kenod

Sure! He's remembering stuff already? I think we'll need to sue the Stranger for shoddy craftsmanship.

Here's Aylitha's character sheet. Please keep in mind that she won't be a character in the traditional sense, and won't get involved in plots, instead she'll hunt those who regain memories of the old world and reset them again, making her more of a special NPC. As an aside, because of her personality, as well as safety concerns and keeping things hidden the creatures she'll send after people will be lower-powered and have various (hidden) weaknesses that can be used to either escape or defeat them, in which case characters will have a small amount of respite, which you can use if you don't want your character captured. Otherwise, if they do get captured they'll only get their memories erased, and after the procedure won't even have any injuries, so your characters won't be harmed. With that out of the way, here's the sheet (as well as the sheets for some of the creatures). Aylitha: Creatures: Hazel Blackmore: Karin Dreier (Eldritch): Hazel and Karin are meant specifically as assistants of Aylitha, and won't interfere in plots, though they might observe things, and will only interfere if someone is acting because they're remembering the old world, as well as running damage control for Aylitha's retrieval teams, though if anyone does specifically want to interact with them, they can. Also, yeah, their outfits are references to the Men in Black, and Karin specifically designed them like this IC, though it has more practical reasons as well.

Is there anything known about the editor undo and autosave functions suddenly stopping with updating? I'm using Firefox, if that helps. I'm not entirely sure what's going on here, but sometimes the editor stops automatically saving my changes, meaning that if I hit undo it'll erase a large part of my work as it resets to the last saved point, at which point the redo function also stops working and won't restore anything. I'm not certain if this is a shard bug or a firefox bug though, since normally when this happens and I restart firefox the automatic updater will run, making me think that it's Firefox noticing there's an update ready that somehow bugs it out.

Kumiko and KanMien walked down the streets together, looking at the different activities. KanMien looked at Kumiko. Their costumes were the same as last year, and she had to admit neither of them had put too much effort into it, instead mainly relying on the fact their outfits were unusual enough to begin with that nobody would question them. Kumiko had simply put on a variation on the dress she normally wore, though according to her it had a different name, and was supposed to be worn at festivals, though KanMien still wondered what the exact difference was. She was even still wearing that strange sword of hers, though KanMien highly doubted that people would actually wear swords to those festivals. Other than that, she had simply manifested her tail and ears, and put on a bright white and red mask resembling a fox, though KanMien again didn't really understand what the purpose of the mask's ears were when you had fox ears yourself. Meanwhile, KanMien wore an outfit similar to what you might see from someone from the Roughs in Scandrial, cloth covering the lower part of her face while a hat obscured the upper part, completed by the two heavy revolvers on her sides and a rifle on her back. Of course, in her case the entire outfit wasn't actually a costume, with her instead wearing the outfit she used back when they were all still roaming around Scandrial back in the day, having grabbed it out of the closet because she wasn't interested in spending the time to acquire an actual costume. Together the two of them moved through the crowd, walking together in a comfortable silence that somehow formed a nice contrast to all the other noise around them. Eventually they visited a stand to buy some snacks, both of them getting a sugared apple, after which Kumiko spent a while complaining about the lack of certain foods KanMien wasn't certain she would be able to pronounce, let alone remember for more than two seconds. Eventually they started walking again, wondering about what the next year would bring. Probably some sort of calamity, going by the usual pattern in this city.

Huh, neat.

Something I'm wondering about, if he's a Cadmium Savant, how old would he be? I figure you'd be skipping through a lot of stuff if you want to become a savant.

@Voidus

She thought for a bit, then quietly sighed. "There should be another operative around who can help you. I'll send them a message, though I've got no clue if they'll do it." She took out a small spike from her pocket, and started spinning it around. Corette, got a potential recruit here for you. Currently a member of the Scholars Guild, interested in memory manipulation, specifically restoring lost memories. I don't think she mentioned her name though. I'd bring her back myself, but I'm currently busy dealing with this. Haven't told her your identity, just told her there was another DA member, so keep that in mind. Finishing up the message she looked at the spike, waiting for an answer. @AonEne, @ZincAboutIt

For a second, Aylitha sat there in stunned silence, before suddenly bursting into hysterical laughter. "Oh, that's great, that's absolutely amazing!" she exclaimed with tears of laughter in her eyes. "I figured you were planning something when you called me here, but something like this? Oh, you really don't disappoint, do you! I figured this would be something boring, like a coup, but rewriting the entire world? I knew you were something special, but even I hadn't expected something like this! Count me in! To be able to witness the results of an experiment like this, rewriting an entire world, That's absolutely great! Even that stuck-up Ktrilnha wouldn't be able to do something as great like that!" After a minute she finally got herself under control, and wiped the tears from her eyes, trying to look serious again. "Yes, I'll join you in this," she said, "and you can have a sample of my essence. However, I request that you don't tinker with it too much. I trust you have the skill required, but given my past, and how much my abilities are tied to my research even small alterations might have large consequences." She smiled slightly. "Besides," she continued, "I suspect even you don't know the full nature of my abilities, or how I originally acquired them." She fell silent for a bit, thinking, then nodding to herself. "Hmm," she said, cocking her head, "I don't think you'll need to actually change that much for me to be effective. As long as you leave my past before arriving in this world in tact it should solve most issues. As for my abilities, I'm currently already powerful enough to do the surveillance required, as long as my main body is in the same world. If you get rid of that restriction, I should be able to observe both worlds, and other than that, well, my mind and abilities are already vast enough to instantly monitor entire worlds, so messing about with them in fancy ways like integrating them with the spiritual realm won't be needed." She nodded to herself again. "As for dealing with subversives, depending on who you categorize as such, and how you want me to deal with them, I already have a few options, with your aid. Simply disappearing them won't be an issue, but I think I have a good way of controlling them as well..." She paused for a bit, trying to figure out the best way of approaching this part of the conversation. This would be the trickiest part. She wasn't interested in having her powers altered too much, the true nature of her abilities was too different from what the Stranger could have possibly ever worked with, and she didn't want someone who didn't know about it messing about with them. Besides, she did have someone else she was responsible for, and this would be the perfect way to make sure they could stay together, as well as making sure she got a happy life in this new world, since if this change occurred their meeting might not have taken place either. "For maintaining proper control, it might be good to give me an assistant," she finally said. "I can create my own creatures to deal with subversives, but mental control isn't my forte. For that, I would suggest someone else. She's an ex member of Bioscience, currently works in Acquisitions, goes by Vita. I took her under my wings a while ago, because of her ability. Specifically, she sense, analyse and alter living organisms. It should be quite easy to alter this ability to work on the cognitive level, instead of the physical. This should allow her to make problematic individuals more... compliant. Not only that, but since she's an Epic I can embed motivators of her into my creations, and while they likely won't be able to modify memories or minds I should be able to program them to detect whatever you consider to be problematic qualities." She smiled. "This," she continued, "has the benefit that it's easy to do, and will require relatively few changes for both of us, whilst trying to modify my own existence to be able to do all that without causing large issues will take you a lot of time, time I suspect you'd prefer spending on more productive things, like dealing with a certain department." A certain mixture of disgust and annoyance was audible in her tone with those last two words. She understood the need for rules, but creating rules for rule's sake was just insane. In the end, rules had to evolve, similar to organisms, or maybe it was better to consider the Group as a single organism, the individuals being cells, and the rules the way those cells made the organism work in the most optimal way, while also protecting itself. Looking at it like that, rules for rule's sake was an abomination, something that went against nature and biology in one of the most fundamental ways possible. She shook herself, trying to gather her mind. "Well, anyway," she finally said. "That's my answer, as well as a suggestion, or maybe a request, on how to integrate me into your plans. I hope that's okay?"

How about the actual government? Given the lower power of the guilds, does the city itself have a goverment and law enforcement (and maybe an army)? It would help explain how the guilds beat certain things with reduced power, and it makes sense that with the reduced guild influence an actually effective goverment can form. As an aside, if we do have a proper government, I suggest not having players participate in it, given the mess the Era 3 government was.

Mari Enriel: Bit of a tricky one regarding powers, @Voidus put the score for the second ability (mass-shifting and phasing) on roughly 80 points in the DA thread when I first pitched the ability, but the first ability (seeing eldritch stuff and sensing alleytravel and alleymatics users) needs scoring too.

Soon after the stranger sat down a small crab crawled into the cavern, hiding itself from view. Curious, Aylitha watched through its eyes, wondering who had sent her that note, and why. Finding the place had been easy of course. Extremophiles were easy to recognize, the high GC content in their DNA and the presence of heat shock proteins giving them away easily, and the lack of chlorophyll or similar substances made it obvious that this sample must have grown in a low-light environment, instead relying on thermal and chemical energy from its surroundings, which meant it would have lived in an underwater environment around hydrothermal vents, using the heat and acidic chemicals to thrive. Of course, environments like those were rare, especially in the vicinity of the Alleycity, since these would normally be found at the ocean floor, close to the edges of tectonic plates, or possibly underground in caverns, if the crust at the location was thin enough. On the other hand, neither of these applied to the Alleycity, made obvious by the general lack of earthquakes, except for when R&D wanted to try out something new, of course. Add to that that the note was delivered to her inside the alleys, and it was most likely that the sample had originated from there as well, and at that point trying out all the different alleys that had black smokers was just a case of manpower, something she was never short on. Still, it seemed this was the right place, judging by the man sitting at the table in the centre of the cavern. She mentally blinked when she caught a glimpse of a singular eye spike though, wondering what the Stranger of all people was doing here. She was a fellow department head, even if she wasn't as well-known as him, he could have just sent a normal message, instead of going through all this trouble. Even if he was trying to keep the meeting a secret the only person that might pick up on something like that would be Voidus, or maybe HR. She guessed Mac might as well, but if the rumours were right he had disappeared for now, so that couldn't be the case. Curious she split off a mental thread from her main intellect, and in the blink of an eye the crab's form changed to that of a young girl wearing a simple dress. "Well, I hadn't quite expected to meet a stranger in a place like this," she quipped as she walked up behind him, suspected he had known she was there the instant she had entered this alley. She sat down in front of him, tendrils forming a chair beneath her. "First of all, my thanks for that sample," she said with a cheerful smile. "I quite like extremophiles like hyperthermophiles, their environment always creates fascinating adaptions, and above that, types like these that grow in acidic high-temperature environments show an extremely interesting insight into what potentially was the earliest form of biological life. And given that I wasn't aware of this species before... Well, you have my thanks for bringing it to my attention." Still smiling she straightened herself, looking more like she was sitting in a classroom than a cavern filled with acidic pools. "So, could you tell me why you called me all the way out to this place?" She asked. "Given where we are, I have to assume you want to keep this a secret, but for someone of your power there are easier ways to do so. The only people I know of who can spy on or even gain knowledge of a meeting between two department heads would be you, Voidus or maybe HR. So given that, I assume this needs to be kept secret from one of those two. So, what do you want to discus that either of those two aren't allowed to know about? A coup?" She asked it in a genuinely curious tone, not showing any care about the implications of something of such a magnitude, just curiosity about what the Stranger might be planning.

Hmm, Aylitha would probably be various dark animal masks, probably distorted in some way to distinguish them from normal animals. For clothing, really simple black outfit, like basic dress or shirt and jeans, possibly a bit tattered, with a cheap-looking material (cheap as in stuff you'd find in old medieval villages, or just low-quality fabric, not cheap as what you'd find in party-goods store).

Shade: Voidus' previous evaluation of her. Her abilities, skills and Epic weakness are staying the same, only her non-epic weaknesses have changed.

Same, to be honest. I'll probably figure it out as I go along.

I don't think we've decided on anything like that yet. I guess it'll mostly be a place to introduce our characters, writing initial scenes for them, having them interact with a few other characters... I guess some people might also use parts of it to start or foreshadow some of the future plots.

Basically when the next Era starts we'll open with a festival, so we'll need to thread for RPing it in.

You're also of the 5th heightening, which gives a bunch of other benefits, like immortality for as long as you can get a supply of Investure (breath isn't necessary when you have stormlight), lifesense, perfect pitch and colour recognition, aura vision, immunity to sickness, and you might also have a way easier time of reaching the higher heightenings if you start collecting Breaths, which I think would also mean awakening in general should be easier for you, even if you don't manage to make it to the 6th heightening.

@Voidus

Shade looked at her for a second, thinking about leaving. Even if the woman was suspicious, she really didn't want to continue hanging around someone who'd punch people as an experiment. After thinking for a bit longer she sighed and stopped using her powers, though she didn't move out of her combat stance, still feeling wary. "Please do not do that again," she said, a nervous tone in her voice. "If you surprise me like that again I might accidentally hurt you, or even kill you, and I would rather not do so."

Shade watched as Grace started writing in her notebook, seemingly distracted, when she suddenly turned around and struck at her face. Suddenly feeling scared her instincts kicked in, and she dropped down and moved forwards, trying to get out of her line of sight by ducking around her towards her back. As soon as she stopped feeling her gaze she engaged her abilities fully, completely masking herself, and she felt most of the fear vanish at the same time. Pulling a knife she jumped further back behind Grace, ready to either rush forwards and attack her or to get out and get aid.

My first two characters for Era 5 (Kumiko and KanMien): Kumiko: KanMien: @Voidus, since Epic.

Can you post a link? I can't seem to find it.