Mirandae

The Spirits Within

Mind linking the videos? I found some on YouTube, but I'd like to see the ones you've watched.

The Spirits Within

Departure

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The matters of leaving the campus up until hostile endeavors were a plethora of hazy conversations between Olivia and her friends. This volume of attention from them was alien to Olivia, as she had been the one gracing them with her undying affection and care over the years. Surely, Olivia was accustomed to being the center of attention at the academy, in numerous different situations, but never in the same fashion when it came to her childhood friends—Olivia had always basked and rejoiced in the delightful reality of not having to care for her appearance or actions, all that much, when associating with them.

“Hey Olive,” Jyn said. “Or I might as well say, Captain Olivia Celestine.”

(…no, please don’t say that…)

“How’s being captain by the way?” Jyn inquired.
“I’ve been the Captain for less than an hour, sweetie… I have no idea,” Olivia replied.
“I might help you with stuffs if you needed,” Jyn continued.

(…us… all of us, Jyn…not just me…)

“That’s comforting.”
“You know, resting for a while is a great idea. I must admit, it’s a little tiring to just walk up all the way through to our destination. I can’t believe the academy made us do this without occupying some of their vehicles.”
“I have a difficult time believing it myself,” Olivia replied.
“And here I thought we were ‘elites’. Glorious indeed,” Jyn sighed and rolled her eyes sideways. “But I guess this might just prove that we’re a much stronger team than everybody else. Right?”

(…I don’t know…I hope so…)

“You’ve got that right, sweet cheeks.”
“By the way, we should try and annoy Freddy. Who knows, it might be fun while we take a stop,” Jyn whispered. Olivia uttered a slight, almost inaudible chuckle.
“I think he’s had enough for one day, so let’s cut him some slack,” Olivia smirked.

Battle

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Whatever happened during these times of great duress, Olivia had to stake focused and set aside her personal thoughts and feelings. It was an alien practice to her, even though she had simulated and attempted it before. Olivia had to force herself to set aside any inconsistencies with her command until after the confrontation, as it was no use to voice her concerns about it now. Orders were orders for a reason and meant to be followed, even by her.

Olivia dashed off to the left flank of what appeared to be the enemy formation, if ever there was one. She could hint Remi’s presence in the corner of her eyes behind her being, which strengthened her resolve and courage. In an instantaneously fluid motion, without disrupting her speed, Olivia sheathed her gunblade and subsequently cartwheeled across the moist grass, focusing her sight on a bantam rock and grabbing it as her hand graced its frame. Olivia then took advantage of her forward momentum to chuck the stone at one of the assailants (Alpha), which appeared to be conspiring with two additional creatures, (Beta and Delta). The tiny pack made no effort to hesitate their provoking adversaries, and thus broke away from the main horde to attack Olivia and Remi on the left flank.

As Olivia gathered momentum to propel herself off the ground towards the enemy, she vanished in a bright flash of lightning that emitted an instantaneous, banging sound. In what seemed the very same moment in time and space, she reappeared before the creature she had provoked (Alpha) and unleashed the momentum she had mounted to strike with her gunblade, in a crossing motion extending between her right shoulder and her left hip. The Raptor’s sprint came to a sudden halt, as it lost its balance and crumbled across the ground. The two other attackers (Beta and Delta) did not register what had happened and were continuing their charge towards Remi.

In agony, the Alpha Raptor retaliated and lashed out at Olivia with its grotesque tail. Blinded by the flashing light of Olivia’s lightning spirit, the creature missed its attack against her. However, the foul odor of the Raptor was surely beyond horrid and detestable.

The Spirits Within

Rockette said
Hmm, makes sense. Thanks for clearing that up for me. c:

No problem, ask anytime.

JJ Doe said
Kat put up an ice shield around herself and Roy.

It's just water at this time, she hasn't turned into ice yet in order for our powerhouses to tie some enemies up.

Edit:
I posted again to get the combat going. To summarize: Olivia provoked Alpha, Beta, and Delta; she used her "ride the lightning" spirit; and she struck the Alpha Raptor once, which attempted to retaliate, but unsuccessfully due to it being affected by the 'Darkness' status effect. All of this netted 65 stagger towards the Alpha Raptor's 120. Once it reaches 120, anyone can one-shot kill it with any type of attack.

Aaron's targets, Gamma and Epsilon, suffered 40 and 25 stagger respectively.

No changes to our character's stagger meters/limit gauges, (yet).

The Spirits Within

Rockette said
So let's say, for scenario purposes, that Mags launched her chakram at Gamma and Epsilon to ward their attack on Aaron; would that suffice as provoking them, or is this like FFXIII where you have to literally draw their attention as a Sentinel would? I don't see an HP meter so I'm assume we'll go off the staggers instead?I just want to clarify this. c:

Yes, provoking an enemy requires more effort than just attacking them. You can roleplay this in various ways: the character can scream and make noise, use verbal taunting, push the ally out of the way to attract attention, throw some object at the enemy, or something else—use your imagination. However, as long as you somehow state that you provoked that enemy, it will be enough. If simply attacking an enemy would be enough, we'd rip the control/attention of that enemy from each other left and right; I want those who have made tank-like characters to be able to... well, tank.

That is correct, there are no 'health points,' since this 'system' is not a game. Stagger is just an ambiguous number that takes into account the entirety of character/enemy actions, rather than just the result of some action. So, if you attack an enemy or an enemy attacks you, regardless of whether you are hit or not, the stagger is counted. I hope this makes sense.

Stagger gain = attack attempt + any attack result (hit or miss).

This is basically just an anti-godmodding system. Even if you roleplay as if you are never hit by the enemy when they attack, their attempts at attacking you will eventually wear you down.

Ozerath said
Would the AOE effect on Thael's Guardian Leap suffice to draw aggro? I was thinking he might jump in after Aaron

I'd say so, yes; as you've designed Thael to be a tank-like character. You can edit the ability with a small note: Provokes enemies, if you want.

@Archangel
"blog" post

The Spirits Within

Yes, everyone does, through the 'tagger gun' that Olivia has. It shows information like this. Everything in the 'Xenomorph Raptor' hider is known to the characters.

The Spirits Within

Archangel89 said
And fixed...the Hot Head lives up to his name

Great!

Now, remember the guidelines and 'enemy behavior': Gamma and Epsilon (the two Raptors that you chose) are only going to attack Aaron until they are provoked by someone else or killed. Enemies always retaliate after they have been attacked, so Gamma and Epsilon should attack Aaron in your next post, or you could edit this in in your current post—your choice. How you roleplay all of this is up to you, but it should be in the post, in some form.

This, of course, goes for everyone.

Ex said
Prisk, one thing we haven't discussed is how Emily's Crawling Chaos works on non-humans... would it be reasonable to say it induces instability/insanity in them too, where insanity is defined as "rabid animalistic fear"?

I think it would be reasonable to agree in the case of enemies that are not immune to the 'Dark' element, which is what I would classify Crawling Chaos as. Unfortunately, these Raptors are immune to that stuff, but there will be plenty of enemies that aren't and opportunities to procure items that impose 'Imperil' on enemies.

The Spirits Within

Excellent!

Just remember, specify somewhere which Raptor that you are attacking. Whether you do this in-character or in a hider doesn't matter, but do it in the post. Archangel, you should edit this in your post, or tell us here which Raptor Aaron attacked (just pick any name from the 'stagger meters' hider in my first battle post).

The Spirits Within

Fabulous! Looking forward to it.

The Spirits Within

Sixsmith said
And finally posted!I didn't want to start the battle out, despite Roy itching to. I think he's super intent on keeping Kat safe that he hadn't yet attacked. So, gonna wait for Black's response before I do anythang.. or rather Thael/Freddy/Kim going tank mode and then Kat being all Elsa on Steroids.Also, I like duh blog. :o We can nao see into yer head; we'll have ya' spillin' plans before you know it! But, I agree with the whole protagonist thing, as I think in these types of games, battle-oriented and high-fantasy, people, especially GMs, can get really caught in personal stories. It's hard to break that mold when the games themselves, like Mass Effect or Kingdom Hearts or Final Fantasy, all surround a main protagonist with a lot of supporting characters that are essentially there to help him/her. I lied FFXIII for its forcing the player to explore more than just Lightning's story once they were all separated. Though, I've noticed it became more Lightning-centric with the recent XIII iterations.I feel like, even though Olivia is the designated captain, everyone's going to have an opportunity to step up to the plate and take command (without actually forcing Olivia to relinquish command).

That's what I liked about XIII as well and was inspired by when I planned the 'importance' of each character in this roleplay. The Samuel-idea allowed me to distance all characters from being the supreme protagonist, even if there's one that is the leader on paper, so to speak. This will allow, like you said, for any character to take command without having to be mutinous or cause unnecessary ooc-drama.

Blackwell said
@Prisk: I understand entirely. I was beyond hyped for GW2 before it came out, and then it came out.My post will definitely be up tomorrow!~

Good to hear!

Updates
# I made some aesthetic updates to the ooc-text. It should now be less cluttered and hectic.
# Combat Guidelines: completed Status Effects and Item lists.

The Spirits Within

Good to hear!

‘Blog Post’ for Everyone
I don’t know what to call this, but I want to explain a few things about me and how I think when it comes to roleplaying and my decisions for this particular story.

When I began to write the ‘script’ for this story, I carefully considered something that I’m highly allergic to: Game Masters that indulge in being the focal point of a roleplay. I realized that a story like this, which is blatantly inspired by Final Fantasy, requires a strong protagonist that other characters can gather around. However, if I had taken upon myself this role of being the ‘protagonist,’ I would have indulged in the same thing to which I’m allergic. This is when I got the idea for Samuel; he is a community character, a protagonist of sorts that all other characters can gather around, and I don’t control him. Olivia was inspired by the same idea. She is a quasi-community character that other characters can gather around, but I can control her without indulging, as she is only a partial focal point in the story, with your characters being the other parts.

Therefore, I’m always available to provide all of you with Olivia dialog for your posts (even if it's just a single line), just as I did with Ex the other night. We used a terrific alternative to Google Docs that I will begin to use as well—The last Outpad.

If and whenever you want to know the reasons behind some particular decision of mine or design choices, all you need to do is ask. I’m rarely offended by anything, unlike most people in this world.

I'll probably write more of these 'blogs' every now and then.