searching [OOC] The Æther Project

[Starforce 26]

1 minute ago, Kujamih said:

Sure thing... So you vote for tearing the scroll? 

What does that mean?

[Evil Pink One 13,506]

Btw @Illiad Easle by taking the empress away.. it takes away the nexus.. which kills the kitsune right? Will ficus die in the process? 

[Illiad Easle 3,139]

@Kujamih

19 hours ago, Kujamih said:

I mean does this arc help the final arc? Or is this just a filler arc? 

Every arc helps the final arc, because hopefully each arc leads to character growth.

19 hours ago, Kujamih said:

he thought Molotov's way would work

@Blitz Boom can attest that Molotov's flirting doesn't often work. At least in my experience with them

19 hours ago, Kujamih said:

I actually didn't want Light to do anything about it but that bit was taking too long and no one was actually doing much. But my heroism there became bad for some reason...

The issue there is impatience. This RP, like most RPs I run, are not meant to be rushed through. My goal here is for character interactions to mean something, not to just be filler until the next exciting action scene. Most of my best characters and moments are the ones that happen on the side, the individuals that remind you that not everyone on the Project thinks the same way, that it's made up of individuals.

Some scenes are going to drag out, and that's fine.

19 hours ago, Kujamih said:

Also I thought I didn't made him that OP

I don't have the energy right now to step through all the instances where Light subverted a challenge due to being far more powerful than the ponies around him. You've stated that he's the second best at pretty much anything he wants to do and in a world where alicorns exist that makes him leagues above the power level of any normal pony, so it's trivially easy for him to outshine the ponies around him.

19 hours ago, Kujamih said:

by taking the empress away.. it takes away the nexus.. which kills the kitsune right? Will ficus die in the process?

Taking the Empress away will not take the Nexus away. Light will be unable to affect the Empress until the Nexus is disabled by the rest of the party removing the orb.

Even if the Nexus were removed, it would not kill the kitsune, I don't know where you got that idea.

Also, since we're retconning the whole murder incident, Light doesn't really have a reason to hate the kitsune as much as he presently does.

I assume you're attaching Ficus dying to the kitsune dying? Prior to the retcon Ficus was revivified by the kitsune, the kitsune dying would not then kill Ficus.

 

@WinterS

18 hours ago, WinterS said:

What does that mean?

@Kujamih is under the impression that we're not retconning a large portion of what just happened. Likely you'll be able to ignore that.

 

@WinterS @Kujamih @Blitz Boom

At the very least I think we'll rewind the story to when the party enters the Empress' chamber, just to establish how everyone's relations are after the revised Jester encounter, before entering the combat scene.

This means that:

1. Ficus was not killed by Light in the Jester encounter. Instead everyone worked together to convince the Jester that they were more than just intruders and plunderers, and could be trusted with freeing Nexus.
2. Ficus did not receive the kitsune tail.
3. Light does not have a strong reason to hate the kitsune.
4. The party does not have a strong reason to distrust Light. They can still hold on to any reservations they had before the Jester encounter, such as their annoyance at him setting off the security that captured Spiral.
5. Disarray was never mentioned.

Thoughts, Comments, or Concerns with this plan?

[Starforce 26]

@Illiad Easle

So if we are taking the Empress away, does that mean that the lore behind this event is altered - or did the events happen as you described them, but the Empress ended up dying long before the characters got here, so she is dead? 
 

Quote

Ficus was not killed by Light in the Jester encounter. Instead everyone worked together to convince the Jester that they were more than just intruders and plunderers, and could be trusted with freeing Nexus.

Ficus did not receive the kitsune tail.

Light does not have a strong reason to hate the kitsune.

The party does not have a strong reason to distrust Light. They can still hold on to any reservations they had before the Jester encounter, such as their annoyance at him setting off the security that captured Spiral.

Disarray was never mentioned.

I will also note that the part where Spiral was captured by the golem was not intended by me. The part where I had her look and the Golem noticed her was a mistype that you took literally, so I will also retcon that portion as well. Since we are also retconning the whole thing, I will say that Spiral doesn't attack anything that doesn't openly attack the group, so any fights with the Jester, etc, don't happen here as well?

For Merlot's side of the story, nothing would change there so we can just leave that as is, and we can just say that in the timeline of the RP what happened with her happened at the same time as this arc, as we don't need to redo that portion of it.

[Illiad Easle 3,139]

@WinterS

The Empress is not being taken away from the story. @Kujamih is referring to a plan I made with him for how Light leaves the story by taking the Empress away to another dimension. She will still be present in the story until she and Light exit the story together.

1 hour ago, WinterS said:

I will also note that the part where Spiral was captured by the golem was not intended by me.

It was however intended by me, and ultimately provided Spiral with some information that she would not have otherwise had and didn't ultimately affect the story. You have the ancient shield runes now because of it. If you weren't attacked by the golem you would not have the shield runes.

[Starforce 26]

@Illiad Easle

Ah, that makes sense. I forgot about the shield runes, as I didn't know how to use them. So now we have planned for Light and the Empress to exit the dimension together? And without Light murdering Ficus, the characters will not have a reason to hate him.

[Evil Pink One 13,506]

Then I guess light would have more reason to like the kitsune since they are the same in a way.. trapped in an endless loop of responsibility of a warden... 

[Illiad Easle 3,139]

@Kujamih @WinterS

YES! Exactly! That's the plan at least, just need @Blitz Boom To approve and I'll rewind us a bit so we can get moving again.

[Starforce 26]

@Illiad Easle

Yes! Sounds good, just rewind us and set the scene and I'll go along with it, and in the RP have some sort of bold caps at the top of the post saying its rewinding, so that we can tell when the rewind began.

[Evil Pink One 13,506]

Light smiles with grimace... 

[Blitz Boom 4,627]

 @Kujamih @Illiad Easle @WinterS

There's a lot to go through here. Okay, one at a time then.

On 2022-09-03 at 8:43 PM, Illiad Easle said:

That was the original plan, they were supposed to get to the Nexus having followed Ficus all the way there, and then Ficus would die in the Nexus chamber forcing them to try and remember the way out without a guide.

But then Ficus died early so it would be unsatisfying if she died again later just for that.

So Ficus is going to turn out to have been Nexus all along instead? I would not put it past you.

On 2022-09-03 at 8:43 PM, Illiad Easle said:

Here's what I'm thinking, and I'll be pretty transparent about my plans so we can see what you guys are most interesting in having occur:

Sorry, but I don't want spoilers, so skipping this part. I like your twists and turns, and generally speaking, I'm fine just working off of what I see, and going with the flow. Whatever you decide on, I'll follow.

On 2022-09-03 at 8:43 PM, Illiad Easle said:

What do you guys think? Is it worth rewinding the story to get a better story? Or would you rather carry on where we are and simply pretend that the better story happened as I described? 

I'll leave this up to you folks. But worse case y'know, you do have a powerful kitsune, who seems great at illusions. You could just go and suddenly make everything static, and then show they never left the entrance. That it were all a big illusion, to test them. It'd probably make them super paranoid, but it could be an option, to keep the flow of things, rather than take a post and say *Ignore the last 3 pages*.

On 2022-09-03 at 9:34 PM, WinterS said:

This was an issue I had with Light as well. When a character is so powerful and can basically avoid consequences by simply being powerful, then that simply isn't an interesting thing to RP with.

It's the *Superman effect* essentially. Some push back, but constantly the ability to overcome it.

On 2022-09-03 at 9:34 PM, WinterS said:

Seeing as how long it took to get where we are, and as I want to use Merlot more in the future - I would prefer we just say it happened as you described, and we can 'finish' off the Arc with the defeat of the Empress? No need to complicate this with re-writes and such, we continue with the story as you described having happened, thus move on to the next Arc. 

I like this idea frankly. We gone down the rabbit hole. Might as well dig through it, and emerge the other side, wiser by our mistakes. Can be argued that them seeing Light inaction, could serve as a warning, just as the empress did. Just that in his case, it's also a warning on relying upon his degree of power, when those who are that powerful, can prove a detriment to your team, rather than a boon, in the long run. Light's interactions, do serve some degree of purpose, be it for better, or for worse.

On 2022-09-03 at 11:41 PM, Kujamih said:

I was actually doing not much though and was trying to be a support type. I thought I'd just give a back and forth thing. I didn't expect that he is doing so much all on his own... That's why I use buff skills for the party, gave last stand a sword and practically on a defensive... I usually let the others attack first and just act as back up right?... If so I didn't know sorry about that. I think the only time I did initiative was the golem, and I was actually planning to not attack it but last stand had to charge in... I did support her but nada... And I thought my attacks wouldn't work since the doors had magic stronger than mine so I thought the golem is the same.... But I ended up one shot it... I thought it'd give more fight.

Yeah, sorry about all the pushback from Last on those things, but I just had to follow what her character would do, and think. Light caught her attention at first, but scrutinizing him, revealed the sort that wouldn't clash well with her personality, on several things.

The golem... I knew it was a dumb idea to attack, but this comes down again to whom she are. It made more sense of her to charge in there. Dumb as it were.

On 2022-09-04 at 12:00 AM, Kujamih said:

Reason why he is too chummy with the others was he thought Molotov's way would work... Which is flirting... Which didn't work😆 ( plus it's fun that way).

It never works for Molotov. Ever. xD Like seriously, even when the pickings are short, his big mouth tends to give him more slaps, than sympathetic ears. His only redeeming quality in the equation, being that he acknowledges that he probably deserved it.

On 2022-09-04 at 12:29 AM, WinterS said:

Maybe Light ends up dying, and you could use a new character that doesn't have the same issues with writing that Light did?

 

On 2022-09-04 at 12:38 AM, Kujamih said:

Sure thing... So you vote for tearing the scroll? 

This could be an option. Either another being, locked up in this place, they'll stumble upon, or someone gets dragged in, when Light goes away. Likely unwillingly. Or could be one back on the ship, afterwards. Depends really, on what folks think. Primarily Kujamih, of course.

20 hours ago, Illiad Easle said:

can attest that Molotov's flirting doesn't often work. At least in my experience with them

It does not, and it's by design. I think characters are more fun with flaws.

20 hours ago, Illiad Easle said:

Also, since we're retconning the whole murder incident, Light doesn't really have a reason to hate the kitsune as much as he presently does.

I assume you're attaching Ficus dying to the kitsune dying? Prior to the retcon Ficus was revivified by the kitsune, the kitsune dying would not then kill Ficus.

 

@WinterS

On 2022-09-04 at 12:39 AM, WinterS said:

What does that mean?

@Kujamih is under the impression that we're not retconning a large portion of what just happened. Likely you'll be able to ignore that.

Just make sure to say so, if you decide on the retcon, on how it's then sorted. Cause it seems like retconning at this point, could get messy to look at.

20 hours ago, Illiad Easle said:

At the very least I think we'll rewind the story to when the party enters the Empress' chamber, just to establish how everyone's relations are after the revised Jester encounter, before entering the combat scene.

This means that:

1. Ficus was not killed by Light in the Jester encounter. Instead everyone worked together to convince the Jester that they were more than just intruders and plunderers, and could be trusted with freeing Nexus.
2. Ficus did not receive the kitsune tail.
3. Light does not have a strong reason to hate the kitsune.
4. The party does not have a strong reason to distrust Light. They can still hold on to any reservations they had before the Jester encounter, such as their annoyance at him setting off the security that captured Spiral.
5. Disarray was never mentioned.

Thoughts, Comments, or Concerns with this plan?

Still worried how it'll look to read through, but... I'll trust you can figure out a way to make it flow, to some extend. Assuming a time trap, or illusion-based reason? I'll follow things as it goes. Just don't want you to be annoyed by it looking clunky to read.

17 hours ago, Illiad Easle said:

The Empress is not being taken away from the story. @Kujamih is referring to a plan I made with him for how Light leaves the story by taking the Empress away to another dimension. She will still be present in the story until she and Light exit the story together.

Ah, like that. Aight, we'll see how that goes then.

17 hours ago, WinterS said:

Ah, that makes sense. I forgot about the shield runes, as I didn't know how to use them. So now we have planned for Light and the Empress to exit the dimension together? And without Light murdering Ficus, the characters will not have a reason to hate him.

I'm sure the rune will come into play soon enough. Might be needed to free Nexus even.

12 hours ago, Illiad Easle said:

YES! Exactly! That's the plan at least, just need @Blitz Boom To approve and I'll rewind us a bit so we can get moving again.

Approved nervously. I know it have taken some time, but do you have any idea how much you people have spammed this OOC? There's been SO MUCH to read! xD

Seems I finally caught up, so... Gonna wait and see your post, before popping in one myself then, and then take it from there.

Also: Still dibs on the ice shooter. Gonna have Last haul that back to the ship if she can, and see if the egg heads can make something more suitable for her, out of it. Potentially Blitz gets hold of it, and somehow turns it into an ice cream machine. I wouldn't rule it out.

[Illiad Easle 3,139]

@Kujamih @WinterS @Blitz Boom

Alright then, I'll trigger the retcon.

@Blitz Boom

I'm not going to say it was all an illusion because that just seems like a cop-out and frankly is a trope I hate in movies and books. Plus, by retconning all characters involved have no memories of the offending incidents.

I repeat, @Kujamih ALL characters involved have no memory of the incident. It simply did not happen. Cut from the tapestry and burned and then I quickly wove a new part in so it would be the same length.

 

I'll summarize the events in my post so that you all have a basis to go off of, if you need more specific information please ask for it.

[Illiad Easle 3,139]

@WinterS @Kujamih @Blitz Boom

Here is where the Retcon starts, I've edited that post to reflect the new setup:

 

[Starforce 26]

@Illiad Easle

Questions Spiral would have asked the Kitsune:

- Where does the Kitsune come from?
- Who was the Kitsune before the events transpired?
- Why did Empress Arcana do what she did, was it for personal power?
- What advice would the Kitsune give Spiral for achieving leadership over others and turning them away from the desolation of war?
- Where do ponies themselves come from, were the created, or did they just evolve naturally? What does the Kitsune know about pony history?
- Why was the Aether Project trapped here, was it done in an attempt to capture more souls for the Empress to take use of? 

[Illiad Easle 3,139]

@Props

2 hours ago, Props said:

Where does the Kitsune come from?

The Kitsune does not remember, she remembers being outside the palace, but not where that was in relation to here.

2 hours ago, Props said:

Who was the Kitsune before the events transpired?

The Kitsune does not remember being anyone else, so perhaps the kitsune was always the kitsune.

2 hours ago, Props said:

Why did Empress Arcana do what she did, was it for personal power?

On 2022-09-03 at 12:43 PM, Illiad Easle said:

The three races were at war, each trying to gain an edge over the other two in an endless cycle that was devastating the land. [...] the remaining leadership were preparing their own versions of weapons that would end the war permanently. The unicorns created the Arcane Nexus, which would allow the user to wield all of the magic in the empire at once in a single devastating attack. But the populous didn't know that, if you died while channeling magic into the nexus, your soul would become bound to it until the central caster stopped casting. The Empress knew this, and wanted to ensure that she'd be able to wield the power forever, but also knew that she couldn't keep casting forever, so she had her daughter sealed in amber to serve as the focal point of the nexus, ever casting in an endless loop until the Empress needed her to cast something different. That done, she had the nexus cast a mind-control spell to get everyone in the empire to channel into the nexus, the more that channeled the stronger the control grew, then once everyone or nearly everyone in the empire was channeling, the Empress changed the spell to freeze everything, instantly killing everyone and permanently binding their souls to the nexus, allowing her all the power in the empire to destroy the other two kingdoms, but leaving herself the only one remaining.

Outside of that the kitsune would comment, "For personal power... perhaps, perhaps not."

2 hours ago, Props said:

What advice would the Kitsune give Spiral for achieving leadership over others and turning them away from the desolation of war?

Ponies follow strong leaders, not just the physically or manipulatively strong, but those strong in character. Spiral could become a leader by being strong in another attribute, one Apollo is weak in.

2 hours ago, Props said:

Where do ponies themselves come from, were the created, or did they just evolve naturally? What does the Kitsune know about pony history?

The Kitsune does not know, so long as the kitsune is aware, the ponies were always present, though not necessarily in the form they are in today.

2 hours ago, Props said:

Why was the Aether Project trapped here, was it done in an attempt to capture more souls for the Empress to take use of? 

Curiosity, and reflex. Nexus is in control of the power when Empress is not casting. The project was first captured simply because it approached from the air, as a pegasus vessel would, it is held because Nexus is curious. Should the Empress become aware of it, it would be harvested for souls.

[Evil Pink One 13,506]

I'll just make Light vomit then 😆

[Illiad Easle 3,139]

@Kujamih

21 minutes ago, Kujamih said:

I'll just make Light vomit then 😆

1. I'd much rather you didn't
2. Why?

[Evil Pink One 13,506]

35 minutes ago, Illiad Easle said:

@Kujamih

1. I'd much rather you didn't
2. Why?

Its the side effect? Remember? 

[Evil Pink One 13,506]

@Props

I just found out you just changed your name into props.... So I placed "@ scar "

 

[Starforce 26]

@Kujamih

Scar was the name I went by before I left the forums in 2019 and spent a whole year away from the MLP community. It's a name that signifies my departure - hence a scar. 

[Illiad Easle 3,139]

@Kujamih

*Sigh*

I asked you not to, why did you have to put that in?

Also, why do you insist so much on calling attention to the rewrites? 

4 minutes ago, Kujamih said:

Its the side effect? Remember? 

What do you mean by this? what side effect? Retconning does not have side effects for the characters other than us as writers not knowing exactly what happened. The characters themselves are unaffected because they never experienced the timeline that didn't happen.

Make it make sense please, why are you doing this?

[Evil Pink One 13,506]

Well scar was your name when I friended you.. so whenever I can't find your name or you changed it... I go back to that, and it has a deeper connection between you and me.... Like cancer 😂

[Evil Pink One 13,506]

1 minute ago, Illiad Easle said:

@Kujamih

*Sigh*

I asked you not to, why did you have to put that in?

Also, why do you insist so much on calling attention to the rewrites? 

What do you mean by this? what side effect? Retconning does not have side effects for the characters other than us as writers not knowing exactly what happened. The characters themselves are unaffected because they never experienced the timeline that didn't happen.

Make it make sense please, why are you doing this?

It didn't affect the story and it gives more excuses for light to not ask alot of stuff. And that's how light is...

He is a dimension hoping world destroying ( accidentally and that one time was a one thing only) pony.

He doesn't know btw. 

[Evil Pink One 13,506]

Just think of it as a pinky pie thing... 

[Starforce 26]

14 minutes ago, Kujamih said:

Well scar was your name when I friended you.. so whenever I can't find your name or you changed it... I go back to that, and it has a deeper connection between you and me.... Like cancer 😂

I don't remember you friending me at that timeframe - and I do not know what you are trying to say with 'cancer' there either.