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Status

Recent Statuses

9 mos ago
Current Potato
2 likes
1 yr ago
I'm alive
3 likes
5 yrs ago
Status updates, huh? Who needs those anyways, pfft
1 like
6 yrs ago
I figured I should update my status. Tada!
1 like
6 yrs ago
What IS on my mind?

Bio

N I S Q H O G



Loves Teddy Bears|Twenty Something|Can't Speak Russian|Is Potat


THE MORE AWESOMEST POTATO:

Let me properly introduce myself. I am Sir Spud the Fourth, and I have been a potato for the longest time ever. I never denied it to be completely honest, but it is only recently that I embraced it. Now I have evolved from a simple couch potato to a fully grown royal potato. A dapper kawaii potato. And I dare say, knowing that you are a spud, makes life a lot easier. Just chill and let everyone else care about all their meaningless things because at the end of the day you'll know: chilling is the way to go.

I try to spend minimal effort on things that I don't care about, and procrastination might as well be my middle name. But that doesn't mean I ONLY rest. Sometimes a 'tato gotta do what a 'tato gotta do. And if that something happens to be things I like, then you cannot find anyone better than me. I am an omnipotent being capable of virtually any task to a limited degree, and I am not shy to admit it. I may not be the MOST AWESOMEST in a thing, but I am sure as hell MORE AWESOMEST than most people are at everything. But hey, I'm not here to brag, even if I am probabaly better at it than you


THE DREAMER:

All those nights laying in my couch, I thought about the cool shit that I cannot do. That I cannot see. But I pictured them in front of myself like they were real, and that infuraited me. Then I found the Guild, and I lived happily after. I have been on the site for 2 years now, and I have seen many RPs, and played with many people. I wish I have found the site earlier, but I am glad that I've even found it. Now all those fantasies can be written down and my mind can rest at ease at night, without being constantly troubled by ideas.

When I RP, I love myself some good Sci-Fi or Fantasy. But hey I am filthy casual, I can go for anything with an interesting setting. I don't trouble myself on small details if the plot is good, but if you get somwthing wrong you can expect me to tell you about it. Some even go as far as to think that I am angry or something, but I am too chill for that. If anything I'm more of the funny type, so you can expect me to try and write some shitty jokes or post memes I found on the internet. Anyways, you'll see what I mean when we RP together.


THE ARTIST:

Used to be something else here, but I'm happy to say that it's replaced because of a positive change. I now work as a full-time 3D artist in the animation industry, churning out shot after shot for some of your favorite game intros and trailers. Can't say anything about them before you even ask, and even though I'm still new to the industry I love it and I already know that this will be my passion for a long time. So hopefully in a few years I'll have a proud portfolio of animations that were done by yours truly that I can show off to all the lovely people of the guild.

THE LOVER OF STUFF:

Now I may have hobbies like the above mentioned, but there are some more things that I love in life. Here is a handy list of things you can always talk about with me:

  • Gaming: This one I am quite proud of, I'm a serious gamer with capital G. Not as much time for it nowadays, but still true.
  • Music: All kinds of electronic music, but I am a sucker for Queen and Powerwolf. Or Breakbot... anything music.
  • Anime: We all have an Otaku in us, but it's bigger for some people. For me it's just big enough.


WORDS OF WISDOM:

Be chill folks, getting fed up about stuff is a recipe for disaster. You gotta learn to be patient and let things go, or you'll end up a wrinkly old man/woman with only bad memories about life. Even if you do fuck-all every day, you can live a content life by taking things easy. With that said, as always, stay safe and stay classy.

Most Recent Posts

@Dark Cloud Not a problem, glad to see your race finished :)

You weren't here during that time and I've not managed to edit it yet, but the executive decision has been made to make small a free trait pick. So technically you can pick another neutral trait if you want, but I'd say what you have right now is probably very solid :)

@Dog Very babrebones but I can understand why haha

I'll try and get the proper thread up tomorrow and get something brewing for the actual opening so people aren't bored. Maps and the like I will give to you there, but please be patient haha.


@vietmyke I remember reading the last iteration of this RP, but sadly at the time it was closed and I had a lot of work to do. While I'm not particularly free at the moment as I'm soon starting an RP (hopefully) and already in another one, I do think that I could fit one into my schedule :D

I do have a question though that I would rather ask here than through the OC, because it tends to get murky when trying to find specific answers.

As a fan of series like The Expanse and about a billion more medium/hard sci-fi book franchises, and someone who has played too much Titanfall and Battletech/Mechwarrior, I want to know just what exacly the aim is for the general feel of the mechs. Personally I am not a fan of Gundam, not even the newer iterations: battlesuits that are also spaceships and whatnot completely break my immersion, though I do realize that making space capable suits isn't necessarily impossible. I'd say that for me Titanfall finds a perfect balance between the very much IFV-like aspects of battletech, and the hyper advanced non-realistic battlesuits of Gundam. Is there any side of the spectrum in particular that you are leaning towards? I don't mind when mechs duke it out on the outside of some planetary dockyard in zero-g and ahrd vacuum, but having them fly around like fighters is a big no-no for me personally

Of course, that all depends on whether or not you even want/need one more person haha. I'm a big sci-fi/warfare nerd so I do think I would fit right in, but as said above I want to make sure I can immerse myself into an RP before jumping in. Nobody is going to get anything out of half-assed posts if I get bored after a few months haha ^-^'
@Dark Cloud Sounds good! Can't wait to see the finished product ^^
@Dark Cloud No, but I am personally online far more there than on any other platform. You don't need to be on f you don't want to :)
@Dark Cloud Do look around to see if you like some other combos as well, but I wouldn't mind that

Here is the link for you and anyone else interested for the Discord ^^

@Dark Cloud Not nearly as much as you think. Honestly, I would be fine with just a paragraph or two as long as you and everyone else is having fun. After all, that's the point of any RP, is it not

Yes, I made another silly poster for this one



Hello and welcome!


Come, take a seat. I will make this one quick, because I know we are all busy people. As you can no wonder tell by the title, this is the third attempt at running this RP and keeping it alive. While that might seem like a lot, the thing is that we have 2 people with us who have been here for both, so as far as players are concerned, we are almost already done: though I won't play because it was the undoing of our second attempt, 2-3 more people will be enough for us to get going.

Now, I know. You're thinking what this lunatic is talking about, he didn't even talk about the RP itself!

*slams link on the table* roleplayerguild.com/posts/5116440

This is it. The old post, that probably explains it better than I ever could. Go give it a read if you fancy a 23,000 character longofrm version, but I will try and make it simple this time around so we can all go on with our lives the quickest.

Brief Explanation


In essence, From Dawn Till Dusk is a longform nation roleplay with a heavy focus on player interaction and the development of your culture. Too often have I played a space NRP and thought to myself: "Man, now I will need to write a 60,000 character part about my species because I really don't want to gloss over their history and culture. Or found myself playing 4x games and getting tired of the limited diplomatic options or sub-par subterfuge. I always just wanted more *meat* to whatever I was playing. This is basically that, wrapped into a neat package that should hopefully help you create a race/nation you'll go on to use in other games as well.

The RP starts at the dawn of civilization and goes on from there for... however long we are able to take it. The goal isn't to win, it is to build a truly unique world that we all enjoy playing in and interacting with others (even if yes, that could often mean war). How time passes is something we will decide once we have everyone we need and can make an educated call. But starting from just a single village of your people, while I would think it a miracle if we progressed into anything far too modern, there's plenty of fun to be had with the first cities and seagoing boats being built.

Speaking of which: you will have a chance to create a truly unique race on an island full of mysterious and alien creatures: perhaps including the people you control. Though I will accept neat race ideas if they don't fit into the system, in the last iteration we've come up with a system of point based race creation (kinda like Stellaris), mostly aimed at giving you various ideas to play around with before you make your final decision.

And... that should be all. TL:DR, you control a race of your own creation through their journey in time, starting from their first primitive village, all the way to perhaps world domination (but most likely not). Build a city, trade with others and explore the world around you to find out about all the things that make the world tick around you. There are very few limits on what you can do, just as long as we all agree to be cool and have fun instead of trying to "win" at the game. (We all know there is always that one person.)

Your Race


Your race, your rules! This is probably the most fun part for me, where you truly create an identity for your people. Think about what they are like and how they might act if they were just animals. From there on, you'll have a pretty good idea as to where to start writing the history of your civilization: from giant frog people who settled on equally giant lilypads in mud houses, to fairies who controlled magic and made houses from leaves and udnerfoliage, here is your first chance to make something fun (And yes, those were both races from the first iteration of the RP)

Before I give you the list, I want to introduce you to the system, as envisioned by me, and used by many other games. Here is an example build:

By default we have 3 trait picks left, and 1 trait point to play around with. After looking through the list of options, we decided that we want to pick up the trait "Strong", which makes each member of our species significantly stronger than what appearances would first suggest. Strong being a -1 Point trait means that we now have 0 trait points available, and 2 picks left. Right here we could end the selection and create a bit more detailed lore around these race of strong creatures, since our trait points are in the positive and we have picks left.

However, we also decide that this isn't enough on it's own, so we pick up the trait "Venerable". Venerable would make our race not only strong but on average live some 20 years longer, if not killed by other means. However, venerable being another -1 Point trait means that we are now using up 1 more points than what we have left. This puts our total at -1 Trait points and 1 Picks left. As such, we cannot go ahead with this build just yet, seeing how it is inherently unbalanced.

But fear not, we still have one picks left. So, after looking through the list of negative traits, we eventually pick up "Anemic". Anemic is a +1 Point trait that causes all members of our race to have a lower count of oxygen carrying vessels (whatever compound that may be), meaning that they tire out far more easily, and require more sleep to replenish their blood supplies. Once we have chosen this, our total comes out to 0 Points, and 0 Picks left! Congratulations, you now have a race of creatures who are strong but can tire out easily, so they things more slowly thanks to their naturally longer lifespans. That, or any other combination of behavior you can come up with using these traits.


Obviously there are some other combinations as well. You may choose to pick a -2 Point "advanced" trait along with a +1 trait, and then leave it at that or choose a 0 Point trait, like "Nocturnal", or "Lightweight Skeleton". Either way, as long as your Points and Picks are 0 or above, you are good! By default, every race is of a humanoid appearance, meaning that at the very least they have two legs, two arms and a head with 2 eyes in the front. Without further a due, here is the list, compiled as Positive, Negative and Neutral traits.

Phew, let's quickly revise what the rules of the species making are:
- Generally humanoid for ease of roleplay/compatibility
- You start with 1 trait Point and 3 trait Picks. Both must be either 0 or more for your race to be possible.
- You can apply custom cosmetic traits to it in order to make them look apart from normal humans (such as making lusty argonian maids and the like) or for that one person we all know to make a race of elves.

And some extra:
- If there is any question about what a trait does, feel free to ask. Some traits have such keywords as "often" or "sometimes" when describing a feature, meaning it is more a suggestion for a secondary feature than anything.
- Rule of cool applies to every trait, unless there is an upgraded version of such trait, or a different trait that would add the other effect.
- Within reason, Neutral traits that would thematically make sense can be applied for free if you ask me.
- Neutral traits that aren't listed but you think would be right about at 0 points can be negotiated as the 1 custom trait per race. This is simply due to the fact that I am a single man, and I can't possibly list everything people can come up with X3



Aaaaand, that is it. Now, here is both an example sheet and the skeleton of what you should all be working with ^^

[hider= Sheet Code]
[center]
[b]RACE NAME:[/b]
[b]RACE TRAITS:[/b] List here the traits that you have picked for your race, along with any additional info you may need to provide on it.
[b]RACE PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION:[/b] Describe how your race looks like, and provide a picture of possible
[b]POPULATION:[/b] Up for community vote, depending on traits
[b]RACE BEHAVIOUR:[/b] Describe how your race normally behaves, to give a general idea about them
[b]HISTORY:[/b] You will have plenty to write here once we begin!
[b]CULTURE:[/b] Same as above, leave it free for now. Will fill up as we get into the game.
[b]TECHNOLOGIES:[/b] Tech tree coming very soon. Until then, the best way to think of your people is the natives on lonely islands on the pacific. Except, they have no culture just yet~
[list][*] - Primitive Technology
[/list]
[/center]
[/hider]


Here is a made example of it!



I would like to say again, that this is mostly a guideline, even if the system was made to be fully usable (and to be enforced in the last time). I would love to see people use it, but some things will never fit inside any given system. So if these traits don't give you any inspiration, or you're hellbent to include your furry shapeshifters into the RP (please don't), then you can always just type it out anyways and ask the rest of us if it would be alright.

Rules


Hey, congrats on making it through the mechanics :D

Sadly, I am contractually obliged to say these yadda-yadda parts, but you might as well read them.

- No godmodding: Pretty straightforward in an NRP I think, especially since most of the relative powers will be decide by us all, or between contestants in a conflict.
- No metagaming: This rules used to say something-something about advancing too fast in tech, but we already established that we have changed that. So this mostly means you shouldn't know about the secrets of another nation because you read their post.
- No griefing: There are no winners or losers here. We are all here to have a great time, and hopefully influence each other in a creative way. If you do something that is out of character for your people that is aimed at hurting anyone else's experience then you and I will have a long talk.
- Be nice with each other: This is self explanatory. Don't be a douche or critique other's works beyond an acceptable limit even if you disagree with them. We are all here to have fun.

Final Words


First of all, thank you for reading through everything written down above, I know that it can get pretty complicated and long at times. Usually it would be the place for some lore, but this time we are the ones making it. Or if you didn't read it, then naughty you >:o

I want to say that this is something that has been in the works for over 4 years now. As far as the GM (me) is concerned, you should know that I'll pour all my energy into getting maps, fancy images and ideas for all of you to see, because I do want to see this thing through. Even if sometime sit will be slow because I do have a full time work, partly the reason we didn't manage to go through with this idea last time. I am well aware that RPs more often than not die out after a while, but since I've had the pleasure of participating in an RP that has been going on for well over a year now, I've always held hope that an RP can survive when the people are passionate about it. We all have a real life that can screw with us, so I will not ask anyone to be around at all times. What I do want to say though is that I hope that everyone who writes here was something they want to see in this RP. Imagine the sorts of things that you'd want to do that you can only do when playing with me. If you've found one that you like, the congratulations! Share with us your thoughts, and if you don't like something, then please try to talk with me/us to change it instead of leaving.

I have no false hopes, but I still have faith that we can create an amazing experience for everyone as long as we worth together as a team, and put our noggins together to create an experience about nations, people or even individual characters that we'd enjoy. It certainly isn't out of the question to create character based spinoff RPs if we ever like a select few of them enough. And if things go right, we shall see our people become so advanced that they themselves will start their own little RP inside this one

With that little speech out of the way, I am hoping to see all of you lovelies down in the interest check below, and hopefully soon enough we will be working together on creating something amazing. Until then, I shall be working on creating all the content for you to enjoy.

Yes, this is copied from last time, but it still holds true. I do really wish for this RP to flourish and take off, hence why I'm giving it another go. Hopefully third time really IS the charm.

With that, I will let you all go. Please, if you are interested then leave a message here or send me a DM. If you have any questions just ask away! I will be looking at every message and trying to reply as fast as I can, but I can be busy at times so excuse me. Either way, hope you all have a nice day and I'm excited to see the ideas people come up with.




Back aboard the Xuanxang the excitement was starting to die down from the sudden arrival, or rather disappearance, of the portal that took their unknown assailant into some place that Amy couldn't quite find. She gave trying to find the man a half-hearted try, but it wasn't something she expected to get results out of. She barely knew the man or his underlings even via sight, so looking for their signature across who knows what distances was frankly impossible.

However she did find something else that she wasn't looking for, but what sparked her interest quite a bit. It came in the form of a realization: she was still connected to Iris via her psychic link, something which she had totally forgot to sever once the danger was over. Normally she wouldn't be so careless like this, but she didn't really feel the need to retreat from the girl's head after their brief chat. It felt almost... pleasant, listening to the thoughts of someone that she though of fondly. Or maybe it was because the person she was connected to was thinking fondly of her. It wasn't easy to decide the exact reason that made her stay connected to Iris, but she would certainly not regret doing so as she listened further.

It was clear that the poor girl wasn't exactly trained on how to deal with psychics and Mind magic users, not that a lot of people were despite how useful these abilities can be, but this was made almost painfully clear to Amy as she could almost see herself in the image of Iris as she evaluated whether or not she liked Amy. A faint blush began to slowly creep it's way onto the faint purple cheeks of the zvezd, turning them into a deep magenta as her entire body froze up. If barely a shadow of what Iris was feeling and thinking, she had received a torrent of emotions and thoughts that Amy wasn't prepared for in the slightest. To think that one of the kids she was moreso thinking of as children to be protected harbored such feelings for her... it brought the entire way she was thinking of them down with a loud crash, even if only for Iris's particular case.

She couldn't help but question just why she even thought of Iris and the others as children... while her memories were lost and she couldn't recall memories of her parents or childhood, Amy was aware that she wasn't necessarily that old. Made painfully obvious by her reactions to even such small shows of affection, it really felt odd to think of all the other children on the ship as younger than her for that moment. Sure, she looked quite young herself but definitely older than the rest of them and felt the way she did, now that she heard Iris's question it made her feel a bit awkward about all of it.

Mostly because she really wanted to take Iris up on the offer and just spend some downtime with the girl in hopes of alleviating her recent worries and to get to know her better, but then how could she look the others in the eye with the same doting and motherly affection she held for them until now?

Right about now she wished she could retreat to her room, or rather meditation chamber with the way she used it most of the time, and just lay down on her bed to think things over. However, she still had a job to do, even if she had hoped it would be over soon so she could, well... hang out with Iris. The realization made her blush even more and she shook her head as she swiveled on her chair to hide her embarrassment from the rest of her team. Clearing her head with a few deep breaths she would turn back to the consoles with a soft smile on her lips as she replied to Iris via their link. "Sure! Hopefully we'll get time to actually sleep a bit, given our tight schedule lately. Just make sure not to bring too much candy, you're going to get a sugar rush~" Biting her lips softly and holding her breath back she now waited for a reply from Iris. She already couldn't wait for this mission to be over so she could spend some time with the girl and the rest of the crew... though admittedly she never was a fan of combat, so that was natural. Still, this particular time she was more excited than normal, as evident by the lingering red hue of her cheeks.

@dragonpiece




Amy followed the hectic information stream with glistening eyes, her gaze glued to the screens in front of her as she tried to make sense of the frantic situation that was developing planetside. No plan survives first contact with the enemy, and it felt like apart from their own role of keeping an eye on things there wasn't a whole lot that went according to said plan. Not that she thought it wasn't a good plan, it was certainly quite nice in it's own way, but the introduction of this Blue Crow figure just made everything so much more complicated than it had to be. "Why can't it ever be easy..." Amy grumbled to herself as she watched the fight between Fireteam Lamia and this mysterious figure escalate.

There came a time when Amy had to realize that she was starting to cut her palm and fingertips with how hard she was clutching the otherwise smoothed off edges of the control panel. She couldn't stand to watch the situation that they were in, but from everything that has been displayed so far, she knew that interrupting the combatants on her own side wouldn't be the best idea for a plan that might not work. Glancing over to the other two girls on the station she saw that they were busy handling the more technical aspects of the job while she was just trying to come up with a plan. Anything at all to help, to make her powers useful now that she felt the confidence in herself to use them at such distances. Yet it seemed like the opportunity simply eluded her: the heat of combat and the apparent resilience to magic from this outside made it hard for her to try and intervene. She felt so selfish to just be focusing on one team at a time like this, but between the intensity of combat and the pull of her heart at the thought of Iris and the others getting hurt made her goal clear as daylight: help the three of them get out of there unscathed and back to the ship while the rest of the teams wrap up the mission.

It was the crackling of the intercomm that snapped her out of her thoughts as a familiar, yet rare voice snuck into her ears. It was Laurey, the mysterious cyber on their team that she never quite knew how to approach. Alien to crew and kids both, to Amy the girl was a true enigma: a rare and frightening thing for someone who could accurately assess everyone by just a few glances and the use of her powers. Still, in this moment her voice calmed Amy down and brought her back to reality from the depths of her brooding thoughts. "This is Horus to Harpy, Fireteam Lamia is engaged in combat with an unknown operative. Twins are on the way out, we're trying to give as much assistance as possible from up here. We'll update you on the situation if you are in a position to help." Amy sighed as she ended the reply, her eyes following the twins as they made a hasty exit from the room while Nero engaged the man alone. Whoever this mystery man was, he was certainly impressive in combat: but so was Nero, fueled by years spent as a soldier under and oppressive system. She wished neither of them harm, but she knew a combat would ensue she couldn't interfere in, so instead she focused herself on the twins.

Following their escape on the feed, she began to pick up glimpses on the camera of the blob-like aliens following them. Frowning a bit and setting some parameters for their own and shipside sensors, she would begin to pick up the heat signatures, if faintly. No good, she would have to do this on her own. Closing her eyes she focused her attention on Iris, keeping in mind the girl and the talk they had together after the last time she failed to do what she was about to do right now, and then she slowly reached out over the infinite aether to this mental anchor she could almost feel on her fingertips as she extended her hand in the air for a moment...

Iris, can you hear me? Amy's voice echoed faintly through in the head of the girl as tried to get a bearing on where exactly they were and to get in contact with the twins. You've got company closing in, those blob things that the other guy used as armor. Just keep running, I'll try and put them to sleep. I'll keep with you until you can get out. With that her voice would fade away, but Iris could still feel the lingering sensation in the back of her mind, like a small little pushing sensation as Amy latched onto the familiar sensation of her mind to orient herself.

After what felt like getting dropped into a deep pool filled with cold water, slowly but surely the area around the twins began to reveal itself to Amy as experienced through their sense. It was a faint, bleak recreation of reality, but it helped her know where to start looking. With the help of the sensor data from before she reached out to try and find the pursuers. And just like that, almost as a small thud as if she ran headfirst into the wall, she picked up the first of the blobs in pursuit. Then the second and the third: it wasn't hard, not when their entire being was one massive collection of tiny entities that acted as a giant hive-mind to move themselves and do all their actions.

It was as she reached out towards these creatures that she felt them recoil, their actions cease. At first Amy thought her spell had already taken effect with such little effort, but then the feed from her control panel caught her attention. Opening her eyes and severing the connection she had with Iris, the girl could feel the sensation from before fade as Amy looked at the video. She... didn't understand. A portal appeared out of nowhere, pulling Blue Crow and his henchlings through it before it would disappear as if it was never there. Perhaps an unknown benefactor? Amy was more confused now than before.

Reaching down, she would relax her next message through the intercom, confusion audible in her voice. "Fireteam Harpy and Lamia, this is Horus. The unknown combatant in the Armory is... gone. Now would be a good time to start gathering up and getting out of there before someone else appears as well. Her heart beating fast in her chest, Amy shook her head as she leaned back in her chair to try and calm herself down. She was... angry. It was a feeling of rage that was different from the disappointment she felt towards herself, and it scared her. She was never angry... but now that she was late once more to help Iris and to show everyone that she was able to help, it sparked a tiny flame of hatred towards whatever force pulled the bounty hunter away. Sure, she was mostly thankful that everyone was alright, but it still bugged her enough to make her concerned. The kids really were changing her in ways she didn't expect her to behave... Amy couldn't help but wonder why eexactly she felt angry. Was it because she was unable to help once more, or more about not being able to show others and Iris her powers? The girl who gave her the chance last time, she wondered if she would still think that Amy couldn't get herself to use her powers. That thought... yes, that was the reason she felt upset.

Shaking her head and taking a deep sigh she closed her eyes as she reached over to her neck to pull out the pendant from under her shirt, her fingers wrapping around it softly as she caressed the time-worn metal surface with a gentle care. "It's okay Amy, just calm down..." All she had to do now was hope that everybody got back in one piece.

@Th3King0fChaos@Letter Bee@jdh97@dragonpiece


Team Horus





Ariel’s hair was now wet. So was her shirt, and her arms, and the nape of her neck. She didn’t mind much, or frankly at all. There was no way she would be bothered about being a little damp or sore. Not while she could feel Amy’s heart: even now, when she was no longer being held so tightly.

“Take things at your own pace. There’s no need to rush.” Ariel let a little chuckle of her own escape. “I’ll be with Phi, in front. Come join us whenever.”

Hugging and crying it all out seemed to have helped a bunch. It was really only a psychological dressing; but it would keep Amy’s wounds at bay until they could follow up in the quiet peace and comfort of a chaise longue and a cuppa. Excusing herself with a little nod, Ariel returned to the consoles, where her omni-tool had finished booting up all the programs and plugins she’d be needing very soon. She waved to her fellow bridge bunny, saying, “I think we’re all set now. How are things going?”

Seraphina indulged in a sort of tunnel vision, knowing she would need to be fully focused on several tasks once the operation officially started. The conversations around her became background noise as she decided on the primary and backup encryption methods. With that done she made sure the main console would manage all data and synchronized everyone's omnitool to it. After making sure there were no problems with a few tests, she moved on to assigning each fireteam a unique name. This was not an essential task but in her experience it helped, and she put a fair bit of thought into the overall theme as well as specifics. The placeholder numbers and letters for teams and individuals were updated as soon as she decided on the last name.

>>>Horus- Tactical support
>Ariel, Amy, Seraphina (Loren Scheer)
>>>Fireteam Gryphon- Decoy 1
>Tarak, Avelyn, Trajan (Melchor Dreyfus)
>Mess Hall
>>>Fireteam Harpy- Decoy 2
>Laurey, Finbarr (Leo Mills), Dr. Millard
>Engines
>>>Fireteam Mujina- Infiltration 1
>Navi, Flame, Ashton
>Medical Bay
>>>Fireteam Lamia- Infiltration 2
>Nero, Iris, Samuel
>Armory B

"Hm?" She muttered, glancing at Ariel after pulling herself out of that single minded focus. She looked at Laurey again but still didn't raise the questions nagging at her.

"Ah, yes actually. Please do. I can manage but it's not exactly a specialization of mine. I'll primarily be coordinating the data as it comes in and checking the integrity of our encryption. If the two of you can support the teams directly as the need arises I'd greatly appreciate it. Almost as much as Nero." She added the last bit with a smirk.

The dull thud of Amy's head hitting the wall went largely unnoticed as Phi continued to double-check that omnitool tracking was not lagging. However, the distinct sound of sniffling did catch her attention. Searching for the sound of distress Phi was surprised to see Amy of all people crying into Ariel's embrace. Phi realized she should have seen this coming, the signs were there, and she suddenly felt terribly guilty for not noticing. She nodded solemnly as Ariel stood, offering Amy a shoulder to cry on literally. She wanted to help as well but the others seemed to have things well in hand. She would probably just get in the way, and with the mission starting soon she wouldn't be able to devote her full attention like Amy deserved.

Resolving to pay her another visit soon Phi offered a reassuring smile as Ariel and Amy separated. Inclining her head to the other seat near her Phi invited their troubled counselor to join them.

"I think we're ready to go, since I'm starting to check some things for a third time now."

Amy stayed in the back of the room for a bit, blowing cool air onto the coffee that Avelyn had brought her to really cool it down to a temperature she could comfortably drink while the rest of the crew slowly disappeared from the room as they formed their own groups and head down to planetside. She offered a small smile towards the aforementioned girl at the pat, smiling warmly up at her as her gaze scanned the girl’s face. “You’ll always be the most amazing people in my eyes. Stay safe, okay?” As the others left, her eyes began to slowly scan the room while she took a shy sip from the cup, until her eyes finally rested on Ariel and Phi who were sitting at the consoles and getting busy with the comms equipment. Really, Amy had no clue why she was up here still… Tarak clearly wasn’t aware of her troubled thoughts before he assigned them to the teams, but he must’ve known already from Iris that she wasn’t exactly the most useful at a distance. So what was it? Were they… trying to protect her? The thought warmed her heart as much as it pained her, seeing that the kids she felt so protective of were the ones putting her into support duty. Then again, there could’ve been a myriad of other reasons for Tarak’s decision, possibilities she didn’t feel like exploring at the moment.

By the time she collected her thoughts and felt ready to finally talk with the others, the cup in her hands was long empty and she quickly placed it down on the cabinet next to her. Standing up and dusting off her dress she walked over to the two girls at the consoles with a small smile, sitting down besides Phi at the offered chair. “Thank you Phi. Thank you Ariel. I’m not sure how much help I will be, but I’ll try my best to keep my eyes open, if that helps.” She explained with a soft smile on her face as she reached out with one hand to gently pet Phi’s head. It was hard to tell if she did that because she wanted to ease Phi’s worry over her or to get some comfort for herself, but there it was. With a small nod she turned towards the row of panels and placed her index finger onto her lips as a small hum escaped her. “So... what am I supposed to do? What do we look for? Just wait until something happens, oooor…”

"Ariel and I are good for most of the technical work, but don't underestimate yourself, Amy. An extra pair of eyes and hands helping out goes a long way. But your support in other, less obvious ways may count for more than you think. A lot of operations need you to play things by ear, and adapt as the situation changes. The saying 'no plan survives contact with the enemy' is pretty apt. For now, just help Ariel with whatever minor tasks she needs, while I keep things running smoothly in the background."

The messy brown hair Phi was sporting as Loren Scheer almost looked better for the ruffling from Amy's hand. She didn't complain, since it didn't last long and everyone was mostly distracted by their preparations. Besides, Amy seemed to need the contact more. Along that reasoning Phi gripped Amy's hand and squeezed it reassuringly. Then, as the teams started moving out, Phi put on the bored, mildly irritated look her persona had displayed when he was alive. She didn't expect to interact much if at all with anyone from the Ascendancy, but maintaining the act from here on out would be preferable. Just in case.

Her first order of business involved the management of real time tracking and the three dimensional map for the various decks. The green markers for allies appeared first, represented as triangles with a line through the middle to determine orientation. Next came the more involved task of trying to mark Ascendancy personnel, since even their own people didn't have tabs on everyone else but a team or a few teams at best. Still, she eventually managed to tag most of them with red T symbols. This would have to be constantly monitored and updated. Finally amber dots began appearing with tiny numbers next to them. These were the trackers on the main prison population, exceptions where the trackers themselves had been destroyed. Most of these were not moving. This data was encrypted and transmitted to each team member's omnitool before Phi moved on to the groundwork that would seize control of communications on the ground.

Damn, I really wish I had Laurey here. All it's gonna take is one tech on their side being better than us…

With the ground teams having made planetfall, it was about time for Ariel to begin her own work too: hacking into the ship. Or, at least trying to. There certainly wouldn’t be any better opportunity than now, while the majority of the crew was distracted. Sure, if things went awry, there would be no bluffing out of it — but that was an issue for the future. The Ariel of right now had no such predicament to face!

Though she had more wartime experience busting into Rau’ve computers, code of human origin still felt more familiar. Perhaps it was differences in their fundamental psychology, or simply a matter of her training. Either way, infiltrating the ships’ systems wasn’t as difficult as she had imagined it being. Being able to plug in directly into the target’s systems was a privilege rarely afforded to those on the battlefield, but any competent support Star Marine would have learnt to cope either way.

The Ascendancy’s prison ship security wasn’t actually that bad, as expected of vessels meant to keep the likes of dangerous rebel AGIs imprisoned. The same was true of the Circle of Hell. At least, it had been — until the crash and the accompanying damage did away with a good bit of that. Take, for example, the surveillance cameras all around the ship, which were now relying on what had to be a jury-rigged system to connect to a central monitoring room. Normally they’d be linked up directly to the screens, but with those wires damaged, the engineers had cobbled together a primitive mesh of remote connections so insecure that even a mere code monkey could easily intercept their hastily-encrypted transmissions. As such, a few minutes of scanning the airwaves later, every last camera in the ship had become Ariel’s own eyes and ears.

“Managed to get into the cams.” A few of the bridge’s displays flickered to life, showing the intercepted camera feeds; all muted at the moment, of course. Even without sound, their visual fidelity was high enough that Ariel noticed things had already gone awry for one of the fireteams. “Phi, I see action at the armoury, with Lamia. Could you handle that? Amy — just point it out if you see anything troublesome happening. I’ll try and find our prisoner.”

Amy would nod slowly at the request and with all the enthusiasm of a little kid leaned forward to keep her eyes on the computer screens, scanning for any possible activities that might occur. At the same time she kept an eye out on the action already unfolding: watching with anxiety as the events began to unfold so far away from them, yet so close through the screens of their computers. If only she could do something and be helpful from up here…

Closing her eyes, she would look deep inside of her and the psychic powers which she normally kept at the back of her mind. Of course, her telepathic abilities and illusions were useful or at the very least entertaining in her everyday life, but some other techniques she had to master for scenarios when she felt threatened and needed a way to get away from people who would do her harm. None cause pain, something which Amy felt opposed to from the very bottom of her soul, but she also didn’t think she could look into the mirror if she let anyone on her team get hurt. ”Just like Iris told you, you can do this Amy. Don’t let the others down…” Her breathing slowed down as she reached out with her mind, trying to tap into the flow of information that she was receiving through the displays.

At first it was nothing. No matter how hard she was trying to focus on it, she couldn’t feel anything, not even a single thread that she could follow to get to the tangled mess that was a person’s brain. She opened her eyes for a moment and gave an angry stare at the screen as if hoping it would intimidate it into co-operating. Just as she was starting to get frustrated she spotted Iris on the screen, and the faintest tingling sensation resonated in her brain. Her heart skipped a few beats as she dwelled on this revelation for a second before she would close her eyes once more and decided to focus on Iris instead of the display. A few moments passed and then… bam, there it was. Reaching through the aether, she could feel the faint but distinct presence that was Iris’s mind. Then the mental image became clearer and clearer as more of the surrounding people were picked up by Amy, all those Iris could see. She could hardly begin to think about all the reasons that now of all these times she could finally manage to make a connection, though she had a feeling that the twins enchanting the comms earlier had some sort of an effect on it. But she could be wrong, and maybe it really was just because of the motivation she received from Iris back during their last action that got her to overcome a mental barrier inside of her.

“I got it!” She would exclaim loudly as she turned over to the others with the biggest smile that her face could possibly fit. “I-I think I can connect with the people down there! I-it’s faint, but… I might be able to use some of my abilities! If you can keep our teams in the feed, I-I’ll try and help in some way!” Amy’s excitement was clearly visible and audible in her voice as she looked at the other two girls happily. “It’s time for support team to give some support!”

>>>Are you really going to eat that?

Phi made a face somewhere between a smirk and a grimace upon catching Avelyn's feed.

She nodded acknowledgement to Ariel without saying a word or looking away from the screens. Most of the data Phi was checking was reliable, with the exception of a few expected blind spots. Much of the corrupted or unreliable data seemed to be near the secondary armory and consequently fireteam Lamia. At first she was not concerned for two reasons: it was expected with the extensive damage and the trio were competent infiltrators.

So of course things went wrong.

Phi noticed the unwelcome surprise even as Ariel pointed it out. An involuntary grimace later and she was already assessing the situation, following the engagement as it unfolded. If it had just been the Ascendancy forces she might not even be worried, but the fact that this was a third party was a problem. An unknown on the field, and the things she was quickly learning caused no small amount of anxiety.

>>>Fireteam Lamia engaged by unknowns in armory. Target is human male with possible interference magic, supported by mechanized troops.

She sent out the alert to every team and then immediately killed the lights and sealed the door behind Crow. The effect might not even be helpful for more than a second or two assuming their enemy had countermeasures, but a second or two of total darkness might be enough for Nero. She turned to Amy, surprised to learn she could reach the people on the ground with her abilities. An asset that might further tip the scales in Lamia's favor.

"Can you keep Iris and Sam oriented in the darkness? Might be better than having to rely on omnitools."

@Th3King0fChaos@Letter Bee
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