terra

"Where the hell do they think [i]they're[/i] going?!" Crystal said, mostly to herself, as she noticed the panther-clone and the other weird thing slither into a hole in the wall. Out of which, she also noticed, hundreds of tiny scorpions appeared to be pouring. "They're heading for the source," Ben yelled back at her, slashing forward into a cave scorpion with his bracelets as he did so. "And geez, he's a [i]pangolin[/i]." "You know, I'm getting really sick of this know-it-all thing of yours," Crystal muttered, watching only semi-interestedly as Ben feinted left to dodge the snap of pincers. [i]And this scorpion thing is getting kind of old, too,[/i] she added to herself. Even so, she dashed forward with a dagger raised high. A scorpion's tail was darting towards the crocodile-clone, and he was too massive to dodge out of the way quickly enough. Crystal slashed with all her might, cutting half of the tail off cleanly. It howled its pain and turned to face her, and Crystal was left without a plan in her head. "Thanks," the crocodile-clone said gruffly, and slammed into the scorpion with all of his twelve-foot frame. Crystal raised her eyebrows as even the hard-as-nails scorpion was crushed against the wall, falling back onto the ground on its side. A leg still kicked feebly, and Crystal raised her dagger, plunging it down to rip a long gash down its stomach. "Karokku," the crocodile-clone grunted. "Crystal," she introduced herself briefly. "Ben, you done yet?" "Yeah, I'm done," he said, getting up from the ground where he'd just finished tearing through the other scorpion's mouth and underbelly. "Seems to be a brief lull." Just then, the enormous Karokku toppled to the ground, Crystal jumping to the side to avoid being crushed. She spotted something she'd failed to notice earlier, a gaping wound in his knee. "The poison from the scorpions," Ben said grimly. "He's lucky to still be alive." "Well, hurry up and do your thing so we can get out of here," Crystal said, pulling out her crossbow in case any more scorpions came by. She tried not to think too much about the much smaller scorpions that were slowly scuttling across the cave floor towards them. Ben gave her a withering look, which Crystal chose to ignore, and bent over the crocodile-clone.

Ah, the first time I glanced at this thread I thought it was just for [i]your[/i] website design. Which, by the way, I really love. Gives you plenty of space and has a great retro feel. Though I've never thought I'd have a use for the little windows like the three you have on the side ... Well, you use them, so whatever :p. Unfortunately, I couldn't see any of your links, wrist cutter ... they all give me a 404 error. unikue.net is nice and streamlined ... Like Tony said, you do need some content. :p Anyway, I design websites, but they're all very simple. Actually I got a job designing the computing websites for my school this summer, but I'm too embarrassed to show those, hehe. Here's a screenshot the current layout of my personal website, which is mainly a blog. The picture is a picture of me that I took and turned into vector art. (I guess this is the closest to a picture of me I've posted on the forum as well ... Although when most of my friends saw it, they were just like, "Who's that Native American girl?" ...) [img]http://pantheon.yale.edu/~elc23/fun/screenshot.gif[/img]

So ... many ... banners ... must ... comment ... Yeah, okay, anyway. I love the RahXephon set that you're using now, its simplicity is stunning, particularly since it's (duh) his eyes. The border thing at the top is pretty cool, as well :). I like the second set of RahXephon ones with the girl, as well, but ... on the left "panel," the circular cutout on its right bottom bothers me a little bit. I think it's because of the amount of white space between it and her picture on the right, it just looks a little odd to me. Still, great job, I love the picture you chose, and the accent of her eyes. For the three Saiyuki ones, I don't like the first one as much as the other two, I'm not sure why. I think I would've liked it better if you used two different pictures, maybe one in color ..? Eh, I don't know. The other two are great, though. I like the second one a lot, the little extra panel for his name looks great. (By the way ... what's Saiyuki? :D) I like the cutouts on the Big O banner. The banner overall seems extremely symmetrical, though, and I seem to remember you telling me that was a bit of a no-no ... ;) I like the font in the banner for Hack Helba a lot. Even though it's kind of the same idea as the first Saiyuki one, I like this one better ... maybe it's the cutout on the left that still keeps the pictures slightly different from each other, even though they're the same. (I really like the way that banner and avi go together, by the way.) The Cowboy Bebop set seems very typical of your style (in a good way) ... hehe. I think the cutout in the avi is spaced a tiny bit too far from the rest of the picture, though. I LOVE the FLCL banner. I think it's perfect. The Please Teacher banner is also pretty cool, I'm glad you added depth to it with the drop shadow on the guy. The color for the one for MystiqueZeppel was a great choice, I saw the image she provided and I'm impressed with the unique idea you came up with for it. The cutout you made to fit her name in is also great ... except the fact that it kind of looks like an oval with a triangle sticking off of it. I might like it better if you changed the right side of the cutoff a little so it wasn't so distinctly ovally. Great cropping of the picture for the avi! Ah ... feels good. I've been meaning to do that for a while :p

[QUOTE][i]Originally posted by Dark_Apocalyps [/i] Im not really fond of the 2nd... What can i say? I like her more in the pic of your avater -_- [/QUOTE] Hehe, actually I did too, which is why that banner was in my sig for all of ... half a week? Anyway, at least juna liked it :D. Thanks for the comments guys!! Some more ... For Kain: [img]http://pantheon.yale.edu/~elc23/fun/alucard3.gif[/img] For Ben: [img]http://pantheon.yale.edu/~elc23/fun/puppetmon.gif[/img] I really like the Alucard one, particularly since I usually do more cutesy banners than that. I didn't have much inspiration for the Puppetmon one, since I've never seen the part of the show with him, but I think it still came out all right. Hehe, I watched eight or nine episodes of Love Hina today so guess what I made ... [img]http://pantheon.yale.edu/~elc23/fun/lovehina1.gif[/img] [img]http://pantheon.yale.edu/~elc23/fun/naru.gif[/img] I love the first one, especially since all I really had to do was cut out the picture and add a border. The second one was something new I thought I'd try, I liked how it turned out :) I have plans for some Shinobu ones since Naru is so overdone, too ... But I couldn't resist doing these anyway, hehe.

Hey -- your banner skills have improved hugely since you first started! I like the last, er, several :). Comments in reverse order: I never like the shades effect too much because I always think it makes banners look to dark, but the Li Shoran one is still very clean and nice, so good job. The Kenshin one is a little plain, but its simplicity makes a strong statement. I really like the Yu Yu Hakusho one with the four panels. The picture quality is great and it looks very clean. But I think you could've made them all at different heights instead of 2 and 2 as it is. Also, the borders on them kind of fade in and out ... did you intend that? Like, on the fourth guy, by his chin, the black border is a little lighter there. And, the third guy's picture looks like it has one pixel line of white at the top, or something, perhaps you didn't cut it out quite right? The Wolverine one is [i]really[/i] cool. Er, except the "X" in X-men looks sort of like a weird W, but whatever. Haha, I'm almost done ... [phew] I like the Bowser one a lot, great background color choice!!! I think the font might look better in black, though. And again I don't quite understand the border ... It looks solid on the top, but the other three sides don't have one. All right ... I'm done. Sorry for the essay ...

Lissa stretched in her bed, yawning and kicking off the covers as she did so. She decided it was probably time to get up, although she didn't really feel like getting dressed just yet. Instead she left her room to go into the store, knowing that while her silky white nightgown wasn't exactly clothing to wear out, it at least covered all the necessary parts. Besides, the door was still locked. Lissa opened the door and changed the sign on it from "Closed" to "Ring for Service," then closed it again and relocked it. Sighing and tying her hair back for the day's work, she sat down at her sewing table and started laying out some pieces of fabric she'd cut the day before. An elf who lived in the woods outside of town had heard of her skill and requested a dress, which Lissa had had a wonderful time designing. Just as she was about to begin sewing, though, the bell rang. Sighing, Lissa got up and opened the small window on the door to see who it was. Nobody she'd ever seen before. "You're a seamstress?" the stranger asked. "Yes, I am," Lissa said. "Well, may I come in for service?" the stranger said. Lissa smiled. "Sure," she said. "I'm sorry, just give me a couple minutes." She trotted back to her room to change as quickly as possible, eager for some more business.

Thanks. I looked at FartMaster745's site, and he used that kind of linking and it works: So, oddly enough, putting head tags in the middle of the html seems to work. Weird ... helpful, though.

On the same topic, is there any way to use css with myOtaku? I tried storing the stylesheet on my own webspace and linking it with this type of thing: But yeah, it didn't work. Has anybody else figured out a way to do it?

"Shadow!" Celes said, eyes widened in surprise. "What -- where [i]are[/i] we?" Shadow shrugged. Celes waited for a second, expecting him to say something, but then she remembered his customary silence and sighed. "Right," she said. "Well, I don't know what happened to you, but I was walking to my bathroom and I ended up in this room --" She gestured towards the room she'd just come from, then did a double take. Though the room had been empty just seconds before, there was now an old man sitting in the creaky rocking chair, his hands complacently folded in his lap. "Er ..." Celes said, more than just a little thrown. She stepped back into the room and realized someone else was in there as well, someone who looked kind of like a soldier, with blonde hair and blue eyes. "Who are you ... and what is this place?" the standing man said, turning to face her. "No use asking her," a surprisingly strong voice boomed from the old man in the rocking chair. Celes and the man wheeled around to face him. He had a gleeful smile on his face. "I'm the one with all the answers. And don't worry, I'll give them to you too, we just need to wait for the others." "The others?" Celes repeated, and as if on cue, Shadow walked into the room. He leaned against a wall in a way that reminded Celes forcefully of the meetings they'd had on Setzer's airship. "You might want to go look for them, Celes," the old man suggested. "It may take a while otherwise." Celes decided to not even bother asking how he knew her name. "How is she going to get out?" the blond said, glancing around the room. "There aren't any doors or windows in here!" Celes bit her lip and tried not to shake, suddenly wondering if the blond was just as crazy as the old man appeared to be. She saw two doors and three windows in the room. Was that guy blind or something? "Ah, that has an explanation, too," the old man chuckled. "I'm going to go, um, look for ... those others ..." Celes said, backing slowly out of the room. When nobody made a move to stop her, she turned and walked forward quickly, a vague idea in her mind of walking out the door and never returning. Down one of the hallways, though, she saw a standing silhouette, long hair blowing in the wind. Thinking it might be another girl, Celes increased her pace, calling out, "Hey! Wait a second, don't go yet!" The figure turned, a pistol pointing straight at her, and Celes realized immediately that this was definitely [i]not[/i] a girl.

OOC: You seem to have written us a purpose. Yay SJ! -------------------- Rydia woke up earlier than usual. She blinked at the sky for a moment, wondering why she had an uneasy feeling in her stomach. She rolled over onto her side to see Namu restoking the wood for a new fire. "Oh, you're up already?" he said, sounding a little odd. "Yeah, weird, isn't it?" Rydia laughed, sitting up. "Hey, don't worry, I can do that." "Oh, it's no problem," Namu said, half-pushing her away. Rydia furrowed her eyebrows at his back. Something was very strange this morning. He finished up and turned back to her, but his eyes were shifting and never quite met hers. "Um, I'm going to go get us some eggs for breakfast, okay?" "Oh, I'll come with you!" Rydia said. "No, no, don't, um, you should sleep in more," Namu said, fumbling over his words strangely. "I'll just zip off and be right back, and you can, um, start the fire for us. Or just get some more sleep, you look a little tired. Oh I got you some water so you don't have to go to the river either, see you soon." Not waiting for a response, he strode off, picking up his pack on the way. Definitely strange, Rydia thought to herself, and stood up and stretched, yawning. She couldn't shake off that uneasy feeling and began pacing their campsite, wondering what could be wrong. She knew that Namu was uncomfortable with his past, could it have upset him [i]that[/i] much ... ? Rydia decided to walk over to the stream they'd camped by, even though Namu had left a jar of water for her. The sight of it would soothe her. She stopped short just before the little river. Words were scratched into the dirt beside it. [i]Rydia, I have to go. I'm sorry to leave like this but I knew you'd insist on coming with me otherwise. Please return to your father's and I will come and get you as soon as I can, I promise. -- Namu[/i] Rydia stood in shock for a moment. Namu was trying to leave her ... again. This was getting ridiculous. He hadn't even given her a reason this time. Or a chance. Fueled by anger, Rydia ran back to the campsite, throwing most of their remaining possessions into her own pack. She noticed now that Namu had packed everything of his own, he'd obviously hoped she would stay away from the river and give him a good head start. Well, he hadn't. Besides, now was when certain Elemental powers came in handy. As soon as her bags were packed, she swung herself into the nearest tree, grappling her way up its branches until she was at its top. There, she outstretched her hands and whispered in the language of the [i]butaisouran. Wind, please lend me your powers ... I need your help.[/i] The wind picked up, slowly at first, then whirling around Rydia. She jumped into the air and was caught by a strong current of wind, which bore her in the direction Namu had gone. After some time, she discovered him -- luckily he'd left the cover of the forest and was walking in plain sight in the grass. Rydia whispered again, and the wind dropped her noiselessly behind him. He appeared not to notice, continuing his trudging forward. She couldn't even think of the words to say to him for a moment, her red anger seemed to be clouding her mind. Finally she burst out with the only thing she could think of -- "Will you stop trying to leave me!? Friends don't leave!" Rydia was shocked to realize she was crying.

[u]Character List[/u] ([url=http://www.otakuboards.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=28701]recruitment thread[/url]) [i]member - character (game) - special weapon[/i] Wondershot - Norris (Chrono Cross) - Ryujin Shippo - Vincent Valentine (FF7) - Death Pistol The (Sic) Shape - Shadow (FF3) - Shadow Fang Jim_Hawking - Cloud Strife (FF7) - Cosmic Spiral NashvilleDream - Squall Leonhart (FF8) - Lion Heart terra - Celes Chere (FF3) - Arcadia Oh, signups are still open if anybody's interested. [u]Brief story recap:[/u] Someone's recalled the weapons sent to these heroes to a different time/galaxy/place, because a new threat is coming to that world. We'll begin just after we were transported to the new world, everybody wakes up in a small, somewhat dilapidated house on an empty tropical island. We'll all meet up before we leave the house, and our mission will be given to us (by me :p) in a little while. K, there are only six of us, so this RPG will always be in constant danger of complete death unless we all post ... :D Shall we begin? --------------------- Celes raised her eyebrows in surprise. She'd definitely walked through the door towards her apartment's bathroom, just like she did every morning, and this was definitely [i]not[/i] her bathroom. She was in a room of what looked like an old wooden house. The paint on the walls was faded and chipped, and the only furniture in the room was a creaking rocking chair. Though she'd just gotten up and had still been in her pajamas, Celes discovered she was wearing her traditional battle gear, complete with her sword strapped to her belt and a long bow strapped to her back. Her hair was even half tied back, just like she always did it just before she went out to battle. "What the ..." Celes said slowly, looking around the room. She pulled out her sword to make her feel a little better, and realized it wasn't her normal sword, but that weird gift she'd gotten so long ago, just after she'd helped save the world. Arcadia, apparently, as its own blade proclaimed. "What is going on here?" Celes said aloud, hoping the sound of her own voice would comfort her. She peered into the hallway and saw a shape slumped in the corner of the hallway. Warily, she approached it, and as she got closer she saw it was a man. When it didn't move, she nudged it with her foot. The man abruptly jumped up, looking around wildly. "Who are you?" Celes said, toughening her voice. "Where am I?!" The man shook his head as if clearing it. "I'd like to ask you that myself," he said.

Ginny Weasley sighed as she sat back at her desk, waiting for her next bunch of students to enter. Her first class of the morning had gone quite well. Of course, they'd all been amiable first-year Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaw, it hadn't exactly been a difficult class to teach. She'd simply had them practice Wingardium Leviosa for pretty much the entire time. Most of them had gotten the hang of it by the end. Next, though, she had fourth-years, Slytherins and Gryffindors. Why Dumbledore still insisted on putting those enemy houses together, Ginny couldn't guess, unless perhaps it was to put more stress on the teachers ... The students banged into the room loudly, chattering and dropping books on desks with abandon. Ginny waited until it was time for class to start, then stood at her desk. Most of the class got quiet pretty quickly, and the others stopped talking when she cleared her throat. Ginny fleetingly wondered just [i]what[/i] she was doing standing in front of these children. She was less than ten years older than most of them ... "All right," she said briskly. "I'm Professor Weasley, the new Charms professor, as you all know. Today we'll start with Summoning charms, which shouldn't be too difficult for fourth-years such as yourselves. I'll demonstrate -- [i]Accio[/i] globe!" The globe in the back of her classroom sailed towards Ginny over the heads of the students. She caught it rather ungently and placed it on her desk, smiling. "This spell can be extremely useful if you're ever in a situation where someone else has stolen your wand, for example, or if you're just too lazy to get up and get something ..." Ginny caught herself before she got too sarcastic. "Well, let's practice! Just try to summon something in the classroom that won't bother anybody else." A few minutes later Ginny realized she probably should've given them all M&M's or something to practice with, as backpacks, chalk, and papers went flying haphazardly through the air. Ginny was about to yell for them to stop when somebody summoned the globe off her desk, and she had to step quickly to move out of its way. It flew low along the classroom, hitting one Gryffindor student named Charlie Muppet hard in the face before floating idly to land next to a calm Slytherin, Alan Nitamorin. "Alan!" Ginny said sharply, marching down the aisle towards him. The others in the classroom stopped their hectic summoning and turned to watch. "You hit Charlie in the face with your spell!" "I'm terribly sorry," Alan said, not sounding particularly sorry at all. "I guess I don't have a good handle on the charm yet." Ginny narrowed her eyes and remembered her powers as a professor. "Ten points from Slytherin," she said, and turned back to return to her desk. "Let's try again, class, but this time, everybody pull out an eraser and put it on my desk. We'll just be summoning those from now on ..."

Crystal watched as Ben rushed towards the foremost scorpion, shooting something small and wickedly fast from a bracelet as he did so. The scorpion tossed its head at the last possible second, and the disk caught him in the side of the mouth instead of right in the center, where Ben had been aiming. The scorpion reared up, letting out a piercing sound that Crystal easily recognized as a mix between pain and anger, even though she'd never seen a beast like this before. Ben dropped to the floor, sliding towards the scorpion feet-first and pointing his bracelets towards the softer underside of the scorpion. Crystal glanced over to one of the other scorpions, where Xythe appeared to be ... sucking its blood. The scene was unpleasant, to say the least, and she felt paralyzed by an unfamiliar sensation ... fear ... [i]Crystal![/i] echoed briefly in her mind, and she looked back to Ben's fight. He was trapped underneath the scorpion, who seemed to have anticipated his attack and had clambered over him, bending its head down so that Ben was caught underneath it in a cage of legs. The scorpion's tail was darting in between its own legs, aiming at Ben each time, who was rolling half-blindly to avoid the attacks. Blood from the scorpion's underside was dripping down onto him, Crystal assumed he was getting some good hits in even though he seemed to be at a slight disadvantage, to say the least ... She shook herself from her sarcastic thoughts and pulled out her twin daggers, twirling them out of habit before she rushed forward towards Ben's battle. [i]Aim for the mouth[/i], Ben's instructions replayed in her mind, and she bent down low to slam her right hand, blade first, into the scorpion's head. The scorpion reared back in pain, letting out that horrible sound again as Ben scrambled out from under it. "Gyahahahaha ... fun time!" Crystal recognized Xythe's psychotic laughter even as she rushed forward to stab the scorpion's exposed belly, adding her own to the gaping wounds that Ben had already inflicted. "Fun?!" Crystal said before she could stop herself. "You call this fun!?" She couldn't help the thought that came an instant later -- [i]Yeah, it's not half bad.[/i]

Name: Lissa Oraisia Age: 25 Race: human Gender: F Occupation: seamstress / general clothing supplier House Type: stone store, with an adjoining room for living in Looks: Lissa is of average height, and quite slim. She has rather long curly brown hair and dark eyes, and has a variety of dresses to wear because, after all, that's how she makes a living. She's a very girly girl -- she never wears pants, and always tries to dress nicely to be a subtle advertisement for her store. Small Bio: Lissa was born into an extremely rich gang of gypsies, who had a comfortable life from terrorizing the people in the area. As she got older, she disapproved of their lifestyle more and more, and finally ran away when she was 23. She traveled for about a half-year, relying on her street-smarts and sometimes good looks to er ... talk her way out of some things, including the men her father sent after her. After some time she reached Black Haven and began her business, since she'd always been an extremely skilled seamstress. You wouldn't really guess at her personality or her history from talking to her though ... She acts peculiarly naive.

Awww, Shippo! He's so adorable! :p Hm, I also have a weakness for everything Final Fantasy, plus I'm incredibly impressed with anyone who can draw on the computer. So I'm a kind judge. But whatever, I still think it's really cute!! Anyway. I really like the ideas of the entire drawing -- the blush lines and little puff of air coming out of his mouth are adorable, as are his huge eyes. I also like the kind of thick border you used on the entire thing. I think the feet and hands look a little weird, though, and his hair might be a bit too high. And the whole thing is just a little ... jagged. I have no idea how to smooth it out, but if you look at the black border lines, like on his goggles, they're totally jagged and it's a little troublesome. But still, really great job, especially for MS Paint. :D

A small note ... I think classes start "today," since the opening feast was "last night." So, I'm not sure how you got homework already, MystiqueZeppel. Maybe it's left over from the summer? Another thing for everyone to remember, there is a rule that states your posts should be at least ten lines or two paragraphs ... :D ----------------- Alan studied himself in the mirror as he silently put on his running clothes, unwilling to disturb his roommates. They'd never gotten up as early as he did, nor did they understand why he rose just after dawn every day. He didn't really understand why either. It was just how it was. He headed up the stairs from his basement room to the Slytherin common room. He was surprised to see someone else awake among the green and black decorations of the room. Alan had never really noticed Kitty that much, but he decided he could put off his run for another few minutes. He sat down across from her. "Hello, Kitty," he said. "Hi, Alan," she said. "How was your summer?" Alan shrugged and thought about just what he'd done that summer ... "Fine," he said. "Yours?" "All right," she said. "I can't stand being back here, though. I hate to have to start classes again." "I'm sorry to hear that," Alan said. Kitty shrugged and looked out the window, holding her hand out absently. Her cat -- Alan remembered his name dimly, Skipper -- appeared as if out of nowhere and jumped onto her lap, licking her hand. Alan couldn't help but smile a little bit. It was nice to see another cat person around. He noticed her glancing at him out of the corner of her eye, though she quickly looked away when she saw him staring back unconcernedly. [i]Perhaps she's interested in me,[/i] Alan thought to himself, somewhat unsurprised. He knew his own assets, and they'd always served him well. [i]Perhaps I should ask her ... No, not yet. When I'm sure she's trustworthy ... It's only the first day of school. I should have patience.[/i] Alan stood. It had been a decently long conversation, at least for him. "I should get going on my run if I'm going to be in time for class," he said. "I'll see you later." On his way out, he reached out a hand and rubbed Skipper's head. The cat meowed and rubbed happily back against his hand until he moved away. "Bye, Alan," Kitty said. He paused just before he left, and turned to meet her eyes. "Have a good first day of class," he said as sincerely as he could, and mustered up a smile. She smiled back and said, "You too."

I agree, definitely do not get married if you've got that half-trapped feeling that your post sounds like you have. Marriage is seems plenty difficult even when both people are completely ready for it, so if one of the couple isn't sure about it, it's going to be ... even more difficult. And, as you've said, you're only 22 and you're just graduating now -- plenty of people don't get married until much later in life. Even your girlfriend is only 24, which still isn't "late" to get married at all. Hopefully she'll understand your decision.

Rydia hummed idly, amusing herself by playing with the wind. She could feel breezes gently winding among her fingers, moving a little quicker when she hummed higher notes, then slower when she returned to her normal range. She sighed, causing the low fire to flicker slightly, and put another log onto the flames. Finally she heard a noise next to her. "Namu?" she said, turning. He stepped into the dim light of the fire. "Rydia," he said gruffly. "You're still awake?" "Sure," Rydia said, stretching out her somewhat aching limbs. She usually started aching a bit when she was extremely tired, and she had no idea what time of the night it had to be now. "I'm not even tired." She yawned. Namu laughed in spite of himself. "Looks that way," he said, a hint of the old tease back in his voice. "So what are we going to do tomorrow?" Rydia asked, poking the fire with a stick. "Maybe we should get a more conclusive ending with that band of thieves. You know, get them thrown into prison or something. Wouldn't that be righteous of us?" "That might be a little difficult," Namu pointed out, "being that if I get near the prison they might just throw me in too. Plus, it was a pretty big band of thieves." "I guess you're right," Rydia sighed, "it might not be too wise to play the hero. What else is there to do? Any damsels in distress that need saving? Come on, Namu, you're the wandering samurai here, what do you usually do?" Namu chuckled again, a low sound from his throat. "Hang around peaceful villages," he said. "Wait for beautiful girls to come out and fight me." Rydia laughed, hoping he couldn't see her blush in the dim firelight. "Hey," Namu said, growing serious again. "I meant what I said, about not ever going back to my father's." Rydia bit her lip and looked away. "I know, Namu. Don't worry." "And -- what are you, angry?" Namu said, looking for a reason to fight. "Of course not!" Rydia said, rising off of the ground to stand and face him. "Why would I be? I'm sad for you, and I'm sad for James. Your feelings are way more important than being some heir to a lordship." Namu looked at her carefully, examining her eyes. "You really mean that," he said. "Of course," Rydia promised. Namu snorted, but Rydia could tell that things were better again between them, even though her speech hadn't even been half of what she wanted to express to him. "We'd better turn in," he said, falling on the ground promptly and pulling up his blanket around him. Rydia followed suit, snuggling into the rough flannel. "I'm sad for your father, too," she whispered to herself, so that Namu couldn't hear.

Name: Crystal Yumiro Age: 26 Description: Average height, slim, long dark hair and usually enjoys wearing revealing clothing. :D (Unnecessary detail, okay moving on.) Always identifiable by a small crystal pendant she wears on a gold chain. Army Ranking: Type A,B, or C: Custom, named Sarraia. (Wondershot is making this for me I think :).) Sarraia's Stats: head: computer core: light, OB arms: light legs: quadruped l-arm weapon: laser blades r-arm weapon: shotguns back weapons: radar equipment, missile launchers inside: EMP generators extension: energy shields paint: green and black (done with much help from Wondershot!!) Side: Saft Bio: Crystal is the daughter of an avid custom AC builder by the name of Christian Yumiro. He doesn't care what his AC's are used for, instead finding enjoyment in the actual craftsmanship of the machines. Several of the AC's he's built have been sold to Saft's army. Because of her father, Crystal has always grown up around AC's, and Christian built her her first (illegal) custom AC when she was only 15. She's been piloting AC's ever since, though she's never been in an actual battle. She has joined Saft's army more out of curiosity, and because of her father's close ties to it, than anything else. Sex: F Let me know if anything's wrong :).

All right, this Hogwarts RPG is finally getting into gear. :D [u][b]Character List[/u][/b] ([url=http://www.otakuboards.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=29176]recruitment thread[/url] has more details) [b]Students:[/b] [i]otaku - character name - year - house[/i] tursi - Tursi Monou (F) - 7th year - Ravenclaw MystiqueZeppel - Mystery Leonhart (F) - 6th year - Ravenclaw Emme888 - Aioni Lee (F) - 7th year - Hufflepuff oekakiotaku - Daphne Malfoy (F) - 5th year - Hufflepuff Scorpio - Matthew Dumbledore (M) - 5th year - Gryffindor Unborn Lord Xion - Zi Zhou (F) - 1st year - Gryffindor Shippo - Joey Aclan (M) - 1st year - Gryffindor dbzanimegrl17 - Kitty Nazumi (F) - 5th year - Slytherin terra - Alan Nitamorin (M) - 4th year - Slytherin Sorry to those of you whose house preference I couldn't accomodate, I wanted it somewhat even ... [b]Teachers:[/b] [i]otaku - character name - position[/i] Tix - Oliver DeMastin (M) - Magical Creatures teacher / Gryffindor Head terra - Ginny Weasley (F) - Charms teacher Unborn Lord Xion - Professor Zhou (M) - Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher Unborn Lord Xion - Professor Kamarin Konoran (M) - Potions teacher / Slytherin Head Dmitri_Dragoon - Professor Dragomir Narcissus (M) - Transfiguration teacher / Ravenclaw Head [b][color=red]EDIT: Rules[/b][/color] Not many, don't worry. 1. Please don't post in here unless you are one of the above members. If you'd still like to join, post in the Recruitment thread or send me a PM. 2. Posts [color=red]must be at least 10 lines long / 2 paragraphs[/color]. (I like paragraphs better than lines, but it's up to you.) ------------------------- Ginny Weasley winced slightly as she snuck into the Great Hall through one of its hidden side doors. It was weird, really, to be doing this as a professor. She'd often snuck in and out while she was a student, perhaps to avoid the unwanted attention of some boy or to get away from the hectic antics of her older brothers, but now that she was a professor she felt she should be a little more responsible. It seemed, however, that punctuality didn't just bloom with professorship, and she'd been late as usual. She sighed. [i]Must ... set ... example for students ...[/i] she thought to herself. Ginny realized she didn't need to worry about being noticed, as the opening feast was well underway and students seemed much more interested in their food than a skinny new professor finding her seat at her table. She was, of course, the last one there, and she discovered with a smile that the last remaining empty seat was next to Oliver DeMastin. Ginny had never taken classes with him herself, but felt a little akin to him, Head of Gryffindor, as she'd once been in Gryffindor herself. "Hey, Oliver," she whispered to him, blinking at the empty plate in front of her. It filled with her favorites, desserts first, as Dumbledore noticed her appearance and nodded his recognition of her. "What did I miss?" "Everything, of course," he said jovially. "The Sorting and the opening speech -- but it's no big deal." Ginny smiled and dove in to her food. Oliver had a talent for making other people feel better, when he wanted to at least. Looking up, though, she unfortunately caught the eye of Kamarin, and suppressed a shudder. He was definitely giving her an evil glare for coming in late. She could almost imagine him standing up and pointing at her so that everybody in the Great Hall would notice -- "Your new Charms teacher, Professor Weasley, was [i]late[/i]. Perhaps you will show her the same courtesy on your first day of classes?" Ginny tried to ignore him and return to her meal. [i]At least I don't have to take classes from him,[/i] she reminded herself. [i]Poor kids.[/i]

OOC: Thanks, Ben. I aim to please. ----------- Crystal shrugged. "Better than nothing, right?" she said. "I'm sure we can do some damage. I mean, at least as much as your four little soldiers." The other clone raised an eyebrow. Crystal wasn't sure quite [i]what[/i] he was ... porcupine? " 'Little'? " he said pointedly. They were interrupted from a full-scale argument by the swooping in of something dark and cackling, fluttering quickly through the air and heading straight for Ben. Automatically, Crystal aimed for it with her crossbow, though she realized a split second later that there was no way it was human. "Don't," Ben said, sounding almost bored as the creature flew directly at him, laughing hysterically and banking right just in time to avoid a collision. The thing landed -- on the ceiling, hanging upside down. "Benny," it said, a harsh whisper that reverberated oddly among the cave walls. Crystal pretended this was a normal occurrence. Perhaps it was, after all she wouldn't know, having never been in the clone caves before. At the moment, she was wondering just why she'd broken the rules to come down here anyway ... A recognizable voice spoke in her mind. [i]Broke the rules, huh? I thought so.[/i] She glanced over at Ben, who was smiling. "Oh, shut up," she said aloud, ignoring the puzzled look of the, er, beaver-clone. "I'm Crystal," she introduced herself to the others briefly. "Now what the hell are we going to do to help out with this little problem of the invasion?"

Many thanks to those of you who have edited or added to your biographies. I'm leaving for vacation tomorrow morning, but don't worry -- coming back Monday :). We'll start the RPG then. Until then, feel free to continue signing up. EDIT: A second signup for myself -- Name: Alan Nitamorin Age: 14 Year: 4th Gender: M House Preference: Slytherin Good/Evil: Evil Wand: whatever Pet: a sleek black (female) cat named Pearl Personality: Alan is very intelligent, but not particularly talkative. Though he privately dislikes most of his teachers, he doesn't show it often -- instead, he's extremely polite with the occasional nasty zing disguised with his charming tone of voice. He's a bit of a mystery, really. Biography: Alan does well in most of his classes, though he has a special talent with Potions. He isn't the type to strike you as enjoying Quidditch much, but he shows up to every game, though he never cheers or shows much emotion at them. He's dated a few girls, all of them older and in Slytherin, but his relationships never lasted longer than a couple of weeks. His friends are all Slytherins and he doesn't hide his dislike for Gryffindor, though he doesn't do anything overt towards them either. Appearance: Alan is tall for his age, and rather thin. Though he doesn't play Quidditch, he does go running or exercise every day, and it shows. He has dark hair and eyes, and his face would almost be described as beautiful, unexpectedly delicate against his strong figure.

[QUOTE][i]Originally posted by Jim_Hawking [/i] [B]...seems like this is an unpopular one. [/B][/QUOTE] Haha, thanks a lot. Yes, it does seem that way. Onto the non-spam, I'll leave this recruitment thread open for a while longer and see if anybody else would like to join. As for the people who signed up (thank you!), PM me and let me know if you would still like to do this RPG even if there are only a few people. If those who signed up really are interested, I have no problem starting it with only the 5-6 of us :) EDIT: my signup. Name: Celes Chere Age: 23 Sex: F History: Formerly a soldier of the evil Empire, genetically enhanced to have the ability to use magic. She rebelled against the Empire and eventually helped bring about its downfall. Also, if equipped with a sword, she can use the skill Runic to negate the next spell cast in battle. Description: A strong woman with a good sense of right and wrong. Loyal and faithful, even in the most difficult of situations. Weapons: swords or bow and arrows Special Weapon: Thin, long silver sword that glints gold in the sun, a gold hilt with inlaid crystals. Its name, "Arcadia", is inscribed on the blade itself, just above the hilt. Celes isn?t sure just what its powers are, because she hasn't tried using it yet ? Appearance: [url]http://www.magitek.nu/celes/gallery/render9a.jpg[/url] What You?ve Played: FF II, III, VII, IX, Chrono Trigger and Cross

It's pretty cool -- I think it might be even better without the black in the background, though. I like backgrounds that are innovative with shapes, and this one could look cool as just a circle. Still, it's quite crisp and clean, good job :).

I like the second one better than the first one as well. I think you could do with some better fonts, though, and the orange looks a little harsh against the blue. It does match the guy's hair, but maybe if it was a little bold or stronger. Anyway, I think it's definitely an improvement over the first one :).