Hallucinogen_NA

Night, and the moon was full. Moonscribe sat on the bed in his room, looking out the window.

Hmmmm. What are you thinking about, human?

“I don’t know. I have. . . I don’t know. . . I think something bad is going to happen,”

Haha. Relying on gut feelings instead of logic and clear thought, again?

“Djehuty, you can’t tell me you haven’t felt it too!”

True. I suppose even blind emotion can find the truth occasionally. . .

There was someone behind him.

Moonscribe turned around and saw a small green cloud of smoke, vaguely humanoid but mostly obscured by a viridian haze. A gas mask was visible on the being’s face.

“Hallucinogen?” Moonscribe said. He was still perfectly calm, indeed he was calmer than when he had been talking to Djehuty, for now he was turning his face on the world.

“I am just an illusion,” the being replied. “But obviously, Hal sent me. He wants your help.”

Moonscribe laughed. “I thought he hated me?”

“That doesn’t mean you won’t be helpful.”

“Fair enough,” Moonscribe said, adjusting his glasses, which somehow always reflected light of the lenses so that his eyes were obscured.

“So where is he? What does he want?”

“Come to the MAGI office in Atlas Park, at 11:30 AM tomorrow. He will see you there.” Hal’s phantom vanished.

((And such is my example. Have Hal’s illusionary visit be in any form you like; having him send a copy of himself, however, makes much more sense.))

* * * * * *

“So.” Gabriel smiled, holding up the sword of the fallen Pledged of Steel. “He seeks to use this weapon to preserve human life.”

Gabriel was a dark-skinned man, probably East Indian in origin; he once had been handsome and his features were pleasant, but now they were twisted into a mask of hatred. He wore a long, black cloak.

There is nothing wrong with protecting your own, Gabriel. Please. . . you make me uncomfortable.

Gabriel laughed at the voice in his head. “And so I thought, for so many wasted years. Preaching faith and hope and the love of God. . . and yet it is all lies. My efforts accomplished nothing, and now I am simply another tool in the Council’s eyes.”

Gabriel, please.

Gabriel laughed again. “I thought you wanted revenge, Raphael? You are much too soft!”

I want revenge on the Council, yes! They are the ones who wronged me, you can’t. . .

“And yet, a race of beings who would mutilate a being such as yourself. . . how is it that they deserve to exist at all?” Gabriel demanded. “I have preached for years, I have seen everything. . . anger, greed, jealousy, hate, madness in every form. . . The human race is destined to fall. It makes little difference if it is by my hand!”

. . . Gabriel. . . you frighten me.

“I doubt I can frighten a Nictus that easily!” Gabriel laughed. “You will see, Raphael. The world will be better, without beings like me to send it into ruin. Perhaps you can destroy me when I am done. Then my crusade will be complete!”

Gabriel. . .

“Shut up,” Gabriel snapped. He had just found a sheet of paper on the fallen hero. A Council base? One under the direct jurisdiction of Requiem? It was almost too fortunate. . .

It is probably a trap. . .

“I care little,” Gabriel responded. “For it is likely a trap by the Council. . . and then I can have my revenge!”

Gabriel. . . you have killed hundreds of Council soldiers. The truth is. . . you have had your revenge already.

“It is never enough!” Gabriel laughed, as he and Raphael pooled their energies, transforming him into the squid-like flying form, Nova. “The human race is corrupt, and I shall cleanse all of them of their unforgivable sins!”

Gabriel. . . what have they done to you, by doing this to me?

((Villains must find some anonymous tip. . . what sort doesn’t matter. . . that leads them to an indoor area of some sort. Once they enter, they are taken to the Temple of Steel, Steel Eclipse’s base; Gabriel will enter the base shortly, afeter a few people have posted. By the way, Gabriel is my Peacebringer, but this version of him has been corrupted and turned into a Nictus. And no, I haven’t ever used him before. But I had no one who fit. So there.

Well then. . . feel free to join in! . . . And yes. . . I have too many characters who talk to themselves.))

((Hello, everybody. . .trying my first RP here! *sheer terror*

There are a lot of rules to this, so if you don’t like that. . . don’t join. By the way, kids, out of character posts like this one should be surrounded by double parentheses like I am using or designated OOC when you are out of character and BIC when you are back in character (for instance, OOC: I’m not godmoding, BIC: your character dies.)

Which reminds me. First of all, no powergaming/godmoding/whatever. I have never actually heard this defined, so I will try to do so now; bear in mind, though, that I, well, haven’t ever had it defined for me. There may be someone else who understands this much better than me, but if there is, I haven’t seen them defining it :P

Essentially: Don’t give your character an unfair amount of power or control. If your character is attacked, they can’t dodge every time. Think about what your character could do rather than what you want. The most important rule to me, though, is that you should never dictate another player character’s actions or what happens to that character. If your attack is unresistable, unblockable and unavoidable, not only can you not say it kills them, you can’t even say it hits. You can only say it is unresistable, unblockable and unavoidable and explain why. (Note that I am pretty dang strict with myself about this stuff.)

And if you write that you aren’t powergaming, you probably are. Rewrite your post.

Second. There are two sides to this. You may have two characters, and they may be divided as you choose between the sides. NO MORE THAN THAT. Unless there is really no one joining this thing, and then it will probably flop anyway.

There are restrictions on the characters as well. Hero characters must have met Hallucinogen (my RP character), much like with Essex in the 24HV thread; it doesn't matter where, they just need to know who he is/what his powers are. Otherwise. . . it will make no sense. As for villains, they have to be a significant threat. Actually, a hero *can* join villain side; this side is essentially forced to work together. But if you CAN join Hal’s side and are a hero, do so. Anyway. . . if you want to enter a villain, and no one has ever heard of them, it probably won’t work . . .

Which brings me to the last point. Your characters all must have appeared in an RP before, and at least two is preferred. And yes. . . I am going to break this rule for one of my characters. I’m the GM. Deal with it.

If none of your characters fit, never fear: you can have them enter as “NPC” characters later on. I will explain this after the RP goes semi-closed.

. . . Oh yeah, didn’t mention that. There will be no joining the teams after a certain point. I use the word “semi-closed”, however, because you can still join at this point. . . there are just far more rules governing how, you are much less important to the plot, and you can’t join a team. Probably the phrase “semi-closed” doesn’t mean anything different from “semi-open”, but if I want to use terms that don’t exist, that’s my prerogative.

. . . I really should just start. I’ll explain more as I go along. . . The next post will demonstrate character introduction.))

Cafea chimed. "Well, you are right, in that the truth sucks. I am truly embarrassed that the entire Collective, save the Alpha, was wiped out by a lone army of human kinesists."

"But I am afraid your conjecture is wrong. We do not have weapons, no, and are relatively peaceful beings, but I would hardly say we cannot defend ourselves."

"As for our planet. . . never had one. Not our style. But I am sorry to hear of your homeworld. I suppose that must be equivalent to the destruction of all our physical embodiments in the War of Ascendance."

Cafea made the fading strings noise again. "I should probably say that your race is not, in fact, considered inferior. I admit, however, that I plan to discuss the matter heavily with the Collective."

"As for being high and mighty and all that. . . of course we are. We were, to use the old cliche, born that way. You are hardly being fair to blame us for our basic nature."

"And for your information, a group of pathetic humans nearly wiped us out once. Can't imagine how."

Cafea glowed warmly at Kei's words. "I am glad someone here has some sense. I should, perhaps, have made it clear that I did not extend the philosophy to inferior beings. They exist to be consumed by the superior. Of course, though, the eradication of even inferior beings is wrong, as it harms the superior indirectly."

He chimed. "Of course, now I have probably made even more enemies. Few other beings seem to accept our superiority criteria. I merely wished to say, though, that our race would consider both the wild animals you speak of and the fellkind that hunt your race inferior, and would have few qualms killing tham in self-defense."

Chiming to himself, Cafea floated over to the other side of the bar to see what else was going on. He got that a lot.

Cafea considered. "I am really not sure what you are talking about," he said. "My philosophy, frankly, works only for my own race. No matter how many beings there are who do not wish to squabble over trivia, there are just as many for whom it is a delightful treat. I really do not expect anything else."

"Ah, yes," Cafea answered. "And wiping out an entire race is no doubt an excellent way to solve a problem. As for bar fights. . . I do not think that was really what I was talking about. I can hardly say I have never engaged in violence myself."

He glowed blue for a second. "And yet, I have only fought in self-defense, and I fully understood the idiocy of what I was doing. Indeed . . . were you to simply agree that war was a foolish thing, I would hardly object to your practising it. It is those who take every means available to deny their faults who are truly in the wrong. No race can possibly be perfect."

"Yes, and for every one 'baddie' who dies, two of its relatives take its place," returned Cafea. "And they shall return the favor, and the feud shall grow ever greater and fiercer as the entire world begins to form two sides. One that says 'You hit me first,' and the other saying 'You deserved it'."

((. . . Oh my.

. . . My condolences. . .

. . . I'm afraid I never know what to say to things like this. . . sorry. . .))

"Interesting," Cafea responded. "And exactly how, may I ask, would you do it right? By killing succesfully, and thus adding another wasted life to the mounting death toll?"

Cafea laughed. "You miss my point, little creature. My point is that those weapons are designed for violence, and violence only leads to more of the same. If you enjoy working to destroy your race and the universe in general, though, I am sure that is your prerogative."

Cafea chimed lightly at the strange, rodent-like creature. He had forgotten how much other beings hated being told the truth. It was too bad he possessed no capability for dishonesty.

((As in: No, he isn't going to stop being annoying ))

"Hmmm," said Cafea, talking primarily to himself. "Another weapon-toting killer. With this many, I am truly surprised that the universe has not yet been blown up. Or at least given up out of frustration."

"Hello," said Cafea, addressing the strange female and Wraithwind. "My greetings."

((I've been waiting for something to happen, I'm still here if it does.))

"Humans aren't so bad," Cafea said. "They're pathetic idiots, but the Collective ruled them our equals. . . something about 'superior potential' or whatnot. And the Collective knows best. I am part of it, after all."

"Ah, yes, futile violence will do that to you," said Cafea. "I suppose it is only natural, however, that beings who are truly seperate from each other are constantly attempting to kill each other. After all, in my race, we all share the same mind." Bells chimed again. "And yet the Banished of my race are still attempting to destroy me!"

"Indeed," Cafea said, not moving to face Rulaag, as he was essentially facing in all directions already. "So, what are you here for? I am in an embarrassing situation myself. . . but the Banished will never think to look here. They can't understand how anyone could stand to hide on a human planet. . ."

"If you have full spectrum, that. . . otherwise doesn't matter," Cafea replied. A few bars of some strange material appeared on the table.

"This is a rare mineral or something. . . don't know what it is and don't care," he said. "If you need more, I can get it easy, stuff's all over some uninhabited planet near our home-pocket."

"That would be appreciated," said Cafea. "I feed on light, you see. How much is the room, by the way? I am afraid I do not really understand money. . . my race, after all, is essentially the same being and has little need for it. But I can certainly produce some. It is worthless to us, after all."

"My thanks," Cafea said into his head. The lighter floated into the air and in front of Cafea, who had warped back to hover over a seat.

Cafea opened the device, ignited it, and buried the flame in his form in a motion much like drinking from a glass. The light from the lighter radiated all through Cafea's amorphic body, and his rainbows shone brighter every second.

Shortly the lighter floated back to Kreigg and closed itself, and Cafea made the fading-strings noise again. "That is better, thank you," he said.

"Hmmm, drinks," said Cafea. "I feel rather left out. I wonder. . ."

He warped in front of the bartender.

"Excuse me for making an odd request," Cafea said, "but I wonder if you have a flashlight, or same similar small device that produces light?"

"I'm afraid not," Cafea said. "You certainly seem to be more civil than the silicon-based beings from my dimension, at any rate. I will tell you if I see him."

"I am not even a native of this dimension," said Cafea. "In my dimension, this planet has been overrun by cities built by foolish humans. Except for the Lost Isle of Madagascar of course. . . But I am rambling. No, I certainly do not live here."