alexgndl

>DM: roll for Perception to see if the alleyway is clear.
>1, +30 modifier
>DM: You rise into the air on a pillar of heavenly glory. Divine light pours from your eyes and mouth as a beacon of cosmic awareness billows out from your body like a ripple in reality's pond.
>You can feel the heartbeat of the asphalt. The air holds its breath so as not to impede you hearing.
>The reincarnation of Lord Solar Macharius himself descends from on high, borne aloft by cherubs, and says unto ye, "Nay, for 'tis empty, yonder alleyway."

Whooo, bullet immune bros!

Aaaand thanks to Ryn's help, powers and stuff are go, with 5 points to spare for future shenanigans. Nvm forgot to add in bullet immunity. Perfect fit!

Actually, they mentioned Jon in today's Firered episode for the first time in 18 months.  Kinda neat.  

"common, everyday knowledge like Bruce Willis being Batman"
 
halp
 
i dyin

Hey, we've never seen Bruce Willis and Batman in the same room together...

Right, here we go:
 
1) Amoeba.  Normally looks vaguely humanoid, albeit light blue and slightly see-through.  When he's in action he's just an amorphous blob, like his namesake.  Can move incredibly quickly-not only can he just move fast, but can just ooze through or over walls and other obstacles.  If he really needs to, he can flow into a person's lungs, cutting off their airways completely while he holds onto them.  Only used in extreme situations, though.
 
 
 
2)Robbie Hastings was doing all right for himself, all things considered. He'd made it out of his horrible childhood neighborhood, and he'd gotten out without being in a cop car or a wooden box.  He'd gotten a full ride to college playing baseball, and had made it to the Minor Leagues (and there were rumors he was going to be signed to a certain team that had just lost their legendary shortstop).  One night while visiting his mom, he and a few buddies decided to go to the nearby Femtotech dumping ground that they'd played in as children, for old times' sake.  While clambering up a small garbage pile, Robbie accidentally poked himself with an old, discarded needle hiding in the pile.  
 
Unknown to him, it was a molecular dissolving agent designed by Femtotech to painlessly dissolve lab subjects into goop when they were no longer needed-much safer and more humane than an incinerator (or in the case of human subjects, a firing squad).  However, the residual dose given to Robbie wasn't enough to kill him-it just painfully converted his whole body to a water-like goo.  This became a bit of a problem-superhumans were no longer allowed to play professionally, not since '76 when Pete Rose hit a baseball through multiple buildings.  Robbie Hastings' baseball career was over almost before it even began.  But the career of Amoeba, professional crime-buster, was just beginning.
 
 
 
3)I'm fine with anything, really.  As long as it isn't TOO campy-I'm talking 60's spiderman cartoons or Adam West's Batman.  Grimdark could be fun, too.  I do feel like there should be some sort of balance.
 
 
 
4)Motivation: Protection. Robbie grew up in an awful neighborhood.  He knows how hard it is to be the little guy and just genuinely wants to help.  He became a superhero for the same reason why he wanted to be a baseball player-he wanted to be a hero to someone.
 
Complications: Identity-His accident and subsequent job change were fairly well-documented.  He was an up-and-coming minor leaguer, and he does kinda stick out like a sore thumb now.  As a result, it's fairly easy to figure out that Amoeba is Robbie Hastings.  It's not common, everyday knowledge like Bruce Willis being Batman, but he's a bit of a hometown hero and people know him in his home city (which is to be decided).
 
Mom: His mom's the only family he has left. He's gotten her out of the area that they used to live and into the suburbs, but he still worries about her.
 
Femtotech: Obviously, when word got out about Robbie's accident, Femtotech took a LOT of flak, not just for their improper waste disposal practices, but also for the fact that they made a serum that, at a best-case scenario would permanently turn a person into a real-life version of Flubber, and worst case would molecularly change that person into a substance that'd evaporate moments after the person changed.  Femtotech, somewhat reasonably, is kind of angry at Robbie, and also a bit intrigued as they haven't been able to replicate his results yet in their lab.  And when the 4th largest biotech firm in the world is angry at you, that probably isn't a good thing...

It's been a trying day for all involved.

With John Caveson kicking off his very cool SPUF in Space revival idea, I went ahead and asked the other writers for The Business End if anyone wanted to join his Eternal Adventures project, which would probably mean splitting up the crew. Overall, no one seemed to keen on giving up The Business End just yet, even though SiS is inactive and most of us don't have the time to invest in RPing as we did on the old story thread. With that in mind, I figured the best way to continue our story would be to create our own solo offshoot based around The Business End and its crew.
 
Rather than have it written by a single author I'm hoping to make this a collaborative effort, with each writer contributing (or just approving) whatever they can as far as characters and story lines go. Currently it looks like Witty and myself may be doing the bulk of the actual writing, but other TBE people can jump in at any time to contribute to the project (we have a PM discussion set up). The story will be taking place in the same universe as SiS/Eternal Adventures, so we'll also be collaborating across our respective stories to some degree.
 
So far I have a few ideas planned as I'm sure others do, so hopefully we'll be able to start introducing some new story material soon. In the meantime, I've collected all our previous posts here. (I'm not sure we'll be sticking with the "Fenria I" / "Sun II" format later on, but it works for how the old thread was set up, and seemed like it would be easier to read it this way than stitching it all together in one big block.)
 
Anyway, without further whatever:
 
Tales From The Business End
 
Previously..
 
Avalon Part One
 
Chapter One - Alex
TL;DR:  The Business End just got back from a rather disastrous mission, good thing they got paid upfront.  Now they're done with repairs and supply loading, and ready to get back out there.
Author - alexgndl
  Chapter Two - Fenria   TL;DR: Fenria is still getting over the convoy's destruction. She gets a chance to inspect her newly modified spacecraft.
Author - <Witty Name>
 
Chapter Three - Bine
TL;DR: Bine Rides a train to the Buisness End's hangar. 
Author - Binary
 
Chapter Four - Sun
TL;DR: Sun heads back to the ship, plots some kind of "initiation" for Bine Arey. 
Author - Rynjin
 
Chapter Five - Fenria
TL;DR: Fenria steps outside for a bit of sunlight and runs into Sun.
Author - <Witty Name> & Rynjin
 
Chapter Six - Al
TL;DR: Al and Hourai heads to the business end.
Author - Doopliss2008
 
Chapter Seven - Bine
TL;DR: Bine gets to the Business End, is "greeted" by Sun. They are interrupted by another arrival. 
Author - Binary
 
Chapter Eight - Senn
TL;DR: Desperate to get off world, Senn approaches Alex looking for a job, with mixed results. 
Author - Kayohgee
 
Chapter Nine - Sun
TL;DR: Sun talks to Alex about the new recruit.
Author - Rynjin
 
Chapter Ten - Senn
TL;DR Senn takes on a pair of assassins and reads one of their minds. Realizing he was last seen talking to Alex, he races to find the crew of the Business End before they're all killed.
Author - Kayohgee
 
Chapter Eleven - Fenria
TL;DR: Fenria bumps into Senn after his fight in the bar.
Author - <Witty Name>
 
Chapter Twelve - Senn
TL;DR Senn and Fenria head to the spaceport together.
Author - Kayohgee & <Witty Name>
 

Additional post; Jon and Arin shown to be "coo' wid each udder" at Magfest 2015.
 

 
I'm sure we can all get on our high horses and call foul on how either or both of them aren't good or funny or what have you I'm looking at you two, Moby and Gigolo, now hurry the fuck up and kiss each other already but I'm glad that the two apparently have no ill will against each other, given all the crazy rumors. They're two human beings, and we human beings should be about friendship and jolly co-operation (because eventually the mole people are going to rise and overthrow our society, and we need to be ready for them.)
 
Also no, I have no idea what that costume is. Rarity? Maybe? I dunno.

So one of my closest friends started playing D&D 5E today.  She rolled up an elven Rogue and apparently in today's session she:
 
-Slaughtered an unarmed group of goblins that the party had captured, looted their bodies
-Convinced the party that the goblins had been murdered by something else in the cave, making everyone else super paranoid that they're being stalked by some sort of superpredator
-Looted the boss chest while everyone else was actually fighting the boss, leaving only 2 health potions for the group
-Convinced the party that yes, that's all that was in the chest.  Nothing else in there, no money or anything no siree.
 
So now she's got around 100gp to her name, while the rest of the party has ~20 each.  I'm not sure if I should be proud of her for pulling it off, or if I should tell her to knock it off before the Paladin starts wondering why the party Rogue has a ton of shiny new stuff and smells of death.  Also-would that whole slaughter of the innocents thing be enough to warrant an alignment shift from CN to CE? I feel like it should, but apparently her GM says it's in-character for her, so it's cool.  I feel like that's a bit off...

I feel like such a tragic event deserves more than a simple acknowledgement, so here goes.
 
For as long as I've been on the Internet, it's been natural to see people come and go, some quietly and some very loudly, but that's just how everything in life goes. Even I myself didn't expect to be a part of this community as long as I have, knowing my own history, but I've been around long enough to see plenty of members come and go.
 
For all that I've been a part of, I've never had to confront the possibility that someone would so suddenly depart, permanently and with no chance to return. Of course, nobody ever does because of the nature of the Internet, where nothing ever truly dies, but is simply forgotten to most. It feels even more surreal because of how separated the Internet is from real life, leading most of us to believe in them as two completely separate realms.
 
That brings us to now, where one of our own has had to depart life suddenly and at a relatively young age. I can't claim to have known XYTWO too well beyond the server I once ran and the forums I still run, but from the times I did have with him he was always a great friend to have, committed, active, and fun. He made more than enough of an impact here to make the members of this forum acutely aware when he disappeared during this tragic course of events.
 
It's no understatement to say that he's made his mark, and his presence will be sorely missed. His passing reminds us that at the end of the day, all we can hope to do is have made enough of a good impact when it is time for us to finally move on.
 
Thus, we bid farewell to you, James "XYTWO" Lebowitz. Your impact on the people here will never be forgotten and will continue with us to the end of time, and when it is time for us to join you beyond the mortal coil, all that we can hope for is to have measured up to you.
 
Rest in peace, dear friend.

>DM: roll for Perception to see if the alleyway is clear.
>1, +30 modifier
>DM: You rise into the air on a pillar of heavenly glory. Divine light pours from your eyes and mouth as a beacon of cosmic awareness billows out from your body like a ripple in reality's pond.
>You can feel the heartbeat of the asphalt. The air holds its breath so as not to impede you hearing.
>The reincarnation of Lord Solar Macharius himself descends from on high, borne aloft by cherubs, and says unto ye, "Nay, for 'tis empty, yonder alleyway."

>DM: roll for Perception to see if the alleyway is clear.
>1, +30 modifier
>DM: You rise into the air on a pillar of heavenly glory. Divine light pours from your eyes and mouth as a beacon of cosmic awareness billows out from your body like a ripple in reality's pond.
>You can feel the heartbeat of the asphalt. The air holds its breath so as not to impede you hearing.
>The reincarnation of Lord Solar Macharius himself descends from on high, borne aloft by cherubs, and says unto ye, "Nay, for 'tis empty, yonder alleyway."

>DM: roll for Perception to see if the alleyway is clear.
>1, +30 modifier
>DM: You rise into the air on a pillar of heavenly glory. Divine light pours from your eyes and mouth as a beacon of cosmic awareness billows out from your body like a ripple in reality's pond.
>You can feel the heartbeat of the asphalt. The air holds its breath so as not to impede you hearing.
>The reincarnation of Lord Solar Macharius himself descends from on high, borne aloft by cherubs, and says unto ye, "Nay, for 'tis empty, yonder alleyway."

Can confirm, was once Christian and was triggered by math in school.

Can confirm, was once Christian and was triggered by math in school.

speaking of which woo i won boys
 

Raz's avatar as an elf is god-tier
 

you wanna fight, mate

holy shit this is something I didn't know I wanted

Well, we don't really actually know all that much about the actual composition of comets.  They're not quite asteroids-aka big balls of rock or metal.  They're sometimes described as big space snowballs, which while being a gross oversimplification is kinda close to the mark.  But besides that, we didn't even know if we could even land on a comet until yesterday-there were worries that the probe would simply sink into the surface, or any other number of catastrophic events.  Now that Philae's up and running, we're going to get so much stuff about what makes these things work.
 
Like Kay said, it was also practice for other things.  The probe carried an experimental harpoon landing system.  Basically you fire at the object and reel yourself in with it.  I don't think it actually worked (I believe it failed to fire?) but it's an idea that's been suggested to use when landing on smaller bodies.  Remember, shit like asteroids or comets have negligible gravity, so even if we can get into an orbit around one, that doesn't necessarily mean that landing is going to be easy (or even possible) with the aid of what little gravity there is.  This is a system designed to land and attach probes (and maybe eventually spacecraft) in situations where you can't trust the object you're landing on to keep you stuck to itself.

Well, we don't really actually know all that much about the actual composition of comets.  They're not quite asteroids-aka big balls of rock or metal.  They're sometimes described as big space snowballs, which while being a gross oversimplification is kinda close to the mark.  But besides that, we didn't even know if we could even land on a comet until yesterday-there were worries that the probe would simply sink into the surface, or any other number of catastrophic events.  Now that Philae's up and running, we're going to get so much stuff about what makes these things work.
 
Like Kay said, it was also practice for other things.  The probe carried an experimental harpoon landing system.  Basically you fire at the object and reel yourself in with it.  I don't think it actually worked (I believe it failed to fire?) but it's an idea that's been suggested to use when landing on smaller bodies.  Remember, shit like asteroids or comets have negligible gravity, so even if we can get into an orbit around one, that doesn't necessarily mean that landing is going to be easy (or even possible) with the aid of what little gravity there is.  This is a system designed to land and attach probes (and maybe eventually spacecraft) in situations where you can't trust the object you're landing on to keep you stuck to itself.

Well, we don't really actually know all that much about the actual composition of comets.  They're not quite asteroids-aka big balls of rock or metal.  They're sometimes described as big space snowballs, which while being a gross oversimplification is kinda close to the mark.  But besides that, we didn't even know if we could even land on a comet until yesterday-there were worries that the probe would simply sink into the surface, or any other number of catastrophic events.  Now that Philae's up and running, we're going to get so much stuff about what makes these things work.
 
Like Kay said, it was also practice for other things.  The probe carried an experimental harpoon landing system.  Basically you fire at the object and reel yourself in with it.  I don't think it actually worked (I believe it failed to fire?) but it's an idea that's been suggested to use when landing on smaller bodies.  Remember, shit like asteroids or comets have negligible gravity, so even if we can get into an orbit around one, that doesn't necessarily mean that landing is going to be easy (or even possible) with the aid of what little gravity there is.  This is a system designed to land and attach probes (and maybe eventually spacecraft) in situations where you can't trust the object you're landing on to keep you stuck to itself.