Mangrale

My Hero Academia: Another Story

Sheesh. That post really got away from me. I know, excuses, excuses.

Cutting to the chase, I think it's about time I take my leave. But of course I wanted to make an plot-friendly explanation for it. Sorry for the inconvenience guys. I just don't see myself keeping up as I'd like to, I have other RPs that need my attention and my spot ought to go for someone more capable.

I don't at all expect responses to my post, so it's fine if everyone wants to devote their attentions elsewhere. I just thought it'd be a nice way to sign off.

I'm happy I kept up for as long as I have. But the sooner I get a move on, the sooner the enduring players can work together for the long haul.

Thank you very much @SimpleWriter for accepting me, and congrats to @LuckyBlackCat on making Co-GM. Good luck. XP

I kid. If I come across players half as devoted as you guys are, that's when I know I've done something right. I'll be seeing myself out over the next day or so. Thanks for having me guys. See you around. :)

My Hero Academia: Another Story

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Sofia Rousseau - Noctera

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It was night and the raging blizzard continued bearing down on the little girl. There was no shelter for her, only the long rags that she wore over her head like a hood as she knelt down before a meager fire. Her frail hands, which had lifted to take in the flickering heat, were a pale white. They trembled as they drew closer and closer to the light, the skin on her fingers almost taking on a similar glow. They grew more confident with each passing moment, until she was practically holding the flame in her very hands, and she lifted it from its place. The world outside of the fire's modest radius was dark and the blizzard howled at her in its wrath. The small girl drew the flame closer to her face, not even a wince in pain as the fire started burning her hands.

To just hold it in her hands was enough for her, and though it may drift away from her for a time, opposite the turbulent, piercing winds, she could never stop following it.

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Sofia's fight didn't end after the factory. There were repercussions that came with a major breach of security of that magnitude, such that couldn't possibly be covered up even if the academy tried. The criminal element had just revealed some of its most fearsome super villains and by apparent coincidence had struck at the hero industry at its most vulnerable roots. To most people, it was an unfortunate trial that nevertheless left the would-be heroes involved all the stronger for it. But for people like Sofia's parents, it was all the excuse they needed.

Her room was closed off to everyone, except of course to her parents, neither of whom wanted anything to do with anyone, their minds made up as to her future. That early Saturday morning was met with a great deal of arguing coming from her hospital room. To anyone curious about her condition, it would be said that she'd make a steady recovery. But any attendant would then immediately reveal that she was being transferred to another hospital by noon and that even after her parents had gone ahead to make arrangements, Sofia herself had denied visitors from coming to see her. The damage was done.

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| @Heartfillia |

It was a quarter to noon when a knock came on Renard's hospital door, which let in a kindly yet very tired man in his low to mid fifties wearing a ruffled, white formal shirt sans tie along with the accompanying dark trousers and shoes. "Mr. Sparks?... Yes... I wished that we would have met under better circumstances. I am Theodore. I've serve the Rousseau family for many years and-um... (sigh), and Miss Sofia wanted you to have this before... her departure. I'm sorry."

The man appeared duly contrite as he handed Renard a thrice folded piece of paper, while he himself was ready to answer that Sofia was going to make a complete recovery in another hospital, and after bidding Renard and anyone else in the room goodbye, the gentleman dismissed himself quietly. He couldn't bring himself to speak more than that.

Open the letter

[It is a well handwritten, if a little rushed letter with a mild level of wrinkling in places.]

Renard

I was told that you were awake by now, but even if you are not, this note should just be left by your side until you do wake up. I could only make the one letter, and I could not think of anyone else to have Theodore send it to. So if you are wondering if there is any deeper reason for me giving this to you. There is not. Also, I am sorry for the sloppy writing. My usual penmanship is much nicer than this. It is just that I do not have much time left.

I am fine, however. If nothing else, I rather no one worry about me anymore. But I am afraid I will not be able to go back to the academy with everyone else. My parents are very set in their ways and almost impossible to reason with at this point. So while I feel as though I have talked them down somewhat, their minds are made up on taking me out of the school, maybe even the state by the looks of it.

This is far from what I wanted. If I was stronger yesterday, I would still be at this hospital. But instead of being cooped up on this bed, I would have wanted to be there when you woke up and probably poke fun at you for being so reckless. I am unsure of everything that happened to you and I know it is wrong of me to speak of my problems to you like this. But I felt as though I just had to say something while I still can. I am sorry for being so selfish.

[A few lines have been furiously scribbled out. They are very much illegible.]

Please, Renard. Please whatever you do, do not try and see me before I leave the hospital. That goes for anyone else here as well. I cannot bear to see them and I do not want to have anyone see me this way. Just do this for me, okay? I am asking that no one makes this harder for me than it already is.

There was so much I wanted to do once I got released, the first of which would have been to thank you, Eira and Freya for saving me, as well as Gabriella and Peter for fighting off the villains that ambushed us. I apologize for having been so brash. Please do not think I was or am in any way ungrateful for what everyone did.

My memory is a little fuzzy up until I passed out, but I distinctly remember how scared I was the entire time. And yet throughout it all, my body seemed to move on its own. It is difficult to explain it better than that. Something like that probably does not strike you as strange, but it does to me. For the longest time, it was hard to believe I really have what it takes to be a hero, especially one like the rest of you.

So after coming this far, there is no way I am going to give up now. And none of you should either, least of all you, Renard. I will never forgive you if you do. Despite everything that happened, I still want to be a hero. I want to prove to myself that I can become stronger.

And I want to see everyone again some day. So please stay safe until then, okay? And look out for one another. Do that for me and I promise to one day become a hero you can be proud of. Thank you all again for being there when I needed you. Heroes like All Might and Enterprise may have inspired me in the past. But after yesterday, you all became my heroes.

I hope to thank each of you in person, when I am ready. Farewell.

You as well, Renard. The path of a hero is undoubtedly one that only a precious few can follow. But I have faith you can make it. Please don't let something like this stop you from becoming the person you want to be. Let's both do our best. See you soon, you big dummy.

Sofia

The First Steps - Personal Ideas and Advancing Projects

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- Remember that a game can live or die on your own initiative, and that should things slow down, you are obliged to get them back up. Many failed roleplays due to apathy could have been solved with GM pokes.

Spambot

Very true. For a time when I imagined handling an RP with players numbering more than 7, it felt easy to just assume that Co-GMs would handle things like making sure everyone else is following along. Course, as I'm getting a better idea of recently, it's a bit of a stretch for a GM to expect players to keep engaged with an RP without the content and follow through to warrant it. So while it would be nice to have helpers to oversee OOC discussions while I'm not around and so forth, it's not right to ask others to put in more effort than I'm willing to.

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- Do not be afraid to reject something because it fails to fit into your roleplay's vision. Too many games falter because the GM did not have the strength to say 'no'. Conversely, when making judgements, be sure you are able to explain them clearly to avoid a reverse 'gotchya!' for bad decision making.

Spambot

Sounds like something that might be brought up on a case by case basis as far as straight suggestions for the game itself. That said, as time moves on and certainly by the time a project reaches a completed state, I would feel that if not written down explicitly for myself, I should at least have a clear idea of what I want out of the RP in regards inspirations and features. Anything that someone might suggest will have to be considered against both what I want for the game and the enjoyment of players as a whole.

I will definitely make the effort to explain my decisions in such a way as to avoid confusion as well as willful misinterpretation as much as possible.

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My Hero Academia: Another Story

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Sofia Rousseau - Noctera

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| @Zaphander |

The world was steadily shrinking around her in the moments leading to her escape up the hole in the roof. Had her wits stayed with her just a little while longer, she would have made a few complaints against their concern in the midst of all that chaos. Instead, neither the chill of Eira's hand, nor the warmth of Renard's truly registered to her, and soon she found herself holding onto Freya's back, the rush of movement pushing her out of her daze in time to assist in reaching Gabby's and Peter's makeshift escape route where needed.

The trail of her own blood ended a good few feet from the newly opened aperture, her arms frantic to dress her leg wound with the first aid kit Peter provided and her wings almost spontaneously thrashing at the assaulting wrens that chased them through the opening and had managed to get passed Peter. For a perilous several minutes, a good number of birds had a fair drop in store after being blown away.

Throughout it all, the pain and exhaustion weighed down on her with an almost overwhelming force, the moment she tied the bandages off nearly being the moment she passed out. But instead, her mind would flare awake from the sounds of battle on the floor below, the cries of her classmates causing her to stir where she lay, her aching body slowly forcing itself upright. On her hands and knee (essentially), she listened to Peter's intention, her head wearily nodding in light of how foolhardy a task it seemed.

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She remembered feeling sick, like she was about to give out as she soared through the air. Everything else just seemed to move slower somehow. Even the first flocks of birds that hurled themselves in her direction to run interference were clearly perceived, and she almost instinctively knew how to avoid them, her speed picking up more and more. Even when the sheer volume of avians was such that avoiding all of them was impossible, she endured the brunt of them, her pace unwavering and in that moment faster than the birds that pursued her. It all culminated in a single throw, a softball sized Peter being pitched from her hand and down towards Corvus. Honestly the whole event is rather fuzzy for her, only the screeches of wrens and their thrashing feathers standing out to her before she lost consciousness.

Tales from Frontier Village: A Rune Factory Roleplay {Always Recuriting/Accepting}

You mean "part 2"? Yeah, I'll get on that when I get a chance this week.

My Hero Academia: Another Story

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Sofia Rousseau - Noctera

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| @Heartfillia | @LuckyBlackCat | @Aviaire | @Spike |

"Anyone can be a fan, but not everyone can be a hero like she is. Enterprise never gives up and neither do I. You would do well to remember that." Those words she frustratingly replied to Renard before putting away her phone and following the group into the factory, stubbornly spoken in English, were running through her mind not long after the situation quickly deteriorated around her. It all felt potently unreal at first, her rational mind attempting to reason it all away as some manner of academy training routine disguised as some barely feasible encounter.

Yet her fledgling instincts ripped that logic away the moment Enterprise smashed through that wall and became separated from the others, a shadowy villain's poisonous cloud emerging as a barrier between the pro-hero and the group. Immediately, Sofia cried out for the principal, a few hurried steps forward before the predicament they were in truly dawned on her.

The onrush of aggressive avians left her frozen in place, her legs tightening against the grazing of their talons and the digging of their beaks. Her arms frantically rose to cover her face, but the instant some of the birds went to tear at her wings, the stinging pain sent her into a panic, and they flapped with enough force to blow the flock that had focused on her away, the gust just about slapping them from the air and collapsing to the ground.

Desperately trying to catch her breath during that brief reprieve, her head lifted enough for her to peer through the dark chaos that her eyes adapted to reasonably quickly, just in time to see more birds zero in on her. They are endless! There is no way we can reach Enterprise while beset by villains! We have to escape! she concluded, attempting to swipe the erratic wrens from her. Neither noxious fumes nor irate birds could hold her for very long, and if it were at all possible to rush passed the villains, she might just be able to save herself.

But in looking through the darkness and frenzied mass of feathers, she had too many reasons not to take the coward's way out, not the least of all was to put her money where her mouth was. That said, it wasn't like preserving her ego mattered the moment she spotted Freya being swarmed. With a great deal of strain in her voice, Sofia's wings surged with enough force that even the wrens that had clamped themselves down on its edges were hurled aside.

Launching herself to the girl's side and sending a third veritable tempest her way, just enough to brush off most of the flying pests away, Sofia was well and truly winded, her smaller arms clasping at her chest as she looked her over to make sure her classmate was okay to continue. "F-Freya!... We cannot stay here! If we all focus on one route to escape from, then...!" She winced in pain as more birds descended down to pick at her, and her wings rose to shield her fellow student from another incoming flock. "If I can just reach Enterprise, (grunt) th-then I can blow that cloud away!... Huh?..."

With a haggard gasp, Sofia could faintly make out how her breath appeared against the progressively frigid air, and with a hurried turn of her head, it didn't take long to find its source, Eira. Previously hearing of her quirk, she quickly put two and two together as far as the girl's intentions, giving Freya the heads up to make sure they were on the same page. Yet after doing so, an entirely different chill would work its way up her skin, the image of one of the villains brandishing a ludicrous chained blade, his intended target all too clear to someone who can see in the dark.

Sofia's voice caught in her throat, leaving her no other option but to lunge off the ground, and with plenty of wrens still picking away at her, she staggered to stay the course, her satchel falling to the floor. Not fast enough to stop the chain itself...! But I do not need to... In flying as fast as her strained wings could take her, she could feel a stiff cold overtake her as the birds on her back simultaneously began falling away from her back.

"Eiraaaa!" the girl cried out before essentially tackling the ice-mancer out of the way of the swinging blade, which narrowly missed cleaving off a chunk of her wing but did cut a fair gash across her right leg. With her body just about giving out due to exhaustion, Sofia toppled right on top of Eira, her face contorting in agony before she rolled herself off, unable to get up. Remembering the bus ride to get here, Sofia felt as though she could already hear Eira berate her for how stupid she was, and justifiably so. Her hand bitterly clawed against the hard tilework she had rolled on, not having anyone to blame but herself.

"I am sorry this was all I... I could do...!" her voice faltered as she rose her head up from the ground, looking to Eira in a way that seemed more frustrated than scared for her own life. "I cannot move like this... You have to escape with the others, pick a side to break through and do it together...!"

Fewer birds were attacking her at this point, and as a steady pool of blood was building underneath her legs, she could feel her body growing more and more numb due to the cold, her head nestled among her uniform's tattered sleeves.

Tales from Frontier Village: A Rune Factory Roleplay {Always Recuriting/Accepting}

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Vivian

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The young mail carrier let out a light sigh of relief when it looked to her that she was set to finish her route on time, her breath still fairly visible against the cold morning air. Lightly tugging at her scarf as she approached one of the residential houses at the wooded outskirts of the village, her mind began to wander a little as her hand dipped into her satchel. She glanced down at the single sealed envelope in her hand. For every person she'd met in the past few years, it seemed like they'd just as quickly move away to be replaced with someone new. She wasn't going to complain about that. In fact, she was used to being the one doing the leaving.If anything, it just felt strange to be the person staying in one place for a change.

Her final steps toward the mailbox were rather listless ones, some small patches of snow steadily compressing underneath her boots. The sound of it was fairly easy for her to tell as far as anything the size of a person was concerned, but she was so lost in thought that she didn't notice the tiny skittering of a small chipsqueek, seemingly one of the first to emerge from its winter den to forage. Swiftly climbing up to the top of the now open mailbox to observe a pleasantly surprised Vivian, the fluffy animal looked to be grooming itself of the minute frost along its vibrantly colored, bushy tail.

"Oh, hello little guy. Feeling brave after coming out of your den, are we? Well you just sit tight, and once I'm done here, I can go and find something for-" the girl had slowly began to lift the letter into the mailbox when suddenly the chipsqueek lunged itself down and grabbed the parcel out of her hands, and scurried on all fours as she immediately gave chase. "H-Hey! Come back! I need that!" she cried out after it, utterly shocked that the little thing would pull such a stunt and truthfully a tad embarrassed to be in this predicament in the first place.

The First Steps - Personal Ideas and Advancing Projects

@Spambot@BrokenPromise Thanks guys. I believe there is nothing so important that doesn't need a good reminder from time to time.

I will admit that "complete control" probably wasn't the best choice of words, and while I do know what comes easily for me, I do of course recognize the fuller scope of a GM's responsibilities. I had counted on receiving links to premade instructional posts, but I do really appreciate you narrowing it down to one, BrokenPromise. I will refer to it regularly as things progress.

What I hope to accomplish is a game that runs on a fair amount of prewritten pieces like location/object descriptions and main/side quest (for current lack of a better word) progression for when it's necessary. Will even my most favored premade assets need to be altered or tossed aside for the enjoyment and consensus of the group as a whole? - That is a definite possibility. Can so much be written that some things, even in their rawest form, might not even be covered in a single playthrough? - That is the dream.

Although I know why it's done, what I'd like to avoid as much as reasonably possible is that railroading scenario in which the GM posts a gradual series of events, with the goal of leading the players from point-A to point-B, and the players have no recourse but to follow along with their character's respective responses, or reactions to be quite honest, this taking place over the course of weeks.

Again, I know that the basic idea can be called for, but so long as I can avoid that specific case being "all the game is about" for weeks, maybe months, then I'll be satisfied. If a small group of adventurers have to get to a predetermined destination to move the plot along, then I'd want to do that in as few posts and as quickly as possible. What really interests me is for the tools to be available for players to play within, not simply be guided through, the game world. Really sorry I can't articulate it better than that.

I have certain things, game mechanics and such, in mind that should support the end result I want, but they will have to wait until I get to them in future updates to the thread.

The First Steps - Personal Ideas and Advancing Projects

@Spambot I don't believe I could have asked for a better response to have under that starting post of mine, that I can look at whenever I come here. Thank you very much.

I would wish to ponder over and address each and every one of your points on this very thread. But I'm sorry that I won't be able to fit them all into one post. Rest assured that I don't intend to @ you for every one, given you were possibly just passing by and don't rightly care to be pestered continuously on the subject. With that in mind, I'm pretty sure that quoting the pointers should be fine as long as the @ isn't there. Sorry if you get notified anyway to your annoyance. I will take the quote references a step back if there's a problem.

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- Spend some time ensuring you actually want to do something before doing it. Some people, myself especially, can have the spark of GMing passion only to find it dying a few days later. If you're going to make something, commit - if you want to go for the long haul, make sure that you personally are going to put in the effort.

Spambot

It feels to me that on the scale between roleplayer and writer (however amateurish), I likely fall closer to the writer side of things. What I mean is that I'm more comfortable making the decisions on a written work and going at my own pace. With that in mind, I imagine this planning/writing phase of the process will be easier for me as opposed to the active and collaborative effort of GMing.

Underneath both phases however, will lie the motivation that this a project that is under my complete control, something I cannot say after being a mere participant after all these years. I imagine that my thoughts echo the sentiments of many fledgling GMs who enter into this pastime alone, without a devoted circle of players. I do this for myself first and foremost, and I have the willingness to exert myself and make decisions towards a (hopefully) reasonable goal.

GMing, to me, can be likened to a conclusion that occurs and has occurred to me very often in the roleplaying space. And while I cannot and will not by any means pursue it with an obsessive or singular devotion, I don't believe it is a passing fancy for me either.

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I don't mean for this to be my final word on this point, but I will go on to the next one if no one would care to add anything.

Edit: I don't use quotes often, so I'm unaccustomed. It said a quote was sent, so if you do indeed mind them coming your way, I'll see to excluding your name next time Spambot, and that should settle this. Sorry for the inconvenience.

My Hero Academia: Another Story

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Sofia Rousseau - Noctera

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| @KoL |

"Mixed messages" were the words swirling around in Sofia's head as Mr. Hayes addressed the class. Will the value of exceeding one's own expectations be on an upcoming test. There are certain expectations that came with institutions like the USJ, the kind that can't so easily be set aside for the sake of her own comfort. The concept of "people one is meant to save" sounded particularly rich, especially regarding an industry that relied almost entirely on intention, circumstance and capability. There was nothing so romantic at play.

And yet the technical truth of the matter didn't in any way dampen her giddy exuberance as she listened in on Enterprise regaling everyone with delightfully embellished anecdotes in between bits of trivia, a good amount of which she herself knew of beforehand. Sofia was very literally at the edge of her seat throughout it all, her silent captivation all that less bit subtle considering how she was near the back of the bus and fairly certain no one was looking her way.

Being one of the last to step off the bus, no one could have guessed how over the moon she was at being the last in a lineup. It was bound to pay off one of these days. Alphabetically the farthest away from Abigail and now in a group led by Enterprise herself. It could scarcely get any better than that. She felt so good, not even the weird feeling of being watched she got from that pudgy bird could spoil it. The seemingly random and muffled crash from behind the front doors did strike her as odd however. An accident so close to the front of the building wasn't totally unheard of though, but then again she would have assumed such accidents would tend to occur after, not before the lights go out...

"That is... not supposed to happen, is it?" she asked aloud, sounding more sincere than she rightly should have before stopping in her tracks behind Freya and Renard to get a better look. Something peculiar was happening, and like most teenagers that comes in contact with something mildly interesting, she dug into her bag and picked out her phone to start recording the scene. After taking a few steps away from the others, her phone's screen glared under the afternoon sun before she held it steady in view of the facilty's higher windows. "... The first field trip of the year is not going how I imagined it. The power seems to be off and some of us heard a crash near the door."

Aside from just passing the view over the entrance for a few seconds, she was stuck on what to do from there until the next logical step finally came to her. Approaching Enterprise with all the professionalism of a star-struck rookie cameraman, Sofia turned her phone to her. "Pro-hero Ent-Uh, I mean P-Principal Washington? Wh-What do you make of this? Should we um, in-investigate, b-because we or I could call ahead or call something o-or...?" Yeah it pretty clear that the moment was kinda getting away from her, but that didn't change the fact that she sought the heroine's leadership first and foremost. And for what it was worth, Sofia was doing her darnedest to record her from a heroic angle.