Thursday, September 22, 2011

Dystopia and Giant Robots: Kicking Things Off Again



It finally came time to kick things back into gear, as far as this campaign went. I opted, for a few different reasons, to enact an in-game timeskip of about three weeks. In that time, the Godblind have settled into a manner of organization, under a leader, with a loose hierarchical military structure. Their immediate goal is to break into the Heavens, and the main characters have been given the mission of working in the frontline of that approach. Eventually, those three weeks will get filled in via flashback, to explain some of the bits of how the characters got to their present point.

Plot Summary
Essentially, all of the characters got established post-timeskip, on the verge of a planned Godblind invasion of the Heavens.

Katsuo and Nathan: Set in Motion
Invasion seemed to be the only word crossing people's mouths these days. Something he rather not do, but he kept the very unpopular opinion to himself. However, the opportunity to break into the heavens would provide him with some answers, not to mention a possiblity for revenge.

I kicked things off with a simple "establishment" scene between Katsuo and Nathan, two characters who really hadn't interacted at all over the course of this game. Katsuo mulled over his insecurities regarding the whole plan. Yes, he'd arranged everything, but he was also very wary of the way that the Godblind were acting, wanting (in general) to destroy most of the Living City. He reiterated to Nathan that it was answers he was looking for, mostly, regarding his father. Nathan talked through a few things as well. He had some fear of going back up, and he also struggled with his reasons for attacking the gods. In the end, he decided that it was redemption he was hoping for. That, and a new cello.

This scene wound up establishing a dynamic for Katsuo and Nathan...important, because both of those characters hadn't exactly had strong relationships with many members of the group. Katsuo found it hard to get along with most people, and Nathan had almost exclusively talked with Paige. He'd certainly not found many others to be conducive to anything beyond friendship, with all of the drama that had previously ensued.

Janice: Crazy and Loving It
Janice had taken all the plotting and invasion business in stride. In other words, she let everyone else decide what was going on, and skipped out on all the meetings and such. No one questioned it. Especially after she had nearly sliced a few people who asked a little too loudly why she was around in the first place.

Janice is great. She's such a loose cannon in the group, which always tends to make things interesting...but she's not out-and-out psycho, just a tad unbalanced. She has her own agendas in mind, and for the moment, that tends to line up with the Free City's rebellion. In her opening scene, Janice was painting up a building in the Free City, using her natural artistic talents, when she was challenged by a member of the Living City who was wearing exoskeleton armor (not as strong as a normal Protector, mind you...something more like Spartan Armor from Halo).

He was not a terribly brave soldier, and Janice managed to thoroughly unsettle him enough to send him running away. He blustered threats of getting authority to get rid of her, and that gave him enough excuse to scamper off. And Janice, sad that the political discussion had been cut short, headed back towards the Free City.

Paige and Eric: The Commander
Eric took a deep breath. "I try my best. Try to learn their ropes and what not. I just... I get the feeling that I just can't impress her, ya know? I mean..." Settling his shoulders, he brought his hands out of his pockets. "Like she almost wants me to fail."

Paige gave him a sympathetic smile. "She's probably just testing you because she knows you have a great capacity to learn all of this...Does that make sense?"


Well, after some work under the group's commanding officer, an NPC named Rowan, Eric was having a pretty rough day. Paige had just finished doing some mechanical study under Katsuo, and was rather worn out herself. She found enough spunk to give him the encouragement he needed to feel better, though. In the middle of an Eric hug, in stamped Rowan, the harsh CO.

She snapped at them, and informed them that they needed to be very prepared before the briefing for the invasion mission. Rowan, a woman aged roughly 7-8 years in this world (30ish in ours, physically), is not doing much to get on anyone's good side. She expects the characters to be up to par, and in solid grasp of the gravity of their roles. She will not accept failure as a result.

In Conclusion
And that was the end of our character intros, essentially. No major events happened this time around, but what we did get was a cross-section portrait of where each character is at the start of this arc. Stay tuned.

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