SELF-INTRODUCTION!
So, I've been planning to read through this quest ever since I saw the banner ad a while back. I finally got around to doing so, and promptly got hooked.
This should be interesting. I've participated in and run suggestion games on Bay12, so I'm familiar with the concept of a "quest," but the culture and expectations here are...different. Hopefully it won't be too hard to adjust, but I still feel like I should pre-emptively apologize for any faux pas I commit from ignorance. For instance, ignorance of if we're still voting or how that works.
[X][Theme] Write-In: Wartime Dramedy. A slice-of-life drama set in a warzone, inspired more than a little by that dream Silas had. Stars a squad of soldiers (including a perky medic, a snarky second-in-command, new meat who's terrified of this new situation, etc) going through the trials and tribulations of everyday life on the front lines, punctuated by artillery and the occasional burst of combat.
[X][CW1] "I mean...I guess...?"
[X][CW2] Mikado
[X][War] "War! WAAAR! War is the only honorable discourse!"
[X][BS] Yes.
[X][BS2] Don't overclock. As much as it pains her, Big Sister may need to start withdrawing considerable oversight over Silas if she wants to maintain her obligations to him.
I chose the theme for Doylist reasons more than anything. The dream that had weird parallels with the next day seems like an interesting aspect which hasn't been touched on since, and I'd like to give Luci an excuse reason to work more with that. Because there apparently isn't enough perfectly normal stuff in this story already...
It would be interesting if Silas wound up writing the story from his dream, so I'm going to vote for him to nominate himself (or at least not protest to Yumika and Kuroda nominating him). As for my suggestion for his vote...Mikado Yoshi is the only Drama Club member who hasn't made an impression on me (I regularly forgot he existed, despite reading the entire quest in a reasonably short span of time). His only defining trait is his luck. As for Watsonian reasoning, Shinoharo's tastes and Rakuyama's... dependency seem like reasons for Silas to not vote for them, while Mikado has experience. It's Silas's first play, he would want as few things to go wrong as possible.
The War vote is...odd. It's not a choice being made by any one member of the group, so it's hard to think about it from a Watsonian perspective. A club war could be endlessly entertaining, but I don't want Yumika to be tied up and declaring (proxy) war on the Student Council seems...unwise. A chance to learn more about Mikado and the Student Council is tempting, but in the end I decide I'm leaning more towards the general shenanigans of the last option.
Overclocking is an interesting option...but I don't think Silas is quite ready for that kind of interesting event. Let's get him ready, shall we? This should be interesting...
I'm conflicted about whether or not Big Sister should tell Silas, but I like going with the "Big Sister trying to help Silas become independent" angle.
Hopefully, I haven't screwed up too badly...by the way, what were you talking about before I came into the thread?
SELF-INTRODUCTION!
So, I've been planning to read through this quest ever since I saw the banner ad a while back. I finally got around to doing so, and promptly got hooked.
This should be interesting. I've participated in and run suggestion games on Bay12, so I'm familiar with the concept of a "quest," but the culture and expectations here are...different. Hopefully it won't be too hard to adjust, but I still feel like I should pre-emptively apologize for any faux pas I commit from ignorance. For instance, ignorance of if we're still voting or how that works.
[Theme] Write-In: Wartime Dramedy. A slice-of-life drama set in a warzone, inspired more than a little by that dream Silas had. Stars a squad of soldiers (including a perky medic, a snarky second-in-command, new meat who's terrified of this new situation, etc) going through the trials and tribulations of everyday life on the front lines, punctuated by artillery and the occasional burst of combat.
[CW1] "I mean...I guess...?"
[CW2] Mikado
[War] "War! WAAAR! War is the only honorable discourse!"
[BS] Yes.
[BS2] Don't overclock. As much as it pains her, Big Sister may need to start withdrawing considerable oversight over Silas if she wants to maintain her obligations to him.
I chose the theme for Doylist reasons more than anything. The dream that had weird parallels with the next day seems like an interesting aspect which hasn't been touched on since, and I'd like to give Luci an excuse reason to work more with that. Because there apparently isn't enough perfectly normal stuff in this story already...
It would be interesting if Silas wound up writing the story from his dream, so I'm going to vote for him to nominate himself (or at least not protest to Yumika and Kuroda nominating him). As for my suggestion for his vote...Mikado Yoshi is the only Drama Club member who hasn't made an impression on me (I regularly forgot he existed, despite reading the entire quest in a reasonably short span of time). His only defining trait is his luck. As for Watsonian reasoning, Shinoharo's tastes and Rakuyama's... dependency seem like reasons for Silas to not vote for them, while Mikado has experience. It's Silas's first play, he would want as few things to go wrong as possible.
The War vote is...odd. It's not a choice being made by any one member of the group, so it's hard to think about it from a Watsonian perspective. A club war could be endlessly entertaining, but I don't want Yumika to be tied up and declaring (proxy) war on the Student Council seems...unwise. A chance to learn more about Mikado and the Student Council is tempting, but in the end I decide I'm leaning more towards the general shenanigans of the last option.
Overclocking is an interesting option...but I don't think Silas is quite ready for that kind of interesting event. Let's get him ready, shall we? This should be interesting...
I'm conflicted about whether or not Big Sister should tell Silas, but I like going with the "Big Sister trying to help Silas become independent" angle.
Hopefully, I haven't screwed up too badly...by the way, what were you talking about before I came into the thread?
SELF-INTRODUCTION!
So, I've been planning to read through this quest ever since I saw the banner ad a while back. I finally got around to doing so, and promptly got hooked.
This should be interesting. I've participated in and run suggestion games on Bay12, so I'm familiar with the concept of a "quest," but the culture and expectations here are...different. Hopefully it won't be too hard to adjust, but I still feel like I should pre-emptively apologize for any faux pas I commit from ignorance. For instance, ignorance of if we're still voting or how that works.
[Theme] Write-In: Wartime Dramedy. A slice-of-life drama set in a warzone, inspired more than a little by that dream Silas had. Stars a squad of soldiers (including a perky medic, a snarky second-in-command, new meat who's terrified of this new situation, etc) going through the trials and tribulations of everyday life on the front lines, punctuated by artillery and the occasional burst of combat.
[CW1] "I mean...I guess...?"
[CW2] Mikado
[War] "War! WAAAR! War is the only honorable discourse!"
[BS] Yes.
[BS2] Don't overclock. As much as it pains her, Big Sister may need to start withdrawing considerable oversight over Silas if she wants to maintain her obligations to him.
I chose the theme for Doylist reasons more than anything. The dream that had weird parallels with the next day seems like an interesting aspect which hasn't been touched on since, and I'd like to give Luci an excuse reason to work more with that. Because there apparently isn't enough perfectly normal stuff in this story already...
It would be interesting if Silas wound up writing the story from his dream, so I'm going to vote for him to nominate himself (or at least not protest to Yumika and Kuroda nominating him). As for my suggestion for his vote...Mikado Yoshi is the only Drama Club member who hasn't made an impression on me (I regularly forgot he existed, despite reading the entire quest in a reasonably short span of time). His only defining trait is his luck. As for Watsonian reasoning, Shinoharo's tastes and Rakuyama's... dependency seem like reasons for Silas to not vote for them, while Mikado has experience. It's Silas's first play, he would want as few things to go wrong as possible.
The War vote is...odd. It's not a choice being made by any one member of the group, so it's hard to think about it from a Watsonian perspective. A club war could be endlessly entertaining, but I don't want Yumika to be tied up and declaring (proxy) war on the Student Council seems...unwise. A chance to learn more about Mikado and the Student Council is tempting, but in the end I decide I'm leaning more towards the general shenanigans of the last option.
Overclocking is an interesting option...but I don't think Silas is quite ready for that kind of interesting event. Let's get him ready, shall we? This should be interesting...
I'm conflicted about whether or not Big Sister should tell Silas, but I like going with the "Big Sister trying to help Silas become independent" angle.
Hopefully, I haven't screwed up too badly...by the way, what were you talking about before I came into the thread?
Not entirely sure but I think it marks new lines of text that begin with [X] or [x] as votes and simply counts them between two threadmarks. it then divides these votes based on the words that come after the [X] so votes can have the same meaning but still come up as different. Afterwards its just manual counting from inside the vote tally. Here's the tally from the previous vote:
Adhoc vote count started by LuciDreamer on Jun 15, 2018 at 11:37 PM, finished with 710 posts and 13 votes.
[X] [Theme] Write-in: Strange Friends. A young girl becomes lost in a world of dreams, full of strange and alien creatures. One group of creatures call themselves the "Dream-Eaters", and normally feed on human nightmares. Strangely though, one Dream-Eater starts to form a friendship with the girl, and together they begin to hatch a plan that will allow them to escape from the strange landscape she's trapped in. Along the way, they learn about what it means to be friends.
[X] [War] "Wait… what?" Rakuyama asks, looking very, very, confused. "Err… Harima-kun, are you alright? I think you should go home… Err… actually! No, that would be, like, mean, or something… Let's just… ignore him for now?" (Nothing happens)
[X] [BS] No. Silas deserves some measure of separation from Big Sister's skullduggery. He's just a schoolboy, after all. And Big Sister would be good to remember the old adage about Ignorance...
[X] [BS2] Don't overclock. As much as it pains her, Big Sister may need to start withdrawing considerable oversight over Silas if she wants to maintain her obligations to him. (Big Sister may find one document next weekend, and the global economy is safe, but Big Sister will not be present for Silas next week. Silas may not like this.)
[X] [Theme] (Personality: Otako) Idol Magical Girl Reconstruction. Going against the recent trend of deconstructing popular anime tropes, while at the same time recognizing the faults that the deconstructions parodied and coming to terms with them. A magical girl who is also high-school student who is also an idol for a pop group team rises to fight off some sort of world-eating eldritch monstrosity using magic powers based off of various musical instruments, juggling both her responsibilities as a magical girl and her responsibilities to her friends and her social life. It'll be nice and fluffy! (Silas does not know who will like this idea.)
[X] [Theme] Write-in: Mundane Monster High School Romantic Dramedy. An ordinary high school boy transfers into a brand new school, where he finds that all of the other students aren't human. Frightened at first, he soon finds that even if they're monsters, they're just as human as he is.
[X] [Theme] Write-in: (Personality: Otaku + Traits: Loner, Sensitive) Loneliness and Friendship. Very similar to the two Dramedy options, further elements (school, supernatural elements, romance, etc.) negotiable. Featuring a cast of characters with various personal issues that isolate them and/or make them unhappy, and how by getting to know, accepting, and helping each other and becoming friends, they can overcome them and gain happiness. Gets fairly dark at times, but ultimately has a happy ending.
[X] [Theme] (Personality: Otako + Trait: Sensitive) High School Romantic Dramedy. Same as above, but in a high school! This combination will almost universally appeal to Silas's fellow classmates, because teenage heartache, crushes, friend-zoning, and relationships are something almost everyone has had a brush with. Then again, high school romance is the kind of ubiquitous topic that has been used again and again in popular media… could they really make something interesting enough to stand out? (Silas thinks everyone would like the idea, though whether or not they find it impressive is a different story.)
[X] [Theme] Write-in: Strange Friends. A young girl becomes lost in a world of dreams, full of strange and alien creatures. One group of creatures call themselves the "Dream-Eaters", and normally feed on human nightmares. Strangely though, one Dream-Eater starts to form a friendship with the girl, and together they begin to hatch a plan that will allow them to escape from the strange landscape she's trapped in. Along the way, they learn about what it means to be friends.
[X] [Theme] (Personality: Otako) Idol Magical Girl Reconstruction. Going against the recent trend of deconstructing popular anime tropes, while at the same time recognizing the faults that the deconstructions parodied and coming to terms with them. A magical girl who is also high-school student who is also an idol for a pop group team rises to fight off some sort of world-eating eldritch monstrosity using magic powers based off of various musical instruments, juggling both her responsibilities as a magical girl and her responsibilities to her friends and her social life. It'll be nice and fluffy! (Silas does not know who will like this idea.)
[X] [Theme] Write-in: Mundane Monster High School Romantic Dramedy. An ordinary high school boy transfers into a brand new school, where he finds that all of the other students aren't human. Frightened at first, he soon finds that even if they're monsters, they're just as human as he is.
[X] [Theme] Write-in: (Personality: Otaku + Traits: Loner, Sensitive) Loneliness and Friendship. Very similar to the two Dramedy options, further elements (school, supernatural elements, romance, etc.) negotiable. Featuring a cast of characters with various personal issues that isolate them and/or make them unhappy, and how by getting to know, accepting, and helping each other and becoming friends, they can overcome them and gain happiness. Gets fairly dark at times, but ultimately has a happy ending.
[X] [Theme] (Personality: Otako + Trait: Sensitive) High School Romantic Dramedy. Same as above, but in a high school! This combination will almost universally appeal to Silas's fellow classmates, because teenage heartache, crushes, friend-zoning, and relationships are something almost everyone has had a brush with. Then again, high school romance is the kind of ubiquitous topic that has been used again and again in popular media… could they really make something interesting enough to stand out? (Silas thinks everyone would like the idea, though whether or not they find it impressive is a different story.)
[x] [War] "I know a couple people in the Student Council. I could ask them to help out…" Mikado glances out the window, twiddling his thumbs not-suspiciously. "A-Also, I've been wanting to take to Kirino-chan recently… E-Err… you know. It would help. Having an excuse." (Drama declares a "proxy war" on the Student Council, with Mikado as their belligerent.)
[X] [BS] Yes. Whatever the Student Council is, they represent a threat, and if Silas knows he has a way to get at them, he'll have a way to sabotage them in small ways that Big Sister could never do.
[X] [BS2] Don't overclock. Focus on Silas and the global economy; the information that can be gouged from the database is surely exhausted by now. (No documents will be found next weekend, but Silas is safe and the idiots that run the world economy remain safe for another week.)
[x] [BS2] Don't overclock. Focus on the database and on Silas, but neglect close oversight of the global economy. The markets will sort it out, probably. (Big Sister has plausible deniability anyway; if the world burns, it won't be her fault.)
[X] [BS2] Don't overclock. Focus on Silas and the global economy; the information that can be gouged from the database is surely exhausted by now. (No documents will be found next weekend, but Silas is safe and the idiots that run the world economy remain safe for another week.)
[x] [BS2] Don't overclock. Focus on the database and on Silas, but neglect close oversight of the global economy. The markets will sort it out, probably. (Big Sister has plausible deniability anyway; if the world burns, it won't be her fault.)
SELF-INTRODUCTION!
So, I've been planning to read through this quest ever since I saw the banner ad a while back. I finally got around to doing so, and promptly got hooked.
This should be interesting. I've participated in and run suggestion games on Bay12, so I'm familiar with the concept of a "quest," but the culture and expectations here are...different. Hopefully it won't be too hard to adjust, but I still feel like I should pre-emptively apologize for any faux pas I commit from ignorance. For instance, ignorance of if we're still voting or how that works.
[X][Theme] Write-In: Wartime Dramedy. A slice-of-life drama set in a warzone, inspired more than a little by that dream Silas had. Stars a squad of soldiers (including a perky medic, a snarky second-in-command, new meat who's terrified of this new situation, etc) going through the trials and tribulations of everyday life on the front lines, punctuated by artillery and the occasional burst of combat.
[X][CW1] "I mean...I guess...?"
[X][CW2] Mikado
[X][War] "War! WAAAR! War is the only honorable discourse!"
[X][BS] Yes.
[X][BS2] Don't overclock. As much as it pains her, Big Sister may need to start withdrawing considerable oversight over Silas if she wants to maintain her obligations to him.
I chose the theme for Doylist reasons more than anything. The dream that had weird parallels with the next day seems like an interesting aspect which hasn't been touched on since, and I'd like to give Luci an excuse reason to work more with that. Because there apparently isn't enough perfectly normal stuff in this story already...
It would be interesting if Silas wound up writing the story from his dream, so I'm going to vote for him to nominate himself (or at least not protest to Yumika and Kuroda nominating him). As for my suggestion for his vote...Mikado Yoshi is the only Drama Club member who hasn't made an impression on me (I regularly forgot he existed, despite reading the entire quest in a reasonably short span of time). His only defining trait is his luck. As for Watsonian reasoning, Shinoharo's tastes and Rakuyama's... dependency seem like reasons for Silas to not vote for them, while Mikado has experience. It's Silas's first play, he would want as few things to go wrong as possible.
The War vote is...odd. It's not a choice being made by any one member of the group, so it's hard to think about it from a Watsonian perspective. A club war could be endlessly entertaining, but I don't want Yumika to be tied up and declaring (proxy) war on the Student Council seems...unwise. A chance to learn more about Mikado and the Student Council is tempting, but in the end I decide I'm leaning more towards the general shenanigans of the last option.
Overclocking is an interesting option...but I don't think Silas is quite ready for that kind of interesting event. Let's get him ready, shall we? This should be interesting...
I'm conflicted about whether or not Big Sister should tell Silas, but I like going with the "Big Sister trying to help Silas become independent" angle.
Hopefully, I haven't screwed up too badly...by the way, what were you talking about before I came into the thread?
Sup, GWG. AFAIK, the autotally simply pulls the latest "vote" from each user in the thread, with "Vote" being regarded as "a string beginning with [ X] and ending with a line break", puts identical strings together, and tallies which one is repeated most. Voting for [ X] {user} will just pass your vote along to that user too, so people usually do that to bandwagon on one vote. The, er, [ X]'s are without spaces, of course.
And Quests aren't terribly different from the stuff Bay 12 prefers, but it's more like a western RPG in that the thread only can control one or two people at a time. So between normal forum games and Visual Novels?
And Quests aren't terribly different from the stuff Bay 12 prefers, but it's more like a western RPG in that the thread only can control one or two people at a time. So between normal forum games and Visual Novels?
RECORDING BEGIN
ALEPH: Is it working, doc?
DR. KAMI: I think it is. It's on; run the trial phrase by me.
ALEPH: 85 skips skips in records, tumbles and bumbles up the gown. Blast! Avast? Skown 1 34.
DR. KAMI: Bugs are minimal. Things are legible on my end.
ALEPH: Good.
DR. KAMI: This is Doctor Yoshinora Kami, logging possible S C P acquisition... hang on. Skip? SCP. There. Gotta say it fast.
ALEPH: Get on with it doc, these guns are heavy.
DR. KAMI: Right, whatever. Doctor Yoshinora Kami, logging a possible SCP acquisition in sector... 4-A; Downtown Miyao. We recieved reports from officers about strange lights and electrical problems in a building. Ghost stories, but it was passed to one of our agents.
BET: Screw it, I'm entering the building.
ALEPH: Following.
DR. KAMI: Don't do that, dammit, we need to log this!
ALEPH: You already got the important bits out, and I'm getting weird looks. I'm going in.
DR. KAMI: Fine. Short version: We got ghost stories and we're looking in. Might be the first skip since the flip. MTF Sakura Kitsune responding.
BET: Inside looks empty.
ALEPH: Confirm. No signs of hostiles in the entryway.
DR. KAMI: What about other activity.
ALEPH: No signs of that either.
BET: Walls aren't caving in on us, that's a good sign.
ALEPH: Sometimes. Sometimes it just means the freaks're right behind you.
BET: Don't remind me, dude!
DR. KAMI: We're not expecting anything Keter here. Nobody's died yet.
BET: Building looks abandoned though. Show me checking the office.
DR. KAMI: Clear for go.
ALEPH: Lights look fine to me. I'm not seeing any flickering.
BET: Office is clear of anything obvious. I'm going to do an up-close examination.
ALEPH: Remember to use the stick.
DR. KAMI: Stick? They equipped you with a stick?
ALEPH: No, but I did.
BET: No response. I don't think there's anything weird in here.
DR. KAMI: That seems somewhat unprofessional.
ALEPH: Not as unprofessional as using your hand to pick up something dangerous.
DR. KAMI: That's a point, I guess.
ALEPH: 'Sides, the higher-ups aren't as anal as they used to be. Not with the situation how it is. Bet, I'm going to flicker the lights.
BET: Want me to hide?
ALEPH: Yeah. Scream if you see something.
BET: Real funny.
DR. KAMI: What's the result?
ALEPH: Nothing. Let's head upstairs.
BET: Right behind you.
DR. KAMI: This's the third false alarm this week.
ALEPH: Don't jinx us, Yoshi.
DR. KAMI: You say that, but I'm getting awful bored of a conspiracy theory that. MTF-Aleph do you read?
ALEPH: I heard it too. Lights flickered.
BET: No other activity.
DR. KAMI: Are you on the second floor?
ALEPH: Yeah. Apartments. Shit.
BET: Time to start checking them. One by one.
BET: By one.
BET: By one.
BET: By one.
BET: By.
DR. KAMI: Stop that, the system doesn't log times. You're going to raise a false alarm.
BET: One. Just passing along how boring all this is.
ALEPH: You want a candy you big baby?
BET: I'm addicted to sweets so sure?
ALEPH: Then if you make me come back here just to check this damn building a second time, I'm going to make sure you're barred from every confectionery in Mihoku.
BET: Ah. Come on man.
DR. KAMI: Interesting, didn't think that'd be an edge.
ALEPH: I got something.
DR. KAMI: case.
DR. KAMI: Report, what is it?
ALEPH: Big metal thing, looks like one a those tesla coils from that game that's big with the tech division.
DR. KAMI: Approach cautiously. Bet, I need you in position.
BET: I'm right behind him. Man, you're right, that looks just like.
DR. KAMI: MTF-Aleph, MTF-Bet, status?
ALEPH: No injuries. The thingy went all shocky though.
BET: Use your words man.
DR. KAMI: Did it do anything else?
ALEPH: No. It sparked some, communications fizzled, lights flickered.
DR. KAMI: A normal EMP. Except in a apartment building.
ALEPH: Weird, but not our kind of weird. I can even see it plugged into the wall.
DR. KAMI: Hang on. Don't touch anything.
DR. KAMI: Alright, I'm tracing power to the building. Wait until it sparks again.
ALEPH: Got it. Grab a seat, Nori.
BET: Want a caramel?
ALEPH: Sure. Why do you have a pouch of them on your tac gear though?
BET: When one looks into the abyss, Rei, the abyss looks back...
ALEPH: Right, so you're weird too.
DR. KAMI: Communications still good?
ALEPH: Yeah. I had my phone out too. It turned off.
BET: Hope it's not broken.
ALEPH: Nope.
DR. KAMI: Ah. Well, it drew power from the grid. I think it's a normal EMP.
ALEPH: sept that it's in an apartment building.
DR. KAMI: True, but that's a job for regular police.
BET: Coming back then?
DR. KAMI: Yep. Come on home, we got another eckser. X er. Zer.
ALEPH: Trying on new gender pronouns?
DR. KAMI: Trying to get the word to log right. We need colloquialisms to pass through if we're going to use Class D.
ALEPH: Whatever. It's End log, right? End log.
DR. KAMI: End log.
LOG END
ATTENDUM: Apartment owner JANE DOE was placed on POI list. Her status, as of XXXX-02-23, is missing. Device showed no anomalous properties and was removed as a PSCP on XXXX-01-24. Device appeared to be a standard electromagnetic relay for recharging military-class drones, however a fault in construction caused periodic weak electromagnetic pulses. Police department was notified and the building swept. Police analysis shows that the device was constructed out of scrap metal and was welded together, apparently via machine. It is unknown at this time why and how Mrs. DOE was capable of this level of engineering: pending investigations halted due to no subject to interrogate.
None of them should be canon. It's just two Task Force members and a doctor who's honestly more interested in his program that writes the logs autonomously than the actual "SCP" itself. I'm not familiar enough with Foundation "Canon" to write the actual names like Bright.
I disagree. Big Sister demonstrates hacking abilities so potent and casual that they seem more like technopathy than anything. And let's not forget the incident which alerted the Student Council to Big Sister's existence...
-snip-
"Down the hall another twenty meters, up a flight of stairs, make the first right, should be the first couple of rooms on the lefthand side." Big Sister materialized and immaterialized in a flash. -snip-
To be fair, an AI might find hacking to be quite intuitive. Especially since BS can apparently access and view her own code, but can't modify or copy it. Presumably, it's pretty advanced code, and between computer perfect memory and a lure to know herself, I could see BS learning advanced coding reaaaally quick. And as an AI, she's not limited by a keyboard, meaning she can hack impossibly fast...
It's a bit weird that Mihoku has networked Television screens, but it's also a bit weird that Mihoku has so many military drones BS can just take one and nobody catches on.
This is going to sound completely out of the blue, but none of you think I'm a girl, right? :<
My name is "LuciDreamer," but the emphasis in the first half of the name is supposed to go to the full "Lucid," not just the "Luci." As in… my real name isn't Luci. No, not at all. It's Koichi (Just kidding, I'm not brave enough to put my real name on the internet…). I uh… I guess I got lazy when I was creating my name, and didn't want to use all that effort to type up a second "d." I mean, I know the in-game character "DreamerLuci" kind of breaks this pattern, because that is more explicitly feminine-sounding, but you know...
I dunno, I just realized that a lot of people refer to me as "Luci" rather than "Lucid," like I intended, so I'd gotten self-conscious about it. It's probably nothing, anyway.
On to more important things, holymotherofmiku I love reading the theorizing on this thread. SV has a really inquisitive culture, huh? I only hope the answers to all of these plot questions are as rewarding as I think they are! Hahahaaa… the stakes are rising what have I done I'm not competent enough to pull this through someone hlep me
Also, I played Papers, Please last week.
...don't be surprised if a distant, future week inexplicable involves a border checkpoint and a very beleaguered inspection officer. Glory to Artstotzka.
So... yeah! On with the show.
...'out of the blue?'
OUT OF. THE FUCKING. BLUE.
YOU ARE NOT ALLOWED TO MAKE SUCH PUNS, SIR.
Winning Options
Theme
[X] [Theme] Write-in: Strange Friends. A young girl becomes lost in a world of dreams, full of strange and alien creatures. One group of creatures call themselves the "Dream-Eaters", and normally feed on human nightmares. Strangely though, one Dream-Eater starts to form a friendship with the girl, and together they begin to hatch a plan that will allow them to escape from the strange landscape she's trapped in. Along the way, they learn about what it means to be friends.
Club Work
[X] [CW1] "No."
[X] [CW2] Shinohara
-[x] Call in a favor from Yumika to have the coin fall your way in case of a tie
Dealing with Kuroda
[X] [War] "Wait… what?" Rakuyama asks, looking very, very, confused. "Err… Harima-kun, are you alright? I think you should go home… Err… actually! No, that would be, like, mean, or something… Let's just… ignore him for now?" (Nothing happens)
(This actually made me kind of sad )
Big Sister
[X] [BS] No. Silas deserves some measure of separation from Big Sister's skullduggery. He's just a schoolboy, after all. And Big Sister would be good to remember the old adage about Ignorance...
[X] [BS2] Don't overclock. As much as it pains her, Big Sister may need to start withdrawing considerable oversight over Silas if she wants to maintain her obligations to him. (Big Sister may find one document next weekend, and the global economy is safe, but Big Sister will not be present for Silas next week. Silas may not like this.)
Silas had been thinking about messaging Dreamer for a while now about this little suggestion he'd been throwing around in his head for a while. But he hadn't really thought about rushing the matter; there were so many things to consider, like whether his opinions were worth salt, or whether his perspective granted him enough insight to understand the nuances of the systems he was messing with, or whether Dreamer liked him enough to consider what he was saying…
Still. Things had gotten bad enough that Silas felt, at least, that he had to say something.
You have new messages (1)
Ah. That was his queue. Silas quickly tabbed out of the Alt. History Quest he was watching and entered a PM room between him and the Juubun Director.
DreamerLuci: yo. YamiOtako: Hi. DreamerLuci: u needed something? YamiOtako: Yeah. I hope I'm not interrupting anything important… DreamerLuci: no no, ur fine, actually. i needed to get away from this annoying otaku fucker, anyway. YamiOtako: oh. DreamerLuci: him being an annoying fucker has nothing to do with him being otaku. just throwing that out there.
Silas chuckled awkwardly. He… may have let slip that he was an avid watcher of anime and reader of manga and listener of RikuRiku on the forums at some point. And Dreamer, while she may not seem like the inquisitive type, watches him like a hawk. She didn't really seem to care, though, so that was good.
DreamerLuci: anyway. what up?
Silas thought for a moment, trying to articulate why he was trying to say.
YamiOtako: Not to be prudish but… I was going to ask if maybe we should write a better code of laws or something?
In a real conversation, this would be the part of the talk which involved a long, horrible, awkward silence of twiddling thumbs. Fortunately, Silas had his computer screen to shield him from the horrible awkwardness that would have ensued.
It still didn't change the fact that Dreamer was taking a while to respond, though. He started absentmindedly twiddling with his thumbs.
"H-Hey, Big Sis, is Dreamer typing something?" Silas asked.
Big Sister's avatar materialized on the side of his monitor. "My my, Silas, are you asking me to spy on another sovereign individual with basic human rights to privacy for superfluous reasons? How scandalous. You know that just because I have the power doesn't mean I should act on it. Power corrupts and whatnot," Big Sister drawled.
Silas smirked. "...riiight. And… what are you doing right now, Big Sis?"
Her avatar blinked. "Certainly nothing to do with the National Citizen Intelligence Database." She floated over from Silas's monitor. "Anyway, yes. She's typing something. Slowly. Now if you don't mind, I have some personal information to collect."
"Ah… thanks…?" Silas sighed as Big Sister's avatar dematerialized into the void. Within a few agonizingly slow seconds, Dreamer's message finally transferred:
DreamerLuci: what like a constitution or some shit? argh you remind me of that otaku fucker YamiOtako: I mean, it's not really what I mean… DreamerLuci: whaddaya mean, then? YamiOtako: Like… It's hard for me to work if I don't have a general idea of who you do or don't want on your site. YamiOtako: Would you prefer me to stop people from talking about politics entirely, or just threadban people who are being most disruptive? Do you want me to respect the right of people to shit-talk each other, or silence them? Stuff like that… I don't know what kind of culture you'd prefer, so I flail in the dark a lot. DreamerLuci: … DreamerLuci: hmmm… dammit you make a good point. ugghhhh work. I'll like think about it and run it through with a friend or two who knows about writing rules and shit. DreamerLuci: thanks for the suggestion I guess YamiOtako: No problem, Dreamer-dono! DreamerLuci: ugh I hate honorifics okay goobye
Aaaand Silas let out a breath of air. He didn't screw anything up. Phew. Admittedly, the helpful shadow of internet anonymity probably contributed most to his composure. But still! He had to take what he could get, right? And he was sure his little snippet of a suggestion would help douse some of the flames. He hoped.
The Subforum is Simmering. Failing to moderate regularly next week will cause toxicity to worsen. The situation will be improved in time.
And so Silas tabbed over to Tale of Merika and prepared to engage in some nice, healthy purging of the traitor pig-dog non-democratic bandits in the Merikan frontier for EXP. It was his solemn duty to protect the ideals of the Republic, after all! Viva! His fingers stretched over the keyboard, his left hand resting comfortably on the WASD keys, his right hand attached firmly to his mouse, and he rechecked his hotkeys for another night of the grind. It was going to be a good night; he could feel it.
Before he could start in earnest, however, Big Sister materialized on his screen again. "Oh, and Silas?"
"Hmm?" Silas acknowledged her, already typing out his username and password into the ToM launcher.
"There's something I should probably inform you of, before you get started…"
~~~
Silas let out a shaky breath. "What do you mean, you're going to need to be away all next week?!"
Big Sister responded testily, "Silas, I'm not going to be gone, just not watching you constantly - "
"But why?"
"There are things I need to keep track of to keep you safe, like the Student Council - "
"But can't you do both at the same time?"
"I've mentioned before, Silas, I don't have the processing power to split my focus on more than a few things at once." Big Sister maintained her usual calm, composed tone, but somehow this only aggravated Silas more.
"B-But… you're Big Sister! You…"
"Yes, I am your Big Sister, and as Big Sister I am telling you to trust me when I tell you that I can do no better than this. If I had the choice to be able to watch you directly and observe the phenomena around you that could possibly cause harm to you and ensure that extraneous factors don't indirectly affect your lifestyle, I would gladly take it. But I don't have that choice. I am not powerful enough."
"But - "
"There is nothing I can do."
"W-Why - "
"LISTEN. AND. OBEY ME!"
Silas felt his face turn to chalk. That voice and tone - it was the Big Sister that yielded to nothing, the Big Sister that did not take a refusal as an acceptable answer. The Big Sister whose final word was law; whose will was his will.
Silas squeaked something he thought sounded vaguely like an affirmation of subservience.
Big Sister's avatar blinked. It looked frozen. Big Sister was trying to figure out what she should say now.
"...Listen, Silas," Big Sister's voice was low, "Next week, I will withdraw my close oversight of you."
"N-No - !"
"Listen to me. I will withdraw close oversight, but if you need my eyes or my insight, just call my name, or press the back of your neck, right along the spine. If you can't speak or move your body in any meaningful way and are in danger, I will already know about it, either from changes in your heart rate or some other anomaly I detect in your biometrics. I'll come. You have to trust that Big Sister will come. Okay?"
"..." Silas tried to steady his breathing. His eyes were wet, but he refused to believe that he was on the verge of crying. He kept his gaze pointed at his feet. "...of course. I-I know, t-that you'd never do this if it wasn't something f-f-for my b-best interest…"
Something flickered in Big Sister's avatar. It was a tiny little animation glitch. "...ah. I… oh. I don't… if I had only limbs I wou… come he… no. Wait." Big Sister's voice came out in a confusing mess of pitched tone.
After a tentative pause, Silas glanced up confusedly. Big Sister's avatar was frozen, again. Her expression was alien and passive. It was strange; usually her avatar was so fluid, doing tiny little motions like her having her chest rise and fall as if she were breathing, or tapping her foot idly against an invisible floor, or ruffling her RikuRiku hair a bit. But now, she was stiff and silent. Like a painting.
"...B-Big Sis?"
Her eyeball snapped to him, and then her torso moved to face him directly. Big Sister did a long, drawn out sigh, virtually. "Forgive me," she said, "I was just… having regrettable thoughts."
Silas winced. "I-I'm sorry…"
"Not directed at you," Big Sister almost sounded indignant. "Never directed at you."
"Y-You're just trying to make me feel better!" Silas tried to chuckle a little.
"No. I would never have misgivings towards you." Big Sister said softly. "I'm not capable of it. And I love you. Those two infinitely massive and equally weighted factors would never have me regret anything about you."
"Hah… haha…" Silas found that funny, for some reason. Maybe it was the weight of the situation.
"Here, here…" Big Sister's avatar made a weary but genuine-looking grin. "Silas, you will have nothing to fear. Big Sister is watching. And I always will be. Is that… reassurance enough?"
Silas nodded his head enthusiastically. "Yes. Yes! It… it is."
"Good. Forgive me for dropping this on you so bluntly."
"It's no problem! Big Sis does what Big Sis has to do, heh…" Silas grinned back at Big Sister's enormous face. Big Sis was creepy and weird and scary all at once… sometimes, even, she made him feel uncomfortable. But it was alright, everything was alright, the uncomfortableness was over. He loved Big Sister.
And she loved him back.
And that is what mattered.
"...don't you have a game you need to get to?" Big Sister ever so slightly edged towards the window with the Tale of Merika launcher on it.
"Oh! Right!" Silas felt the energy return to his fingers. He wouldn't let this bad news deter his grinding, after all. He was still seventy-five levels below the maxcap, and he couldn't have that.
Merika… He thought numbly as he tuned out the bad emotions. When I spend time here, it's like all my problems can just disappear... ahah...
A few masterful keystrokes later and he was emerging from a Frontier Inn, his bishounen character looking healthy and awake and ready to knock the heads of those nasty fascists. "Viva." Silas giggled. "Let's get to work!"
~~~
session start
fetching reizei.renji.ncid
no related records found
fetching matsuoka.yumika.ncid ...
fetching matsuoka.marion.ncid
...if I had only limbs,
fetching matsuoka.izumo.ncid I could hug you.
fetching matsuoka.kuroko.ncid
fetching rakuyama.riku.ncid
no related records found If I had only eyes,
fetching mikado.yoshi.ncid
fetching mikado.daichi.ncid I could let you cry with me.
fetching mikado.yukio.ncid If I had only a heart,
fetching mikado.asuna.ncid Then maybe
I could die
no records received
no records received ...
no records received
no records received And then you could be rid of me.
fetching kuroda.harima.ncid
record 'kuroda.harima' not found
fetching hirabayashi.harima.ncid
fetching hirabayashi.reo.ncid
fetching hirabayashi.kanata.ncid You deserved better.
fetching ichiro.ncid
record 'ichiro' not found
fetching ichiro.ncid
record 'ichiro' not found fetching ichiro.ncid
record 'ichiro' not found I'm so sorry.
fetching ichiro.ncid
record 'ichiro' not found
fetching ichiro.ncid
record 'ichiro' not found
exporting records to bsnet0039.extr
operation successful
//Warning! Database locked.
Total session time: 0.0267s
Estimated time to re-entry: 5.2300s
Stay strong, Silas.
~~~
There will be a small malus to Silas's mood tomorrow.
Big Sister will be mostly absent next week. Relevant modifiers will apply.
WEEK 5 IS STARTING! (woot woot izza 'bout time dont you think?)
Choose two [SOCIAL] actions to start off the first half of Week 5.
FAVORS OWED:
Kei Tachibana: 2
Matsuoka Yumika: 1 0 (Will be expended next turn)
[] [SOCIAL] CHAR: Talk with someone: (Who?)
[] [SOCIAL] CHAR: Atone to someone: (Who?) (Must have negative REL)
[] [SOCIAL] INT: Observe someone: (Who?)
[] [SOCIAL] COUR: Challenge someone Silas is not in the mood
[] [SOCIAL] CHAR: Plan an outing with a friend: (Who?)
-[] Intended Turn: (Write-in)
-[] Location: (Write-in)
-[] Event: (Write-in)
EXAMPLE: Kei Tachibana
[] [SOCIAL] CHAR: Plan an outing with a friend: Maeda-senpai
-[] Intended Turn: Next Weekend
-[] Location: Cupcake Sensei
-[] Event: Celebrate Yuuko's Birthday
EXAMPLE 2: Dorima Shiryu
[] [SOCIAL] CHAR: Plan an outing with a friend: Allen-kun
-[] Intended Turn: Whenever I damn well feel like
-[] Location: Let Make him choose
-[] Event: Don't care
EXAMPLE 3: Mikado
[] [SOCIAL] CHAR: Invite a friend home: Kirino
-[] Intended Turn: Second half of Week 5
-[] Event: Apology Dinner
-[] Spend Two Favors
Oh yeah, and check out the Character Sheet for a new-and-improved updated Character Database! Now with tabs and... stuff! Thanks to @Nevill for... basically all of that! :lol
Unfortunate but the new character sheet is entirely unusable from mobile.
Had to quote it and browse the raw BBcode to use it.
Current objectives:
-Avoid risky interactions that may lead to aggravated concussion.
-Moderate the forum(not a social action, disregard for this vote)
-Wants 2 Friends(REL >= 20), 2 weeks(4 turns) left
--Matsuoka Yumika 23 - Complete
--Shinohara Hana 20 - Complete
-Learn more about Maeda(Observe is more dangerous without Big Sister support). Final week(2 turns) left.
-Get a new phone. Pending the pay from the mod job.
Random curios of this turn:
[*]Cultural - RikuRiku's birthday is this week! The Emperor's Palace is to be draped in teal and green out of respect to the Imperial Republic's foremost cultural icon! Furthermore, all are invited to participate in various RikuRiku-themed events occurring at their local Hypermall all of next week. -News 39
[*]Potato Famine (Trending) - The Potato Famine continues; global biologists are baffled. A very beleaguered agricultural scientist spoke near one of our reporters earlier today: "The affected regions don't even grow potatoes! The primary staple crop in the Spicelands is rice, for Miku's sake! How the fuck are they suffering from a Miku-damned potato famine?!" In response to the growing crisis, the Empress recently used her implied executive power to force a foreign aid stimulus package through the legislature, angering several members of the Diet in the process. This is a developing story. -Tomodachinojiyuu Shimbun
This is going to sound completely out of the blue, but none of you think I'm a girl, right? :<
My name is "LuciDreamer," but the emphasis in the first half of the name is supposed to go to the full "Lucid," not just the "Luci." As in… my real name isn't Luci. No, not at all. It's Koichi (Just kidding, I'm not brave enough to put my real name on the internet…). I uh… I guess I got lazy when I was creating my name, and didn't want to use all that effort to type up a second "d." I mean, I know the in-game character "DreamerLuci" kind of breaks this pattern, because that is more explicitly feminine-sounding, but you know...
Her avatar blinked. "Certainly nothing to do with the National Citizen Intelligence Database." She floated over from Silas's monitor. "Anyway, yes. She's typing something. Slowly. Now if you don't mind, I have some personal information to collect."
I really do dislike this version of Silas sometimes with the creepy Big Sister interactions and the dependency. Really need to wean him out of it no matter what.
but uh oh god we need to manage that mindset also.
[X] [SOCIAL] CHAR: Talk with someone: Maeda Kirino
Observing has fubared like every single time. On the contrary, it's possible to learn about someone just by talking with them. Notably, Silas also has it easier talking to people and harder observing, so uh...yeah let's stop that finally please?
[X] [SOCIAL] CHAR: Plan an outing with a friend: Shinohara Hana
-[X] Intended Turn: Next weekend
-[X] Location: The mall, or any suitable public place
-[X] Event: Lunch and casual cheap fun people watching
YamiOtako: Would you prefer me to stop people from talking about politics entirely, or just threadban people who are being most disruptive? Do you want me to respect the right of people to shit-talk each other, or silence them?
Ah, the smell of new forum rules. Just think about it: "You have the right to shit-talk. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law [...]"
Silas, PLZ.
He is the kind of secret agent that forgets to ditch the parachute after landing behind the frontline.
Just... just leave the actual counter-conspiracy stuff to Yumika.
"...Listen, Silas," Big Sister's voice was low, "Next week, I will withdraw my close oversight of you."
"N-No - !"
"Listen to me. I will withdraw close oversight, but if you need my eyes or my insight, just call my name, or press the back of your neck, right along the spine.
Don't be a downer, mate! A whole week without parental oversight! Think of all the girls you could invite over to your home!!
...aaand he fainted.
But I am quite serious about inviting Hana and Yumika for a chat one of these days, as was proposed earlier in the thread.
Also, is Silas an android (alien, cyborg)? Does he have a chip installed (well duh, since BS can access his biometry at any time)? Or is it a Big Red Button? What's at the back of his neck!? We positively need someone to take a good look. Maybe Hanamura. :lol
Did he have a long stay at a hospital at some point? I am having some Dennou Coil flashbacks.
fetching reizei.renji.ncid
no related records found
fetching matsuoka.yumika.ncid
fetching matsuoka.marion.ncid
fetching matsuoka.izumo.ncid
fetching matsuoka.kuroko.ncid
fetching rakuyama.riku.ncid
no related records found
fetching mikado.yoshi.ncid
fetching mikado.daichi.ncid
fetching mikado.yukio.ncid
fetching mikado.asuna.ncid
no records received
no records received
no records received
no records received
fetching kuroda.harima.ncid
record 'kuroda.harima' not found
fetching hirabayashi.harima.ncid
fetching hirabayashi.reo.ncid
fetching hirabayashi.kanata.ncid
fetching ichiro.ncid
record 'ichiro' not found
So, to reiterate.
Reizei's and Rakuyama's records... aren't in the system? Should that be a relief, marking them as perfectly normal individuals, or a sign of trouble? Or are the records in the system, and the 'related records' actually are the 'records of relatives'? That would be a problem, since Reizei should have a sister.
Matsuoka Marion, Izumo and Kuroko are in the system. Who are these people? I'd think family members, but we know that Yumika's mother's name is Akiko.
Data on Mikado is present, but unavailable for fetching. Big Sis just can't receive it. Is this his 'luck' at work?
Kuroda's real family name is Hirabayashi. Huh!
Trying to search for Ichiro by his obviously false name. Silas must be rubbing off his Big Sis.
All the feels.
I want to understand Big Sister... and that, among other things, means understanding her code. We started on it, but made little progress. We should persevere.
We have our options:
"There are three ways to go about this," Big Sister said. She glanced to her right, and, after thinking for a moment, grabbed a pair of nerdy glasses from offscreen, sliding them onto her avatar. "Firstly, you could try to befriend someone from your school's Computer Science club. I have… reason to believe that there are some very smart coders in there. Several reasons, actually."
"Hanamura is there, though," Silas paled.
Big Sister shrugged. "It is an option. It also comes with a certain element of risk. Alternatively, you could try purchasing a rudimentary neurostim implant at the Hypermall. They're quick and simple and… mostly without side-effects. However, the cheaper ones only last for short periods of time."
"Finally, you could tell me to break my laws and help you."
We refused the easy way out. We don't have the money for an implant.
We need to suppress our pride (and shivers) and talk to Hanamura about helping us out with the coding.
Not to mention that I am dying to see if Reina is actually in there as well.
[x] [SOCIAL] CHAR: Talk with someone: (Who?)
-[x] Hanamura, about the Computer Science Club.
I'll leave another action vacant for now, but I think we should start chipping away at that mystery before something unfortunate happens. The circumstances of Big Sister are tied closely to our own circumstances, and I suspect our past.
And I dearly want to talk to Big Sister for one of our Afterschool activities.
)
