Bee-nevolence (OOC)

[SpicyWaffle]

OOC for this thread.

While originally intended as a solo thread to establish Bee-Keeper III as an aspiring hero, I had a change of heart. I mean, it's a collaborative roleplaying site, and I'd certainly like to actually collaborate with folks!

Since it was recommended that there be some guidelines for posting rates and estimated PLs, I suspect this would be a good place to post those. PL shouldn't be a problem (after all, it's just a fire!), but a post every two days before moving on would be fabulous. If you'd like to hop on in, feel free to do so and give Baxter a chance to meet some new folks. Those people trapped in the inferno aren't gonna save themselves, you know!

[Raveled]

Blue Jay's on the job!

[Ari]

The King of Suits tags this with vigor.

[Cubist]

Jubatus blurs in with his customary celerity!

[Cubist]

Notes on my most-recent post to the thread…

• [*:hvq0gnwl]"some large patches of flame": Since "An educated guess would deduce that's probably where the fire originated", it seemed logical to presume that there would be actual flames in that room, as well as a whole lot of smoke.
  [*:hvq0gnwl]"The feline had a number of compact rebreather units in his vest": This is from Jube's Gadgets power. He has 6 Gadget Points to play with, and rebreathers can be had for the low, low cost of 1 point apiece (says the table on pg. 135 of the Core rulebook), so I'm pretty sure this isn't a problem.
  [*:hvq0gnwl]"So the Fastest Cat Alive returned to the burning building, again and again…" Yes, Jube is doing the rescue thing multiple times. And yes, you can safely assume that he's going to be highly careful/detail-obsessed every time, even tho I declined to write down all those details because I figured that would be really boring to read about.
  [*:hvq0gnwl]Jubatus is ignoring the little girl's cry for help because he just didn't hear it. When Jube is upshifted to a higher tempo than normal, all sounds get frequency-shifted to a lower pitch; when he's upshifted to his standard operating tempo of 40, that 'lower pitch' is deep in the subsonic, far beneath the low end of the frequency-range Jube's ears are equipped to handle.

[Ari]

Notice roll to try and locate where the direction the girls' yells came from: 25.

[SpicyWaffle]

Bee-Keeper follows suit with a Notice Check: 11

[Cubist]

Hmmm… Blue Jay has just started to rescue a family on the second floor. Jubatus was already working on the second floor. Wouldn't it be a pity if BJ notices Jube and (being that she's from the Terminus, and very new to this planet) jumps to the conclusion that this feline monster is a threat from which she needs to protect the people she's helping?

[Raveled]

Terminus monsters are more on the side of killing everything they see, as soon as they see it. Besides, isn't Jubatus moving too fast to be seen?

[Cubist]

Terminus monsters are more on the side of killing everything they see, as soon as they see it.

Fair point. I just thought it would be amusing for Blue Jay to fire an arrow at Jube, whereupon he plucks the arrow out of the air and says "Firing at me? Bad idea. Don't do it again." as he hands it back to BJ. And BJ's lack of familiarity with Earth hero-types seemed like a plausible excuse for such a scene…

Besides, isn't Jubatus moving too fast to be seen?

Jube does that, yes (modulo the quibble that he's only fast enough to be an indistinct blur, not fast enough to be actually, you know, invisible). But he also slows down to interact with normal-speed people, which is how BJ could manage to see him in the first place.

[Raveled]

:facepalm: I've been trying to avoid calling her BJ...

[Cubist]

Try thinking of BJ Hunnicutt?

[Ari]

Hey...guys? Did we forget the two people that were also in that apartment? >.>

[Cubist]

Hey...guys? Did we forget the two people that were also in that apartment? >.>

I don't think so, going by what the GM said:

Nevertheless, despite the tumultuous circumstances and the unflinching, unending creaks and groans of the facility, it seemed everyone whom was lodged inside the burning domicile had been aptly evacuated. The last of the potential victims, however, didn't appear to be civilians, but rather a pair of oddly-garbed misfits: a man dressed to the nines in a colorful card-themed attire, and the previously seen Bee-Keeper with which the humanoid cheetah had already discerned minutes earlier.

So when Jube swept the building one last time, "the last of the potential victims" he found were King of Suits and Bee-Keeper III. What other people might have been overlooked?

[Ari]

The girl and her father in the apartment that KoS and Bee-Keeper III came to rescue, is who I was thinking of. Kingy got the mom, but I saw no mention of the others being rescued.

[Cubist]

Hm… good point. This post would seem to indicate that KoS rescued a woman; I take it that's why you edited the post? In any case, that leaves the father & daughter unrescued.

In writing my most-recent posts, I was going by the GM's declaration that Jube didn't notice anybody else besides the two heroes. It makes perfect sense that Jube wouldn't hear the cries of the remaining civvies (see also: sounds transposing into the subsonic whilst upshifting), but it's somewhat more problematic that he wouldn't have seen any of them when he was specifically searching for whatever victims might yet remain...

So. Options.

• [*:srqi4yhm]Leave all the posts the way they are now, and just let the father & daughter die in the flames.
  Pro: It would slap BK3 in the face with cold Reality, and give him some major impetus to buckle down and get serious about this hero business. In a sense, it would be a re-run of Peter Parker letting that criminal go, only to find out later that said perp killed his Uncle Ben…
  Con: This is BK3's first outing as a hero. Does any of us writers really want BK3's debut to be marred by the death of two of the civilians he was trying to protect? Apart from that, the 'pro' argument may very well not be anywhere near how SpicyWaffle wants BK3's heroic career to develop. If SpicyWaffle wants to run with this, fine; otherwise, I say 'hell, no'.
  [*:srqi4yhm]Retroactive edits to correct the glitch. Specifically, change the Jube-only-noticed-two-people note to say that Jube was aware of five people remaining, of whom two were civilians; change BK3's last post to indicate that he got himself into deep doo-doo on account of he was focusing more on the safety of the father & daughter than he was on his own safety; change the most-recent posts from Jube & BK3 to indicate that (a) BK3's sacrifice allowed one of the two civvies to get out safely, and ( Jube showed up just in time to carry BK3 and the remaining civilian out of the danger zone.
  Pro: No casualties for BK3's debut, yay! And it gives Jube more of an excuse to collapse (from exhaustion, of course) when the rescue work is done.
  Con: A tiny bit of extra work for us writers. Which is pretty much another way of saying "no downside at all', to my way of thinking.
  [*:srqi4yhm]Some sort of deus ex machina pops out of nowhere to save the two civilians -- maybe Dr. Metropolis shows up or something.
  Pro: The civvies' safety is assured.
  Con: Very unsatisfying for multiple reasons, from a storytelling point of view. Not recommended.
  [*:srqi4yhm]Something else, other than the three options outlined above.
  Pro: ?
  Con: ?

What do the rest of y'all think?

[SpicyWaffle]

Already been fixed. It was a minor thing, and it took only a moment to get everything smoothed out. Should be all good now :)

[Ari]

Thanks for your careful consideration on the matter though, Cubist. I interpreted 'Waffles' mention of "another voice" to mean there was more than one person in the apt. Next time I'll, you know, ASK before deciding to try and add things on like that.

[Cubist]

Note for Raveled, when figuring out how Blue Jay reacts when she sees Jube coming towards her: When Jube is on all fours, he looks almost exactly like a natural-born cheetah. The differences are, his braincase is somewhat larger; the digits on his forepaws are longer and more dexterous; and of course he's wearing his overstuffed utility belt Vest Of Many Things. Also, Jube's voice is highly bizarre; he has a 100% cheetah-normal vocal tract, hence he can't 'really' talk, so he simulates speech by stringing together carefully-selected sound effects (clicks and hisses and whines and etc).