Welcome to the Character Development Threads! These shared story exercises allow you to develop your characters in a setting shared by other authors and their characters. No sign-up is necessary; simply look over the last few pages and hop on in. If you need questions answered or a recap, head over to our discussion thread
and ask; we’re happy to help. There's also a trope page (with location descriptions and other info).
Archipelago is semi-casual — no violence on the central island, but the rest are fair game. Other islands are built on-the-fly by the tropers whose visiting them, but you should probably grab a few others before having your characters head off — there's not much point wandering an island alone, since this is supposed to develop characters by bouncing them off one another and putting them in unusual situations. Be sure to communicate with the tropers you go with so you're on the same general page.
With thanks to, among many others, Gault, who came up with the initial idea, Nrjxll, who wrote the first draft I shameless ripped off, and the various people who contributed to the trope page location descriptions.
[[Current Time: Early Morning]
CLICK HERE TO SEE THE FULL INTRO FOR THIS THREAD
This has made the hub island something of a designated neutral ground for various strange characters and dimensional travelers. A small cluster of buildings has sprung up near the one natural harbor and its dock: a couple of bars, a couple of casinos, several shops, and even the cheap but comfortable Pax Island Hotel. This is not a tourist trap, though, as much as amenities for the visitors that come here for various reasons. The Hotel's entrance leads out to a central square, with a shamelessly cheesy tiki bar calling itself the Big Kahuna and the Pax Island General Store being the most obvious, though not the only, services.
Inland, the island is covered in jungles that rise steeply into a central mountain, covered in ruins that don't seem to exactly match any of the local cultures. Apart from that, though, they're harmless and unrelated to the area's strangeness. The population on the island, humans of mixed origins, are quite used to the strangeness of their island, staffing the amenities and filling newcomers in but otherwise keeping to themselves.
Beyond this hub island, the archipelago grows more mysterious and dangerous. Fogs often cover the ocean, and compasses and other forms of navigation don't always work right. There are at least a half-dozen other islands at any one time, but that's all anyone can say for certain. The docks on the hub island offer numerous boats for visitors to travel to these islands, either under their own control or with the aid of a local sailor. Of course, there's always an element of risk involved with visiting these islands, because you never know quite what you'll find. One rule has proven consistent, though: any truly catastrophic event on an island tends to result in it vanishing into the fog, never to be seen again.
edited 27th Jun '14 6:59:52 PM by KillerClowns
[Big Kahuna]
"Sure... that sounds like a good idea..." Kina said, "So... what are you folding there?"
[Cavern Lobby]
"I'm not sure what you mean," the man speaking remotely said, sounding confused, "maybe it would help if you could tell me where you are? I'm not getting a location from your connection."
"This is metagram station five," Flynn said, "we've lost connection with the station."
"What!?" the man said, sounding quite startled, "that's impossible! Metagram station five was destroyed five hours ago in the last attack!"
Danger: Intense gravimetric distortions nearby. Please reverse the polarity on your deflectors now.
Big Kahuna
"I...actually haven't decided yet. Right now I'm just getting the paper ready more than anything."
Kaguya followed up the previous fold by pulling the rectangular area beneath it as far as it could comfortably go, before running her finger along the crease several times. "There are some things you can make with a rectangular sheet, but I can't say I know of any off the top of my head. I find it's easier to just go with the traditional square. So right now I'm aiming to tear off the extra paper here to make a square out of this placemat."
She then returned the area to its original position, before flipping the paper over and doing it all over again on that side. She then paused briefly, before looking up at Kina. "Perhaps you'd like to suggest something? I can't guarantee that I'll be able to pull it off, but I can certainly try."
Harbor
Hayate listened to both Iris and Thomas before speaking.
"I am assuming you wish for me to act as a mediator? I have the experience in such matters, and will do what I can." He then turned to Iris. "But I cannot help if I do not know the situation, as you are already well aware of. The best guess I can muster is that it has something to do with what you told George and Thomas earlier. Furthermore, I do not know what the situation was to begin with."
Icon by Civvi the Civilian!
The future of warfare in UC.
[Cavern - Lobby]
"Well, this is awkward." Samuel observed. His expression suggested his annoyance with temporal dislocation in addition to everything else. "I don't suppose you've actually checked for wreckage and the usual rather a big empty hole? The old forensics thing."
Nous restons ici.
[Nulbarak Island]
"Hmm." Askeda assumed that Elisif simply hadn't thought of getting the cops but was too proud to admit it. She seemed decent, though, so Askeda didn't press the issue. There were more important things, anyway.
"So," she asked, "what, precisely, have you been doing? I kind of want to know what they've been experiencing, so we can hit them with something else and catch them off-guard. It'll help that there's more of us to help you, now."
After a moment, she added, "And what kinds of skills do you have? If we know what you can do, we can plan a bit better. But..." Her voice developed a strained tone. "...by the gods, please don't overstate it. We've already got a problem with someone who's out of her league, and if I have to put up with any more, I might just snap and eat someone's throat out."
[Pax Island ~ Harbor (Beach Near Docks)]
"Right, right, of course." Iris nodded to Hayate, "I'll give you the gist of what occurred between me and Thomas here, then maybe I can back up and explain specifically why these things occurred." she glanced at Thomas and added, "Why, at the time, they seemed justified." followed by a somewhat pleading smile, as though to say, See? I'm not saying I did the right thing. After taking a quick breath, she set into explaining.
"So, Howe and I first met Thomas just outside the hotel. We needed a place to stay, but we didn't have any money. To be honest, before I got to know this place a little better, I thought it was more what I'd call 'down to earth'. I thought it was just full of regular human beings like me and Thomas here— probably more on the wealthy side, what with some of the fancier buildings around, with a spattering of wildlife; the uh..." Iris glanced at Hayate, "...the kind that doesn't tend to talk. So I figured Howell would stick out like a sore thumb, which is why I told Thomas that we were stranded, kicked off a cruise, and that earlier on this 'cruise', Howe had been bitten by a... some kind of snake thing and it somehow started to metamorphosize him into this snake person. I know you haven't seen him, but once you do, you'll understand what I mean."
She let out a light sigh, shaking her head slightly, and continued, "As you may have guessed, I made up just about the whole story. We were never kicked off of some cruise, we were never in Brazil—I don't even know if that's near here—and Howell has looked the way he does probably since the day he was born. I made up all that crap—plus something about Howell's condition getting worse if he didn't eat—to get Thomas's sympathy, so that he'd let us stay with him, and, as I'm sure you know, we... well, we were successful." She paused, her eyes lowering slightly, "I regret the whole thing now, but at the time it seemed necessary. Even though the story was made up, the actual situation me and my brother are in isn't that different. In some ways it's worse. I just thought that, at the time, it wouldn't be believable, just like the story that I'd made up wouldn't have been believable, only I had Howell actually there in the flesh to kind of 'certify' it, if you know what I mean."
Iris waited a moment, then added, "And you know, Thomas, I could have just left it a secret. I didn't have to tell you that I lied; I could have kept a straight face about the whole thing until we parted ways. But I told you, because I don't want to take an unfair advantage of your hospitality, and I don't want you to worry about a bunch of baloney. Accept and forgive out the window; do you at least understand that?"
this place needs me here
[Nulbarak Island]
Layi nodded in agreement. "Our two companions, byou'll meet them soon enough. One insane but competent. The other, a child in a woman's body." Then she gave Elisif the usual Uelane greeting, bringing a closed fist to her chest in salute, and said, "ah, but introduction. I am Layi ul'Netho, hunter by trade. This isn't my usual business, but I've adapted."
[Casino ~ Aseyu's Room]
Aseyu smiled as she led Joseph over to the bed, studying his body with great interest. "With pleasure," she said. "Now, what you're gonna want to do is put your hand just here, and..."
edited 14th Mar '14 4:13:07 AM by KillerClowns
[Big Kahuna]
"I'm pretty sure that with a rectangle, one can make a envelope, a fish, a heart, and I think a box," Kina said, "but if you want to make it a square, there's all sorts of fun things, like birds, insects, and all sorts of other animals. One of my favorites is the frog."
"Sorry if I got carried away, I took an origami class recently, so I've practiced a lot," she said.
[Cavern Lobby]
"How could we not?" the man's voice said, "the whole section was practically vaporized, the only thing left in section E was the power substation, and some hallways. All three metagram stations, the sensor grid, and the maintenance bay were destroyed."
"Could this be the afterlife then?" Flynn said.
"That's highly unlikely," the first tribal person said, "how could we be talking to our original station if so?"
"Either way, is there any way we can use this device to reestablish communications?" the second tribal person said, "we seem to have been transported to another dimension, not destroyed."
"You have evidence for this?" the man's voice said.
"The dual-coordinate system was activated, and a reality error was detected with a transdimensional coordinate shift," the first tribal person said, "of course, we're not sure, but it seems the most likely outcome."
"In that case, I'll need to transfer you to the station manager, hold on for a minute," the man's voice said, being replaced with cool jazz music.
"Hopefully they can find a way to get us back," Flynn said to Noriko and Samuel, "thanks again for all your help, we never would have gotten this far without it."
It's not quite over yet, but this will work. :)
Danger: Intense gravimetric distortions nearby. Please reverse the polarity on your deflectors now.
[Near Harbor]
Thomas's scowl slowly faded. He still wasn't happy that she basically lied to get him to feel sorry for her, but since she admitted that she regretted it (and actually seemed remorseful), he decided that lecturing her even more would be pointless.
"I see." he said, "There's absolutely no point of me staying mad at you. I'm not happy with what you did, but...you seem very sorry. Besides, I don't like being mad at people for a long time." He uncrossed his arms, "But what's the real story? What happened with you and brother? You mentioned before that you two traveled together in a canoe and somehow ended up here...are you on the run or something?"
[One meter of Pax Island, Onboard Ship (Galley)]
"Quay, wharf, berths, the edge of dockyard. It's a piece the Pax islands harbor," she answered Howell question as usual.
"I was waiting for the landing gear to go down, but Reed decided to not land on the island. So we have been here not on the island for a few minutes," she explained without Howell needing to pull it out of her. She didn't really care if it actually explained anything or not or if she had skipped a few to many steps.
edited 15th Mar '14 2:51:04 PM by m8e
[One Meter From Pax Island ~ Onboard Ship (Galley)]
"Pax?" Howell repeated, a little confused. "Is that the island we were on before? 'Cause if it's not... well, Claire, I don't think it'd be all that useful to drop me off here. Not for me, in any case."
He patted the primate on the belly, then left the table and walked towards the galley door and peered out, as though the cargo bay would somehow tell him specifically which island he was on.
"I'm gonna trust you and assume that we are back at the island we were on before." he decided, glancing back at Claire, "I've really got to get back to the restaurant though. Are we near that, Claire?"
Waiting for Yomegami for Iris, and just letting some time pass before returning to horndogJoseph
edited 15th Mar '14 4:47:35 PM by Ryuhza
this place needs me here
Attitude is prohibited
[Nulbarak Island]
Tamara nodded. "Okay, let's go." She whispered and, making sure Kevin was with her, quietly snuck away as quickly as she could. Several moments passed as the voices slowly become more distant, until finally, they were the only ones making noises. "Phew." She said. "I'm glad that's over. I guess we're closer than we thought... And hopefully they aren't coming our way." She shook her head. It wasn't long before they could see Askeda's little fire and hear familiar voices in the distance. One voice, though, was unfamiliar. As she stepped into their makeshift and the light of the fire, Tamara saw Elisif for the first time. "Hey," She said. "Who's that?"
[Beyond the Red Door]
As the terrible storm died down, leaving everything within its influence ravaged and lifeless, the Strange Mind began to slip back into dormancy. As the gigantic eye that had appeared began to close, it seemed to liquefy and be sucked away, as though it was over some kind of drain. The putrid red liquid from whence it had come twisted and whirled into a horrendous whirlpool of frightening proportions. A hole opened up in the middle of the vortex, and from it, the stranger's energy - and anything else that wouldn't digest - would be forcefully expelled into the unusual atmosphere of the planet.
[Azatha's Fortress - Lava Corridor/West Hallway Intersection]
Sam waited for Kunstler to make a guess, and then, as he shook the cup, said "Five and six."
No matter what Adrian had guessed, though, Sam would have won. He tossed the dice out onto the floor, and they landed on 5 and 6.
"Looks like I win." Said Sam, casually, and with a shrug. "But I don't mind going best two-out-of-three if you'd like to play again." He snapped his fingers and the dice reappeared in the cup. "Here," He said, still grinning widely. "You roll this time." He passed Kunstler the cup.
Not entirely dead.
[Azatha's Fortress - Lava Corridor/West Hallway Intersection]
Wordlessly, he shook the cup again one-handed, noticing to the odd noise the dice made as they struck the inside. What the hell was this cup made of, anyways? Whatever, he tossed them onto a nearby side-table. Six and three.
I'm using Random.org for my die rolls, but I can't say I really want Adrian to win. Then again, it could be interesting to see Sam's reaction when he finds out that Adrian might not actually want any of the standard things. I dunno.
"Jack, you have debauched my sloth."
"Pax Island is the little island we where on before. This is Pax Island," Claire choose to word it that way to avoid the philosophical and interdimentional conundrums. The Pax Island that existed before existed before and the Pax Island they are at now is different.
[1m from Pax Island ~ Onboard Ship (Galley)]
Howell visibly brightened up once Claire clarified, which seemed somehow suitable of her to do.
"It is? It is! Good good good good-good-good-good" he murmured a few more 'goods' as he walked back to near the table and knelt down, collecting his somewhat-soggy coat and slinging it over his shoulder, where it quickly set to dampening his not-much-less-soggy jacket.
"I didn't even know we were headed back. Strange." He folded his arms and put on a very perplexed expression for a few seconds, before glancing back at the cat and asking, "And how about the restaurant? Is the ship back in the same spot it was before we all left the first time, or am I gonna be walking from the beach?"
this place needs me here
Big Kahuna
"No no, you're fine," Kaguya replied, "Actually, I'd be interested in hearing a little more. I'm mostly self-taught; I don't think there were any origami classes back home, and I've yet to learn if origami is a common pastime for the youkai."
She returned the rectangular area back to its original position, before starting to carefully tear it off at the seam she'd created. "My adoptive mother was the one who initially introduced me to the pastime. She used to be really good at it, but at the time I left for the Youkai Court she'd stopped doing it. I never quite figured out why."
Once the rectangular area had been removed, she opened up the now-square and flattened it against the table. "So, were you suggesting a frog? I believe I can do that, though I've always been more of a bird person myself."
Harbor
"Intriguing..." Hayate said once Iris was finished talking. "Allow me to say that I believe Thomas's frustration with you is quite justified. Believable or not, you should have stated the truth to begin with, rather than putting Thomas and quite possibly his companions through needless undue stress. As the situation turned out, just be thankful that Thomas merely got frustrated with you. It speaks wonders for his character that he didn't instead seek measures to have you punished, for what you did could be considered a crime; a form of robbery, if you will."
He then nodded. "However, it also speaks wonders about your own character that you chose to speak up to begin with, and that as far as I can tell that you only resorted to such measures out of desperation. I may not approve of them any more than Thomas does, but I respect you for eventually deciding on honesty. Now then, I am also interested in hearing the real events."
Cavern (Lobby)
"My pleasure," Noriko replied with a nod of her head, before she stared back down at the discus somewhat incredulously. "Maybe it's just me being pessimistic or something, but somehow the fact that this whole thing got resolved just because we found a random device sitting around seems...suspicious. I was expecting something much more complicated." She shrugged. "Not that I'd actually want to put up with something more complicated, mind you. If this really does solve the issue, I'll be thankful."
Icon by Civvi the Civilian!
The future of warfare in UC.
[Lobby - Cavern
"Lost and Found having the keys to ultimate power is...unfortunately kind of normal where I'm from." Samuel replied. "Painful and frequently frustrating, but normal." He reached out a hand just in time to catch Steelheart as it returned to him. "Consequences of being the ones left standing when the neighbors burned themselves to the ground."
Nous restons ici.
[Nulbarak Island]
"Back again?" asked Askeda, disregarding the question. "You actually see anything, or did you just decide that you didn't want to walk around uncharted, uneven terrain in the dark and come back?" I wonder if she's ever been in a dark forest in her life. She's probably one of those people who thinks you can run through them easily.
She leaned against her spear. "And, for the record, it's a good idea to not just say you're gonna take a look around and run off before anyone else can say anything about it." She glanced to Kevin. "You too, for that matter. We don't need half of the party to go off scouting on a whim. More people means more chances to alert someone."
[Pax Island ~ Harbor (Beach Near Docks]
Iris didn't even seem to mind that Hayate agreed with Thomas that she was in the wrong. She was more taken aback by how easily Thomas had forgiven her. Considering how intent he seemed on holding something of a grudge the first time she tried to explain, it seemed odd. Still, she allowed herself to smile, and answered.
"Well, okay. Good! I mean... thanks Tom." She paused for a moment, looking a little spaced before eventually continuing. "So... as for the actual story—" she lifted her hands, as though juggling her thoughts with them, "it's a bit of a long one, all things considered. I might mention something and then that thing has a story all to itself, so I'll be a little brief here."
She took a deep breath.
"No, we're not on the run. We're actually on the hunt. Well, hunt is probably the wrong word— we're just searching, for a person. Or at least we were before getting sidetracked here. Now that... that's one of the weird things. We came in a canoe, right, but we didn't come from one of the other islands around here. And I'm sure you know that a canoe ain't exactly the best way to go crossing an ocean. You see, me and Howe actually set off from the banks of a lake— a lake that doesn't even come close to touching an ocean; it's completely enclosed. Yet, at one point the wind started to pick up violently while we paddled, sending up waves, tipping us this way and that, until a really strong gust that came at just the wrong time capsized us completely. It was a little while after we resurfaced and managed to flip the canoe back over when Howell pointed out that the mountains that had been in the distance were no longer there. I was lucky enough that our compass hadn't been lost, and I could get a bit of a bearing. An hour or so later, we saw these islands, and we ended up here."
A shrug seemed like a bit of an understatement to how bewildering the whole situation was, but a shrug was all Iris could muster. "That's just the gist of how we came to be on the island. I know I said there was a bit of a sobstory too; that's more in the events that lead up to where we were before we came here. I don't really need to convince you now though, do I? And I don't want to nail you with a sobbing monologue you don't want to hear, but, eh, if you really do want to hear it..." she shrugged again.
edited 18th Mar '14 3:00:17 PM by Ryuhza
this place needs me here
[Near Docks]
Thomas quirked an eyebrow.
"So...let me see if I can summarize this as best as I can." he said, "You were searching for someone, got caught up in some waves, and ended up here. And you lied to me because you thought I wouldn't believe that you brother got here by mistake."
He waved his hand again.
"All you did was give me more questions than answers. Like, for example, who were you searching for? What did they do to make you search for them?" He shook his head, "I want to understand your situation a little more, and I want to be more forgiving. So, if it's not too much pressure to ask, what caused all this?"
[Big Kahuna]
"Or a bird would be fine too... I'm not too picky," Kina said.
"I think it's probably about as popular with youkai as humans, or maybe less so for some of them," she said, "obviously it's less popular with ghosts, due to them being incorporeal. But Miyuki is in the class with me, and she really likes it too, she's a yuki-onna, sorta."
She then took a large bite out of her burger, mumbling a "tasty".
[Cavern Lobby]
"I can't say if this is unusual or not," Flynn said, "I've never heard of anything like this happening before. When this is all over, I'm going to read up more to see what else could be done if it happens again."
"When this is over, I'm putting in for some vacation time," the first tribal person said.
"And I'm putting in for a transfer," the second tribal person said.
The music from the discus stopped as the man's voice came on again, "I've talked to the station manager, and she says she's going to get you out of there. Right now she's in research and they're charging up a holographic pulse. It'll be sent through this device, so just stay on the line, and you should receive the new data in a few seconds."
"Thanks!" Flynn said, "I suppose we just wait-"
Suddently, the metagrams went silent as the light on the discus turned off.
Loud metallic banging could be heard coming from down the hallway, as the first tribal person said, "they're here."
"In storage, let's go greet them," Flynn said, motioning for everyone to follow, as they walked towards the storage room.
Once inside, they would see two massive military mechs, in front of the right and left portals, a wide variety of strange-looking weapons ready. In front of the center portal was a woman, looking in her late twenties, with a brown ponytail, and wearing form-fitting futuristic blue armor. Two more people were next to her, a man and a woman, similarly dressed, both looking at scanning devices, waving them around the room as they wandered around.
The portals were active, and showed through them what looked like a small cargo bay, with a variety of additional mechs and troops at the ready.
"No Tritali signatures detected," the left mech said, as both of them retracted their weapons.
"Sorry we couldn't find you earlier," the woman in the center said to Flynn, "but this is a very strange dimension."
"You're telling us," the first tribal person said.
"And you two," the woman said to Noriko and Samuel, "thank you for your assistance in returning them intact, we had thought they had been destroyed in the attack." Assuming they follow the metagrams.
Well, there were plenty of more complicated solutions, but nobody was trying them out. :P
[Nulbarak Island]
Kevin followed Tamara back to the camp, but didn't have anything to say about Elisif at the moment.
However, in reply to Askeda, he said, "I couldn't just leave her to go alone. Also, we heard some voices just up the path, so I think we're pretty close to the main hideout. We're pretty sure they didn't hear us, though."
Danger: Intense gravimetric distortions nearby. Please reverse the polarity on your deflectors now.
[Pax Island ~ Harbor (Beach Near Docks)]
Iris sighed, "No, I didn't think you wouldn't believe this story..." she paused, rethinking, "well- shit, maybe I did, at the beginning. I mean, come on, me and my brother, hanging around outside a hotel and soliciting people like a couple of miscreants? And I tell you that we just happened to go from tipping over in a lake in the middle of Colorado to washing ashore on this island here in the unspecific ocean, and on a canoe. And that doesn't- doesn't sound at all fishy to you?" She paused for a moment, "Do you believe in a lot of tall tales? You know, Paul Bunyan really was a giant."
She gave Thomas a funny look, then shook her head. "Oh forget it, I don't mean to insult you. Maybe you're just a little more open minded than I am. The point is that before I realized that this island was on the receiving end of a giant funnel for all the weird shit I'd never heard of in my life, no, I didn't think you would believe me. Moreover, that's not even the story I was worried about though— see, I knew you would ask more, and here comes the big reason me and my brother needed a place to stay and food to eat: we haven't been home in over a week. Hell, we haven't seen people since we set off. A bear raided our food three days ago, and we've been eating crumbs since then. The rest we lost when the canoe capsized, even though I had it tied down. Neither of us are cut out for this. So why are we doing it?"
Iris rubbed her hands together in anticipation. "Okay, so here's where we go from tall tale to straight up fairy-tale, but please, bear with me. This is the only magic I've ever believed in, and I only believe in it because I've seen its effects year-in and year-out; it's the honest truth. I swear on the holy scriptures of Dynamite Magazine it's true." She paused, then waved her hand, "I'm getting ahead of myself here. Remember when I said that Howell and I were adopted? I'm pretty sure I said that, anyway. Well, we were adopted by the same guy, I when I was fourteen, and Howell since he was an infant. Now this guy, Arturo—and I've never really felt comfortable calling him my 'father', but eh—this guy- this man, had something really weird about him. Namely, that once in a while he would change into this big ol' steer kind of animal- I shit you not. It scared little fourteen-year-old me half to death. And only one thing could return him to normal:" Iris placed a hand over her heart and fluttered her eyelashes, delivering an especially effeminate, "A woman's kiss."
She put a hand up, silencing any potential interruptions before they arrived, "And no, I don't mean just any woman's kiss. And I don't mean a beautiful young princess either. This isn't the fucking frog prince. Well, it's sort of like the frog prince, if the prince kept changing back into a frog and the princess wasn't interested in settling down with the prince, and neither of them were royalty, just two people who go back a ways.
"So here's where we bring in another character. See, Art didn't exactly plan on adopting us himself, so I've been told. This woman Joan kind of coerced him into it— not that he's actually done a bad job in the least. He's actually a... well, he's a great father when he can be, and even when he's in... poor condition, he does what he can. Y'know, he's done a better job than whoever gave birth to Howell and whichever scared person decided that they weren't ready to raise me once I was three years old. Anyway, Joan is the woman whose magic lips were the only thing that would change Arturo back into a human being. I'm a little fuzzy on the details as to why though, as Art doesn't really like to talk about it... as much as it's possible to avoid. It took me years just to wheedle out this much, and most of it came from Joan. So anyway, Joan spends a lot of her time staying with us. Art says she basically lived with him while Howell was a tot. But she's not there all the time. Sometimes she'll leave for weeks or months, though she keeps in touch. There's more that I can say on the whole thing— and hell, Howell probably knows even more than I do, but... well, I've come to the reason we've ended up where we have."
Iris's expression turned sullen as the actual gravity of the situation began to sink back in. "Well, we've lost touch with Joan. The frog prince is a frog again, and the... well- ahehuh-" her laugh came out pained and desperate sounding. "This hasn't ever happened before. I mean yeah, sure sometimes she's out of town and we have to contact her before she can come back, and sure Art is used to spending a few days out of sorts. But we've had no word from her for nearly a month now."
She shut her eyes and rubbed the bridge of her nose, "And because shit is locked down around Colorado, because of the goddamn miniature turf wars from the surrounding states, and because our shitty-ass car decided to shit itself, we've had to go by foot to Utah, only our goddamned shitty rented canoe tipped over and left us fucking completely lost and stranded on this island!!" she stared at Thomas, looking both hysterical and miserable. "How's that for a believable story?"
She turned around and fell to the sand, sitting with her face buried in her hands. "And now my brother too..."
edited 19th Mar '14 12:35:28 AM by Ryuhza
this place needs me here
[Near Harbor]
Thomas frowned heavily.
"So, this whole thing started, because you're looking for someone close to you and Howell." he said.
Now he understood why she didn't tell him the truth earlier. Everything she told him sounded outrageous, like something straight out of a children's story. But considering what he went through today, he was willing believe anything.
Now he just needed a way to comfort her.
He sat next to her, patting her back. "Hey...remember my motto? No matter how grim things may seem, there will always a ray of hope. Don't give up yet. We'll find your brother. And, maybe, Joan will show up here as well. Just have a little faith, ok?"
edited 19th Mar '14 6:03:18 PM by Masterofchaos
[Nulbarak Island]
Layi nodded to Tamara and Kevin, but her eyes only briefly flickered to them before returning to Elisif, and her crossbow remained steady. "This," she said, "is Elisif. Elisif, Tamara's the girl and Kevin's the man." Then, after a few thoughtful moments, she lowered her crossbow slightly — not enough that she couldn't bring it to bear on a moment's notice, but enough to perhaps ease tensions. "So, we gonna get moving? I ain't too fond of setting up camp out here."
The future of warfare in UC.
[Near the Harbor]
The Taurus
◊ wasn't listening right. The problem with making your average giant robot fly was that it needed advanced fly-by-wire controls to compensate for all the weird aerodynamics or it would never manage to do more than fall flat on its face. If those systems seriously malfunctioned, your graceful 15-ton war machine in level flight turned into a 15-ton boulder in a ballistic arc.
Anyone near the waterfront would have seen and heard the Taurus, and been immediately able to realize something was wrong from the loose-motion limb flapping and random bursts from thrusters. In the last forty-five seconds it seemed to regain some semblance of control, enough time to mitigate but not stop the crash as it splashed down in a three-point kneeling landing near the dock, the water barely coming up to its ankles at that depth.
"Well that's just great." Despite the amplification it sounded like a grumble, and the voice was definitely female, with a very-beaten-down hint of upper-class London accent.
Nous restons ici.
[azatha's fortress: lava corridor/west hallway intersection]
A slow shake of the head. Hm, it's a magician. After decades of moody fireball-hurling kids, this was almost... refreshing. Granted, how this Sam went about granting 'wishes' was of mild interest to him, if that. Maybe he simply wanted to claim he was giving it thought, but it was seeming more and more like wondering how the puppy you're planning on buying turns food into shit. Ergo, he really didn't.
Not like it would really hurt to try.
"Roll them already."
"Jack, you have debauched my sloth."