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It was inevitable

15 (42.9%)

Winners don't do drugs

6 (17.1%)

I'll be back

2 (5.7%)

Drink the Kool Aid

6 (17.1%)

Groovy

3 (8.6%)

Insane in the membrane

3 (8.6%)

Total Members Voted: 35

[scapheap]

((Simple practical power. Might want to change the minimum temperature to −273.15°C though. Anything below that is physically impossible.))

((You forgetting that there magic, physically impossible is a guideline. True that AZ is one of the more solid guideline.))

Eria watches Angel before offering her two labors(no form of currency) "When I first took a life, I also felt horrible. I will admit that your is worse for a first kill since in my case it was only one and I did hate the guy. What matter is what you feel. Feeling bad is good and as long as you remember that, you won't become something truly bad."

[GreatWyrmGold]

John leans over, hearing Angel.  He frowns, and places his hand on Angel's shoulder.
"Look, kid, think of it this way.  We didn't kill people- we hitched a ride on other people who did. They would have killed anyway- we just mucked around a bit.  Kinda... you ever played a video game?  It's like that."

"A little...not the shooty ones..."

"No, look, Angel. There was nothing you, or I, or anyone else could have done. Those people were looking out to kill you. You did what was right, trust me." Even Zechariah wasn't convinced by his own words. He himself didn't believe there was a justification for murder.
"This is a test. If we pass this together, we can help other people live. We can help other people be happy. We just have to make it through, despite whatever may happen."

Say what you will about children, they can be insightful. This half-hearted justification doesn't help Angel any.

"What Zechariah said sounds good.  And it is okay to feel bad about what you did.  What you have to realize is that you have saved many more people then those that died.  Think about those people, and what you did for them."
((I'm probably a horrible child therapist.))

((And I'm not a great child.))
Angel nods.
"...What did we do?"

((Simple practical power. Might want to change the minimum temperature to −273.15°C though. Anything below that is physically impossible.))

((You forgetting that there magic, physically impossible is a guideline. True that AZ is one of the more solid guideline.))

Eria watches Angel before offering her two labors(no form of currency) "When I first took a life, I also felt horrible. I will admit that your is worse for a first kill since in my case it was only one and I did hate the guy. What matter is what you feel. Feeling bad is good and as long as you remember that, you won't become something truly bad."

Angel nods.

Don't listen to GWG, he doesn't understand constructive criticism. Only criticism.))

((Go me.))

[Alarith]

"I wasn't here for whatever you did, so I don't know.  Maybe you could ask your entity?"

[Toaster]

"From what I can tell, we just borrowed control of people.  They were going to do what we did anyway- we just took over.  The Entities told us to do it, and in return we get power.  I think it's a pretty fair deal, myself."

[GreatWyrmGold]

"No, I mean what did us doing the mission do?"

[DarkArtemisFowl]

Disappointed in himself, Zechariah meanders back to where he entered the Staging Area and loses himself in his subconscious. He lies down near some grass and begins fighting with Artemis in his mind.

Wait.

[Harry Baldman]

"No, I mean what did us doing the mission do?"

Ike, who seems to be miraculously passing by after realizing he can't sustain his state of lying down if he doesn't actually sleep, has this to offer.

"Shockingly little, friend. We seem to have purely destroyed things both good and bad in roughly equal amounts, leaving the world exactly the same as it was, curiously enough, possibly even worse. Luckily, though, that world is but one of many possibilities, it seems."

[Toaster]

John shrugged.  "We did our job and got our reward.  Sounds like a win to me."

[Harry Baldman]

John shrugged.  "We did our job and got our reward.  Sounds like a win to me."

"It definitely was for us, who weren't victims of the alien nuclear blast like that undisclosed number of Soviet civilians and soldiers whose only crime was following a regime they were born in. Any injuries we suffered killed our hosts, not us. And the end result, which seems to have been to deliver sensitive and important materials to enemies of the Soviets, resulted in us smashing into the ground, possibly hitting a bunch of anti-Soviet individuals in the process and maybe damaging the very thing we were supposed to deliver to a point where it became nonfunctional or dangerous. We were actually supposed to land safely, I think. All the people who got hurt in the mission lost, and the people who got rewarded, like us, thus won. There are, however, people who don't like being rewarded for causing only mayhem and suffering, even if it happens inadvertently and through minimal fault of their own."

"But hey, on the bright side, we seem to have discovered there's a multiverse of infinite possibilities, so if there's an infinite amount of worlds where horrible things happen to the undeserving, there's probably an infinite number of worlds where good things happen to nice people as well. Of course, the cardinality of those two sets is probably a bit off."

[GreatWyrmGold]

"No, I mean what did us doing the mission do?"

Ike, who seems to be miraculously passing by after realizing he can't sustain his state of lying down if he doesn't actually sleep, has this to offer.
"Shockingly little, friend. We seem to have purely destroyed things both good and bad in roughly equal amounts, leaving the world exactly the same as it was, curiously enough, possibly even worse. Luckily, though, that world is but one of many possibilities, it seems."

John shrugged.  "We did our job and got our reward.  Sounds like a win to me."

Amazingly, these statements don't cheer Angel up.

John shrugged.  "We did our job and got our reward.  Sounds like a win to me."

"It definitely was for us, who weren't victims of the alien nuclear blast like that undisclosed number of Soviet civilians and soldiers whose only crime was following a regime they were born in. Any injuries we suffered killed our hosts, not us. And the end result, which seems to have been to deliver sensitive and important materials to enemies of the Soviets, resulted in us smashing into the ground, possibly hitting a bunch of anti-Soviet individuals in the process and maybe damaging the very thing we were supposed to deliver to a point where it became nonfunctional or dangerous. We were actually supposed to land safely, I think. All the people who got hurt in the mission lost, and the people who got rewarded, like us, thus won. There are, however, people who don't like being rewarded for causing only mayhem and suffering, even if it happens inadvertently and through minimal fault of their own."
"But hey, on the bright side, we seem to have discovered there's a multiverse of infinite possibilities, so if there's an infinite amount of worlds where horrible things happen to the undeserving, there's probably an infinite number of worlds where good things happen to nice people as well. Of course, the cardinality of those two sets is probably a bit off."

Even more amazingly, this discussion of how much they screwed up and how little they actually did also fails to help. In fact, it makes Angel collapse and start crying again.

[Toaster]

John looks at Angel, just shrugs with a slightly confused look on his face, then goes back to his creation.

[DarkArtemisFowl]

Zechariah overhears Angel again. Deciding that he might need a break from Artemis' constant barrage of insults, he gets up and walks over again.
"Imagine this, Angel. Imagine what happens when we get through all of this. What do you think we'll be able to do once we succeed?"

[GreatWyrmGold]

Angel does not respond.

[Parisbre56]

The Staging Area

"Hey there Alan, good to see you again.  Good try with that wheel."

<<Hey, Zero?  Any tips considering my expanded power?>>

"Modifications improve power, versatility and understanding and reduce the risk of catastrophic failure.
Disorientation is possible while adjusting. Experimentation with unfamiliar equipment is recommended.
Examination of another player's equipment during a mission has a high chance of providing useful data."

Build myself a lawnchair with minifridge attachment and massage action.

It's surprisingly difficult to imagine this piece of equipment. The unrelated sections of the device keep getting mixed up in your mind. In the end, when your summoning and assembling is done, you end up with a lawnchair that looks sort of like the one you imagined. However the minifridge seems to be out of order and the massage-action feels kinda wonky.

You mess with my personality and even I have no idea what will happen. Maybe I will develop a new alter-ego. Maybe Artemis will return.

Zechariah looks around for a bit, and then finds a rock to sit by and have silent arguments with his subconscious.
Find a rock to sit by and argue with my subconscious.

You find a rock that's not too jagged and sit on it.
"So..." you can  hear an entity talking to you. "I've been meaning to ask you something. You said you share your head with a guy named Artemis, right? Well, my question is, what's with the name? Iisn't Artemis a... girl's name?"

Thank you, John.

Walk away and summon a large pile of forks.
Throw them at people.

You summon a small pile of serving forks. Eh, better than nothing.
You then proceed to throw them at people. At least you try to throw them. You lack the strength and dexterity to launch them properly. Most of them fly with the speed of a snail, while the few that you manage to throw further than a meter from you fly so off course they might as well had been thrown at random. In the end you end up with the area around you littered with forks.
"Tsk tsk tsk. Littering in the wild. No care for the environment. Better hope Smokey the Bear doesn't hear of this."

<Angel moping about stuff and people trying to comfort her.>

The shadow man appears in his rock in front of the waterfall and addresses Angel.
"You are right to feel this way. Your actions led to the deaths of many innocents. The damage your combined efforts caused on that world of mine will take centuries to repair."
"What? Why are you doing that? That's mean! Can't you see she is sad about that?"
"As she should be. The words of comfort the others are offering her are lies, lies that aren't helping her. I am helping her. I am giving her the honesty she needs. Every child needs to learn that their actions have consequences, one as powerful as her doubly so."
"I still think you're just being mean."




The people in the staging area hear the yelp of a dog or a wolf faintly echoing. Sounds like it's coming from far away.

"Eh, best approach to weird stuff is to not worry about it too much. Don't hassle the weird, and the weird won't hassle you. So... what now? Do we just jump back into the next mission, or is there something else that needs doing first?"

"It's your mind, you know best.
Anyway, there will be a mission later. There are some things the others want to do and we've got to decide what to do next... It'll take a while.
You can rest a bit for now. You've earned it."

Jordan swishes the good whiskey around in it's glass a bit, then takes another sip. "My teammates? I think you are capable of asking them yourself." He smiles. "Seriously, I found them acceptable. At least in combat."

"Yeah, that's what I was thinking. Although they do need to be a bit less squeamish. You can't change the world without getting your hands dirty. What's that funny little expression people from Earth use? 'You can't cook an omelet without squashing some eggs'? "

((Sorry I couldn't post last time. Had an exam. Had to study.))

Uhhh. Where am I? This isn't my fortress.
What did I drink last night?

Get up, look around, determine the situation.

((Eh, don't worry. I'd update faster myself but I have three projects to deliver by the end of next week.))

You seem to be in an abandoned mall or supermarket of some kind. The room you are in is made of concrete. Water is dripping from one of the rusty pipes in the ceiling, forming a small puddle on the floor near you.
Around you are overturned stalls and mounds of empty plastic and cardboard boxes of all kinds, their colorful exterior dulled by time and the elements. Weeds have started to grow on top of some of the moldy cardboard boxes.
Light is coming in from a hole in the concrete, from whitch you can see the gray sky and the snow outside.
There's a single door leading out of this room, a sliding door that has had its glass replaced by a wood and metal barricade.

"Had to... Had to what? Stellar? I don't understand. I... what's wrong? Why wouldn't I want to be your friend? You're here for me, aren't you? I still trust you. I still like you!"
I rock back and forth in her arms.
"Comon Stellar, stop being so mean to yourself. I need you Stellar! Please, can we please be friends? Please?"
I suddenly lick her cheek once.
"Gotcha! Comon! Please? I'm supposed to be the depressed one here, remember? Please, I just want to know what's happening to me. It's not that I don't trust you. It's that I can't help unless I know what I'm really doing, and why. What are the Games, really?"

"You don't understand. It's my fault!"
She gently pushes you away. The ground beneath her rises about half a meter, creating further distance between you.
"I- I made a mistake. I should had done a better job but I couldn't help you. I... don't know what happened, why it happened. I didn't fix the damage you had and he- he had to fix it for me or you would die and he- That's why you... you're different."
She falls on her knees, her head hanging low. Ripples extend from her face to the rest of her liquid body, the returning waves merging with each other creating standing waves and other interference patterns.
_{"It's all my fault. If I was better, stronger, none of this would have happened. It's all my fault. Not yours."}

((Sorry for not answering all your questions but I don't think people who are emotionally in a bad place would suddenly start rambling and providing exposition like nothing is going on. That's why the answers are coming a bit slower.))

<ability description>

Tone this ability down a bit.
Or even better, choose something else since we already have people who can mess with fire and ice and I'd prefer to have more unique abilities.

Right now it is too powerful. Anything you touch? 10 000 degrees Celsius? And the ability to direct this ability to wherever you want? I'm assigning points to abilities to see if I should give them drawbacks and right now your ability is a -4.3(!) based on the guidelines I have (for comparison, all characters start at +2). You're gonna have some major drawbacks with a -4.3, even if you roll a six during character creation.
EDIT: Either my mind is acting up due to lack of sleep or the forum is eating words. Either way, there were some missing words and sentences weren't making sense. I think I fixed them all now.
Peregrine

((Would it be funny that I voted 6? >_> I appreciate literary stuffs too much..I guess...yeah I'm weird blah blah <__<
I like how you merged those, though, despite me seeing both messages in all their clarity. You're awesome.))

Theri blinked. What she heard, she pushed aside as her thoughts of her past-wondering how River's own voice mixed in her stupor. He seemed a bit tense, probably fishing by the-wait, that was a cliff. An edge of a cliff!

The kitsune sprung up as her mind oriented sky from ground, and was utterly calmed that her friend was not actually falling-or at least the sky wasn't-and dropped to one knee.

...
:3
Hmm. Mr. Wolf seems preoccupied. Nervous? Afraid of heights? Doesn't seem to be like it.
..Oh dear do I feel like an opportunity is knocking.

Being a bit of a mischievous rascal--her youth wasn't all gloom and despair anyhow, she sneaked up towards River and decided to surprise him!
If he ever falls back-grab him and get him on solid ground.
If he...attacks or something, quickly explain its me and my plan.

I wonder if you can hear me, Mr. Wolf?

((Thank you. That means a lot to me.
And I just want to say that I like being able to write with you like this. Gives me an opportunity to write with less constraints. Although I am still bound by the game-stuff.))

You slowly get up and start sneaking towards River, a mischievous grin on your face. You carefully make your way around a couple of small bushes along the way, the soft dirt that makes up the ground helping to muffle the noise of your walking.
Even if you had made any noise, the wolf-man seems too preoccupied with whatever is on his mind to actually notice you. He keeps staring forward and slightly downwards.

You can see the waterfall as you approach him, a small stream falling off a cliff opposite to the one you are standing on. The sun creates a small rainbow in the mist generated by the falling water. (The waterfall and surrounding area looks somewhat like this. Only viewed from a higher viewpoint since you are at the same height as the start of the waterfall.)

When you get close enough to be in danger of being hit by his nervously twitching tail (he is a bit taller than you), you lean forward and playfully poke him at his back while yelling "Surprise!"

He emits a surprised yelp and quickly jumps around to face you. The surprise you can see on his face escalates when one of his legs lands on the edge of the cliff, causing him to loose his balance and start tipping backwards.
Seeing your newly made friend in danger, you quickly reach out and grab him by his arm. You dig your heels in, pull as strongly as you can (he's surprisingly heavy). After some mutually exhausting effort you manage to heave him back onto solid ground.

He collapses from the strain and the adrenaline, facing the sky, out of breath. His panting turns to laughter, a quiet one at first, but one that soon turns into a roaring laugh, his eyes closed an his mouth open wide enough for you to see his sharp canine premolars. He laughs like someone just told him the funniest thing in the world.

((I rolled for that by the way! ))

[DarkArtemisFowl]

Zechariah sighs and puts a hand on Angel's shoulder, talking softly. "As much as we really want to, we can't change the past. We have to keep moving forward. It's okay to cry, but eventually we have to get up and keep going, for the sake of those around us. You can do amazing things with your powers, better than any of us. No one can blame you for using your power with good intentions."

You find a rock that's not too jagged and sit on it.
"So..." you can  hear an entity talking to you. "I've been meaning to ask you something. You said you share your head with a guy named Artemis, right? Well, my question is, what's with the name? Iisn't Artemis a... girl's name?"

"Normally, yes. However, I do believe it had several connotations attached to it. First, Artemis, on our world, was the Greek goddess of Hunting, the Moon, and... well... virginity, although that last one can be omitted. That's kinda why he's named Artemis. The other reason is that he had a rival Guardian named Apollo Devicus."

<Angel moping about stuff and people trying to comfort her.>

The shadow man appears in his rock in front of the waterfall and addresses Angel.
"You are right to feel this way. Your actions led to the deaths of many innocents. The damage your combined efforts caused on that world of mine will take centuries to repair."
"What? Why are you doing that? That's mean! Can't you see she is sad about that?"
"As she should be. The words of comfort the others are offering her are lies, lies that aren't helping her. I am helping her. I am giving her the honesty she needs. Every child needs to learn that their actions have consequences, one as powerful as her doubly so."
"I still think you're just being mean."

"If it had been voluntary, then yes, you can say it was her fault. You can say it was my fault for trying to help that girl earlier, but Angel was acting in self defense, and only did what she could. You forced us into this game and she played by the rules. Pushing people down is what creates monsters like... me... and Artemis."