: No, never mind. Whatever. It's cool. Flying solo. Lone wolf. That's cool. Most of these chumps would just drag us down anyway, right Atreides? BA: Since there's some greater overarching goal, I can only assume the planets are connected somehow... BA: But I'm not quite sure how it works myself. I'll let you know when I know more - if you don't find out yourself first. XD BA: I also get the feeling that if there's anything resembling wolves on this planet they'd probably have at least four eyes and be like part bug or something. @_@ FH: Oh, okay, that's good. FH: Man, I got to hurry up and start playing this game or all the good planets will be taken. Whitehearst with the lightningrod mountains, you with the Terminator stuff... FH: I guess everyone gets a planet to which they have some vague thematic connection? That's neat. I wonder what my planet'll be like. I bet it'll be... uh... made completely out of Legos! Bitchin'! FH: Wait, no, that sounds stupid. FH: Whatever. Better line of inquiry: Who's your server player? BA: Kitten. BA: At least, she's supposed to be. I'm not quite sure what she's doing at any given moment. But I can only assume it involves unicorns. And rainbows. BA: Double Rainbow all the way across Skaia. FH: Whoa ho oh my god. FH: /ɛNiWEɪ/ !!! FH: Graceful transition ahoy! FH: I believe you are /ɔlsoʊ/ acting as someone's server player, aren't you? You're Whitehearst's server, isn't that right? BA: I believe I've already stated so, yes. FH: Good! Okay. Well, this is what I was really hoping to ask you about all along. FH: I'm going to start in as someone's server player too, once this disc finishes loading. And I really have only the vaguest idea of what that entails. FH: And I /riəlaɪ/ don't want to fuck things up somehow. FH: So naturally I thought of you. Guru of all things Sburb! My mission control! FH: Since you already know the deal with being someone's server player, would you mind giving me a little overview? I want to know what to expect. BA: Give me a second. I think that seeing as I was the first Server Player for this session I should probably write some kind of a quick guide for the rest of us. FH: Yeah that would be such a help. FH: You gotta tell us what a "Grist Cache" is and what's the best way to level grind and what's the deal with nonfictional imps! BA: I'm on it - I'll send you a link as soon as I have a preliminary version up. BA: Assuming of course anything I upload to the servers back home will even get there, that is. BA: I'm still rather perplexed as for how PESTERCHUM connects to the Earth Internet from the Medium. FH: What medium? BA: The Medium, basically, is the place the game yoinks you into when you actually enter it. It's where these planets are. BA: Look, I should probably hurry up with this guide before any more of these blasted imps randomly attack me. BA: I'll answer everything I can there. FH: Uh, okay, that's fine. FH: Thanks! I look forward to reading this encyclopedic FAQ. BA: Sure thing, Flynn - Good luck connecting to the blasted thing!
-- biomechArtisan [BA] ceased pestering forteHolder [FH] -- [/font] Right - best get on the GUIDE MAKING as soon as... Oh, hello, someone else is pestering you. Looks like you cannot make ye guide yet! -- prismaticFashionista [PF] began pestering biomechArtisan [BA]. --
PF: hey colin PF: got a minute? BA: Yeah. Yeah, I think I do. PF: alright awesome PF: remember saying about those weird green dreams or whatever PF: cause i just had one BA: Huh. BA: What sort of green dream? I mean, what happened? PF: im not sure PF: i mean my friend spiked my drink PF: that bitch PF: i challenged her to a clean off and bice was talking to me so my friend refilled my drink while i was talking to her PF: and suddenly i'm all passed out when she showed me my broken fairy wings BA: ... You do realize that sometimes, just sometimes, your life doesn't make a fragment of sense, don't you? PF: yeah i had one of those a couple minutes ago PF: or like half an hour ago PF: i think i've been out for a while PF: fucking friends BA: Well, at least you didn't engage in some kind of moonlit naginata battle to the death over a pit of portable quicksand (how the hell does she even get those anyway). BA: Assuming aforementioned friend IS the Bitch of Sand from the land of Quicksand and Oneupmanship, of course. PF: hahaha yeah you've got that one right PF: i mean seriously what even is she PF: cause she spiked my drink i passed out and i have this fucking strange dream PF: and... everything was green and covered in these weird wire things PF: i mean not covered, they were inside the walls and they kept on pulsating fucking white and green BA: Yeah, you definitely SOUND a bit wired. BA: Do you remember anything else? PF: well she suckerpunched me afterwards and knocked me out again PF: and the dream was a lot clearer for some reason and i could fly for some reason? PF: and i could remember everything while i was there like i went to this neighbour tower because i knew i had a friend there but i always just missed them PF: everyone was either asleep or just not there PF: then i woke up and got a coffee BA: Ah, yes, caffeine. Food of the Gods. BA: In all seriousness - interesting you mention towers. For the longest time a lot of my dreams started in a green bedroom in a tower somewhere. BA: Vaguely see-through walls, subtle play of light and color just underneath the surface. BA: And yeah, there were other towers - but I'm not sure I've ever attempted to check them out. BA: I think I was too busy obsessing over these event terminals and what I could learn from them. BA: Great load of bloody good the damn things did me in the end, though. x-x PF: what dyou mean PF: also did you get that message off whatshisface PF: forteHolder PF: whats up with him BA: What I mean is that I've entered the Medium... and let's just say I had a REALLY close call. BA: SBURB pulled a massive dick move involving imps fusing into something VICIOUS, and I lost my pipe wrench trying to defeat the end result of aforementioned dick move. BA: And yeah, I just talked to Flynn - forteHolder that is - although I'm not quite sure what message you're talking about. PF: the pipe wrench? that's no good PF: youve got skillz with the pipe wrench PF: and something about wartimeStrategist and meteors PF: i went and looked outside PF: no meteor PF: so intense. BA: Huh. I suppose he didn't send me that message because he figured I'd already know, what with being Shiro's - wartimeStrategist, that is - server player and all. BA: And yeah, "my" meteor - the one targeting my house - only got into visual range sometime after Kitten linked up as my server player. I think that's a bit of a constant with this game. BA: I had a bit of a narrow escape with that one. BA: tl;dr, it involved magic markers and dimension doors. BA: Doesn't really matter, your entry item will be different. You'll see what I mean when you actually start playing - I'm working on a quick reference guide, I'll link you up when I'm done. BA: And then I need to find a replacement weapon before I get besieged - again - by those bloody IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIMPS! BA: (fistshakes for emphasis) PF: alright cool PF: ive got some stuff to do like getting my disc or whatever PF: so i guess i'll catch up properly in a bit PF: good luck
-- prismaticFashionista [PF] ceased pestering biomechArtisan [BA] --[/font] Welp. Seems like Flynn is attempting to mobilize the chain before full-blown apocalypse happens - and that Bustin's dreamscapes resemble yours. You make a note to actually ask the locals some questions next time you actually sleep. Maybe that could help shed some light on this dream mystery. You also wonder how IS Bicé doing. You haven't had the chance to talk to her in a while. You also make a note to contact her at some point. But later. Right now, you have a guide to make. You proceed to type out aforementioned quick reference guide - referring to assorted DREAM LOGS and some QUESTIONS to SENTINOWLSPRITE. It's not much, but it'll do for now. You proceed to launch it up into what used to be your filehosting server and create a link to it, placing it in a FORUM THREAD for the other PLAYERS to find. You STILL boggle at how you can still get to the internet from here, but hey, whatever works. Coffee would be bloody awesome right about now. Or perhaps another mug of mocha. You captchalogue your LAPTOP - POWER CABLE, MOUSE and all - and make a quick, off-screen journey to the kitchen, SENTINOWLSPRITE in tow. Perhaps there will be no need for oh god damnit. You were hoping to avoid this, but in this situation you have little choice. You have one more WRENCH in your STRIFE DECK - an unusual one which you've picked up when you decided to give RANGED WEAPONS a try. It felt even LESS RIGHT than usual. If weapon choices were a game of HOT AND COLD, this one would have been a good candidate to be YUKON HERO: LEGEND OF THE FROSTBITE AMPUTEE II: CRYOGENIC BOOGALOO. But you really have to ARSENALIZE something post haste. This piece of Rolling Death may just do the trick. Well, at least it's only ONE this time. What will you do?
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Post by StellarWind Elsydeon on Apr 20, 2012 11:23:51 GMT -5
You fling your wheel-wrench impwards. The attack meets its mark, doing some damage to the encroaching underling. In every proper RPG, your thrown weapon would return to your hand in a graceful arc. However, this fails to happen because it's a fucking wheel wrench. You are once again rendered armless, except that mini-wrench that is absolutely useless. Why is this thing in your strife deck anyway? You have little time to contemplate this though, as the Imp charges forward, with its claws at the ready- REAL TIME WEAPONS CHANGE. You hit the Imp for MASSIVE DAMAGE. And then pick up the wheel wrench again, executing another off-screen SPECIBUS FLIP. YIPPIE KAI YAY, MOTHER-EFF!-ER!
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Post by StellarWind Elsydeon on May 19, 2012 13:45:48 GMT -5
Years in the future (but not many), a beacon is lit in a command station located where once, in pre-apocalyptic times, an isolated facility of a house stood on the edge of a forest. A carapaced finger rests upon an old console, a connection formed shortly ago beginning to fade. Its owner's first mission in this world, complete. She gazes wistfully at the viridian radiance as the station whirs to life after years of being unused - but oddly enough, though her pod apparently outshot her landing and thawing, she can sense her arrival was timely. The seed has been planted. Now, she must await further instructions. An AWAKENED SLEEPER surveys her handywork. What will she do?
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