terra

OOC: Logan, thanks for the helpful players list. Do you think you could split them into their teams to help even more? :D Scorpio, I'm picking our team color to be green, hope that's okay. ---------- [color=green] Star leaned against the only tree in the field, twirling her daggers idly, tossing them easily from hand to hand as they spun. When she had the time to just look around her in Delta, like this, she couldn't help but be impressed at what Callipso had thought up. The grass swayed lightly in the breeze, tree leaves rustled gently above her, the sun's rays leapt down and she could practically feel their warmth ... It was just like the real world. Assuming, of course, that the real world was still the same. She hadn't seen it in a year. A noise to her left alerted her, and she glanced over and raised an eyebrow. Someone was charging at her across the field, in complete open view. It had to be someone who was somehow [i]still[/i] at level 1, even though they'd all been in Delta for at least a year now. Star wasn't quite sure how anybody could manage that ... but apparently some people did. She stood and called to the novice, "You've got to be kidding me. Just stop right there." The novice looked puzzled and a little scared, but kept coming. "Seriously, kid," Star continued, "don't you think it's a little ridiculous to charge me in plain view? I mean, if I used projectile weapons, you'd be dead by now." The novice was obviously not paying attention, as he was still hurtling forward. Star sighed. "Don't say I didn't tell you," she said, not bothering to move from her relaxed position as he reached her, pulling back with a huge sword. He swung forward in a completely predictable movement, which Star easily ducked. Her eyes flashed with the thrill of the fight, even a pathetic one such as this. She nimbly leapt behind him, plunging her dagger into his stomach as she passed, feeling the satisfying pressure of her blade against his simulated flesh. The player slumped to the ground, blood dripping out realistically around him, and Star sighed. "That must be the thousandth time you've died," she hypothesized to his dead body. "I can only hope you'll take my advice when you rejuvenate." She glanced at her meters -- 150 kiyos and 97 experience points. "Pathetic. Figures," she said aloud. Another rustle to her left made Star turn sharply towards it, but this time she merely smiled in greeting. "Hey, BashFlare," she said. "You're a little late, I got attacked waiting for you!"[/color] ------ As I'm not sure of the rules of the world, I assume people rejuvenate ... tell me if it's not so, and I'll fix it.

Once, while I was a complete beginner on flute, my brother sat in front of me while I practiced and just kept making snide comments. I couldn't practice anywhere else because I also needed the piano, so he just kept commenting and I got madder and madder. Finally I couldn't take it and ... held my flute with both hands and just smashed it towards him. To this day I'm not sure if I hit him or the couch ... I do know I had to buy a new flute though, as the one I used to smash was completely dented. My parents were kind of like, "You did ... what?? ..."

For some of you who have only one-line biographies, [i]please[/i] add a little more detail. Particularly if you've already been at Hogwarts for a few years. You could say how you generally do in your classes, any hobbies you might have, what kind of friends you have, just anything interesting about your life. Thanks.

OOC: SJchan told me she'll be out of town for a couple of days, so we'll just drag her character along for now. ------------- Christian glanced over at Destiny. "Guess we won't have to do the plan after all, since we've been throw out," he said. "Too bad -- I was looking forward to it." Destiny blushed and hit him lightly with her staff. "Baka," she said. "Come on, let's go." Following David's lead, Ki, TJ, Destiny, and Christian rustled through the woods in the direction Arika had run off to. "Stop!" David said softly, holding his arms out so that they nearly ran into him. They had reached a small clearing in the woods, where Arika, Ken, and the little girl who called herself Nika appeared to be talking. Maybe arguing. "You don't belong here," Arika was saying. "We don't." "Sounds like she's trying to convince him to come back to Earth," Christian whispered. "I hope it wor--" David started, then froze. They all did, their eyes glued to the scene in front of them. Nika, the cute little girl, was growing. Morphing was a better word for it. She was changing shape, growing darker and bigger and ... well, a whole lot scarier. A sword appeared in her hand as she changed and she brandished it towards Arika, who didn't appear too surprised. "Why are you trying to take Kaiyute-san?" the new Nika growled, her voice no longer fitting the perky little girl she had been just before. "He's my brother! Leave us alone!"

I want to leave signups open for a while longer and see if anyone else would like to join in. Also, you may now have a second character if you want (I'd prefer a few more staff members if possible ..?). Also, we don't have a Dumbledore yet, if anyone would like to play him please PM me. I can play him or he can be a NPC if necessary. My signup: Staff Member -- Name: Ginny Weasley Age: 24 Gender: F Position: Charms teacher Good/Evil: Good Personality: Very smart and practical, knows how to get things done. Also athletic. Biography: In her time at Hogwarts, Ginny eventually found she had a special knack with charms, and really enjoyed them. She continued to study under Professor Flitwick as his sort-of apprentice at Hogwarts. Unfortunately, Flitwick eventually passed ... Ginny was his natural successor. She'll be a new teacher and is still a little nervous about it ... but definitely excited as well. Appearance: [url]http://www.angelfire.com/art2/alohomora/Ginny_by_candlelight.jpg[/url]

Dawn. Talayeh had barely been asleep, and she was up almost immediately at the first light. She felt the need to move, to get out of this apartment. Even though she'd discovered something she never thought she'd have -- family of a sort -- she wanted some alone time to process it all. She left the apartment building, the sunlight falling gently over her. Talayeh felt an odd feeling of deja vue. It was as if she was running away from her family, just as she'd done twelve years before. [i]Of course, I'm not really running away this time,[/i] she scolded herself. [i]I'm going back right after some alone time.[/i] But it was too late -- the unbidden memories of her large family had risen up, and she felt a stab of ... homesickness. It wasn't an unfamiliar feeling, even though Talayeh had left before she was old enough to really call anything home. She walked aimlessly through the streets as the sun continued to rise, thinking about the parents she'd left. [i]Better for them[/i], she decided for the hundredth time, [i]especially now that I know I truly do have a purpose.[/i] From nowhere flew in the memory of her and her little sister having a water gun fight ... Little Neri had been only two and a half years old when she'd left. A tiny person. She'd been the only one Talayeh had told when she ran away, making her solemnly promise never to tell their parents. Talayeh had a feeling that Neri would've been her favorite sister, if she'd stuck around. Talayeh looked up and realized she was back at Luyii's building. It was full day out now. Entering the apartment and shutting the door behind her, she heard movement on the couch. Luisa was tossing and turning as if caught in some terrible dream. Familiar with the feeling, Talayeh decided to wake her. She shook her lightly. "You okay? You seem scared or frightened," Talayeh said. "Yeah I think I'm okay ... just a weird dream. That's all." Luisa's expression said it was more than that, and from Talayeh's own experience she knew just how "weird" those dreams could get. She didn't say anything, though, just sat down next to her new sister on the couch and smiled.

Rydia sighed and poked the fire with a stick, causing little sparks to burst into the darkness. The second Namu had heard his father's name, he'd hurtled off into the woods somewhere without a word. Rydia wasn't too worried about him not coming back. He'd already tried to risk his life twice to save hers. She doubted he'd leave her for a little thing like knowing his lineage. Sure enough, a near-silent rustling ahead of her soon revealed Namu, stepping out into the small circle of light provided by the fire. "I hope you brought dinner," was all that Rydia said. Namu dropped a brace of rabbits on the ground, and reached into a pocket and pulled out three eggs. He handed them to her silently. "All right, I'll cook," Rydia said grudgingly. Pulling out the skillet, she added teasingly, "Sir Namu." Namu let out an exasperated sound. "If you ever call me that again, I will never bring back any more food for you." Rydia shrugged. "Wow, who would've thought," she said as if speaking to herself, cracking the eggs into the skillet. She held it over the fire and its sizzling and popping accompanied her words. "The son of Lord Kaeru. Everybody knows the story -- Lord Kaeru's only heir runs away when he's ten years old. Everybody thinks he's dead, never got past their own forest, drowned in the river maybe. But then people start to claim having seen him. Is it his ghost? No, ghosts wouldn't have a need to steal eggs and chickens and food ..." "Shut. Up," Namu said through gritted teeth. Rydia ignored him, handing him the skillet to hold and pulling out a knife to skin the rabbits. "Rumor has it that little Namu ran away because he wasn't a [i]butaisouran[/i]," Rydia went on, her eyes on her task. "Or, not strong enough to keep up with the ancient Kaeru tradition, the strongest [i]butaisouran[/i] in the land. And now ... we find that little Namu is an Elemental after all." Namu pulled the hot skillet off the fire and placed it on the ground. "It's more than that," he said through gritted teeth. "You wouldn't know." "Then tell me," Rydia suggested.

"Un[i]believable[/i]," Crystal fumed, as the chameleon-clone reeled back slightly. "Now I see why we get our [i]own[/i] dwelling. They're savages, no wonder they have to live in [i]caves[/i]!" Crystal paused to check her left wrist. It was no better from their dramatic fall, but really no worse, either. "Ben, pleased to meet you," the other muttered, gingerly touching his eye. "I suppose I partially deserved that." "[i]Partially[/i]!?!" Crystal exploded. He rolled his eyes. "I believe we have more important things to worry about than our own little spat," he told her coolly, in a mockingly polite tone. "I apologize most [i]sincerely[/i] for using you to break my fall, but my powers were a little weak from all the help I gave you guys in protecting your 'own dwelling.' " Crystal set her jaw. "I'm supposed to believe you were helping us?" "Yes," he said. "Think of the ride down as a return favor. What are you doing down here, anyway?" "Er ... I was sent to help out in the caves," Crystal said quickly. "Just one of you?" Ben said. Crystal shrugged. "Guess they have great faith in me," she said, lying through her teeth. "All right," he shrugged. "Guess we should get to it then. There are humans in the cave right now." "In -- [i]in[/i] the caves?" Crystal said. "Wow, you're quick," Ben smirked. "Let's hope you're just as helpful in battle." With that jibe, he turned and started darting nimbly across the terrain, completely unfamiliar to Crystal. She gave a sigh of irritation and followed.

Oh my goodness ... She is so freaking cute!!! The chain is a little odd, but you don't really notice it so it's no big deal. I love her expression and the little heart :) Great job!

They look like they're pretty good, especially for your first attempts. But the low color setting thing really bothers me as they all have come up very grainy ... :( Er ... buy a new computer? :)

Things I've forgotten to put in the first post so far: :) Please limit yourself to one pet. (I added it to the signup after you, tursi, so don't worry.) You may play Quidditch, but I don't think it's practical to have real inter-house games in the RPG. That is, we can mention them "Slytherin won 150-20", but not have the actual scenes. If people wanted Quidditch scenes, I was thinking of having a Quidditch "club" (sort of like, not-varsity), which would be open to any students. Then it could be non-serious and we could write some Quidditch scenes.

I used to play tennis in high school, though I never got to be any good at it. Now the closest thing I come to a sport is ... er ... bowling. :D Hey, it's really fun, especially when you're in a town where there's nothing else to do. My friends and I have gone a lot this summer and I've improved my average about thirty points. Enough about bowling ... My friends at home (I'm living at college for the summer) used to have a street basketball "league." They were really into it ... I helped them record stats and everything.

I've decided to start a different Hogwarts RPG, since I get jealous when I read about the one already there that I'm not in. :) Of course, this one will be different. It's set some ten years in the future of the current Hogwarts kids. (I'm assuming that Voldemort will eventually get beaten so that there is a future.) So Harry Potter, for example, will now be around 25 instead of around 15. And Voldemort will be in the recent past. There are a few options for people you can be. You may pick an existing character from the books -- of course, they will now be ten years older. Or, you can make someone up, which you will have to do if you want to be a student. After you've picked your character, pick something for them to be. They can be a student (pick your year, I will pick your house though). Or they can be part of the Hogwarts staff, i.e. a teacher and/or head of a house. You may be a teacher and the head of a house, of course. (For a random example, Malfoy could be Divination teacher and Head of Slytherin.) Here's a list of possible classes you can teach: Arithmancy, Astronomy, Care of Magical Creatures, Charms, Defense Against the Dark Arts, Divination, Herbology, History of Magic, Muggle Studies, Potions, Study of Ancient Runes, and Transfiguration. Dumbledore will remain the Headmaster of Hogwarts, even though he's rather old. If you would like to play him, post your signup, but PM me a sample of a previous RPG that's at least three paragraphs long and I'll let you know if you can be him. I'd like a few bad guys to keep this interesting, so if you want to be bad, pick "Evil" for the "Good/Evil" category. Both students and staff can be evil (er ? except for Dumbledore. People like Harry Potter also probably will not turn evil, even though ten years have passed). The role of the "bad guys" will depend on who signs up to be them, so I'll wait a little on that. Or, you guys could make it up yourselves -- that'd be handy, hehe. Don't worry, not all evil students will be automatically placed in Slytherin. Screening may or may not occur, depending on how many people sign up. I do reserve the right to cut people, though. (I'll probably look at your guys' past RPG's, if you have them.) Please post with good grammar and spelling if at all possible ... which it should be ... ----------- [b]Signups:[/b] [u]Staff:[/u] [i]Name:[/i] [i]Age:[/i] (Remember, if you're an existing character, your age in the books plus ten years. Yes, I know they grow from year to year ? Go with the latest book.) [i]Gender:[/i] [i]Wand:[/i] (Completely optional.) [i]Position: [/i] (What class you teach and possibly what House you head) [i]Good/Evil:[/i] [i]Personality: [/i] [i]Biography: [/i] (Give a general idea of what you've been doing after you graduated. Both existing and new characters must do this.) [i]Appearance: [/i] [u]Students:[/u] [i]Name: [/i] [i]Age: [/i] (First-years are usually 10 years old.) [i]Year: [/i] [i]Gender: [/i] [i]House Preference: [/i] (Preference being the key word. I will still assign you your houses, but I'll take your preferences into account.) [i]Good/Evil:[/i] [i]Wand: [/i] (Completely optional.) [i]Pet:[/i] (If you have one. Restricted to one per student.) [i]Personality: [/i] [i]Biography: [/i] (Important if you're not a first-year, just tell us how school's been treating you.) [i]Appearance: [/i] I'll post a signup and a list of players later. Thanks!

Christian stumbled as the demon poked him in the back with his spear. Again. "Ow! Geez, I'm going, I'm going," he said, shaking his head. "You know, we'd probably go faster if you [i]didn't[/i] keep doing that." "Christian," Destiny murmured out of the side of her mouth, "will you [i]grow up[/i] for once???" "Hey, we'll be getting into the palace whether or not I mouth off to them," he said grumpily, tugging at his ropes again. Their hands were securely bound. They entered the palace, Christian getting poked in the back a few more times -- his demon gave him a wicked smile when he turned around to glare -- and were led up to a small door. One of their demon guards knocked. "What is it?" an irritated voice called from inside. "Intruders, sir," the demon hissed. After a few seconds, the door opened to reveal a small group of people. At closer glance, Christian realized he recognized some of them. "Hey, guys!" he said, a grin spreading over his face. "Fancy meeting you here!" From the looks on David, TJ, and Ki's faces, this was not the appropriate response. "What shall we do with them, Tsurara?" one of the demons growled towards someone Christian didn't recognize. "Intruders belong in the dungeon," the thing named Tsurara snapped.

I have a slightly off-topic question, but it does have to do with ff.net. Er ... what exactly are limes and lemons? :) I've heard them mentioned often, but don't know what they are.

Namu was ignoring her outburst, still looking steadily into the eyes of the thief. By craning her neck slightly and rolling her eyes in her captor's direction, Rydia could just see the glint of greed in his eyes. "How do we know you're telling the truth?" the captain snarled. "You could be trying to set up a trap or something." Namu put his hands up in a sign of surrender. "There's ten of you and one of me," he said. "I promise to go with you peacefully. Just let her go." Rydia rolled her eyes. [i]Ten of them, huh?[/i] she thought to herself. [i]Well, if Namu's going to be no help ...[/i] Namu and the captain had stopped talking, glaring at each other appraisingly. Rydia closed her eyes and began moving her lips, as if in silent prayer. The world felt hushed around her for a few moments ... Suddenly, a rush of noise rose up behind the thieves. They looked back, surprised -- then yelled in alarm as a gigantic wave of water crashed down on them, each speeding drop feeling like a tiny dagger. The nearby river seemed to have risen up to plunge down upon the band of thieves. Taking advantage of their pain, Rydia elbowed the captain in the stomach and rolled out of the way of his knife. She ran through the water, which separated around her as if she had some invisible barrier, towards Namu. Namu, some distance away, had his mouth open as water slowly puddled by his feet. Once she'd reached him, Rydia turned back and stretched out her hands towards the thieves and the wave of water. She made a quiet noise with her mouth, sounding like a coaxing whistle, and the water moved and swirled around the thieves, trapping them as if within a whirlpool. "That'll hold them for now," she said, grabbing her pack from the ground. "Get your stuff." "What --" Namu spluttered. "Get your stuff and let's go!" Rydia yelled at him, and they hastily gathered up their things -- including the cooked rabbits -- and sprinted into the nearby forest. They'd run for some time when Rydia panted, "All right, this is probably far enough, don't you think?" Namu stopped immediately. "Are you all right?" "Fine," Rydia said. "Just a little -- out of breath." She dropped her pack on the ground and sat down next to it, stretching her arms towards the sky. "Ahhhh." Namu turned towards her. "You're -- you're an Elemental?!" he said, not able to hold in the questions any longer. Rydia raised an eyebrow. "I believe the technical term is [i]butaisouran[/i]," she said. "And of course I am. Couldn't you sense it?" "Wh -- why would I be able to sense it?" Namu stuttered. Rydia shook her head. "Don't try and hide it, Namu," she smiled. "You're one too."

My high school colors were the most common colors for a school (I think): navy and white. Now I'm in college and guess what, my colors are again ... navy and white. In h.s. the mascot was a panther, and in college it's a bulldog. The athletics logo remains the same though ... A pawprint. My life has not changed much at all ...

Hm, I'm popping up again. :) Thanks again for comments! For Shippo again, featuring Protoman: [img]http://pantheon.yale.edu/~elc23/fun/protoman2.jpg[/img] With the random girl in my av: [img]http://pantheon.yale.edu/~elc23/fun/1_ban.gif[/img] Current one, with Dagger from FFVII: [img]http://pantheon.yale.edu/~elc23/fun/dagger.gif[/img]

Hehe, yeah, the words are kind of hard to read. :) For a second I thought "Life" said "Tifa." That was confusing. I also don't completely understand why you have only their bodies on the banner and not their heads ... Couldn't really tell it was Chrono Cross except that you told us. But anyway. Not bad for your first one. Keep it up :)

Christian woke up with a jolt. Destiny was tossing and turning -- in his arms -- what the heck had happened? They must've fallen asleep on her bed ... They'd both been exhausted. Destiny sat upright, bolting out of Christian's arms. "We need to go," she said, jumping out of bed. Christian glanced over at her bedside table and realized they'd slept for a few hours. "What is it?" he asked. "The others are going to be in trouble," she said briefly, grabbing clothes out of her dresser. "Don't look." Before Christian could process what was going on, Destiny had pulled off her tank top. Her back was to him, so he couldn't see what was going on, but it was still enough to make him flush a brilliant red and turn around. "What do you mean, they're going to be in trouble?" he said aloud to the wall. "I had a vision," Destiny said, throwing on her clothes. "A strong one. I feel much better now, sleeping with you must really have helped." Christian turned even redder. Luckily, she couldn't see him at the moment. "Come [i]on[/i]," she said urgently, grabbing him by the hand and walking quickly toward the door. He realized she'd finished dressing and had grabbed her staff. "There's a portal to some other world and all the others are going there and we've got to get there, come on!" Christian held her hand for a moment, smiling. She turned back to him and met his eyes. "[i]What[/i]?!" she said, irritated. Christian shrugged. "Nothing," he said, and gave her a quick kiss on the cheek. Destiny smiled and relaxed a tiny bit, as he'd hoped she would. "Let's go."

Rydia couldn't help but laugh at Namu's matter-of-fact tone. "I'm with a criminal," she said melodramatically. "Who would've known?" "You did," Namu reminded her. "I mean, come on. You told me you were coming me within what, half an hour of finding out I'd killed a man?" His back was to her, working on cooking the rabbits, so she couldn't see what his facial expression might be. She furrowed her brow. Neither of them had mentioned that delicate fact, even though they'd been traveling together for quite a while now. In fact, they'd hardly talked about his history at all. "So ..." Rydia began hesitantly. She wasn't quite sure how murder was supposed to be discussed. "Um ... do you want to talk about it? I mean, I really don't know much about your past, I just realized." "Well, I don't know anything about your past either," Namu said briskly, turning around with a skillet of steaming meat for their breakfast. "Except what I saw from pestering your village from time to time," he added thoughtfully. "Namu, you appear to be avoiding the question," Rydia said. Namu sighed. "Yeah," he said, scratching his neck awkwardly and adorably, "it was a bad time in my life, don't really like --" He broke off and stared hard at the woods just behind her shoulder. Automatically self-aware, Rydia pricked up her ears and heard them coming an instant before someone dove out of the trees and tried to grab her. Rydia dove blindly to the side just in time to avoid the arms coming at her, but there were only more to meet her. In a moment, her neck was being held in an uncomfortably tight grip, a knife at her neck. She couldn't see the man holding her, or the group behind him, but from the stricken look on Namu's face she could tell the situation didn't look good. "Drop it," her captor snarled. Namu dropped the crossbow that he'd had trained on him with a sigh. "The aforementioned band of thieves, I believe," Rydia said, making sure to keep the quiver out of her voice. "None other," said her captor with a grin. ------------------------------ OOC: Don't worry *too* much about getting her out of harm's way. I'm sure she can handle it. ;)

[QUOTE][i]Originally posted by Dmitri_Dragoon [/i] [B]Yeah, it's called the Atkins Diet. I was put on that diet by the National Guard o_O. I am about 6'1" and weighed 250 pounds. That was 2 weeks ago. The Sergeant told me not to eat bread or anything like that, and eat just meat, along with a little exercise. Did so and have lost 15 pounds so far. Not to shabby. [/B][/QUOTE] My biochemistry teacher advised against the Atkins diet. According to him at least, people mostly lose weight because they get sick of the foods that are available if you completely cut out carbs, and just eat less overall. There were a bunch of other reasons as well ... Anyway, just thought I'd put that in. My parents both went on a diet similar to the Atkins one, but instead of completely cutting out carbs, they restricted carbs to one meal a day. It worked pretty well for both of them. (Until they stopped and regained some of the weight ... but whatever.)

Hm ... I disagree, I think FLCL definitely has a plot. ... I'm not sure what it is yet and should probably wait until I've seen the whole thing, but I've seen hints at a real plot throughout. I thought last night's episode (the 4th one, "Full Swing" I guess as DBD says) was the most revealing storyline-wise, and gave me a clue as to what had been going on the last three episodes ... Have you seen that one, SilpheedPilot? But whatever, you're entitled to your own opinion. Anyway, it was my impression that in anime, nosebleeds are just a way for a character to say "Damn!" or some other, possibly more graphic, exclamation. So, I just thought they were like, "Wow, that kid's got a guitar coming out of his head!" That's just my take though, it could be completely wrong.

OOC: What have we been doing this entire month? ;) Rydia rolled over in her sleep, her hands shaking a little violently. Her eyes opened to the gentle crackling of the fire, and the first rays of the sunrise. Namu was gone already. She had no idea how he could survive on what seemed to be an absurdly little amount of sleep. She guessed he was more used to it than she; maybe she, too, could train herself to be alert on a few hours of sleep. But until then, Namu often got up earlier than her, bringing back food for her just as she awoke. Rydia felt a little spoiled by him, even though she had been wearing the same dress for about a month and hadn't taken a real shower in ... goodness knows when. She shuddered. At least there were plenty of clean rivers for her to dip into, while she was sure Namu wasn't looking, of course. She sighed, shaking her head and pulling her blanket up around her. Rydia still wasn't quite sure what had possessed her, what [i]was[/i] possessing her to be travelling around with Namu like this, without a word to her father of where she'd gone. He was probably furious ... They were far out of his reach now, though she still hoped to see him one day. Perhaps when she had done some great deed and could finally beg his forgiveness ... She turned from her thoughts as she sensed Namu at the perimeter of their fire. Pretending to stay asleep, she let him sneak up until he was almost upon her. When he was only a few feet away, she grabbed her katana, which she'd slept with, and rolled over to hold it against his neck. "Good job," Namu said with a grin. It was a little game they played almost every morning, to increase Rydia's reflexes and alertness, even in sleep. "Ready for breakfast?"

Crystal sighed and stretched out on her boyfriend's bed. Jack, as usual, was typing eagerly on the computer, sitting up excitedly, his face near to the screen. He was majoring in Computer Science. Crystal was his near-opposite, halfway done with her English major, but she understood the appeal of computers. They were useful and ... according to Jack at least ... incredibly interesting. She sighed and pulled up her shirt a little bit to show off her navel. There were other things that interested her a little bit more. "Jack," she began. "Sweetie, come look at this," Jack said. Crystal didn't move. He went on. "It's the weirdest thing, I don't understand it at all. It's like I've found this program, it's incredibly complex, some sort of simulation, really detailed. I was just hacking into the --" "Jaaaack," Crystal said plaintively. She slithered out of her shirt, hoping he would notice. "Just one second, dear," he said. "I'm just trying to figure this thing out. It looks completely unlike anything I've ever seen, I don't even understand how a human could've thought of anything so ... intense!" He glanced over to the bed, where Crystal was leaning backward on her elbows, looking at him expectantly. She'd only been half-listening. Now that she'd finally caught his attention, she smiled innocently. "Uh ..." Jack said. "Come over here," Crystal purred. Jack took a final glance at the half-comprehended hack, then shut off his computer and dove onto the bed with Crystal. ----- OOC: Yes, Jack is still an NPC. Sorry he's a bit prominent.