Mokley

Mirror, Fox, Key

Here's a thing! I hope there's enough for you guys to make decisions on here. :3

Mirror, Fox, Key

Meryn brought her hand down and pointed to her nametag, still pinned to her shirt. She parted her lips and tried to mimic the shapes mouths made when they said her name.

"She can't speak, sir, but I am so glad that your first reaction to someone who seems to be just as frightened as you are is to threaten them with death," Lily snapped.

"Get away from the door this instant!"

Ronken just nodded, uttered a hearty "Deal" and grabbed for the paper and bag of money.

"Sirs, if you will believe nothing else, if we had intended to bring harm to your city, why would we sequester ourselves inside? If our goal is destruction, why allow ourselves to be destroyed with you? The answer is simple—that's not our goal. We Travelers were caught up in this without warning just like you—and your walls, so well-defended and secure, were and are our best hope."

In a single moment, the scene was this:

The first guard sneered and raised the butt of his musket against Lily, enraged by the insolence of a female stranger who dared raise her head, let alone her voice.

The second guard lowered his bayonet to stare at Lily, and for this brief moment Meryn was left unsupervised beside the scalding boiler and the riot-muffled door to the city.

The throng of dirty, angry citizens crowded close as the sharp points of bayonets drew closer to Scarlet, clutching his stolen coins, his back against the very same door.

The hooded woman dropped a bag of coins into Ronken's outstretched hand and trusted him with the wax-sealed letter.

The clockwork mech dropped to the ground outside the wall, its guns at the ready.

The cannons atop the wall were raised.

Spook rose to his feet, a wide and intricate sigil carved into the barren ground.

All along the perimeter of the wasteland, the wood demons emerged from the forest; they swarmed toward the city, a teeming black mass with thousands of glowing white eyes.

RAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT

The mecha's guns sparked and recoiled, bullet casings flying.

BANG! BANG! BANGBANG! BOOM! BOOMBOOM! BOOM!

Cannonfire echoed throughout the city, deafening to the crowd gathered at the door. Explosive cannonballs thundered throughout the wasteland, filling the air with bright fiery billows of dirt while crystallized wood-demons darted around the wreckage.

Thousands of the little monsters darted across the wastes, barely slowed down by the barrage of thunderous explosions and the rain of gunfire. Within moments the wood-demons had reached the wall and raced up its vertical surface like it was nothing at all.

We return to the Travelers inside the interrogation room, where the wooden door through which they had come was now being overgrown, cracked and broken by slithering roots. There were seconds before the door would be completely destroyed.

The first guard stopped just before he might have slammed the butt of his gun into Lily's head, and instead he stared in horror at how quickly the wood-demons were decimating the door to the outside. He backed up toward the wall, and instead pointed his bayonet at whatever might come through that door.

The second guard was not so cool with this arrangement.

"Oh shit," he sputtered, tripping over himself as the outside door gave a tremendous CRACK and shards of sunlight and the KA-BOOM of cannonfire filled the room.

The second guard, in a panic, shoved past Meryn, flung open the door, grabbed Scarlet by the collar and tossed the boy into Meryn to get him out of his way. "RUN," he screamed at the surprised crowd on the other side of the door, and he shoved his way through the rioters while gunfire and screeching rose up behind him.

The first wood demons -- covered in black crystalline, their eyes glowing white and red -- perched atop the wall among slaughtered guards, and hissed down at the city.

Many of those in the crowd heeded the guard's advice. The streets throughout Cogswall were filled with people running from the walls.

The hooded woman dropped from the ledge and disappeared among the fleeing crowd.

Mirror, Fox, Key

Nah, it hasn't been terribly long yet. :) I'll schedule a mod post for Thursday if there are no more posts.

Lantern

I kinda meant the whole SURPRISE HE'S BACK thing -- especially since most people here now have no clue who Arin is and now it's just a wtf moment. xD

Yyyyea sorry bout that. I, too, got a bit carried away, haha. xD

Lantern

I forgot how utterly creepy Arin is. O.o

I mean, WELCOME BACK! :D

Just for some background that might not come up IC, Arin is the original bearer of the blue Lantern. The second half of this post is where the Lantern changed hands to Anise. Shortly after, the Lord of Shadow shoved Arin's spirit back into his body and set him loose in the forest, mostly because Arin had pissed off the Witch and he thought that was pretty amusing. x)

Edit: that buildup was probably a tad bit much, but hella fun, haha.

The Nine Stages of Modding

I wonder if all mods go through these thought processes or if it's just me and I'm weird, haha!

1: I could totally mod this idea. Interest-check that shit!

You see a piece of art, hear a new song, see a movie, and inspiration strikes. Put up that interest check. The worst that can happen is no one responds. That's ok! Just put up another one. Something's gonna click.

2: Woo! Someone responded!

Proceed to re-read your interest check and admire your own ideas. Make edits and expand upon those ideas as inspiration strikes.

3: This RP is a go! OOC time!

Get all that formatting down, make sure your core concept is readable and the character sheet is clear, and refresh it until characters start getting posted.

4: Oh shit, this is actually happening isn't it?

Realize these characters aren't really what you were expecting and you actually didn't consider how the opening scene is going to go down, and what is this RP actually about anyway? Panic. Scramble to piece a feasible plan together and prepare to fail.

5: This opening post is awesome. But it probably sucks.

Post the opening scene. Reread it. Refresh the page. Check if anyone else is reading it. If they are, wonder whether they're just going to leave the RP now. Refresh. Chew your nails. Find chocolate and eat it.

6: Posts are rolling in! Yay! I don't think I can handle this.

IC and OOC posts are fast and furious, and everyone demands your attention. Your other RPs get put on the back burner. You stay up too late. You consider dropping everything else to work on the monster you've created.

7: . . . Where'd everybody go?

For the first time, three days goes by without a single post. Five days. No one's saying anything. Should you stop waiting for those stragglers and just post? Should you tag them? How often can you tag people before they get annoyed at you? They probably hate your RP. This is a failure. You make that mod post and move on. They can catch up if they come back.

8: Just take it easy, don't panic, and have patience.

Those players who disappeared return once every two weeks to make a post. Some are quicker than others, and sometimes the players have to convince you the RP isn't actually dying (though sometimes it feels like it's dying), and you accept that a mod post once every two weeks is okay if that's the pace everyone can keep up with. You breathe, and you take your time with those epic mod posts. You get a thrill every time a player posts.

9: Fresh meat!

Things have slowed down greatly and you've dwindled to 2-3 players. You post a new interest check, calling for new blood. One or two new players respond with an enthusiasm that rekindles everyone's motivation to post. Go back to #8. Repeat infinitely.

For me, the majority of RPs completely fail and fall apart around Stage 7. If an RP lasts until Stage 8 it'll probably stick around for a long while to come. Stage 10 is a finished RP -- but since I've never finished an RP, it doesn't seem right to include it here. ;)

Moonfiend

I invite everyone to play Make-a-Grit!

Feel free to come up with new horrible Grit to attack and defend against -- totally go wild if you want. Have an epic battle. Attack other PCs, even -- I think we can all trust each other here. ;)

Also, at the beginning you all have about ten seconds to do whatever you're going to do before those doors bust open. If anyone is still not in the stairwell down when the doors break, you'll either have to fight your way through or the robot will come get you.

They might be distracted by candy, though. That's all I'll say on that. xD

Moonfiend

"How exactly do you expect to protect us with most of the city's population turned to stone and the city overrun with the very enemy you strove so hard to keep out? Can you afford to spare the men to escort us from the Wall to wherever you are? I bet this entire incident is your fault anyways."

< You're probably right. > The queen's voice was quick with an answer, solemn yet still maintaining the hope with which she greeted the city each morning. < I can't see or understand what you're going through, and I'm sorry it's happening. The only thing we can do is move forward. Let me help you. >

After Vincent put the head down, Kat walked over and picked it back up.

“Erm, your majesty, if you can help us then any help you can give in the next five minutes or so would be very much appreciated! Out location is…”

Once the coordinates had been given, the queen spoke again. < On their way. Get everyone as far down the stairs as you can. I see you on my map. >

The other side of the door showed the outlines of many more Grit. Their shadows being cast through the distorted glass in the door. Flor decided that area was better off closed and he shut the cafeteria doors.

Vincent looked Moth right in the eye. "I can draw a Sigil that can stop the bleeding on your arm, but I have to draw it over your wound or it won't work. That means it'll hurt, but once I'm done the bleeding will stop until tomorrow."

Moth stared back at Vincent, wide-eyed, and let out a single squeak. He fell backward, stiff as rock, landing flat with a thud and passing out.

Maria started darting around the room, grabbing fallen candy, having seemingly gotten over the shock of being attacked by a real, actual Grit (even if it looked more like a little kid).

Kat looked over at Vincent, who held a collapsed Moth in his arms. “Can you carry him? Say if he gets too heavy, we’ll take turns till he wakes up.”

With the robot head in her arms, Kat started heading towards the stairs.

“Let’s go!”

With the cafeteria doors now closed and locked, there was no way to see what was making that horrible screeching noise within. It was metal-on-metal, followed by a squeal and a bang -- the Grit child had opened the door to the outside.

He wasn't trying to get out.

He was letting the others in.

"Ho, heel! To me!" The child hollered, just as the beasts crashed and shattered the tables and benches, their scales and spines and feathers filling the room. "There are alive ones here. Break that door, bring them to me."

A roaring, screeching mass of fur and claws and slitted eyes rushed the flimsy doors that Flor had shut, and they slammed their collective bodies against them.

BANG

BANG

CRASH

The doors exploded into splinters, and all manner of nightmares flooded into the landing -- three-headed, jagged-toothed, bat-winged monstrosities, with five legs or eight legs or no legs at all. The landing immediately filled with a foul stench of bile and sulfur. One of the Grit -- a gigantic snake with a rooster's head -- hissed and rattled and coughed a ball of fire that flared and blackened the wall of the downward stairwell.

Some were too big to squeeze through the door, while others were nimble and on the humans' heels in an instant, teeth flashing.

The stairwell was filled with howls and snarls.

Something metallic was clanking toward them from the bottom of the stairs, rushing at an incredible speed.

An eight-foot-tall robot with the highest tech in speed and joint control -- painted in the queen's violet-and-gold -- appeared on the lower landing and immediately shot a Grit out of the air behind Vincent with a flash of a laser pistol.

"C'mon, twerps, let's go!" the robot hollered in a very human voice. A rune was etched into its chest -- this robot was enchanted. "Is this everyone? Move it! Comin' through! Go down, go down down down! I'll take this guy, run faster!"

The robot reached out with one arm, grabbed the unconscious Moth and slung him over its broad shoulder like he was a ragdoll, shooting all the while.

Lantern

I've edited in a good long portion at the end of the last mod post. I figured some foreshadowing was in order. ;D

Moonfiend

You guys rock. :D

Who's left to post? ;) Say aye!