At The Edge of the Dream - Inheritance Front

[TheBiggerFish]

"...No, it doesn't. Okay, when we get a chance I am loaning you my ebook library and you are going to read a book. Or possibly watch a TV show, if my Netflix works here. Hey, boss lady, does the hotel include transdimensional Wi-fi?"

"...Also, I'm guessing you can tell how pissed off I am about this -" very, to put it succinctly - "I am not pissed off at you, I'm pissed off at who or whatever dictated that your media consumption be 'not even all of the Bible'. And I'm guessing that your English classes weren't much better, then? I can't think of a work of proper fantasy I read for English class either, come to think of it. Gatsby, 1984...Chaucer might count if you squint but if you have to run it through a translator from archaic first it really doesn't...The Iliad? That has some actual mythic heroes in it or around it, at least - Achilles might go well for you, if we can just mitigate the critical weak point in his invulnerability. He was all-'round invincible, except for a single spot in his heel from where his mother was holding him while she dipped him in the ghost river to give him that invincibility. Polyphemus...no, skip him, he was a giant so I must presume that his strength was mostly physical matters of bigness and shit. I'm not sure that would transfer. Also he was a dumbass. Got tricked by the hero of the Iliad, Odysseus - the general who I think came up with the original Trojan horse ploy, if you have ever heard that idiom before - into...I forget if he actually got tricked into blinding himself, but he ended up blinded and when he went running to daddy Poseidon, he was foolish enough to claim 'Nobody'," Marie drops some air quotes, "did it. ...But, yeah, I am going to sit you down with some of my electronics and we are going to find you some fun to have and maybe some ideas to draw from. I regret to inform you that you are now my friend and that this is thus inevitable."

 

[Noob5674]

"...No, it doesn't. Okay, when we get a chance I am loaning you my ebook library and you are going to read a book. Or possibly watch a TV show, if my Netflix works here. Hey, boss lady, does the hotel include transdimensional Wi-fi?"

"...Also, I'm guessing you can tell how pissed off I am about this -" very, to put it succinctly - "I am not pissed off at you, I'm pissed off at who or whatever dictated that your media consumption be 'not even all of the Bible'. And I'm guessing that your English classes weren't much better, then? I can't think of a work of proper fantasy I read for English class either, come to think of it. Gatsby, 1984...Chaucer might count if you squint but if you have to run it through a translator from archaic first it really doesn't...The Iliad? That has some actual mythic heroes in it or around it, at least - Achilles might go well for you, if we can just mitigate the critical weak point in his invulnerability. He was all-'round invincible, except for a single spot in his heel from where his mother was holding him while she dipped him in the ghost river to give him that invincibility. Polyphemus...no, skip him, he was a giant so I must presume that his strength was mostly physical matters of bigness and shit. I'm not sure that would transfer. Also he was a dumbass. Got tricked by the hero of the Iliad, Odysseus - the general who I think came up with the original Trojan horse ploy, if you have ever heard that idiom before - into...I forget if he actually got tricked into blinding himself, but he ended up blinded and when he went running to daddy Poseidon, he was foolish enough to claim 'Nobody'," Marie drops some air quotes, "did it. ...But, yeah, I am going to sit you down with some of my electronics and we are going to find you some fun to have and maybe some ideas to draw from. I regret to inform you that you are now my friend and that this is thus inevitable."

Click to shrink...

At first, Charles followed along listening. It's clear that this is a heated topic for Marie, if only not quite aimed at him (yet). And he listened enough to catch something about English classes...his uhh...answer isn't particularly good.

"The only stories I can remember from English classes was one involving an armored bear carrying a child to I think the Antarctics (Golden Compass was a weird story), several news articles, or were just flat out nursery rhymes. Literally just, plastic news magazines for kids with puzzles on them." As for the rest of what Marie said...if you've had the experience of zoning out of a rant, you know what I mean by Charles did not listen to the rest of what she said and unfortunately, that results in him just, nodding when she finished talking, unaware of the horrible burden that is becoming Marie's friend.

May any gods out there grant this boy mercy because I'm sure as hell ain't gonna bother.

 

[TheBiggerFish]

"...Well, that one I don't think I've ever heard of, or if I had I never got a plot synopsis. I can think of a story with a polar bear or three and a girl up...I can never remember which way polar bears are, actually - but there was no armor.
I'm sure I can find it somewhere eventually if you want. ...Did you like it?"

 

[Janus]

Meanwhile, while all of whatever THAT is is happening, Jake conjures a necklace made of silver and sapphires, and puts it around his neck. He is currently drinking a golden goblet of wine in his right hand. After he takes a sip, he smiles and lets out a satisfied hiss, like after a man drinks from a can of soda.

 

[UbeOne]

Rae

---

"Thank you, kindly." Jessica says as she catches the coin and holds it firmly. While the others banter amongst themselves, Jessica catches the coin tossed back towards her. As she lets the power contained within start to meld with her the changes she feels are fairly subtle, though Satellizer's abilities never really were... Extreme. Powerful in certain cases, sure, but fairly small in the grand scheme of things when there's a Kryptonian and fallen angel around. Regardless, once the powers have fully settled into Jessica she does a quick mental check to remember all that Satellizer can actually do and decides to try the easiest thing. It just requires her mentally thinking of a few certain things and visualizing how they all go together.

Outwardly there's a brief flash of light before what looks to be a fairly plain sheathed knife appears in Jessica's open hand. To those who may have very sensitive senses, or the ability to feel particles in the air move, there's a brief flurry of activity that's essentially invisible as particles are rapidly gathered to form that blade and the sheath. Jessica then gently places the sheath down upon the table before looking over the knife proper, it's how she envisioned it being which is to say it looks like a Ka-Bar knife. The metal, as far as she can tell, is exactly right too, the right feel and gleam to be a well polished durable steel. The handle likewise feels correct, a softer leather that's comfortable in her hand as she grips the hilt.

"Perfect..." Jessica idly says to herself before starting to toy with the blade, twirling it around her fingers as Satellizer's inherent skill with bladed weapons bubbles up to the surface of Jessica's mind. There's no fancy tricks involved, but the taller woman can't help but to try and push a little of Satellizer's speed into the movements as well, seeing just how fast she can go without activating another of the Pandora's abilities. If the knife seems to be just a blur as it moves around Jessica's fingers... That's surely just a trick of the light. Though it's about that time that Jessica turns her attention back to the room at large and eyes up the people around her again. Others are already starting to play a little with their powers, or make use of them in some way, so Jessica's not exactly alone in what she's doing. Though... Perhaps she's alone in how she's expressing what she can do.

"I think... That's all of us? Which means we can get started on the next part of this 'Game'." Jessica comments aloud, not to anyone directly but she's open if someone does reply. "Though, unless I'm mistaken, most people haven't actually voiced whether they want fantasy or sci-fi. So far it's two for fantasy and me for sci-fi, unless I missed someone."

Click to shrink...

So, someone who can project blades. Reminds me of a certain archer, actually. Handy power right there, though it may be just a portion of what she can do. Only she would know for sure.

Ah, so there's an ongoing vote for preferred genre. Seems to be a style preference, though some things are more plausible in one genre as compared to the other.

"Which one would we blend better in, fantasy or sci-fi?" I ask the others.

Charles, the Unstoppable

Charles stares at the weird motions of the knife in her hand before noting that mentally down. Melee probably isn't in call...but then again if Jessica can make knives at will, then ranged is even worse given essentially infinite knives to throw and that's bad. So, definetly a rush down target...

Oh, and add in either really good knife skills or really bullshit dexterity given that from experience, that is not what knife flipping looks like at normal speeds.

He tsks as he sees how 1 to everybody so far in terms of how they choose how their coin is used up. Might not be the most well versed in literature, but come on, Charles didn't expect it to come one side him like this of all things. "Am I really the only one who didn't know enough about 'characters' to choose between 'Favorites' or 'The logical choice'?"

At least Marie hasn't really changed in terms of being used to knives, and given how knives are fairly low in terms of weapon danger meter...probably safe to say she isn't that used to melee period. Another blitz down target...

This thought makes Charles internally look on the markerboard in his head of strategies to take down the others if needed and sees that so far everybody is on 'If you just rush them, itll work out by itself'...Keen-minded does not mean he's tricky in every strategy. Heavy hit at rapid speeds is a time-trusted method of victory for good reason and there's little reason to deviate if not necessary.

Click to shrink...

"I chose based on theme. Supergirl's a classic; she embodies the sort of ideals and virtues I want to strive for, with the sort of all-around gifts she has," I remark.

Meanwhile, the Taylor inheritor sounds rather frustrated at what seems to be the other one not being so well-read. "Do try not to overwhelm him…" I add.

Meanwhile, while all of whatever THAT is is happening, Jake conjures a necklace made of silver and sapphires, and puts it around his neck. He is currently drinking a golden goblet of wine in his right hand. After take a sip, he smiles and lets out a satisfied hiss, like after a man drinks from a can of soda.

Click to shrink...

Heh, looks like a certain someone's enjoying himself, the one who asked for Samael powers. A bit amusing, actually, already conjuring valuables and such.

 

[NinetyNineLies]

Meanwhile, while all of whatever THAT is is happening, Jake conjures a necklace made of silver and sapphires, and puts it around his neck. He is currently drinking a golden goblet of wine in his right hand. After he takes a sip, he smiles and lets out a satisfied hiss, like after a man drinks from a can of soda.

Click to shrink...

'Oho,' Apollo thought amused at this.

With but a thought, their form shifts. A seamless transition, not unlike when one found themselves dreaming, that the figure of the orange dragon disappeared, replaced with a blond in a golden armor.

A hand raised, a golden portal appeared, lowering a golden goblet followed by a pouring of what appeared to be chocolate milk.

'Two can play at the bragging game, although I hope they won't notice this is the best I can do right now with this form.'

"Which one would we blend better in, fantasy or sci-fi?" I ask the others.

Click to shrink...

"I would say that fantasy is better, unless any of you know how to speak technobabble, or anything resembling them? Also, I always want to say 'because magic!'"

 

[Hydrokinesis]

Rae

---

So, someone who can project blades. Reminds me of a certain archer, actually. Handy power right there, though it may be just a portion of what she can do. Only she would know for sure.

Ah, so there's an ongoing vote for preferred genre. Seems to be a style preference, though some things are more plausible in one genre as compared to the other.

"Which one would we blend better in, fantasy or sci-fi?" I ask the others.

"I chose based on theme. Supergirl's a classic; she embodies the sort of ideals and virtues I want to strive for, with the sort of all-around gifts she has," I remark.

Meanwhile, the Taylor inheritor sounds rather frustrated at what seems to be the other one not being so well-read. "Do try not to overwhelm him…" I add.

Heh, looks like a certain someone's enjoying himself, the one who asked for Samael powers. A bit amusing, actually, already conjuring valuables and such.

Click to shrink...

Jessica's a bit surprised, to say the least, at the direction Marie takes when talking with Charles, though she's also surprised by what Charles is saying as well. So, like, all around confusion. Still, her hand goes back to idly toying with her knife as she listens and ponders a bit herself. With Charles and Marie going off about books and other media they've encountered, Jessica sort of tunes it out. The conversation's gone off on a tangent again, which seems to be fairly common for Marie. So instead she turns her attention over to Supergirl while considering a new, maybe neat, trick. Her silence that lasts for a few moments is a little required, but Jessica won't say what it's required for.

With but a thought, their form shifts. A seamless transition, not unlike when one found themselves dreaming, that the figure of the orange dragon disappeared, replaced with a blond in a golden armor. A hand raised, a golden portal appeared, lowering a golden goblet followed by a pouring of what appeared to be chocolate milk.

"I would say that fantasy is better, unless any of you know how to speak technobabble, or anything resembling them? Also, I always want to say 'because magic!'"

Click to shrink...

"Supergirl's a solid choice, in most respects. You're safe and generally capable, which isn't anything to sneeze at. But when it comes to blending in... Possibly not what most would be thinking about. Though I daresay we'd probably not have to come up with outfits on our own. Unless we're meant to stick out? And like Gilgamesh said, the powers we all have would be easier to hide in a fantasy setting too, but if the sci-fi setting has fantasy elements it's really no different." The brunette shrugs and as she does so the clothing she's wearing flashes brightly. After the flash goes away the taller woman's left wearing what appears to be a 'sci-fi pilot suit', a skin-tight affair that's got a light gloss to it and black polymer panels attached in a few locations. It's black along the outsides over her arms, chest, and legs; the inner portion appears to be a very dark purple with a few red and blue accents scattered through the outfit. The three differences, for those aware of who Jessica's decided to cosplay as, is the footwear matching what she wore into the room, her original jacket remaining but still hanging loosely off her shoulders, and nothing attached to her face.

With her outfit changed, Jessica leans back and crosses her legs, getting comfortable in her seat. "But my vote for sci-fi was, well, due to the comforts we tend to enjoy. I'm aware that, in most cases, fantasy's fine from that standpoint, a lot of fantasy settings keep things like hygiene to modern standards, but with a sci-fi setting it's mostly assured. Likewise, is the other creature comforts that people might overlook." She shrugs and sets her knife down on the table before crossing her arms beneath her bust. "A fantasy setting would involve 'roughing it' and a longer time traveling, potentially. Then there's food, what's safe to eat and what isn't. Science fiction, comparatively, just has a higher chance of being something we can adjust to."

 

[TheBiggerFish]

"Do try not to overwhelm him…" I add.

Click to shrink...

"I'll keep that in mind."

'sci-fi pilot suit',

Click to shrink...

Marie, after a very brief moment of shock/surprise/awe, is suddenly a cloud of bees.

...After they coalesce back into her shape, Marie picks up the conversation where it left off, looking somewhere over that way where Jessica's barely in her peripheral vision.

"Okay, but 'roughing it' in a fantasy setting really isn't that bad when you have a biblical plague on your side, and I don't want to be a biblical plague on a spaceship! That just doesn't work! Let alone being a biblical plague when there's no Bible! I can absolutely make us comfy traveling gear and keep the place clean, and I can't build up as fast without an actual ecosystem around me to work with for biomass. And you can just make things.
If you're worried about creature comforts in the wilds, you can just materialize a house. Well. Can you do that? I don't actually know if you can do that. But I still think fantasy is better than sci-fi because whatever's going on, you get many less many-world-level threats per capita, and we have enough gimmicks to really just absolutely wreck most fantastic threats that just wouldn't apply to a Death Star."

 

[Noob5674]

Charles, the Unstoppable

"...Well, that one I don't think I've ever heard of, or if I had I never got a plot synopsis. I can think of a story with a polar bear or three and a girl up...I can never remember which way polar bears are, actually - but there was no armor.
I'm sure I can find it somewhere eventually if you want. ...Did you like it?"

Click to shrink...

"I remember seeing a bear slap off the jaw of another bear. Honestly, I'm not sure if it was a fever dream or not. Wasn't really interesting except bears in all honesty and all I remember of it involves bears." He might not know of what to compare them to, but Charles faintly remembers the war scenes and scenes of said bear steamrolling through foes. That and the faint remembrance of their attitude. To put it best, regal violence. They be destructive in a sloppy fashion, but it's taken in strides and pride.

Now he remembers why he still can recall those guys. Good thing to aspire to at least.

With but a thought, their form shifts.

Click to shrink...

'Hmm. Another summoner type of power set.' Charles doesn't even hesitate to add another person to the blitz list. Nobody can stop a good blitz when it comes down to it unless they're vastly stronger at minimum.

"When it comes to blending in... Possibly not what most would be thinking about. Though I daresay we'd probably not have to come up with outfits on our own. Unless we're meant to stick out? And like Gilgamesh said, the powers we all have would be easier to hide in a fantasy setting too, but if the sci-fi setting has fantasy elements it's really no different."

With her outfit changed, Jessica leans back and crosses her legs, getting comfortable in her seat. "But my vote for sci-fi was, well, due to the comforts we tend to enjoy. I'm aware that, in most cases, fantasy's fine from that standpoint, a lot of fantasy settings keep things like hygiene to modern standards, but with a sci-fi setting it's mostly assured. Likewise, is the other creature comforts that people might overlook." She shrugs and sets her knife down on the table before crossing her arms beneath her bust. "A fantasy setting would involve 'roughing it' and a longer time traveling, potentially. Then there's food, what's safe to eat and what isn't. Science fiction, comparatively, just has a higher chance of being something we can adjust to."

Click to shrink...

"I'm about 90% sure that any comfort we'd want can be either handled without, or one of you can somehow summon something to fix that need regardless." There's a glance to the Gil fellow's goblet of drink, as well as to Jess's suit. It's not hard to see where he's coming from in terms of 'Needs and comforts being a nonissue'.

"Or at the very least not that difficult to handle without when you can't get it."

"But I still think fantasy is better than sci-fi because whatever's going on, you get many less many-world-level threats per capita, and we have enough gimmicks to really just absolutely wreck most fantastic threats that just wouldn't apply to a Death Star."

Click to shrink...

Charles glances with squinted eyes unsure of what's being referenced but does pipe in his own opinion.

"I'm not 100% sure on what's in either, but I know sci-fi is like science and futuristic civilization stuff, right? Which means we'd be in a place where everything we show off would be seen by everybody, including folks who'd be multiple times more likely to dissect or exploit one of you magic folk for more science. Even a big city ain't good for me to do things freely, so I'd doubt going to a place of 'the future' would be any better than that in my head. Probably worse even. I'd rather stick to fantasy and whatever stuff that comes with."

 

[TheBiggerFish]

"...Yeah, well-argued. ...Shit, you haven't seen Star Wars, have you? We're more likely to be able to kill a wizard with a ritual circle than we are a space station with a superlaser."

 

[Hydrokinesis]

Marie, after a very brief moment of shock/surprise/awe, is suddenly a cloud of bees.

...After they coalesce back into her shape, Marie picks up the conversation where it left off, looking somewhere over that way where Jessica's barely in her peripheral vision.

"Okay, but 'roughing it' in a fantasy setting really isn't that bad when you have a biblical plague on your side, and I don't want to be a biblical plague on a spaceship! That just doesn't work! Let alone being a biblical plague when there's no Bible! I can absolutely make us comfy traveling gear and keep the place clean, and I can't build up as fast without an actual ecosystem around me to work with for biomass. And you can just make things.
If you're worried about creature comforts in the wilds, you can just materialize a house. Well. Can you do that? I don't actually know if you can do that. But I still think fantasy is better than sci-fi because whatever's going on, you get many less many-world-level threats per capita, and we have enough gimmicks to really just absolutely wreck most fantastic threats that just wouldn't apply to a Death Star."

Click to shrink...

Charles, the Unstoppable
"I'm about 90% sure that any comfort we'd want can be either handled without, or one of you can somehow summon something to fix that need regardless." There's a glance to the Gil fellow's goblet of drink, as well as to Jess's suit. It's not hard to see where he's coming from in terms of 'Needs and comforts being a nonissue'.

"Or at the very least not that difficult to handle without when you can't get it."

Charles glances with squinted eyes unsure of what's being referenced but does pipe in his own opinion.

"I'm not 100% sure on what's in either, but I know sci-fi is like science and futuristic civilization stuff, right? Which means we'd be in a place where everything we show off would be seen by everybody, including folks who'd be multiple times more likely to dissect or exploit one of you magic folk for more science. Even a big city ain't good for me to do things freely, so I'd doubt going to a place of 'the future' would be any better than that in my head. Probably worse even. I'd rather stick to fantasy and whatever stuff that comes with."

Click to shrink...

Jessica listens to the back and forth for a moment before shaking her head. She also doesn't miss how Marie is distinctly looking away from her now, especially after she exploded into bees for a moment. That's, well, not exactly normal behavior even for Marie. It's cute though, given that she's pretty certain exactly why Marie exploded into bees. But, serious topic. And as much fun as it would be to get Marie to explode into bees again there's stuff to talk about right now.

"Going and materializing a house is a little beyond me, the ability isn't quite that strong. I can make it easier for myself to be in a fantasy setting... But the thing is, what about everyone else? And who's to say we're sticking together through it all?" She shrugs and brings a hand up to idly rub at her chin. "I'd wager, given the nature of this, that we're more likely to compete against each other. So even if there's some of us that can bypass the roughing it part, others will be stick with it anyway. Even the argument with people watching us doesn't really hold much weight either, since gods playing some sort of active part is so common a trope. And if it isn't fantasy gods watching us, it's regular wizards who can potentially end worlds anyway, we'd likely just be swapping one type of surveillance for another."

Her arm falls down and ends up crossed beneath her bust once more before she continues. "But all this is speculative, because certain fantasy settings can easily be harsher than some sci-fi settings. Which means it's all entirely dependent upon where we end up. Some of us could steamroll our way through Lord of the Rings without an issue, but the same can also be said for some of us steamrolling through Cyberpunk 2077's setting. Meanwhile, we'd all suffer heavily in White Wolf's realm of Arcadia, and the same could be said about us suffering in a sci-fi setting like Star Wars. In these examples we win, because the scale is small enough for us to effect change, or we lose, because the setting is too grand for our actions to matter. The details of what we face matter less than the scale we face. Because, again, what happens in sci-fi settings can just as easily happen in a fantasy setting, or vice versa. I'd just rather be comfortable with modern amenities instead of whatever happens in fantasy land."

 

[TheBiggerFish]

"Counterargument: Whatever scale we're going to end up on was already the scale we'd end up on, and we're more likely to have someone who knows any given sufficiently high-powered fantasy setting because there are statistically less, as far as I'd care to speculate. And high fantasy wizard scry and die is less reliable, archetypally, than modern mass surveillance infrastructure. Look at Sauron and how his omniscient eye fucked up. ...Note to self, remember Tayron exists. Wizards are unique units, whereas you can churn out camera factories and train machine learning algorithms by the dozens. If you're citing White Wolf, allow me to point out the fucking bullshit the Technocracy does. Also, Arcadia's a bad example because it is awful by writer fiat to provide traumatic backstory. If we're getting thrown into one of those, on our first jaunt...It just doesn't make sense, narratively. We're dealing with a TV show here. They want something entertaining. Not depressing. And I don't think that these are the sorts of ROBs to give out phenomenal cosmic power and then turn around and be sadistic at us. That's a very specific subset and I have seen it actually expressed precisely once. Once and a half, maybe. And do you want to be running around with an entire city taking shots at you because of corporate bounties, or just one or two wizards we can probably punch in the face? It's not the peak capabilities we should worry about. There's settings with 'Yes' on both sides of that divide. It's averages."

 

[NinetyNineLies]

"I think," Apollo begins with a smirk, "that you're all overthinking this."

Smiling smugly, they continue, "Fantasy and Sci-fi are genres with their tropes, but while the tropes do contain specific storylines, the genres themselves don't have anything specific storylines or setting. What they are, is nothing more than aesthetic. Precedents have been made for fantasy settings having all the amenities of the modern world, and the same goes for sci-fi settings having precedents for having what is basically primitive worlds with few technology in sight. And that's of course assuming we go to a setting that has been told in stories."

Pausing to take a drink from his goblet, they continue, "After all, there is no guarantee that the settings won't be an original creation, where everything is made to maximize our entertainment value."

"So don't worry about it too much! This choice presented to us? Just treat it like what clothes you think would look great at the moment. We have no control over the contents of the setting. Just the aesthetics."

With that final remark, Apollo disappears the goblet and shifts once more, into an incredibly buff man with long-flowing hair and minimal clothing.

 

[TheBiggerFish]

Marie eyes Apollo. "Didn't I just get done saying that? Also, the idea that it's going to be original content is just kind of absurd, precedentially. I mean, I can't rule it out, although - hey, bosslady, would you care to comment?" Marie takes a moment to point a question at Ms. Jordan ( @Atma ), before continuing, "- although, the amount of work it would be to just dredge up an entirely new setting from a narrative design perspective just makes it really not worth it in most cases, save as and where you are concerned about copyright. As we are clearly not giving a shit about that, I'm expecting to get dumped in existing settings, out of sheer parsimony."

 

[Atma]

"...No, it doesn't. Okay, when we get a chance I am loaning you my ebook library and you are going to read a book. Or possibly watch a TV show, if my Netflix works here. Hey, boss lady, does the hotel include transdimensional Wi-fi?"

Click to shrink...

"Well more like Wi-fi to the place you call home, but if you desire to spend time between places in company of your fellows to compare notes or ideas, then you may do so."

hey, bosslady, would you care to comment?" Marie takes a moment to point a question at Ms. Jordan ( @Atma ), before continuing, "- although, the amount of work it would be to just dredge up an entirely new setting from a narrative design perspective just makes it really not worth it in most cases, save as and where you are concerned about copyright. As we are clearly not giving a shit about that, I'm expecting to get dumped in existing settings, out of sheer parsimony."

Click to shrink...

"Once you all get to know me better I can assure you that, I couldn't care less about copyright. So, yes you may very well take part in a world you or may not know about, but there's also a great likelihood that you'll end up in a place you have no knowledge of."

Mallory then claps her hands and addresses everyone, "Have I missed anyone in this excited and have we decided then, where you would like to begin?"

 

[Janus]

"Well more like Wi-fi to the place you call home, but if you desire to spend time between places in company of your fellows to compare notes or ideas, then you may do so."



"Once you all get to know me better I can assure you that, I couldn't care less about copyright. So, yes you may very well take part in a world you or may not know about, but there's also a great likelihood that you'll end up in a place you have no knowledge of."

Mallory then claps her hands and addresses everyone, "Have I missed anyone in this excited and have we decided then, where you would like to begin?"

Click to shrink...

"Might I suggest some place such as Thedas? Don't know why I have Dragon Age on the brain, but nonetheless, I do. Maybe I could make use of the demons they have there."

 

[Atma]

Jordan steeples her fingers before continuing. "It does seem to me that there is more of push towards the realms of fantasy as opposed to science fiction, but I'd rather have clarification on the matter before making that decision."

"Might I suggest some place such as Thedas? Don't know why I have Dragon Age on the brain, but nonetheless, I do. Maybe I could make use of the demons they have there."

Click to shrink...

"Mayhaps and maybe are not guaranteed, but I will take it under consideration for you all do not worry."

 

[TheBiggerFish]

"It does seem to me that there is more of push towards the realms of fantasy as opposed to science fiction, but I'd rather have clarification on the matter before making that decision."

Click to shrink...

"Not everyone has expressed their preferences, so a majority of the vote seems to presently be 'abstain', but I think more of us want fantasy than sci-fi. ...Anyone have pen and paper? We should probably do an actual vote, now that the issue's been argued half to death."

 

[UbeOne]

Rae

---

'Oho,' Apollo thought amused at this.

With but a thought, their form shifts. A seamless transition, not unlike when one found themselves dreaming, that the figure of the orange dragon disappeared, replaced with a blond in a golden armor.

A hand raised, a golden portal appeared, lowering a golden goblet followed by a pouring of what appeared to be chocolate milk.

'Two can play at the bragging game, although I hope they won't notice this is the best I can do right now with this form.'


"I would say that fantasy is better, unless any of you know how to speak technobabble, or anything resembling them? Also, I always want to say 'because magic!'"

Click to shrink...

Jessica's a bit surprised, to say the least, at the direction Marie takes when talking with Charles, though she's also surprised by what Charles is saying as well. So, like, all around confusion. Still, her hand goes back to idly toying with her knife as she listens and ponders a bit herself. With Charles and Marie going off about books and other media they've encountered, Jessica sort of tunes it out. The conversation's gone off on a tangent again, which seems to be fairly common for Marie. So instead she turns her attention over to Supergirl while considering a new, maybe neat, trick. Her silence that lasts for a few moments is a little required, but Jessica won't say what it's required for.



"Supergirl's a solid choice, in most respects. You're safe and generally capable, which isn't anything to sneeze at. But when it comes to blending in... Possibly not what most would be thinking about. Though I daresay we'd probably not have to come up with outfits on our own. Unless we're meant to stick out? And like Gilgamesh said, the powers we all have would be easier to hide in a fantasy setting too, but if the sci-fi setting has fantasy elements it's really no different." The brunette shrugs and as she does so the clothing she's wearing flashes brightly. After the flash goes away the taller woman's left wearing what appears to be a 'sci-fi pilot suit', a skin-tight affair that's got a light gloss to it and black polymer panels attached in a few locations. It's black along the outsides over her arms, chest, and legs; the inner portion appears to be a very dark purple with a few red and blue accents scattered through the outfit. The three differences, for those aware of who Jessica's decided to cosplay as, is the footwear matching what she wore into the room, her original jacket remaining but still hanging loosely off her shoulders, and nothing attached to her face.

With her outfit changed, Jessica leans back and crosses her legs, getting comfortable in her seat. "But my vote for sci-fi was, well, due to the comforts we tend to enjoy. I'm aware that, in most cases, fantasy's fine from that standpoint, a lot of fantasy settings keep things like hygiene to modern standards, but with a sci-fi setting it's mostly assured. Likewise, is the other creature comforts that people might overlook." She shrugs and sets her knife down on the table before crossing her arms beneath her bust. "A fantasy setting would involve 'roughing it' and a longer time traveling, potentially. Then there's food, what's safe to eat and what isn't. Science fiction, comparatively, just has a higher chance of being something we can adjust to."

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"I'll keep that in mind."


Marie, after a very brief moment of shock/surprise/awe, is suddenly a cloud of bees.

...After they coalesce back into her shape, Marie picks up the conversation where it left off, looking somewhere over that way where Jessica's barely in her peripheral vision.

"Okay, but 'roughing it' in a fantasy setting really isn't that bad when you have a biblical plague on your side, and I don't want to be a biblical plague on a spaceship! That just doesn't work! Let alone being a biblical plague when there's no Bible! I can absolutely make us comfy traveling gear and keep the place clean, and I can't build up as fast without an actual ecosystem around me to work with for biomass. And you can just make things.
If you're worried about creature comforts in the wilds, you can just materialize a house. Well. Can you do that? I don't actually know if you can do that. But I still think fantasy is better than sci-fi because whatever's going on, you get many less many-world-level threats per capita, and we have enough gimmicks to really just absolutely wreck most fantastic threats that just wouldn't apply to a Death Star."

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Charles, the Unstoppable

"I remember seeing a bear slap off the jaw of another bear. Honestly, I'm not sure if it was a fever dream or not. Wasn't really interesting except bears in all honesty and all I remember of it involves bears." He might not know of what to compare them to, but Charles faintly remembers the war scenes and scenes of said bear steamrolling through foes. That and the faint remembrance of their attitude. To put it best, regal violence. They be destructive in a sloppy fashion, but it's taken in strides and pride.

Now he remembers why he still can recall those guys. Good thing to aspire to at least.

'Hmm. Another summoner type of power set.' Charles doesn't even hesitate to add another person to the blitz list. Nobody can stop a good blitz when it comes down to it unless they're vastly stronger at minimum.

"I'm about 90% sure that any comfort we'd want can be either handled without, or one of you can somehow summon something to fix that need regardless." There's a glance to the Gil fellow's goblet of drink, as well as to Jess's suit. It's not hard to see where he's coming from in terms of 'Needs and comforts being a nonissue'.

"Or at the very least not that difficult to handle without when you can't get it."

Charles glances with squinted eyes unsure of what's being referenced but does pipe in his own opinion.

"I'm not 100% sure on what's in either, but I know sci-fi is like science and futuristic civilization stuff, right? Which means we'd be in a place where everything we show off would be seen by everybody, including folks who'd be multiple times more likely to dissect or exploit one of you magic folk for more science. Even a big city ain't good for me to do things freely, so I'd doubt going to a place of 'the future' would be any better than that in my head. Probably worse even. I'd rather stick to fantasy and whatever stuff that comes with."

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Jessica listens to the back and forth for a moment before shaking her head. She also doesn't miss how Marie is distinctly looking away from her now, especially after she exploded into bees for a moment. That's, well, not exactly normal behavior even for Marie. It's cute though, given that she's pretty certain exactly why Marie exploded into bees. But, serious topic. And as much fun as it would be to get Marie to explode into bees again there's stuff to talk about right now.

"Going and materializing a house is a little beyond me, the ability isn't quite that strong. I can make it easier for myself to be in a fantasy setting... But the thing is, what about everyone else? And who's to say we're sticking together through it all?" She shrugs and brings a hand up to idly rub at her chin. "I'd wager, given the nature of this, that we're more likely to compete against each other. So even if there's some of us that can bypass the roughing it part, others will be stick with it anyway. Even the argument with people watching us doesn't really hold much weight either, since gods playing some sort of active part is so common a trope. And if it isn't fantasy gods watching us, it's regular wizards who can potentially end worlds anyway, we'd likely just be swapping one type of surveillance for another."

Her arm falls down and ends up crossed beneath her bust once more before she continues. "But all this is speculative, because certain fantasy settings can easily be harsher than some sci-fi settings. Which means it's all entirely dependent upon where we end up. Some of us could steamroll our way through Lord of the Rings without an issue, but the same can also be said for some of us steamrolling through Cyberpunk 2077's setting. Meanwhile, we'd all suffer heavily in White Wolf's realm of Arcadia, and the same could be said about us suffering in a sci-fi setting like Star Wars. In these examples we win, because the scale is small enough for us to effect change, or we lose, because the setting is too grand for our actions to matter. The details of what we face matter less than the scale we face. Because, again, what happens in sci-fi settings can just as easily happen in a fantasy setting, or vice versa. I'd just rather be comfortable with modern amenities instead of whatever happens in fantasy land."

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"Counterargument: Whatever scale we're going to end up on was already the scale we'd end up on, and we're more likely to have someone who knows any given sufficiently high-powered fantasy setting because there are statistically less, as far as I'd care to speculate. And high fantasy wizard scry and die is less reliable, archetypally, than modern mass surveillance infrastructure. Look at Sauron and how his omniscient eye fucked up. ...Note to self, remember Tayron exists. Wizards are unique units, whereas you can churn out camera factories and train machine learning algorithms by the dozens. If you're citing White Wolf, allow me to point out the fucking bullshit the Technocracy does. Also, Arcadia's a bad example because it is awful by writer fiat to provide traumatic backstory. If we're getting thrown into one of those, on our first jaunt...It just doesn't make sense, narratively. We're dealing with a TV show here. They want something entertaining. Not depressing. And I don't think that these are the sorts of ROBs to give out phenomenal cosmic power and then turn around and be sadistic at us. That's a very specific subset and I have seen it actually expressed precisely once. Once and a half, maybe. And do you want to be running around with an entire city taking shots at you because of corporate bounties, or just one or two wizards we can probably punch in the face? It's not the peak capabilities we should worry about. There's settings with 'Yes' on both sides of that divide. It's averages."

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"I think," Apollo begins with a smirk, "that you're all overthinking this."

Smiling smugly, they continue, "Fantasy and Sci-fi are genres with their tropes, but while the tropes do contain specific storylines, the genres themselves don't have anything specific storylines or setting. What they are, is nothing more than aesthetic. Precedents have been made for fantasy settings having all the amenities of the modern world, and the same goes for sci-fi settings having precedents for having what is basically primitive worlds with few technology in sight. And that's of course assuming we go to a setting that has been told in stories."

Pausing to take a drink from his goblet, they continue, "After all, there is no guarantee that the settings won't be an original creation, where everything is made to maximize our entertainment value."

"So don't worry about it too much! This choice presented to us? Just treat it like what clothes you think would look great at the moment. We have no control over the contents of the setting. Just the aesthetics."

With that final remark, Apollo disappears the goblet and shifts once more, into an incredibly buff man with long-flowing hair and minimal clothing.

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Marie eyes Apollo. "Didn't I just get done saying that? Also, the idea that it's going to be original content is just kind of absurd, precedentially. I mean, I can't rule it out, although - hey, bosslady, would you care to comment?" Marie takes a moment to point a question at Ms. Jordan ( @Atma ), before continuing, "- although, the amount of work it would be to just dredge up an entirely new setting from a narrative design perspective just makes it really not worth it in most cases, save as and where you are concerned about copyright. As we are clearly not giving a shit about that, I'm expecting to get dumped in existing settings, out of sheer parsimony."

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"Well more like Wi-fi to the place you call home, but if you desire to spend time between places in company of your fellows to compare notes or ideas, then you may do so."



"Once you all get to know me better I can assure you that, I couldn't care less about copyright. So, yes you may very well take part in a world you or may not know about, but there's also a great likelihood that you'll end up in a place you have no knowledge of."

Mallory then claps her hands and addresses everyone, "Have I missed anyone in this excited and have we decided then, where you would like to begin?"

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"Might I suggest some place such as Thedas? Don't know why I have Dragon Age on the brain, but nonetheless, I do. Maybe I could make use of the demons they have there."

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Jordan steeples her fingers before continuing. "It does seem to me that there is more of push towards the realms of fantasy as opposed to science fiction, but I'd rather have clarification on the matter before making that decision."



"Mayhaps and maybe are not guaranteed, but I will take it under consideration for you all do not worry."

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"Not everyone has expressed their preferences, so a majority of the vote seems to presently be 'abstain', but I think more of us want fantasy than sci-fi. ...Anyone have pen and paper? We should probably do an actual vote, now that the issue's been argued half to death."

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It's… quite the discussion, debating the pros, cons, and assumptions of either genre, each with valid points. It's also amusing that the resident shapeshifter here opts to first look like the King of Heroes, and now, that evolved bonebending Pillar Man.

"Hm… considering everything, I happen to be more into science fiction myself, technology, engineering and all, so I'll follow my aesthetic preference and vote for that," I decide.