Gryphon

The chatter of gunfire slowed and stopped and the remaining marines listened with ringing ears for any telltale sounds of more bugs on their way. When nothing intruded after a few momentsChad spoke up, shocking the rest of the troop into movement. "Right, let's get a move on - we're not done yet, not by a long shot." Indicating a couple of unwounded but bug splattered troops he continued, "You two, get Ethan out of that hole, get the wounded back on their feet, we're moving out. Keep your eyes open for anything that might indicate a trapdoor or a tunnel, it's obvious that these bugs can come at us from anywhere at any time." Getting the remaining marines from his squad moving Chad picked his way further down the tunnel, boots sliding and squelching in the remains of the first wave of bugs as he lead the way around a twist in the tunnel and on into the darkness up ahead.

Brad gives Shayna a tired look and mutters "A little." then goes back to examining the door to try and figure out if he can get out or at least suprise the next person trying to open the door.

I just found myself wondering what would happen to Brad if Dana snapped... well... snapped more. I look forward to seeing how this plays out. Much entertainment is being had.

Why... oh why, do I suddenly get the cold little feeling in the pit of my stomach that suggests that Dana's more dangerous in this game than the 'wolves' are?

Mynx and I went to see Aeon Flux the other day and all up I found it to be an enjoyable movie. I believe that it is based on a (manga?) tv show, but having never seen that I got to judge it on its own merits. First up, I'd have to say that I'd like to watch it again, so it was good enough for that. While I was watching it I found myself being confused by the twists and turns and seemingly random things that were happening in the film. This is not to say that its a particularly convoluted movie, but more that I'm not a particularly sophisticated watcher. I did like that even for me (lil' ol' unsophisticated me) the twists and turns of the movie brought me to exactly the right conclusions at exactly the right moments enabling me to blurt out the conclusions we'd been carefully lead to seconds before they said them on screen. (I'm sure that this annoyed Mynx no end while we were watching as she tends to watch movies on a much more sophisticated level than I - I'm fairly certain that she'd already come to the same conclusions as I did, just 5 minutes earlier.) As far as action and CGI and all those other little elements that make us love or hate movies so very much, there was enough action to keep me happy, and plenty of nice CGI which, to me, didn't seem out of place in the context of the movie. I'd say that if you missed this in the cinemas, and you're not someone who likes double lashings of drama and a movie that "makes you think", get it when it hits the DVD shelves next time you're in the mood for some semi-scifi action. If you're disappointed by it. It wasn't me, blame the penguins.

Happy Birthday Wyvern!

It might not help... but at least what I said got them thinking. It's nice to have my guess about the identity of one of the wolves confirmed. I'm all for the wolves when I am one, but this time I'm hoping the villagers get lucky.

Hearing a 'crack' Chad's attention was drawn briefly to one side where Jack had just trodden on some human bones. A whisper of sound was all the warning he had before the bugs attacked, a small pack of them racing up the tunnel out of the darkness, the lead ones pushing deep into the marine group who started firing their guns. Hearing the screams of pain and the chatter of gunfire coupled with the dull sound of claws hitting flesh Chad fired at the nearest bug, watching with some satisfaction as it went down. Rapidly to cut off the flow of attacking bugs Chad armed a grenade and hurled it down the corridor into the mass of the attacking bugs then turned his attention back to the fray narrowly avoiding taking a large spike through the chest he fired and fired again targeting bug after bug. "We can do this, we can beat this group. The certainty swept through Chad's mind as he killed another giant insect and shouted "Come on! Kill 'em. Kill 'em all!"

With regards to what Katz has said above regarding the balance of moving a stoy ahead and not writing other characters actions etc. From my point of view, writing the actions of another character is not role playing, it's story writing. If we were doing this real time in IRC or some other equivalent I'd not write actions / words for your character(s), nor would I expect you to write for me. RP is without a doubt easier to handle in live action / person to person environments such as face to face or IRC, there's no doubt in my mind about that. A large portion of the challenge in what we're doing here is derived from that very fact. I think the way to combat it is to limit how far you move things forward, make your character move a few paces instead of having him/her walk a mile. You can still have the action taking place on the micro level as well as on the macro. The big 'advantage' that RP has over shared story writing is the presence of a moderator or Game Master, Dungeon Master or whatever they're called. It's their responsibility to either throw your characters into action (if they've not done it themselves) or to bring the current action to an end to provide a clear path ahead for your game to move on. For example: Your characters are moving through a swamp. This could be pretty dull, so someone (whoever gets in first) throws a challenge at the group... Doesn't matter what, could be everyone finds themselves sinking in quicksand, toothed tentacled things grab someone, or several someones... and that's it. You might write the instant action or frozen panic or whatever of your own character, but then it's someone elses job to contribute their own actions, which hopefully will be your characters saving. This'll usually work unless everyone is playing cowards or your chararter has really annoyed everyone else... in which case you're dead - time to move on to the next character. That's all part of the game too. If for some reason your moderator realises that s/he's made it too hard for your characters to come up with an escape (or you've written yourselves into a corner) then it's their job to come in and write you out of it again. Basically what I'm getting at (and hopefully not failing miserably) is that there should be no need to balance story movement and how much of someone elses actions to write. If the story doesn't move ahead naturally, and often it will, because its RP rather than story writing and there is a moderator it really can be someone elses job to move the story on. As characters in the story, your job then becomes to write actions and reactions to the environment provided by the moderator, and as a secondary job you write actions and reactions in response to what has been written by the other players in the game. Nowhere do you need to write stuff on someone elses behalf. Sorry if that seemed like an un-called for rant or anything. I just really feel that's a fairly important distinction to make. ~~~ Edit: For the record, I do realise that as mod of bughunt, this means it's my job to move it on whenever it stalls, which it's doing a lot because everyone's waiting for the action before they step in with their opening posts or whatever. Sorry for any delays, I was just kind of hoping someone would jump in with some minor "I'm here" type character actions to prove that I'm not the only one playing the game. Thanks for those who're doing that.

It happens that all the votes against me happened while I was away from the computer and couldn't write anything to refute what was being said. Rotten luck and all.

Brad noticed the unfriendly looks and the conversations that broke up or went hushed when he approached. Finally he caught his name mentioned in a hushed conversation between Charles, Evelyn and Johann. Stress overcoming caution Brad snapped and stormed over to them. "Idiots. I've not been killing people, I've been trying to keep you all alive. I suprised two people in the corridor last night, but they ran away before I could see who they were, and now you're trying to lock me up with Vinka and Shayna? My god, I think you want to die." Brad's angry tirade stopped and he surveyed the stares being turned on him, was that belief he saw in their eyes? Or murderous intent? "Oh crap, now I've done it... if it was Charles I'm as good as dead tonight." Brad thought to himself. Visibly gathering himself he adds "I think one of the ones in the hall was Gregor, but I'm not sure, and I have no proof... I also don't know who the other one was, that's what I'm trying to figure out... and you probably don't believe me anyway." Pale and shaking Brad stumbles off down the corridor. ~~~ OOC: Changing vote to Stefan Fiori - Elwen because like I said, I really have no proof of anything unfortunately.

With no-one killed despite the obvious attempt the previous night Brad felt himself and everyone else slipping into some kind of dreadful complacency, like the killings had stopped or the danger had gone. Suddenly a new suspicion dawned. Could it be that those who were not drawn immediately by the commotion in the corridor were actually those who had caused it? There was supposed to be more than one killer after all. Still suspecting Charles, Brad noticed that Annelise had been suspiciously absent from those who'd come in response to the disturbance in the corridor... and despite their apparant antagonism towards one another they had been spending an aweful lot of time in each others company... without witnesses around. ~~~ OOC: A vote for Annelise - Tanuchan for the reasons stated in character... and because my suspicion of Charles seems to be getting me nowhere.

Chad didn't bother checking his weapons - he'd already done it. A full clip of bullets in the gun, another several in the ammo belt slung over his chest. In consession to the Sarge's bellowing he moved his belt with the grenades into a position where it was slightly easier to grab them and checked that his knife was secured in it's boot shieth. He exchanged an almost savage grin with one of the other marines in his squad when told they'd be first in and watched as Grady fiddled restlessly with his gun... "Something strange about that one... perhaps his training didn't take well. Oh well. He'll shape up or..." Up ahead there was a flash of movement and something huge and chitinous emerged from the bug hole and hissed at the approaching marine group. "Well they did know we were coming, but it would have been nice to take them by suprise at least a little." "Fan out, clear the line of fire!" The marine group approached firing in sporadic bursts at the large bug watching as it shuddered and bug guts sprayed. Moving rapidly Squad 50 moved up to the bug hole, and cautiously moved inside alert for the slightest sign of any more bugs. Nothing. "They're probably waiting for us around that first corner. You two," Chad indicated a couple of the other troopers, "move ahead and then provide cover for the rest of us. Keep your wits about you and you might survive this, they're just stupid bugs after all. Lets go!"

Brad watched Gabi until she was out of sight as she walked up the mountain, then sighed and went back to talk to some of the other instructors. It was a creepy feeling, not knowing who you could trust. It sent cold shivers down Brad's spine every time he dared to think that the person he was talking to might be a cold blooded killer. Desparate to put the thought from his mind he visibly gathered himself and approached the first person he saw... "Gregor! Hey... I need to get out of this place before it freaks me out too much. Let's get a bunch of the others together and go up the slopes for a bit." Brad waited for Gregor's response hoping that he'd agree, hoping that if they could get enough to go up together there might be some kind of safety in numbers away from where the disturbing killings took place.

"Aaawwright Marines! Listen up! This is not a drill!" The sargent glared at the troops in front of him as though a mere look could tell him which would survive this encounter with the enemy. "In just a few hours we will be arriving at our destination on Riegel 3, where some unfortunate civilians have been encountering some problems with the local wild life." A whisper went through the gathered marines resolving it's self into the quiet words "Another bug-hunt."... "Thats right kids, a bug hunt. These mud farmers built too close to a bug zone, and it's our job to burn those bugs out" One of the marines spoke up: "But sir, why send us? Shouldn't they just nuke them, or send in the airforce with napalm or something?" The sargent turned a baleful glare on the unfortunate marine. "Well now, I've never tried growing food on land that has been nuked or napalmed, but I expect that it probably doesn't grow too well soldier. None of that's our concern however. We've got a job to do, and we're going to do it!" Triumphant battle cries echoed through the troop transport and looking at the faces of the cloned marines in front of him the sargents mind held barely a flicker of thought for the killing that laid ahead. ~~~ Several hours later, moving up on the position of the entry to the bug hole ~~~ "Squad 50, we're some of the lucky ones who get to lead todays little outing and the bugs know we're coming, so I expect it ain't going to be pretty. Check your weapons and prepare to move out!" Almost as one, your eyes all turn to the darkness beyond the entry to the bughole as you prepair for what lies ahead...

A single glance was enough to tell Brad that he didn't really want to look too closely into Tina's room. "She was so quiet, why would anyone want to hurt her? I don't for a second believe that she really asked for what happened." Later in hushed tones, talking to some of the other instructors... "You'd have to be heartless to do that to someone... before when all this started Vinka thought it might be Charles, I've seen nothing to make me disagree with her." ~~~ OOC: Still accusing Charles Montagne - Lord Panther... Mainly because someone's gotta blame someone and for lack of any real evidence Brad's not one to drop his earlier accusations.

As always, at this early stage of the game I can probably be convinced to change my vote... but I fear we've been writing a bit of a emotionally charged rift between Charles and Brad, so overcoming that enough to give me an in character reason to alter my initial accusation could take a bit of work.

Brad stares at Charles, disturbed by his attitude and not sure if he believes what he's hearing. "Man... that is harsh. Trying to sort out the termoil inside Brad turns and stalks away from the fire and Charles both mainly to put some distance between himself and someone who he finds so... distasteful. Remembering the note that said there was more than one killer involved Brad looks around hastily and notices that Johann seems to have vanished and so instead of putting the termoil to rest more questions keep on stacking up in his heart.

Brad slowly gets his shaking under control, it's not so bad if he doesn't think about the legs... Looking around he sees signs of the shock and panic that he's experiencing on the faces of everyone except... Charles? "Man, he looks so... cold about this, and I know he was off on his own for a fair bit of the day." Brad steps up just as Vinka speaks up asking Charles what he knows. "Dude, how can you just sit there?? Unless you already knew..." ~~~ OOC: I accuse Lord Panther - Charles Montagne.

Lost... and found With a raised eyebrow Sweetcherrie decided that it would probably be better not to inform lilValdar about how it had been him that had given Bubble the command 'feed'. The room did indeed looked chaotic, but what was most important was that everybody was still alive. Well, alive… As she looked around the group she noticed that they all looked hurt one way or the other, some of Patham's feathers were still slowly floating towards the floor, and she herself was aching all over as well. "Gryph, those amulets back there seem to be some sort of key to the portals of this plane, think we should attempt using them?" Nodding agreement to Sweetcherrie Gryphon calls out to those standing around motioning them to come together and join Sweetcherrie and himself in the cavern with the table. Curiousity serves to bring together the Pennites fairly quickly and Gryphon directs them towards where Sweetcherrie and Patham are standing over by the table, following along behind the last to enter the cavern. Slowly, one by one everyone comes to gather around the table and a pulsating glow starts to eminate from the table and the air surrounding it. A silent question pulses though the minds of the Pennites present and many step silently forward to take up a golden medallion that has their name appear on it in a flowing script. Some few step away from the table and strangely fade away as the light leaves them and they find themselves transported back to the Keep outside the shield wall surrounding the AVV. Deep within the minds of those that remain words echo: Welcome to the inner circle, you have chosen to take up membership in the Alliance of Vagabonds and Vanguards. The amulet is your key into and out of the AVV halls, do not fear losing it, for it shall find you always and respond to you and you alone. Go now, your journey back to the Pen Keep will be unimpeded for such is the magic of the amulet. Be mindful of your responsibilities, and listen for the Amulet's call then come as quickly as you can, for the need of your support from your fellow guild members may well be dire. With that the voice falls silent and the amulets take on a slightly insubstantial look as they adapt themselves to their chosen bearers. ~~~ OOC: Thanks for participating in lost and thank you to those that saw it through to the end. Welcome to all those who have decided to take up AVV guild membership. Keep your eye on the guild area as there will be something new for you to try appearing there very soon.

I know that someone's got to make the first accusation, and I'm well aware that the first person to point a finger tends to set everyone against themselves... In Brad's current high strung condition, since he's working himself into a panic, it might well be him that points the first finger, but I'm holding off that until more people have had a chance to post their initial reactions. I'll try to make sure he can justify his accusations of course. That's going to be... fun.

Still feeling ill Brad sat back down by the fire, trying to get a grip and stop shaking without too much success. "The mess... who could do such a thing..." Lost in his own thoughts he misses the starting arguements and accusations, seeing once again the legs... the bloody legs... "Who?" Snapping his attention back to the room Brad looks wildly around in a panic going paler and suddenly shaking even more. "One of them... that's who." "Does Charles look a little less shocked than he should be? That girl sitting so quietly in the corner... Tina? Could it be that she already knew about the radio being smashed? What about Stefan? He doesn't really seem to enjoy being here, but does he hate it that much? Trying to stem the rising panic in his own head Brads eyes flicker over each of the resident instructors, trying to tell who's acting and who's not, the silent litany repeating in his head: "Who could it be? Who?" ~~~ OOC: No accusation yet - see OOC thread.

Brad was sitting in the corner talking with Vinka about the morning's boarding when Dana started screaming. Going over to see what had happened Brad found out far more than he wanted to know. Turning a pale shade of green he ran outside and was violently ill in the snow at the sight of what was left of Seth. A few minutes later a little pale and shaking he re-entered and joined those reading the note, only to move off in a state of dazed shock. Who would do such a thing...

Mynx and I went to the Fort Minor concert last night. I'm not usually one for writing critique, so if I miss something, I'm sure Mynx'll post and flesh this out. The opening acts were ok. We had a DJ up first to try and warm the crowd up a bit, followed by some local tallent who'd been on tour with Fort Minor over in Austraila. Neither inspired me to go out and hunt down any albums they'd put out, but I was really only there for the main act. Fort Minor: The main event was awesome. Right from the moment they came on stage they had everyone watching involved in the show from those standing right up front in the mosh to those up the back on the mezzanine floor. There were a couple of songs they did that I didn't recognise, I'm not sure if it was just that the song was significantly different from how it sounded on the album or if they were numbers I'd not heard off a bonus CD. Despite being slightly lost for the lyrics on a few occations the atmosphere was electric and all up it was a brilliant evening and well worth the price tag. The highlight of the evening was probably watching Mike's control of the crowd, he knew exactly what he was doing and it was awesome. Before the night was out he had us singing the chorus lines for the songs off the album and generally leaping around while enjoying the experience for all we were worth.

Seeing Vinka looking in their direction Brad waves her over. "Come on Vinka, we're going to hit one of the intermediate slopes for a warm up run... then maybe you and I can shoot up to one of the runs thats a little more..." Brad pauses to give Vinka a big smile, remembering her skills from previous years on the mountain. "... more challenging. Come on, I know you like a bit of a challenge."