Memories of a Shinigami (Invite Only): OOC

[Andromeda]

Alright, so I've posted up the start of the little event. If you have any questions for me about how you want to enter it or about what you're dealing with please ask away. For a basis, think of it having the powers of a shinigami, or more precisely a reflection of Steph's powers. It is stronger than Steph, but so much of it is based on Steph that it is pretty much just like him. So he will have the same level of skill more or less as Steph but with more spirit energy to play with and very high regerative skills.

Since that is the case don't forget about the battle between Kenpachi and Ichigo. Steph's spirit density, sharpness and pressure is much like that of a captain, without the actual power reserves that they have. So if you plan to cut or injure the thing you're going to need to be able to match that on some level. Naturally, you can't really be at that level, but don't go in acting like your first attacks harm it. You'll have adjust your spiritual pressure and keep it razor sharp if you want to injure it. You don't need to be a captain to cut it, but you'll need to keep yourself sharp and I don't expect that to happen on the first attack. I just wanted to remind you of that fact. Otherwise have fun and feel free to control the enemy as you see fit. It is not just for me to use, but everyone. You can use Steph and Kagashi within reason naturally, but anything more than that you'll want to talk to me about.

Enjoy!

[Sato Arashi]

Sorry for the late post, I wasn't able to gather the time to write down something at least of decent work. I hope it is alright with you considering I had to read every detail of your post to see what the copy really had than just kido and regeneration.

[Andromeda]

I read your post. I take it that your post takes place while the child is following Steph, but you interrupt him. You fight for a bit and then leaves to resume chase after me. Is that correct?

Everything seems fine from what I read. You can ask me any questions you have as well. You don't need to be afraid to use me as a resource for writing.

[Evangel]

Just posted a lil'un. Mostly a conversation between Megen and Rei. Foreshadowing for my character really. I decided to join in this lil arc with you Andro. I hope the latter portion of my post is an o.k. start. Get my character more involved with others.

[Andromeda]

Yeah, it is good to have you part of the group. I know you've been doing your own thing for a while. So it'll be nice to have you with everyone else. I guess since people are posting I'll have to start working on a post myself huh?

I'll do a few more things to show off some powers of the child and draw things out for anyone else that wants to join. Then we'll have to figure out way to kill it. ^^

And since you're here. You need to pick a squad for your characters and post what they are here. That way we have it down so that when we move into the next arc there is no delay.

[Evangel]

I believe I decided way back when with Xeim that Mugen is gonna be in Squad 13. Rei will be joining him too. Well, it's 3 AM here so I'm gonna hit the hay. Looking forward to the next post.

I'll be pretty busy the next few days. Tomorrow (er today) I might pop in Friday I'm not sure, Saturday I'll be away all day and most likely Sunday too. I'll try to check in before Monday to see what's going on.

[Andromeda]

Ok, I'm taking a short break from my work that has kept me from doing just about anything for the last few days. I had been talking to Shadow about this so I figured I that I will just put this up now. Since it sort of needs everyone else's input.

So the current thought that I'm running with for what to do after the graduation stuff comes to an end is just a new arc. I had talked about doing something with smaller groups, but I think we've been separated for long enough in the academy not doing anything as a group that we should be together. We can break up into a smaller groups within the arc if necessary for dealing with enemies or tasks. It'll happen, it always does. But I think we should be together.

Anyway, I was also thinking that for the next however many arcs that we decide to do until whatever that we should spend time with each of the characters in the RP. What I mean by this is that the arc we do will have some significance to one of the characters. So the enemies we face may be some old enemy to the character or perhaps the story is just taking place in your neighborhood in the living world or something. This is meant to allow that character to take the front stage. In many cases we have been doing our own thing and those that post more or write longer are sort of seen as the focus. So I wanted to specifically focus on someone in each arc.

An example would that that Kagashi wants revenge on the hollow that he believes killed his parents. So something that seem like a routine trip to the world of the living turns into a battle against the one that he had been chasing. Now the hollow will probably have others with him that will be doing its bidding and we will have to deal with those while the main bad guy is dealt with by Kagashi. Just an example. It may get more complicated than that.

But in boils down to that the focal character gets to have the light on them and fights the big fight and gets to do all of the cool stuff that we see Ichigo do. You know we can't beat them, but your character can because of whatever. They are plotwise meant to. But it gets each of you a chance to really have your individual characters shine. ^^

If that sounds good to you all, I want someone to step up to be the first character. I can put together the story if you are uncertain about that or just need some ideas. We can work this as deep or light as we want. I just want you guys to have some real time to make your characters look awesome out there.

And a side note Squads: (I'll add this to the main post when it is all filled out)

Please pick seats if you want them, if you don't you'll be an unseated officer. Remember seating is in part a ranking of your strength, but not always, Rukia is unseated and quite strong probably equal to a Vice-Captain.

Andromeda
Steph - Squad 10 - 7th Seat
Hana - Squad 10 - 11th Seat
Kagashi - Squad 6 - 6th Seat

Shadow
Shino - Squad 2 - Seat 4
Mai - Squad 13 - Seat 6
Tamashi - Squad 13 - Seat 5
Fukumi - Squad 11 - Seat 5
Raven - Squad 3 - Seat 3
Nagi - Squad 2 - Seat 3

Evangel
Mugen - Squad 13
Rei - Squad 13

Sato
Mokoto - Squad 11 - 6th Seat
Claire - Squad 11 - 7th Seat

Sinister
Haku - Squad 10 - 5th Seat
Mahonna - Squad 6 - 12th Seat

Azuteor
Miru - Squad 6

[Victoria]

Shino - Squad 2 - Seat 4
Mai - Squad 13 - Seat 6
Tamashi - Squad 13 - Seat 5
Fukumi - Squad 11 - Seat 5
Raven - Squad 3 - Seat 3
Nagi - Squad 2 - Seat 3

So there are the spots for my characters. The last two are already Shinigami, I just put their spots for future reference. I've also liked this idea of our characters having our own arc. I was going to make my own before, but Xeim declined, saying that Shino wasn't the main character. ^^;

[Andromeda]

Alright. With Shadow, that leaves only Sinister to say something. I'll have to hunt down Azuteor or you can just post and say what it was again. Also Evangel did you want to be seated or unseated?

As for the whole main character. As we discussed Shadow, there is not really one single main character here. We are either all main characters or we are not main characters at all. Either way, we are all on the same footing, aside from poor Hana, who is just an extra character I made for Steph, she's definitely support. All of the characters here have fleshed out and strong backgrounds and personalities that make them unique. They stand on their own and are not around to support someone. So they all deserve their moment to shine.

[Sato Arashi]

I would like to state that Claire, who's mentioned the first two posts of mine, is also a support character for Mokoto that will also join 11th Division as 7th Seat.

[Andromeda]

Thanks. I updated the list. This is the sort of stuff I need to know. Its not easy to remember everyone's characters. If I missed any characters let me know so I can put them up.

And Sato feel free to give your two cents on my suggestion for what to do after the graduation. This is in by no way set in stone. If the group decides to do something else or they don't like my idea. We'll do something else. I'm just tossing these ideas out since we need to be thinking about this now before things get finished on the graduation.

[Evangel]

Andro, what I plan for my characters doesn't really matter if they're seated or not. No use worrying about it. Unseated will be fine for me. I'll be a non-conformist, lol.

[Sinister]

Can I still play, pretty please with sugar on top? Hmm!?
I never did finish my arc...hope that didn't screw anything up?

-Sin

[Andromeda]

You can Sinister keep playing. Things had been held up too long for people, so I just pushed things through. We haven't heard or seen from you in a long time so we just assumed that you were unavailable. I made a post asking if anyone had anything left and that if you didn't post it was because you didn't have anything or didn't care to post.

You can naturally keep posting, but you will need to keep up with the rest of us. We are finishing up the academy stuff now. You can attend to finishing your arc after that is done.

[Sinister]

I admire the initiative you took and I'll be fine and 'keep up'. But it's more of a matter of where we stand and someone being gracious enough to summarize the events that have occurred in my absence. I wouldn't want to tread on any existing plot points and make a mess of things.

-Sin

[Andromeda]

If you go back about 15-20 posts you will find that I have a post devoted to summarizing everything that has happened up to the point that I began to final push on the Graduation Arc. You will be able to get caught up on that. The remaining posts not summarized and easily be read since it is only like 5 posts.

[Xeim]

Thanks for overseeing things while I was gone Andro, but I'll be taking over after you finish up with the graduation, to oversee things at least.

I have the "format" things will be taking once we're in divisions. If anyone has any suggestions to improve please let me know. I'll do a post after the graduation arc with some missions.

If anyone has any ideas for missions please post here, PM them, or email them to me.

@Evangel: Your second character, I vaguely remember discussing it a long time ago. Could you PM me with the details again so we can discuss a bit? Unless you've already introduced him in my absence, I haven't caught up on things yet.

As for seating, it's not really probable that new recruits are seated. >_> If you guys really want it, I'll just overlook it, or we can have them work into those seats after a couple of missions. I'll find a spot for the division information in the first post. Thanks for starting to gather it, Andro.

MoS Mission system

All graduates have a division. They will now be sent on missions given to them by their superiors. From patrolling to hollow hunting, these missions are sure to prove interesting.

There will be at least two mission scenarios available at a time. Each member should sign up for the one that interests them the most. At least two characters must be assigned to a mission. Some missions may only be available to certain divisions, while others may be open to all.

If you don't feel like going on a mission, please state so in this OOC thread. You can write for scenarios taking place within Soul Society. Make sure any characters (original or Bleach characters) that you use are not away on a mission/other important business. These roleplays in Soul Society are a good way to develop your character, and training posts can help you get the hang of the semi-RPB feel that some RP scenes may take on.

The mission system can be helpful; inactive members or members that are unsure of the amount of online time they have don't have to sign up, which reduces the awkward dragging around of characters. However, we can't keep those who signed up from dropping out in the middle of scenarios, but there's no real fix to that.

Some missions may be important and drive the overall RP plot: everyone who is active must sign up for these.

-Any- member can come up with a mission scenario. If you want missions that detail certain characters, or just your own, you can make those too (though, get consent from the other RPers first, in case of the former).

Missions vs. Story Arcs

Missions: A mission description is a one or two sentence scenario, such as "Locate the source of the mysterious reiatsu found in Hong Kong, China." Beyond this, it is up to the writers to determine the flow of events. Should the source be worth taking back to the 12th Division? Should it be something so powerful that they must enlist the help of one of their captains? This gives the writers more freedom. They can throw just about anything in there, within reason, of course. None of Aizen's Espada back from the dead, please. You guys make the story, it's all driven by you as the RPers, and not me as the planner.

Story Arcs: Obviously, story arcs are more complex. They have entire plots, certain events, and even important characters that have to be worked out before they can come into being. Yeah, you can plan as you go, but that can be risky. And yes, obviously it's best to not plan things to be set in stone, but if you jump off a cliff without looking to see if you can survive the fall... well, you're probably dead.

--

Hopefully this mission system will give the RP a little bit more of a dynamic and free feeling. It also eliminates the need of story arc designs one right after the next in an unneeded stress load.

Of course, the story arcs will be those important missions that everyone must sign up for (or you can stay in soul society, but needless to say no new missions will pop up during these). We can work Andromeda's idea of character arcs into this as story arcs. I honestly don't see all the divisions working together ALL THE TIME as being in any way logical. Sometimes, yes. Splitting people up just a -little- bit serves to make more sense. And, if we had a bunch of characters working on the same thing all the time, things would get confusing.

I also have an idea for an RPB system, but that is for a later date. Please let me know if that sounds interesting, though.

I'm planning on starting out with only having two or three mission scenarios at a time. Sometimes we can even have two different things taking place in the same city, and have the missions overlap. But like I said, beyond the basics, it's all up to the writers.

This isn't me trying to take all the managing load off of myself. =P I just don't want people griping at me about how horrible things are, like with the Academy arc. That was entirely my fault, as I was telling you all what to do. Now that you're telling yourselves what to do, you shouldn't have that boxed in and bored feeling you guys were having. I will be overseeing everything to make sure it's all making sense, though.

I know this is rather long, and I'm sorry about that. I wanted to explain as much as I could. If you hate this idea, let me know (nicely, please). I was originally thinking of putting the missions in a separate thread so that story arcs could overlap with them if a mission starts dragging, but unless you guys like that idea I'm thinking it's a bit of a hassle.

Thanks for doing that summary, Andro. I'll probably link it into the first post somewhere. I'll also be reading it at one point to refresh my memory and catch up. ^^

IF I FORGOT TO ADDRESS ANYTHING: Please let me know.

I hope I'll be able to get on more often and RP. I've missed this RP.

[Azuteor]

Don't forget about Chikai Tokoyami and Miru Soregashi interaction. I think we were about to solve a case concerning the new captains, but then our characters had to spread out to finish other things. xD Just letting you know.

Glad you're finally back!

[Xeim]

Yeah, Azu, I remember them. I don't know if we're going to have time to finish that now, though I'd love to. We could always finish it after graduation and just say that it wasn't really taking place at the same time that the other things were. =P After all, I think you referenced that some students were graduating soon. Anyway, if you want to figure out a way to continue it and everything, I'll make it happen!

I liked that arc.

I put everyone's division in the first post. I'll update after others have posted. I'll also order it by seat at some point, but I thought of that halfway through so won't be doing it now. Also, if I could get people to change the "occupation" section of their profile to "division" with their number that'd be great. If not, I'll live. >_< Let me know if I missed anyone.

[Andromeda]

I've got a lot of things to say so I'll just start at one and go down the list. First things, seated positions. You have to remember Xeim that the characters we are playing are special, they are unique and different from the average shinigami that comes out of the academy. It is not uncommon for shinigami out of the academy to get seated places. Byakayu asked Rukia if she placed as though it was a common thing. Shouhei or whatever was actually being talked about as going to be a Vice-Captain straight out. Strong shinigami come through, its not common, but they occur. And we are those shinigami, we are not average shinigami. We all happen to be off the exceptional group. We wouldn't be playing characters that were normal and not destined to be heroes of the story. So I see it as only being natural that our characters get seated. And I was pretty reasonable about it I though, since it is not going to happen that they are Vice-Captain material. We are not that amazingly special. I mean being seated 7th in the grand scheme is pretty weak, Orihime could whip us and Chad could do it without even trying.

Next thing. This also links back to the characters being the heroes of the story. Missions happen yes, but look at the formula that Bleach takes when they do things. When they are doing their one off episodes a handful of people get involved, but that is filler episodes. The main part of Bleach is the arcs. But these arcs are huge moments in history and life changing events. Other events like this happened, but they were spaced out. Bleach doesn't follow the daily lives of the shinigami, they show the big events that change history or make an impact. And if you view it from that point we should be approaching it from that point of view as well. The small stuff happens while we are doing the big stuff. But doing the big stuff I viewed as jumping through different points in time. We can skip three years into the future and something big that hasn't happened in a while occurs. This occurrance causes the unusual to happen. They need to send more than one shinigami. So they grab people, being the heroes of the story plot dictates that we are picked. We all go, we normally in our every day lives don't do this, but this is a big special moment. We are focusing on this because its important and history making. When it is done we go back to our individual squads and we jump forward in time to next big crisis. It would never be a back to back thing, those things just don't usually happen unless it is a plot reason like the canon Bleach story. Because we are not telling one story from the lives of these characters like a normal RP, but showing the overall history of these characters. We can just jump from important event to important event. When you are reading a biography its the important times that you read about and not the times that they went shopping for groceries and nothing bad or exciting happened it was just a normal moment in life. The former has been the approach the RP has been going and has been the original posted intention of the RP. We skipped around in the academy to the big moments because that is what you were wanting to do. So the big times getting the Zanpakuto and getting shikai and graduating. The history making moments for a character. That is the way the RP has been plotted.

Not quite the next thing, but that's a really big paragraph. You want to do missions, but missions are akin to everyday tasks of a shinigami. In general you investigate and kill the hollow, save the soul or do whatever the objective is. It is not history making events. The history making events is the arcs. So the missions do not fall into line with what you have been doing in the past. We focused on some of the everyday stuff, but the things that were important where what we jumped. We blew through a lot of the other stuff.

There is a reason for this, people don't find everyday stuff interesting. They already do it themselves. I know people aren't going around slaying hollows, but a mission is everyday stuff. People want and enjoy the exciting stuff when your life is on the line, there is a big conspiracy and a huge villain that has destroyed half the Seireitei already. That stuff is awesome and exciting people thrive of that stuff. They look forward to it. The everyday stuff works in moderation, but asks yourself when you're watching Bleach the anime what do you really honestly enjoy and want to see. Do you want to see Hitsugaya being pressured into playing Soccer or do you want to Ichigo fight Byakuya fight in this showdown that you have seen coming for 30 episodes and promised? What do you go back to and rewatch over again? Probably one of the most awesome fights in Bleach or the first time Ichigo goes Bankai or the first time Ichigo released Zangetsu. You love the history making moments, they are awesome and keep you coming back.

So that is what we should be focusing on, the awesome moments that you want to go back. That is what people enjoy and can thrive on.

Next point and counter point to Missions versus Story. A question first, if you had to guess how long does a mission arc take in posts over a story arc? If I had to guess doing it alone or with someone else, i could be done in like 2 posts or maybe 5 posts. It is short stuff, its not complicated it is meant to be low maintenance and less involved. And a story arc could be a 100 posts or 200 posts.

Now with those numbers all completely estimates to make a point. And lets be a little liberal, missions are an even 10 posts and storys are 100 posts. So if we did one story arc, we are busy for a 100 posts on a single story line and focused on that. It keeps us busy, it gets drawn out or whatever people come and go, we deal with it. A mission is 10 posts and its done. In the time that it takes to a story we can get 10 missions done, maybe more if I'm posting ^^; Sounds pretty cool huh? On paper. But there's one problem.

You say that with story arcs you have to come with another idea when the other is ending to go into immediately. It is true you do, but how long is it going to take for us to get through a story arc, being conservative, it could be a year or more, maybe less if people are posting. Either way, it will be months. And if you look at what is happening now, the graduation is not even over and the next story is already being talked about and worked on. The graduation won't be done for like several weeks. That is plenty of time to work on a single story idea to go for the next. Especially if it is character focused.

However, for how ever long it takes to complete the mission one day or a month. You need to come up with something immediately afterwards as well. You just have less turn around time. But to make matters even more complicated, for the time you have to play through one story, you need to figure out ten new missions and make them different. And you are not doing that for one, but many. So now you are needing to make new stories that are really short that come out to being like twenty missions for the one story that we would have for an arc.

Math aside, from a creative stand point. Do you want to be spending a lot of free time having to be creative and unique twenty times in a year or just once in a year? Hey I love making things, but after a while it is going to get recycled and we will just be going through the motions and the quality is going to vanish. And I know you are busy, if you want to be getting back into RP do you want to be forced to spend your time making up missions. Or if we do it, us making up our own missions repeatedly.

Like I said before people love the excitement and history making moments. Missions are not those. People are going to get tired. You saw that happening with the classes and the test. People got bored because they were being forced to do something normal. If you read any of my posts, do you ever see me in the classroom after the training week? No, I was never posting about the classroom. The exciting stuff was happening in the hall and outside. The stuff that people are more interested. People will find the missions momentarily interesting like they do any filler. But just like in Naruto during their 80 episode filler. It just got old and people wanted it over with. Everytime you see or hear filler is coming you dread it because you don't want to see it. Missions without the history making moments equal filler episodes. And people will do them at the start, but you are going to lose them. Then you switch to story and people will dread going back to the missions.

Next thing, this is a single RP. You don't have to weigh yourself down with systems and procedures. RPs in general have one story and when it ends it over. This is naturally different from the average RP, but systems are not necessary. I think you are over complicated something that you can do very simply with a lot less of the stress and worry.

Next thing, I'll just say this for myself. I haven't RPB. I like this being a RP and I'll be sticking here for that even if the rest of your go off to RPB.

And on a personal note, I want to RP with everyone. Being independent is fine, but that is not the point of the RP forum. The RP forum is supposed to be about people working together and roleplaying together through a common goal. Most of what we have been doing so far as been opposite of that intention. I want to see this RP return to the heart of what the forum is intended to do. We are here we should be RPing together a group.

This boils down to I think you should stick what was originally talked about in the club a long time ago. Just going through story arcs. You only have to do them once and then you got a long time to think of the next great amazing moment while it is going on. You won't feel rushed coming up with stories really quick. And you can get everyone involved.

[Evangel]

O.K. first: Xeim, I'll get back to you on my 2nd character as soon as I can, I'm typing this at 4am so I'm kinda tired. Expect a PM later today.

Secondly: I kinda agree with Andro, doing everyday stuff with missions would get boring. Perhaps incorporating the idea of missions into a story arc would be best? For example: Going on a mission or so at the start of story arc to find out information that would be used to flesh out the mission into a full arc? Like with the Bount Arc in the anime, a few missions to see what's going on to reveal a greater threat.

[Xeim]

Evangel, I look forward to your PM. I'll try to log back in later, but know that I'll get back to you on it as ASAP.

Maybe we could even use it as an idea for the first arc. I like the idea of character arcs, but I don't want to jump right into them. After this whole Academy mess, I'd like to start with something where everyone's equal. Each character arc will have one character shining above the rest, obviously, that's the point. But I don't want to start with that.

Okay Andromeda, I see your point. You're right, it's the big moments. But I still like the idea of missions. How about a compromise? We mainly focus on story arcs. But in the downtime between each one when the one story arc is wrapping up and the next one is being detailed to the members, we go on one or two little missions to let the RPers "goof off" a little. Since they can do anything, the missions can go anywhere. I don't care if they get a little ridiculous, but not greatly ridiculous. We know that bleach can get a little ridiculous. This gives them a little relaxation time before jumping in to the next big, dramatic story. And, like Evangel said, on one of the missions we can even run into info about the next story arc, thusly giving the story a good lead-in. And, if a couple characters decide they want to take a break from the main arc and just do something simple, they can hang out in soul society or go on a random mission.

Sound good? That way we're not overdoing it, we're not going from one huge, complex deal to the next without cooling off, but we're not taking so long that people get bored. And, we give those who either dropped out of sight for a while and can't follow the story line, are having writer's block and don't know what to do with their character, or just don't like the story line (it could happen) something to do.

That way, we're not doing the same things over and over, getting bored, and having quality decrease. It's just a fun little insert between big story lines. And yes, it is little.

And, like I said, I honestly didn't mind the seatings. If you want them, then I'm not going to argue that.

EDIT: The RPB system.

The RPB system I had in mind was going to be completely separate from the main story and the main thread, and completely optional. Basically, RPers would challenge each other here, and then duke it out in the RPB forum with me and one other member as judges (that way the other judge and I could fight at some point too). I haven't gotten the details worked out, though, but if it sounds at all interesting to anyone let me know.

[Andromeda]

I can see that as a suitable compromise. I have to finish what I'm working on get a job, but once that is finished I'm going to posting again. Hopefully, everyone else will be posting soon too. But regardless of what happens I'm going to bringing the graduation in an end in a reasonable amount of time. So if you want to something afterwards you'll need to get prepared for that.

As for the next story arc. We still need someone to step to and want to be the focus this time around. It doesn't matter who it is, we just need one character. The first person to call out gets it at this point.

[Xeim]

Okay, I'm glad that sounds good.

Like I said, I'd rather not start out with a character based arc. If we're going to move straight into a story arc, I want it to be one where all characters are of equal importance. We can start the character arcs after it.

I'd like to hear Evangel's idea (or anyone else's) before I go off and plan something, though.

If push comes to shove and I get anything good ready I'll say move into a character arc and then come back to a normal arc. I'd like to try for a normal arc first, though.

[Andromeda]

Evangel is talking about the current filler arc. He is talking about the Zanpakuto of the shinigami refusing to take orders from the shinigami any more and starting a war to subjugate the shinigami because the man called Muramasa has set them free. Doing something like that sounds rather large and out of league seeing as we are just getting out of the academy. We'd all get pretty well beat up by our own Zanpakuto or whatever.

Not really sure why its a problem to do a character arc now, but that aside. Thought you were going to do one of the missions before we got into the character arc. But you want to a story arc that's not focused a single character. Well that's easy enough manage. How big of an arc? Because we can take this a long way or make it really quick depending on how much effort goes into it.

[Xeim]

Yeah, I know what arc he's talking about. He was just saying "detail," so I thought it might've been something I missed. But you were right. It's an interesting thing to have pop up somewhere, though not in the same way bleach is doing it. Some sort of zanpakuto arc would be cool though.

Well, I was thinking everyone would be anxious for the next story arc. We could do a mission or two, though. It might be a good way to get warmed up to not being in the academy anymore. We have to introduce Evangel's new character at some point, and as he isn't a shinigami we can't just have him pop up. Evangel and I will get something worked out. If he doesn't have something planned, it might be good to introduce him in a mission so Evangel can start writing for him. I don't want to talk too much more as it's Evangel's character. We'll get it worked out, anyway.

As for a story arc, even if we start with a mission or two I still want to kick things off with a normal story arc. It doesn't have to be anything too huge. Maybe a medium size one at most. I've still got ideas for a future arc running around in the back of my mind, but that won't pop up for a while.

I feel like the structure of this post is a mess. Sorry for my stream of consciousness narrative here. I'm just short on time at the moment.

[Andromeda]

Well if that is case, just do a story arc since you don't want to do a character arc immediately. No sense fluffing things with a mission if we aren't doing character arc. Do note though that the character arc and story arc are going to be run the same way. They are going to be identical in that they are going to be handling a story just like a regular story arc, only difference is a character is being drawn forward.

I am wondering if we are getting too many characters involved. I only really ever wanted one character, but I have two now. Shadow has six characters and Evangel has two going on three. Shouldn't we try to scale things back to only having one character? Support characters are fine, but aren't we dividing ourselves thin with so many main characters? The more characters we keep adding more the people are playing by themselves and their characters and the less they are interacting with everyone else.

As for the story arc, we need a story then. We've got a couple weeks at the least before we are going to need it. But it needs to be laid out soon. As has been the usual. I wait to see if you post something Xeim for it. But if the deadline is getting close I'll put something out for us to do.

[Evangel]

I just didn't specify what it was just in case no one watched the episode yet.

[Xeim]

Yes, some people have too many characters, but do you really want me to order them to kill them, make them disappear, or reduce them to support characters? I never put a character limit on things, and now that the characters are there it's up to the RPers whether they want to keep them or not. Telling people to demote a character they put time into is just silly.

Sure, I can say: Okay, current RPers, no more than the characters you have now, future RPers no more than two. But I'm not going to ask people to reduce their character number unless they want to.

I understand the way character arcs work, but that one character is being drawn forward is exactly the reason I want to start with a normal arc. I'll try to cook something up, but if I can't make something in time I'd appreciate it if you make something, Andro.

Well, I'm getting tired, so I hope my grammar isn't faulty. ^^; Please ignore typos and any weird words that do not look like English, if present. =P

[Sinister]

Haku Ishikawa-Division Ten-Seat 5

Mahonna Kuiki-Division Six-Seat 12

If that's okay...those are preferably where I'd like my characters to end up. As for rejoining the RP... You can reasonably expect me to make a post within the next week. Most likely, early on.

-Sin