Ari
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25th Anniversary - The Terminus Invasion (July 10-13)
Ari replied to Avenger Assembled's topic in Archives
If that remains the case, I dare say it'd work out fine if we took up one of the others that currently lacks a GM. -
GM "We're aware, yes." One of the other voices, the cold and silky one that had been berating "Wallflower" and named "Pixie" , was speaking. There was a whisper-soft movement and Cherish felt someone beside her. "In fact, that is why we've taken you. Someone does not approve of your work. I don't approve of them, but that doesn't matter. How you feel about it is immaterial as well. What matters is we keep you safe until the process is complete. Then you go back to your family, we get payed the other half of our fee, this gets passed off as a ransoming, everyone is happy." Pixie stood up. "You have a few hours to come to terms with this." Meanwhile, Wallflower was hastening to reassure Luther. "Nonononono, we just have to do all this for appearances! If the client sees us treating you like our friend, they'll get suspicious and start asking questions we can't easily answer! This way, we just need to say somethng about how you "got in the way" and they'll figure we knew what we were doing!" There was a very sudden, very powerful silence. Neither Cherish or Luther could see for sure, but they could FEEL the other kidnappers staring at Wallflower. "I mean...it's not like we don't, just, um..." She trailed off and skittered somewherre inconspicuous. The flight was mostly silent from then on out, until they arrived somewhere cold and dank. Someone big and brawny marched Cherish and Luther into a room, someone smaller hurrying behind. Without much preamble, their carrier secured them by Luther's right arm and leg and Cherish's left arm and leg to a bar on the wall. "Flower, the pulse." Jawbreaker's voice said. "R-right!" Wallflower fumbled for something, her next words followed by a rising hum of building energy "Reverse signal...now!" Luther and Cherish found themselves in a windowless concrete cell, a pale flourescent light flickering in the ceiling. Wallflower turned out to be a short and chunky girl with springy brown hair in bright and puffy clothes, a backpack bulging with various gadgets on her back and more peeking out from the hems and sleeves of her clothes. Jawbreaker was six foot five of sleek dark pink muscles, flourescent blue hair coiled into a bun, wearing a blue and yellow uniform that matched her solid yellow eyes. Jawbreaker glared at Sixiang "Just two more hours, Cherish. Then your mother gets here. DJ, I don't know how long you have. Relax I guess." Wheeling around, Jawbreaker stomped into the hallway, Wallflower darting an apologetic look as she followed suit, whispering "Call if you need the bathroom" before Jawbreaker slammed the steel cell door shut.
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25th Anniversary - The Terminus Invasion (July 10-13)
Ari replied to Avenger Assembled's topic in Archives
Speaking of which, as stated by @EternalPhoenix he and I will be running the Meeting thread, with him handling everything besides the combat. -
Works for me! @Supercape For free, to get us going, Murk has a real strong hunch about the symbolism of an aperture in the ceiling above dream!Salvo and dream!Emerald Spider as they pace in an sealed box not being just poetic license. And sideways and down are pretty for sure dead-ends.
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John's telling the truth, so far as he knows it, but is also embellishing the details to dramatize his case. Oluki doesn't believe him and Cheryl doesn't seem too convinced either despite her support.
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GM Both parties turned to him, both Oluki and the two strangers looking profoundly relieved at the sight of Citizen. At once all three headed to meet him. The security chief, a burly Samoan with a broad, honest face and short black hair coiled tight as his seething temper, crossed the distance first. "Sharl! Good to see you here, man. These people don't wanna come in, they just want to use our wi-fi and the park grounds. I keep tellin' 'em no, but-" he was abruptly elbowed aside by the young man in the dirty jacket and torn jeans, who looked up at Citizen with fiery eyes under a thick greasy curtain of straight black hair that fell past his shoulders. "Citizen!" he pointed a prophetic finger at the alien's robot "I'm John, the people over there follow me. We saw what you did to that meteorite and I figure we're safer here than anywhere else. This is my mom, Cheryl." "This thug was denying us basic services," the graying woman with the broken nose and eyepatch smiled sweetly at Oluki, who turned a shade of red Sharl had never seen before and clenched his teeth so tight he didn't need superhuman hearing to hear them creak. "I certainly hope he's not saying what Archetech's stance is, we don't have anywhere else to go. Oluki snarled "Yeah, except the Undercity! Hundreds of people can live down there, thousands! No weather, no traffic, it's got electricity and MarsTech has wi-fi hotspots every few feet! Even Nova's figured out how to get cell service working down there. Don't know when you people decided Upper Emerald wasn't good enough. Mayor Talbot kick you out? Is Up-Ee gonna make us deal with their garbage again?" "No." John's tanned face was stone "We left because we saw what Citizen did and because there's these robots stalking us. Big ones, built like a tank and covered in spikes." Oluki stared, speechless. "Maximilian Mars helped us leave and get across the river without blocking the bridge, such a good boy," Cheryl added warmly "when we called him, he took our robot story seriously." All three turned to Citizen. John and Cheryl expectantly, Oluki with total disbelief.
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GM The rest of the descent was without incident. The Descending Bears disarmed themselves(and their leader when he tried to pull a gun on the Scarab) and placed themselves on the ground in a tight circle, hands loose at their sides. "Now, Scarab," one of them began(none of them had removed their helmets and masks) "I should warn you that we can't answer any questions. It's in the contract, even. Now you may well argue that a contract written with the express purpose of securing the silence of mercenaries hired to help discredit a security firm in return for their employer getting kickbacks when people turn to HIS boss's firm is not something that would be legally recognized as anything but incriminating evidence, but would you say that to someone offering you all 26 copies of said contract?" With a free hand, the Bear retrieved a sheaf of papers and offered it to the Scarab. "Also this thumbdrive, in case you need to make some copies and transfers and the PDF scanner on your phone isn't working. " "Now, do you have any questions for him?" the Bear nodded to the commander, who was already gagged and glaring furiously at Kamala and his treacherous operatives.
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@Supercape How about it, Cape? What's more likely to bring Murk out of his funk?
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GM Under the barrage, the spindly leech-fingered thing was smashed headlong into the wall, sending sprays of splinters across the front office. The immediate problem was dealt with, but from the growing whispers and the deepening sense of irrational, groundless fear of the hole in the floor(and the world), things weren't quite stable yet. Stubbornly the room refused to produce any obvious means of egress. On the desk the monitor hummed and buzzed, the old CRT technology making the room slowly go from uncomfortably....nothing to uncomfortably warm. The feeds from the hospital cameras remained. Including, if they looked, a new one... Meanwhile, in Mr. Murk's mind... Murk was strapped to a table. Salvo and Emerald Spider paced in a blank cell below him, visible through a floor grate into which something had flowed which was now a reddish brown stain. Standing over him was a wavering, shuddering thing that didn't stay still long enough to be identifiable. With a shaky finger, it touched his face. The touch was icy-cold and instantly brought back memories Murk had thought long-buried. Him fumbling to his feet and taking his first step towards his mother and the blessed warmth of the fire. His first kill, the doe screaming and thrashing around the spear pinning her to the earth. The night he awoke to ice-cold fingers caressing his face, and saw a ring of cold golden eyes and snake-like heads.
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No, it just looks like it goes into an empty void. But you can feel the approach of horrible things through it.
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@Tiffany KortaWell there's some pictures, there's the computer monitor obviously, there's a pile of dead bodies, there's a hole in the floor that things seem to be coming towards from a void, and there's a big monster that just got beat up.
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GM "HI JAZZY!" boomed the crowd with one voice. It was easy to pick out the locals, laughing and smiling, caught up in the camaraderie of being on the winning side, and the scattered outsiders sitting in uncomfortable silence. Taking the mound, Curveball heard today's manager speak through her well-worn earpiece. "Don't try to get one over the plate, Tachi's too fast for that" he said "just aim for him and throw as fast as possible". Dai Sadd's Welsh accent sometimes made him a little hard to understand in person, but somehow he'd mastered the art of being clear over electronics. The meeting last night with him and the rest of the reps for various Emerald City establishments had been by far the most surreal experience Jasmine had had in many a year. Joy's was represented by a burly, scaled man with alligator-claws eyes and savage jaws. Snake-Eyes was nice enough when you got to know him, but at first sight it was easy to see why he was head of security. Nguyen's Restaurants had the most normal-looking member of the party, a tidy woman from Singapore called Olive, who'd interrogated Jasmine like she was in the bowels of the Inquisition and whose warm hazel eyes and soft voice still haunted her. The mental hospital had sent one of its junior doctors, who mostly just sat and fidgeted uncomfortably. Though he had spoken, at length and with some heat, when it was suggested that one of Curveball's costumes for today be a straitjacket. Kaloke's voice thrummed over the speakers "And now, the contest! Can Curveball get one over the plate? Or will Black Diamond's lightning-fast reflexes and unbreakable bat win the day? The fight is on, folks!" A sound clip of a gong being struck resounded across the field, Black Diamond took his stance, bat high over the shoulder, a helmet growing to cover his head, both eyes on Jasmine.
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OOC thread for this thread. @Supercape
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GM May 4th, 2018, 11.55AM MarsTech Park, Emerald City, Oregon, USA, Earth-Prime The loudspeaker fought over the screams and howls of the crowd. Kaloke Keel, the commentator, leaned hard into every syllable as the stadium boomed with vicarious triumph. "And that's another home-run by local legend the Chef! This leaves us at the seventh with Ospreys still in the lead! Better luck next time, Mariners!" The players below were already beginning to sort themselves for the late-game stretch, and the fans were starting to quiet down, some of them tapping out orders for the auto-trays to deliver. The auto-trays were one of MarsTech Park's most popular innovations, largely eliminating the need for human vendors and the unsafe food storage of other stadiums. Hot food could be ready in minutes and sent directly to your seat in the stands via a conveyor system built just behind the surface. That the food was free, compliments of Maximilian Mars, Emerald City's favorite son, was something nobody could find fault with. Kaloke leaned back in his own chair, fading brown eyes sweeping over the field, still startled a little when a second's concentration on one point made the window-like display zoom in. Taking a sip of his now stone-cold coffee and glancing at the schedule, he depressed the microphone button and called out cheerfully "Now, we're doing good time and we all deserve a bit of a break, so let's get to something you've all been waiting for: First up, he's harder than steel but light as a feather, the flickering firepower of Black Diamond has no rival! By day he's an engineering student at Tokyo University, by night he's the baseball legend: Black Diamond!" The Park's main doors slid open, admitting a trim young Japanese man with short, smooth hair and skin like black glass lit by some inner dancing flame. He gave a deep, swooping bow to the audience....and suddenly was on home plate, twirling a bat made of the same glassy substance as his skin, grinning cheekily. The audience roared. "Now folks, I'm sorry to say Black Butterfly couldn't be here, but as we all know after some bigoted remarks by members of the Japanese National Diet she went to the kaido and beat the Prime Minister with a spiked baseball bat." Kaloke took another sip of coffee "She remains at large, and the Minister's in stable condition, so believe in miracles, folks!" "Of course it bears mentioning that this segment is sponsored by some of our favorite local establishments: Oz, where dreams are born, Nguyen's, where old skills meet make new tastes, Joy's, where you can find anything or anybody and our old friends at Bethlehem Heights Psychiatric Hospital. My cousin's been there since 1998, this is the year he's returning to society so let's give a big hand for Andrew folks, a real big hand!" The visiting Seattle fans were totally unprepared for the storm of whoops, screams and the thunderous applause that burst out at Kaloke's final words. "And keep that up for our guest, the numan Curveball! She has four arms, a keen eye and a killer's instincts! Come on out to the pitcher's mound, Jazzy!"
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@Tiffany Korta Tiff what do you think would make the most sense for getting out of the room? @Zeitgeist Blue Want to stunt something from Salvo's armor to wake him up?
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GM Pseudo, as ever, was on Lighthouse duty. Over the station's internal cameras Sharl had the dubious pleasure of seeing the reserved Grue's stony red face slide from calm to anxious to horrified within the span of a few seconds. A few snapped orders and the station's bridge crew were working feverishly to scan the area the meteorite had appeared in. "Appeared" turned out to be a very significant part of that, as Pseudo explained grimly. "The evidence is overwhelming Sri Tulnik," he said, the Grue's green eyes scanning the blue lines of data on his monitor "according to all reports and your imaging of the meteorite it should have been most of an asteroid orbiting Mars.The chrono-screen Dr. Tomorrow lent us after his latest foray into the Temporal Cold War shows it materializing within Earth's lower mesosphere. There are traces of extra-dimensional energy, of a sort my colleagues call magic, in the air above Archetech West but more than that I cannot say. When I know more I will inform you immediately." "I commend you and your team for the swift and efficient resolution of this crisis. Several of the local corporations in your area deal in advanced technology, even a branch of ASTRO Labs. It could not hurt to see if some of them want to partner with Archetech. The League will divert what it can until proper defenses can be established. Pseudo out." The crew were inspecting Citizen's exto-suit when he returned. Sarah Siks, a recent graduate of the local Parker Institute and electronics-engineering intern at Archetech West, waved to him over a pile of blackened metal. "Hey, Sharl? Did anyone tell you about the homeless people outside? Because we just got a campout. I think that stunt with the meteorite got you some more fans." A quick look out the window was enough to confirm Sarah's words. The empty grass field out back and the front lawn were suddenly full of people, tents and piles of belongings. An older woman and a young man in stained, beaten clothes were arguing animatedly with the site's security chief on the steps up to the back door. Neither party looked like they were anywhere near giving in.
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"Who'll we be up against, Sri Darvo?" B'Ka's helmet was up but it was easy to imagine his eyes sparkling. "Pirates? Corrupt Prophets? A dragon?" The Squire's hands clenched at the idea of battling one of the ancient terrors of deep space. Dragons of any kind were rare on most worlds, but Star Knight sectors being what they were, especially after the massive losses from the Incursion War, most Star Knights had at least seen one, even if far off and from the traces they left in gravity wells. But that kind of distant encounter wasn't what most Squires thought about. "I've heard there'll be a fight between some of the Star Khan's children that'll spill over the border, are we going to put a stop to their mad schemes?" That was almost certainly not true, but frankly it was hard to tell with the Khanate these turns. "Will you show us how to do that thing where you shoot a whole bunch of Star Stone energy out of your breastplate? Or how to win an arm-wrestling match with a Cholaxan? Or where you go when you dream?"
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GM At first the cluster of men reacted much like anyone would, if you were to disorient and discombobulate them without apparent support far above the ground. For several seconds they flailed and struggled in ironic imitation of their still-wriggling leader. "Wait! Hold on!" One of them suddely yelled, going limp against the soundwave barrage "Relax! Associate regulations require any captured operatives to be recovered within 48 hours! Only the boss has anything to worry about!" The rest of them started at those words and with a few pained whoops of relief bonelessly collapsed in their harnesses. The leader began to slump along with them. "Never shoulda trusted Tia..." With a last grunt of resignation, he collapsed. Over the high-pitched keening of the Atlantic winds, Scarab could hear a growing ruckus in the building. Stabs of anger, fear, surprise, lust and utter gloom flashed across her consciousness. Lights were coming on up and down the skyscraper, silhouetted figures in armor and uniforms of other security firms hurrying to the roof, some stopping to stare at the sight outside before racing to catch up with their fellows.
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OOC thread for this thread. @Letty @Supercape
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GM April 1st, 12.02AM, 2018 Club Infinity, on the Waterfront, Freedom City, New Jersey, USA, Earth-Prime The music had hit its fever pitch, the pulsing beat was in its stride. Bodies had become moderately-active bodies propelled around a world full of smoke machine exhaust, lasers, strobe lights and sweat. Then- With roar and a crash the ceiling collapsed! Four figures landed among the shocked and frozen crowd and then split up, two racing for a corner of the club where a young woman was seated. The other two headed for a small crowd surrounding a lithe young man. Both were grabbed, with a light flaring before their eyes and their vision abruptly cutting out. Before anyone could raise a proper protest at such behavior both were gone, the quartet vanishing back out through the roof into the waiting nigh-silent and invisible aircraft waiting for them. With a whisper and a sigh, the craft was gone. Below it, hundreds of shocked eyes, blinking phones and belated yells began to overcome the still-throbbing music. The bartender had already pressed the silent alarm. She made double-sure she'd pressed the one about supercrime. --------------------------------- Elsewhere On the plane, the two captives had been tied together at the knees and elbows. It was shockingly uncomfortable. Since their sight was gone, all they could make out of their captors were their voices. A sulky, faintly-accented voice spoke first "You sure this will wear off, Wallflower?" "Of course! In a few hours or when I flash the reverse signal to their brain!" that one was lighter and bubblier, with a bit of electronic distorition. "Hey!" a growl sounded right next to the captives' ears "I'm watching you, don't even try anything and you won't get hurt." The last was punctuated with a sharp, painful kick to Cherish's shin. A fourth snapped imperiously "Jawbreaker! That is no way to treat a client. Toy, take over flight to HQ." "Affirmative" a robot's voice, oddly friendly-sounding. Cherish felt a warm hand on her shoulder "I hope you won't hold that against Jawbreaker, Miss? We're only keeping you for a short time and, I promise, you will be treated with the utmost respect. Here..." Cherish felt an energy emanate from the hand, flowing through her veins, easing the pain from her throbbing shin. More worryingly, she could feel something slip between her and her powers... Meanwhile, Luther felt someone crouch next to him. "Hey, Luther! You can call me Wallflower, I'm a huge fan!" "Your grasp of the dark universes conjured from his music is like a child's." the sulky voice said "Aw, don't be like that, Pixie! Anyway, Mr. Sorrow, I just want you to know I won't let anyone hurt you and we're going to be best friends!" "It's a good thing he can't see you. You sound ridiculous talking like that at your age."
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OOC thread for this thread. Moon-Moth ponders what's dead and gone on the corpse of a dragon.
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GM 95923.87 billions of miles from anything 2 hours after Moon Moth woke up A gamma dragon can grow to the length of an astronomical unit. While made of molten minerals, they are encased in a thick crust of high-density rock and metal that is effectively impervious to most weapons fire. Unfortunately, the one currently outside the Lor science ship To Live Is To Labor was twice the size of a normal dragon. It stretched on and on, seemingly forever from the perspective of the tiny Lanturnian, the bright glare of the ship's lights creating fantastical shadows in the dust around its rocky corpse. It being dead was the good news. He couldn't see them, but Moon-Moth knew a small fleet of refugee-Asshui was stationed at a polite remove from the Lor and their technical officers. They'd come to find the reason the dragon was dead. The reason was a male of the Asshui who had come to this system five dreamful sleeps before Moon-Moth had received the distress call on CoVic Station. The Wanderers of Asshui hadn't come into known space without their own heroes. Moon-Moth had even met some of them, mostly great scholars or poets, people who recorded and studied the lore of the Wanderers and kept the past alive. Draz-Fel had been different. The mysterious enemy the refugees of the Diaspora were fleeing hadn't frightened him, nothing had. While without any powers he'd had a cunning mind and iron will, with the wisdom to know his own weaknesses. The clans who followed Draz had never faced a foe they couldn't at least outwit, and to the hero the gamma dragon wandering into the territory the Asshui claimed had seemed like a spectacular, grand challenge to be faced and not a titanic predator that bathed in stars and needed to be avoided at all costs. But now the monster was dead. It wasn't cold yet, the volcanism of its interior would take a thousand years to die down. But it would never again lash its tail and crack a planet into chunks, never breathe fire vast as a solar flare and hot enough to evaporate a fleet. And thanks to that volcanism finding Draz-Fel with the ship's sensors was nearly impossible. The ground crew of the To Live and some of Draz's closest friends and Asshui medical experts were headed down to find the dragonslayer on foot. "What are you thinking about?" The second in command of the ship, a a tripod with a hard black chitin and small red eyes named Commander Skral, had paused beside him. Their grounding suit was already on, various tools affixed at magnetic points on the uniform. Some were tied on, too. Just in case.
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OOC thread for this thread. Citizen takes a STAND. On the ISSUES. @Avenger Assembled You don't need to roll for this opening part. It's basically just a cold open and splash title page.
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GM April 1st, 2018, 1.23AM Emerald City, Oregon, USA, Earth-Prime The meteorite had snuck past every layer of warning the Earth had to offer, a flaming rock that by rights should have been seen coming a light-year away by the Lighthouse. It careened through the sky, directly for the peaceful, foggy Columbia River mouth and the two tiny cities crouched on the shores of the great gray sea. One of the Archetech staff had stepped outside for a smoke break, and a passing homeless man had pointed out the "new star" to him. Three minutes later and there Citizen was, high up in the sky with a giant ball of iron and alien metals racing for his head. It was around 150 meters across its smooth body, if it hit the cities at the speed it was going there wouldn't be any survivors for miles around. The voice of Archetech West's ground crew hummed into his receptors. "We're ready when you are, Sharl! Say the word and we'll fire up the conduits for that power boost! Hit that thing with everything we got!" "Just make sure to burn some of it off before you come back," another voice quickly added "just to be safe."
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You certainly can!