The end of chapter 4 is upon us... sort of.

I had something planned for this finale that would be special and different—maybe even weird. But, participation being as it is (which is to say low), I'm not sure if it's going to happen. Nonetheless, I'll explain it here as if it is.

Basically, as most of you know, this chapter has been a pretty straightforward story about Dr. Eggman finally succeeding at taking over the world. Sonic and friends were indisposed, Eggman made his move, and now, he has a seemingly insurmountable foothold. And, also, as some of you know, this final thread has been about a crazy move to try to take Eggman's control of his own forces out from under him using Seven's computer virus.

The idea is that this virus will cause the system to forget who Dr. Eggman is and essentially rewrite his information based on whoever is present in the command center at the time it runs. If there is more than one person there, it will be delayed until only one remains, which means a sort of battle royale for control of Dr. Eggman's forces, and, by extension, the world.

This also means that any character present could end up with that control, which brings me to the weird idea: When the time comes for the final confrontation, we'll have a cliffhanger moment, and from there, any player who is active and has managed to get his or her character in the command center will be given the chance to star in their own little epilogue thread wherein they have gained control. We'll basically get to see what a bunch of different characters would each do if they hypothetically got control, and how it would turn out.

Yes. That's right. This chapter has multiple endings. Which one becomes the real ending? I'm not sure yet. I'm thinking maybe we'll vote on which one ends up being the most interesting and go with that, or something to that effect.

This won't happen if we don't have a strong enough cast to make it happen, though. Don't be a bunch'a dead fish. If you don't know what to do, talk and brainstorm or ask for help. If you're not going to post, say you're not going to post. If you are going to post, get posting. I think this could make for a very interesting look at our cast, and give everyone a chance to be the star in a way.

I forgot to ask: Who here actually wanted to have an ending for their own character? (Limit one character per person, obviously, pleece)

Everybody's approaching the final stage where the seat of power will be decided. If we really are doing this multiple-ending thing, we'll be cutting the current thread off at some point very soon and opening separate threads. Not everyone will be obligated to participate in every ending thread, mind you. You really only have to pitch in your lot you want to influence that particular character's ending in some way. (If you don't, you're pretty much giving free reign to that player and character to write their own ending out as they like. It's your last chance to have an impact in that branch of the story!)

Later, I'll give a little more information on precisely what the "victory situation" entails power-wise, control-wise, etc., so you all have something reasonable to work with.

Anyway, it should hopefully be interesting. Characters who thought they were working together may suddenly find themselves pitted against each other. I love those grey areas. Here's to hoping it turns out to be fun, and not disastrous (like most of our experiments).

I guess after we're done, we'll... I dunno. Maybe we'll all collectively decide which outcome we like most, or make some sort of neutral ending. We'll see. Depends on what you guys wanna do, really.

Replyyy.

I'm completely up for letting Geoff play out an ending. I just need to brood over it a bit more.

Count me in boss.

Ember of course.

BIG RULES THE WORLD

...
I'll put one in, but we'll see whether it's shark-boy or fat-cat. If I'm not taking it entirely seriously, or if there are a lot of good 'contenders', I'll just put the Big!card in for humor value
Buuuut if I actually want to go serious I'll put fishsticks at the helm.

In other words, I'm totes in, but I'm not sure with whom, yet.

I've got no problem with it. I'm quite curious on how the events will unravel...

We haven't yet gotten to the point where the alternate endings start, so, a few notes:

- If you want your character to have a shot at a victorious ending, don't let him or her fall outside the isolation field.
- This may be counter to in-character sensibility, but, as a courtesy to other players, try to avoid successfully knocking others out of the field just yet. If other folks want a shot at an ending, don't rob them of it. (You'll get your opportunity to mess with their endings when they get their own threads!)
- If you play more than one character or aren't interested in having an ending thread for your character, consider letting said non-ending character fall out of the field at some point in the fight (just to get him out of the way).
- Don't be afraid you can "lose" in the current thread (other than by getting knocked outside of the field). Short of getting killed, your character cannot lose its opportunity as long as it doesn't fall outside the field, even if it is incapacitated temporarily. (That is, unless you go inactive.)
- On that note, don't fall behind. The inactivity rules may technically allow a poster 48 hours, but this is a fight scene, so the answer to the debacle of "what to post" should be pretty self-apparent at all times. Attacks on characters will be assumed to be effective if not replied to in a timely manner.
- Don't shoot for an ending if you're not prepared to play out a short thread centered on your character. (This should be obvious.)

This current fight scene may be viewed as "competitive," but in the end, it doesn't really matter who beats who. Everybody'll get their shot, so just play it well, post lots, and have some fun with this little battle royale. Oh, and do feel free to actually talk to each other and plan some things out if you want to. Not all spontaneous RP combat has to be fully competitive. You can script some stuff to make for a showier fight. (Granted, with Coop and Rouge removed from the fold, I think it's turned into "Everyone vs. Rock & Jam" rather than "Everyone vs. Almost Everyone" as it was planned, so I don't know how much opportunity there will be for that unless more folks start distrusting one another.)

We're probably nearing the last half of the posting rounds before we start on the individual character endings. (I'm not going to ramrod the fight through to a finish or anything, but I know better than to let a huge player-vs-player rumble go on for too long.)

Tuesday night is the absolute deadline to finish up posting in the current thread, though we may cut it off sooner (tomorrow, even). By Wednesday afternoon, we'll begin our multiple ending threads, so prepare your bodies.

Ending threads have been started for Geoff and Mako. At this point, there's not much for anyone else to do in these threads, though I do suggest reading along for the opportunity to do so at some point later.

More ending threads will be started as folks ask for them. If you're one of the people who posted above, wanting an ending, pop into the chat and let me know when you're ready to begin.

... Again, I really have no idea how this is going to go, and the whole idea could bomb. But we'll see.

This is all going surprisingly well. I think we're finally getting to the rest of the endings (at least, I can't think of anymore endings), though we haven't completed any yet.

That said, as the one who writes for Seven, this is a pretty big challenge for me, and I won't be able to keep it up with many more threads at once. If the remaining "ending" players can avoid any long, drawn-out quibbles with him... it would help my sanity.