H.M.A.S Badger ~ Online Æther Ship ~ Member's Wanted (OOC Thread)

[Zuttle D. Curious]

    Bailey, I have been telling my mom and brother about this occasionally throughout the day. They have heard me getting pretty upset too. Personally, I think we ARE still working together for this. I was pretty mad when I first read Nightshade's post. I even argued it. But in the end, I think he is right. If we were to get through the temple by rushing, our plot would have holes a 747 could fly through. Its one thing to have a plot hole now and then, but to have our big finale be essentially a long string of them? That's like defeating the final boss with cheat codes. You didn't really beat the game. It's no fun then. Not for me anyway.
    I do like the idea of having an interplanetary war before we go to Venus. (Note the BEFORE. I like this RP And especially the people involved in it.) I don't want you to go either.

[MWBailey]

Sorry, but you're assuming I meant it to end there. I did not. I said that such was THE PLAN. Nightshade's Martian capture of the party is plausible, but only just. Bailey is not the kind of person to simply fold up and surrender. They would have had to have drugged him with darts or smoke or gas or clubbed him to unconsciousness or death or shot him or chopped him to pieces. He would have gone down fighting, and that is how I shall write it, if given the chance; if anything, he will remain behind with the Inflexible's marines and a contingentof theBadger's security force and fight a rearguard action for the evacuation of the human population, somewhat akin to the American pullout from Southeast Asia (I'd imagine massive loss of life and materiel in similar fashion), maybe stay behind and become a feared opponent for teh Martians, but more likely go back to the Badger, which will take part in the war mainly because of teh lack of available intel shipping/troop transport.

What he/we'll be dealing with eventually, I propose, is an uprising similar to the Sudanese Mahdist incident (think the movies Khartoum, Beau Gest, etc. and Generals Gordon and Kitchener, the Expeditionary Retaliation, etc.).

I like refitting the badger as a warship, maybe an intel cutter or some such. she's halfway there. now...

[MWBailey]

In other words, let's move on.

[Alexis Voltaire]

That was some VERY good writing, Mr Bailey!

I'm hoping we can continue the story. If it was so easy to restore the Seldon Empire with the artifact, maybe... just maybe, it can be undone by something similar. (not that it will be easy at all to accomplish though...)

There are many days where I did pretty much nothing but sit at my computer hitting the refresh button on this RP and playing solitaire.

So I'm not the only one...

[Theosophus Grey]

WHOA, I go away for the weekend and the steam engine blows up!  

It looks as if it's all been said already, but in the interest of getting back on track I'd like to chime in, if I may:

1.  I wrote the "Beast" backstory as a long-intended followup to the Illuminati plot that Nightshade started, the idea being that he didn't realize what he was really getting into, as they discussed privately in the ready room just before he jumped ship to the Germans (great move, by the way).

2.  I very much liked Alexis's and Zuttle's idea of a "double ceremony", since that would have meant that, with Bailey providing a distraction, the public ceremony would be in an uproar and a small party (perhaps the soldier Grey, the spy Zuttle, and the scientist/sniper Vilhaus) could infiltrate the lightly guarded inner temple and stop both Nightshade's sacrifice and the use of the key to release the Beast from taking place (just in the nick of time, of course), and all escaping back to the Badger in the confusion.

3.  While there would certainly be fallout from such an act, as Grey noted, it would be limited in scope and focused on the "piratical crew of the Badger, now forced to go rogue and hunted by the powers of Earth and Mars", etc.

My point being that there were infinite options here, and a terrific opportunity for EVERYONE to chime in on what should have been the climactic conclusion of our little Saturday-matinee adventure (Red Sands and Red Swords!), and I think we missed the boat for two reasons:

Jim/Nightshade, with all due respect my good sir, while you are an outstanding antagonist, you broke two of the cardinal RP rules: you jumped ahead too far too fast, making irrevocable changes to the story line without allowing anyone else time to post and be involved; and, you made the assumption that your view of the developing storyline was the ONLY possible outcome.  I'm an old D&D'er myself, been playing since the game was first published, and those rules were just as important in the face-to-face setting as they are here.

No offense meant to anyone, I'm enjoying this thread immensely and don't want it to end - hell, who WOULDN'T want to be Captain (no longer Acting) of a rogue aethership?  I can see us being picked up as a series in the fall...  

As upset as everyone apparently is over this, I think the only fair way to settle it is a simple up-or-down vote on whether to (a) back up to Mr. Bailey's "assault" post (terrific, by the way), or (b) to move on graciously with the RP rules firmly in mind.  Personally, I would hate to see a long-developing climax wasted, so I must vote (a) to rewind.

Your thoughts?  

[Cornelius Nightshade]

I have never liked the idea of rewind BUT if the Majority is for it i will be onboard.

[Theosophus Grey]

Thanks Jim, your willingness is very much appreciated.  Anyone else want to chime in?

[Zuttle D. Curious]

... I am very confused right now. I'm willing to stick around either way. I feel a bit strongly over going forward. There is a whole history waiting to be explored in those few new posts. But I plan on sticking around no matter what is chosen.

[MWBailey]

I've been trying to chime in since 8:10 this AM, but spring cleaning, vaccuumm (sp?)* cleaner malfunctions, and cranky housemates have made it impossible 'til now (LOL). I will go along with the "rewind, " as Mr. Nightshades puts it, if that is what everyone else wants.

I'm off now to get my barcoded employee tag so I can teach/sub/whatever falls out next (fall) semester and continue doing so this semester, So I'll be back on the site this afternoon or evening. ...







--------------------
*Yes, I really have forgotten how to spell Vaccum Vacuumm Vaccacucumber whatever that word is! Alzheimer's, here I come!

[Theosophus Grey]

Thanks for speaking up, all.  I agree with Zuttle that all the new posts have a lot of promise, particularly the very detailed resistance movement forming on Deimos, so I have a proposition:

I will post a recollection of what actually went down in the temple after Zuttle was captured, the upshot being that (a) we are still captured and war still breaks out, but (b) we do actually thwart the use of the key and release of the Beast, which it turns out was being concocted solely by the High Priest and his minions without the knowledge of the Parhoon or Loftis, to whom the artifact was merely a ceremonial object of power, all as Nightshade has already supposed. 

The Illuminati still win the political battle, but millions will live thanks to the mystic and scholarly traditions of the Freemasons  , and the Badger will fly again as a rebel warship - may the Force be with us...

This would tie the two threads together, and not require any rewriting.  Any and all comments on my post will of course will be welcome.  Jim, we should also both erase our OOC posts at 192-193 for continuity (although I'm printing them out first for keepsaking, the Tolkien references were hysterical). 

PS - Zuttle, excellent detailing on the Nagant gas-seal revolver - I'm a gunny myself, and it's a pet peeve when writers describe such things incorrectly - thanks! 

[Cornelius Nightshade]

Sounds good to me, I will take care of my part of post 192-193,  and we can go on for the liberation of Mars.

Regarding the part in the story concerning, Cornelius Nightshade. If we are plunging on from hear CN is of course not going to be aboard the Badger. As things fell out  he would have slithered off to find some safe place to hide from the war, on or off Mars and enjoy his ill gotten gain.
If he is at some point captured or not, reappears or not, is up to how the story evolves.

I have already semi-introduced a new character, more of a crew member roll. Dr. Moriarty.
So, on to Mars and Victory!

[Theosophus Grey]

Excellent, I thought that might be you!    But, please keep CN appearing regularly, if only at a distance, he's the best antagonist I've had poking at me in years, and I can see him playing a key role now via his alliance with Loftis and the Martians.

[Zuttle D. Curious]

...should we consider starting a "Chapter 2" kind of thread and inviting new members to join?

[Theosophus Grey]

Hmmm... I think it might be better to keep it all in one thread, I know I flip back to previous posts frequently for fact-checking.  What we might want to do is post a notice in one of the regular threads, sort of a "recruitment poster", with a link to the Badger thread so they can read the backstory before jumping in.  I also saw a good idea in one of the other OOC threads where an existing member posted a detailed summary of the story and characters to date for new members to review, I may do that as well.

[Zuttle D. Curious]

That sounds like a good idea Is there anything I can do to help with that?

[Alexis Voltaire]

Wow! My thanks to Grey for writing Frank into the story, that was AWESOME! 

---

Does anyone have any suggestions for what the Martian shaman should say? Maybe some very important piece of information that wouldn't be found any other way?

I'm thinking that there might be some sort of ritual that can bring down the new Seldon Empire, just as the Blood Red Moon brought it into power. But I don't want it to be redundant, and I'm not sure what else to put down...

[Theosophus Grey]

Your humble servant, Alexis - your own descriptions are so detailed that you gave me plenty of material to work with, which is what makes shared storytelling so satisfying.  

I'm also a big fan of the Lovecraftian "something bigger than ourselves is going on..." school of writing, with the pieces falling slowly into place over time, like cooking a complicated dish and not being sure how it will turn out.  Here, I didn't want to be the 'hero', too obvious not to mention immodest, and I picked up on the fact that we never fully explored why the Royal Botanical Society would insist you go to mars to solve an unnamed problem - maybe one of your superiors is a Freemason?... (cue mysterious music)  

Zuttle (and everyone of course) - if you have any text or images you'd like to include in either thread just post them here over the next few days, and I'll post them.

BTW, I have exercised Captain's Prerogative in renaming our ship the Mad Badger, in honor of poor Dan, missing in the chaos that has erupted on Mars.  (This would not be unusual historically for a commercial ship being pressed into military service.)  

[Zuttle D. Curious]

I thought you and Grey just destroyed the ankh, so they don't have that great power the Ankh supplied, just a mob mindset, a lot of rage, and unique resources that Earth doesn't have.

hmmm... He tells no secrets... How about a virtuous tail to learn from? A bit of wisdom... Some knowledge or word from Shi-iri. Or maybe something he notices about Vilhaus. ... Or maybe just advice about plants...


Very much noted, Grey thank you. I'll see what I can come up with. On that note, What on God's dear earth, or rather Mars, do these aliens look like anyway?

[Theosophus Grey]

I agree with Zuttle, we established that the Parhoon only saw it as an object, and it was likely replaced with a copy by the priests who simply told everyone it was the real thing - after all, they only take them out of the vault on rare occasions, according to Alexis's description, and it was only the High Priest who needed the real thing for the Key part to work.  So, a conventional war, and the end of the 'Beast' threat with the Fourth Key destroyed.

Alexis, I found it interesting that the shaman was focusing on Shi-iri and not you, and talking about being part or not part of someone else (if I got that right) - perhaps moondragons are truly sentient, and an untapped ally...?  Interesting that they can adapt so easily to Mars...

Since someone mentioned up front that the Martians were very tall, I ran with the Close Encounters of the Third Kind description of them as very tall, thin, pale, and with wideset dark eyes - and later gave genetic reasons why they may have originally looked more like us, and had to evolve to match environmental changes to the planet.  This was a tie-in to the book Grey gave to Marringer about the Earth being originally populated by "aliens", who turn out to be... humans, or differently-evolved Martians from the mass off-world exodus that occurred when the Beast was first released eons ago.

Everyone clear?  Oh yah, like mud...  

[Dr. malcolm moriarty]

Somewhere on Mars, a tall, bearded man in a black frock coat dances a jig and rubs his hands in glee'
--------------------------------
funny
I like the "close encoun" martians That has been a blind spot till now.
,,and i love the "poster" idea the more people the better.

[Theosophus Grey]

{ Dr. Malcolm Moriarty English born, spent the last thirty seven years as a Professor at Miskatonic University in Arkham, Massachusetts. }

Miskatonic U - Go Cephalopods!
http://www.miskatonic-university.org/

BTW, great avatar!

[MWBailey]

{ Dr. Malcolm Moriarty English born, spent the last thirty seven years as a Professor at Miskatonic University in Arkham, Massachusetts. }

Miskatonic U - Go Cephalopods!
http://www.miskatonic-university.org/

BTW, great avatar!

 Raghr Raghr Ragh! Hisssssss HOOM Bagh! Orl'yeh! Orl 'yeh! Ragh ragh ragh!

(ahem. pardon my Cthuloid enthusiasm...)

[Theosophus Grey]

Ia, Ia, Cthulhu fthagn...

Ladies and Gentlemen, I believe we have just identified the nature of the great threat for Chapter 2 - I expect the Mi-Go to come knocking at any moment to place our brains in small metal cannisters... 

[Zuttle D. Curious]

Great threat for Chapter 2? I assume you ARE talking about the Cephalopod Crazed RPers, correct? Because I believe they are right on up there with vacuums for nightmare worthiness.

[MWBailey]

Vacuums? no, NO! NOT THE VACUUMS ! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGHHHHHHHHHH....

 

I'm assuming that everyone is now back aboard the Badger and that she is either undergoing or has undergone the refit process. please tell me if I'm taking teh looking over of teh mission plans wrongly.

Also, Bailey was not unaffected by the drubbing that the Martians gave him; I think perhaps that where his left eye was intact but incompletely normal before, now it's necessary to patch it full-time, as it no longer sees at all and in fact is a bit of a mess, even after healing over. I also intend to mention other less obvious signs of injury as the story progresses. (mainly healed-but-still-tender broken bones (mostly ribs but the left arm also; its newly healed but still twinge-y).