Stern Algorithm

Twisted Light - A Dystopic Magical Girl RP

Maria smiled, and nodded in response to Eponine's gesture. She was glad to know Eponine was behind her cause, since she was one of her most important agents. However, there was something she wanted confirmed while she was making preparations.

"Good. Now, your first task is heading to the industrial sector and assisting Violetta with her investigation on a magi lab, and bringing the culprits to justice. It's been a while since she has responded back to me, and I'm worried something has happened there. I'm not going to have the risk of the city blown up in some crazy experiment ignored and ruining our plans."

@Ariamis

"Understood, Lady Maria," Eponine said. Though her emotionless expression had returned, conviction could be seen in her eyes. She saluted Maria and left the hall.

Fantine, meanwhile had struggled at trying to stand at attention, while watching Eponine lose her temper and composure. Fantine had wanted to run over and comfort her sister, but she didn't know if anything she could have done would have helped. Since Eponine became a magical girl, she had grown extremely distant. Fantine knew Eponine still cared for her, but Eponine bore all the burden, while Fantine felt powerless. Fantine couldn't care less whether Eponine served Aurora or Maria, Fantine merely wished to support her sister whatever her choice was, but she found no way to support her except smiling and pretending everything was fine, pretend she didn't see what being a magical girl had done to Eponine. Fantine steeled herself and made sure she wasn't crying, but took a few quick glances at Maria, wondering if their lady actually cared about them as she professed or if she was just playing her game of thrones.

---

A while later, Eponine arrived at the industrial sector where Violetta was supposed to be. As she neared, she sensed the presence of a witch's barrier. She took out her soul gem and followed its directions leading her past an abandoned lab with a giant boulder and fresh scorch marks; signs of Violetta's presence. As she wandered around, the space around her began to warp, meaning that she was either getting closer, the barrier was expanding, or both. Soon she was struck by what could only be described a snow-blindness as she entered the barrier. While her eyes adjusted to the sudden brightness, she didn't blink, which would have been the normal reflex action to have were it not for the fact that Eponine's sense of pain was severely dulled. Eponine figured Violetta was probably in the barrier as well, which would explain her lack of updates. Eponine transformed, and pulled out a hammer. Eponine wondered how she was going to find Violetta in this muffled, snowy mess.

Evolution of Conflict: A Sci-Fi Mecha 1x1 FaithfulMuse and Stern Algorithm

"Blythe Rivers, try moving a little faster," Maya suggested without sounding critical, "from what I saw of the Nix's specifications, it should have pretty impressive maneuverability."

Maya continued, "Our next exercise will be target practice. The incubaotr will first launch some stationary targets. Those of your with ranged weapons, test your aim, those of you with melee weapons, go into fray and try to take some out. Afterwards, the Incubator will launch some moving targets. Again, try your hand at hitting them."

The Incubator launched some pods out that positioned themselves into two groups, one for ranged, and one for melee. They led away from the main group of ships so that any stray shots wouldn't hit any of the other vessels.

"Feel free to familiarize yourself with any additional systems your cog might have," Maya added as a final note.

Evolution of Conflict: A Sci-Fi Mecha 1x1 FaithfulMuse and Stern Algorithm

By the time Claire and Maya arrived, Sion had managed to help Israfil get Orpheus to stop spinning.

"Not bad, Claire Rivers," Maya said, offering encouragement. "Now we'll start out with simple propulsion training. As each cockpit is designed to best suit your own unique ideal control style, I can't teach all of you how to control your cogs. Most of you will have some sort of throttle lever, or maybe a foot pedal. The only real pointer I can give is to use your intuition. Do what you 'think' will make your cog move in the direction you want, and it should go."

"Maybe you should have told them that before asking them to brake," Sion said. Despite the seeming seriousness of his voice, this was probably the closest thing to jovial banter anyone had heard from him.

"Heh, you're probably right," Maya chuckled, "Braking follows the same principle. In fact, the same principle of intuition applies to pretty much all aspects of controlling your cogs, the main point is to get used to it, and let the cog guide you. So try moving around."

The ensigns started moving their cogs around. Israfil and Tera took it slow, Solomon on the other hand, was attempting challenging aerial maneuvers and doing a decent job at it. He actually started flying an orbit around Orpheus, which was a slow cog by design. "So, Ensign Eihon was it?" Solomon asked, "I'm Lear. Solomon Lear, looks like we'll be comrades from here on out."

"Solomon?" Israfil asked with a bit of incredulity, "M-my name is Israfil...i-it's nice to meet you..." Israfil still remembered with terror Solomon's ability to control other peoples' bodies, yet the Ascended came off much friendlier than he expected. He thought about how nice Mike was too, and blamed himself for jumping to conclusions. Not all Ascendeds were bad, maybe Solomon just had a bad day.

Twisted Light - A Dystopic Magical Girl RP

Eponine's response:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=58JrxLL3u2s

Twisted Light - A Dystopic Magical Girl RP

@Stern Algorithm

"Indeed she has," Maria answered with certainty. "But soon she will pay for her crimes, and we will start an eternal age of prosperity."

She landed back on her wheelchair. "But I can't do it without you, Eponine. Aurora needs us. The world needs us." She held her hand towards her.

"Take my hand, and let's make our dream come true."

@Ariamis

Eponine thought about what would happen if she walked this path with Maria. She imagined the lives shattered by the destruction and chaos that would come. She imagined having to fight against magical girls that she had fought alongside in the past. But then she thought of rows of soldiers, marching neatly; magical girls lined up at attention, under one banner. People's lives, regulated to minimize both hope and despair to prevent unwanted contracts; witches dispatched in a precise and surgical way, more like an industrial farm than a hunt. Could all this be possible? But what wasn't possible, if only a magical girl could dream big enough? Since becoming a knight of Aurora, Eponine had stopped dreaming, and suffered the same slow death as the city. But Maria...she never stopped dreaming, she had the will to make it work.

"I will follow you my lady," Eponine said, "and I renew my pledge of loyalty to you, and you only." She took Maria's hand and first touched it to her own forehead, and then brought it to her lips in a medieval gesture.

Evolution of Conflict: A Sci-Fi Mecha 1x1 FaithfulMuse and Stern Algorithm

As the Mayura launched, Tera started braking fairly early for the sake of safety, so even though she arrived at the meeting spot later than Blythe, she was able to stop smoothly. Sion could be heard trying to coach Israfil to stop his Orpheus from spinning. Sion did stop long enough to congratulate both Tera and Blythe on their successful first launch.

"Alright Claire Rivers, we're next," Maya said.

"Launch sequence initiated, Obsidian prepare for take-off on starboard catapult, Asteria prepare for take-off on port catapult. Lieutenant Encarnacion, Ensign Rivers, you are cleared for take-off, catapult launch in 3...2...1..."

Twisted Light - A Dystopic Magical Girl RP

Maria's voice turned pleasing and comforting as she spoke.

"Oh Eponine, I understand how you feel," she said, and with her magic, slowly rose into the the air from her wheelchair. She floated slowly towards Eponine and then around her like an angel without wings. " But I must take this drastic measure to preserve peace in Aurora. Alexandra is too vacuous to rule her. She simply twiddles her thumbs and acts like a figurehead while the neighboring cities and nations gain in warriors and land, ultimately bringing war and suffering to Aurora and its people too. Were I to become queen, I would bring order to Aurora and all of those lands, until the entire world is in eternal peace and rest.

She now stopped and caressed her cheek as she floated before her. "Don't you remember the dream we had, my dear Eponine?" She then whispered into her ear:

"A world of absolute order. We can achieve that, you need only to believe in me and we will have it, together."

@Ariamis

"I-I thought we would work within the system, that we would support the structure of Aurora until it was ready to expand..." Eponine said, clearly losing her composure. But then the question struck her, "When would Aurora be ready to expand? Hadn't things already stabilized enough to widen the city's ambitions?" At the rate the city was going, it would choke itself out in a slow death.

"But the world, Maria?" Eponine asked, addressing her without the usual title of 'lady', signifying a certain degree of intimacy as well as a temporary collapse of her emotional barrier. "I had begun to lose hope. I...I thought that it would never happen, given how slowly this city does anything. I thought...that you were comfortable...so I thought that maybe...maybe you didn't want it anymore...and I would be fine with that...maybe I just had to protect you and Fantine...make sure that your lives were comfortable...maybe I would be satisfied with that." Then she thought of Chloe, and realized that the fact such a person could exist was evidence enough that the world, not just Aurora, needed order. "Alexandra has truly failed us...hasn't she?" Eponine asked with a certain grim finality.

Conflict Breeds Innovation (A Gundam-Inspired Giant Mecha small-group RP)

Sorry for the long wait, if things work out, we should probably have the RP start around the end of this week.

Evolution of Conflict: A Sci-Fi Mecha 1x1 FaithfulMuse and Stern Algorithm

I'm leaving it open for you to describe how well Blythe and Claire's first launch goes, whether they demonstrate good control, or kind of flop like Israfil did. After Blythe and Tera launch, Claire and Maya will launch. You can cut and paste the launch sequence if you'd like, or leave it out entirely since it's pretty repetitive.

Evolution of Conflict: A Sci-Fi Mecha 1x1 FaithfulMuse and Stern Algorithm

Solomon chuckled, "That's fine, I don't need your forgiveness, I just need to apologize for...certain reasons." He looked across the hangar at Maya, who was just getting into the cockpit of the Obsidian. He left Blythe and made his way into the Legion's cockpit.

Once everyone was situated in their cogs, Maya spoke over the comm link, which displayed as a small square visual screen of her helmeted face in the lower left corner of everyone's cockpit's heads-up display. "Alright, RHS will deploy first."

Another comm link opened, this time, it showed the face of a young man, the launch coordinator. "Launch sequence initiated, Fury prepare for take-off on starboard catapult." The frame holding the Fury moved to the right side of the hangar and lined itself up with the right catapult. "Lieutenant Junior Grade RHS, you are cleared for take-off, catapult launch in 3...2...1..." The frame shot forward and released the Fury out into space. The frame then folded and slid into the underside of the catapult, clearing the lane for the next launch.

Maya continued, "Now I'm going to have you all launch two at a time. Familiarize yourselves with your thruster controls. After you launch, reverse thrust or 'brake' as you approach RHS' position. If you are unable to stop, he'll catch you before you hit the edge of the hyperspace bubble. Once you've stopped, remain still until everyone has launched successfully. Alright, Lear and Eihon, you're first."

The launch coordinator started again, "Launch sequence initiated, Legion prepare for take-off on starboard catapult, Orpheus prepare for take-off on port catapult." The frames holding the Legion and Orpheus to the walls of the hangar moved the cogs out to launch positions. "Ensign Lear, Ensign Eihon, you are cleared for take-off, catapult launch in 3...2...1..." Both frames shot forward, releasing the cogs out into space. Legion headed towards Fury firing all reverse thrusters at the last second, coming to a precise and sudden halt, whereas Orpheus, being much heavier and with fewer thrusters, started braking too late, overshooting Fury. The Fury went after it to prevent it from reaching the edge, but the Orpheus managed to brake before Fury's intervention was necessary, however once stopped, the Orpheus continued to slowly and awkwardly spin in place.

"OK, Blythe Rivers, QAZ, your up," Maya said.