mickilennial

Mechwarrior 4 [Rant]

Came in here expecting to talk the finer points of a 23-year-old classic PC game, only to find we're talking about its prettier-but-less-fun sequel from 4 years ago. My disappointment is immeasurable.

@AndyC

Last one I played was Mechwarrior Online and it was fun for a little while.

To Become a Knight! ~ A Chivalric (Mis)Adventure

---

Whenever he was faced with magic he was sure to taunt them, asserting that using magic was a clear sign that they could handle whatever he threw at them.

“Never mind that.” He remarked as his brows narrowed and a smirk rose upon his lips, “You tarry with magic? Interesting. That must mean you have quite the skill. That’s good. I was hoping for a good warm up.”

The loud ‘shnk’ of his sword being drawn from its sheath could be heard across the arena–a beautiful steel blade with a hilt of gold and cobalt, with soft engravings upon its metal. It wasn’t the fanciest looking sword in a noble’s hand, but it certainly wasn’t the most unremarkable. Many others had to use dulled blades or wooden practice swords to show their skill and it became evident Eli would not use either. It was then that he swung a few practice swings, before ultimately extending his aura from himself to the sword, ensuring that if a blade struck someone it would not cut through their flesh and bone, but strike with a smattering thud of a wooden club or practice sword.

“Frankly, I was getting bored waiting all morning for some action.”

It was then that the signal was called forth and his opponent moved on him. He laughed as he begin to show everyone how good his footwork and perception was. It got his blood running, though he did not swing for the white-haired opponent once. He was seeing how they fought first. To see their movements.

Honestly, as the minutes langured on, he was not impressed.

“Your form is sloppy.”

“Your footing needs work.”

“You’re all impulse. Think about your strikes.”

“Is this your first duel?”

The remarks came from his mouth like a ballista as he seemed to dodge their attacks without any real effort. It must've felt infuriating.

Fear and Loathing in Gotham City: a One-Shot Crime Adventure

To Become a Knight! ~ A Chivalric (Mis)Adventure

---

The murmurs about Eli’s presence at the tournament were, suffice to say, a bit more prominent among the crowd.

It was a reality Eli was quite used to. Lord Elidthianis Hawke, the youngest son of the Marquess of the North, and the Lord of The Aerie. The Absolute. The Reincarnation of Alexander himself.

The words and titles still ran his blood cold and the whispers from above did not aid his temperament at all. He moved forward, going through all of the motions and preparations. Use aura to dull his blade to avoid an incident, make sure all pre-measures were made, and contain any excitement to a bare minimum. It would be unwise if he was caught off guard in a battle of skill and he wanted–no, needed to show that he wasn’t a pauper playing a game of pretend. Everyone had told him he should’ve been studying politics and magic. But he wasn’t “playing” knight. His intention had always been to reject the twin gods of fate and destiny and give them a bitten thumb for all to see.

When he arrived at his destination he smiled, full of confidence and readiness.

“I suppose you're my dance partner?” Eli commented, nonchalantly as he looked over the opponent in the circle before him. “You don't look like much.”

Gowi's Testing Place!

R A E L
R A E L

^{“You going to cry about it?”}

C H A R A C T E R P O R T R A I T C H A R A C T E R P O R T R A I T _________________________________________________________ C H A R A C T E R D A T A C H A R A C T E R D A T A _________________________________________________________ True Self Hanako Moriyama Persona Rael Pathos Draethir Role DPS Weapon of Choice Spear Domains Conjuration Enhancement Lightning Wind Playstyle & Attitude High Risk, High Reward DPS Loner

H A N A K O M O R I Y A M A: C O R P O R A T E H E I R H A N A K O M O R I Y A M A: C O R P O R A T E H E I R ________________________________________________________________________________________ Rikako, empress of the Moriyama business empire, loved flowers and butterflies. So it came as no surprise that her two twin daughters were named as such: the elder, Hanako; and the younger, Chou. The two were borderline inseparable through their younger years, all the way up through private high school, which is when Hanako began to struggle. While her sister blossomed, Hanako wilted. Chou never noticed her sister’s struggles and the elder twin couldn’t help but feel a resentment building in her stomach. She didn’t hate her sister, but it was hard for her to reconcile her teenage angst. Chou was good at pretty much everything, everyone liked being around her, and while the two were equally as academically accomplished it always seemed to be the younger twin who got all of the praise. Their parents were harsh with Hanako, but with Chou they were soft and accommodating. It didn’t seem fair. Her high school life didn’t help ease the burden. She tried out for multiple clubs and never got anywhere with them. The stress of the expectations her parents put on her made her feel awkward and distant. Eventually, she just focused entirely on her studies. No love letters from a boy who sat behind her in class, no sports accolades, nothing interesting to make her stand out; in the end, she just existed in the school ecosystem. The only time people wanted to talk to her was to ask her about Chou. By her final year in high school she had completely isolated herself; when she was home she was either studying, drawing, playing video games, or reading manga. She felt alone and incompetent. A loser. Her parents thought so, too. Acing the entrance exam to Tokyo U wasn’t impressive to them because that was what was expected of her, of anyone bearing the name of Moriyama. She still tried her best to earn the affection of both her parents, but she never got a single inch no matter how hard she tried. When they allowed her sister to abstain from going to university? That’s when her years of resentment turned into bitter hatred. If she hadn’t found Pariah Online she probably wouldn’t have lasted much longer. It saved her. R A E L: I N F A M O U S W A Y F A R E R R A E L: I N F A M O U S W A Y F A R E R ________________________________________________________________________________________ In Pariah Online, Hanako found a new life as “Rael”, the personification of everything the young girl from Tokyo wanted to be. The Demon Fox. Coined through her actions in the early days of Pariah Online, Rael clawed out a reputation for being particularly unhinged. She was unrecognizable to her true self: confident, unscrupulous, violent, bold, and with a meanstreak that could spin the globe of Aetheria twiceover. Whilst this tumultuous reputation gave Rael a black mark of sorts, she still found a begrudging respect from her wayfaring peers. A skilled dungeoneer with a solid mastery over her magic, if Rael was joining up with your group, you had little to worry about outside of the fact that she wasn’t going to be sharing much of the items she had her eyes on. “Everyone has to make a living, right?” With connections to Malacius Secre, Rael has worked for a good length of time as a collector of magical antiquities. Where other wayfarers succumb to honest work like crafting goods and weapons, the Draethir-bound wayfarer has opted for more dubious means. Artifacts found in the dungeons are invaluable to the denizens of Aetheria and she is more than happy to deal them for a high price. If you have a quest that needs the item she’s scalping, she’ll happily sell it back to you for double the rate she was offered for it. If that doesn’t make you happy? Well, that’s not her problem, now is it? When Mystic Prophecy put up a request for anyone in Thorinn to help them with a dungeon, the opportunity became fairly obvious to her. Having no interest to ‘join’ the famed group herself, her goal is to just take her cut and look good while doing it. She isn’t privy to making friends, but she knows soloing a dungeon is impossible for even the top players. She wasn’t expecting what was about to happen…

---

S P E L L S | A B I L I T I E S
S P E L L S | A B I L I T I E S

^{________________________________________________________________________________________}

_{Recall ★}
Using the Conjuration Magic she knows, Rael calls out to her weapon, returning it to her hands.

_{Spring Step ★}
An Enhancement Magic ability that draws from ambient arcane energy to be drawn into the caster’s legs for quick cat-like reflexes in a pinch. Allows a user to do an uncanny dodge or advance that is increased by the amount of magical energy used.

A T T R I B U T E S
A T T R I B U T E S

^{________________________________________________________________________________________}

_{Breaker of Storms}
Rael often finds herself at the eye of the storm. Effective with the primordial element of lightning, Rael has unlocked advanced spells when utilizing it with her weapon of choice. This includes access to agility buffs, weapon-casted storm bolts, and a shockwave of sound reminiscent of thunder itself. She is also resistant to lightning spells as a result.

F E A T S
F E A T S

^{________________________________________________________________________________________}

_{The Black Temple}
TBD

R E L A T I O N S
R E L A T I O N S

^{________________________________________________________________________________________}

_{Graves (Andrew Gray)}
To Be Determined!

_{Papiyon (Chou Moriyama)}
Rael’s relationship with her sister is… complicated. They’ve never cooperated in the game outright, but there are years of resentment that she’s never really sorted out. There will be moments where Rael will be strangely on Papiyon’s side as much as there would be moments of icy, almost cruel disdain. Should Papiyon recognize her sister then they could get the therapy they need, or the kind they don’t.

Titans

I don't know why it took me almost ten months. Spare me from your memes.

Titans

Titans

---

New York City, Earth -- Now

Koriand’r never liked zeta beam travel.

Being teleported through two beacons on separate ends of the galaxy was convenient, but it was also painful. For Kori it was like experiencing the worst of sensory overload and burning pain. She supposed the Rannian scientists who developed it thought the positive aspects outweighed the negative. The Princess of Tamaran obviously did not come to the same conclusion, though after being chased across an abandoned planet with her pursuers to her back she didn’t exactly think about the displeasure of zeta beam travel when she found a malfunctioning teleportation device in an old survey post. Kori knew the dangers of a working zeta beam transponder. But fortunately, instead of having her body deconstruct in the process of moving through time and space she found herself simply thrown into a laboratory halfway across the galaxy.

But Kori didn’t get the time to “take a breath” and try to figure out where she was. By the time she had gotten to her feet her pursuers had made the courageous move to follow her through the malfunctioning transponder and Kori was not so lucky to have them end up missing their limbs or frying their brains upon contact. She had immediately screamed as she scrambled to her back just as the laboratory’s warning device screamed out in a language she did not understand. Despite this, she knew exactly what was happening when her eyes caught sight of the device beginning to tremble and crack.

The transponder was going to go nova and the laboratory was going to explode.

She didn’t even have enough time to react.

The taste of concrete, the smell of gasoline.

Koriand’r winced, face down some amount of distance away from what remained of the laboratory she had found herself in. She closed her eyes and reopened them, trying her best to focus away from the pain and discomfort. The impact of the transporters overload had blown apart the lab’s easternmost wall, igniting the building with unnatural fire, and tossing what appeared to be a variety of primitive transport vehicles on their sides. Some people were crushed under debris and metal while others ran away in fear as Kori’s pursuers called out for her in a toxic, vicious tongue. She knew the words well.

<Find the slave.>

She couldn’t let the Gordanians catch her, but at the same time what kind of person would she be if she let innocent people be hurt simply for being in the wrong place at the wrong time? What kind of Princess of Tamaran would she be? These people had no chance against Gordanian weapons. The amount of energy she had left from X’chal was low, but she couldn’t just run away. She wouldn’t. A bright hue of energy surrounded her and she pushed forward, flying above the streets as her hands began to glow with neon green energy. She would do everything she could. Even if it ended in her inevitable capture.

“You chase me across the galaxy? Your master must be proud!” She shouted in Tamaranean as she shot out a beam of light at one of her would-be captors.

She was outnumbered. Maybe outmatched. But she was not going back.

Kori spun underneath one of the electromagnetic blasts that exited the Gordanian weapons. Her brows narrowed, recalling how the beams felt when they touched her skin. Her people were strong against gamma beams and anything revolving around ultraviolet radiation. The Gordanians had developed weapons to counteract this somehow, weapons that revolved around electromagnetic energy. It was worse than being cold. It burned like fire, but with a bone chill that attacked her nerves. Energies that could slow and disorient. She still wasn't sure how the Gordanians got their hands on it.

The loud hum of the Gordanian energy weapons became apparent once more as a flurry of more energy beams screamed past her head, hitting the buildings behind her. Kori immediately cursed in Tamaranean, ducking and weaving the best she could while she tried to count how many of her pursuers had followed her from Staphis. This was no small task between the fire that had begun to spread and the innocent people caught in the crossfire. It was hard to keep focus, but as far as she could tell there were at least eight or more alien pursuers.

She shot out another blast of neon energy as she flew down and kicked one of the Gordanians in their chin, sending him flying back into a few of his friends.

How much longer could she fight them off?

New York City, Earth -- A Few Minutes Ago...

There was always a good air in New York City during the July 4th weekend.

From the Piers on Long Island to Manhattan’s Central Park, people had flocked to New York to experience a little bit of what The Big Apple had to offer. The end of the eighties was only a year and a half away, and the times were certainly changing. In many respects, it was a good time to take pause and enjoy what time it all had left, though the denizens of New York City had no idea what would strike their streets only several minutes later.

Until then, strangers to New York City might have continued to enjoy the fireworks or the more lowkey things to keep them company in the city.

DC Comics Roleplay: Fall of Justice

I know we've basically stalled out a bit, but I just want to say--



Happy 10 Years on RPG to the UDC crew. What a wild time it's been.

What Are You Listening To?