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IC up.

Kinda wanted to update the Character tab first, but it is what it issssss.

For the Expo gang, feel free to describe the specifics of your corpo booth and, idk, introduce yourselves to each other for networking purposes. You can make up NPCs as well, so long as they're not there to sandbag for your characters.

For the patrol duo, feel free to make up small-scale incidents to respond to. Think more misdemeanors than violent crime. Feel each other out n all; iz early in on the patrol.

Crowvette, you can make up the scale of this particular concert that Cas will be attending. Could kick things off at the start of the concert, the middle, or the end; just make sure there's a handshake event after it ends. And Yankee, have fun on your (IC) day off!

//AE 53, Sol 13
//Day 1 of the Play/Tech Expo


@PapiTan@Digmata
Twinned silhouettes shot across the skyline of Residential District Mu, one white and another pink. It was rare for two mainline Talents to share the same patrol routes, especially when their territories were often negotiated and purchased by Agencies, but for AGC Rising, such occurrences weren’t nearly such a rarity. Despite their reputation as a stepping-stone agency, where their Talents would often end up graduating to a larger corporation with more product lines, it couldn’t be denied that their Talents always came out as exceptionally capable of handling real emergencies.

And for one of Aspera Agency’s latest Talents, getting that experience would be instrumental to advancing her own career. Sure, Elpis could play at being an indie Hero, pulling soccer balls off of tree branches or helping an old lady with her groceries, but there was a reason why the Opera Nova, for all the initial hype surrounding a Talent that took on such a meaningful name, was currently still such an unknown of a Talent that there were regular-ass idols who had a bigger follower count than him. Elpis needed a senior Talent, someone like the Moon Arrow, who could show her how to pick out actual emergencies along the road, who could tune in to the Public Safety Department’s radio chatter in order to filter out the meaningless noise and pick out only the most public disturbances.

For Amaris herself, of course, well…

With the recent surge in listeners to her podcast after that incident two weeks back at Neo-Spotlight, there was undoubtedly a market for her voice too. Regardless of what she personally thought of it, forming a connection to Elpis and Aspera Agency would no doubt go some distance in linking her to future opportunities for voice acting.

That was how it was with Talents. Some needed to improve their personal abilities as a Hero, and others needed to work on their ability to grab the people’s attention.

@Taka@Psyker Landshark@Yu Narukami
It was expected of Day One, but the Play/Tech Expo was still such a bustling affair. A yearly convention where companies all across Neo-Astraea would congregate in the Sky Lounge to showcase and promote their latest gadgets and toys to superfans, shareholders, and news reporters, its three floors were filled with all sorts of gizmos. And, of course, with any event like this, it went without question that any corporation with a Talent branch would also use this to get their own people’s faces out there.

Heroes were ever-present, their regular outfits swapped out for something more sponsor-heavy. Some ran the booths themselves, scientist-Heroes who were more than happy to explain the inexplicable technological principles that went into these limited-edition toys. Others were called in through Agency-contracts to simply be devastatingly attractive models for anything from airsoft guns to sports cars to VR-rigging gear. And of course, there were those who were present only to present figurines of themselves and their fellow Talents. Hands were shaken, business cards were exchanged, future talks were promised, all while calculations were made in the minds of investors and journalists. On the Orchard Stage, live presentations were hosted by Talents with a million followers at a minimum.

And for Ladyice, Armada, and Zephyr, at their respective booths on the eastern wing of the second floor?

Though their official duties remained, this was nevertheless an opportunity to make up for their individual shortcomings through networking and brain-picking. Blackriver’s marketing department was seeing a plateauing of Ladyice’s numbers recently, and more importantly, her power itself hadn’t been developing the way they had initially projected. Team RESPAWN had yet to find a solution to the problem with converting their video game sales, which were still impacted by piracy and black market account-trading, into merch sales. And as for Carmine Corp?

Well, with all the money and hours spent, with her being their only Talent, how on earth was Zephyr still a sub-200,000 Hero? She needed to find a Rival, fast, someone beyond two-bit part-time Villains and common criminals to play off of.

@Yankee@Crowvette
That was the problem, wasn’t it?

There wasn’t a hook.

What had started out as a projected Fame count of 300,000 ended up only with half that instead, and that was with the industry favours that Summit Studio called in. And now? It was already sinking, barely making past the minimum threshold of 100,000. It was only by the luck of branding alone that Astraeus even developed some supernatural power to begin with, but even with that, he wasn’t as if he could do something worthwhile with them. Enhanced durability and stamina? That didn’t make for good video.

Perhaps, they were just being stubborn, after all. Stuck in old days, idealistic fossils. True people’s champions, when Neo-Astraea no longer had nearly the same crime rate as before? A do-gooder who could whip up mass appeal, when even AGC Rising struggled with that, despite being THE Agency known for realheroics Talents? Astraeus couldn’t appeal with his aura and charisma alone, not when the City of Heroes has seen hundreds of Heroes being promoted the same way before. And anyhow, what was trendy these days wasn’t a regular person slogging their way through a dirty, brutal fistfight to a messy victory, but rather…

The Skybreaker, the scream of the sound barrier being shattered as she resolves all troubles with her very arrival.

The Technological Marvel, putting on a show and reveling in his own genius with every appearance.

The Moon Arrow, piercing through all defenses from five city blocks away.

The Maiden of Hearts. The Ashborn. The Unmade Song. The Grinning Maw.

Swift. Untouched, Flawless. Violence delivered without any of the messy, human element. If people wanted to watch fists and teeth fly, if they wanted to see a ten-count sound out ten times, there were real athletes they could watch. But for a truly street-level hero with nothing more than a decent heart and no other standout elements?

If they were being charitable, people would say Astraeus simply hadn’t found his audience yet. How would he actually change the industry from within though, if he was nothing but a niche? How could he get out there, into the spotlight, so his voice could actually be heard?
Perhaps it was sensing that discontent that had the senior Kerk produce two tickets to a concert for Cas and his sister. Officially, he was there to scout out a potential rival from another Agency that recently debuted their first Talent.

Unofficially…well.

It may just be a break from the grind.
@Crowvette Don't forget to put your CS in the Characters tab.

Otherwise, IC will hopefully be up tonight.

Gepard eh...

And alright, so she kinda got into it in the heat-of-the-moment, rather than as any particularly calculated decision, eh? I don't mind 72ka having some industry cred via a talented start-up CEO either. Could make for fun drama involving the 'parent' company trying to re-absorb the off-shoot.
@Crowvette
I will choose to pretend that Kirara is just a sound, rather than a specifically Japanese onomatopoeia. But it'll be kinda a landmine, so long as you're good with bearing possible consequences.

Anyways, I'll say that 72ka Productions is still an up-and-coming agency despite Kirara's relative success. The most popular idol produced by them being only known by 150,000 people in Neo-Astraea speaks volumes kekeke. Out of curiousity, why did she personally decide to get into the Talent business? She could have continued just being a regular idol, increasing her Fame without having to like, throw hands with people for real and putting on an even thicker stage persona than regular celebrities.

It'd probably be the case that Kirara would be playing in a sidekick/support/background noise role for larger Heroes, unless 72ka would push her into dealing with 'real' emergencies and incidents in the way that AGC Rising would.

@Psyker Landshark
I would say that in this case, if she was actually out there with a cybernetically enhanced body, Sheena's existence would be a kinda gray area with the Ministries that administrate Neo-Astraea. This kind of technology doesn't actually 'naturally' exist in Neo-Astraea, where all technologies that don't exist in, say, the late 20th century would actually find its roots as a byproduct of a particular Talent's own ability. So I'll probably make a progenitor-Talent who has 'produced' such cyborg-body-replacements that Carmine Corp utilizes for their assets.

With regards to the defense companies and military hijinks in general, Neo-Astraea is more or less a closed off city-state. Officially, there is no military, only law enforcement, and with Talents being fairly present, they don't really need to actually manufacture or sell personal firearms or military aircraft or stuff like that. So you'll have to find a public 'cover' for what Carmine Corp is. Airsoft and paintball hijinks are still a thing, so you could have them be like that, alongside with producing figurines and shit.

Their main trade would be in technology and proof-of-concept weapons/vehicles, which they compete with other militech companies to secure contracts from the Ministry of Private Infrastructure to develop. While the Ministries are willing to turn a blind eye to more illicit activities such as corporate espionage and assassination, it's also readily understood that if any of this reached the public eye, that company would become a 'villain' to be used as fodder by the Agencies for whatever storyline they'd like. And, of course, there's probably more than just a couple competitors of Carmine Corp who have vanished over the night after increasing their manufacturing capabilities too much.

What weapons make it to the criminal underworld of Neo-Astraea, as such, are generally fair below the technological level actually accomplished by the militech industry.

Also, what's Sheena gonna do once the original Talent's leg heals up in like, three months?

@Taka
Right, so is his name Justin or Armada?

Anyways, there's no truly scientific method of getting to the giga-techno-wizardry that a Talent can accomplish. Rather than collaborating with scientists and engineers to create gear, he'd have actually be collaborating with artists and people from marketing to design props that look like sci-fi gadgets. After that, they'd basically be working overtime to make sure that the public believes those props to be worthwhile, before they become functional as actual gadgets.

Also.

There are no terrorists. Do not use any word that contains 'terror', because those words do not exist in the dictionary.

In a similar vein, what is an Esports World Champion, if there is only the City? Cybernetics, like I explained for Psykers, also don't actually exist at a functional level yet, unless they are associated with an existing Talent.
Too lazy to dig up that picture I made.

But PUT ALTO ON FRAUDWATCH.

WHAT IS BROTHER DOING.
Alright, still kinda sick, but I'm alive enough to get this outta the way at leasttttt.

@Taka@Psyker Landshark@Crowvette@Digmata@PapiTan@Yu Narukami

Y'all are in.

There will be some changes and clarifications that I'll have y'all make once I've more time to go over them, but for now, put your CSes into the Characters tab, and also, in this OOC section, give me the names of three NPCs, as well as a one-line description of how they're related to your own character. These NPCs don't need to all be Talents, nor do they need to be super deeply connected; I'll be basically adopting and fleshing them out for my future plotting needs.

IC itself is likely to be started by the end of this week, at the latest. Maybe I set up a Discord, maybe I don't.


Was it sweat or was it blood?

Either way, it stung, the way it had gotten into his eyes, and it was the only indication left that told Ferrucio he still lived. He had lost sensation in his limbs. His helmet was suffocating him, but he couldn't even move it. Which sounds were real and which were delusions? A high-pitched ringing was drowning everything out, leaving only the faintest understanding of his immediate surroundings. He was still standing, somehow, forehead pressed against his shield, but where those around him still alive? The impacts he felt against his body, against his shield, what were they? The blows of the demonic horde, trying even now to break through a formation that remained standing, miraculously? Or the footsteps of the horde, stomping upon a man who held only a formation with corpses?

He had lost his voice.

He had lost his senses.

But...

A brilliant light. An impenetrable shadow. Even as an unawakened mongrel, he could feel it in his very soul, the tremendous forces that had gathered. Those impossible heights, stretching far beyond a bastard's ken. A force that drowned out even his own guiding star. The wall that he was condemned the claw at, never to surpass. He swallowed once, then felt his head snap back, a crude spearhead stopped by the warped slits of his helmet. Still alive then. Still alive still. Less than a footnote in the history books, such an insignificant contribution that he wouldn't even be a rounding error of a statistic. But he still stood!

"clear the way!"

A pitiful, pathetic rasp, but he pushed anyways, pressing his head back against the spear straining there still. Pop went his eye as the visor finally gave way, but he couldn't see anyways, could only tally this injury as another set of things that he should be able to feel but could no longer register. A reckless swing shattered his sword and the shaft, then he tore the spearhead out of his head and stabbed it into whatever was in front. One step, another! His mangled hand grasped his helmet, fingers hooking around the visor, and he tore it off, taking deep lungfuls of the burning air, before bashing the scrap metal against another blurry form. It was coming to a close soon. It would all come to an end soon!

He shouldn't survive this too! He should do his part and...

"Lay down your life for your betters, and be grateful that your name will be recorded in the lineage of House Kaides."

...have something worth boasting about in the afterlife!
Been sick for a good while, but I also already posted, so this is the one RP I'm caught up on kekeke.
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