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Maria - FP: 0 A prompt appears in front of Maria' AR vision, confirming that she just received a payment worth several figures for a job well done and then some for hazard pay. "Ah, there it is." She smiles in front of her boss. "Thanks, it's been good working for you, ma'am." And then she turns away and lets that smile go, because she already knows what comes next. So just like clockwork, a Hakurei prompt comes in ten seconds later to remind Maria about her "obligations" to the company. A tiny miko avatar pops up and, with a smile, diverts about four-fifths of her pay to go to her crushing debts to the company. This just leaves enough to deal with the rent, booze, pizza, and movie rentals. Again. "Congratulations on another job well done, Santore-san!" The avatar says in a high-pitched, robotic voice. "I'm proud to announce that if you keep to your weekly exemplar performance, notwithstanding sick leaves, unfortunate work accidents and the projected value of the yen, Santore-san should be able to fulfil her monetary obligations to Hakurei Industries in... fifteen years, four months and three days." Maria just stops and glares at the avatar. Which, to everyone else without their AR on, just looks like she's glaring at the robot fish jumping over the pond. "Hakurei Industries looks forward to future endeavours and to our continued partnership." And with a tiny fistpump, the miko vanishes. "Ganbatteeeeee~!" Maria hangs her head, felling as if all that money was just physically ripped away from her. Oh well... just another goddamn day at Hakurei Industries. Still, is it really any wonder now why something like Shiuzn appeals to her so much? She recovers just in time to hear Ando talk about movie night. "Yeah, I'm still doing that. Gonna down a shitload of booze and some samurai killing to kill the taste of killing ninjas. Do you need a ride to your stop, Ando?"
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Jun 21, 2013 15:40
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Miyazaki bows and retreats into the shrine as you leave. Everyone who wanted to have a Kurosawa movie night gets the privilege of joining Maria in her spartan Hakurei-issue apartment and watching a bunch of old movies. The episode closes on a scene from Yojimbo... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aycnHU3WoeI Okay, that had nothing to do with anything, but whatever.  Prologue over! And you get... nothing much yet because you decided to come back later, but! You can refresh your Fate Points, and since this is Chapter Zero you can go ahead and rearrange your skills/stunts/etc a bit if you feel you have a better idea of where your character is going (provided you don't suddenly turn into a werewolf or anything).
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Jun 23, 2013 11:48
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quote:New Miami Beach is a coastal resort town in the South Florida Metroplex. It was incorporated on March 27, 2098. The municipality is located on the edge of The Ball, the first arcology of the South Florida Metroplex. The area has gone through numerous artificial and natural changes over the years, including increased tourism, a booming surfer culture, and the 2110 hurricane, which proved the Ball's ability to weather storms but destroyed much of the Beach. According to the N.E.G. Census Bureau, the town has a total population of about 22,998. quote:hy·dro·pho·bi·a [hahy-druh-foh-bee-uh]   Saturday February 11 2119, 8:57AM EST Location: Behind Anime Lines, West Jump Street, Miami Aspects: TRANSELDRITCH, ??? Okay, someone is messing with you. Sully said you can come back tomorrow if you're interested, and so - by your own methods, for your own reasons - you've found your way to a nice little coffee shop a few spots to the left of Behind Anime Lines. It's an unremarkable place, and not even unremarkable in the oh-wait-there's-a-magic-anime-store way. If it even is magic. Aside from the poster in the window that looks suspiciously like Maria doing a sweet grind on a Serpent Man's face, the place looks pretty normal. The only vaguely magical quality the place has is a nagging feeling that something besides the poster has changed since last night despite all audiovisual evidence suggesting that is not the case, which is probably just paranoia because no magic location has a power so trivial and annoying. Three minutes until the store opens. That's more than enough time to say something cool while sipping your coffee dramatically in the morning sun. Feel free to write about what happened last night too!
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Jun 23, 2013 14:19
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Juliana FP: 1 Consequences: Fried Circuits (Minor) Friday February 10 2119, 9:24PM EST Location: Maria's Apartment, Hakurei Employee Dormitory Facilities, Miami She could have headed back to her own apartment and gotten a head start reading through the stack of comics she'd taken from the store...the sooner she did the sooner she'd know what sorts of secrets (useful and embarrassing) were contained therein. And she also had to write up a formal report about the day's events for Royce, who would doubtlessly be curious to know how her liaison with Hakurei had gone, and she needed to schedule an appointment to have the damage to her systems repaired... But when Maria had once again extended an invitation for everyone to join her at her place for an informal movie night she'd decided to table all of that for now and take the other woman up on her offer. After the day's events she could a little time to unwind and she did enjoy Kurosawa's work. It reminded her a little of when she was working with MI5, how she and her coworkers would get together to drink and make fun of the latest James Bond film, and it had been too long since she'd done something like that. A look at Maria's apartment showed a stark contrast in their respective employers' notions of what a "competitive salary" entailed, and she diplomatically offered to put the pizza and beer on her company account. If Accounting wanted to make a fuss about "frivolous expenses" they could take it up with Royce...if you got shot (well, if you got wounded anyway) then you shouldn't have to pay for your own pizza, it was just common courtesy. "I like it here. I'll stay a while." "Why? Don't you get it yet?" "Yes I do. That's why I'm staying. I'll get paid for killing...and this town is full of men who deserve to die." Juliana glanced over at Shiro, the normally effusive swordswoman a bit subdued since she'd had to turn the power suit back over to Hakurei. She'd suspected that something like that might happen and so when she'd gone to buy the comics collection she had taken the liberty of adding a little something else to her purchase as well. "Here," she said, handing her a box containing a 1:16 scale model of the Moon Rabbit (how the store had detailed models of a power suit not even out of the prototype stage for sale was another question in need of answers). "I know it's not quite the same as the real thing, but I thought you might like to have this. Thanks for the rescue earlier...I guess that's two I owe you now."
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Jun 24, 2013 00:42
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Shiro FP:2 (refresh!) Pizza and movie night was a wonderful wind down to the hectic bloodshed of the day, and even Ueru liked Kurosawa (probably to an unhealthy degree, actually.) Getting paid did make losing the Moon Rabbit less painful, especially with a new Anime store to spend her small allotment of free cash at. Which was why she was at the coffee shop with a surprising number of the others that morning. After last night she'd figured they wouldn't come within 20 miles of the place ever again but it looked like curiosity was something that couldn't be denied. All the better. She hid her smile behind the cocoa cup. (Coffee was too bitter for Shiro, but she did love her cocoa.) --- The tiny model was pose-able enough that Shiro was absolutely sure she could hook up a watch battery and some servos to get it to light up and move. Ideas rushed through her head at warp speed. "Oh, Juliana thank you! You don't owe me anything. You're our vanguard so it's your job to jump into the fire and my job to pull you out again. That's how it works." She blushed. "So, are we going to take up Fedora-san's offer and find out more about Shuizen? Sounds like it could be interesting... though there may not be much money in it."
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Jun 24, 2013 05:51
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Maria - FP: 1 After drinking enough liquor to drown a room full of samurai, Maria finally passed out right before the end of Ran. Which is okay, because she already saw that enough times with the Beast to know how it ended. everyone dies But just because she drinks her night away, it doesn't mean she forgets her appointment with the store clerk. Mostly because Juliana rings Maria's phone several times the next morning to remind her about it, waking her up to the worst headache she's had in years. Also the most pizza she's thrown up in a long while. It is a good thing the others didn't stay up all night, because this is really gross. At least Hikomaro doesn't add to the morning din today. Apparently, they're putting the AI through extended maintenance after yesterday's fiasco, something for the best. --- And so Maria's forehead lands firmly on top of the café table, with her third refill of steaming black coffee and some Trigger Warning issues next to her. She bangs her head a few more times for good measure, though the pain refuses to go away that easily. God, it's taking the aspirin too long to kick in. Even the Beast feels her contractor's hangover, somewhat. She seems too busy groaning in Maria's head to make any sort of pithy remark. "The worst thing is that I still remember the paycheck. And the cut they took from me." She sighs, bobbing up to take another sip of coffee. loving bitter. "Well, that's how it is. But yeah, I'm surprised you guys are checking out the anime store too."
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Jun 24, 2013 06:34
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Storms: 4/4 As soon as the movie ended, Storms glanced at his AR to check his message backlog, jumped to his feet like a rabbit with a taser up its rear end, and blurted something about needing to leave RIGHT NOW, as he darted out and slammed the door. Next morning, Storms limps to the coffee shop and collapses in a seat next to Maria, somehow looking even worse. He's wearing the same obnoxious tropical shirt, except now it has (more) mystery stains, some of them red. Is that a bullet hole? The only thing that appears clean/new on him is a different ballcap featuring a cartoon crustacean on it, the logo from some obnoxious internet humor site. "FORGET THE SHRIMP HONEY," it read "I'M COMIN' HOME WITH THE CRABS" He looks up the AR menus and places the order "Do you guys still do that Cuban coffee with the synthetic adrenaline in it? Yeah, double shot please." Slowly turning to the rest of the group, Storm stares awkwardly out of dead eyes for a moment. "So...what's new with you all?" (I'm going to assume Storms refreshed his FPs by doing at least three things worthy of a compel, to be named and brought up as needed)
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Jun 24, 2013 07:06
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Moriyuki Ando. FP: 2 Ando sips quietly from his quadruple doppio ristretto*, awkwardly trying not to dip his moustache into it as he tries to form coherent thoughts. The movie night was fun, but filing all the required paperwork from their outing took up most of his assigned three hours of sleep. He stifles a yawn by not moving any facial muscles and letting out a note of interest, a long habit when dealing with clients. "They're using copyrighted ExoCute branding and identity. Namely, me. Lesser companies would just legally lean on our manga producing friends and find a way to hobble this Shuizn entity. But I am trained to look at any threat as a potential business opportunity." And by trained, he means forcibly indoctrinated. At ExoCute, the glass is always half full (of ways to sell guns). *So plasma coffee, essentially.
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Jun 24, 2013 07:19
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Storms "Thing's full of lies, anyways." he blows his nose "You see the advertisements for the back issues? My C.O.'s wife was not that hot. The cultist chick was though. Too bad about the dreadlocks. And that whole "snake cult assassin" thing." Ronwayne fucked around with this message at 07:24 on Jun 24, 2013 |
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Jun 24, 2013 07:22
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Friday February 10 2119, 9:27PM EST Location: Maria's Apartment, Hakurei Employee Dormitory Facilities, Miami mistaya posted:"Oh, Juliana thank you! You don't owe me anything. You're our vanguard so it's your job to jump into the fire and my job to pull you out again. That's how it works." Juliana blinked at Shiro's description of their working relationship...she hadn't exactly been thinking of herself as anybody's vanguard, really. Diving into the thick of things to keep other people safe had become second nature to her over the years, even before she'd been rendered largely bulletproof. "Well money isn't really my concern," she said, taking a bite from another piece of pizza. "Even if they are, ah, embellished somewhat, those books are still full of secrets that a couple of comic artists shouldn't have any access to. I haven't decided yet whether that's a good thing or a bad thing, but either way I want some answers. And if this person at the store knows about Shuizn, whoever or whatever that is, then that seems like the best place to start asking to me." Even if it did mean having to go back to the store again. Being surrounded by that many oversized eyes made her skin crawl, which she was fairly certain was a physical impossibility at this point. Saturday February 11 2119, 8:58AM EST Location: Behind Anime Lines, West Jump Street, Miami "Honestly, what is it with you and snakes anyway?," Juliana said, taking a sip from her own cup of coffee (black, three sugars). Unlike several of the others gathered around the table she appeared none the worse for wear after the previous night's activities though that had nothing to do with her physical construction...she could actually get drunk, and had done so in spectacular fashion at least once since the incident in Dubai...so much as the fact that she actually knew how to exercise a modicum of restraint. After returning home she'd spent several hours reading through as much of the comics as she could. Doing so was an interesting mixture of fascinating and disturbing, and she'd managed to learn a number of things about her on-again-off-again acquaintances. For starters Shiro's sword was possessed, which wasn't something she'd been expecting. Maria's motorcycle was as well, though that wasn't quite so surprising. Assuming that it wasn't being exaggerated for stylistic effect then Anna was functionally immortal, which helped explain why she hadn't died of an overdose yet. And apparently yesterday hadn't been Espinoza's first snakeman by half. Ando...well, she wasn't quite sure what to make of Ando's story. She was still trying to figure out exactly how to ask him just how much of it was true. If even half of it was then all of those ExoCute products suddenly became a lot more disturbing than they already were. There were other things she'd learned as well, including some things about herself that merited further investigation...but right now there was something else nagging at the back of her mind as she glanced out the window, something that had been bothering her since she'd first passed the doors of the anime store on her way to meet up with the others. "Something's not right here," she said, downing the remainder of her coffee in a quick gulp before tossing the cup in the recycle bin and dropping a tip on the table. "Beyond the obvious, I mean. I'm going to go have a look." With that she stepped out of the coffee shop and headed down to the anime store, intent on taking a closer look at things before it officially opened for business.
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Jun 24, 2013 08:27
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Maria - FP: 1 "Have fun with that." Maria waves at Juliana, then turns to the rest. "Me, I'm here to figure out this Shuizn's deal. The comics, I can dig. Not so much being in the dark about this fate magic. Or that there are others like Snake Eyes screwing around with it." Even if she didn't believe everything that Sully said (and she did), curiosity was ultimately a terrible thing to sate. Her headache a slight more bearable now, she sits upright to look more presentable. The caffeine and aspirin must be finally working. Maybe her wizard-miko healing powers finally kicked in too. It sure did wonders for her bullet wound last night, all closed up now like it was never there. "Speaking of comics, the shelf that the sailor girl was raiding last night had some really trippy ones." Maria slides one of the Trigger Warning issues too the middle of the table for the others to see. "I only got random issues, so I guess I don't have context, but I guess these guys are raiding a Hakurei facility? They don't mention it directly, but the layout and the security detail is well, it's really dead on. Security breach material." She pinches her nose. "And to think I was just chilling at home when it happened too. Maybe this is how Julie feels with the AEI stuff." She might have to mention Shuizn in her report, after all. The job sucks, but not to the point where she won't take it seriously if she has to. "But that's assuming that this comic is also based on real stuff." Maria flips through the pages some more to what looks like the climax of the adventure. A series of panels detailing a girl engaging in a rapping dance battle against a Hakurei Ying-yang Orb half-possessed by a machine deity playing dubstep. "'cause I recognize some people here, but the scenes here are really silly." Says the girl who routinely ollies over Deep Ones.
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Jun 25, 2013 01:43
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Storms 4/4 "Recognize them? From where?" Storms takes a sip of a suspiciously greenish-brown colored drink.
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Jun 25, 2013 02:13
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Maria - FP: 1 "Oh. Well, this guy." Maria points at the Arabic dude in one of the panels. "That's Da'ud. Oil baron's son, studied in the best schools in England, probably one of the richest, classiest bastards in Dubai. And he's a wizard, at that. But turns out he's also a pretty cool guy, happens to be one of my contacts in the AU. Met him in Monaco a year ago. He was there to look over family assets, I was there to bust a Cold Ones smuggling operation. I was in some boring cocktail party of his when the Cold Ones made their move. Had to race their truck all across the city. Without my bike. While in a dress." A pause. "Long story short, I still owe him a Formula One car. As for her, though?" Maria turns back to the pages with the pop star. "What, you haven't watched TV the past three years? Name's different, but she's some media sensation from LA. No idea why she's part of this thing though."
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Jun 25, 2013 04:09
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Storms 4/4. "I try to stay away from pop culture and pop stars. It just too depressing what happens to them when they're not popular anymore." Storms looks around for Anna, but all of a sudden his eyes rocket back to a page Maria has flipped past. "WHOA, WHOA, GO BACK, lemme see that!" Grabbing the issue, he turns back to the previous chapter. ""DURANDALL?!" Storms spits as he reads the little intro chapter. "WHY'D THEY-" He flips forward through the book. This loving guy, was one of the gov't eggheads and instead of staying in those tiny little dungeon cubicles they got in the bottom of the building, he whined until he got made a handler for a field team. My team. His first words? "Okay guys, this'll be easy!" Storms pauses for a moment, in recollection.  "Should've aborted and kicked his rear end the second he said that. Lord, that wasn't even the first time. Talked down to us like we were in kindergarten, "Abloo bloo, you can't do that! Bawww, we needed them alive!" That sort of thing. Then when they wouldn't promote him to field (thank gently caress) he went AWOL and joined some cult, last I heard." *Flip* "Oh lord I hope this is one of the exaggerated parts, he is not only a cultist but ha...apparently has decided to jam a giant demon bat up his rear end in an attempt to suck less at life." Storms kills his drink and begins to fidget as a combination of anger and chemicals cause his pupils to shrink to the size of neutrons. *Flip* "Jesus H, there's a fold out of the thing. I think I'm gonna be sick."
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Jun 25, 2013 08:03
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Shiro FP: 2 "It's called a Tager Storms. That is not... exactly how it works." She shrugged. Yuki hadn't been a big fan of the Tagers but a lot of other Shinigami didn't mind them. She'd never known one long enough to make her own judgements. The one in Maria's comic seemed to have extraordinary bad luck though. She thumbed through the pages, thinking. "The fact that there are already two of these series, and look here-" She flipped the manga over. NEXT MONTH! Look out for SHANGHAI! The OOC has it's work cut out- "-a third one. Shuizen is branching out its power base. As long as it has control of these stories... Perhaps fans count as worshippers? At least the very dedicated ones." Fate magic was screwy. Ueru had tried to explain it to her last night but she was a little drunk (which meant he was also) and it hadn't really stuck with her. He'd been sleeping it off since then and she didn't feel like waking him up yet.
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Jun 25, 2013 09:10
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(OOC: I actually lose Fate Points on refresh. Yay compels and low starting Refresh.) Anna A. FP: 1/1 Hakurei didn't dock her pay, she had her suitcase full of ill-gotten money and Maria had that whiskey Anna liked. Movie night was a good night, or at least it should have been. She didn't remember much. Anna didn't remember many nights, but she felt this bout of alcohol-driven amnesia had a purpose. One that didn't lay six feet deep in Uminari City. She awoke face down in a toilet bowl with a searing headache and a new flavor of suicidal self-loathing. She half-thought about drowning herself in the toilet; she washed her face in it instead. She washed her mouth out with Everclear, drank it down, and got ready to face another day she shouldn't be alive. When she heard where the group was going, she locked herself in the bathroom and didn't come out for a good thirty minutes. It took QT bribing her with high-quality weed to coax her out. One crying jag and a cocktail of pills later, she managed to drag herself to the coffee shop. It took all her willpower not to drive off a cliff instead. She sat off in the shade, outside of Storms' line of sight, and drank her coffee black and Irish. She didn't read her comics; she wasn't ready for it. She couldn't even muster the energy to glare at Storms.
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Jun 27, 2013 06:00
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Maria - FP: 1 "Oh. So that's the guy flirting with Da'ud in that..." Maria pauses, realizes what she's saying, and sighs. "...comic. Yeah, that store sells fan comics too. I got one and it seems well, really racy. And it looks like those two are a popular pairing too." She doesn't bring up the obvious question of what that means for the rest of them... Maria finds an easy way out of the topic when Shiro makes a really good point about fans. "My bike said something like that." The blonde says, after taking another sip of coffee. "Without people to feed it, Shuizn would just be a little blip in the greater cosmos, not able to tear up reality or whatever. But here it is, affecting us and other people, somehow turning that into fuel to make it stronger. It's a good theory, in any case. I suppose this Sully guy has another answer, though." Looking at Anna, it's really surprising how many of them decided to come back after that shocker last night. Guess curiosity runs strong in all of them. Or at least justified anger. "Oh yeah, thanks for coming over last night." Maria grins at the others. "We don't get a lot of folks coming over for movies. Turns out owning a possessed bike is a real turnoff to a lot of Hakurei staff." Her bike is still too drunk to respond and Maria savors the moment. Mitama fucked around with this message at 07:13 on Jun 27, 2013 |
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Jun 27, 2013 07:09
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When you happen to glance over at the anime store again, the screen stuck on the back of the door now says "OPEN"... ___ Saturday February 11 2119, 9:01AM EST Location: Behind Anime Lines, West Jump Street, Miami Everything is still pretty much how you left it, except there's a different poster over the bullet holes. Sully is tapping at an AR keyboard in front of a holo-screen being projected over the counter. It's displaying a map of Miami with a big circle drawn around it and a smaller, translucent white-filled one over The Ball. Also some really old Superman comic scans. "Morning," he says at the comics. "What do you know about the Thule Society?"
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Jun 27, 2013 12:55
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Storms 4/4 Storms has not washed or shaved, is wearing the same, dirty clothes from yesterday, and has attempted to cover this up by blasting himself with an obnoxious brand of cologne. He blends well in the comic store. "That some kinda grab-rear end fratboy thing?" !r fudge+0 <Destrado> "LET ME TELL YOU ABOUT THE THULE SOCIETY" <Krysmbot> ///-+0 = -1 Also, swapped a pair of skills. Stealth is now 1, Provoke is now 2. It seemed odd that he was that bad at pissing people off. Ronwayne fucked around with this message at 12:37 on Aug 13, 2014 |
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Jun 27, 2013 13:13
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Moriyuki Ando FP:2 "Historically, the Studiengruppe für germanisches Altertum were German occultists, were later folded into the Nazi party and had a profound effect on..." Ando pauses at everyone's look. "Oh, was Sir's question rhetorical? There were some minor marginalia found in occult tomes seized after the second World War indicating they'd reformed, but they've not made themselves known in anything approaching modern times. Probably went the way of any small non-incorporated entity of the era: They either collapsed under economic forces, or were bought out by a larger interest." He takes a moment to adjust his glasses. "Their marketing strategy was terrible. I mean if the OOI can't find any trace of you, how will your market share?" ____ Andolore! (9:59:20 PM) Destrado: !r fudge+5 (9:59:22 PM) Krysmbot: Destrado, +-+++5 = 7 (9:59:44 PM) Destrado: Hahaa. The Thule Society? LET ME TELL YOU ABOUT THE THULE SOCIETY Destrado fucked around with this message at 13:24 on Jun 27, 2013 |
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Jun 27, 2013 13:13
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Storms 4/4 "Oh wait, the Nazi occultists, right? I read about them in a book. The one with the succubus deep one and the dead dude."
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Jun 27, 2013 13:18
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Maria - FP: 1 Maria was going to ask about that sweet poster in front, but it looks like they're going down to business right away. Well, alright. "From what I heard, the Thulers who reformed the Society felt real bad about the whole Nazi Party thing, so they spent all their time after the war researching defenses against all sorts of occult nasty stuff." Like that awful cologne smell. "Agh, what is that poo poo, Storms?" She growls, fanning away the fumes with her hand before she can refocus. "Anyway, they didn't last long this way either. They were always a small and insular group, plus magic was really hard to do back then. After some generations, with fewer and fewer kids to pass on their work, the Society just... fell apart. Way before the OOI ever came to light." She leans on the counter, crossing her arms. "Yeah, that's the German occult circle in a nutshell, I suppose. I'm guessing that Shiuzn was also in their radar, or is there another reason you bring 'em up?" Lore roll to find out where they are today: /+-/ +4 = 4
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Jun 27, 2013 15:21
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Juliana FP: 1 Saturday February 11 2119, 9:02AM EST Location: Behind Anime Lines, West Jump Street, Miami Juliana had actually heard of the Thule Society, at least in passing during her time with MI5 as new recruits were given an accelerated education on prominent occultist and terrorist organizations (active and historical), but she didn't have much more to add that the others hadn't already mentioned. That feeling of something being different than before still hadn't abated once they'd gone inside either much to her annoyance, and she glanced around the store trying to determine what was causing it. They'd replaced the poster Anna had shot, but that was to be expected. What was it? Tabling her irritation for the moment she made her way over to the counter, glancing down at the map being projected upon the surface. "What's all this?"
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Jun 28, 2013 01:08
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 "It's a map. Somebody's invoking Shuizn in the Ball." "The beach has something to do with it? I mostly have places, not names. I have something that'll help counteract his influence if you're going, though."
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Jun 28, 2013 03:50
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Juliana FP: 1 Juliana had to bite back a retort...yes, she could see it was a map, thank you Mr. Anime Store Clerk...but she restrained herself long enough to hear what else he had to say. "The Ball...that's the local arcology, isn't it? And now someone in there's invoking this thing deliberately. Lovely." Was it more ninjas, or was it someone else this time? "So what's this you have that's supposed to help insulate us, then? Some sort of ward?"
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Jun 28, 2013 04:10
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Sully "Yeah, this way..."  Location: Upstairs, Behind Anime Lines There's a lot of recording equipment and other complicated control consoles scattered around the upstairs room. Sully ignores most of it and sits in the single office chair. There's a single huge dial sitting in the middle of the recording booth, next to Sully's computer. He moves to the side a little so you can get at it. "Here, give it a try."
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Jun 28, 2013 07:04
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Juliana FP: 1 Gamely, Juliana followed the shopkeeper upstairs, half-expecting to find yet another extensive collection of figurines, comics, and excessively disturbing pillowcases awaiting them. Instead what she found was something else entirely; a recording studio. "Well this is rather extensive," she said, looking around at the consoles and equipment, most of which looked rather high-end. "What on earth do you do with all of this?" Glancing at the indicated dial, she stepped towards the booth and gave it a slow quarter-turn, not yet certain how this was supposed to help ward off the influence of some sort of fate spirit (or demon or god or whatever this Shuizn was).
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Jun 28, 2013 07:19
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Moriyuki Ando FP:2 Ando takes in the recording equipment, the consoles, the microphones. In the space of a heartbeat, he's thrown his jacket over a chair, rolled up his sleeves, thrown his tie over his shoulder and practically tackled the nearest microphone. "Of course! Naturally we will defeat Shuzen through our shining Karaoke spirit!" He takes a swig from a bottle of cheap imported beer that's suddenly appeared in his hand and looks around for a prompter screen. "Where is the song selection? I want to do Gypsies, Tramps and Thieves."
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Jun 28, 2013 14:41
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Maria - FP: 1 "Oh, come on." Maria stifles a laugh from Ando's antics. "I'm way too sober to sing right now." Lots of cool recording equipment, though. Professional gear too, not the sort you simple set up over an anime store. "You're doing a podcast up here, Sully?" She asks while fiddling around with some of the dials and sliders in the clerk's console, especially the ones he didn't tell her to touch.
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Jun 28, 2013 15:11
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 It's a pretty great dial, actually. When you turn it, the screen in front of the dial lights up. Looks like there are... options. quote:>NORMAL There are other dial settings, but the seem to be ghosted out. "I don't actually know how this works," Sully explains. "It's taking a while to unlock the other settings." Ettin fucked around with this message at 15:24 on Jun 28, 2013 |
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Jun 28, 2013 15:20
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Moriyuki Ando FP:2 Moriyuki carefully ponders the limited information Sully has given them, what each option may signify, what the potential ramifications may be, and considers what the official ExoCute handbook regulates about ominous dials and/or buttons (to quote Section 351, paragraph 1: "Don't.") Then he forgets all that and sets the dial to DATING SIM, because he loves those. Surely nothing bad can come of this.
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Jun 28, 2013 15:37
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Anna A. 2/1 Anna growled. She was not going to have her world turn into a goddamned dating sim. There was no chance it would happen, but there was no chance some mangaka would have drawn her making cocaine angels in Cuba either. "Ando I swear to Christ if you do not reset that dial to normal I will stab you again." She lit a cigarette with hands shakier than she'd like. "Look. We just learned that there are manga that know everything about us. Now you're going to gently caress around with a dial that has anime genres on it? It doesn't take an ace detective to know that's going to cause some more silly bullshit to happen." She gave him a full-force death glare. "So turn it back."
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Jun 28, 2013 22:57
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Storms Anna's thoughts mirror his own as Ando sets the dial. Storms' eyes suddenly glaze over recalling a mishmash of images that may or may not have occurred.  When he comes to, he's puking in a trashcan. So this is what Anna feels like all the time? If possible, compelling War Crimes are the Best Crimes to have an...episode.
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Jun 28, 2013 23:09
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Juliana FP: 1 "For once I completely agree with Anna," Juliana said, ignoring Storms' distress for the moment as she reached for the dial with indecent haste, turning it back to whatever neutral position it started out on. "Well not about the stabbing part, no, but the rest of it. Is she right?," she asked the shopkeeper, looking over the list of options that had apparently been unlocked on the console screen. "Is this really some sort of..." Oh this was just ridiculous. But Anna had a point, and if this was supposed to be some sort of method to ward oneself against fate magic then it made a certain kind of (demented) sense. "...some sort of 'genre controller?'"
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Jun 29, 2013 00:23
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Shiro FP:2 "Dating Sim..." The world suddenly became very small, flat almost, as if... as if... She looked at the others. A tiny credit roll played in her head. Ando- Player Character Shiro- Mysterious Girl Juliana- Feisty Rival Maria- Girl Next Door Anna- Not Available In America Storms- BAD END Then Juliana twisted it back to NORMAL and she gasped a little. "Whoa... Um... Let's not set it to that Ando-kun." She wobbled a little and leaned against the console. "Leaving it set to Normal isn't taking advantage though. If this is what I think it is, it'll set the tone of the next manga issue. So if what we're trying to do is solve a mystery, we should set it to NOIR THEATRE, shouldn't we? It'd make things... well, more mysterious, but the heroes always solve the mystery in the end." She touched The Dial but didn't turn it yet. "What do you guys think? If it gets whacky we can always call Sully and have him reset it, right Sully?" mistaya fucked around with this message at 11:52 on Jun 29, 2013 |
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Jun 29, 2013 10:09
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THE DIAL "Well, it mostly changes probabilities in predictable ways. It can't control people like Shuizn can, but it can affect events. Don't ask me how it works because I don't know. Here's the technical manual..." Sully shows you a few pages of the most unwieldy soft-cover tome you have ever seen. This thing is like ten kilograms of paper. You can figure out a few rules from the summary, though... • Setting a genre with the Dial will cause your adventures to conform to genre stereotypes. • The Dial has other benefits! Abilities it grants can be activated by any party member. Abilities limited to once per scene can only be used once by the entire party, not by each individual member. • The Dial can be changed once per scene. It is free, provided you travel here in person. If you spend a Fate Point, you can call Sully and have him do it. Sully can always reset the Dial to Normal for free. • Each Dial setting also places a scene aspect on everything, which you can invoke to make declarations and do things that conform to genre stereotypes. quote:CURRENT SETTINGS
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Jun 29, 2013 13:25
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Moriyuki Ando FP: 2 Ando reads through the technical manual with the thoroughness that only a lifetime spent squinting at paperwork can instill. He makes copious notes in the margins. He takes his teammate's earlier comments under consideration. He considers what setting would be best to leverage the optimal solutions for Team Miami. Then he turns the dial back to Dating Sim.
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Jun 29, 2013 13:52
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Maria - FP: 1 "Ando, can you stop doing that?" Maria slaps away the salesman's hand, even as everyone in the room turns into another mess of relationship bars. "We're dealing with strange, exciting forces beyond our knowledge and instead of just picking what we like, we should probably consider the awesome potential this machine has and play it to our collective strengths." She turns the dial to MAGICAL GIRL. "It's definitely not talking." Her eyes twinkle upon the coming change. "Let's just turn this problem into something that'll rampage into town for a while and we can blow up."
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Jun 29, 2013 14:23
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Anna A. Anna saw hearts and mushrooms in the corner of her eye, and then it all turned red. Someone triggered their own death flag. She hauled off and punched Ando in the gut, chopping him down to her size. She yelled at him in Japanese, anger making her revert to her mother tongue. <"What did I just say, you loving salariman rear end in a top hat?"> She pulled her SuperS and put the cold steel to his face. <"If you touch that dial again, I will end you."> she said, deathly quiet. <"Do you understand?"> She glared at Maria. "And don't think I didn't see you. We are not doing that. Not now, not ever."
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Jun 29, 2013 15:32
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| # ? Apr 29, 2024 06:12 |
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Storms 14 ounces of fried conch, 5 ounces coffee, 6 ounce fries, 5 ounces stomach acid, 40 ounces Tropical Depression malt liquor. The waste-can is taking on an interesting smell and color. Storms is pretty sure he should be dry heaving by now, but the second Ando turns the dial back he finds fresh invigoration. "Whatever the gently caress you're doing stop it-GLORCH." As soon as Maria turns it to her selection, he sees a familiar pink moe (moto) blob in the right side of his field of view. quote:KONICHIWAA Storms quickly checks. He isn't wearing his AR set. "MARIA, WHAT THE KID SAID- urp" After coughing for a minute or so, he glances around the room. "Did anyone else see that?" Ronwayne fucked around with this message at 17:49 on Jun 29, 2013 |
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Jun 29, 2013 17:36
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