Agreed. In order to achieve Ending A which is to strike down the final boss without getting his friends killed and winning the girl (most likely Zelenha), he has to finish all of the sidequests so that the people of the land imbue the Raigaki with their faith and all that other sugary rainbow BS when he arrives at the bottom of the final dungeon. It's like Kurama's never been in a JRPG before.

I bet he'll even miss out on the super secret optional character, Amat. The joke is that it's actually Tama his ancestor who got rip-roaringly drunk one night celebrating the day he slew Talkatz a millenium ago and staggered into a time rift and winds up in the current day. You're not going to get the best ending without Amat, man!

Well in response to that, I'll say there's two reasons.

The first reason is that Kurama in this RP won't be as "Everyone's only here to support my story" as he was in the past games. Kurama's an NPC, not a GMPC. The story is how people want it to go, while he just leads that group.

Second thing is, he's not ignoring sidequests. His statement is an ironic foreshadowing of Kagi heading to the exact same building they're at.

IT'S SUBTLETY. MAYBE. I DUNNO.

Action through inaction? Devious!

I guess we'll need to fast-track lunch, shopping, kami wooing, etc, then.

Raiden's subtly has inspired me to attempt some of my own. At least I feel it makes my character seem a bit less two dimensional. Also, I can totally explain it away as like echolocation or guessing. Very very lucky guessing.

http://www.bromygod.com/wp-content/u...-092812-03.jpg

Also, I'm in the process of moving to an apartment in another city, so if I'm posting slow...that's why.

Yeah.

Also FF14 has my soul, but that's another story.

The team has split into subdivision SUBTLE and subdivision FACEPUNCH. Be wary Team Democracy, as I hear FACEPUNCH is prone to certain actions.

If you could call Al/Aidas subtle. Nanako takes time to destroy everything in the room. Meanwhile, Al/Aidas only needs to blink or flick his wrist and the city is up in flames.

Hey he has totally been keeping it low key. The metal man didn't even feel him crawl inside his body, save for that single moment.

Oh I just wanted to check before I write a post: Is Imara hiding the fact that she is a dog at all?

Seeing demons and all.

She is not.

Halfway through writing this post while I was looking up appearances, I realised I could probably just have pointed at the good restaurant group, shouted 'Witch!' and let the lynch mob do the rest.

EDIT: Except for Nanako. Everyone's fine with Nanako.

Kitsune are actually suppose to be a good sign. Nekomata on the other hand... are not. It wouldn't be the first time Leer was chased out of a village though. The "I'm going to curse you unless you feed me" trick doesn't work everywhere.

Since there was a lot of older stories about kitsune, they got grouped into the servants of Inari, and the field foxes who are much more mischievous or even malevolent.

(Still no kumiho though I guess?)

Ack, sorry I should have been clearer. Masumi looks completely human, but with an uncommon eye colour. I commented on Leer because of the coincidence they're nekomata with similar eye colours.

Her eyes do go slitted if her disguise slips, but generally she's also got problems with tails and ears popping out at that point.

I don't know how I've done this twice in a row but at my post per page setting I've ended up starting the new page.

Side Note: If we get something electrically powered for transport than Aidas is totally pulling battery duty. We'll just replace the batteries with the staff and we'll never have to worry about running out of power.

Bleh, alright. I'll delete my post or something, as I have no idea how to react right now.

OK, hopefully responding to Leer should give you more of a platform to build off.

That's right, Team Good. I know you're secretly evil!

Well, I didn't want to do this until much later, but I'm not allowed to disguise myself after eating Tofu, so... Yeah.

IDBeholdKyubimode

By the way, spot on in that post, Izuna. Professional fool, indeed. Too bad any game involving Al, Imara, Nanako and Zel must require sudden evacuation of towns and cities.

"We must fight the demons!" Izuna yelled.

"No, kitsune. You are the demons." Masumi said.

And then Izuna was really angry.

"Foolish priestess! You expected to find a fox but instead you fight a GOD!"

Izuna had become a super saiyan!

I was wondering if that was maybe too long a monologue not to give Izuna an opportunity to interrupt but ah well, bad guy introduction monologue privileges?

Alas I am going to be away until Friday, so just a heads-up.

Also, Leer: never change.

I do hope her smile at least includes sharp teeth, talking that haughtily or evilly deserves a sharp smile.

Things not to do around Nanako:

Monologue.

Ruin food.

Nanako, I know we taught you better than that. Is this how it's going to be? I leave home and suddenly you're off interrupting people again? Al, are you even keeping an eye on her at all?!?

In other news, post made by Krylo, Arhra and myself agreeing on how things would go, and then them foisting all the work off on me.

I have no time. I am attempting to seduce young samurai with promises of power.

Sorry I've been quiet, moving is a bitch. Will be finished moving today so I'll focus on the game tonight.

Though it looks like you've done well with the story bites anyway!

Hell, we don't even NEED Al around for stuff to start blowing up. Yet a table is nothing, the building would have been the right style.

We'll get to that shortly, don't worry.

---------- Post added 06-17-2014 at 05:33 PM ---------- Previous post was 06-16-2014 at 09:44 PM ----------

So, uh. All I had at work today was my notebook, so I just spent the day working on a post.

I might... might have gone just a touch overboard.

... In my defense, fucking 9-tailed Kitsune.

But there you go RMB, building taken care of.

Imara vs. Shizuka, huh? This should be interesting!

So, basically... she's going to need Nanako's help... again?

Well she's, like, the only enemy around and Imara was first out the door and first on her feet thanks to her speed.

And someone's gotta pay for destroying perfectly good booze for no reason.

What I'm saying is all you Democrats are monsters.

Now now, Imara's pretty damn powerful in Inu-form. Plus she can fly. Ninja Vs. Wolf-girl should sell plenty of tickets! Nanako can wait for Arhra to get back so Masumi can come play.

I didn't include flying or firefists or icefists or electricityfists or ki energy armor or ki healing or several other things in this Imara's list of powers, because I didn't want to make her too powerful. She also probably can't run at 1 mile per second.

Of course, Zel just turned a building and the surrounding street into a fireball, so maybe I'll amend things.

Huh, for some reason I thought flight had been one of your two powers. My mistake!

... And I want to reiterate this, 9-tailed kitsune.

Plus c'mon, Zel just did the magical equivalent of lighting a match. It wasn't that big a thing...

I don't think any amount of alcohol can blow up that hard.

Also, pfft, if Izuna weren't on her team, Imara would happily beat her up.

Depends on the amount and the purity. It's pretty flammable as things go, and pressure plus blah blah blah and yeah I did research and it maybe can. So I did hedge and added magic to make it more definite, yeah. Still! It was just fuel and a spark directed properly really. This is well below Rachel levels.

I'll choose to believe that your research does in fact prove that booze can blow the roof off a building from the basement.

There's some fascinating stuff out there! Taking into consideration the time period this is set in and the standards such things are produced at, and some of the more lethal news stories about attempts at home grown distilleries, yeah, it probably can.

But I'm not a physicist. So when someone who knows better says otherwise, wizard did it.

And Imara's weak to fire, and she's been drinking fuel, oh my!

Fortunately she's barely drunk today and she doesn't spill without being at least tipsy.

There are fusion bombs below those levels, what are you even getting at?

Also, there's a good reason bottles are sealed to be airtight, which is kind of how alcohol works in the first place. No air, no fire, no boom.

Which became much less of an issue when most of those bottles shattered or broke during the preceding round as described! Plus, again, the time period. Manufacturing just wasn't as uniform quality as it is today, though this is a fairly weak argument.

Let's just agree that there was some really amazing stuff down in that cellar. Like wine that can function the same as semtex or something without the need of a blasting cap. It could even have a kickass tagline for advertisement, like "If you're not on fire, you're not really living."

A team-up?! Between Democrats and Anarchists? Oh my, there may be hope for society yet!

It has been pointed out my posts are getting ridiculously long. So to help, a summary:

Zel does stuff!

Aidas is gathering his essence, by stealing it from others.

I'm gonna be heading to London this week on business (convention, ahoy!). I'll be checking in when I can but can't guarantee internet at all times.

So Sithdarth and Overcast? You guys get to duke it out with Kagi. I figure we'll say Kurama...spectated? So laid back Kurama.

Enjoy London, Raiden!

Because that post was words words words, here's the cliff notes version:

• Masumi has been hiding in the restaurant because being on fire is something that happens to other people as far as she's concerned.
• While she was hiding, she befriended the fire.
• She employed advanced magic bellows technology to hopefully blow Izuna a good distance away from Zel.
• She then shot seven swords at Izuna and raised the dead because she's a magical catgirl necromancer priestess with fire powers who septuple wields swords.
• The dead are just lying there so far. Look out, next person to charge Masumi.
• Masumi finally stopped being in lurk mode so she's set her aura to spookybutt. It's frightening the townspeople and maybe gave a shock to the ki-sensitives.
• She wasn't happy that Shizuka almost brought the place down on top of her.
• Don't believe in yourself Shizuka, believe in the cat who believes she might strangle you if you don't cut someone soon.
• Finally, Masumi revealed she's such good friends with the fire, she's planning to show it around town. So yeah, fire tornado. It's fighting Nanako and trying to eat the next shop.

Aggggh catching up is painful.

EDIT: Speaking of which
I chalked it up to action movie physics myself. You know, like how tossing a match into something potentially flammable will make it catch on fire, freezing something will make it shatter when you kick it and how a car will burst into flames and then explode if it runs into anything. Anything.

NO, I WON'T STAND FOR THIS.

The car doesn't even need to hit anything. Simply skidding out of control in an empty road and overturning is enough to elicit an explosion if the plot demands.

Safe trip Raiden!

In an effort to make sure we are certain to take up all the time Raiden is away, MORE MOUTH NOISES.

Aidas is ready to seduce you with promises of chaos and war.

I'm sure this is preferable to Imara's Donkey Kong impression.

Let's try to summarize for viewers just tuning in!

This round:

Masumi makes an explosive entrance!

Nanako makes an even more explosive entrance!

Imara makes a passionate plea for sanity! She's ignored.

Shizuka makes a plea for helping people! She might prefer to have been ignored.

Izuna uses Flash step, but finds herself blown away!

Zelenha uses Destroy Inhibitions! On a succubus. Just as a bunch of strong male guardsmen come running in. Uh. Is this show on past the watershed?

Dammit Zel, there's minors present!

I'm EVIL! When are you people getting that?

Evil or not doesn't mean you can't have principles! Otherwise we'd all have blown up the world by now.

Make love not war?

... Well now I feel dirty.

I'm sort of wondering if following Shizuka isn't such a good idea and wondering if I should just pair him up with someone who is the exact opposite of himself in size, aka Kagi, but since Aidas is already there, it's her or his fellow nekomata Masumi. I only thought Shizuka was a better idea based on the fact that both are martially focused.

Shizuka goes into an overspirited "with great power comes great responsibility" rant. It's getting to the point that even I might root for Leer to kick her ass.

If there's anything scarier than a world destroying demon, it's Nee-chan's disapproval. We shall nickname Leer... THE FOOL. Also, AB, I believe the better theme song for when the whole fight started was Ballroom Blitz.

FOOL, we reserve Ballroom Blitz specifically when you pick Nanako and Aidas as tag team partners in a massive dance hall or bar.

I have no time for ballrooms and blitzing. I have to go meet the Wind Kami so he can make Shizuka's spider sense tingle.

Overcast clear some space in your Private Message Box.

All clear. Sorry about that I don't get many so I hardly even pay attention to my limit.

---------- Post added at 02:13 PM ---------- Previous post was at 11:20 AM ----------

TO: Nanako
Halp
-Aidas

I've missed Al. He is the best.

---------- Post added at 10:39 PM ---------- Previous post was at 10:33 PM ----------

Though you didn't do the Zoidberg thing. Do the Zoidberg thing.

It is done.

And the thread gets just a little bit better.

Sometimes it sucks to have a Job.
 

Team subtly strikes again.

I think I should point out that Zel specifically told Shizuka to make sure she wasn't followed and she's already on thin ice as far as Zel and Masumi are concerned. It's making her look like a liability to them.

Shizuka should think really carefully about what she does next and how she justifies what she's done. I can't speak for Zel but if it goes badly, it's a definite possibility Masumi would decide to get rid of her.

A SHAMEFUL DISPLAY! HOW DISHONOURABLE!

Shizuka isn't going to let Leer follow her all the way to this 'destination' as Zelenha said it, even if it means fighting the little cat bastard off. And as far as Shizuka's concerned, Zelenha and Masumi are far more of a liability to the mission than herself.

They didn't wait until confirmation of Kurama's position, they decided to straight-up go to blows without considering the possibility that they might've walked into a fight they couldn't win, and they didn't consider the possibility of antagonizing a whole city of able fighters with their overkill display while ruining any chance they might've had of accomplishing other equally important objectives like a more permanent method of transportation. Masumi seemed to be looking so forward to pimping Shizuka out so why did she obliterate perhaps her only opportunity to do so?

In Shizuka's opinion, Zelenha and Masumi have brought this colossal failure upon themselves by not being able to keep it in their pants, and if this is how Zelenha and Masumi are going to continue operating, then all Shizuka is going to do is deliver the magical airboards that we're going to get, grab Chizuru, and see if she can acquire the Raigaki on her own. Viva Team Cooler Heads Prevail.

That wasn't really what happened though, was it? Arhra can speak for Masumi, Zel just responded to being attacked. Know what jeopardizes your chances of getting anything done the best? Dying. And despite saying how clearly Zel and Masumi have fucked it all up and oh no no one will help us now, Shizuka is the only one that's actually fought the guard head on.

In fact all that -might- have been seen of Zel? Really? Her getting attacked by Izuna, whose attacks did way more collateral damage than Zel's (aside from the explosion, but again, that didn't happen where people could see it) - actually, on the street Zel might not have done any collateral damage at all.

Nanako wins on the most collateral, though it was probably nonlethal.

Make no mistake, Zel didn't want that fight to happen, but accepted it when it did. It was a good chance to study the other team, at the very least.

---------- Post added at 04:17 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:14 PM ----------

Also, you're rushing ahead a bit. Everyone was supposed to meet up at the kami tower, but we're still in battle because a key player became unexpectedly busy. But since Raiden wants to get involved, we can probably assume Masumi and Zel will make it? Maybe with a limp.

---------- Post added at 04:44 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:17 PM ----------

Expecting Al to do the honorable thing if it's blatantly not in his interests is not knowing Al.

Honestly, dude, I could barely follow that fight at all. So my apologies for assuming that you guys did the most damage of it.

And I had no idea that the Air Kami's home was the destination Zelenha was even talking about. And I don't know why it would be the destination. And while I can maybe understand Zelenha and Masumi meeting up there, I don't see why everyone else has to be there. I mean, Kagi and Yuurei, too?

I'll just delete my previous post and see what I can figure out. Shizuka probably won't make it to the tower at all, though. Even with the Kusabi, she wouldn't be able to drive off Leer.

Edit: Damn, too late. Guess I'll play it by ear.

Don't worry about it, but when Zel said split and meet at the destination, she just meant the three of them, Shizuka, Masumi and herself, meeting at the tower. After all, it was the place they were all headed together, ultimately. The Wind Kami has what we came for! Plus Zel wants that air magic, it's useful stuff.

Kagi has his own stuff to deal with, and Yuurei is with us all, in our hearts!

If it's any compensation, Shizuka will be cosplaying for all present.

Leer is officially stealing Nanako's thunder for this part. The whole wanting to be friends thing. So, is he the lazy shounen hero and Nanako the quirky martial arts girl?

The sudden name change caused my eyes to flicker and say, wait what's happening.

Oh nuffin'. Just trying to find my true self and all.

By the way, Leer hasn't just worn down Shizuka's patience in him. He's personally and deeply insulted her and the Mizuno way of life and war. Expect her to say as much and to play for keeps.

Though she'll probably be killed in this fight. She has no durable sword or apples, just a guardsman's tanto.

Yeah, the rest of us need to step it up.

If the team pet gets the first kill we'll never live it down.

Leer doesn't want to kill her though. At most he'll force her retreat, either back to her teammates or back to Makai to lick her wounds. Letting her get back to Zel though is a really bad idea. Considering the healer is on their side is a bad thing. If she really wanted to die, she'd need to personally force him into it.

Basically, Masumi is a terrible person so I thought I'd better give some warning she might be terrible in Shizuka's direction soon because unexpected terribleness is terrible.

On the priorities side, Masumi loved the idea of getting a magic cloud by giving a ninja a makeover, but killing takes priority. Plus she's the type to think she can have her cake and eat it too.

She went over to the good team's table to figure out what their deal was. She then discovered they'd succeeded beyond their wildest dreams in finding some of Kurama's followers, so she decided to try and nip things in the bud by killing them right then and there. It's easy to win a race when all the other runners are dead.

Fast travel options come and go, but the opportunity to wipe out half the opposition in one fell swoop doesn't happen often.

Remember, the evil team is the chosen champions of a demon emperor, so they're pretty skilled!

Behind the scenes, people were itching for some action so I thought I'd oblige. I think the collateral damage of anarchy equals or may even exceed the damage caused by democracy.

Now Masumi is put out with Shizuka because once the violence started, Shizuka didn't commit to it at all. Having half the backup you were expecting to have is not a pleasant surprise.

She's also a sadistic demon cat who eats people, so she doesn't work through her issues in a healthy way if she doesn't want to play at being nice any more. It's not a good idea to get on her bad side even if things are her fault.

It'll be interesting to see if Zel takes Masumi to task for starting a fight unilaterally come to think of it.

Ah but the laws of team match-ups says the five guys on the bad side are an approximate match for the eight guys on the good side. That does suggest a higher level of personal competence.

The villains of a story usually start off being able to beat the crap out of the heroes too. So Shizuka's disadvantaged currently, but that just means she's lost some of her edge.

Kick the cat! Bite him! Spray water at him! Create distractions! Use dirty ninja tricks! If all else fails, shout 'Halp, I am under attack!' and see if this paranoid city does anything to assist the young woman being brutally attacked by a cat monster!

Use the Moe-Moe bullet!

(Throw Chizuru at him)

Arhra, I actually think that's quite the opposite. The recurring bad guys theme usually means they get their asses handed to them time and time again, but once in a while they get the upper hand. You guys really should have pulled a Team Rocket with this one. Leer would have been the easiest to fool out of them since he doesn't do ki sensing as actively as Izuna does and they probably could have cheated him out of the money Kurama gave them.

Also, on another note, I'm not so sure how high the stairs go and whether or not there's an actual advantage to being at the top of them. With a large tower, I was certain there'd be a lot of steps.

Well, it's debatable where the line is drawn really, but what your talking about here is really more for an episodic adventure series with no major overarching plot, where the 'Bad guys' appear every episode and almost every episode's plot is wrapped up by the credits. Because Pokemon and Power Rangers would be awfully depressing shows if pluck and friendship weren't enough to win the day, every day, right?

On the other hand, there's shows which do have a defined plot that drives the show. These don't have 'Bad guys' per se, they have 'Villains'. Villains rarely 'get their asses handed to them', because then they wouldn't be a threat. And when the real driving force behind the show is the conflict and the battles, there needs to be a legitimate threat to contrast the heroes, or there's no tension at all. They may not always win the episode, but there's certainly a chance they will, especially if it's an important issue, and it's very rare that their plans are impacted in any meaningful way whatever happens, at least until the season finale (and even then...) Did Azula get kicked about by Aang for three seasons? Was Fate arrested after her first outing?

Hell, even for the first type, Team Rocket was a scary threat in their first episode. It's the villains job to give the heroes a scare after all!

Plus the fact that there's eight of you and four of us (well, five, but Yuurei spends most of his time as our handy spirit phone) means that the law of Narrative Numbers is on our side!

Astral Bushido Heaven Armor! Shizuka Mizuno! You are the finest warrior of your entire clan! And you are a single ninja! THE LAW OF INVERSE NINJA IS ON YOUR SIDE!

You can totally win this fight.

And so he shall remain until I can figure out who the hell to help: Shizuka or Kagi. I really don't know right now, honestly.

Quick! Draw straws!