So, I'm sure it's been noticed, but I'm a slowpoke. I know it doesn't help to stay quiet about it, so I figured I'd post here to let everyone know what the deal is. I hate to sound like I'm making excuses, but you ought to know why anyway, so I'll keep it short. Simply put, RPing has taken a backseat to other things for me as of late, first and foremost of which is school, slipping grades on my part, and tougher classes (courtesy of our school's Captain Hardass). Secondly is the fact that I've gotten to the point where I need to focus on getting a job--I don't really want to go into why that's growing imperative, but it's taken up a portion of my attention. It's easy to forget about responsibilities you have in a group like this when you have "real life" things happening at the same time.

I know it probably puts a crink in things, and I apologize for that, but I hate being the reason things move at a crawl when it's easily avoidable, not to mention when there are things that I need to be focused on. This has been weighing on me for a while. I was planning on taking a break after this arc ended anyway, but if I'm going to be detrimental to its progress before then, it's probably not a good idea to make it go on any longer than it needs to. Sorry, people.

I sense that there may be some general winding down going on in the current thread. Whenever you guys want to close things out and skip ahead to the next day, just convene amongst yourselves, determine what your characters are going to do, then go for it. I mean, really, you don't even need me to make a new thread or anything. One of you guys can do it whenever, or, alternatively, if you want me to handle it, that's fine too.

On that note, yes, I think I will at least give the group a night's rest before the next monstrosity from our lovable badguy lands on their heads.

In other news, grab onto your dadaist poetry books and get ready for some stream-of-consciousness fun-times: POST-MODERNISM IS BACK IN TOWN.

next around harsh-sounding meditation, apart
same that above. that under
smoke recoil at began thonk
ignominiously into recovery was hers
right without her pulled suit,
tall, roll man that, slumped

I will ban your mother.

For the record, the bizarre phenomenon Sheffer is experiencing as a result of contact with the emerald should not be duplicated in anyone else. Just thought I'd throw that bit of beyond-the-fourth-wall knowledge out there for you guys. His reaction to its radiation is a unique one, presumably a roll of the genetic dice gone wrong.

New thread should hopefully be starting tomorrow (Monday) night, if not sooner, but may be as late as Tuesday. STAY TUNED.

Disclaimer: Seven may seem a little OP and over-prepared in this introduction in the current thread, but it's just that: A villain introduction. I do not have any particular attachment to the character, and intend to use him only as a story tool, so his comeuppance will come at the hands of your hero-dudes—Just not so soon.

Just throwing it out there to alleviate any potential frustration before it arises, because I've seen this stuff happen with new (and potentially powerful) solo villains before. I don't get the feeling that any of you feel that way, but just in case it comes up, you know? I don't want to be a powergamer. But I do want to give you a challenging villain to hate, then satisfyingly defeat. There's my mission statement.

I think we're almost ready for a short timeskip in the current thread. If everybody's cool with it, I'll see about doing that later tonight, if possible. For the record, though, Mie and I will be gone for most of the evening. School-related culture crap must be done for her humanities class.

Alrighty, per request of The Man, here's the rundown of what's gonna happen accommodation-wise for you folks in our current threadage. Namely, after all signing-in has been done, all of the recognized combatants will be led to a specially reserved Monorail that is actually not on any official map in Vince's district - that is to say, any special guests for tournaments, shows, concerts, etc are taken on-board this special railway that leads underground into the city's plateau - and from there, to any special destinations of their choosing. In this case, Our fighters will be led to either of the two five-story facilities that reside on either side of the Starry Nights Colosseum.

The actual facilities themselves are pretty much five-star type mini-hotels. There's a luxury buffet on the main floor, there are four stories of rooms for the competitors above that, and the topmost floor has a special training facility where combatants can practice, hone their skills, and even spar with eachother (within reason, of course -- all overseen by hand-picked officials from Vince's staff). Room service, the buffet itself, all services are pretty much paid for by Vince's own hand, so our lovely combatants will have it made up until they lose a fight. There's even a swimming pool for each one on a basement floor below the main lobby.

The rooms are all adorned with the same charming posters and trinkets of past events, past tournament winners, casino memorabilia, the works. All walls have a crimson red coloration, and the floors are pure black carpeting. Other than that, not a whole lot else to say. The places are quite ritzy, but it's all free. The privilege of being a fighter!

Any questions, feel free to ask! Or ask The Man. Either way, I'll give more details as necessary.

Alright, we're about to go into the pre-fight stuff. This is where the storyline truly becomes a choose-your-own-adventure thing. Tony has posted a map of the facility, and has details about each place. The map's on the wiki; if you can't find it, ask him or me. From this point onward, either before the fights or even between them, you can do pretty much anything. That means...

- If you want to make your character investigate the grounds (like by visiting that warehouse, or Vince's office, or wherever), you can make a thread and do just that.
- If you want to make your character try to find and steal the emerald, you can attempt just that.
- If you want to prepare for the match, and parody some classic training montages, and get goofy with it, you can do that. (Mie made a trainer for just such gags, but you can make up one of your own if you want, too.)
- If you want to just interact with other characters, and have conversational threads, or some other completely unrelated, for-fun adventure in Casino Park, you can do that, too.

Point is, there's a lot you can do, and you are free to do it. Your characters have just been dropped into ye olde Casino Night Zone, in what might as well be the frickin' Gold Saucer, and there are a ton of options, limited only by your creativity (and spare time, as the case may be). Make threads freely, and don't get hung up over numbering them. I can come along and do that later.

If you have any questions, ask. Tony's around, I'm around, it's all good.

Just letting you guys know that I'm officially free to help out with whatever RP stuff needs helping-out-with again, and should be around a little more. Also, take this as advance notice that Mie and I will be temporarily out for a few days next week because of apartment-hunting, but after that, we'll resume your regularly scheduled programming.

I see that we have a couple threads still going, but it looks like they're getting bogged down with very sporadic posting. Talk to me if I need to help facilitate anything

After months of disuse, the CURRENT THREAD DISCUSSION THREAD IS REVIVED.



Just letting you guys know that the current thread involving Rock, Jam, Key, Tau, Ace, etc. is not closed off to other characters. There's a sort of disaster beginning right now at Vince's casino, and the action is open to anyone who would likely be in the area.

After rereading the current thread, including my own posts, I'm gonna throw this out in the open for public consideration in the interest of avoiding possible OOC conflict and/or unnecessary IC conflict:

Judging from things heard OOC, this seems like it was an opportunity for Sheffer (the character, henceforth referred to as Sheffhog to avoid confusion) to kind of spotlight and take the reins of plot progression.

This is good. I am for this.

He very gratingly approached Rock, another "driver" character who has several other characters (for the time being) tied to him: Jam, Tau, and Ace specifically. I saw the coming confrontation, and knew from Sheffhog's personality that there would be IC conflict that would prevent them from working together if the conversation proceeded. Considering that I am unwilling to go out-of-character and make Rock kowtow to someone whom he (in my opinion) has every reason to perceive as a presumptuous and asinine kid (who's actually taking advantage of his present condition to be a jerk to him without retribution), I decided to covertly remove Rock from the scene for a few posts to get him away from the conversation by having him just walk off in pursuit of some medicine, leaving other characters to interact with Sheffer and formulate the plot action.

However, Sheffhog called after him, used story-power to essentially say "there is nothing for you, you cannot get help, you have to listen to me if you want anything," strong-arming me (the player) by out-of-character scene control (the unavailability of aid) to keep Rock in the scene, and making a scene of things while I was just trying to get my character out and avoid confrontation that might endanger your guys' intended storyline. I made it clear in OOC via IMs that I intended to just exit the scene, but the post remained, and conflict proceeded just as I feared.

And now, here we are. I'm going ahead and making Rock try to formulate a solution. I don't really know the details of the story myself, but I'm not doing it to hijack control or spotlight. I'm doing it in hopes that maybe they'll run into each other again (hopefully soon) while trying to accomplish their goals, and reconcile our story sides at least enough to have them work together. Since I'm not in control, I'm sure you guys could easily just say "nope Rock's plan won't work" and hard-bork Rock and all characters currently attached to him out of the story entirely, but I'm hoping it won't come to some sort of story-driving peeing contest like that.

Anyway, yeah. That's all I had to say. I'm not trying to subvert Sheffhog as a story-driving protagonist. I won't go out of character to cooperate with him, though, and I don't think anybody else will, either. Discuss if necessary.

I am not going to attempt to progress the story until I can figure out what on earth is going on with everything and stop it happening.

Hey, mystery thread guys, quick idea I just had that will help us remove all ambiguity for you and keep things rrrrrrrollin': Let me know by posting here whenever you hit a roadblock or want to timeskip. (Also, you guys are permitted to do your own timeskips if you want, but I would completely understand if you didn't want to at times, given the nature of this story, and your lack of information on where it's going.)

See, though I'm "controlling" the story, you guys are completely in charge of where it goes, how it gets there, and when it gets there, so I will be purely reactive to whatever you do. I am the scenery. Just smack me with a message whenever you're out of actions or dead-ended, and I will either post something expressing your options in classic choose-your-own-adventure style, or I will timeskip you and set a new scene.

Also, if at any point in the future you all come to agree that this style of RP does not work out, we'll just find some way to do it regular-like, or bring it to a close.