When demon kings roam the earth once more, a decision is made: to recruit five teenagers with DESTINY and see this evil vanquished before the Earth is destroyed!
Since the deadline is already coming up and most (read: Not the Yellow Ranger) of the categories have clear winners, I'm going to be shortening the voting period to 8:00 PM PST tonight. So, in about 6 hours from now. I have the next update for the most part ready to be posted once that deadline is reached. In the meantime, if there IS a change in votes, well at least I won't have to rewrite very much for it.
Alright, we have our results... kind of. We have a Tie for the Yellow Ranger (Street Kid and Military Brat), so I'm going to use my QM authority to choose the winner. We have 3 Physicals and 1 Mental focused character already, so I'm picking Street Kid to get a social specialist on the squad.
So, for our ranger team, we have:
Yellow Ranger - Street Kid (Social+, Physical-)
Blue Ranger - Poetry Club President (Mental+, Social -)
Red Ranger - Sports Team Captain (Physical+, Mental-)
Green Ranger - Supernatural Relation (Physical+, Social-)
Violet Ranger - Teen Parent (Physical+, Social-)
I'll post the next update within the hour since it's not very long on my end, but first, I need to do some rolls. Admittedly, I've already rolled for this mysterious thing, but not in thread, so I figured that doing so here would be more honest. If it's bad enough, I'll just replace it with what I have already. You'll see in Update 3 what these are for.
Scheduled vote count started by Critian Caceorte on Dec 8, 2024 at 1:34 AM, finished with 33 posts and 11 votes.
We seem to have a clear majority for this vote, and I'm almost finished writing up the next update, so I'm going to be moving up the vote deadline for 9 PM PST, tonight. A bit more than 12 hours from now. We'll see how things go from there.
Alright, closing the vote now. @DragonParadox 's plan is the winner, and we'll proceed from there in Seattle! I do have the next update written up, but first, another mystery roll. Like the one I did for the previous vote announcement, this is actually a hidden roll I did off-thread, but in order to be fair I'll do it again here. If it's too bad, I'll use my original roll instead. As for that first roll, well, you're going to be seeing it here.
Scheduled vote count started by Critian Caceorte on Dec 11, 2024 at 11:18 PM, finished with 25 posts and 11 votes.
[X] Go Go Power Exalts
-[X][City] Seattle, Washington
-[X] Blue Seth Anderson
-[X] Male
-[X] Seth was born to a family in decline, once they might have been considered part of the city's old money, but now they are rather more 'old' than 'money', his father obsessed with the kind of get rich quick schemes that were amusing when Seth was a wide eyed kid and just worrying now. His mother meanwhile encourages him to get a good education in law like his paternal grandfather (deceased) and vaguely tolerates his interest in poetry as 'a good hobby to attract the right sort'
-[X] High powered civil rights lawyer, even in the World of Darkness some people try to use the law to protect others
-[X] H. G. Lovelace: Yes, he is aware of the racism, yes and the sexism, yes he still likes it, cosmic horror is cool, not to mention he has a certain affinity to the young Lovelace who was born under similar circumstances of faded fortunes as himself
[X][Green] Jiu Lee
-[X] Female
-[X] The daughter of first generation Korean immigrants Jiu has always felt trapped between two worlds, though she sometimes jokes about parental expectations in truth she struggles more with a pervasive feeling that the world is fake, a facade over some hidden rot, that every smiling face hides some dark secret or unspoken shame. When her best friend Sofia vanished two years ago people just seemed to forget about her with terrifying speed, they told Jiu 'don't bring up bad memories', 'they are just processing', but it didn't look to her like they were processing at all... it looked like they were scared.
-[X] Supernatural detective, though she would not have lived long in this line of work it would have been long enough to unveil some trully terrifying secrets of the Powers that Be, vampiric and otherwise
-[X] Sofia Rossellini wasn't dead... well she was, but she wasn't gone, she was a vampire now or Kindred, she had been selected to serve the patron of her family in a more 'exalted' position, that's right patron. Her family have vampire blood in them, something called 'revenants' of 'Clan Giovanni'. You would think awakening to phenomenal cosamic power and a supernatural mentor in a crystal would come with answers, but he doesn't know what any of those names mean either. Fine, fine, she'll find the truth herself.
[X][Red] Alex Green
-[X] Male
-[X] The son of blue collar parents who love both him and his siblings dearely but have little time to spend with their family due to late hours and heavy debts Alex is outgoing with teens his own age, but shy in any sort of official setting like class
-[X] Olimpic Fencer
-[X] Feencing
[X][Violet] Amanda Hawkins
-[X] Female
-[X] Adopted at a young age her parents never hid the fact from her, though she has never felt less loved for it she does wonder who her birth parents are
-[X] A brilliant career in medicine crowned with the cloneing of the first artificial organs
-[X] Amanda was not, as people insisted over and over again, the kind of person one would expect to be a teenage mother. A band kid with few friends and not a whsiper of a boyfriend until last year she fell hard for the captain of the fencing team and for a while things seemed to go swimingly. Until things went a little too well... Her decision to keep the baby was that ended the relationship as her boyfriend told her in no uncertain terms that he wasn't ready to be a father and she certainly wasn't ready to be a mother. Privately Amanda worried that she might be right, though at least her parents support her
[X][Yellow] Tommy
-[X] Non-Binary
-[X] Tommy vaguely remebers their parents getting shot, or what might have been their parents, there was a lot of blood. Being dropped into the foster-care system at four years old taught them what people expected to hear and so they said the words over and over, different for each person. They got called a liar... then a theif... then they just decided it was better to leave than stick around for 'the consequences' which invariably had more to do with their foster parents issues than anything they had done
-[X] Crime Boss, turns out when you are good with people and just a little lucky you can go quite far
-[X] Slick, when she stummbled into the middle of a drug deal (or really the drug deal stumbled over his corner of abandoned tunnels) he managed to convince the very twitchy gang members to not just refrain from shooting them but to pass them a 100 dollar bill from their newly exchanged rolls of money
[X] Plan: Dansborough Irregulars
-[X][City] Dansborough, Indiana
-[X][Blue] Daphne Jones
--[X] Female
--[X] Daphne wants to be a writer, more than that she wants to inspire others to write, seeing it as the ultimate expression of self and one of the best forms of creation.
--[X] She would go on to write a Pretty Decent Book of poetry that would be sold to schools all over the country. It wouldn't be the outreach she would've wanted to have but she's glad that at the very least her works are reaching students.
--[X] J.T. Smith: the Author of her favorite set of books as a child the Records of Nostella, even if in hindsight the Lion Jesus was a bit out there.
-[X][Green] Antony Smith
--[X] Male
--[X] Antony grew up in a pretty normal household by his own standards, a hard working dad who tries his best to be there a strict mom who pushes him to be the best he can be and a Little Brother who he cherishes despite being a brat. Despite that, or maybe even because of it Antony has always had this...sensation for the weird and wild, Something that has been compared to his Uncle's own eye for it.
--[X] He would've been a well known Environmental Chemist, at least in the circles that are known to saving the Environment with his eye for oddness and his ways to try and help restore equilibrium. He would do this as an Extraordinary Citizen.
--[X] Antony has an Uncle who one would call a respectable Engineer with Big dreams and bigger expectations of how technology should work. He's supposedly working with the government to help advance the space race and humanity's reach into the stars. In reality and only know to Antony, His Uncle Nick is a Mage or as he prefers to be called an Enlightened Scientist. One of the Void Engineers of the technocracy tasked with shoring up the defenses of Dansborough to prevent VERY hostile and alarmingly alien presence from doing much damage. The only reason Antony even knows half of this, that Nick is an Enlightened Scientist and his job is called Void Engineers, is because his Uncle thinks he would make a good Extraordinary Citizen planning on slowly inducting him into the world of Sorcery whenever he's around.
-[X][Red] Howard Atlas
--[X] Howard Atlas was an orphan, who was adopted by a loving if a bit absent Mother. Finding that the only way for him to have the attention he wants to have actually Stick with him he had to find something that would well naturally draw people's attention. And he Found it and Enjoyment in being the Star of his school's Soccer Team.
--[X] He would've actually been able to go pro and make it to the big leagues. Not the best of the best by far, but definitely in better than rest tier, and besides when people would remember him his personality would speak louder than Skills.
--[X] Soccer
-[X][Violet] Jenny McAlister
-[X] Female
-[X] To be honest for most of her life Jenny has just been a face in the crowd, a nobody in a horde of nobodies, sure she had a bit of talent for music but she doubted it would lead anywhere. Up until she met her boyfriend. Markus Kent or just Mark, is without a doubt a believer, someone who is passionate about life and wants to spread this passion to Jenny as well. and he did! maybe a bit too well...leading up to this situation. Well at least he and her parents are helping her out with this.
-[X] Her child would be her muse to write her own songs, feeling emotions that could only be expressed through song at least for her. This would lead to her becoming a musician of prestige.
-[X] Mark Kent, he's there, he's struggling with being a father and his own studies, but he's doing his best to be the man Jenny needs right dad and the Dad the child needs as well.
-[X][Yellow] Tommy
--[X] Non-Binary
--[X] Tommy vaguely remebers their parents getting shot, or what might have been their parents, there was a lot of blood. Being dropped into the foster-care system at four years old taught them what people expected to hear and so they said the words over and over, different for each person. They got called a liar... then a theif... then they just decided it was better to leave than stick around for 'the consequences' which invariably had more to do with their foster parents issues than anything they had done
--[X] Crime Boss, turns out when you are good with people and just a little lucky you can go quite far
--[X] Slick, when she stummbled into the middle of a drug deal (or really the drug deal stumbled over his corner of abandoned tunnels) he managed to convince the very twitchy gang members to not just refrain from shooting them but to pass them a 100 dollar bill from their newly exchanged rolls of money
Normally I'd only close the vote early if I have something ready to post and there's a clear majority, but unfortunately the past few days IRL have been a bit distracting for writing, which I won't get into for personal reasons, and I won't be around at 4 to close it then (yes, I know the system automatically does it for you at the end time, I just like doing it myself). I mean, I could preview what you've gained from the vote, but regardless the next update won't be coming out today. Hopefully tomorrow since I'm free then.
Scheduled vote count started by Critian Caceorte on Dec 15, 2024 at 12:14 AM, finished with 20 posts and 6 votes.
[X][Situation] An outpouring of smog-Banes from an old factory outside of the city's center, heading towards the populated suburbs. They must be fought, but can they even be killed by such an inexperienced team?
[X][Situation] A turf war between Vampires, as Kindred and Hungry Dead fought openly for dominance of the coastlines. The violence can be stopped here, either through diplomacy or overwhelming dominance, but it will be difficult.
Alright, I am finally (sorta) free from some of my obligations this holiday season, so I was able to get started on writing again. With how much of a lead that Jiu has over the rest of the rangers for POV (with only 1 vote for Tommy's POV, so sad), I feel comfortable locking her in for the quest's leader.
Speaking of which, 'Jiu.' @DragonParadox , I'm unsure just why you chose that name in particular, but it's a lot more appropriate for Exalted than I realized when I started researching what it meant. Namely that it's quite a rare name to have, and that one of it's typical translations, when written out in Chinese characters is '志宇' or "The Will of the Universe."
Granted, that's just one possible interpretation, a more common spelling would be '芝雨' or "Rain of Sesame Seeds", but it's still Sidereal-coded as hell.
Anyway, the next update has nothing to do with the plan vote, and since we have a fairly close match between our competing plans, I'm leaving the vote for it open while I get a handle on Jiu's dialogue style. With luck, I'll have it ready for Christmas.
EDIT: Never mind, inspiration has struck, and it's done now. Woo!
Well, it's midnight at the start of Christmas Eve for me, and I'm wide awake, so... I guess I could close the vote early then.
Jiu Lee was of course locked in as the winner, but congrats to Plan Vampire ZORD Hyper Beam, it's going to be interesting giving the squad access to disease warfare.
I'll get the chapter out in a few minutes, just need to make sure everything copies over correctly. For this first POV chapter, I'm starting with a 1st person viewpoint to try something new, since I don't often do that for my stories.
Scheduled vote count started by Critian Caceorte on Dec 18, 2024 at 1:11 AM, finished with 20 posts and 8 votes.
[X] Plan: Vampire ZORD Hyper Beam
-[X][Damage] The Machine gave its all to protect a Dragon-Blooded clan from a most ancient Vampire.
-[X][Z.O.R.D.] the Zero Obstacles Revolutionary Deity (Starmetal Battlezord)
-[X][Style] The Citrine Poxes (of Contagion)
--[X] Mastery
-[X][Style] The Prismatic Arrangement (of Creation)
-[X][Style] The Emerald Gyre (of Aeons)
--[X] Partial Mastery
-[X][Style] The Charcoal March (of Spiders)
[X] Plan Vampire ZORD Duck-Puncher
-[X][Damage] The Machine gave its all to protect a Dragon-Blooded clan from a most ancient Vampire.
-[X][Z.O.R.D.] the Zero Obstacles Revolutionary Deity (Starmetal Battlezord)
-[X][Style] The Kaleidoscopic Border (of Logic)
--[X] Mastery
-[X][Style] The Prismatic Arrangement (of Creation)
--[X] Partial Mastery
-[X][Style] The Emerald Gyre (of Aeons)
-[X][Style] The Charcoal March (of Spiders)
[X] Plan: Vampire MEGAZORD Hyper Beam
-[X][Damage] The Machine gave its all to protect a Dragon-Blooded clan from a most ancient Vampire.
-[X][Z.O.R.D.] the Zealous Orthodox Revolution-Drones (Five Jade Megazord)
-[X][Style] The Citrine Poxes (of Contagion)
--[X] Mastery
-[X][Style] The Prismatic Arrangement (of Creation)
-[X][Style] The Emerald Gyre (of Aeons)
--[X] Partial Mastery
-[X][Style] The Charcoal March (of Spiders)
[X] Plan Dream ZORD Duck-Puncher
-[X][Damage] The Machine fought off the Raksha, as it did in times of old.
-[X][Z.O.R.D.] the Zero Obstacles Revolutionary Deity (Starmetal Battlezord)
-[X][Style] The Kaleidoscopic Border (of Logic)
--[X] Mastery
-[X][Style] The Prismatic Arrangement (of Creation)
--[X] Partial Mastery
-[X][Style] The Emerald Gyre (of Aeons)
-[X][Style] The Charcoal March (of Spiders)
Alright, with no changes in our vote leader, I think its time to close the vote early. I have the next update up and ready, and we'll be moving for this segment into short voting periods as we go on a turn-by-turn basis for this infiltration segment.
So yes, enjoy Jiu and Tommy's interactions in the future, though it might take some time for me to get into the swing of things for Tommy's voice.
Scheduled vote count started by Critian Caceorte on Dec 24, 2024 at 3:27 AM, finished with 23 posts and 6 votes.
[X] Plan Growth Potential
-[X] Just using my name as-is.
-[X] Made a considerable fortune he couldn't achieve back in his homeland (The Lee Family is Filthy Rich)
-[X] Dressing dark and moodily, like that "emo" thing that's becoming popular (Clothing)
-[X] Maria Giovanni, Padrona of the West Coast United States (6th Gen)
-[X] Getting lectured by her sire on her mistakes (Practical Weakness)
-[X] A man stomping and shouting (Obsidian Shards of Infinity Style)
-[X][First] Tommy, the Smiling Street Kid
-[X][Last] Seth, who is useless in a fight
[X]Plan Just the things I like:
-[X] Just using my name as-is.
-[X] Made a decent living for himself and numerous connections (The Lee Family is Well-Connected)
-[X] Getting a few piercings in different places (Piercings)
-[X] Looking at her hands in confusion (Disciplinary Weakness)
-[X] Capo Surem of the Pisanob (8th Gen)
-[X] A man stomping and shouting (Obsidian Shards of Infinity Style)
-[X][First] Amanda, the Empathetic New Parent
-[X][Last] Alex, who is dumb as a rock
Scheduled vote count started by Critian Caceorte on Dec 29, 2024 at 10:24 PM, finished with 6 posts and 3 votes.
[X] Plan Vents and Vibes
-[X][Prep] Check the… vibes of the place (Difficulty 6, 5 (J)/1 (T) dice to analyze, will give a clue regarding the supernatural here)
--[X] Jiu (-1 Prep)
-[X][Prep] Look for Vents (Difficulty 6, 3 (J)/2 (T) dice to spot, opens up entry options)
--[X] Tommy (-1 Prep)
--[X] Vents: Spend Willpower
Alright with that result locked in place, it's time to do some rolls! As a reminder, Tommy will have 1 Success for their Looking for Vents option no matter what, and neither character at this time has an applicable Specialty due to the temporary dot decreases. Same thing with Caste Abilities.
Starting out with Jiu's roll. Perception 3 + Awareness 2 = 5 dice against Difficulty 6. So any results of 6 or above count as successes.
Result: 3 successes, since there's no Specialty. That's enough to get a solid read of the place from vibes alone, though obviously she won't be aware of the exact spookiness going on here. She will be aware that no vampires are in there though.
Next is Tommy's roll to find the vents. Perception 1 + Alertness 1 = 2 dice against Difficulty 6, with +1 success on top of it.
Result: 2 successes - 1 from the 1 = 1 success. Tommy finds some available vents, but the only ones they find are in bright and visible areas, so they'll need to do some stealth rolls to sneak in. I'll just roll for that now: Dexterity 2 + Stealth 2 = 4 dice against Difficulty 6.
Result part 2: 2 successes, they get to the vents, though faint footprints from their shoes can be seen when up-close. Hopefully that won't lead to anything in the future.
Finally, Tommy will roll to enter the vents. Perception 1 + Athletics 1 = 2 dice against Difficulty 5.
Result: 1 success, Tommy gets in, albeit in a clattering matter. The guard outside doesn't hear it, and I'll do a mystery roll out-of-thread to see if anyone else inside does.
So yeah, overall a success albeit with some expected complications, since after all we're dealing with inexperienced teens here. I'll get started on writing up part 2 as soon as I can.
Alright, I'm closing the vote with a few minutes to spare because of both the holiday and because we only have 1 winning plan. So, let's do some rolls!
Scheduled vote count started by Critian Caceorte on Dec 31, 2024 at 12:31 AM, finished with 5 posts and 3 votes.
[X] Breathe Free
-[X][Duration] They'll do a little exploring on their way out (Tommy will gain 1 free Explore Action. They will suffer from a -1 penalty to all actions afterwards due to short-term deprivation.)
-[X][Explore] Look for Accessible Windows (Difficulty 4, 4 dice to find Windows, if opened will reduce smog's effects at the cost of ???)
First, I'll be rolling for Finding the Windows. Since Tommy is currently in a factory, and I'd say that urban enough for their (future) specialty to apply, I'm allowing them to use it instead of Alertness. Difficulty 4, Perception 1 + Survival 3 = 4 dice. Let's see what happens!
Results: 3 - 1 = 2 successes. Tommy finds the windows, and the windows are easy enough to access, but they do get a sense that something's off about them. This will open up a sub-vote in the next update for whether you really want to open up the windows, because there will be a cost involved. Hence the ??? part.
Next is the stealth roll for the windows. If you're wondering why it's Difficulty 5 instead of 4 this time, it's because the guard's already a bit more alert than usual. Dexterity 2 + Stealth 2 = 4 dice.
Result: 3 successes, the guard has no clue about Tommy being by the windows, nor that the windows are opened (if you choose to do that.)
After that is finding the exit door. Difficulty 6, 4 dice to navigate, let's go.
Results: 2 - 1 = 1 success, Tommy finds the door though apparently there's a decent alarm system hooked up to it. They can definitely open it, it will just the guards in and out now that someone's left since they have keys that would disable it. So either Tommy just goes through the door, tries to pilfer the key from the inside guard to get out, or opens the windows and leaps out.
Finally, the 2nd stealth roll for this sub-turn, same as the previous.
Result: 3 - 1 = 2 successes. Tommy is still undetected by the guard, though they inadvertently left more muddy/sooty footprints, increasing the Difficulty if they remain inside to 6.
