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Post by Tout-Perd on Feb 27, 2007 1:23:08 GMT -5
OOC: Lee's taking a while on DM discretion, namely thinking of noncliche traps to spring on the party and force more outside-the-box thinking. We've got cloning, a shapeshifter, and a few other nasty tricks. My goal is to make sure we utilize everybody several times before this ends.
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Post by Tout-Perd on Mar 5, 2007 20:46:19 GMT -5
Helen burst through the door as it protested wildly at her, snarling slightly as she touched it. She gave it a sound kick, and the door whimpered slighty at the impact.
"Now, now, now, Helen. Be nice to the doors, lest they be cruel to you." The man's voice taunted them once more, and Helen turned to face the hall that she had entered. All around her were thousands of doors, all alternatingly positioned up and down the hallways. They were numbered almost randomly, and there were various designs and decorations on them.
Helen was quite wary of the first door she approached. She touched the handle gingerly with her sword. No result... Slowly edging up on it, she touched it carefully. No massive curses or such, so she decided to try opening it. There was a benign looking room on the other side. It wasn't the room Helen wanted, but maybe they had a map. She stepped in...
And stepped out of another door around thirty feet away.
"Guys, we may have an issue." Helen approached the door they had exited from, and stepped through it. She stepped out of yet another door.
"Oh, HONESTLY. Must you be so cliched with your magic traps?"
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Post by Beelzebibble on Mar 5, 2007 21:10:39 GMT -5
"Ah, not bad, not bad. I always like puzzles where the advantage of numbers is actually an advantage." So spoke Terrian as he split off to create seven duplicates.
"I'm sure you magical types must have some means of marking doors--" one of the duplicates said.
"--conjure up a little paint or something--" another one suggested.
"--might not want to put a blemish on those designs, though--" offered a third, gesturing at the ornately ornamented doors.
"--could be a pattern, there," hazarded a fourth.
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Post by ch00beh on Mar 5, 2007 23:34:18 GMT -5
Rie walked through several doors, finding herself back in the same room. After the tenth door, she became visibly annoyed, and kicked an eleventh open. She walked through it and found the hall of floating doors again.
OOC: Uninspired
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Post by Damien on Mar 27, 2007 8:32:50 GMT -5
Damien looked around at the mass of numbered doors. It was pretty obvious that his particular abilities wouldn't be much use here. He decided to open a random door, praying that the hit and hope approach would work. He walked through and found himself stepping back out several feet from where he had just been.
"This could take a while." He sighed walking back to the group.
OOC: Meh, just showing that I'm still here lol
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Post by Tout-Perd on Apr 17, 2007 8:25:28 GMT -5
"Ahem. I believe that I hold the solution to your problem." A young woman, her hair drawn up into an elaborate bun, approached the group. As she drew closer, it became apparent that her style was rather peculiar. Two stoppered test tubes had been inserted into the bun in her hair, each full of some chemical or potion of some sort. She had three pencils over her left ear, and several fastened to her arm with a close-fitting wristband.
"The name is Blaise Euler, creator of the art of Empiric Magic. You may say that I'm one of the most formidable challenges that this school has to offer." She snapped her fingers, and instantly, the gravity in the room began to fluctuate wildly. One moment, people would find themselves drawn skyward by their weightlessness, and the next, crashing downwards, weighing twice as much as before.
"Empiric Magic works on a simple principle. Finding out how to use the power of magic in order to manipulate the laws of physics and the other sciences. In a way, it's the raw logical basis for all of the arcane arts." Blaise stated, letting her spell deal with the intruders while she boasted.
OOC: Please don't kill Blaise. She has a name, thus meaning she has plot importance.
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Post by Beelzebibble on Apr 17, 2007 8:56:02 GMT -5
Terrian absorbed his duplicates back into himself except one. They ran to two adjacent doors. With his left hand, Terrian seized his duplicate's right arm. Terrian then grabbed hold of one doorknob with his right hand, and his duplicate held the other doorknob with his left. In this way, with their combined weight, they tried to weather Blaise Euler's gravity spell.
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Post by Damien on Jul 3, 2007 18:53:38 GMT -5
OOC: Yarr Captain, that it be. It's probably very short and quite crap but I really dunno what to do here.
Damien pawed at his belt attempting to grab hold of a smoke grenade. He knew it wouldn't stop the magics effects but if he could make it so that the sorceress couldn't target individuals the group might just last a little longer. As he withdrew the grenade from it's space on his belt the gravity in the room shifty and his body was violently driven in to the floor.
Coughing from the sudden impact on his rips the young engineer managed to pull the pin on his grenade and roll it at the mage's feet. A huge plume of smoke rose from the weapon and began to fill the room. The fumes were so thick that it was almost impossible to see more than a foot ahead.
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Post by ch00beh on Jul 3, 2007 21:30:22 GMT -5
Rie quickly transformed into a white house fly and landed on the current ground. Since she was so light, she really didn't have to worry about the shifty gravity, only paying attention long enough to keep her six feet firmly planted on the surface.
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Post by Tout-Perd on Jul 24, 2007 19:07:18 GMT -5
"Scratch that... barely effective. Note to self..." Blaise produced a clipboard and jotted something in shorthand. The gravity returned to normal, letting the group catch their breath. "Virtually no results. That's a pity." She continued tut-tutting as the smoke filled the air in the room, despite the fact that she should have been hacking and coughing to beat the band.
"Well, visual cover taken. Hmmm... What method to overcome this? I really must be more prepared." Blaise droned on, only pausing to chew her pencil.
"Should I go for a reveal, or just strike everything in the room at once?" Blaise said, rubbing her chin.
"How about you chew on this?" Helen shouted, lunging from the smoke while swinging her broadsword. Blaise stepped back, getting clipped across the stomach of her blouse. A small red line drew itself across her.
"That was most unexpected," Blaise said with a smile, licking her lips. "But in a sense, helpful." She stepped briskly forewards, catching Helen's arm midswing with her clipboard. Then, without so much as a change of expression, she swung her right about, stabbing the pencil she was using through a chink in Helen's armor, and into her right elbow. As Helen clutched this unexpected injury, Blaise brought her foot up, planted it on her chest, and kicked her away.
"Plate Armor. Excellent on most occasions, but for those of us who can magically guide our attacks, a mere trifle." Blaise watched as the smoke began to clear, and the party's outline became more defined. She would do her best to take all comers, and see what she could learn.
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Post by ch00beh on Jul 24, 2007 22:46:36 GMT -5
As soon as gravity returned to normal, Rie transformed back into a human. Still under the cover of smoke, she pulled out her rifle and flipped the safety to "Auto". Rie paused for no more than a millisecond to aim before pulling the trigger, causing bullets to fly from smoke at the enemy.
Rie didn't have anything witty to say. She preferred silence when killing.
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Post by Beelzebibble on Aug 1, 2007 19:43:03 GMT -5
Terrian suddenly had a stupid idea which he quite liked. If shooting at Euler was going to harm her in any way, it looked as though Rie already had that front covered. Terrian decided to try a different tack. He didn't think it could have any effect other than ticking Euler off, but that was good enough for him. He didn't like people who thought aloud.
He gave the other gun to his duplicate. Moving as one, they stepped forward and fired straight at Euler's clipboard.
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Post by Tout-Perd on Aug 6, 2007 20:39:15 GMT -5
Blaise was nicked by the first shot, drawing across the edge of her neck. The second caught her in the shoulder, and after that, most of the other shots punched into the wall behind her. She flung her writing hand foreward, three bullets that would have struck her instead harmlessly falling to the floor. She focused for a moment, and then relaxed.
"You will be most displeased to find that I've raised the required activation energy for your gunpowder. You aren't going to get another shot until you change your ammunition." She smiled grimly. "One of my canned defenses for dealing with armed opponents."
There was a loud crack as Terrian's first shots struck the clipboard. It didn't break at first, but a second fusillade of bullets managed to complete the deed. The clipboard dissolved in a cloud of sparks, her paper self-immolating in mid-fall. Blaise stopped moving, and stood there gaping.
"You...You just destroyed my uplink! Unbelievable! How dare you? A thousand curses upon you, your family, and all of your beloved! I slaved for three days over that device, tweaking it until I had fully optimized it... I had perfected it!" She extended her hand towards the Terrians, all of the bullets in the guns going off at once. There was a loud blast as the weapons were heavily damaged, and two stray shots went into the same wall the Rie had drilled earlier.
"You'll pay! I'll make you pay!" Blaise drew one of the test tubes from her hair, and uncorked it. She poured it into the palm of her other hand, the concoction twisting and contorting until it extended and hardened. Wielding a cobalt blue kris, she charged at Terrian, swinging wildly.
"Armour this, please dismiss!" Helen's armor shattered, freeing her. Still lying on her back, she brought up a foot, booting Blaise in the solar plexus. As Blaise fell back, she jumped to her feet, and punched her in the face, staggering her. Helen jumped back, grabbing her broadsword from the floor.
"Such impudence! Attacking me while I'm unable to compile my research for future use!" Blaise charged, swinging her peculiar dagger at Helen. The magician brought her sword to bear, but the blade cleaved through it, cutting across Helen's left arm. Helen gasped loudly, surprised by her opponent's ferocity.
"You may have **** up both of my arms, but you're going down!" Helen shouted, shoulder charging into Blaise and plowing her into the damaged wall. With a weak rumble, it gave way, and Helen and Blaise fell through it.
Moments later, a timid voice called out from the hole.
"Uh... Guys... I found the library and all... But the bitch is out cold and on top of me, and I can't get up. A little help here?"
OOC: If you need to describe the library, it's a room full of books so huge that one can't see the end of it, with gigantic silver shelves that tower one hundred feet into the air. It's carpeted with royal blue carpet, and the ceiling is silver, bedecked with millions of mystic designs detailed in gold.
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Post by ch00beh on Aug 6, 2007 20:50:56 GMT -5
Rie grumbled several obscenities while hitting the button to release her clip of ammo. She tossed it over her shoulder and rammed another magazine into her weapon, just in case. She set the weapon's safety back on before hiding it back underneath her cloak, in that place where she managed to hide all those other bulky objects. Despite the recent battle, Rie was fairly calm, as if nothing important had happened, and with a casual stride and pace, she walked over to the hole in the wall.
The girl stepped through the hole and quickly surveyed her environment. She wasn't very interested in the grandeur of the room, rather, she was more concerned with any more potential threats. Rie then looked down at Helen and Blaise. As if she were carrying a sack, Rie picked Blaise up by the back of her clothes with one hand and, with about as much care one would give a sack, dumped the woman to the side.
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Post by Beelzebibble on Aug 6, 2007 22:45:37 GMT -5
"I win!" Terrian did a little jig, lost his balance, and fell backwards against one of the many doors. He picked himself up undissuaded. "I win I win I win I win I win! My fantastic idea saved the day!"
"She would probably have destroyed us in another minute if Helen hadn't broken free," his duplicate pointed out. "Whatever she was doing with that test tube, it didn't look good to me."
"Yeah, and then Helen defeated her. Why? Because she was hysterical after I destroyed her clipboard, that's why. I rule. Why am I not king?"
"Listen," said the duplicate. "Our guns have been totalled, so now we're pretty much powerless against anything that can't just be mobbed to death. This is not a time to be patting ourselves on the back."
Terrian stopped tangoing with an invisible partner and considered this. "You're right." He looked through the hole. "And that isn't an arsenal. Why is it I keep having to jump through holes and I never even get an arsenal?"
He turned back to his duplicate. "Well, I guess that means I won't be needing you until we can find some weapons. Come here, you."
He took his duplicate by the hand, and in another second, the singular Terrian Brogue stepped through the hole and looked admiringly around at the library.
OOC - Are we going to get any clues in here about what exactly "Rebellious Orator" is?
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Post by Tout-Perd on Aug 20, 2007 20:14:59 GMT -5
Helen rolled over, and weakly pushed herself to her feet. Both of her arms were bleeding pretty badly. It wasn't severe, but she'd need to patch them up before going on. She glanced around the room, and noticed an ornate scribing table, decked out in the standard blue and silver. That'd work just fine. Staggering slightly, the magician rested her hands on the desk.
"Desk, piece by piece, My bleeding cease." Helen incanted, the desk dissolving in a cloud of shimmering lights. She turned to face the group again.
"Well, I believe that my journey is almost at an end here. This is the central library, holding all of the research that they've ever done. Countless styles of magic, all exposed for the taking, if one can break through the enchantments. Of course, raw magical might tends to beget thirst for more, and they tend to wreck up places, so instead of making a simple disenchanting practice, they use puzzles." Helen said with the air of a tourguide, as she guided them through the library. Soon enough, they had arrived at the research section. Helen reached into her pocket, and produced a dessicated piece of grass.
"I feel cheap using such a hackneyed rhyme, but the show must go on. Bit of hay, Point the way!" Helen disintergrated the blade, and instantly, a large glow came from a nearby glass case. The case was stationed on top of a stout marble column, and within it appeared to be a small scroll, made of soft, pale leather. She snapped her fingers, dismissing the glow, and revealing a brass plate on the case.
"Contained within is the secret of the Rebellious Orator school of magic. To release the case, one must make a libation to Calliope." Helen read aloud from the plate. She turned on looked at the others, quizzical expression etched in every feature. "Who the hell is Calliope?"
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Post by Beelzebibble on Aug 20, 2007 20:38:33 GMT -5
"A constellation?" Terrian suggested vaguely. He had found an elaborately pencilled map of the building tacked to the wall and was now engaged in studying it closely at the expense of taking in what Helen had just seen. A room marked with the images of a sword and a gun was just down the hall from the library. Was it an arsenal? Was he to complete his minor sidequest this day?
He turned around and walked back to the group while also remaining in front of the map at the wall.
"I'm sending him out to secure the area," the Terrian who had walked to the group said, gesturing toward his duplicate. "He will be weaponless, defenseless, and at constant risk of detection by this building's staff, but I have no doubt that his natural ingenuity will serve to keep him safe while he makes a quick check of the floor."
"Aw, g'wan," his duplicate said, pretending to blush. With a cheery wave, he departed through the periwinkle-colored door.
"Now then!" Terrian continued, after his duplicate had gone. "I hate to give such an obvious answer, especially if it turns out to be wrong, but do you think we might find a reference to Calliope somewhere among these books?" He stared up at the colossal silver shelves around them. "That's assuming we can open them without any danger to ourselves."
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Post by Tout-Perd on Aug 20, 2007 20:54:57 GMT -5
"Most of the books here have no wards, and are simple basic magic theory and fact. Magicians are generally lazy, and dislike having to disenchant every book before reading it. Calliope does sound like it'd be a constellation, so mayhaps I should check some of the astronomy books." Helen said, dashing away from the pillar. A few moments later, she came back to the section of the library, toting a massive volume. "Lists every constellation known to man. And some that aren't. This might help us a little."
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Post by ch00beh on Aug 20, 2007 20:55:54 GMT -5
"Calliope's a muse, most notable for inspiring Homer to do his thing," Rie said. "She's depicted with a stylus and tablet." Rie noticed that people may have been wondering why this random fun fact came from what appeared to be a psychopath. "They didn't just let our minds rot when we slept. They had to feed us somethin, even if it was useless.
"But I'm no good at puzzles. Figure what you want with what I just said."
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Post by Beelzebibble on Sept 14, 2007 19:05:40 GMT -5
OOC - Time to reveal another minor sub-power falling within Terrian's duplication ability -- the power to communicate with his duplicates by thought! I didn't think I'd unveil this one so early on, but I have no objection. (The power to call any duplicate to his side was first seen in Enma.)
The duplicate Brogue strode purposefully down the hall, staring at the floor. He knew that this would be less likely to draw attention than attempting an innocuous saunter. He would have liked to be fiddling significantly with something, but he had nothing with him except the clothes he wore. After walking a distance that had looked shorter on paper, he came to a door marked with the same sword-and-gun symbol from the map.
I found it, he thought.
* * *
And the original Terrian, standing with the others in the library, thought, Good. Let me know whenever you want me to pull you back.
* * *
Hoping he wasn't about to trigger any alarms, the duplicate Brogue gently put one hand on the doorknob.
Nothing happened. He carefully opened the door enough to see through into the room. Then he pulled the door all the way open and stepped through.
There was no one in the room as far as he could tell, but there were certainly a lot of potential hiding places. The arsenal was filled with metal racks carrying virtually every type of weapon conceivable -- and a few he had honestly not conceived of before this moment. Primitive spears and clubs shared shelves with elaborately constructed rifles that looked as though they had come from the future and shot, he had no doubt, lasers. The walls were lined with maces, bayonets, crossbows, and at least one harpoon gun; the ceiling, he noted with some unease, was bedecked with hanging swords.
Something red on a far shelf caught his eye -- the room was dominated by shades of brown, silver and black -- and he went to it. It was an ornately designed case that displayed six perfectly ordinary handguns. Vaguely disappointed, Brogue was halfway through turning to look at a tomahawk when it occurred to him that the Parmigianino Institute probably wasn't in the habit of holding on to perfectly ordinary weaponry. He turned back to the case and, just to satisfy his curiousity, read the card propped up next to it.
“Named after a famous style of rapier used by wizard hunters in the sixteenth century, the Mage Masher has a simple yet powerful ability. This gun is designed to fire standard 9mm bullets such as are produced throughout the world. However, if fired from a Mage Masher, a bullet’s trajectory is immune to magical intervention. It can pass through otherwise impervious force fields, and it cannot be telekinetically diverted from its course. In all other respects (including its power to penetrate physical barriers such as armor), the bullet will perform as though it had been shot from a standard gun.”
"Huh," Brogue said aloud, and then tensed: It was the first thing he had said since entering the room, and he fully expected a sound-activated alarm to trigger. When no such alarm went off, he resumed his inspection of the six guns.
They just sat there looking ordinary. He didn't think it unreasonable to argue that they looked precisely as ordinary now that he had read their description as they had before.
He picked one up and turned it over in his hands to see if it would feel unusual. He regretted this immediately.
As soon as he had plucked the gun from the case, the case began to swell. The other five guns also began to swell. So, too, did the card beside the case, and the tomahawk nearby. In fact, everything in the room, except for Brogue and the single Mage Masher in his hands, was now growing. He looked around him in shock as the brimming shelves of weapons steadily slid away from him as they grew taller; the swords on the ceiling were steadily moving upward as they grew longer.
Brogue stuffed the Mage Masher into his pocket and ran back across the floor. The shelves had now gained nearly half their original size. The door was up ahead, but it too was growing; the doorknob was twice as far up as before and had grown to the size of a disco ball.
Brogue took a running start, leaped, and grabbed onto the doorknob with both hands. It was still increasing in size, and already his grip on it was slipping, though he had both arms firmly wrapped around it. And the floor was dropping ever further away by the second.
He swung his legs to the right, then used the momentum to swing his whole body to the left. The doorknob turned slightly and then righted itself. He swung again, even further. The doorknob turned more but again righted itself. He swung once more, and this time the doorknob turned all the way, and the door opened outward onto the hall beyond. But it was now impossible to hang on to the doorknob any longer, and with a cry Brogue lost his hold and plummeted to the floor so far below him...
...only to land on his hands and knees, having fallen a distance of perhaps three feet.
The door shut itself behind him, and he saw now that it was a perfectly ordinary door, just as perfectly ordinary-looking as the gun in his pocket.
But there were people running to him from both ends of the hall, pointing, shouting, and he panicked for a good two seconds before realizing, for the first time since he had noticed the Mage Mashers, that Terrian was just waiting for the signal.
Now! he thought.
* * *
The original Terrian Brogue heard his duplicate's call and quickly slipped away into another aisle of books, leaving Helen, Rie and the others gathered around the Rebellious Orator book. Once he was out of sight of them, he muttered, "To me!"
The duplicate appeared by his side at once.
"What'd you find?"
"This." The duplicate pulled out a gun. "It's called a Mage Masher. Fires totally normal bullets, but those bullets can pass through any magical protection. I figured it might come in handy."
"Not bad!" The original Terrian took the gun and examined it. "That's it, though?"
"Yeah. Once I picked that up, I must have set something off, because the whole room started growing. By the time I remembered you could teleport me out, I had already made a daring escape and been surrounded by angry scientists."
"I wouldn't expect any less of you," the original Terrian said, patting his duplicate on the back. "Good work, my friend."
He stepped forward, and the duplicate did as well. In another moment they were one again.
Immediately Terrian could remember all the events in the arsenal as though he personally had been there. But of course, in a way, he had.
He pocketed the Mage Masher and rejoined the others. "My duplicate, despite carrying himself with all the skill and dignity I gave him, inadvertently let the scientists know where he was. They're probably checking out the arsenal right now, but I don't doubt they'll stop in at the other rooms on this floor. So we should probably clear out of here before long." He looked back at the Rebellious Orator book. "Anyone else figure out the libation thing?"
OOC - Whoof! I can get wordy with the RPs, can't I? All the same, I quite enjoyed that scene with Terrian's duplicate. I hope further adventures offer other opportunities to see his duplicates when they're on their own missions, not taking direct orders from him. By the way, to whom it may concern, the name "Mage Masher" comes from a recurring weapon in Final Fantasy games, which does indeed take the form of a rapier or knife.
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Post by ch00beh on Dec 26, 2007 13:25:58 GMT -5
"Libation, a ritual pouring of a drink as an offering to a god," Rie mumbled as if in reflex. She didn't look too worried that guards were coming. She'd clear out if the rest decided to.
"So do we say that Calliope's a constellation or the muse? If it's a constellation, I have no idea how to offer one a drink. If it's the muse, we can look for maybe a statue, maybe a person... hell, mages might've even trapped the real thing. I dunno."
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Post by Beelzebibble on Apr 27, 2008 13:53:43 GMT -5
OOC: NO DIE-Y. Anyway, there is no constellation named Calliope. I knew that, but had Terrian throw out the possibility because it just seems like a constellationy name and it's GOOD RPING when the author knows more than the character AM I RITE?? So, if it comes down to a choice between Rie's correct guess and Terrian's incorrect one...
Terrian flipped straight to the back of the volume Helen had procured and found, to his consternation but not really surprise, that there was no index.
"Okay, it'd take us a while to find out whether or not Calliope is a constellation... and we really don't have much of a while on our hands. My fault." He looked up at Rie. "Rie, you know what you're talking about with the muse angle. I was just hazarding a guess with the constellation thing. Let's go with the muse; I'm sure you're right.
"Helen, you don't happen to have anything that could be, uh, libated in your hat, do you? And..." He rubbed his forehead. "...Something on classical Greek methods of worship might be helpful. Let's work on that," he concluded to a pair of duplicates he had just created, and the three of them set off back into the shelves of books.
OOC - Sorry if he sounds imperious, but I really want to power this fine, fine story through to its imminent conclusion, whatever that is.
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Post by Tout-Perd on Apr 27, 2008 14:27:01 GMT -5
OOC: Will finish it when I can actually work my poet circuits into working. -_-;
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Post by Beelzebibble on Jul 29, 2008 21:00:27 GMT -5
OOC - Lee! Hey, Lee! Lee. Come here. I gotta secret for you.
Come on, lean in real close and I'll whisper it in your ear. Come on--
Lee!
Seriously, dude, don't you trust me?
All right, that's better. Come here -- right -- just like that --
post in the rp
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Post by Tout-Perd on Jul 29, 2008 21:05:24 GMT -5
OOC: Although I could instead be posting in like, C'est Noire to revive it, Streets of Sand to keep it going, Key to Apatros to start it on a path to gaining more peoples, Shrinkage to start a new RP, or a myriad of other options? *winks at the camera*
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Post by Beelzebibble on Jul 29, 2008 21:21:25 GMT -5
OOC - You're right; you could be posting in C'est Noir to revive it. OR YOU COULD FINISH THIS
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