BrokenPromise

Symphony of Espers

@The World@Ponn@FamishedPants@SilverPaw@ERode@Majoras End There's only one more collab going that I'm aware of, so I'm gunna make this announcement now.

We're at the end of this first part of the RP. Once the Walmart collab goes up, I'll start writing a final post and cap off the current going-ons in Pax Septimus. Part 2 will start later. I wish I had a more concrete date, but I've been pretty busy lately and that won't let up as soon as the holidays end. Erode has also been busy and starting part 2 right away does not seem like it's in anyone's best interest.

I will be working on the RP while we're not playing it though. It all looks good, but for part two the support glamors are going to get treated differently than your standard ones. They're sort of weak and situational for something that takes your operation upgrade. I'm going to work on something that lets them get upgraded during downtime, as support glamors lend themselves to being upgraded incrementally. You will likely need to change up your character sheets for this change, but I'll have more details once part 2 rolls around. Because of this, I'll just tackle your new powers once part 2's interest check is up.

Thanks to everyone who stuck around this long. I hope to see you in part 2 when it rolls around.

March of the White Rabbit: A Roll-Your-Own Magical Girl Roleplay

"It’s a good thing I don’t make mistakes often.”

— Sakura

Sakura

3 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 3
8 | 17 | 7 | 17 | 5
Lightning - Water - Air | Killing Blow
Awareness | Enhanced Outfit | Training (Wing Chun) | Sanctum | Bile | Reverence |Immortality
Free Agent | Mana Overload
Alone | Monstrous Form

“Neko-baba, I just realized you aren’t a neko anymore.” Sakura cursed themselves for being so careless. She was supposed to be thinking before acting, and already she had made a mistake. But that was alright, as it seemed like she hadn’t been bothered by it. Surely if Dina thought she was going to screw up she wouldn’t have involved her with the vanguard. Whatever that was. It sounded important though.

“Got it. Nobody will see us once I’m done! Send someone for me once we’re ready to go!”

Sakura had some difficulty remembering where the storage room was, but she was also too proud to ask for assistance finding it. But it didn’t matter. She found it easily enough. She had several buckets of paint on her person when she headed out of Sanctuary. They were stacked up in her arms, and the end of her tail was coiled around a few too. Maybe ten or twelve gallons of paint. Enough to cover roughly four-thousand square feet provided you were going for thin, even coverage. But when compared to the size of Sanctuary.

“Fu-King-Hell!” Sakura’s eyes wandered up and down the massive gate. “It’s going to take a gallon of paint just to cover the front door! But Neko-Baba… Maddam-Baba has put her faith in me. I must succeed in this! For all the big oppai magical girls!”

But Sakura wasn’t going to just start flinging paint around. She had looked at the paint cans and knew that it was water based. That meant that she could make the paint go further by adding more water. And guess who happened to have magical water?

“Fucking brilliant, Pink-Sama!” That was Sakura’s nickname for herself when she did something ingenious.

She blasted the gate with a burst of water, then dipped her tail in one of the paint buckets and started slathering it all over. “Huh? It’s running a lot more than normal.” It was running quite thin. “Was that too much water? Maybe I can compensate by adding more paint.” Sakura slid her tail deeper into the paint bucket, only to discover the mouth of the can was smaller than the girth of her tail. “Shit! The paint can is biting me!” She flailed her tail about as the paint started to run down her tail. “Think! Think!” With a mighty flick of her tail. She smashed the paint can against the gate. Her tail burst free, and the paint clung to her skin with little or any of it getting on Sanctuary’s outer walls.

“Fucking Hell, Pink-Sama!” She sprayed herself down as Sanctuary continued to reveal its location to everyone.

---

"’Bout to go DEFCON 3 on the Mint."

— Chloe Irving

Oh how the tables turn. For a moment, Chloe would have been fine seeing Al another day. Especially if Wisdom was going to come back with another magical girl. But this was for the best. She had been preparing for her return to Penrose, and that largely depended on how Al responded to her.

”There you are, Al. I’m glad you felt my return was worthy of such fanfare.” She placed her hands on her hips, but maintained stern. She always took Al seriously, at least when it came to talking with him. ”You want one reason? I’ll give you several. Lets start with the last time we spoke. You asked me to bring down the Golden Trove. In response to your request, I had Elvira throw a very special party for all the Penrose darlings. The rave wiped out two squadrons of Ascendancy girls and cleared the Penrose Independent off the map. The long term effects of the rave are still being felt now. Distrust in Beacon has never been higher, too the point Penny has divorced herself from them. But the relevance to the task at hand is that weeks after Su visited the rave, she, Boteg, and Helga all fled Penrose. They no longer felt safe due to how frightining the rave was. She did give the Golden Trove to Oros for a time, but she went MIA a week or so later and the Golden Trove’s guests have since left. It took time, but I managed to bring down the Golden Trove in such a way that they will never suspect the Mint was behind it. And this is just reason number one: I did what you wanted.” Chloe strutted back and forth in front of the wall Al had projected his silhouette onto. ”The second reason is that I’m the most competent ‘agent’ you have. Most of the strong agents followed Veronica’s lead and defected from the Mint, Reaver and Viper were unable to assassinate the Cardinal… am I missing anyone? I know you’ve got a few dozen agents up your sleeve but I doubt they’ve accomplished even a fraction of what I have. But please, name them now before we move on.” She folded her arms behind her back. As she spoke, she could feel her serious façade slip away. ”The third reason is, well, connections. How many of your agents have sat in Veronica’s lap for a photo up? How many have crossed tongues with Penny and survived to tell the tale? Your enemies know I’m a Mint agent and they still trust me. Only those goody two-shoe light bulbs and similar sorts can’t stand me. Want to know what Cradle is up to? I can do that. Want eyes inside of Sanctuary? Use mine. It can be a curse sometimes, being this loved. But I manage the attention somehow.” Chloe approached the shadow and tapped on Al’s “head” before bringing her finger to her chin. ”The fourth reason is that you aren’t that stupid. Sure, you’re a brute that uses fear and violence for everything, but even you know killing me wouldn’t be worth it. I’m sure you’d be successful, but why? Everything I do benefits your nefarious schemes, even when I’m not aware of what they are. It’s not like it’s that hard to cross the Mint and get away with it. I hadn’t realized going to New York for a month or so was anything close to a ‘Houdini act.’ There are quite a few debt dodgers hanging around Penrose that you’ve been unable to do anything about. How many coins did Veronica escape with? How about Penny, any closer to getting her to pay up? Staying on my good side is in your best interest.” Chloe moved her arm over her forehead and leaned over Al’s shadow. ”I don’t know if that was enough to convince you to let me live. But if anything should change your mind, it should be the fifth reason.” She used her other hand to trace the outline of Al’s shadow.

”I'm going to save your life.”

March of the White Rabbit: A Roll-Your-Own Magical Girl Roleplay

"So far so good."

— Chloe Irving

This was not the first time Chloe had returned to Penrose.

The last time she returned was from some beach dimension. All in all, she had enjoyed her time there. It got her a lot closer to Penny. Though she would have proffered it if time flowed at the appropriate pace in there. Being dropped into a frozen city after she had become accustom to the summer sun was just cruel.

She remembered it just like it was yesterday.

...

...

...

“Tell me Chloe.” Veronica was reclining on a beach towel, unashamedly letting her skin absorb as much sun as it could. “What do you do for fun?”

Veronica had been getting a bit more comfortable around Chloe ever since the drink challenge picture they took. It was probably because Chloe had an embarrassing photo of her, or maybe it was because she had gotten drunk again. Chloe didn’t press for answers. She didn’t really care. Or at least, she only cared that it could benefit her.

"I enjoy talking with pretty things like you." She placed a finger on her chin and grinned. "Though I enjoy doing a great deal more than talking with the especially pretty ones. So long as I enjoy their company we could really do anything."

“So no propper hobbies then?”

"I’m anything but propper."

“I mean to ask if there’s anything you enjoy outside of people.” The Astolpho doll appeared in Veronica’s hand. “I think my favorite thing in the whole world is collecting dolls.”

"Is it because you like the way they look?"

“Aesthetics aren’t the only reason, though that’s part of it.” She turned the plush over in her hand. “Dolls do exactly what’s expected of them without fail. They don’t care what you dress them up as, they won’t complain if you abuse them. They don’t get jealous or sad.”

Chloe took a seat beside Veronica. "I have my underlings for that. Sure, they can be inadequate at times, but they all do exactly what I want in the end."

“As do my agents. But sometimes you just want something that wholly falls under your will and can’t resist.”

Chloe grinned. "Seems we have quite a bit in common. If we were any more similar, we’d be twins."

“How fortunate that we aren’t then.” Veronica looked directly into Chloe’s eyes. ”If I thought for a moment we had the same ambitions, we’d be fighting right now.” She averted her gaze. ”Or at least, once the dolphin was gone.”

"I was about to say." Chloe laid down in the sand and folded her arms behind her head. "But it sounds to me like you aren’t looking hard enough if you think dolls are so great. I think I’ve found someone that bends to my whims just like one of your dolls. I'll always prefer something that bends to my will than something that has no will."

”I would agree, but people like that can change. For your sake, I hope they don’t.”

…

…

…

"Where’s the Mint when you need them?"

It was aggravating how difficult it was to get in touch with the Mint. Sure, Al himself couldn’t be everywhere at once, but for an organization that knew what was going on everywhere at any given time, they were difficult to get a hold of. By now Chloe would have expected to be confronted by them. But it seemed they weren’t as far reaching as she had originally anticipated. Perhaps they just ran a tighter ship in new york.

Or maybe she wasn’t being patient enough.

"Chloe Irving?"

Hearing her full name was enough to make Chloe turn her head. Who she saw was a girl dressed like Julie Andrews in the sound of music. Albite with a lower neckline to allow a view of her cleavage. Though there were some other big differences too. Notably her darker skin and black hair.

"My my. Penrose has really gone to hell recently, but all the girls are just as cute as I remember them being." Cloe’s grin only widened as she drew closer to the mysterious girl. "I don’t suppose you have a name I can call you?"

"I appreciate the compliment, but I’m new here myself. Can’t count myself among your lot." With a nod, she folded her hands together. "I do not think my name is too important, given the bit role I’m going to play in all this. But how about you just call me Wisdom?"

"Wisdom, hmm?" Chloe lowered her eyelids. "If you don’t want to tell me your name, maybe tell me why you’re calling mine?"

"I think it would be easier to show you." Wisdom turned over her hand and revealed an ebon coin. "Just got back from my last operation. Same as you I imagine?" She hid the coin in her sleeve.

"Ahh, you didn’t strike me as a bad girl. Phu phu phu!" With a roll of her shoulders, Chloe stretched her arms out and wrapped them around Wisdom’s neck. "You said you were new here, but do you know where Al is hiding? We need to have a talk."

"I can get him. Can’t say he’ll drop everything he’s doing just to see you though. But that’ll be his call in the end." Wisdom ducked out of Chloe’s embrace. "I have someone else who would like to speak to you too."

"Oh? Another mystery girl? If she’s even half as cute as you are, I can probably make time for her."

Wisdom nodded. "Al take’s priority of course. I’ll come back with someone regardless." She blew Chloe a kiss before stepping into a back alley.

"I do think she’s playing hard to get."

Feature Request Thread

So like, what features are currently being implemented? Or what does the list look like now?

Designing an FTL Method.

>Wormholes: Just bend the fabric of reality over on itself like a piece of paper. There's even some talk that such a thing might even be possible, though it's still in the realm of science fiction.

>Dimensional shift: Another version of FTL travel is to phase through dimensions, which are all expanding and rotating at different speeds. You might not be where you want in this world, but you and your crew can swap places with other versions of yourself with ones that are. And because there are an infinite number of parallel dimensions, you can find one that's near identical to this one save for your ship being closer to where you want to go. This can even host some hijinks when the computer screws up a calculation, and characters have radically different personalities or events have transpired after a FTL jump. The comic where this idea was originally used, the main character just used FTL one day and jumped to a world where his love interest was dead, and he's been trying to get back with her ever since.

>Anything else: Alien tech no one really understands, magic, teleportation, etc.

LST or FTL travel is always going to require some explanation so that it doesn't get abused, but there are a lot of ways you can do it. You just have to decide what works best for the narrative.

[sub] and [sup] image overlays

Yes.

The more you "sup" the lower image, the greater the overlap. The increments are pretty small and with diminishing returns, but it can be done if for some reason you have an aversion to using software.

By using more and more sub tags on the upper image, or sup tags on the lower image, you can get the overlap to be a little stronger.

Myself, I would just use some image editing software. Even if it's one of those newfangled browser ones. That way you know your code won't break when someone looks at it with a phone.

But if you wanna go code route...

Example

^[

Example

^{[[[[[[[[[[[[[}

Grimoiric Heart

Annoyed Chinami? Check.

Blissfully ignorant Tesni? Double check.

Charlotte here to intrude on what was suppose to just be the students? Triple check. Though to be fair, that was somewhat expected.

It wasn't often Silvia hoped more people arrived at an event, but she wouldn't have minded talking to Celina or Nessie again. But no matter how long she stared down the dark hallway, it didn't seem like anyone else was coming. Had Bonnie not summoned them? Were they running late? It didn't matter. She didn't care.

She looked over the group. She'd have to talk to Bonnie at some point, but at the moment it looked like Bonnie was a little busy. Popular people tended to have a lot of connections. Even if Bonnie and Silvia had only spoken with each other a few times, it made sense that she knew a lot of the people present. Silvia was likely an outlier in that regard. Of course a class of students would be familiar with each other. Why would they run off on their own to better their skills in solitude? Did the magical girls of Marrywell even believe in solitude for anything?

Regardless, it wouldn't do to just hang back while everyone else went exploring. Especially since she had been noticed.

Silvy?

Had she just been given a nickname? Before Silvia could even respond, Tesni went on to continue talking with her friends. The speed in which she jumped from topic to topic was astounding. It almost made Silvia dizzy. She could keep up with it, but not participate. It wasn't until Suzuya produced a torch that Silvia found a moment to join them.

"I don't think any of us want to burn down the school." Well, maybe one of them. Tesni did do a number on the cafeteria. "And if we did, we probably wouldn't be looking for your permission. But it's good to know you can extinguish your flames." Maybe she was trying to say that her flames wouldn't burn anything she didn't want them to burn because she could extinguish them. If so, that was a pretty passive-aggressive way to word it. "If I had flame magic I'd probably use it to cook pizza." A silly thing to say, but it was just to defuse some tention.

Ozma also had a bit to say, but Silvia was only half listening to it as none of it seemed to be aimed at her specifically.

We can get ratted out for this?

...

Though for Charlotte, the couch remained in her focus. Maybe she was planning on taking a nap there. Maybe she and Valeria would do some cuddling before the night was over. Who really knew what went through the mind of Ozma?

Though one thing was certain.

She was not the first person to spot the couch by the fireplace.

A woman's head rose over the back of the couch. Slowly, her forehead came into view. Then her eyes, then her nose.

"Oh, hey everyone."

She stepped over the back of the couch, revealing her less than modest costume. She might have been trying to go for some sort of animal hybrid mummy, but there really weren't enough wraps to fully sell the look, let alone be considered a modest costume choice. That was either bothersome or appealing depending on who was looking. There was enough jewelry to pass the "mummy" off as a pharaoh at least. Golden bangles and rings covered the woman head to toe. It wasn't immediately obvious who she was, but her voice was distinctly Mika's. A keen observer may have even noticed her scabbard wedged between the couch cushions on a second look.

"I almost came as a maid, but I don't know. I didn't feel like being a servant today."

And she wasn't alone. An all-white bulldog walked around the couch and sat at Mika's feet. He was unusually well dressed for the occasion.

"...But I still got roped into dog-sitting. If you're going to explore the dungeon, maybe you'd like to take Winston here for a walk? He'd enjoy it." Winston just looked at the girls with a closed mouth, as if he was anticipating an answer. "Assuming you girls want your privacy that is. I can certainly come with you if you don't mind my company. Or maybe you want my company? I mean, Ozma's strong, but you know..." She wiggled her fingers in the air. "There are things locked in that dungeon that no magical girl should have to see! Things scarier than any pageless that were too powerful to defeat. They've been banished to the darkest corner of the academy to ensure they don't taint the light!" Winston turned away from everyone and buried his face in the back of the couch.

March of the White Rabbit: A Roll-Your-Own Magical Girl Roleplay

”Oh no, magic!”

— Tonya “Mac” Murphy IRON MOUSE

Tonya “Mac” Murphy

Age: 24/11 | Gender: Female/Female | Illusion, Gravity
Body | Power of Friendship, Regeneration, Third Eye | Cradle
Coercion, Soul Jar, Martial Training, True Sight, Parasite, Gifted, Awareness, Overcity Shift, Mystic Artifact

Magical Overload, Cradle Supply, Connected, Gifted Item (Aigorost) | Monstrous Form, Exposed, Mercy, Distrust
Redirected Magic, Second Specialization | Non-Standard Limbs, Destroyer

STR: 05 | AGI: 04 | VIT: 05 | MAG: 03 | LCK: 03
+46
STR: 20 | AGI: 20 | VIT: 20 | MAG: 20 | LCK: 20

Earnings this post: Zilch

Remaining: 8 Gold, 30 Silver, 39 Bronze
Total: 12 Gold, 162 Silver, 183 Bronze

Everything in the magical girl world (that’s a real thing, truly) had been set up by a number of powerful patrons. This was one of the reasons magical girls were so “modular.” Why some had hammer spaces while others had killing blows. These abilities also had to be “balanced” by these mighty patrons to a certain degree, and generally were similar in function. While the cradle was a bit different than most other hammer spaces, it was still a hammerspace power. But with all the powers that magical girls could get, the most wonky one of them all had to be third eye.

It was powerful for sure. Intelligence was the sort of thing that could win wars before the first bullet is shot. Knowing exactly how a spell works, what type of magic an enemy uses, or even if an area has magic in it is a very powerful ability. Naturally, the patrons in charge of this 4-D chess game needed to balance it out. It was how they chose to go about doing it that Mac took issue with.

The third eye had to be open through some conscious effort on the part of the user. It was a weird drawback that Mac didn’t fully understand. It took fairly little mana to use, and it didn’t even work all the time anyway. Seriously, she couldn’t look through a magical coat, but then when it came time to fight a giant metal man, she instantly understood that it had several hearts, and it linked its opponents hearts with its own metal hearts to share damage. Said hearts were also being used to both channel and cast the spell.

All good information, but she wished she had known it before she started attacking.

Mac made sure Iron mouse mimicked her injury. Blood dripped out of their mouths as she suppressed a cough. ”Oh no, I hope Justine doesn’t try to make a pillow out of my blood!”

Mac might have let her mind wander to other topics related to the unusual ways in which the third eye was balanced, but Finn had abandoned his task to “help” kill the tin man. Only the unusual curse was set up in such a way that he would be killing her instead. It was fortunate that he chose to engage in melee, as this gave Mac a bit more time to respond to the accidental friendly fire attempt.

”Hey!”

Iron Mouse, or rather Mac’s gravity magic, shoved his weapon off course. The cane-sword smashed into the chains that held the giant’s heart in place.

”Are you trying to kill me?” Iron Mouse pointed at the giant. ”It has some sort of damage feed back magic, and our health is intertwined with its hearts. If you want to stop it, we need to carefully remove them!” In truth, Mac could survive just about anything so long as her soul jar wasn’t destroyed. That didn’t mean it would be painless or have other consequences, but she did need to pretend to be concerned for her life. Trying to brute force their way through the tin man’s many hearts wasn’t going to help anyone. ”Actually, why don’t we try to rip this thing’s chest open and dump its hearts into the cradle?”

Of course, Iron Mouse wasn’t standing idle. She was already trying to unbind the chains that held the heart in place. Iron Mouse was swinging her gun around like a club, but really, Mac had scaled the metal beast and was delivering blows with her invincible fists. Each swing of Iron Mouse’s gun lined up with one of Mac’s punches.

---

"Everyone in Sanctuary has big boobas. Know why that is, swiss knife chan?”

— Sakura

Sakura

3 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 3
8 | 17 | 7 | 17 | 5
Lightning - Water - Air | Killing Blow
Awareness | Enhanced Outfit | Training (Wing Chun) | Sanctum | Bile | Reverence |Immortality
Free Agent | Mana Overload
Alone | Monstrous Form

“Why does everything look weird now?”

It was just as Sakura feared. After that big oppai cat maid gave her that advice about using her head, she would have to do just that. Punching color back into the walls was not something Sakura could do with her fists.

But that was only because she didn’t have tha paint yet.

“Fucking hell! There’s gotta be some paint somewhere!”

Punching paint onto stuff probably wouldn’t be too effective, but surely her tail would make for a good calligraphy brush? She could just roll through the paint and get it everywhere she needed that way. Sakura just needed to know where in this dump they kept the paint.

When Sakura turned around, she noticed the monsters stirring. While nothing bad had happened yet, monsters were pretty temperamental by nature. Most had destructive urges and would sow chaos as soon as something upsetting happened. And this was certainly more than a little upsetting.

Also as an aside, Sakura hadn’t seen this many oppai bouncing up and down since he was a mobster. Scratch that, even when he was a yakuza, no club he had ever been to had this many girls just running around with such ill-secured cleavage. The monster and dark magical dress code seemed to enforce a policy where no one was allowed to wear an outfit that offered propper support.

Come to think of it her own chest had gotten a bit bigger after becoming a monster girl. What the hell? At least as a normal magical girl she had a flat chest like a proper man! But she was getting side tracked. Dina looked like she was going to make an announcement, but that could wait.

“Hey, neko-baba.” Sakura slithered closer. “Where do you keep the paint? I can fix this real quick.”

Symphony of Espers

Veronica allowed Finn to leave without stopping him. There were enough distractions in her vicinity that she didn't feel too pressed to look after him. "Careful!" was all she managed as the boy slipped into the darkness.

"Who's idea?" Oros raised an eyebrow at agent Leroux. "Oh! You mean to make the Diver the way it is?" The cultist grinned. "Have you thought about what makes a monster a monster, ma'am? They can look a lot like espers can't they?" With a chuckle, she pointed at Stacy. "I mean is she a monster or an esper? You need to do more than look to know the answer. A monster is just a creature or person who has come here from another world. Behemoths as we call them are a bit different. The Diver in particular was the result of trying to shove a harp shaped object through a human shaped hole. An experiment. Everything is kind of bullshitty in the space between dimensions and weird things happen when people try to cross that barrier." She waved her hand at Veronica. "Let Mrs magical scientist here figure it out. Why do you even care? You walked off to have a cute moment with Mika!"

"Are you done talking to yourself?" Fritzi narrowed her brow.

"Yea, I guess the four of us should depart so that we can be part of our own cute scene, amiright fellas?"

"Wonderful." Veronica turned to Samuel. "Seems they have everything under control, but I wouldn't care if you wanted to look after them. Alternatively, Finn should be watched. He looked exhausted, and I'm sure he's trying to confront Betty. I need to return and make sure Binky's alright. She should have called me already." And with that, Veronica stepped into the shadows and disappeared.

---

Darkness.

Finn could see nothing but darkness. The sky was pitch black, and lightning had destroyed the wiring for the apartment complex. A pistol and bandages were a great help if he needed to fight as a human, but it did little to assist him in these conditions. Eyes open, eyes shut, it all looked the same.

The only way Finn could get around was by touch or sound. With a hand on the wall, he listened for anything and moved forward. The sound of a footstep? Furniture moving? A heartbeat? Nothing came to his ears. He might have been able to use his cellphone, but that only threw enough light to get spotted.

Then sound and sensation came at once. His foot struck something while he took a step. Then with a click, his vision filled with a brilliant light that burned his eyes. A flashlight was shining on him. He had been spotted.

”...Time Keeper?” Pac-A-Fist had never met Finn, but his relationship with Betty had become a legend on Shimr. He couldn't make out her body, but her voice was coming from the source of the light. ”You're not here to fight, right?”

It seemed that Finn had kicked over a fake plant. The decorations in some of these apartment complexes were weird.

Video Games: The General Discussion & Community Thread Number Two

What is everyone else playing?

@SleepingSilence

Omega Strikers.

And Darkest Dungeon. It was only 4$ on the Halloween Steam sale. It's not really something you want to spend your entire weekend playing but you can play a few dungeon runs at a time without it feeling repetitive.