((I'm so confused. Where am I? Am I with Essex, Hal and Naga, wherever that might be? Am I with Archlich and Linn? Am I sitting in the guest house reading a book?))
((Archlich is the kind of guy that doesn't like goodie good heroes cramping his style....at least I think so.
You could be waiting in the guest house if you want or you could be with Naga. It's your choice. You can even be with Archlich, fighting but I doubt he'd want help.))
Experiment sat in the guest house silently, checking his voice mail, e-mail, and Longbow messaging system, while playing Snake at the same time.
He was currently at a score of 325.
"Damn... 1018 more points until I finally get a new high score..." he muttered quietly, each blip adding 3 points to his current score.
"Ugh... What the hell ARE those little things anyway? Fruits? Rodents? I really have no idea..."
"Their apples," Rich smirked, not taking his attention from his notes. He continued scribbling in his notepad. "You know? The snake that tempted Eve to eat the fruit of the tree of knowledge? At least that's what I think it is."
((Heh, couldn't resist. I'll update everything in a minute.))
Experiment smirked a bit. "Right, I think that snake would have a better time talking to a naked woman that chasing around randomly appearing fruits to win me a high score."
Ian brightened up, a small sliver of hope revealed, "So....my mother....she's okay?"
If there really was a portal, where did it go? Not much else could be unveiled without at least a piece of whatever opened up this gate.
~~
"Heh, I hear ya," Rich laughed, sounded a bit less consumed in his work. He pulled out his own PDA and inserted a card that had surveillance footage on it and began to review that too.
After a while of silence, Rich made an odd grunting sound as he watched his PDA screen and quickly fumbled with it. "That's odd....did someone tamper with this?"
Experiment hit a small button on his PDA, pausing the game. He raised an eyebrow toward the detective, as if looking for confirmation. "Tamper? How did somebody mess with it? What is wrong? Blank? Jumping past certain parts?"
Essex's eyes narrowed, and the girl leapt down from the main stage, her floofy orange dress poofing out behind her as she did.
"I'm initiating a scan..." she muttered. "Now granted, I can't find most things, but I'm geared to find remnants of most standard technology. I can find Crey and Aeon things...but Portal Corp is still too confidential."
The color of her eyes shifted to a deep, luminous purple as she scanned...
Japancakes.
Art - Theme 005 - Seeking Solace
Essex scan revealed no remnants of whatever technology that was involved. Not many other clues could be found here, at least not after the robots cleaned the place spotless.
~~
Rich tapped his screen, At this point, theres a slight jump in the video and I just now noticed time seems to go back for like, two seconds. The screen showed the scene of the murder and disappearance:
It shows William and Sandra on stage, both wearing some sort of equipment. They were testing its stability for the demonstration but something happens. A surge of energy passed through the equipment they were wearing. It was only for a short moment but William seemed fine while Sandra looked to be in more pain. There was no audio but it could be seen that Sandra cried out in pain.
William comforted his wife and she showed her assurance with a nod. It was then William seemed to be addressing someone off stage and standing between this person and his wife. For a minute or so, William was speaking then quickly moved back to his wife who was standing behind him.
This is when the video goes into a bit of a static fit and the time jumps back two seconds to reveal nothing but smoke covering the whole stage. As it cleared up, William was lying on his side dead, Sandra was no where to be seen and Ian moved on the stage, kneeling next to his father trying to help his dad as best he could. Ian then rushed off to call for help which was the end of the scene.
Dang, this is the first time Im seeing this and now I wish I had done so sooner, Rich laughed to rewatch the footage.
((I was waiting for Khell to post but got bored waiting...))
Experiment watched the video calmly, making note of exactly where it had jumped.
"It's odd... It looks to be hiding whoever performed the murder and kidnapping, which would be a pretty good thing to do... But why would it jump like that? Who had this tape before you got hold of it?"
"Bah! I have no time for this," Archlich scowled as he cut his casting off mid-spell and teleported several dozen feet away. "I shall enjoy watching your ill-fated attempts to discover what went wrong here. May you die in agony, mortal."
And then, in another bright flash, Archlich was gone.
************************************************
"How'd it go?"
"Shut up."
"Yeesh, touchy."
OOC: >_> <_< Got bored... Don't like mysteries. >_>
Statesman said let there be heroes, and there were heroes.
Lord Recluse said let there be villains, and there were villains.
NCsoft said let there be nothing, and there was nothing.
"You finding anything, Essex?" Hal said.
((. . .No, I couldn't think of anything else to say! Shut up! 
))
((Well the mystery part(the info gathering at least) was over...now it was just filling in the gaps with NPC dialog and such. I guess it was silly of me to expect people to try something not involving 100% blowing stuff up.
....and I guess that means one of my characters beat Archlich! ))
Andrew watched the video in silence. "Now that's interesting," he remarked. "If the video goes back 2 seconds and something else happened, that means there are two time streams leading from that moment. Clearly, we are in the time stream leading to Ian's parents' deaths." He paused for a moment. "I think we need to know more about this thing, what it does. And yet, no one knows anything about it. That is, in our own time stream." Andrew looked up towards the ceiling. "I know where this thing is. I can trace it. And if it does what I think it does, one of us can go back in time and ask Ian's dad more about this thing, and why those demons attacked us." Andrew walked a couple steps away. "Of course, I could be wrong and finding it would accomplish nothing. I could be wrong and we could find something completely different. I could be wrong and when one of us goes into the portal it will kill him. And of course, we need Ian's permission. They are his parents, after all." Andrew turned back to the group and clapped his hands with a metallic sound. "So! Opinions?"
((Khell! Come back! I... I love you! :P
Also, this may be godmodding and Leo will shortly have Andrew assassinated. I don't RP much, I have no idea.
Also also, I kida liked the mystery/DETHNINJA plot. 
))
((Heh, well, mysteries are kinda hard to actually turn into a text thread. Let's face it, it's not like you can see the room and take a look at what's lying around. 
And yeah, I'm getting unsure of this myself here...we're getting close to a point where some of my characters would have the motivation to jump in, but to be honest the "demon-ninja-elemental-magic-make-hand-signs-and-call-out-your-attack" thing seems too...childish for me.
Then again, I'm still considering, so don't count my mantle as turned just yet. ))
"If I had Force powers, vacuum or not my cape/clothes/hair would always be blowing in the Dramatic Wind." - Tenzhi
Characters
((But I Like calling out the names of the techniques 
. It has several purposes:
-It limits my characters. Instead of having limitless control over something they can just do a particular thing with something instead. Although it's not limitless control it's still very powerful. In short, trade extreme flexibility for power and varaiety in powers. How interesting would Ian be if he Just used a katana and had super reflexes like he does in the game?
-You know what the person is doing. Usually it's a simple one phrase dialog that contains the name of the technique which you could simply disregard the quotations to read it as simply me telling you what's going on.
-I can make up some cool names! At least I think they're cool...and I resent that childish comment .
...and are hand signs really any different from tracing runes in the air?
I agree with you though, a thread based mystery/detective deal is kind of tough but it can be done! It's much easier if you had more than one person moderating everything but it's not impossible for one person. The approach I was going for was setting up the scene, predetermining what clues could be in the scene at what times and letting someone find them. This would be the 'Info Gathering Phase' which is kind of linear but would eventually lead to the part where the main characters pool their information and attempt to figure out the plot before the plot happens. If they were right then...well they would essentially have a way to trump the GM but if they didn't then they'll just feel less smart....Seriously, how could I outsmart anyone?))
((Sorry, meant no offense there. But the whole thing reminds me more of spastic anime ninjas than the cool, calm, and collected ninjas of real life. Brains, deception, and planning ftw! 
And yeah, I'd argue a rune is very different. You trace the rune in the air, and it maifests as a sigil, then does its thing. Making a hand sign - or a fast series of - and then shouting something...yeah, I can see how that would aid in concetration of chi. I guess my point is just that mage summons sigil, sigil does magic, whereas hand sign does...what exactly? Now a meditative stance conveying deep concentration for a moment, that I feel is a much more appropriate way. But hey, as they say, your insanity may vary. ))
"If I had Force powers, vacuum or not my cape/clothes/hair would always be blowing in the Dramatic Wind." - Tenzhi
Characters
((Uh? I like this thread...
Don't worry Leo - it's just hard, as a GM, to get a handful of unpredictable players to think and go exactly how you want them to. :3 I, myself, am really dense. Sometimes I don't even get clues if they're mashed in my face. XD; ))
"No, nothing..." Essex said with a shake of her head. "I didn't really expect to find anything, though... my scanners are pretty limited."
Scootching over closer to Naga and Ian, she fidgeted.
"W-what do we do now?" she asked.
Japancakes.
Art - Theme 005 - Seeking Solace
((Really Leo, you need to give us some clues to work with, not just expect us to make stuff up until we arrive on something you decide fits.))
((Well, cool calm and collected is fine and good but make for very bad opponents...Seriously, they either win completely by eliminating their opponent without the person even knowing they're there or set some kind of trap that will lead to an easy defeat OR they just lose horribly. I doubt anyone wants to lose to a ninja trick and without the deception you just have a weak target.
I kind of already tried the ninja deception thing with Jase in CoT and I either have to aim really low(small goals) or his tricky abilities usually fail therefore he fails. There's no room for a middle ground usually.
As for sigils, I don't even know what that is but after looking it up it's latin for seal which is a more western magic. I consider hand signs as forming 'seals' with your hands instead of tracing them with your fingers, essentially doing the same thing but with eastern signs and instead of summoning said magic into a space around you, it would summon the magic through you. I don't feel like posting each different sign or describing each one because it would take a paragraph for each but each sign has a name and a purpose.
There is kind of two categories with it too, like a hand sign of concentration is like the meditative stance you talk about but with just your hands(Ian uses this). A stance would take too long and really be counter-productive to his loose evasive nature. Is it anime? Yes, probably. Is it childish? Probably but I like it and if it is considered childish I guess I can't change other's opinion about that.
...but that's just me 
. I'm sure others have other view on how and what magic is or could be so try not to limit a fictional device such as magic to a strict set of rules. Everyone should be able to make their own rules as long as they don't contridict(too harshly) with other's.))
[ QUOTE ]
((Really Leo, you need to give us some clues to work with, not just expect us to make stuff up until we arrive on something you decide fits.))
[/ QUOTE ]
((I did and I am. I just didn't want to come right out and say "You're trying to get water out of a dry well" because there's nothing more there to discover.
I don't want to just tell you what direction you should take next but if it came to it I guess I could.
[EDIT] Just to give you insight on the whole thread configuration. I have the whole thing planned out on a basic scale. There's the victims, the characters, the crime, the clues, etc but I make it up as I go along. If someone decideds to go a direction I didn't think of I can take a clue I had planned somewhere else and put it where you can find it(or at least leave a clue that leads to the other clue). Although everything is planned, it's 'generally' flexible enough to alter by the characters....at least I feel it's flexible.))
((I also like this thread. It's just trying to do something that's very difficult.
This should be a good guideline: We're complete morons. Treat us as such.
See, it just isn't the same from the other side. . . it's awfully hard to know what's feasible, and I myself often opt to do nothing for fear of having my character do something out of line.
Which has nothing to do with your skill, but more to do with the basic nature of a thread like this.))
((Woops, did I forget to update this?))
My top tech guys, Rich answered to 2.0. They had a real conversion conundrum with the surveillance footage though. Some kind of magic crap I cant begin to talk about. Anyway, luckily he found a way to convert it and record it. We confiscated the unconverted version too although they say there were no difference between the two.
Rich stopped and listened to the androids explanation with a look of what the hell on his face. Okay
.crazy masks, he muttered to himself. Well you go find a time machine thing-a-ma-bopper and Ill keep looking through this footage.
The first thing Rich decided to examine was the time the camera when wonky which was 7:55pm((Im making up times now cause I cant remember what I had originally planned)). Then he used his PDA to switch between surveillance cameras at that time. Cameras in the lab were blank, cameras at the gate entrance were blank, guest house, outside the banquet hall, all of them blank except the one inside the banquet hall, on stage, mansion lobby and library. Damn! This is really annoying. I wish I had some more equipment than this dumb little thing, he scolded, speaking of his PDA.
~~
Perhaps you should find the ninja that destroyed our laboratory, Linn piped up as he walked down the isle toward the stage. It seems they have stolen some valuable equipment used to power a device Dr. Kelly was working on which is probably what caused this.
"Hey!" came a slightly offended female voice from Experiment's wrist, "I resent that! You people always treat us as just your devices or toys, but really, we have feelings too! ...Or, at least, I do. Numb-skull here made me that way, but still."
"And if I knew how to stop it, I would." 2.0 muttered. "Now, since it appears nobody tampered with the recordings since you confiscated it, that would mean somebody tampered with it before-hand. However, these guys don't seem too into this whole tech thing, as far as I can tell..."
He sat looked up to the roof once again, trying to think. "Perhaps some kind of magical interference spell, or perhaps a well-thrown ninja-star or five removed later? Ugh, I am not Batman. I only work with tech. If you need me, I will be wandering around aimlessly."
With that, he stood, stretching, and began walked out to the door. However, he turned back to Rich with a concerned look. "Uh... Do you happen to know if those bots got a hold of that tape at any point before your tech guys? Just asking..."
Essex shook her head. "Oh, how stupid of me - this is Naga. She's a good friend of mine." she said with a smile.
When Naga brought up a portal, her eyes widened.
"S-so you think Ian's mother was pulled through a portal?" she gasped.
Japancakes.
Art - Theme 005 - Seeking Solace