Bay 12 Games Forum

Setsurou finds that the food is.....off. Not poisoned off, but it feels stale, as if it's several days old. Perfectly serviceable for Yusuke and the others to eat, but...

He also sees Rin surreptitiously doing....something to a small spoonful of food, her Gnosis faintly glowing. Her eyebrows scrunch slightly, coming to the same conclusion as him.
"Well? Come on, quit givin' Yamada bedroom eyes and eat up already, Tsubouchi!"

Hell, the forum almost went a whole year without anyone getting banned.
That is, until, someone didn't react well to being 'excluded' from a forum game.

I don't know where I'm going with this line of thought

This actually proves the strength of the system. Most of the bans aren't even on FGRP, they're over on GD over the political threads.

It takes being egregiously terrible, to other players, constantly, to actually get people to exclude you from roleplays collectively; generally people will either let it slide if you're chill or if enough time has passed and you aren't so terrible, and especially if you show the desire to at least learn how not to be terrible to your fellow man.

-snip-

As a veteran GM on this section who's had to deal with more than his fair share of drama from players who turned out to be massive issues leading directly to trashfires, I wholeheartedly agree. A GM has a duty to his players to curate his players if he feels that letting someone in would be more detrimental than not. If a player already proves to be an issue even during selection, then you're ultimately going to cause more problems letting them in and making your players uncomfortable than putting your foot down and telling him "No".

As for gathering on a Discord to play games, as one of the peeps moderating the FEF Discord, I see no real issue with this; most everyone uses Discord nowadays, it's easier to moderate against potential issues, easier to further subdivide what would originally have been covered by OOC threads and so forth. Not that there's anything particularly wrong with the traditional way of doing things, either, but if you're gonna want to do the same things we used to through PMs here or on separate IRC chats (as FEF used to and I know for a fact a lot of DND campaigns used to do here), might as well do it on an interface everyone uses. If you don't want to be part of a community that gathers around a Discord, that's not on them for being clique-y IMO, but simply wanting to use existing infrastructure and wanting to share their interests with people who are also interested.

At that, Thanatos lets out a throaty laugh, and plants his own staff in the ground.

"I bow to no weakling, least of all one who appears to have scarcely vacated kindergarten, let alone vanquished Hellrealm!"

The wind blows, dispelling the shadows from his face.

"If you desire my servitude, twin-tailed alazon..."

"...then take it with your strength, for that is the rule of Hellrealm!"

Street Group (Mildred, Akihiko, Shiro, Jin)
At that, Kitakawa lets out a raw, dry laugh.

"...you think I'm scared?"
"Letting Jack out....is the best feeling in the world."

The ground beneath Kitakawa suddenly begins to change form, asphalt and concrete giving way to rain-stained brick and stone. Once again, you feel the air around you thicken, the colors around you intensify, the textures around you feel wrong and off. You almost expect Onibi to attack you, here.

Once again, you feel surrounded by a Domain, despite being firmly in the real world.

Before you can do anything, the ground opens beneath Kitakawa, and he slips below. Akihiko is the first to try to dash for him, but it's no use; the last thing you see of Kitakawa is the twisted rictus of his face before he slips underneath, the ground closing above him and returning to the asphalt.

Unlike before, however, where the atmosphere of the Domain disappeared the moment Kitakawa did, the area still feels like a Domain. Akihiko stays alert, fists clenched. Somehow, some way, you can still sense Kitakawa nearby.

"....never seen a Kaijin pull that off before. What the hell...."

Your eyes are suddenly drawn to Nene, having emerged from the metalcraft store. She stands there, visibly shocked.
"...Kaijin? Here?"
"Stay back! There's still a monster nearby! You'll get hurt if you get in the way!"

---

Popular Group (Aika, Mori)
"N-no but....what? Do you mean to say there's an Akuma after me?"

---

Club Group (Saya, Riku, Yui, Misa)
Koga nods.

"I see. Nanjou, I think we might have records on the students. I'd normally avoid opening those, but this is an emergency situation."
"...okay."

Nanjou stands up without a word, and heads into the other room to look for the records.

"Is there anything else we should know about this?"

"Yes, my queen!"
Shoes' troops take position as Shoes walks forward.

Today, the true Queen of Battle would take her throne.

"So! You are the horse demon that took down my lord! The pretender to the throne of Hellrealm! I will not yield so easily, horse demon that names thyself after footwear!"

A robed figure appears before the gathered troops and Shoes, a gnarled staff in hand, as they float in the air.

"Who now comes to make me, Thanatos Morta Chrysanthema, Master of Death, Deliverer of Souls, Lord of the Netherrealm, yield?"

Street Group (Mildred, Akihiko, Shiro, Jin)
"If being passionate is crazy, then-"

Kitakawa doesn't get to finish his sentence, on account of a massive shelf being smashed into him. He tries to brace himself, leaving deep rends in the floor as the shelf bends and buckles pushing him into the side, before shattering entirely. The shelf is immediately followed up by a blast of light smashed directly into his bony gut, courtesy of Shiro, sending him doubling over in pain.

Kitakawa's head snaps upwards, tilting, and you almost swear his grin has turned ever so slightly malevolent, if it wasn't already.

"Enoughenoughenoughenough! I won't let you get between me and Fuu-chan!"

The world seems to ripple around Shiro and Mildred. The air seems to change around you, and you feel, somehow, that you have entered a Domain. Yet behind you is the real world, right?

Backing away from them, Kitakawa places a hand to the wall, only for the wall, at the point of contact, to warp and weft into what appear to be grimy bricks and mortar, like something out of a Victorian period piece. The wall parts, just wide enough to admit Jack, and Jack throws himself through, as the wall closes up behind him, leaving only a hole small enough for his grin to be seen.

"I won't be stopped so easily, stupid peons. Something important from Fuu-chan.....heheheh...."

The last bricks fall down, and if Shiro and Mildred were to try to follow through the wall, they would find that it has reverted to painted concrete and shelves. The feeling of the area being like a Domain has also faded, and you now sense you are fully back in reality. Yet....you can still feel Kitakawa in the area.

At least, until a loud crash sounds, down the street.

Specifically, where Kasuga went.
....
Akihiko shakes his head, trying to regain his bearings, as he pulls himself off the road, briefly surveying the shattered window he'd been thrown into.

It had happened so quickly. One minute, he was following someone into the bookstore with a red jacket, asking them if they were Kitakawa - before realising that they were a) a woman and b) a young teen - certainly not the kind of profile he was looking for.

The next, a giant thing had crashed through the wall, and Akihiko had barely managed to pull her out of the way of danger before being thrown out into the road. He suppressed a sigh of relief as he could see the person he'd followed, the young woman, fleeing down back the road where he'd came.

Back to the task at hand.

"What the hell-agh!"

A foot in tattered leather shoes smashed down on Akihiko's chest, as the giant thing gazed down upon him.

"You were looking for me, weren't you? Stupid! Stupidstupidstupid! I'll teach your friends-"
"Give me a damn break with this crap! Henshin, Ibaraki-douji!"

A burst of crimson flames enshrouds Akihiko as he assumes his Kaijin form, the strongly muscled arms of Ibaraki-douji wrenching themselves around his assailant's foot and shoving him roughly into a nearby lamppost, denting it as the giant Kaijin (Akuma? Akihiko couldn't get a read on him, and it was giving him the damn creeps) tripped over, barely managing to stay standing.

Without missing a beat, Akihiko pushes himself to his feet, assuming a fighting stance, looking around. Shinomiya was, at least, safe for the moment.

But as for Akari and Honda....

He was really, really hoping Akutagawa was on his way.

---

Popular Group (Aika, Mori)
"There's no cameras in here, and no webcams. Why do you ask?"
"This better be good, Sawatari."

---

Club Group (Saya, Riku, Yui, Misa)
"Y-yeah. We should tell Koga-senpai. Come on, let's move!"
.....
As the party arrives at the Student Council room, they find Koga and Nanjou, quietly working away.

"Oh. Hello. I didn't expect you guys to come back so quick."
"..."

Popular Group (Aika, Mori)
"I'm just surprised I was that easy to find. I'm sorry, Mishima....I know you tried to help."
"Don't apologise to me."

Futaba sighs.

"Mishima and I go way back. We met when Afternoon and she were at a publicity thing, us to advertise our new album, her to promote Tomorrow with You when it was first airing. We kept in touch and she used some of her connections to keep an eye on me when Kitakawa started stalking me."
"When Yagami fled, I....may have pulled some strings. Changed her appearance, gave her a new identity. Made sure that Kitakawa couldn't follow her everywhere."
"Someone had to have told him. There's no way...."
"The only people who knew were myself and Shinomiya-senpai. I wouldn't have, Shinomiya-senpai views you like a sister....a question like that, I think Kasuga or Kaname would be more suited to find the answer to."

Futaba - no, Yagami - stares out the window.
"Is he here? On campus?"
"Hopefully, Kasuga and the others can get to him first."