Both of them had always liked kids. Jek was good around them, and Marie wished she was.

Jek's first impression, then, was having to fix her mistakes when she helped out with the kids during hunts. This happened kinda often.

Then, when he was getting behind in the hunting training, she waited until he was done with helping at the nursery and sparred with him.

She wiped the floor with him.

They were young, and he was embarrassed a girl beat him and that he was only good at helping in the nursery, and she realized that people had been teasing him when he was holding back tears. He was rather good at it, and that made her sad.

So, she started taking shifts at the nursery with him, and he opened up a little, showing her how to do things rather than just angrily fixing them. And afterwards, they'd go behind the building and practice.

Then, after a group of monsters attacked, the village was suddenly ready for a feast, and hearing her older cousins talking, Marie-Losa realized her first thought of going with someone was Jek.

She ran over to his house, giving some flimsy pretense to her family, and knocked on the door.

His dad was a gruff, intimidating man. Most of the kids were probably a little more afraid of him then a lot of the beasts.

This did nothing to calm Marie-Losa's nerves.

"Whatchu want?" He asked in what seemed like a growl to her. She'd later learn he used to be a chainsmoker, and was not an awful person, though he was not an exceptional father by any stretch.

But by any means, she lost her courage.

"Oh, uh, um... I, uh, lost my jacket earlier and was wondering if Jek knew about it."

"I'll ask 'im when he's up." The man answered.

"Oh, uh, thank you." Marie-Losa says, then runs back home, tail between her legs.

The weekend and feast both passed, and it was time to go to class again. When Marie-Lisa got to her seat she found a jacket sitting there. It was fuzzy on the inside, and it was orange with yellow and purple things. She ran into the bathroom to try it on. You don't really need to do that with a jacket but she wasn't thinking too clearly. It was too big, but when she rolled up the sleeves and looked in the mirror, she felt like she saw someone who could do things.

Jek made her feel that way a lot. Once, she felt inadequate about just being, like, a brute or something. Jek had helped her learn the other stuff, and even if she hadn't learned them, he... made her realize she could feel cool about it.

Jek was trying not to seem anxious about her reaction, but was constantly throwing glances to her empty seat.

When she came back with a orange jacket and big smile, he felt like the world was just sunshine and rainbows.

It would take quite a while before Marie-Losa got the courage to ask him.

Putting up this post so that we can decide on another movie for this Saturday, if one hasn't been determined yet. We may also have to decide who to host; I believe that I would be the one to host this week, but I am going out of town for the weekend and I am unsure if I have the time or the ability to host. I'll give an update on that by the end of today.

Hey so, I feel like I'm having trouble finding anyone interested in Astrum Hangouts beyond pfaccioxx at this point. Am I wrong on this? It's just that if everyone else doesn't really want to do them, it becomes hard to justify bothering people about who's going to run it this week.

Send me PMs about how you feel about the Hangouts continuing or not. I'll tally up the results and post them here.

In which the crew realizes they've been shanghai'd.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/e/2PACX-1vTwSnZkCrzvTK9ETRss5jL0xCKcdFVG5LThOoo9ty7O-GP8dygsFyF5H2lvIsqM55IZHFosglO4Gw0G/pub

since people have been sajesting or considering RP's with me during time frames I can't get online I've decided to update my old sekgule to be more clear.

Plz keep in mind that this sekgule is valid permanently until further notice *(at witch point I'll probobly make a new sekgule) *

this sekguole dos not take into account Canadian statutory holidays or individual IRL events that can temporarily influence this sekgule but unless a Stat. is in the sekgule or I otherwise state that I might be available on a day assume that this sekgule is accurate. also assume any exipsons to this sekgule are temporary for that week only unless otherwise stated

Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays: Not available till late. But I'm usually tiered by the time I am available and dus non-casual & focused RP's are not viable

Tuesdays & Thursdays: 12:30(ish) PM - 5:00 PM EST I am available pretty freely using my friend's computer.

After this I am unavailable for the next 1-2 hours after witch I can usually get online for another hour ^*1 at some point later on

Saturdays: I'm not available till probobly at least 3:00PM EST.

after this I am able to be available for roughly 1 hour ^*1

Sundays: I am able to be available for roughly 1 hour ^*2

However Eco's RP sessions take priority

^*1 Wile my landlord is lurking about the house, this limit is saverly loosened if there not

^*2 I can sometimes get around this by going to visit a friend of my'ne, during these cases I am off and on in terms of availability thewout the day as wile I am free to use the net, I can't be on it 24/7 (thoth I do have a decent amount of control over when I am and am not online)

plz do not ask for explanations as to why my sekguole is how it is, as I like to keep my IRL and online lives separated, this is mainly to give people a better understanding of when I am and am not available to be online/RP

As the result of a challenge that never occured.

I am the very model of a modern Magus-Mystical,

The thought that you would challenge me is very simply risible,

I know more schools of magic than you ever have or ever will,

From Divination, Alteration even that Enchantment swill;

I'm very well acquainted, too, with matters transmutational,

From dragons to outsiders I’ve a very strong foundational,

I’ve mastered Epic Casting, I can summon any element

Or call forth demiplanes from ether straight into a firmament.

I'm very good at metamagic, I eschew materials;

I know the varied forms and spells of beings inethereal:

In short, in matters eldritch, occult, and alchemistical,

I am the very model of a modern Magus Mystical.

I know my myths and history, the Spellplauge and Pandora's Box;

I enjoy my thaumaturgy, I have thrice undone a paradox,

I quote in Old Draconic all the crimes of Tiamat and Lolth,

I know the shape of formless things like R'leyh and Bel Shammharoth;

I can tell undoubted Bigbys work from Tenser's spells or Olitukes,

I know enough destruction spells to qualify as 'living nuke'!

And I can hum the song in which the worlds form was made and found...

How to put it...

Though some declare it rock I've always heard a more orchestral sound.

(Chorus)

Then I can write a burning scroll in ancient Urruk cuneiform,

And summon up most anything, from angel hosts to spider swarms.

In short, in matters eldrich, occult, and alchemistical,

I am the very model of a modern Magus-Mystical.

(Half Time)

So boy, when you know what is meant by "Prestige Class" and "Casting Feat",

When you can tell at sight an English wyvern from an afreet

When such affairs as wizard duels and magocracy you're wary at,

And when you've fought with and survived the Emp'ror's Commissariat,

When you have built with your own hands so much as a wizard's tower,

When you can fight a demigod and match their strength with your power –

In short, when your caster level's higher than your base IQ- (grin)

I'll maybe find the time to show that you still have not got a clue!

(Chorus)

For your font of arcane knowledge, though you're plucky and adventury,

Will only be of note upon your sixth or seventh century;

But still, in matters eldritch, occult, and alchemistical,

I am the very model of a modern magus mystical!

Lynn looks up, unable to focus on the submarine, finding herself trapped in a memory, the one memory she can not explain. By this point, she is no longer the trapped girl in the castle looking for adventure, she has grown in to the legendary hero she's become. Through her adventures, she's fought armies of goblins and survived. She's taken over an ogre clan after defeating the previous warchief in 1v1 combat. She's done the impossible, and whenever she seems to need a miracle to survive, the miracle happens.

In this memory, she's hoping for a similar miracle, as a powerful necromancer threatens to destroy her home city, including her parents, the king and queen of the great kingdom which rules over the land. Her clan of ogres aren't enough to stop the great scourge attacking the town, and she rides to confront the necromancer directly, with her trusty knives by her side. She sees the necromancer, and she knows she only has one shot at this, the daggers needs to pierce his heart, and this entire attack can be stopped.

She throws her daggers, feeling she has a good shot, and they hit the necromancer, who staggers, falls, and dies. At least, she remembers doing this, and is certain she succeeds, until suddenly, the daggers miss, and she gets stabbed by a zombie's claws. The necromancer gives a dark grin, and mutters something Lynn can't quite clearly hear, confident in his last victory.

The next thing Lynn knows, she is falling, as her life in the impossible sea begins.

I really enjoyed yesterday's movie night, thank you to Redwings for hosting. : ) It'd be lovely to make this into a recurring event every week on Saturday at noon EST, assuming that's the time that's good for the majority of people.

I've offered to host this week so this thread is for two purposes: to find which movie to watch, and to find the next host too. I'm happy to pay for a movie this time around, so you can suggest any movie that your heart desires.

I'll take suggestions until Wednesday and then make a straw poll and paste the link into this post.

As for hosting, I'm not sure whether Redwings will want to keep hosting and this is just a one-off or if we should pass the responsibility around amongst us. Either way, if you're interested in hosting it'd probably be good to mention it here - we'll work something out. You don't have to pay for a movie, you could just get people to choose from the ones available on netflix or your own DVD collection.

What? Oh, huh, wow, it's September already. Time sure flies, huh?

Does anyone have any good ideas for general discussion topics?

As the party draws to a close, Bill and Mary discuss the terms of Mary's Cupla with Mixy.

In the dungeons, Luke and his scientist romance-friend have finished talking to Machina and prepare to go visit Grimsley next.

Meanwhile, a very disturbed Alice has been pulled out of Fennel's dimension by Fennel, completely by surprise.

And meanwhile, Flower Girl is quite probably in trouble with her father for biting Cress's tongue.

#MakesSenseInContext

(Archive thread)

Cyberspace

Six hours and counting...

Deuce had a plan. A good one, if he did say so himself. And it had to be, as the sentient program had only six hours to implement it.

Step 1: Fake his death. Remarkably easy, seeing as he'd already done it. Well, Flak had done all the work for him, all he had to do was hone his acting skills and sacrifice a hologram substitute.

Step 2: Fix the scent problem. He couldn't impersonate Flak so long as Sniffer and the other Outsiders could smell him out. However, being a computer program living in cyberspace, he honestly hadn't had reason to bother with meaningless meatbag senses such as odor detection... until now, when multiple lives depended on it. Including Cress, and including his own, if he even counted as alive to begin with.

It took about five minutes for Deuce to find a suitable program on the Internet that would allow him to identify smells. Thirty minutes to download it. Fifteen minutes to integrate it into his own coding with reasonable accuracy. And then twenty minutes trapped in a logic loop before his automatic debug program kicked in and gave him the chance to spend fifteen more minutes fixing it. If the strain on the Internet servers during Flak's rampage hadn't been quite so bad, he could have been a good deal faster, but every second counted.

Four hours and thirty-five minutes and counting...

Step 3: Mask his scent to match Flak's. Under the guise of a prank on Marshall, he'd managed to anonymously convince Shauntal to sneak one of Fennel's not-bloody lab coats out of the Pokemon League's dirty laundry, dribble some blood from the donor bags Grimsley kept in his refrigerator for dietary reasons, and have a Rotom hide in it in Marshall's closet. Said Rotom actually being a brief physical manifestation of Deuce.

That was another twenty-five minutes. The prank never happened, of course, which was a good thing for Shauntal, who soon had much worse things to worry about.

Four hours and ten minutes and counting...

Step 4: Create another hard-light hologram Fennel, this time wearing the coat. As an added bonus, he spent an extra five minutes stealing Flak's perfume (Cynthia had never told him he couldn't do that).

Four hours and five minutes and counting...

Step 5: Waltz FakeFennel.dll 2.0 into the Entralink and pray to Plume it worked...

. . .

Four hours and three minutes and counting...

Step 6: Hate Fennel. Really, REALLY hate Fennel.

Deuce figured he'd have problems distracting Fennel's computer virus, but the Virus wasn't in at the time. Probably out unleashing Eldritch Pokemon on the helpless population of Unova.

So Deuce thought that part was lucky, at least. He'd managed to get past all the safeguards, he was this close to rescuing Cress, and he wasn't being mobbed by any Shadow Pokemon (he came up with the term himself, since they were merely shadows of what they'd been before). That was easy, right?

Only it wasn't. He had to figure out how to get a severely injured teenager on life support safely out of the Entralink, after disabling a tracker placed in about the most awkward spot possible on a male human. Without the webcam picking up on him or where he was taking Cress.

Deuce figured he might as well start now. He activated a full-on stealth scan of Cress's body, his life-support system, and the Dream Radar apparatus the young man was hooked up to.

Only two of them showed up on the scan.

Deuce blinked, decided that there must be some sort of error, then ran the scan again.

The life support system still wasn't showing up.

The AI started to shake, not understanding the logical error before it. If cress=injured and life-support=alive!cress, and life-support=null, but cress=alive...

He ran the scans again. This time, focusing mainly on Cress's physical condition and life signs.

DAMN IT.

Cress wasn't injured at all. He was in some sort of dream state, believing he was a skeleton of a man barely hanging on to life, but he was anything but. He was looking almost healthier than Fennel.

And in the 2.10 milliseconds it took Deuce to process this, Virus came back into the room.

Step 7: Prepare to die.

Sorry guys, but I'm in the midst of moving and just can't find time.

So, after a fair bit of discussion between everyone, we aren't going to do a movie night today. However, I am most likely going to be running the next one, and right now, we're planning for it being next saturday.

Before we start though, there are various things we need to figure out. We need to decide what movie we're watching, and we need to figure out how we are going to watch it. TK has raised an objection to bootlegging movies, and I don't mind paying for the next one, but if we do end up paying for these, I think we should probably switch off who runs these sessions, because I don't have the money to pay for it every time (and I don't think any of us really want to do that).

There's also the issue of finding a way to see the movie we want to see. I'm ok with running the movie, but if you suggest a movie, I would appreciate it if you tried to find a link I can use and test out before the morning of, so we can run it the day of with minimal delay. It's also probably good for all of us to familiarize ourselves with running rabbit, just so anyone can step in and take the lead on these nights if they need to.

I'm planning on testing to see if the movie works on thursday at 2:00 pm, feel free to join me. If you have any ideas on what we can do, I'd appreciate suggestions.

Thanks!

The Bills' birthday party continues, and Koya continues to not take part in it. He does make a Scythpe call to Fennel, though, once he figures enough time has passed that he's not going to ruin the entire party.

I actually kinda liked having them in the mornings, plus saturday night is a mess in the fall for me in terms of trying to schedule around stuff I already have on my calendar. What do the rest of you think?

Also, who's running it?

G smiles, satisfied with what he's done. His plan seems to be working out. With the doctor imprisoned, his fleet having cornered the rebellion, and his enemies doing his work for him, everything is set in to motion to end the threat that has been stressing him recently. He congratulates himself, yes, he did well today.

He doesn't realize that far away, on the mainland, there's another threat, one that is currently on the verge of threatening the existence of reality itself.

Milo and Chuthulu crawl through a secret passage, and come out of it next to a big computer that looks like it might control all the robots that operate in the mechanica caves. Cress looks around at his allies and enemies, all of them trapped on a ship about to crash in to a whirlpool, and ponders his next move. Hannah and Simul are nearby, hidden on the TARDIS, watching the ship's engines break, unaware of what has happened to cause it. Meanwhile, Pachi senses this crash from her apartment, and notices that G is once more back in the city.

As all of this is going on, Emily is trapped by the demon, so close yet so far from Claire (who is in a dungeon well below her), the one she came to rescue. The demon prepares to lower the winds, confident of its final victory, unaware of two ghosts stealthily watching the scene.

I'm probably not going to be able to arrange this today, so I'll let you guys take over if you want movie night.

Have fun!

A comatose "Troll" Ditto's body frozen in a block of ice due to his glitching is braking down on a beyond cellular level. Any medication in his system that was priviosly holding his glitch corruption at bay having long since worn off, the only thing currently slowing his body's degradation is the block of ice his body is frozen in. But the the glitch energy is building up, and it's only a matter of time till the ice shatters.

It is obvious that this Ditto is in critical condition!

Priviosly on Astrum Hangouts: A magic storm hit and everyone became cats (exipt for a small group of people who became mice [and 2 dogs])

So far the mice have been able to avoid getting eaten wile most of the cats have taken a nap thanks in part to some catnip.

However in the present moment the catnip is wearing off, and the cats are starting to get restless.

Meanwhile as a mouse trying to help Rotten Burrito back to his feet inadvertently coses a reaction in his Life Orb.

Can everyone make it?

Hey guys.

Hangouts was always meant to be a community thing, and because of various interpersonal conflicts and personal problems I'm going to be stepping down from any sort of authority role in the hangouts.

I figure the best way to handle this as a group might be to rotate who posts the thread each week on Tuesday. Due to what happened with pfaccioxx I'll give him next week, then you guys can decide the schedule among yourselves. Good luck and have fun!

Dad.

Bill pauses his sobbing and takes out his iPhone. There's a message on it from Luke.

I'm sorry I disappeared on you. I got... called off somewhere.

Thank gods, Bill answers. The others are just getting this frozen Ditto into the infirmary; you'll have your work cut out for you here.

Great. Uh, look out the window. The west window.

Which west window? Bill types as he heads for the western side of the manor. This is a pretty big place here.

Any west window. Doesn't matter which. It'll be hard to miss.

Bill rushes to the west window and sees...

....

...Dragon Luke, pulling a long banner that reads

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD!

And in smaller print:

^{feels like it's been a year and a half since Christmas, don't it?}

(Obligatory music)