ooc: I agree. You wouldn't be able to build a long tom. You wouldn't even understand rifling. Let alone basic gun making. It would more than likely blow up in your face like anything Wily coyote makes.

A hand landed on Vace's shoulder.

"What did you just say about dumb moments?" Ark was standing behind him. Granted with his arm in a sling, he was limping, and was decidedly pale, but he was coherent and moving.

He plopped down and said, "I got about two hours until they want me back. I've almost cut an artery, broken five ribs, my collarbone, barely missed a tendon and hit a nerve center, and wedged about 50 chain-mail rungs into various parts of my tors. Mages need a break before they try to straighten me out."

He leaned back and grinned. "So, what did I miss?"

"Hey, good to see someone is back up and among the living. Have a seat and eat something, they have some good food here. All you missed is Tama and I regaling the princess with the stearling feats of daring you commited... right before battle, and then you charged that line of pikemen and looked like you were about to be made into a large pincushion last I saw you at the battle. Actually, we are discussing strategy away from Lynx and Gin who are making a racket so loud, if you listen closely, you can almsot hear them from here."

(OOC: They did talk with the officials, but they need input from the ones who stayed behind, so everyone can talk together about it.)

Cesia took the roll from Tamakatari and took a bite, but she didn't have much of an appetite. She noticed that lately, she hasn't been able to sleep or eat. It was probably just worrying about everything that caused it.

Just about that time, she saw Ark arrive, "Ark! It's good to see that you're upright. You should have been more careful, you're lucky that you're still alive. You should get some food too. They have anything you could want here." Then she proceeded to tell him and the others what has been going on in Aviona.

"Dawn, Lynx, and I have been busy rounding up Avionan soldiers to help fight. We should pose a formitable threat to Cid and his army, but I'm not sure if we can beat him... We have to choose carefully about how we confront him." She paused for a second, "We haven't chosen exactly how we are going to attack him the next time, but we have decided that we want to be on the offensive this time. We'll need the upperhand in this next battle to win this war."

"we need to surprise him."

Lynx had followed everyone, and was getting some food. He had only recently gotten human taste buds, and he was enjoying them very much.

Ark snatched up another roll, and devoured it.

"Careful? Hey, I was just buying you guys time. If you had done a bit more running, and a bit less massacering..." He snickered.

"Guess I can't be too hard on myself. Well, I can. I led 250 of them out, and 230 of them went to their deaths." Ark's face dropped somewhat.

"I think I know what the upperhand is. For all it's size, Cid's army has one giant weakness I found. It can't reshape and reshuffle troops fast enough, so hitting with lightning attacks confuse them, and take a chunk out. Worked great with horses, but if we could do it with Wyverns..."

(OOC: And who said it had to be a gun. They did have catapults back then, remember? He could make a big catapult. There's lots of stuff he could do.)

Tamakatari put some of his steak and eggs on his toast and made a sandwich.

"Well, whatever we do, I want to be in the fray. I have the strong urge to kill some people, seeing as how I had a large lack of it in the last fight. All I did was blow up their camp."

ooc: Explaining the physics of why that wouldn't work would take to long. All I'll say is this. Notice how people stopped using catapults and trebuchets after the invention of the cannon. There is a reason for that. The reason being a cannon could out range a traditional seige weapon by quite alot, and do more damage.

(OOC: Then it doesn't have to be a catapult. I don't think you guys are completely understanding this. My guy can make ANY weapon. Hence, he can make weapons that haven't even been invented yet. I'm not saying he WILL make an ultimate weapon, just that he has the capabilities to do so.)

ooc: and that's not god moddy how?

OOC: Even if your guy could make any weapon, he still wouldn't be able to. His power is limited by his intelligence. I doubt he would ever be able to understand how even a basic gun works, and he would end up making randomly shaped metal things that blow up in his hands. Or if he tried to make a catapult, he would probably end up forgetting and leaving out small parts and it would fall apart.

(OOC: Really. Well, if you guys want to get technical about it, then lets do. First off, a person can't cast magic. Especially since a cat can never become anywhere near human unless mutated through something other than magic. And there are no such things as wyverns, or large monsters big enough to eat horses whole. There never was any of this stuff. It's an RP. It's fantasy. Most of the stuff that happens in this RP, can never happen. Now, just because my guy CAN make those weapons, doesn't mean he will. Like you said, he'd have to think them up, which isn't one of my character's strong points. But he COULD do it, if he could figure out how. Now, I don't want to hear any more about this. Let's wait for Celes to decide what we do, and you guys just stop talking about how my character is god-moddy. Alright?)

OOC: If he won't, then why did you even bring it up?

(OOC: Because he was throwing out ideas! God, didn't I just say to leave it alone!)

"You do realize we need to do all the planning here, right? Gin is this guy who thinks he's such a hardened war veteran, who believes he is invincible because he's been in the middle of wars. Lynx is a strategist who has no concept of what it takes for troops to drive through. Gin has to be completely right, Lynx wants to think of a way to get the job done. By contradiction, all four of us over here have sturdy heads on our shoulders and look at this realistically."

"And yet, I still don't really give a damn." Tamakatari took another bite of his sandwich.

"Our job initinially was to save the princess, and protect her. As far as I'm concerned, that has yet to change. So, until the princess is back safe in her castle, my first priority is making sure she isn't harmed. Let the smart people decide what we do."

Cesia cleared her throat, "Well, I'm not a military strategist, but I was thinking that the Avionan army could distract Cids army while we sneak in and find Cid. Once their commander and king is taken care of, their army would probably fall into disarray..." She knew with a whole army following Cid's orders, that Cid wasn't the only thing they had to worry about, but she believed that if they could kill Cid, then her country would be more willing to listen to her and the others without Cid there to fill them with lies, "But first we have to find out how many people we have fighting for us. I don't want to send them into battle only to be slaughtered by Cid's army..."

"I like this idea. Just give us a crack at Cid, and I'll guarantee he bites it."

(OOC: Hmm. A direct attack on Cid. A small part of me feels the end coming soon.)

OOC: I guess the sewers will be unguarded...

(OOC: Apparently so.)

OOC: The end is near! Prepare yourselves! Seriously, is the end near? He wasn't around for Alba but suddenly shows up for Aviona? I figured we would repel Cid's army, and with 99% of Cid's army routed, we would march to Cid's castle, the remaining soldiers would fight it out, and all of us would sneak in and finish off Cid in an epic battle.

"I still think that the sewer will be our only entrance. No matter how dangerous it is, I think it may be our only way in. I could lead the force going through one of the sewerlines, I am more than willing to."

Kalimare thought back to the forest, and how he would only kill for food. It was so much different. The outside world was a place of so much senseless death. Even the creature that had attacked him was acting out of care for its young. He wished he were back in the forest, away from all of this, but knew he would have to do his part, for someone like Cid wouldn't stop at one kingdom. He would want to rule much more than that. Kalimare sighed as he checked over his stitches and listened on in the conversation after adding his bit.

"Do we know for sure that Cid was in Alba with the army?"

(OOC: actually, I was thinking of the battle being at where it all started, Cesia's castle. ^_^ (I've always been a fan of the epic final battle being where it all started) But Alba or any other place would work too...)

"No! Not the fucking sewers! Why are you so damn one minded in ways to accomplish something!? We stage a feint via the Avonian army if they agree, and use the chaos of that to ride in! Walls won't be a problem, and with that huge distraction, we head to the capital, sneak in, and kill Cid!"

***

Cid walked through the Alban castle, looking at various rooms. He looked at the throne, and with a contented sigh he walked towards it. 'Twas good to be king.

Then he noticed something on it. A dark green coat with a note propped on it. Ark's coat. He looked at the message.

"Are you afraid of walls yet?"

Cid laughed. Ark really thought he would be afraid of them. "Guards! Find any prisoners. Execute them for harboring enemies of the throne."

OOC: She just said it might be at Cesia's castle... If that is so, Cid would not be in Alba...

OOC: That's what I figured, that we would fight our way back to Cid's castle in Celia's kingdom and during the epic battle we break inot the castle and finsih Cid, but if Cid was at this battle, you seemed to be assuming if we take out Cid here it will all be over, and that's waht it seemd you wanted us to do...

OOC: Ran it by CJ. So, ha. And stuffage.

OOC: I kinda wanna just blow up the whole place with some huge ball full of gun powder that a bunch of Avions carry, then drop it on the castle and all go BOOM

OOC: That would be anti-climactic...

(OOC: But that would just be too easy to blow it all to kingdom come. And *sniffle* I guess the RP is actually coming to an end... wow. Never thought that would happen. Well. Feel free to discuss the fine points of what we should do. I think I'll start the next chapter tomorrow, with us probably heading out. I would start it now, but I don't have very much longer that I can be on... so I'll start it tomorrow! )

OOC: So? It's so very simple... And it will prevent the obvious god modding to come when we face Cid (Who gets the kill)

OOC: Yes, that will be the argument to end all arguments, since everyone wants to be the one to kill Cid, unless he is killed by some poorly devised plot device so that no one technically gets the kill...

OOC: yeah. I've been worrying a lot about the final battle... I know everyone wants to kill Cid, but everyone can't deal the final blow at the same time....But we'll figure something out.)

OOC: A bomb perhaps?

OOC: Planning for the end does no good if you don't RP to it.

IC: Ark sighed. "Of course, comlpete and utter silence meets my suggestions."

OOC: You really want to blow something up IHMN...

By poor plot device, I waas thinking more along the line of we are fighting him on the fortifications and he A. Falls off and dies, B. Is hit by a catapault and dies, C. (To satisfy IHMN) Gets hit with a random bomb and dies, etc. Basically while a few characters battle him, Celes decides when some random twist of fate comes in and kills him for us, robbing everyone of getting the cahnce to kill Cid.

IC: Vace was thinking and said, "Well, the losses will be horrendus if we basically just send the Avionans to their deaths to buy time for us. We need a plan that saves Aviona, but also gives us a chance to get to Cid."

(OOC: I vote that Celes does it. She's always been the damsel in distress in most of the RPs we've been in together. She could do some thing where she foresaw this part, and she kills him. Or some special thing. Wait, her skill. That reminds me...)

Tamakatari turned to Cesia.

"You know, you have the power of foresight. This would be a hell of a lot easier if you could just tell us what would work best."

(OOC: She hasn't really USED her skill yet.)

OOC: But Cesia has no fighting skills... Cid would easily get rid of her...

(OOC: Not if we did some cool thing. Which you would think was corny. And anyway, I ran an idea past Celes a few days ago. If she uses that idea, it might give us all good chances for fighting.)

Ark looked at the group and said. "We should try coming back to this later."

He pointed at Cesia. "You eat something, then go sleep."

He pointed at Tama and Vace, "Same instructions. We've just been in battle conditions, so we need to get our sanity back up."

He pointed at Gin and Lynx. "You two hold the fort while we sleep. Give us two hours, we come back, and then we go to the Avonian officials and find out what we have to work with. If I find out you were arguing, I'll make you into simese twins."

He leaned back very god-father like. "We recharge, come back, and figure out how to massacre Cid, k?"

Lynx sighed and ignored the idiot with massive blood lose that was not going to his brain, and continued to eat his food.

[OOC]Oh, that's what you think. Cid could have multiple lives....like a cat. One of us kills him, leaves, he gets back up, another one of us comes across him, they kill him, repeat.

Or how about this: one of us kills him, Dawn revives him, the next one kills him, repeat. [OOC]

ooc: Just let Celes kill him.

Gin flicked an obscene gesture at ark. "I'll argue with who ever I please."

"Conratulations. It gets out of hand when you argue every freaking two minutes." He stood up and said, "I'm off to finish being healed."

[OOC]

Meh x_x I'm gone for a few days and two threads end on meh.... I'll just... pick up with the next one I suppose... and hopefully I won't get too far behind this time....