terra

[font=Trebuchet MS]Elanna had to admit to herself that she was somewhat relieved to be joined by someone on her way to the Campgrounds. A priest, no less ... If he couldn't protect her and provide amiable companionship along the way, the kingdom was in much worse condition than she'd thought. The two of them made good time that first day, Elanna gratefully accepting the position on the horse as Imric seemingly tirelessly walked beside her carrying the small bundle she was taking to the Fair. At first Jeffrey had wanted her to take their mule along with her, but Elanna had flatly insisted that the mule must stay with the farmer Zane as [i]some[/i] repayment for his gratitude in allowing him to stay there. Jeffrey had, eventually, agreed, and Elanna hadn't quite been sure if she could've made it to the Campgrounds on foot, but had staunchly set out anyway. The arrival of the priest and his horse were, well, a godsend. They awoke early on the second day of travelling, and set off again shortly after breakfast. "We're travelling quickly," Imric observed. The two were walking side by side that day, their belongings on the horse, to give Imric's back a rest after his strains the day before. "We should make it to the Fair by late afternoon, if we're lucky." "It's even closer than I'd thought," Elanna said, delight evident in her voice. Imric glanced at her with a small smile. "You're looking forward to the Fair, I take it?" "How could you not!" Elanna exclaimed, resisting the urge to jump in the most childish manner. "I'm sorry, you'll have to excuse my exuberance ... It's just that I've never been out of my hometown, and this is terribly exciting to me. I've been looking forward to seeing more of the world for ages, and this is the first time my parents have let me get out. I'm sure you're much more travelled than I am and this is all old news to you, but to me it seems so new and fresh!" Imric paused a moment before admitting, "Actually, I've never really left home for an extended period of time ... My parents wanted me to travel." Elanna looked at him, clearly aghast for a moment. "I can't believe you've never travelled and your parents [i]wanted[/i] you to!" she blurted out before remembering her manners and shutting her mouth. "Well, at least we're both on the road together," she fumbled for some sort of concluding statement. Her abrupt change of pace made Imric laugh a little, but he let her former sentiment go. The day passed quickly with their gentle conversation, and after several hours, Imric paused and squinted at the road ahead. "If my map and sense of direction are right," he said, "the Castle should be just after this hill." Forgetting her weary feet and parched throat, Elanna ran ahead to the top of the hill, dying for a vantage point of the famed Castle of Hevan-mei at last. And at its apex, she got it. The sun was just setting, casting golden rays against the solid rock construction of the Castle and the myriads of people surrounding it. The Castle itself was beautiful, with colorful glass windows and impressive-looking flags waving representing things Elanna couldn't even imagine. And the Campgrounds were teeming even this late in the afternoon. The ground seemed to nearly be spilling out on the edges from people rushing back and forth among brightly-colored tents that appeared as dotted specks from the distance. Behind her Imric and the horse approached, and Imric, though still slightly nervous about this whole travelling experience, couldn't help but share Elanna's amazement at the sight. "Think we're at the right place?" he quipped. Elanna laughed aloud with pure joy and they descended towards the Castle. Though the sight of the busy Fair had been impressive from a distance, it was far more intimidating as she and Imric neared it. Suddenly what looked like groups of cheerful citizens became slightly menacing, crowds of strangers who might or might not ignore her or, even worse, wish to harm her. Elanna was glad again for her company. She suddenly realized that she knew absolutely nobody at the fair, and that her situation could have been much more dangerous than it currently was. As it was growing dark already, Imric and Elanna headed towards the area of the Campgrounds that had been designated for the tents and camps of travelling visitors for themselves. On their way they passed several booths that were still open or just closing for the evening, and Elanna craned her neck to peer into them. Though she was interested in staking out a territory for herself to call "home" for the nights she'd be at the fair, she vowed she'd be back to visit those booths tomorrow or the day after, in particular one that was exhibiting clothes featuring embroidery far more beautiful than anything she'd ever seen. She deliberately tried to look away, however, from a group of rowdy boys and girls who appeared to be dunking their heads into barrels full of some dark brew. But she couldn't help glance at the proud banner that floated above them, something that, though it was written in plain words, she couldn't understand. It seemed to be about some farm crop; perhaps they were celebrating a good year. Well, that was more acceptable, she thought cheerfully. Eventually the two made it to the camping area. Elanna pulled her tent out of her pack immediately, glad for a chance to rest, as Imric tended to his horse patiently and tenderly. "Thank you so much for accompanying me," Elanna couldn't help but say again to the priest. "I don't know what I would've done without you." Imric smiled back at her gratefulness. "It was no trouble at all," he said. "I'll see you in the morning." With that, Elanna crawled into her tent and lay down, thrilled to give her feet a rest, and to finally be at the Fair.[/font] [size=1]OOC: Of course it's no problem you included my character :p Hope everything I did was okay, too. Also, unfortunately inti had to drop out because of time constraints, just so you all know. Final announcement, as I'm luckily a moderator, I can change the rating of the thread (according to the new regulations in the sticky) whenever I want :p. So if you want to add violence or make it worthy of an M rating instead, feel free to do so and I'll change the rating accordingly.[/size]

[i]September 5, 12:13pm[/i] [color=gray]Mima had been standing in the Vice-Principal's office for almost forty-five minutes. Though she had the tolerance of an angel (one of those tolerant angels, that is, not one of those impatient ones that rebelled against their god because they didn't get what they wanted), she was getting just slightly impatient. As it turned out, sometimes going completely unnoticed was [b]not[/b] a benefit. She had, however, been able to slip straight into the office to stand right by the desk of the Vice-Principal, easily bypassing the harried secretary who surely would have put her in a corner to wait and then promptly forgotten all about her. Now she was just waiting for either Mrs. or Mr. Kanagi to finally see her. After another ten minutes, Mima decided it was time to take action. She raised her hand to her face and politely coughed. Mr./s Kanagi looked up and jumped back in his chair. Unfortunately the chair was of the swivelling type, and the sudden movement caused the chair to spin violently until Kanagi grabbed the desk and was able to stop. "Oh! Hello," Mrs. Kanagi's voice came out, sounding a bit uncertain. "May I help you?" Wordlessly, Mima handed her the timesheet she had already picked up from the school's reception, listing her classes. "Uh, yes, ... um, Mima," Mrs. Kanagi said, looking at the girl up and down and clearly wondering why she had never seen or heard of this junior before. Maybe she was one of those few well-behaving children that they were rumored to have at this school ... "Is there something wrong with your schedule?" Mima nodded. "In order to grow, you must always place before yourself a challenge." Her voice floated through the room like an aroma on the air. It did not impress Mrs. Kanagi, however, who furrowed his eyebrows in an attempt to interpret just what the hell that might mean. "Uh ... you'd like more of a challenge?" she guessed. Mima nodded again. "Oh! Are you interested in enrolling in more classes?" A ghost of a smile crossed Mima's face, and she nodded. "Why wouldn't you just come out and [i]say[/i] that then ..." a deeper voice coming from the schizophrenic vice principal muttered, but Mrs. Kanagi quickly regained control. Raising her voice again, she addressed the student, "What classes would you like to take?" She realized that, somehow, Mima had crossed the room and was now staring out the window. A breeze from the window -- which Mrs. Kanagi could've sworn was closed a moment ago -- ruffled Mima's hair and dress in the most picturesque manner, and Mima's voice sounded plaintive and wise as she said, "Understanding comes only through much study, and both the poles of evil and good must be understood in order to achieve order in one's soul." Mrs. Kanagi was involuntarily and impatiently tapping her desk with one hand, while her other hand was covering it, trying desperately to achieve some image of patience. "Maybe you should see, uh, the principal about this, he might be able to address your issue a little more directly," she suggested in despair. And then she got the only straight answer from Mima that day, as the girl turned to her and, with surprising fire burning in her eyes, said directly, "No." Again a little taken aback -- sometimes Mr. Kanagi really wished his wife worked at a normal school -- Mrs. Kanagi glanced over Mima's class schedule again, then at the possible classes, and tried to remember what unnecessarily complex sentence the girl had just said. "Evil? Good? ... [i]Oh![/i] Would you like to take Hero and Villain Ethics?" That rare smile came from Mima again, and she nodded. "Well, your grades look quite acceptable," Mrs. Kanagi said hurriedly, eager to get her out of the office, "and the classes are definitely fine for someone in your year level." She scribbled a few notes on Mima's schedule and handed it back to you. "There you go, dear ..." "Now get out of here," a much more manly voice said, just before a hand clapped over Mr. Kanagi's mouth. Mima only raised an eyebrow before she disappeared, her mission accomplished. Time to move into her room.[/color]

Mother of God that's a lot of words, and I'm pretty verbose myself. Like KOTR said, you might want to consider shortening it just a weensy bit to encourage people to read it and sign up, if you do make it into an RPG. But the setting is intriguing.

I liked the future look too, but I did not appreciate that stuff about Arwen coming to Aragorn in his dreams and being all, "Waaaake uuuuuupppppp ..." That was just too ... stupid for me. Plus while the future stuff was in the appendix, whereas some of the other stuff they just made up. I also found the part where Arwen [spoiler]sees a vision of her and Aragorn having children and then going to Elrond all indignant being like, "You didn't tell me there were kids! I'm staying!!"[/spoiler] stupid.

[quote name='maladjusted][color=firebrick'] I feel like I'm getting shot down here. I'm saying CONSIDERING the time period he wrote it in, the female characters are pretty strong.[/color][/quote] Hehe, sorry, maladjusted. I didn't mean to "shoot you down," honestly -- I was just bringing up some other opinions on that subject, and they happened to be differing ones :p. Personally, I don't feel like the women in his books are particularly strong, nor do I think they're too weak. I think he portrays them accurately, but not too differently from men ... I mean, I don't think he portrays all men as incredibly brave and bold, so it makes sense to me that very few women (Eowyn) are brave and bold enough to defy the standards of their world and go to battle. Uh, I hope that made sense.

Arwen really didn't appear overly much in the book. They definitely upgraded her position in the movies, although it made a little more sense that way because in the book when she comes out of the blue in the end and [spoiler]marries Aragorn[/spoiler] it makes a little less sense. There's a lot more of the background in the appendix, but I didn't read that until much later so it was just a little puzzling. One critic of the books said that Tolkien's penchant for presenting women in the book either as figures of extreme good (Galadriel) or extreme evil (Shelob) revealed his secret hatred of them, or something. I think that's complete BS, by the way.

I think it does come down to interpretations. My professor talked a lot about Sam and she never mentioned anything about him [spoiler]getting corrupted by the Ring[/spoiler], and I definitely agree with Vash and DW on that point, [spoiler]that he got to go as a privilege/gift because he carried the Ring for a short while rather than because he had to[/spoiler]. I mean, yes, your professor is undoubtedly very intelligent, but no professor or expert on any piece of literature can really have a completely definitive say on the author's purpose (unless there's some sort of letter from the author in which he explained it explicitly). Which, come to think of it, there just might be. I'm kind of interested to read some of the Tolkien letters, apparently they're published as a book somewhere too.

[color=green]Hi jynxthehero201, Welcome to the Arena. You may want to read the stickies at the top of the forum; you seem to have placed your signup sheet in slightly the wrong place. Recruitment threads belong in the [b]Adventure Inn[/b]. Once you have finished recruiting, you can start a fresh thread in the [b]Adventure Square[/b], where you had originally placed this thread. I've moved the thread for you, but now you know for the future :). Also, RPGs in this forum are expected to be quite well thought-out. Because of this, I'd ask you to extend your back story at least a little bit. If you're wondering more of what's expected, you could check out other RPGs in the Adventure Inn, as many of them have extensive and detailed stories behind them. Thanks, and welcome to OB :). --terra[/color]

Heh, have patience, Zidargh. Some of us are busy :p. [b]Name:[/b] Lucca [b]Approximate Age:[/b] 17 [b]Picture:[/b] [url]http://www.square-haven.com/games/snes/ct/guide/characters/lucca.php[/url] [b]Personality:[/b] Lucca is extremely intelligent, and she certainly knows it, but her self-confidence doesn't usually extend into egotism. (Well fine, occasionally it does.) She harbors a love for technology, coupled with a slight distrust of humankind and their penchant for abusing that technology. She's always eager to try new things, particularly if it's in the pursuit of scientific discovery, and she's generally unafraid of uncertainty -- you have to be when you step into something that's supposed to transport you back in time. Though Lucca seems like she spends a lot of her time daydreaming of new inventions she could create, she's also a very loyal friend. She's not the best listener, perhaps, and she'll often leave in the middle of a conversation to tinker with some contraption, but she really does make an effort. [b]Background:[/b] Lucca was always engrossed in her studies growing up, and when she was five, she asked her father if she could have some sort of lab. Luckily for her, her father already had one in their basement, and he was more than happy to have his brilliant daughter join him down there. What followed were ten amazing years as Lucca grew into an ingenious inventor far beyond his own skills. They were able to create the Telepod, an invention designed to teleport people from one place to each other. Unfortunately the thing ran into a small snag when they were demonstrating it at the kingdom's Millennial Fair, as it swallowed up a girl; apparently their invention had opened a time portal. Much adventure ensued, as Lucca and her best friend Crono went after the girl, spanning millions of years in their quest to change destiny. Some things that particularly concerned Lucca were her success at reprogramming Robo, a robot they met in the future who was able to join their team, and her invention of the Gate Key, which gave the group more control over their time travelling. [b]Skills/Qualifications:[/b] Lucca is a technological genius, and that might even be an understatement. Her talent for creative inventions and her programming skills could not be undervalued ... even in a plumbing company. She's also quite the straight shooter, though you probably wouldn't guess it to look at her. [b]Homeplace:[/b] Truce Village in the Kingdom of Guardia [b]Game Appearance:[/b] Chrono Trigger [b]Post Background Preference:[/b] I think I like the white or yellow. Or the pink or the purple or the ...

[font=Trebuchet MS]Elanna woke up in the morning feeling ecstatic. It was the eleventh day of their journey and they'd been making excellent time, and expected to arrive at the Campgrounds after two more days of travelling. She stretched, yawning, noticing that Jeffrey had already gotten up for the day, as she had the tent to herself now. Travelling with Jeffrey had been pleasant, just like the entirety of the rest of their relationship together. They made good companions, and always had; they were able to keep up steady conversations, helped each other out, had known each other so long that they knew all of each other's likes and dislikes. It was nice, and all that Elanna could ask for in a fiance. Maybe even a little more; Elanna thought she could smell breakfast cooking already. The scent got her up, and indeed, bacon was frying on their small campfire when she peeked her head out of the tent. "Morning, sweetheart," Jeffrey said, grunting slightly. He was doing pullups on a limb of the tree that was not sheltering them from the harsh morning sun, while he waited for the bacon to cook. Elanna couldn't help but grin -- that was such typical Jeffrey, always getting things done as efficiently as possible. "You weren't going to let this burn, were you?" Elanna teased him as she turned the bacon. "I've been keeping an eye on it," Jeffrey grinned, then grimaced as he pulled himself up. "We have eggs, too, I bought them from a farmer a little ways down the road." Elanna squealed her delight at the prospect of a real bacon-and-eggs breakfast. She cracked them into the pan eagerly, and was just putting the prepared food onto plates when she heard an ominous crack. The next moment she looked up, Jeffrey was lying on the ground, the broken limb beside him, and he was clutching his ankle and moaning. "Well, it doesn't look too good to me," said the grizzled old farmer, who'd introduced himself as Zane. He'd immediately recognized Jeffrey as "the young man who'd boughten those eggs just this morning!", and ushered them in to examine Jeffrey's ankle. As their luck had it, he was the amateur doctor for the surrounding area, as well. After examining the ankle for a few more moments, Zane straightened up. "You're welcome to stay here as long as you need, if you'd like -- I'd say you probably wouldn't want to travel on it, anyway." "How long do you think it'll take to mend?" Jeffrey asked, voicing Elanna's own worry. Zane glanced at the ankle again appraisingly. "Could be anywhere from a couple days to a couple weeks, I guess," he said. "Excuse me, let me go find my wife and get you kids something to eat and drink." By the time Jeffrey looked over at Elanna, she had masked her sadness and disappointment and was smiling brightly at him, but he hadn't been with her for six years for nothing. "You should go without me," he said immediately. "What? No!" Elanna protested. "We'll wait for your ankle to heal and go together." "If we wait, you might miss the Fair, and you've had your heart set on it for ages," Jeffrey said. "I know how much this means to you -- please, you should go. To be honest, I think the Fair would be fun and all, but I'm not dead set on it like you are." Elanna hesitated. "If I get better within the week, I'll come and find you," Jeffrey promised. "Please, sweetheart, I really want you to go." So somehow Elanna found herself on the road again in a few hours, this time very much alone, heading again towards the Castle of Hevan-mei.[/font]

I never got the impression that Sam was corrupted by the Ring, exactly. More that he couldn't quite fit into life on Middle Earth after wearing it, like Frodo and Bilbo before him. Which I guess could be described as "corrupted," but I thought of it more as ... "irrevocably changed," because I never thought Sam was as tempted by the power of the Ring as the other two. (Not to say he's stronger than them or anything, obviously, since his circumstances were quite different.) But yeah, though I always thought the Frodo/Sam storyline was the least interesting part of the book, I don't think the fact that Frodo was strong could be up for debate. It was much harder to visually display the weight the Ring exerted on him, which is probably why people who've only watched the movies think Frodo was such a wimp. The books describe it in some more detail.

Yeah, there's a lot more on the dwarves and the extent to which they do end up getting involved in everything in the appendices of the book, which are an interesting (albeit nerdiest ever) read. Anyway, I wasn't a huge fan of the movies until I had to re-read the books for class (Oh yes. That's right. I took a college level [i]class[/i] entirely on [i]Lord of the Rings[/i]. [strike]Run away now, my nerdiness overpowers you all[/strike]). Then I started realizing that the majority of it was really well-done. By the way, the additions in the extended version of [i]The Two Towers[/i] made me really happy. Mostly because [spoiler]a) they showed more of the conflict between Faramir and Denethor as well as the camaraderie between the two brothers, which made it much clearer why Faramir took the hobbits back to Minas Tirith and made it more okay for me that they changed it from the book, and b) they actually showed the Huorns (the Ents' herd) taking care of the dwarves after the battle at Helm's Deep[/spoiler]. I don't know why I've never seen the extended of the first one ... Also, by the way, to the people who mentioned the [i]Chronicles of Narnia[/i], C.S. Lewis (the author of that) and Tolkien were friends and they wrote letters to each other and stuff. (Incidentally, they were also both Christian, and both intended to use their fantasy worlds to get across some of their Christian morals and beliefs. But I hate talking about the religion in [i]Lord of the Rings[/i].)

As KnightOfTheRose said, I'm pretty sure everybody has noticed this. And some people care, whereas others don't. Like cutetanuki expressed, some people aren't interested in seeing their RPG finish ... a lot of people don't have a set goal in mind when they start an RPG, so they simply don't mind as much when posting slows down. And it's not that all "good" RPGs have to finish, either. There are plenty of good RPGs that haven't been finished. And I would imagine some good RPGs aren't even designed to finish. I could be completely wrong about this, but Solo's about-to-begin "Anime Stereotype High School" RPG, while it certainly promises to be amusing and fun, doesn't really promise an ending. It's just about kids in high school, and that kind of storyline doesn't really end. (Of course, Solo could have something up his sleeve ... it was just the first example I thought of.) There are also some rather more long-running RPGs that, while the posting has certainly slowed down extremely dramatically, I still say have a good chance of "finishing" one day. At least, they will if I have a say in it. I'm referring to Arcadia's "Laeth E'Thae" (which she started, like, the second day she got to the boards) and Ben's "When Humans Are the Enemy" (which is actually over a year old as of a few days ago). In both cases people have dropped out, but there are a few dedicated posters willing to see some kind of ending ... someday ... possibly. So just because an RPG is really, really old doesn't mean it's quite dead yet ... there might just be someone willing to resuscitate it. So yeah, there's been more than one RPG on these boards that has made it to the end :p.

[color=green]I was hoping Balmon would post, but apparently not so far, and I'm bored.[/color] -------------------- "News team, assemble!" Johnny Bravo bellowed, flicking his golden hair out from one eye. "Johnny, we're all [i]right here[/i]," Adrienne said, sounding exasperated. She was sitting two feet away from him, and they were both reclining in chairs, being eagerly dabbed at with giant poofs of white fluff by makeup artists. She also seemed to be annoyed, probably not in small part because she'd seen Johnny flirting with that tart of a copy girl five minutes before. "I don't see why you always feel the need to say that. This news team is undoubtedly the worst I've ever been on. I enjoyed myself much more on WKXYRASS, now they actually [i]know[/i] how to present the news --" "Five minutes to showtime," a chirpy assistant squeaked as she popped out of nowhere, then disappeared to wherever she'd come from just as quickly. "You're always complaining," Tae-Won said, trying not to blink as someone expertly applied mascara to his curly eyelashes. "Why don't you just shut up about it? Or leave, if you dislike us so much?" "Hey, don't knock Adrienne because she's actually made anchorwoman while you're still doing the weather," Yu Kan spoke up, holding still as makeup artists poured on the foundation to cover up his wrinkles. "Everyone knows you had your eye on that spot for ages. Maybe if you ever let go of your guitar you'd actually get it." Tensions were running high, and the not-so-united news team might have been giving each other evil looks if they weren't otherwise involved with being thoroughly caked in makeup. "Time to go on!" the chirpy re-appearing assistant announced, and in seconds, the familiar theme music to the WACK six o'clock news was playing. "Good evening, I'm your news anchor, Johnny Bravo," Johnny said, directing the full force of his beaming smile out to the [strike]millions[/strike] [strike]thousands[/strike] hundreds of watching Americans. "And [i]I'm[/i] your news anchor, Adrienne Marshall," Adrienne cut in, also directing the full force of her beaming smile toward the camera. Just as Johnny was about to speak, Adrienne deliberately lifted her hands and pulled out her bun, tossing her head to show off her thick, silky hair that somehow no cameraman could pull away from. After thirty seconds of silence, Johnny, who had also been unable to take her eyes off her (the women around the station rolled their eyes), cleared his throat and continued. "Our top story tonight is the heightening of the security level in three parts of the nation," Johnny said, his voice deepening into what he called his "teleprompter talk." "But more on that later," Adrienne interrupted once again, "as more importantly, it turns out that my co-anchor Johnny Bravo seems to wear a [i]hairpiece[/i]. If you'd like visual proof, I believe we have a compelling tape shot on the scene from an eyewitness." Johnny actually stood up, his mouth open, and sputtered. "WHAT?! -- I mean," sitting down again and trying to compose himself, "Thanks for that top story, Adrienne, but it doesn't look like we'll have time to run the tape with all of the news we have to cover tonight. Luckily, there's another story that needs no videotape for introduction -- It turns out that Ms. Marshall, my co-anchor, is a complete bitch and a half, and you'd have no trouble seeing that if you've ever watched the 6:00 news before!" Adrienne's eyes flashed their anger and the papers in front of Johnny caught on fire. "Uh," he said, a little caught off-guard and motioning desperately for some water, "let's turn it over to Tae-Won for weather for now. Tae-Won? How's it looking? ... Tae-Won?" The camera swerved abruptly to a map of the Eastern coast of the United States, as well as Tae-Won actually asleep standing up, leaning slightly on his guitar. At the third mention of his name, he came to abruptly, wiping a little bit of drool off the side of his mouth. "Uh, right, Johnny, thanks," he said, still looking dazed. "Looks like there's an 87.3% chance of precipitation, um, here, here, and here," he said, pointing at Michigan, Georgia, and Florida with his guitar. "And it's going to snow in Maine, for the first time ever in August! Back to you, Adrienne." A muttered "Incompetent son of a ..." in a female voice was heard before Adrienne looked up brightly to address the camera once more. "Oh, thanks for that scintillating weather report, Tae-Won! And now for the latest in sports news, our very own sports correspondent, Yu Kan Kook." The moment the camera spotlighted Yu Kan, he looked bemused. That was the only way to describe it. The poor guy had been struggling with his senility and all the station knew it, but as nobody had found a replacement for him yet, the only thing they could do night after night was put him on and hope he somehow made it through. Tonight wasn't looking that hopeful, though. After stuttering for a few minutes, the poor guy fell back on the only thing he knew to be true: "Tae-Won wanted the anchor spot but they wouldn't give it to him because he always carries that stupid guitar around!" "All right, that's it, old man --" Tae-Won seemed to have had enough, and he vaulted over the news desk that separated him and the sports section with his guitar raised high and aiming for Yu Kan. The outburst was enough to shatter the already fragile peace established between Adrienne and Johnny, who attacked each other furiously, though to bystanders it wasn't always clear if they were making out or clawing each other. The station was in chaos and its director was laughing heartily, evilly, even, one might say. "Brilliant," she seemed to be chuckling. "BRILLIANT! This will SURELY get our ratings back up!!" ------------------------ "All right, I've had enough of this ridiculous anchorman crap," Ellie shouted testily, striding through the set once more. Unfortunately, it was now clear to everybody that Adrienne and Johnny were indeed making out, albeit [i]also[/i] scratching each other. "AHEM." Adrienne and Johnny parted, looking guilty. "Aren't you still enemies?" Ellie said shortly. "Er, yes," Adrienne started, "but --" "Whatever, I don't know why I wasted my breath asking," Ellie moved on dismissively. "You guys are needed on a set over at Studio 4. They've asked you to do an [b][color=green]advertisement for Pantene Pro-V Shampoo and Conditioner[/b][/color], God knows why. You'd better get over there pronto."

*clears throat* My favorite character is Aissa Safiya'a because she's awesome and her posts are in green. Actually, I forgot that was her last name :p. Good to know ... But really. I'm feeling really stuck at the moment in the RPG, mostly because my character idiotically left herself, Anubis, and Leile at a cliffhanger of sorts (Aissa asked Anubis to explain his history with the university, but he hasn't responded yet). I think it'd be helpful to know more about Anubis because he's been such an enigmatic character so far, and there's so much we don't really understand about him -- the tattoos, his relationship with the cursed rooms, etc. Since we're sort of waiting for other people to show up, I also feel like I don't know what the three of them could do until then. Any ideas?

[font=Trebuchet MS]The scroll announcing the decade's Luthen Fair was sent out to every part of Hevan-mei over six months in advance. The parchments were lovingly protected by their messengers, never unrolled until they reached their final destination so that the colors that had been hand-inked onto each sheet stayed as vibrant as possible. Elanna had traced the sheet with her eyes hundreds of times, her neck craned upward to see the announcement tacked up on her town's central message board.[/font] [center][font=Book Antiqua]King Navare announces the [size=3][b][color=blue]LUTHEN FAIR[/color][/b][/size] [size=1]to occur in the first two weeks of the month of[/size] August [size=1]of[/size] Year 26 [size=1]of his Realm at the[/size] Campgrounds of the Castle of Hevan-mei [size=1]all denizens of [/size]Hevan-mei, Jesobe, and Vernasith [size=1]are cordially invited[/size][/font][/center] [font=Trebuchet MS]Elanna had been desperate to go the moment she saw the announcement, even more desperate than when the same announcement had appeared ten years ago. But now she was in a much better position than when she'd been fourteen; then, her parents had been able to coax away her desire with complaints that they couldn't get away from the farm and there was no way she could travel all that way on her own. Today, armed with her engagement and ten extra years of experience, Elanna had been able to get their agreement to let her and Jeffrey go together, a sort of pre-wedding honeymoon that would negate their need for a post-wedding one. Their bags were packed and ready for the two-week journey to the Castle, and Elanna was waiting at the town's message board for Jeffrey, reading the blessed announcement one more time. Grasping at every word on the parchment, Elanna savored their promise; she might even meet visitors from the neighboring kingdoms of Jesobe and Vernasith. The invitation was extended to those parts as well, and she'd heard that there were always at least a few people from outside Hevan-mei at the Fair. Outside Hevan-mei! Elanna laughed to herself cheerfully. This would be her second town outside her tiny hometown, and she might even meet people from outside Hevan-mei! Just as she thought she would go mad from her anticipation, Jeffrey appeared alongside their mule, who was carrying the small cart of their belongings. "Are you ready, sweetheart?" her fiance asked, looking fondly at her. Elanna smiled and returned his look. "I simply can't wait," she grinned.[/font]

[i]Office Space[/i] is completely one of those classics. Uh, you know, not quite along the same lines as [i]When Harry Met Sally[/i] or anything ... (which I haven't seen ...) but that brand of classic comedy. Any of my friends can quote a line, and any of my other lines will look at him/her and go, "OFFICE SPACE." It bridges gaps. ... But really, it's hysterical, and it does get a little funnier once you have worked in an office. My friends are forever saying "I couldn't get something to fax today and I felt [i]just[/i] like I was in [i]Office Space[/i]" ... it really does touch on the unfortunate office life of cubicle dwellers everywhere. And like you guys said above, their music choices are perfect. "Damn It Feels Good to Be a Gangster" is hysterical in its ridiculousness ... there's that one verse about him being the President or something ... [quote name='Semjaza Azazel']Every character is absolutely perfectly casted. I believe all of them, even the most ridiculous of them seems realistic.[/quote] Really? Even Milton? I find him a little unbelievable ... like a lot unbelievable.

Crystal watched as the remaining cave scorpions were slowly picked off by the Chameleon clones, slightly mesmerized by the flickering appearance and disappearance of their bodies. Their methods were interesting, to say the least, and though Rena had thrown herself into the battle with her typical excitement, Crystal had absolutely no desire to join in. Here they were on the edge of the human base, but it somehow seemed that they'd hardly progressed at all; they were fighting cave scorpions, and it seemed like they'd been fighting cave scorpions forever. Crystal's eyebrow quirked as she realized that it couldn't be a good sign that she was actually bored in a fight with cave scorpions. Or maybe it was; the first time she'd seen the majestically horrifying creatures, she'd nearly been paralyzed with fear, and now it felt like she could take on two single-handedly. Crystal turned away from the fray and nearly screamed. Only a few feet away stood those lifeless eyes and rows upon rows of teeth that she remembered quite vividly from the clone city. The Sense Leader moved his mouth in what might have been something of a smirk; he clearly recognized her, too. Before she spoke, Ben stepped forward, also seeming to hold in a gurgled exclamation of recognition. "Sir!" he said. "What are you doing here?" His voice was soft, an urgent murmur that reminded them all how close they were to the humans. Jedgar drew a bit nearer to listen to the conversation; even Rena noticed the large new group of clones on the scene and paused in her bloodfest. Grim explained the situation to them in a few terse sentences. Crystal nodded along though, to be honest, the whole idea of psychic powers and blocking them seemed like a lot to her. It was one of those moments she was glad she was born simple. The moment the thought passed through her head she was also glad that psychic powers were being stopped at the moment, because that would've given Ben quite a laugh. "We need to destroy that jammer," the Sense Leader finished. "Do you have any idea where it's located in the human base?" Ben asked. "We haven't been able to pinpoint a specific location," Grim admitted. "But the signals seem to be emanating from the right side of the base rather than the left." Crystal bit her lip. It wasn't a hell of a lot to go on, and she was remembering the pain that had shot through her mind just a few moments ago. If that was the power the humans had harnessed, she was not looking forward to ever experiencing it again. She felt obliged to speak up. "It would be difficult enough to enter the base even if the humans hadn't found a way to master psychic powers," Crystal said. "As it is, it'll be nearly impossible. Humans are guarding the door, the second anybody gets anywhere near it we'll be blasted in our minds, and shortly after, in our chests." "And they're guarding the door with lasers," Jedgar added from the sidelines. "The second we get into range, we'll be shot through." As they were speaking, a chameleon-clone who'd been standing guard at the nearby entrance to the caves scampered up to the group. "Bad news," he said grimly. "Scouts are telling us it looks like humans are headed this way. They'll be at the caves within half an hour." "How many?" Ben asked. "No one can give an exact number yet, but it looks like it's definitely more than our current force can deal with," the clone replied. "That clinches it," Grim said authoritatively. "We have to destroy their psychic jammer way before they get there, or we'll be torn apart."

[font=Trebuchet MS] [b]Name:[/b] Elanna Marionne [b]Gender:[/b] female [b]Age:[/b] 24 [b]Appearance:[/b] Elanna is an extremely girly girl. She always likes wearing long, flowing dresses in pastel colors, and walks with grace after having practiced for years in front of the mirror in her bedroom. Her hair is long, curly, and a nice light brown; her eyes are blue and bright. She is a little on the petite side, and probably wouldn't stand out much in a crowd. [b]Skills:[/b] Elanna has always been able to see in the dark. She also has a certain tendency to be able to guess what people are thinking that would have developed into real psychic power if she had ever attended an academy or university in the kingdom. [b]Personality:[/b] Elanna has had a very limited life experience, being mostly restricted to her small village of Grenada and the life of a farmer, so she is quite naive at times. However, she is able to enjoy herself pretty much wherever she is, and she is very loyal and helpful to the ones she loves. Though she is very feminine, she is not squeamish of getting in and doing hard work when it needs to be done, and she hardly ever shirks her responsibilities. Occasionally she dreams once more of a life beyond the farm, but she has been successful at quieting that yearning within herself for many years. [b]Biography:[/b] Elanna's parents were petrified when they heard the Prophecy concerning their as-yet unborn child. They were peasant farmers with a decent-sized crop of land on the edge of the kingdom, and they had been trying to have children for years. At first, it had simply been a matter of needing more help on the farm, but after a few years, it became a desperate desire to raise a family. The Marionne parents felt that the prophecy would take away their only child. Neither of them knew quite what to say to the other, fretting silently over it instead, until it hadn't been mentioned for a week. Then months. Then their child was born, and they never mentioned the Prophecy again. Elanna grew up as a very curious and intelligent child. Her parents were very protective of her, but she still managed to get into her own forms of innocent mischief. At a young age she proved to be a great help around the farm, and soon her parents weren't sure how they managed without her. As a child, Elanna always had a very intuitive sense of what other people were thinking. It began showing in small ways, such as Elanna getting up to set the table just before her mother was about to ask her to do so, then perhaps in slightly more important ways, like when Elanna went up to her friend Jeffrey in the next village and said, "I know you want to ask me out, so why don't you already?" If her parents suspected anything, they again kept silent. When she turned 18, Elanna desperately wanted to attend the prestigious university near the king's castle, but her parents told her that they simply did not have the resources to send her there. They did not inform her that the king often offered generous scholarships to gifted children. Elanna had no hope for it and let the recruiter pass her village by without attending the interviews. At 23, Elanna and Jeffrey got engaged, and they plan to marry in three months' time. Jeffrey and his brothers have been building a small house for them on the property between their families' two farms, and Elanna knows she will inherit all of her parents' land one day.[/font] [center]----------------------------[/center] [size=1]Here's a list of the participants. Thanks for all the sign-ups -- they were great :). Ohkami: Meiko Mizuya Crucifix: Imric Connor DaisukeAngel: Lyra Hyrinsohn Domon: Caden Meinric Raiha: Avlenn Arboreal Heaven's Cloud: Falstaff McBroomwitch dMage: Keiryn 'Enroy Lrb: Matsuo Retendo inti: Vivian Crescent terra: Elanna Marionne[/size] [center]----------------------------[/center] [size=1]I'm going to try to write the first post for the RPG tonight, and have it up tomorrow. In order to get all of our characters together a little sooner, I'm going to ask that everybody head towards a common destination: the [b]Luthen Fair[/b], held at the vast campgrounds outside the Castle of Hevan-mei. The Luthen Fair is your basic medieval carnival, held once every ten years -- and guess what, this is the year. The campgrounds are huge, so you can be as creative as you'd like thinking of what booths might be there once you get there. You can start at the campgrounds if you'd like, or if you'd rather portray your character as s/he travels towards the Fair, that's fine as well. After some introductory posts I plan to move the plot a little bit, though, so please don't take too long :p. Thanks![/size]

I was born in New Jersey and have lived there for about 17 years of my life and I've never heard of that law. Maybe it's some popularist, really quick version of the law that has a more reasonable explanation behind it. Either that, or it doesn't exist. Just had to get that in ... Jersey is a unique place. Well, in my opinion, anyway ... Everybody who lives there knows it has pretty much the worst reputation in the United States, yet we all defend it like crazy. At least I do.

[color=green]Dragonblood and jacobian007, If you could keep comments and questions like that, which are not relevant to the RPG (Dragonblood's) or could be PMed directly to the creator (jacobian007's), to Private Messages, I would be most appreciative. :) Adventure Inn threads should only contain signups and questions that are relevant to all members of the RPG. Thanks, --terra[/color]

I've only read one Discworld novel, but not for lack of interest (I have no time these days ... or ever). I'm a big fan of Terry Pratchett and the world he created because he's so good his form parody. But I think it'd be really hard to translate the Discworld series into an RPG. It's difficult even for one writer to achieve the comedic effect that he does, and I'm sure that adding more writers into the mix would only make it more complicated. It might be feasible if the writers all knew each other well, but Pratchett often sets up something and capitalizes on it much later. I feel like in RPGs, it'd be much harder to have accomplish anything like that. In reality, though Pratchett's writing is funny and people even think it's aimed towards children, it's pretty sophisticated. That all being said, it'd still be a fun concept :p. (By the way, you wouldn't really need a moderator to give you the go-ahead if you wanted to create an RPG ... there's no requirement to run RPG ideas by moderators before creating them in the Adventure inn. If that's what you meant by your last sentence.)

Oh ... I thought the Sense leader was heading towards the same human base as the majority of our happy crew. I have to say I didn't want Alaris to go alone, by the way, but by the two months later when I got to the thread, it was decided for me :p. What exactly is going on at the human base where Ben, Rena, and Crystal are, anyway? Are the humans still inside? Is there any way the Sense leader and his troupe [i]could[/i] be heading toward the same base ... in which case we could join with them and have a point ahead of us (to destroy the psychic dampener)? I know the human base is probably huge, but it would give us something to do, a sort of smaller attack to weaken them a little bit. If you don't want to go that route, there's really not much Ben, Rena, and Crystal can do, unless we were to try to do some sort of reconnaissance or something. Which would be a little difficult as we're pretty easy to spot.

[quote name='Solo Tremaine][COLOR=#503F86']When Humans Are The Enemy had four/five major players for quite some time and it still manages alright.[/COLOR][/quote] That reminds me I have been meaning to write a post for that for like ... ages. :D Anyway, like the others have said, there's really no way to tell. Someone who's been super-active in plenty of RPGs before might sign up for yours and then it doesn't go the way s/he wanted, so s/he drops out. I'll take myself as an example ... I'm pretty dedicated to the Adventure Square in general most of the time, but I've definitely dropped out of RPGs before. Sometimes when people post at a different pace than I do (usually they're much faster) it's really hard to read what's going on and keep up, and sometimes people have different ideas of the level of detail to include than I, so I don't find the story as entertaining as I could. Things like that are really hard to predict for each individual person. [quote name='Crucifix][color=gray']I think, if you seriously want people to be dedicated, then ask them for a link to a previous RPG in their sign up, that way you can check how much they posted. *shrugs* but that could be taking it a bit too far.[/color][/quote] I don't think that looking at anybody's previous RPG experience is taking it too far like Crucifix said ... At one piont recruiters would even ask for a PM sample from people signing up to determine whether or not they get in. I know for myself I generally try to have a good idea of members' normal level of participation in the Square (though that might also be because usually I have to read most of the RPGs anyway). It's usually not the determining factor of whether they get into the RPG or not, but it lets me know a little more of what to expect.

I don't know if I can provide much help, but I think this is really cute and some of the names made me laugh out loud :). I really liked a lot of the organization names, like "Teh 3mp1re" and the "Spamtroopers." Since there are so many characters and things, it might be a little easier if you made it into a fanfic rather than an RPG? It could be fun as a game, though. Unfortunately I don't know overly much about the locations in Star Wars so I can't really help you out ... but I like it so far :).