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 quote:I don't think most people realize just how much of a solitary crusade it was at first, how little anyone else knew of what she was up to. Of how hard it was to make sense of what she'd done afterwards, when she couldn't explain it herself. I assumed - we all assumed, all of us at Miskatonic and later the Foundation - that Annabelle's re-discovery of the Leng expedition records inspired her to take a second look at all those old manuscripts, those old texts, about magic. And by that I mean, that the accounts gave her evidence that something beyond the reach of then-current theory had happened to them. It wasn't until much later, after her death, when I looked for her initial notes, when I couldn't find the original records, that I started to wonder if she'd found something more in them... quote:FLASH MESSAGE - SIGNIFICANT INCIDENT - CODE ORANGE   Wednesday March 13 2120, 9:11AM EDT Location: Ashton Foundation Headquarters, Room 313; Arkham, Massachusetts Aspects: Putting the Magic Into the World, Collegiate Atmosphere, Lovecraft Country The offices are nearly empty today. There are two feet of dirty snow on the ground already, and another six to eight inches predicted for this afternoon. You'd been planning to enjoy the day off and worry about digging out tomorrow, but an emergency flash message called you all in. Right now, all you know is that an incident has occurred at one of the Foundation's labs, that no injuries have been reported, and that the Director of the Special Circumstances Response Division has taken a personal interest. Your ID badges let you into Room 313, one of the briefing and analysis sections set aside for the Special Circumstances Response Team's exclusive use. The largest benefit of this policy is generally considered to be access to a lightly used Dunkin' Donuts automatic vendor (legacy of a poorly worded thirty year contract that Starbuck's army of lawyers are still trying to pick apart). You have a moment to take full advantage of it and find a place at the conference table before the Director comes in. *** Welcome to the Ashton Foundation everyone! Please post your character sheets here for reference. Just the stats please, we can read the OOC thread for the fluff. Rolls can be done on synirc in #redhandofdoom or #persona OR on Orokos (use the campaign name Exclusion Violations). You've a moment or two introduce your character. You all know each other from the office, and have each worked with one or two of the others, but this is the first time the team in this configuration is all working together. Comrade Gorbash fucked around with this message at 03:07 on Jul 20, 2014 |
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Jun 9, 2014 01:22
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Agent Cain Cain was, naturally, one of the first to the room. After all, if you're early, you're on time, if you're on time, you're late, and if you're late...well, if you're late you're likely dead. He walks to the Dunkin' Donuts vendor, dispensing hot coffee into the largest cup he can find, grabs a couple of donuts, and sits quietly in a seat near the front. As he's sitting, the machine chirps happily, "Don't forget - the NEG runs on Dunkin'!" Cain shakes his head, a slight chuckle escaping his lips. "Yeah, sure it does," he mutters under his breath. The donuts are a luxury, or at least as near to one as he can figure. Sugary and not particularly nutritious, but good with coffee and a pleasant snack in the morning after his own hearty breakfast of steak, eggs, and more coffee. Besides, he needed sugars and various other things to fuel his cybernetics, already increasing his appetite vastly - why not have some? The first chocolate sprinkled donut disappears quickly as he waits - it wouldn't do to be eating during the briefing. As he contemplates the second donut, he wonders when anyone else from the team will arrive. This zero-accountability thing could certainly prove irksome at times. Tempus Rimeblood posted:
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Jun 9, 2014 01:39
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Hyun-Ae There's a thump as Hyun-Ae's forehead makes contact with the door window. She squints as she scans the inside of the room. Just Cain. Fun. She languidly pushes the door open and trudges inside. "gently caress me, man." Hyun-Ae slumps into one of the chairs and lazily raises her scotch glass to her colleague. "Whatup." Atlatl posted:Hyun-Ae Hekmatyar
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Jun 9, 2014 02:32
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Cain He looks down at his donut. Back at Hyun-Ae. Back at the donut. "Briefing. Probably shouldn't be drinking, we're on the clock and drunk on duty makes for casualties." He slides the donut across the table. "Here. At least have that to go with it, if you're intent on being sloshed on-op."
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Jun 9, 2014 02:43
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Hyun-Ae "Strange." Hyun-Ae spins around in her chair, shrugging. "Doesn't look like anyone's shooting at me right now. I think that means I'm not on duty yet, dude." She looks to the donut, then to Cain, then her drink. She sighs and waves him towards the DD machine without looking. "Whatever. Look, just get me the pills. Please."
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Jun 9, 2014 02:49
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Cain He lets out an exasperated sigh. "And if you're too drunk to listen to the briefing once it starts, you miss intel. You miss intel, you could get killed." Standing, he walks back to the Dunkin' Donuts vendor, dispensing some sober-up pills, and pouring her a cup of coffee for good measure. Snagging some cream cups and sugar packets, he places the whole assortment in front of her. "Listen, it's my job to make sure nobody on our side dies on these ops." And that everyone on the other side DOES, he muses to himself. "That means making sure everyone's good to go. Now come on, put the glass down and drink up. Rest of the team's gonna be here any minute."
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Jun 9, 2014 02:53
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Hyun-Ae "Yeah, yeah. You're right. Again. 'Preciate it. Who knows what sort of disaster I'd be without you, Agent." She opens up the packet of pills, taking a moment to regard the Sober-Up! logo with great distaste. "Cheers." She taps her glass on the table, throws back the pills, slams down the rest of her scotch, and slides the glass away from her. Hyun-Ae straightens up in her chair and exhales. "Whoo, boy. Forget coffee, man. Johnny Walker'll wake you up quick. Alright, I'm good. Bring on the PowerPoints. Let's do this poo poo."
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Jun 9, 2014 03:00
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Li Wu By the time Li sits down, she already has an armful of donuts and another in her mouth. Her massive bed hair, grumpy baggy eyes and suspiciously clean hands suggest she was up all night on some ritual and was intending to sleep it off. Oh, well. The pineapple donut jammed between her teeth wiggles as she talks. "Thif bepher be guph." Ettin posted:Li Wu
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Jun 9, 2014 03:12
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Mali Sasithorn Thunk. Mali sets a heavy bag down on the table. Part of a brightly-colored metallic chain is sticking a little bit of a not-quite-closed zipper. You can probably guess what's inside; it's the same bag she almost always has with her. "Hey." She hangs her heavy winter jacket off the back of her chair, and sits down. "Can you guys believe we're gonna get more snow today? I thought Winter was supposed to be over by now." Takanago posted:
Takanago fucked around with this message at 12:49 on Jun 9, 2014 |
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Jun 9, 2014 04:00
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Madeline Knapp Madeline takes a seat, sipping at a cup of coffee from the room's vending machine. You don't remember seeing her come in. Or use the vending machine. "I know, right? I mean, I didn't even have time to make coffee this morning after digging my car out. Thank God for the Dunkin machine. I've never even seen one of those before." A faint chittering noise comes from under the conference table, and Madeline looks down with a little grin on her face. "Violet, shush. You already had breakfast." Emerald Rogue posted:
Emerald Rogue fucked around with this message at 14:00 on Apr 1, 2015 |
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Jun 9, 2014 12:34
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Princess Shirona of Celephaïs "It is a wonderful machine." Shirona spins around in her own chair, not even looking away from the ancient tome she holds in her left hand. A strawberry-filled donut is on her right. "So much concentrated sugar in one place. I haven't had this much since my last time in Serannian." It's not so much that she appears out of nowhere, really; she's been in the room ever since the emergency message came up. But it's just now that she decides that everyone (without magic senses) should notice her presence right at that moment. Shinigami powers are weird. Or would be, if Madeline wasn't around as well. Now it's just the milquetoast kind of weird. "The snow, I could do without." She stops to fix herself to a respectable sitting posture. "It is already cold enough here as it is." TurninTrix posted:Princess Shirona of Celephaïs Mitama fucked around with this message at 03:03 on Jun 18, 2014 |
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Jun 9, 2014 12:53
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Cain "Snow's...useful, sometimes. Should get shoveled soon, though, or we're not gonna have any entry or exit points."
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Jun 9, 2014 14:58
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Hyun-Ae "Might not be so cold if you wore pants for once," Hyun-Ae snickers, flapping the collar of her fox coat in Shirona's direction.
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Jun 9, 2014 23:53
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As you talk about that old conversational crutch, the weather, the door to Room 313 pops open again as the lady who called you all in enters. Director Olivia Douglass  "Good morning everyone. Sorry to drag you in on a day like this, but needs must." She has a tablet in hand, and with a few flicks of her fingers starts distributing files to each of your devices and the displays built into the table. She's clearly not thrilled about being here herself. Olivia's a good boss, though, and won't take it out on you, and meant what she said about regretting having to drag you into the mess. "Let's get right to it. About an hour ago, there was a major incident in the Stross Building, in Subbasement B," she says over her shoulder as she raids the DD Vendor. The building, one of the older ones on the Foundation campus, is visible across a snowy field through the windows. "Dr. Chandragupta was working remotely in Lab 02 when an explosion knocked over her remote unit and breached at least three of the lab units. Fortunately no one local was in the building, and she called it in immediately. The building has been locked down completely since." Drops into a chair at the head of the table, and massages her forehead. "Normally we'd let Facilities handle it, but there's a few problems with that. They're all union so it's going to take two-thirds majority of all the deities you can name to get them in again after the Governor told everyone to go home. The bigger issue though is that this is an inherently unusual event. Archives don't usually explode - not even ours." That reminds everyone - the Stross Building hasn't been a front line development lab in decades. It was converted into an archive for the Foundation's records on arcanotechnology and the occult, as well as a repository of artifacts, prototypes, and type specimens of major arcanotech innovations. Miskatonic has taken to housing some of its extensive collection there too. The building is explicitly not the one where the really dangerous stuff is kept. "The explosion knocked out the internal surveillance, and the thaumometer readings are about 50% higher than background levels. It looks like it originated in Lab 03. That was checked out to, uh, Dr. Wood. Steve wasn't in there - he's off icefishing in some godforsaken corner of Maine, I just got off satphone with him - and he said his team was doing a study of the Mark III. For those of you not obsessed with the minutiae of d-drive development, the Mark III was - shock - the third working example put together back in the 21st century. It worked but it was a dead end design. Boringly so, it just was inefficient and prone to burning out its fuses. The only person who would be interested in something like that are historians like Steve and his team." "Frankly, I think one of Steve's team left the drive powered up and this time when it shorted out it managed to interfere with one of the diagnostic machines. Those old d-drives were not exactly well shielded, and they don't always play nicely with modern equipment. I wouldn't have bet on something so... energetic, but that's why you had to get out of bed." She shrugs, and sips her coffee, grimacing before adding more sugar. "This is your show. My only mandates are that we need an explanation of what happened, a cleanup plan, and a recommendation for keeping from happening again. How do you want to handle it?"
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Jun 10, 2014 00:52
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Princess Shirona of Celephaïs "What I am wearing is perfectly fine, thank you." Shirona says dryly, then takes a bite of strawberry donut. "It's this whole place that needs to get warmer." She stands up, sets aside her tome, and gives her corporate superior a proper curtsy. Then bites her donut again. "Do we have any records of anyone coming in or out during that time, Director?" Shirona asks. No matter how much value the place lacks, she can't rule out a burglary attempt gone wrong. Mitama fucked around with this message at 01:19 on Jun 10, 2014 |
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Jun 10, 2014 00:59
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Hyun-Ae "Sweet." If only it were likely to be such a simple case. With a wave of her hand, Hyun-Ae dismisses the data cluttering her glasses. "I vote for a field trip. I'll handle the paperwork. Kinda my thing." She lazily throws out a pair of hand signs like a little fanfare. "Insurance claims, inventory, loss analysis, critique report, whatever. All that stuff's easier to handle on-site. You cool with me getting the usual expense account, boss?" She pauses to sip her coffee. "And before you ask, I ain't dragging along a gunship or nothing this time. I'll keep it low budget."
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Jun 10, 2014 01:20
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Olivia responds to Shirona first. "Nothing from external cameras, and no one swiped in. Even the security guard had gone across the commons to get a coffee, their DD is on the fritz again. Only thing in the building were a couple of remote units who got booted from the network and the janitor roombas. The security coverage good, our insurers made certain of that, but it's hardly the Federal Reserve, so someone might have gotten in unnoticed. I doubt they'd have gotten out after lockdown without us knowing though." She gives Hyun-Ae an old fashioned look. "Yes, let's avoid another Timbuktu if we can." She holds up a hand to forestall argument. "I agree, I agree, the situation called for an... extreme response, but you really must keep better track of receipts. I still say they double-billed us for the rockets. ANYWAYS. The usual account should be fine, and I understand that you might have to pay above-market rates given the weather conditions." Comrade Gorbash fucked around with this message at 01:27 on Jun 10, 2014 |
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Jun 10, 2014 01:25
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Hyun-Ae A knowing, wolfish grin is plastered across the manager's face as Olivia speaks. "Hah, aight. Cool. I got nothing else for you."
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Jun 10, 2014 01:32
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Cain "Well, this looks like a solid non-combat op, I'll take over the heavy lifting. I'm sure we'll need it, depending on the structural damage to the building."
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Jun 10, 2014 02:12
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Li Wu Li shoves the entire rest of the donut into her mouth, swallows, and raises another one. Strawberry this time! "I'm in. nom"
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Jun 10, 2014 02:41
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Madeline Knapp With a frown, Madeline sets her coffee down and addresses the table. "Um, I can go snoop around the building in case someone's in there ... Hey, what happens when a d-drive blows up, anyway? Is this case different?" Madeline isn't entirely sure what a d-drive is, although she does sort of remember an ex-boyfriend mentioning something like that while he was yammering on about his arcanoengineering courses. God, he was a bore. Better just act like you know what's up, like everyone else seems to be doing.
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Jun 10, 2014 03:25
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Princess Shirona of Celephaïs "I have seen a dimensional engine explode once. Most of the time, the laws of reality simply collapse within the immediate area for a few seconds, causing all sorts of extra-dimensional distortions and other anomalies. Most of the time. I hear that in rare cases, it tears a small hole in space." Shirona gobbles the rest of her donut and wipes her mouth with a napkin. "So, when do we set off?"
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Jun 10, 2014 04:42
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Mali Sasithorn "We can probably just go now." Mali leans back in her chair and looks out the window in the direction of the Stross Building. "I mean a lab explosion doesn't sound too bad. We're probably either looking at an accident, or sabotage, or something spooky." She stands up and starts putting her jacket back on. "Either way, looks like we just need to take a look around and deal with what we find. You guys good to go?"
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Jun 10, 2014 23:17
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Hyun-Ae "Hell yeah, girl. Let's bounce." Hyun-Ae pops out her chair and makes for the door. e: the proest of reading comprehension Atlatl fucked around with this message at 00:38 on Jun 11, 2014 |
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Jun 10, 2014 23:41
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Madeline Madeline slurps down the last of her coffee and pushes back her chair. "I'm coming! Let me grab Violet, then I'm ready." She ducks below the conference table, popping back up after a momentary burst of scrabbling, chittering noises and a rather substantial thump. Her purse twitches ominously as she heads for the door, looking a little flushed and embarrassed. "I don't know why she still puts up such a fuss about riding in my bag - I put her favorite chew toy in there and everything ..."
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Jun 11, 2014 01:58
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The Director waves to you as you file out. "I'll be here if you need me." After grabbing your coats and winter gear, you walk (or maybe you take some other conveyance) across the commons to the Stross Building. The main doors are locked, with the displays built into them flashing yellow DO NOT ENTER signs, and directing passers by to the main office. Your passes get you through without any trouble. Inside its eerily quiet. The lights are all on, but no one is home. You're in the lobby, with the elevator banks off to your right, stairs just beyond, and the security desk dead ahead. The building is older, but the Foundation has kept it up pretty well. The emergency lights in the hallways are flashing, but someone has turned off the audio alarm at least. There's an odd smell, sort of an ozone thing, in the air, just barely perceptible. The heat must have gotten stuck on when the facilities VI went down, because it's rather stuffy in here. You can head right down to the Labs, or you can see about getting the security system turned back. In sad defiance of various conspiracy whackos' daydreams, the security system really is just networked cameras and basic anti-intrusion devices, with some more sophisticated sensors in the rooms storing more fragile or hazardous materials. You could also try to access the building's facilities VI. The janitor roombas have cameras - really crappy lowest-bidder affairs, but they might be useful. More helpful is that it would turn the research remotes back on too. These are basically just Segways with a couple of low-power manipulator arms, an actually pretty good camera and audio pickup, and a big honking tablet on top. Researchers who can't visit the archives personally ride them around to check out artifacts resistant to virtualization and get face time with resident experts. You could split up and tackle more than one task at the same time, too. Notes Ashton Adventure File Mk I Also introducing the Stormtracker! The storm getting worse won't be all bad for you though, you'll get some invokes on each stage past the first. pre:Stormtrack OOOOO Watch In Effect [+0] Comrade Gorbash fucked around with this message at 03:19 on Aug 6, 2014 |
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Jun 11, 2014 02:07
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Hyun-Ae Hyun-Ae raises a hand and makes a bee line for the security desk. "Hold up, I got this." As she takes a seat, her glasses visibly fill with neon-bordered command prompt windows. A few waves of her hand clear away a space so that she can watch the rest of her team with one eye. "I'mma run a diagnostic and get the cameras back up so we don't walk into a fire or whatever, aight?" A hand signal causes an avalanche white text to stream down her glasses. She throws her arms up behind her head and leans back into her seat. "Ya'll go ahead and do your thing." Systems roll to try and get the security system back up and the audible alarms off. [21:27] Atlatl HACK THE PLANET [21:27] Atlatl !r fudge+4 [21:27] Krysmbot Atlatl, -+-++4 = 4
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Jun 11, 2014 02:31
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Cain The cyborg trudges through the snow, longcoat hiding his augmented frame. Normally, he wouldn't wear such an article of clothing, but this was on-facility and presumably a non-combat op. There was no need for a stealth approach. And what the hell? People liked it when you made an effort to look nice...right? Upon reaching the building, though, he's all business. "Alright, I'll take point getting down to the labs," he says, drawing a handgun from a shoulder holster. "Hekmatyar, see if you can get us security footage from before the d-drive failed. Beam what you find to my comm frequency - you know I'll hear you." Stepping off!
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Jun 11, 2014 02:33
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Hyun-Ae "Yup. Way ahead of you, chief." She throws him a thumbs up and kicks her feet up on the desk.
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Jun 11, 2014 02:38
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Cain "Let's move out, team. Knopp, with me. Wu, follow up, and Shirona, I want you on rear guard. Unless someone has any other ideas."
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Jun 11, 2014 02:44
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Mali Sasithorn "Yo, hold up." Mali points to one of the emergency sirens with one hand and draws her pistol with the other. "That alarm should be on. Those things don't turn off by themselves." Then she raises an eyebrow. "And aren't you forgetting about someone, Mr. Cyberpunk?"
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Jun 11, 2014 02:48
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Cain "drat, Sasithorn," he says with a smirk. "So quiet y'even slipped me." He offers the briefest hint of a smile. "Move up with Knopp and I, we'll take a quiet approach in front. Assume hostile movement in the area, this could be a case of sabotage. Alternately, the d-drive could have failed randomly and we're out here for nothing, in which case we can all go home. But really, assume the former."
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Jun 11, 2014 02:51
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Hyun-Ae "This guy. So moto. I love it." Hyun-Ae looks like she's settling in to take a nap. "I'll supervise from here."
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Jun 11, 2014 02:52
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Cain "We can't all be execs," he says, holding a finger to his neck to broadcast over comms. "Some of us actually have to work for a living."
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Jun 11, 2014 02:54
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Hyun-Ae "Say again? I can't hear you through all this money I'm drowning in. Heh."
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Jun 11, 2014 03:03
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Cain Finally having had enough of the executive, he posts up at the entrance of the hall, back to cover and keeping an eye down the passage. "I'd like to get moving. More time we waste, more time any saboteurs can dig in or escape. Unless, like I said, someone has any other plans." Tempus Rimeblood fucked around with this message at 03:30 on Jun 11, 2014 |
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Jun 11, 2014 03:04
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I appreciate that everyone is excited about the game, but let's make sure everyone gets a chance to interact and decide what they want their character to do, kay folks? Additionally I was fine with people having authority as background, but if it becomes an issue with people making decisions for other characters I will squash it.
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Jun 11, 2014 03:13
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Princess Shirona of Celephaïs While the other two bicker like they always do, Shirona turns towards the disabled alarm for a second. Mali pretty much spells it out for them. "Let's assume this is burglary or sabotage." She says to Li and Madeline. "Is there anything here of value other than the Mark-III? I understand this place is more of a glorified museum."
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Jun 11, 2014 09:53
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Li Wu Li fishes in her pocket and extracts her data cube. It looks like a big black cube, but with a few twists and snaps it unfolds into a huge, sturdy screen. Li unfolds it to its maximum size and summons a few holo-screens for good measure. Just one or two.  "Oy, oy, keep your pants on," she says with a friendly grin. "Let me check a few things. You can go ahead." Li's fingers dance over the screens, pulling up information and running quick magical scans on the area. It looks impressive, but Li is a firm believer in reducing unnecessary multitasking; most of these screens are for holding results for different sources because she hates tabbing, and the actual research is slower and more methodical. Using Notice and my magical expertise to check what should (or shouldn't) be in the Stross Building right now, especially anything either dangerous or useful to us: <Krysmbot> Ettin, +++/+5 = 8
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Jun 11, 2014 11:16
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A magnificent botched post. Sorry!
Emerald Rogue fucked around with this message at 13:16 on Jun 11, 2014 |
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Jun 11, 2014 12:41
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