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Post by e on Oct 1, 2023 13:34:48 GMT -6
“Dimitri Tran.” He introduced himself. “Sergeant 1st Class.” He added, though he seemed to know Miranda wouldn’t care.
“He’s right, Miranda.” Roman continued. “Locking up Maddie was wrong, but it’s a hell of a lot less wrong than the things Ben Wake has done.”
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Post by The Traveler on Oct 1, 2023 18:19:18 GMT -6
The train moved across a janky part of the rail, and Miranda gripped the silver bar more tightly to keep her balance.
"Tell me, will you listen to anything I say that isn't one-hundred-percent in agreement with you?"
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Post by e on Oct 1, 2023 18:50:11 GMT -6
Dimitri chucked at Miranda’s non-response.
“Don’t bother, Roman. She was there. She saw what he did and still chooses to lick his boots. Manipulated or not, she’s not going see reason.” Though it came off as dismissive towards Miranda, it was also clear that Dimitri and Roman had a palpable sense of camaraderie. He seemed to genuinely want Roman not to risk souring even further.
“I’ve always listened, Miranda. Don’t pretend I haven’t. Say your piece or don’t, but don’t pre-blame me because you’re too afraid to defend a killer.” Roman stared down Miranda.
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Post by The Traveler on Oct 1, 2023 20:32:46 GMT -6
"What, because you haven't pre-blamed me as a familiar? To your squadmates, even?" Miranda glared at Dimitri, then the gray-haired one, and then finally to the one sitting down. She shook her head. "I was there, but I wasn't there."
Her eyes glazed over as she stared past Roman, diving back into memories of that night.
"I felt it as each of them died, and those deaths have lingered with me and on me for a very, very long time. I saw the aftermath, long before the blood had dried. But I was not there when they were killed. I wish with all of my heart that they hadn't died, or that their deaths were a matter of right or wrong, but they weren't. I know Ben-"
Another memory of a different night. Of a stadium green littered with golf balls, of thin filaments of blood, gathered into a human hand, like grasping threads of a web.
" -And he does not kill unless he has to. So it was a matter of life or death; kill or be killed. If I had to guess, Kei ordered them to attack Ben or to defend himself from Ben - I'm not sure. Like I said, I wasn't in the room when it happened. The only people who can tell you what actually happened are Ben, Kei, and maybe the dead."
Miranda's gaze snapped back into focus as she hauled herself out of her memories. There had been a coldness in her recounting that came from distancing herself from the events even as she relived them, and the coldness lingered on her face, but... there was almost a pleading in her gray eyes as she stared at Roman.
"It's not the comforting version I told you before, what you wanted and needed to hear; Istenanya was almost like a cult following the wishes of its leader, not a healthy religious community of different faiths; and I can't tell you if Ben murdered them, or if he was forced to kill them or be killed himself. But what I've told you just now is the truest version of what I know, Roman. Please believe me when I tell you that."
The pleading look in her eyes intensified-
"Ben is not a saint, but he's not the villain you are making him out to be, either."
-before the coldness finally consumed it once again. Coldness? Or bitter realism?
Why should he believe me? Would I believe someone telling me that Charnock was not the villain I believed him to be? Besides... Roman's already made up his mind about who and what I am, more than he has about Maddie and even Sundi.
"If you want my full testimony about Istenanya, I'm sure the MP still has it on file," Miranda finished dispassionately. "If it hasn't been redacted or transcribed inaccurately."
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Post by e on Oct 12, 2023 10:12:19 GMT -6
“What the fuck do you know about Istenanya?” Roman’s black boot slammed the floor of the car as he stepped forward. “How fucking dare you tell me my mom was a sheep led off a clif-“
Roman’s hand was balled in a fist, his elbow bent, when the gray haired individual put a hand on his shoulder.
“I know what you’re feeling, Roman.” He said to him. Not only did Roman seem to immediately go down a level, but it was clear from the way the other two looked to him as well that he was some sort of leader, de facto or otherwise. “But we have to be better.”
“Spar it out with me later.” Dimitri clapped him on the back.
Roman took a long and deep breath, but said nothing more.
“First things first, however. My name is Isaac, and this is Lauren.” Isaac introduced himself as well as the girl still dispassionately sitting in her chair. “It’s nice to finally meet you all - Miranda, Maddie, Sundi, and Zakhar.”
He moved his own gray eyes to each of them as he spoke their names before settling back on Miranda.
“How do you know our names?” Sundi asked.
“You’ve all been at the center of some of the fastest and most unprecedented developments at Kindred. It would be irresponsible of me not to do my best to be informed.” Isaac gave them a political smile. “Now, back to where we were. From the way you describe what happened, Miranda, it sounds like you’re saying the blame for the deaths should really be placed on Kei Cziffra. But, as far as I know, Kei Cziffra also leads Babel alongside Ben Wake. Meaning that, either way, regardless of what share of the blame lies with either one, you’ve still chosen to ally yourself with the people responsible for the death of Roman’s mother.”
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Post by The Traveler on Oct 12, 2023 18:45:14 GMT -6
Miranda did not smile back, body still tense from Roman's growing aggression, heart pounding in her chest. Gray met... gray. Unusual; rare, to see someone else with her eye color. As it so happened though, sharing similarly colored eyes did not appeal Isaac to Miranda at all.
"I don't know you," she answered him. "So my reasons for joining Babel are my own."
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Post by e on Oct 13, 2023 12:33:10 GMT -6
"But you do know Roman." Isaac countered. "And regardless of your reasons, the very fact that you're there means you're happy to serve the people who killed his mother."
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Post by The Traveler on Oct 13, 2023 13:30:34 GMT -6
Happy is a reach, considering who's thumb I ended up being under for the foreseeable future.
But... she was part of Babel now. Which meant, for better or for worse, it was expected that she defend...Kei...
Bile rose in the back of her throat at that thought. She swallowed it back before answering, telling herself to think of defending Babel, not solely Kei; it helped only somewhat.
"Maybe I believe in second chances and redemption," Miranda said. "And maybe I want to see if what they're doing with Babel is more redeemable for Istenanya than rotting in a jail cell."
((EDIT: after letting this sit with me for a bit, Miranda's original response ended up being more messy and less cohesive than I envisioned and I ended up hating it, so I'm simplifying it.))
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Post by magnet on Nov 19, 2023 13:14:01 GMT -6
((Hello. I hope you are all doing well.
Happy belated, sid. Facebook reminded me, which reminded me further to see just who is still here.
Let's talk soon, alright, guys? I could use it these days. I won't complain unprompted -- no one really likes being just vented at out of nowhere!))
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Post by The Traveler on Dec 13, 2023 13:04:46 GMT -6
((Howdy. Thanks for the belated birthday wishes!
Could be better. Battling an illness currently. November has been busy for me, and December is shaping up to be the same. How's things for you? Not sure when you'll see this next or when I'll be back on, but hope things look up for you soon if they're down, and that the good keeps being good.))
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Post by The Traveler on Jan 13, 2024 14:35:48 GMT -6
((Jeez Louise, my sick brain making everything sound dire and dramatic... I'm better now, obviously, and annoyed with my past self's word choices, because I knew I would be checking back in here and adding more detail... just not anytime in December. Long, general life update post ahead, will add a TL;DR at the end. A more specific post about previous RP shenanigans will probably happen later. Regardless -- hello all! Another year, another orbit around the sun. In the frozen wasteland where I live, I'm hunkered down at home for the weekend while my state is being battered by snow, wind, and below zero temps and wind chill. I mentioned November and December were busy in my previous post. The reasons for that are varied. I participated in National Novel Writing Month in November with the intent of finishing the draft of Memento Mori, to which I'm pleased to say I accomplished. 50K words completed for the 2023 challenge, and 110K words in total for the entire draft, probably the most I've written for a given thing (excluding these forums, God knows how many words we've written over the years on here). Of course, a draft is different from the finished story, and I know for a fact that the draft of MM is very, very messy, and not for anyone else's eyes yet. So, I'm planning on going through and revising it and refining it, and then posting chapter by chapter as I finish each one. December, meanwhile, had more things happening week by week. First week was a family vacation to Florida, which was enjoyable but not as relaxing as I anticipated. Then, literally the day after we got back home, I got hit with either COVID or the flu, and was out for that entire second week of December. Then the third week was spent preparing for the holidays. And then I took the days between Christmas and New Years off from work to give myself a restful retreat, and when that wasn't enough (and though I'm not religious and still continued to go into work after the new year), I decided to continue that mentality of restfulness until after January 6th. It felt like a good metric, at least, and I'm feeling more like myself now, so I think those extra days helped.
In other news, in my forays for interesting instrumental music to listen to while I write and otherwise Do Things, I've discovered 3 mixtapes of synthwave cyberpunk music that I've been playing on repeat for quite a while now, and am in a sharing mood, so here are the links to each volume if you wish to take a listen for yourself:
Anyways, things seem to have dwindled with the forums once more - which isn't a bad thing, but I do want to recognize and acknowledge that - so I'm going to stop checking the forums regularly again, and just post the MM chapters as I complete them until I finish the story. Though ProBoards sometimes screws it up from time to time (which is why I missed your post, magnet!), and my own work and life might hinder the immediacy of my response, I should get notified if anyone posts something. Hope everyone is doing well, and that your holidays were relatively good and restful too! TL;DR = Currently hunkered down in anticipation of a winter storm, but otherwise feeling more like myself since my last post, and have found some music I enjoy listening to that I'm sharing with the class. November and December were crazy busy for me when it came to finishing the draft of Memento Mori, vacation, getting sick, holidays, and post-holiday stuff, but January thankfully is much calmer. And I'm going to be checking the forums less regularly aside from popping in to post a new chapter of MM as I revise and refine that story, but should still hopefully (fingers crossed ProBoards cooperates) get notified whenever new posts are made.)) |
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Post by The Traveler on Jan 14, 2024 11:57:44 GMT -6
((This post is more specific to exacta, and the RP story arcs we were doing (or, trying to do, I should say) back in October:
I get the impression that that's also been dwindling, whether that's due to interest and lack thereof or other priorities, and I'm fine with that. I've been busy on my end, clearly, lol. But, I also had two epiphanies that related to this that I felt like sharing:
1) Word for word my inner dialogue while I was commuting home from work one day, because I can't get ideas and epiphanies in the shower like a normal person:
Brain: Hey, self?
Me: Yeah, self?
Brain: You know when Exacta said that the whole next storyline would be inspired by RWBY a while back before the Kindred story started?
Me: Yeah?
Brain: Yeah, so, Ben and his cohort are basically Salem and her cohort. He even said at one point that Ben being a villain would be more fun because of how stupidly OP he was. Miranda just joined with the baddies.
Me: ...Oh my God, I'm a fucking idiot.
That's obviously a gross over-simplification, but basically I'm wondering if I fucked things up storywise by pointing and shouting, "Babel, I choose you!" because I was deprived of old faves Ben and Alex, among other reasons as well. We've gone back and forth about story direction a lot, which is why I feel really bad about this, because here we are again, but... that fact led to epiphany number 2, thankfully sans inner dialogue:
2) I don't think I know what to do with Miranda. Both in fulfilling a "role" in the mechanics of the story and plot, and what she, specifically as a character, wants and should do.
(Beyond "giving everyone double middle fingers and fucking off to study magic or become a hermit." Because making a choice to go over to one side of the fence or the other was kind of the whole point, so she can't just fuck off from the conflict.)
The original intent of her "role" in the story was to stick with the MP (if I recall our previous discussions correctly about this fact), but as a character, she doesn't really want to do that because of everything that's happened, legitimacy of that claim notwithstanding - we've already been over this IC and OOC, so I'm not going to rehash it. As a character, she is marginally more inclined towards Babel, I guess (me wanting more Ben and Alex screentime might've played a factor in this too, going back to Epiphany #1) but then it goes back to that "role" in the story, and having it not fit as well, if at all.
Is this a side effect of having only one character thus far? It's entirely possible, and I might even be inclined to a snap-judgement answer of "Yes", though I'd still want to reflect on that question and arrive at my actual answer. But I also know I need to reflect more on Miranda as a whole too.
All of this to say... I don't know, I think I summed it pretty well in the TL;DR, so I'm not going to wax poetic about it. Wanted to share my thoughts about our RP shenanigans regardless, I guess, and let you know where my head was at.
Anyways, cheers, friend!
TL;DR: Regardless of reason, this story arc has also dwindled, and I'm okay with that. To that point though, I've had two epiphanies since then: one, though it's a gross oversimplification, Miranda effectively joined the baddies and I worry that my choice with that might've fucked things up for the story and progression; and two, I don't know what I should be doing with Miranda, and I need to reflect on that until I have some answers, otherwise there's no point in continuing with her, or at least with her at the helm. Not sure where you're at with our RP shenanigans, but that's where I'm at currently.))
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Post by The Traveler on Feb 24, 2024 14:09:50 GMT -6
((Popping in to say that if anyone hasn't taken a look at it yet, I can't recommend Sheepy: A Short Adventure enough. It's an indie pixel platformer on Steam made in part by the same guy who curated those mixtapes I linked in an earlier post. It's about an hour in length, very atmospheric, and the music is great and pairs with the gameplay extremely well. Best of all, it's free, which boggles my mind because of how well it was made.))
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