datadogie

Aboard the I.S.S. Prize : An Episodic Sci-Fi Adventure

*

Cake's job was harder than she had originally revealed it to be, but it wasn't exactly difficult. It was difficult because Captain Carabello's plan revolved around a small gap in Du-Vos' sensors. That gap was like a mouse hole; when you were inside, you would be hidden. The problem was that, like a mouse hole, you could see the mouse squirming it's way inside, and that's exactly what would happen to Team Alpha. Or, you could be Team Beta, which would be the equivalent of watching the metaphorical mouse run it's way across the living room carpet. Cake had to make sure that neither were spotted whilst in the open, and because she couldn't do it from the outside, she had to do it from the inside.

After running through her probabilities, Cake surmised that elimination of the security computer was to be her utmost priority. By the time anyone realised it was down, it would be too late for Du-Vos. Plus, it would drastically increase Team Alpha's chances at success, and nobody would complain if their jobs were made a little easier. Based on Du-Vos' ship, which wasn't some pansy like the Moray, Cake was going to have to perform a fast, brute force attack. The reason for that was simply the communications setup of the ship - any incoming transmission from the Prize was certain to trigger alarm flags. She had to act faster than the notification.

And so, with her priorities straightened out, Cake begun. She sent a narrow beam transmission across space. Transmissions could be blocked, but for that to happen the ship had to receive data: Where the communication was coming from so it could send a return signal, who was contacting it, and other minuscule details. It was in this minor opening that Cake was able to force her way inside. The security computer responded by trying to seal her in, something that would have worked if she was a traditional virus - but she was not. In fact, all that did was show her it's directory. In microseconds, Cake enveloped it, cutting it off from the rest of the ship and preventing it from sending out an alert. Then, she took it offline entirely.

Unfortunately, Cake knew that her safety was not guaranteed, as there were countless other threats she had to deal with. Not only would the security computer attempt to restart periodically, but there was also the crew she had to worry about. Any one of them could spot something fishy going on in the depths of the ship, particularly if they ran diagnostics on the security computer itself, and she had to spoof the operators of the stations she was going to be hijacking, and she couldn't exactly turn them off. To solve one problem though, she set up a flag that would notify her of any checks on the security computer. She could send back false reports as necessary, but there was still much risk involved. Cake diverted her resources to taking over the Du-Vos' sensors, and then she waited.

Later, as the shuttles launched, Cake played her part in ensuring they were not detected. She overlaid the visual sensors with that of the background space, and ensured other sensors showed the same background readings as had been shown before the shuttles were launched, effectively clouding the shuttles altogether. She only did it as long as necessary - when Team Beta reached the hangar of the Moray, and Team Alpha entered the blind spot, she scrubbed any interference from the sensors to avoid suspicion. She remained in position to take over them once more - she would need the access to help Robin avoid detection.

---

@Raylah

As this all went on, Cake continued her normal operations aboard the Prize. Captain Carabello had told her that he needed her everywhere - she found this funny, as if Carabello expected her to go on strike and avoid watching particular areas of the ship. Even as she put efforts toward infiltrating the pirate ship, she could still continue her duties aboard the Prize without error, from listening to a pair of crewmen chatting in the cafeteria about chess tactics to running diagnostics on the engineering systems. Even when she wasn't checking one thing or another, she was running simulations both for practice and her own, private pleasure. She kept herself busy.

Cake's core, her primary function or as designers put it, her conscious was really only called in when something required a more sentient touch. She could definitely be in more than one place at a time - while she was in the briefing, Cake had also been talking to an engineer about a mechanical problem and a crewman in her bunk about the best way to fillet a fish. Her mind was really in her core, though. While she could have all these conversations at once, collect data from all over the ship and even across space at the pirate ship, there was always one place, one activity that received the most processing power, and that was where her core was truly focused on.

And just like lifeforms had their attention drawn by various sounds, sights and other receptions, Cake had various flags set up to trigger in the case of various events, to alert her of something that needed immediate attention, and the attention of her core. These differed in priority, from the most basic of flags being equipment failure to higher priority ones, such as crewmen distress or injury. Both of those high-priority flags triggered at the same time at the same place, drawing Cake's attention. M’Elme Lan’thar, the botanical survey leader of Prize, had gotten into a spot of bother it seemed. A reroll of the cameras, a little dipping into the data stores of the ship, and in less time than a lifeform could comprehend Cake had briefed herself on what had happened to Elm.

Cake was tempted to make Elm's life worse by pinging through a notification that medical had requested a checkup on her. Not exactly true, but all in good faith: After all, Elm had just fought with a plant that had clearly wanted her for a snack. Cake decided she wouldn't be that mean, though, and not just because it would be obvious that such convenient timing of a medical notification had to have come from the AI. She knew that some people just liked to handle problems themselves. It didn't mean Cake wasn't going to pay Elm a visit, though.

Cake accessed Elm's tablet, granting herself access to it's speaker to talk to the woman. "You know, Elm, if you wanted adventure you could have asked to go fight the pirates. Should I be telling medical that you've got a case of the ouchies?"

Fenixtear - A Fairy Tail RP

Holly Vertila

Holly Vertila

Age: Holly has not disclosed her actual age. When asked about it directly, she’ll state a random number between fifteen and fifty, though if obviously somewhere between eighteen and her mid twenties.

Guild Mark Location: The guild mark is on the back of her left hand, where it could be placed without the removal of her armour. A guild mark rests on the left pauldron of her armour as well. Both of these are red.

Magic Type: Thrust magic, a magic that allows the user to interact with the world, but at speed. It can utilise the world in it’s elements by applying momentum to objects, people, the ground or even the air itself.

Spells:

Spells

• Thrust: Pounce
  
  • The user can leap in a direction in nearly the blink of an eye, closing distance rapidly, or generating distance if the user wishes to do so, in all axes of direction including up or down.
• Thrust: Warrior’s Zeal
  
  • The power of Thrust is placed in the arms and legs of the user, allowing them to attack with vigorous amounts of speed and power through momentum, as well as open up the ability to swiftly dodge attacks.
• Thrust: Sylph’s Blur
  
  • The user rapidly thrusts the air around them in such a way that it creates a shield that is very difficult for projectiles (or projectile based magic) to penetrate, causing non-solid impacts to dissipate and slow moving objects to be tossed behind and to the side of the user (and possibly into teammates by accident).
• Thrust: Dancer’s Assault
  
  • The user dashes in random directions, gaining distance on the target whilst leaving question as to where they’ll dash next, increasing their evasion of enemy attacks. The final dash puts the user in fistfighting (or swordfighting) range of the target.
• Thrust: Eagle’s Strike
  
  • The user strikes the target with both hands or fists with force, thrust being applied to the target and launching them backwards with incredible velocity. This tends to be more effective when there is something behind the target to push them into, but works well for creating distance, or if the user skids into the ground.
• Thrust: Racing Spear
  
  • The user uses Thrust to give themself constant momentum toward their threat, allowing them to rubber-band constantly around their target and perform increasing attacks on them.
• Thrust: Catch
  
  • The user pulls the target toward them at speed, whether this be an object or a person. The effectiveness of this is determined by the effort by the user as well as the target Catch is being used on. A larger or heavier target will take more effort to actually pull. The user also must be wary of the target accidentally smacking into them, if not caught.
• Thrust: Lockdown
  
  • The user can suddenly thrust a target downwards, causing them to crash into the ground hard, and furthermore, lock them down, making them unable to move their limbs up off the ground.
• Thrust: Guardian’s Throw
  
  • The user can cause nearby objects, debris and even people to fly at great speed towards the target. This includes objects the user may be holding, allowing them to effectively super-throw weapons or turn pebbles into shrapnel.
• Thrust: Attack Projection
  
  • The user utilises the power of thrust to attack at range, with attack moves pushing the air itself, visibly echoing through the air toward their target in arclike fashions.
• Thrust: Terra Uprise
  
  • One of the stronger attacks of a Thrust user, the user can apply thrust to the ground, causing it to shoot upwards under or around the target area. This can be used in a multitude of ways, with the user being able to suddenly create a landfall beneath a foe’s feet to lifting the ground before them to block an attack. This spell can only be cast in one direction, meaning the user can't just uprise in all directions, and can't modify the direction it is cast in after it is cast.
• Thrust: Guardian’s Implosion
  
  • One of the stronger attacks of a Thrust user and a stronger form of Thrust: Guardian’s Throw, Guardian’s Implosion causes everything surrounding a foe, including the air, to suddenly gain momentum toward the target, slamming into them with full force.

Magic Rank: S

Equipment: Holly is armed with a sword, visible in her appearance picture. She also has a full set of armour that she wears at all times, also visible in the picture.

Strengths:

• Capable fighter: Holly doesn’t need magic to be good at fighting. At heart, she’s a swordsman, and even without a blade, a swing is bound to sting.
• Motivated: Even if she is getting frustrated, she has her mind on the goal and the endgame.
• Loyal: Her guild, her friends, her family. They all sit at her heart. She’d break her loyalty to them only after they break theirs to her, which definitely isn’t impossible.

Weaknesses:

• Secluded and untrusting: Holly does not disclose a lot about herself, even to her friends. Indeed, even her appearance is a mystery beyond the faceless appearance of her armour.
• Unforgiving: If someone displeases Holly enough, it’s not too easy to receive forgiveness from her.
• Cynical: Often, Holly can be quite blunt or cynical about a situation. If she’s doing this, it’s a good sign she’s stressed.

Personality: Holly likes to think of herself as a voice of reason, one to stand steady in the face of doom. She is a sensible and incorruptible individual, if a little blunt sometimes, though she makes up for that with a strong mind that remains focused on the task and the goal ahead, while trying to stay clear of tunnel vision. She dislikes those who have a lack of common sense and those who can’t take care of themselves, not liking having to babysit those who should be able to handle something on their own. She has her own personal honour code, trying to abide by the wishes of others if they are reasonable.

History/Bio: Holly’s early life was not brilliant. She was born to a man and a woman who could not take care of themselves, both because they could not be bothered to learn how to do so and because it was too late to do so, for they were too old, having decided to have a child on the edge of the latest time that they could. It meant that young Holly was required to do a lot of the household work, work that she did not want to do. She would much rather be doing something other than being stuck within her home, caring for two adults who did not care for their child. Nobody knew Holly, because Holly could not leave the house. It was like she did not exist.

To add to this, her home village of Keputu wasn’t exactly free. It was occupied by a hardy group of bandits who worked the villagers for a profit. A group that, no matter how many times the village hired someone to dislodge them, came back just to take control once more. As Holly grew up, she came to realise that her parents had been secluding her from the outside not just because they were lazy, and because they needed someone to do the housework for them, but she realised that in a way her parents were protecting her. It didn’t make her feel any better about it, however.

That didn’t mean she wasn’t sad when her parents died, however. Holly’s parents were made an example of how it was a terrible crime to not work for the bandits, and she, like the rest of the village, were forced to watch their execution. For most young heroes in storybooks, this would be a key moment in their lives, where they suddenly grabbed a knife and fought every bandit on their own. For Holly, it was a sign that she needed to leave, to abandon her home and leave it - young Holly could not bear to spend the rest of her life under the rule of the bandits. She remained in her home and out of sight until the next time the village hired a mage guild, and once the bandits had lifted their rule once more, staying only long enough to watch the mages work their magic (no pun intended) in removing the bandits.

It was in the wilderness that young Holly realised the situation she had placed herself in. She very quickly became lost, wandering in circles and trying to find her way. She ended up running into the group of mages that had just been paid to go into her village. After learning that she had no more family because of the bandits, and why she had decided to leave, the group took her in. A requip mage named Jed paid particular attention to her, talking to her as the group brought her back to their home a town away, and Crystal Shadow, a tiny and unnoticeable Guild. While he wasn’t a particularly skilled individual himself, Jed did begin to teach her the fundamentals of swordsmanship, building her up over the years to be even better at swordsmanship than he was, just by her determination to learn, and to have purpose. Holly did not, however, become an official mage of Crystal Shadow until a particularly intense practice fight with Jed, where she unknowingly triggered Pounce, a move of Thrust. She began to practice and hone her magic, growing in the ranks of Crystal Shadow, and with some money gained herself a set of armour.

That was, until she was betrayed. Years down the line, Holly accompanied a pair of other guildmates on a job that was familiar to her, but on the receiving end. Her guildmates were surprised to hear that she came from that village, but let her tag along. They made their way to the village of Keputu, to fend off a group of bandits. She was surprised to find she was being told not to attack the bandits by her guildmates, though, instead just warding them off with displays of their magic. She only learned the truth after the bandits had been warded off, when she and her guildmates met up with them to exchange money. She discovered that the constant presence of the bandits was not because of the bandits’ resilience, but because it was a scheme. With the villagers paying the guild to send out mages each time, it ensured no threat actually came for the bandits, and so they kept working the village off for a steady profit. As she thought about it, Holly realised a lot of other jobs seemed to be popping up on a regular basis, in the same place. Crystal Shadow wasn’t really a proper guild, it was just displaying itself as such - a dark guild. No wonder it was so small, so weak compared to other guilds - it didn’t want to build itself to a high profile. Anger burned within Holly at the realisation that everyone had been tortured for years because of the guild that she was in, that the scheme it was involved in had resulted in the death of her parents. Fury built within her, growing to such a point that when she and her two guildmates had left the bandits…

Holly returned to the Guild on her own, joking glumly that the other pair had stopped for food, and she met up with another small group of Crystal Shadow’s mages, who also ended up ‘stopping on the way home’. It was after the third group had mysteriously not came back with Holly that the rest realised something was wrong, but by that time, the Guild, as small as it was in the first, was a lot, lot smaller. It was Jed himself who was the first to challenge her, to ask her where everyone she was leaving with was. He was also the first to fall. Holly left the guild soon after and when she did so, the guild had lost its final member. It’s final surviving member, that is. She chose to keep her helmet on, not wanting anyone to see who she was, or what she was a part of before.

Free of the Dark Guild’s clutches, she made sure that everywhere else was free of it’s clutches, too. With no more Crystal Shadow to ask for ‘help’, a lot of the villages would ask for legitimate guilds’ help to sort their problems, but she an effort to make sure that some of those villages wouldn’t have to pay for that help, starting with Keputu, and when that was done, other villages that had fallen under the scheme of her prior Guild. She ended up travelling afterwards, going from place to place far from the evil she had once been a part of, until she finally came across a young guild named Fenixtear. She took the time to scope it out for a day, and then joined.

Jasper Elliot

Jasper Elliot

Age: 11
Guild Mark Location: Back of the left hand
Magic Type:

• Aera, a magic that allows the user to sprout large, angelic wings that allow the user to fly, as well as to carry objects or people.
• Fire Magic, a magic that allows the user to conjure, manipulate and control the element of fire.

Spells: Jasper knows some spells, but not too many.

Spells

• Aera:
  
  • Jasper’s most natural spell, when using it he grows a pair of angelic wings that allow him to fly, with enough lift to carry objects or one person. He can adjust his speed of flight, but this increases Magic Power consumption.
• Firefist:
  
  • A simple spell, this allows Jasper to envelope his hands in flame, burning whichever targets he strikes with his fists.
• Fireball:
  
  • Another simple spell, this allows Jasper to launch fireballs at his target. The larger the fireball, the more magic power that is required. Can be casted repetitively.
• Meltdown:
  
  • This spell, when cast, sets everything physical in a small area around Jasper alight. This means the ground will be set on fire but not the air (though the flames will certainly reach from the ground to the air quickly), and if Jasper is beside a wall or object, that will also be set alight.
• Firewhip:
  
  • This spell allows Jasper to whip at targets with a large arc of physical flame that crashes down from above them.
• Firelance:
  
  • This spell allows Jasper to cast a continual beam of fire at his target, burning through the air to crash into them and apply more damage over time.
• Firestorm:
  
  • Jasper’s most powerful spell, this allows Jasper to summon a magic circle above the target, and have a wave of fire crash down upon those underneath.

Magic Rank: B
Equipment: None

Strengths:

• Reflexes: Jasper has catlike reflexes (ha ha) and has a sixth sense for knowing which way is up and which way is down.
• Eager: Jasper is understanding in the fact that he isn’t strong and that he doesn’t know too much, but he wants that to change, and is willing to push himself to learn and experience new things.
• Prudent: Jasper tends to make sure he is prepared for what he’s going into, as he doesn’t like being caught off guard. He is cautious, especially in potentially unknown or hostile environments.

Weaknesses:

• Sensitive: Jasper can be quite sensitive to some jokes made about him, or sensitive to any insults that are spoken.
• Timid: Jasper finds himself easily frightened and lacking a lot of real confidence when it comes to facing a threat. That doesn’t mean he won’t fight, just that he’s a scaredy cat, and prefers not to get hurt.
• Knowledge: Jasper can often find himself lacking in knowledge due to a lack of having received such as well as not having too many life experiences to gain knowledge from. This also means he can grow confused at complex topics.

Personality: At the age that he is, Jasper is not fully mature, and so often can end up being a bit childish about things. That being said, he’s also an honest and respectful person, as well as supportive of those that he calls friends. He enjoys hugs, and likes getting affection or compliments. Jasper also often find himself being a little timid, and is a little sensitive, and though he is trying to control the former he still has some trouble with the latter one, finding it a little hard to tell when someone’s really being rude or if they’re trying to make some kind of a joke. On the side, Jasper is a fan of things that cats like, such as fish.

History/Bio: For the longest of time, Jasper was an egg resting upon a frozen mountain. He was an exceed, and did not hatch because the mighty cold of the mountain top prevented him from doing so. He had been taken from his parents and sent down to Earth Land as the egg to perform a mission, a mission he would never get to do, for many years passed with him still resting within his egg, waiting for the day that he would hatch. That day came when Jasper’s egg was sent tumbling down from the mountain in an avalanche, rolling him down from the frosty tops of the mountain to the warm forests at the bottom.

Jasper’s first days were not his greatest. The young exceed had to scavenge what little food he could from berries, and ended up following stream both for water and because he didn’t know any better and just wanted to be near the source of drink. He was alone until he was discovered by a young woman named Vivian Elliot, who took in the mysterious exceed, letting him stay with her at her log cabin, feeding him and caring for him. She was a master in transformation magic, and entertained him with it.

This peaceful life changed with the discovery of Jasper by a bandit leader named Yvoll. The Exceed, to Yvoll, was a source of power, a creature that they could turn to their side and use for their deed. He came to this conclusion by the witnessing of Jasper using Aera, and figuring that he had much magical power within him that could be utilised by the bandit group. One of his bandits, named Vill, used copy magic to steal the Transformation magic from Vivian, and turn Jasper human - mostly human, anyhow. As Vill was inexperienced, he wasn’t able to complete a full transformation of Jasper, but it was good enough for Yvoll who promptly executed Vivian, just to ensure Jasper could not be turned back into an Exceed. Jasper, against his will, was then taken and then forced to train with Yvoll.

He learned fire magic from Yvoll, but was unable to use it to escape the prison that Yvoll’s camp was, as Yvoll could extinguish his flames with his own use of fire magic. As Jasper trained, he started to feel a calling, like he needed to be somewhere. He sheepishly admitted this to Yvoll, who just took it as a further sign that Jasper was a wealth of magic power. Years past, and Jasper had grown at ease with his new form, though Yvoll grew more and more tired with the lack of progress in Jasper. He began to question whether or not it was worth keeping Jasper around, as his men were growing frustrated with their leader placing so much of his focus into the boy. Just as Jasper’s time was starting to run out, he was saved by an attack on the bandits by Rune Knights, an attack which allowed Jasper to slip away.

Jasper was forced to live on his own as he travelled, trying to make his way to the calling that he felt. He didn’t know what it was, he just knew it was something, someone, that needed him. He didn’t know why, but he didn’t know what else to do or where else to go. If he had not stumbled upon a nearby town, one which the bandits had most likely been harassing for resources such as food, he most likely would have perished. As it was, all he could do was beg for money, and try to catch rides in the direction he was going. Eventually, Jasper came across a city named Crocus, with a Guild within it named Fenixtear.

Extra: Jasper cannot get hurt by his own fire, but does not feel heat from his own flames, and so can’t determine how hot he is making them.

Fenixtear - A Fairy Tail RP

@j8cob, I love the humour in your review. I've made some edits of the spells as requested:

Warrior's Zeal

Before: The power of Thrust is placed in the arms and legs of the user, allowing them to attack and defend with vigorous amounts of speed and power through momentum.

After: The power of Thrust is placed in the arms and legs of the user, allowing them to attack with vigorous amounts of speed and power through momentum, as well as open up the ability to swiftly dodge attacks.

---

Terra Uprise

Before: One of the stronger attacks of a Thrust user, the user can apply thrust to the ground, causing it to shoot upwards under or around the target area. This can be used in a multitude of ways, with the user being able to suddenly create a landfall beneath a foe’s feet to lifting the ground before them to block an attack (and then sending that same ground toward the enemy).

After: One of the stronger attacks of a Thrust user, the user can apply thrust to the ground, causing it to shoot upwards under or around the target area. This can be used in a multitude of ways, with the user being able to suddenly create a landfall beneath a foe’s feet to lifting the ground before them to block an attack. This spell can only be cast in one direction, meaning the user can't just uprise in all directions, and can't modify the direction it is cast in after it is cast.

Fenixtear - A Fairy Tail RP

Holly Vertila

Holly Vertila

Age: Holly has not disclosed her actual age. When asked about it directly, she’ll state a random number between fifteen and fifty, though if obviously somewhere between eighteen and her mid twenties.

Guild Mark Location: The guild mark is on the back of her left hand, where it could be placed without the removal of her armour. A guild mark rests on the left pauldron of her armour as well. Both of these are red.

Magic Type: Thrust magic, a magic that allows the user to interact with the world, but at speed. It can utilise the world in it’s elements by applying momentum to objects, people, the ground or even the air itself.

Spells:

Spells

• Thrust: Pounce
  
  • The user can leap in a direction in nearly the blink of an eye, closing distance rapidly, or generating distance if the user wishes to do so, in all axes of direction including up or down.
• Thrust: Warrior’s Zeal
  
  • The power of Thrust is placed in the arms and legs of the user, allowing them to attack with vigorous amounts of speed and power through momentum, as well as open up the ability to swiftly dodge attacks.
• Thrust: Sylph’s Blur
  
  • The user rapidly thrusts the air around them in such a way that it creates a shield that is very difficult for projectiles (or projectile based magic) to penetrate, causing non-solid impacts to dissipate and slow moving objects to be tossed behind and to the side of the user (and possibly into teammates by accident).
• Thrust: Dancer’s Assault
  
  • The user dashes in random directions, gaining distance on the target whilst leaving question as to where they’ll dash next, increasing their evasion of enemy attacks. The final dash puts the user in fistfighting (or swordfighting) range of the target.
• Thrust: Eagle’s Strike
  
  • The user strikes the target with both hands or fists with force, thrust being applied to the target and launching them backwards with incredible velocity. This tends to be more effective when there is something behind the target to push them into, but works well for creating distance, or if the user skids into the ground.
• Thrust: Racing Spear
  
  • The user uses Thrust to give themself constant momentum toward their threat, allowing them to rubber-band constantly around their target and perform increasing attacks on them.
• Thrust: Catch
  
  • The user pulls the target toward them at speed, whether this be an object or a person. The effectiveness of this is determined by the effort by the user as well as the target Catch is being used on. A larger or heavier target will take more effort to actually pull. The user also must be wary of the target accidentally smacking into them, if not caught.
• Thrust: Lockdown
  
  • The user can suddenly thrust a target downwards, causing them to crash into the ground hard, and furthermore, lock them down, making them unable to move their limbs up off the ground.
• Thrust: Guardian’s Throw
  
  • The user can cause nearby objects, debris and even people to fly at great speed towards the target. This includes objects the user may be holding, allowing them to effectively super-throw weapons or turn pebbles into shrapnel.
• Thrust: Attack Projection
  
  • The user utilises the power of thrust to attack at range, with attack moves pushing the air itself, visibly echoing through the air toward their target in arclike fashions.
• Thrust: Terra Uprise
  
  • One of the stronger attacks of a Thrust user, the user can apply thrust to the ground, causing it to shoot upwards under or around the target area. This can be used in a multitude of ways, with the user being able to suddenly create a landfall beneath a foe’s feet to lifting the ground before them to block an attack. This spell can only be cast in one direction, meaning the user can't just uprise in all directions, and can't modify the direction it is cast in after it is cast.
• Thrust: Guardian’s Implosion
  
  • One of the stronger attacks of a Thrust user and a stronger form of Thrust: Guardian’s Throw, Guardian’s Implosion causes everything surrounding a foe, including the air, to suddenly gain momentum toward the target, slamming into them with full force.

Magic Rank: S

Equipment: Holly is armed with a sword, visible in her appearance picture. She also has a full set of armour that she wears at all times, also visible in the picture.

Strengths:

• Capable fighter: Holly doesn’t need magic to be good at fighting. At heart, she’s a swordsman, and even without a blade, a swing is bound to sting.
• Motivated: Even if she is getting frustrated, she has her mind on the goal and the endgame.
• Loyal: Her guild, her friends, her family. They all sit at her heart. She’d break her loyalty to them only after they break theirs to her, which definitely isn’t impossible.

Weaknesses:

• Secluded and untrusting: Holly does not disclose a lot about herself, even to her friends. Indeed, even her appearance is a mystery beyond the faceless appearance of her armour.
• Unforgiving: If someone displeases Holly enough, it’s not too easy to receive forgiveness from her.
• Cynical: Often, Holly can be quite blunt or cynical about a situation. If she’s doing this, it’s a good sign she’s stressed.

Personality: Holly likes to think of herself as a voice of reason, one to stand steady in the face of doom. She is a sensible and incorruptible individual, if a little blunt sometimes, though she makes up for that with a strong mind that remains focused on the task and the goal ahead, while trying to stay clear of tunnel vision. She dislikes those who have a lack of common sense and those who can’t take care of themselves, not liking having to babysit those who should be able to handle something on their own. She has her own personal honour code, trying to abide by the wishes of others if they are reasonable.

History/Bio: Holly’s early life was not brilliant. She was born to a man and a woman who could not take care of themselves, both because they could not be bothered to learn how to do so and because it was too late to do so, for they were too old, having decided to have a child on the edge of the latest time that they could. It meant that young Holly was required to do a lot of the household work, work that she did not want to do. She would much rather be doing something other than being stuck within her home, caring for two adults who did not care for their child. Nobody knew Holly, because Holly could not leave the house. It was like she did not exist.

To add to this, her home village of Keputu wasn’t exactly free. It was occupied by a hardy group of bandits who worked the villagers for a profit. A group that, no matter how many times the village hired someone to dislodge them, came back just to take control once more. As Holly grew up, she came to realise that her parents had been secluding her from the outside not just because they were lazy, and because they needed someone to do the housework for them, but she realised that in a way her parents were protecting her. It didn’t make her feel any better about it, however.

That didn’t mean she wasn’t sad when her parents died, however. Holly’s parents were made an example of how it was a terrible crime to not work for the bandits, and she, like the rest of the village, were forced to watch their execution. For most young heroes in storybooks, this would be a key moment in their lives, where they suddenly grabbed a knife and fought every bandit on their own. For Holly, it was a sign that she needed to leave, to abandon her home and leave it - young Holly could not bear to spend the rest of her life under the rule of the bandits. She remained in her home and out of sight until the next time the village hired a mage guild, and once the bandits had lifted their rule once more, staying only long enough to watch the mages work their magic (no pun intended) in removing the bandits.

It was in the wilderness that young Holly realised the situation she had placed herself in. She very quickly became lost, wandering in circles and trying to find her way. She ended up running into the group of mages that had just been paid to go into her village. After learning that she had no more family because of the bandits, and why she had decided to leave, the group took her in. A requip mage named Jed paid particular attention to her, talking to her as the group brought her back to their home a town away, and Crystal Shadow, a tiny and unnoticeable Guild. While he wasn’t a particularly skilled individual himself, Jed did begin to teach her the fundamentals of swordsmanship, building her up over the years to be even better at swordsmanship than he was, just by her determination to learn, and to have purpose. Holly did not, however, become an official mage of Crystal Shadow until a particularly intense practice fight with Jed, where she unknowingly triggered Pounce, a move of Thrust. She began to practice and hone her magic, growing in the ranks of Crystal Shadow, and with some money gained herself a set of armour.

That was, until she was betrayed. Years down the line, Holly accompanied a pair of other guildmates on a job that was familiar to her, but on the receiving end. Her guildmates were surprised to hear that she came from that village, but let her tag along. They made their way to the village of Keputu, to fend off a group of bandits. She was surprised to find she was being told not to attack the bandits by her guildmates, though, instead just warding them off with displays of their magic. She only learned the truth after the bandits had been warded off, when she and her guildmates met up with them to exchange money. She discovered that the constant presence of the bandits was not because of the bandits’ resilience, but because it was a scheme. With the villagers paying the guild to send out mages each time, it ensured no threat actually came for the bandits, and so they kept working the village off for a steady profit. As she thought about it, Holly realised a lot of other jobs seemed to be popping up on a regular basis, in the same place. Crystal Shadow wasn’t really a proper guild, it was just displaying itself as such - a dark guild. No wonder it was so small, so weak compared to other guilds - it didn’t want to build itself to a high profile. Anger burned within Holly at the realisation that everyone had been tortured for years because of the guild that she was in, that the scheme it was involved in had resulted in the death of her parents. Fury built within her, growing to such a point that when she and her two guildmates had left the bandits…

Holly returned to the Guild on her own, joking glumly that the other pair had stopped for food, and she met up with another small group of Crystal Shadow’s mages, who also ended up ‘stopping on the way home’. It was after the third group had mysteriously not came back with Holly that the rest realised something was wrong, but by that time, the Guild, as small as it was in the first, was a lot, lot smaller. It was Jed himself who was the first to challenge her, to ask her where everyone she was leaving with was. He was also the first to fall. Holly left the guild soon after and when she did so, the guild had lost its final member. It’s final surviving member, that is. She chose to keep her helmet on, not wanting anyone to see who she was, or what she was a part of before.

Free of the Dark Guild’s clutches, she made sure that everywhere else was free of it’s clutches, too. With no more Crystal Shadow to ask for ‘help’, a lot of the villages would ask for legitimate guilds’ help to sort their problems, but she an effort to make sure that some of those villages wouldn’t have to pay for that help, starting with Keputu, and when that was done, other villages that had fallen under the scheme of her prior Guild. She ended up travelling afterwards, going from place to place far from the evil she had once been a part of, until she finally came across a young guild named Fenixtear. She took the time to scope it out for a day, and then joined.

Aboard the I.S.S. Prize : An Episodic Sci-Fi Adventure

If you said that whole name out loud, furniture would start floating.

Jeyma's latest post

Hmm, that looks familiar, @Jeyma.

meme

Fenixtear - A Fairy Tail RP

Posting my interest, but you guys already knew that.

Aboard the I.S.S. Prize : An Episodic Sci-Fi Adventure

Also, @datadogie- you might want to post to answer Robin's question about whether you can hack the pirate vessel into not detecting her. If you don't want to bother with a full post, just tell me whether she can and I'll have Nick say it.

@Jeyma

It was 4am when you sent that, so I read it and immediately fell back asleep, haha. But a post is now up that answers Robin.

Playing Cake is fun.

Aboard the I.S.S. Prize : An Episodic Sci-Fi Adventure

*

@MST3K 4ever

Cake began to make preparations for the running of the Moray if it turned out that the Navigation Computer was online, but also diverted a touch of her processes to generating her own navigation algorithm. If worst came to worst, Cake could manually install a low-tier navigation program. It'd be annoying to work with and not have a lot of the computing power that a navigation computer itself would have, but it would be able to take the wheel a little bit. She left that part of herself writing the navigation program with the purpose of it running on the server mainframe of the ship itself than the expensive computer systems that most likely wouldn't be there.

Her core remained present within the briefing, and for those with perceptive eyes her shade of blue would dim just slightly as she worked away at her calculations. It wasn't something that she needed to do, but she did it anyways to add a little personality to herself. As a matter of fact, she wasn't stressed or too focused at all, Cake was only using a smidge of her processing power. Even as she worked, she was listening to the plans of the others, and adding to the overall tasklist based on what people needed of her, directly or indirectly. Robin's plan in particular would need some effort put into it, and even as the science officer spoke, Cake was already running calculations and a diagnostic of Du-Vos' ship. It was a pirate ship, which automatically brought down the level of difficulty, as most pirate ships were not maintained as well as legitimate ships, due to a lack of shipyard to reliably pick up replacement parts. There were plenty of other variables that changed the outcome of the difficulty level prediction. Du-Vos was an experienced captain rather than a civilian who decided the self defence weapons on his freighter would be handy dandy for robbing poor merchant ships, and so that increased the difficulty spike drastically - it meant that Du-Vos knew to keep his ship well maintained. Based on the fact he was out and about for a while, it was unlikely that Du-Vos had an updated security package, and Cake saw fit to exploit that for Robin's request. She ran a few more theories and predictions, before coming to a calculated answer. And more work for herself, too.

Cake brightened in shade again as she answered Robin. "Tapping into his ship and adjusting his sensors will be as easy as taking candy from an Ensign. I'll tap into their environmental systems, too. Don't want them turning the taps off once they figure out what's happening. Anything more than that though, and they'll pretty much know I'm in their systems. I'll be evading lockout attempts the whole way through; their security systems are bound to be outdated if he's been out and about this long, but even grandma can hear the burglar in her home."

The AI turned her attention back to the navigation program, which was complete. It definitely was not as good as a Navigation Computer, she could tell that just from the specifications that she had directed it to run on. But it was a small, transmittable package that would be able to squeeze itself into Moray's shot-up communications array, so it would have to do. She placed it in a test environment, directing it to dock a freighter with a station. It made calculations slowly, and when it tried to dock it ended up just barely scratching the side of the station and almost damaging the docking collar altogether. Good enough for what she needed it to do. She compressed it, and stored it for later use, if she even needed to use it. For all Cake knew, the Navigation Computer could be fully intact, just turned off.

Aboard the I.S.S. Prize : An Episodic Sci-Fi Adventure

the next one will be intentionally more about encountering new cultures and not just fighting them

@Jeyma

Cake: "Main battery online, and shooting the new aliens."
Everyone else: "WHAT!?"
Cake: "Did I say main battery? I meant cameras, shootin' pics of them. Silly me!"

Aboard the I.S.S. Prize : An Episodic Sci-Fi Adventure

*

"NAVOPCPU-6234-773, respond."

Cake was not fond of Advanced Navigation Computers. Their responses were too simplistic, they had zero emotion and were annoying to deal with. They were cheap though, and that's why various freighters and other civilian ships used them over full shipboard AI. After all, why would a company pay for a human navigator when a computer could do that for them for a cheaper long-term cost? In some cases, all a freighter needed was an Advanced Navigation Computer to take the ship from point A to point B. On safe routes, it could definitely save a lot of money for interstellar shipping companies, but even out here it helped with calculations or just meant the crew could focus on other tasks, such as maintenance. They even coordinated their own docking sequences, and could run communications and data between ships and stations. The pirate ship probably even had one. The only problem was that Moray's one wasn't communicating.

That could mean one of several things. It could mean that the communications array of the Moray was down or disabled, it could mean that the navigation computer had been disconnected from the communications array, or it could mean that the navigation computer had been disabled entirely. Cake began to knock through the possibilities, starting with the communications array. It seemed that the pirates had decided to go the manual route, as some of the major communication nodes had been not disabled but entirely destroyed. Most likely the pirates had told the Moray to drop shields, and then nailed the nodes to keep her from squawking. That alone told her that communications had to still be up, if spotty, but she had to be sure. The ship didn't have a lot of power as it was, so Cake had to play it safe. She tapped the few remaining nodes very gently and quietly with minuscule pings, and getting just as quiet pongs in response. Each node she pinged sent an individual response to her, the sending device's address differing each time. That confirmed to her that the Navigation Computer was down entirely - if it was up, communications, even pings, would have been routed through it in case it was a ship or station navigation query. As it was, each node she was pinging had defaulted into maintenance mode, and was responding via their own programming. She stopped her efforts, wishing to conserve the tiny scraps of power that the ship had left.

Cake could also tell the Navigation Computer was down by the fact that the Moray was making no attitude adjustments whatsoever, but that was easy. She had to look smart somehow.

As she worked, Cake kept an ear on the briefing by the Captain, having manifested herself in the Situation Room as a hologram that drifted around slowly, listening to the senior crew's plans in order to generate her own tasklist to support them in the field. Astrid's plan appealed to Cake greatly, and she added in her own thoughts and discoveries. "I'd be happy to give the Moray a joyride. I've never owned a racecar before," Cake chirps, an obvious bit of sarcasm - Moray was anything but a racecar. "Okay, maybe it's not a racecar, but at least I'll have the space whales swooning. There is a minor snag however, which Lieutenant Faust has already alluded to."

Cake brought up two diagrams of the Moray - one top down view and the other side on, and presented them both on the screens. She overlaid these diagrams with a series of green dots, each with a corresponding number next to it. "Moray uses a COMSPOKE type communication system. These are all of the transmit-receive nodes on the ship's hull, thirty seven in all. Silly number, silly system." She proceeded to turn thirty-one of the dots red, leaving a measly six dots green. "The pirates hit most of them to stop Moray from squawking, likely with point defence so they didn't do too much damage to the ship itself. While the remaining six are functional, the connection with the ship will be spotty at best. This wouldn't be too much of a problem if the Navigation Computer wasn't offline. It could handle the micro adjustments while I handle the big picture. If it hasn't been torn from it's housing, it'll should be an easy fix when the engines come back on and start feeding the ship power."