Plank Sinatra

Heroes of Beacon - the Next Chapter

The power was back on. Against all odds, it had worked - and Luke was still in one piece, thinking like normal, trying to keep her buoyant. The relief she felt welling through her - and probably through him and Cian - jumpstarted her Semblance again.

"Sure is, kid. You did great."

Lauren, boots in one hand, bent down to touch Luke's head. She felt a vein pulse underneath her forehead, and when she touched his hair there was a painful jolt; she felt her arm tense at the brief discomfort, but the limb didn't retreat.

"You think I'd ever push you into a fight where I can't have your back?" she asked warmly. Her fingers bent slightly to ruffle his hair affectionately.

Ahoge and all.

"Now c'mon. We gotta get to the elevator and across that courtyard. Half of my team is still fighting fuck-knows-what up there and I don't like the idea of not being able to give 'em a hand."

They hung around only a second longer, to help Luke regain his footing, before the three set off, Cian supporting Luke with one arm and her gun underneath the other as Lauren took point, boots in one hand and other hand near her axe. Fortunately enough, they reached the elevator without incident. Jack must have already taken the survivors up.

The three sidled into the elevator and hit the switch, leaving the basement of the distillery behind.

Heroes of Beacon - the Next Chapter

The team's real stripper.

@HereComesTheSnow @Suku @Lugubrious

As dangerous as Lauren's electroshock therapy idea was, she would have never suggested it without a good idea of how to handle electricity as a substance. She'd fucked around with enough alarms or electric cars in her day to have a good idea of what to do with it, but part of that experience came from mishaps - and there was little more dangerous than a bad date with high voltage. Which is why she ignored every gut instinct that screamed at her to pry her scruffy-headed protege off of the copper wire she'd sweet talked him into gripping, and why she instead began pulling off her boots.

There were two thought processes at work inside the boxer's head, one conscious, one subconscious. Consciously, she thought to herself that this was the only thing that Lauren and Cian had with no metal to conduct through Luke and wouldn't include them in the circuit. One good strike to the gut with both boots, swung wide and hard like a baseball bat, would do the trick and put Luke on his ass without breaking anything. He'd have the wind knocked out of him for a couple seconds, and he'd still feel like shit, but he'd be alive and his ribs wouldn't be rattling around like the insides of a little human maraca. That was worth the loss of any protection to her bare feet and calves.

Subconsciously?

I hope Cap's sunglasses ain't recording.

He'd be as hard as a calculus test all weekend if he saw her like this. And as great a guy as her best friend was, he must have been dropped on his head as a kid if he would delete that footage without a fight.

When her boots were both in her hand, Lauren decided to weaponize that image for some extra oomph.

It's not Luke at all. Luke isn't hurt. Luke is in his dorm watching lewd cartoons. This is Beacon. This is Ben's smirking face. He just used up all the hot water in the shower entertaining some sick fantasy about you and--

THOOMPH!

With one wide arc of her arms, Lauren sent Luke sprawling backwards, and had wrapped one arm around him before he hit the ground. She felt a jolt and quickly reeled back from him, but made sure he hit the ground carefully and without too much force. Shaking it off, she walked over to the battery Sangue had sent down and quickly began working on the installation process. It was just like what she'd done to get them in here. Just like what they'd done a thousand times.

"Cian, grab Luke," she said, hands performing the installation process through sheer muscle memory. "We're getting out of this shitheap."

They'd done it.

They'd really done it.

Heroes of Beacon - the Next Chapter

@Lugubrious The survivors have all gone with Jack. They're waiting by the elevator already - or should be - while Cian and Lauren wait for the battery to get there so they can retrieve Luke. The whole point of zapping the poor guy was so that the lift would have enough temporary power to take the survivors up along with Jack and then let the rest of the students go up once the battery was installed. They're not all in one group.

From the looks of the post it implied that they had kinda stuck around to watch Luke get barbecued which isn't really the case.

Heroes of Beacon - the Next Chapter

Schwarz Lives Matter.

Nigga oh noooooo.

Nigga nigga nigga. Shit.

I'm gonna fucking kill Luke. Shit!

Lauren whipped off her sunglasses quickly and hung them by one temple from her sports bra, watching the martial artist with wide green eyes.

I'm supposed to present these sunglasses to Chatsworth this week! They can't have footage of Luke's death in the memory!

It looked like it was working - Luke's body was running the electricity along his arms and through the copper wires he stood parallel to, grip tightening by the second as the current pulsed through him and into the generator. Cian's occasional extra round of Dust only added to the juice flowing into the facility. It should have enough power to get Jack and the survivors onboard the lift and get it moving before the battery even got down, and that would be in no time. She'd agreed to tail them from behind and let Luke and Cian move on alone. They'd meet Sangue in no time and be fine. This was her plan...

But she hesitated.

She was used to putting Luke Schwarz through the funny kinds of pain. Trying to set him up on dates. Not wearing bras with tank tops - and wearing tank tops everywhere. Sexual gestures on his ahoge. Smacks on the ass. Roughhousing stuff. This...this...

Naive as it may have been...

Lauren hadn't been expecting to hear Luke scream.

Her muscles had all locked up on her. She felt electrocuted, too.

_"Luke..."

This wasn't hype. This wasn't hype at all.

"...Stay frosty, killer. I'm right behind you. W-Wallahi."

The sunglasses went back on. Seconds later, the power would be following suit. She had no time to be shaky.

But she couldn't leave him like this.

Gundam RP?

<Snipped quote by Plank Sinatra>

Implying that both factions aren't already equal evils? Yeah, I said it. Both the Federation and Zeon are equal parts asshole, so why should I be forced to choose one when I could just say fuck it and stick it to both of them?

@Double

You can if you want, but my problem with your line of reasoning is that it involves forcing everyone else into saying fuck it right alongside you.

Gundam RP?

<Snipped quote by Krayzikk>

I never said we should cut out the conflict. I said we should play a party that has reasons for hating BOTH sides. The conflict would still be there (where do you think all those shipwrecks and stuff came from) we just wouldn't be actively e taking part in it. The idea is for the hypothetical party to potentially be on the run from both sides. Not every Gundam protagonist has to be some living legend like Amuro, you gotta have your occasional Bernies too.

@Double

The thing is, that kind of setup is anathema to ambiguity, which is the theme that separates Gundam from shows like Macross. The very idea is that you're sometimes going to end up liking the antagonists and thinking the protagonists are bores or douchebags is critical to the show. I think that by creating a third party and using them as a main faction, that treats both canon factions like equal evils, goes against one of the things that's been a theme of Gundam for forty years.

You may not like how much time the series spends on the horrors of war, but that's...pretty much the point. And it doesn't always need to be played for brooding, either. Gundam's had plenty of hot-blooded pilots over the course of forty years across a wealth of factions. You yourself said you would be interested in playing a Char Clone. One person I know who hasn't posted in this interest check yet wants to do the same. There's always going to be a wealth of people who play the villains - just like there are people who are going to defend the Federation, whether to bring the whole Earth Sphere to heel or to be your typical straight-laced animu hero. All being on one side limits character potential and stifles conflict by its very nature - sure, it won't be like we're all sitting around the burning wreckage of Big Zam roasting marshmallows and singing kumbaya, but it won't be like we're trying to kill each other, either.

Letting players actually join a faction actually solves most of the problem with Gundams, too - then it becomes a question of tech progression and when a GM thinks a certain pilot is suited for a certain Gundam, and the suits become something you want to earn and lead your faction to victory with instead of a limited resource that players end up bickering and fighting over. There are plenty of non-UC series where antagonists have Gundams that are just as cool as anything the protags field (as much as I hate to say something positive about SEED, Providence Gundam and Justice Gundam are bae) so it's not like the GM would be making something up without precedent to be more fair to one side.

tl;dr: I disagree with the idea of a third party we're all part of, and think that by having two clear-cut sides and letting players side where they may, you add conflict where it's needed (an actual war in a Gundam series) and remove it where it's not (squabbling over Gundams).

Gundam RP?

@Plank Sinatra Meh, you could make it work- if you have players that know how to make it balanced or trust not to become OP as hell.

Be it a rookie pilot who for some reason got their hands on a gundam- because of course they have, or maybe the gundam has a flaw or limitations or a locked up power system. Plenty you could do with it

@vietmyke

But this isn't really the point in most Gundam series. Even in the Universal Century, the Gundam was fielded in order to completely outclass Zeon - who up to that point had the Zaku, which was the most advanced machine on the battlefield. When a Gundam hits the stage, it doesn't have limitations or a locked power system. It's designed to be a generation ahead of everything else.

Giving them to skilled pilots as needed, as time goes on in the game, is much more in line with how the franchise actually works. All you're doing then is cutting out the one MC-type character who gets one within the first episode or two, since there shouldn't be one of those in a group roleplay from the outset anyway.

Gundam RP?

Probably not a good idea to get some people Gundams from the outset and then tell others they're stuck with mass-production mobile suits. The power disparity is pretty big even when everyone's running around in ace customs.

Persona - Academic Akrasia (Being rebooted, see new int check)

"We should go to McDonald's."

Daisuke looked hungry, too. Some food in his stomach would perk him right up.

"We can get you a cup of ice."

DRU would probably take well to McDonald's. Perhaps, as the sole survivor of his unit, he would appreciate Kimiko enough to be retrained for fast food retrieval over time. Like a pet. A futuristic robot pet. Her moms would probably be happy. There was less cleanup with a robot.

Daisuke looked pretty beat up on top of looking hungry. Kimiko's eyes drooped, as though she were about to drop right there and take a nap. Her mouth quirked downwards slightly, then up into a faint smile.

"Come on. Let's find Guitar-chan and we can all get some fries together. You'll feel better."

Gundam RP?

So would this be set in the AD timeline (00)?