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Post by Jubilee on Mar 15, 2012 7:51:42 GMT -4
Yay, not just me confused! You use words in such a lovely way, Hank, sometimes I get lost just admiring. So, the Expelled-verse...does it have any particular features? I'm kind of imaging it like an open and featureless endless plain at the moment, and that's probably not right.
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Post by Hank McCoy on Mar 15, 2012 8:03:09 GMT -4
I think we've always tried to leave outlets -- and I expect that to continue. And we never, never throw anything away because there's so many times we've gone back or someone has sent me an email saying "I just read this again...!" and that's sort of what gets the collective blood and background chatter working again even if it less often translates to posting. And I'm never confident enough in anything I'm responsible for to think it'll take flight... (and to be clear, I sort of cleared the way but that's sort of where this discussion starts: what are we to do?) ...I almost always hedge my bets because I've been stranded in story lines (and sometimes by me). But I guess it's my belief that after all this time (and even back at the beginning of it) that a majority of people were ultimately less inspired and more confused by that story than I'd hoped. I think pretty much every character had someone else - other than their normal portrayer - set up their particular set of circumstances. The game, to me anyway, was about finding what makes each one who they are - and playing it forward in a mostly-unfamiliar backdrop. Part of the problem is that while I'd revealed a lot of the plot to co-conspirators there was this kind of collective "life event" between having kids and losing jobs and all kinds of silly "real" stuff.... And people kept going "I never really understood what was happening in the first place". It used to be that this site (back in the day ) was more "random this or that" than any kind of mono-plot. For some reason - probably at my (and Logan's) insistence - we kind of started dragging people into bigger ideas. I think people like that when it works, but when it does it kind of comes down to someone championing it and beating or threatening or pleading with everyone else into playing along. Part of the reason I say that people like it - besides the fact that some tell me they do - is that every time (including this one) we talk about starting something new and I put it in a "non-threatening place" someone else starts moving all the other stories into the archives. Long answer: but yeah....you can post what you want - though your thread might move on you. I think most people are kind of "done" with the last thing. You can join or not. I'm looking for a larger story but I'm not really sure I see one yet. And someone suggested maybe this would be a good way to come up with one.
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Post by Jubilee on Mar 15, 2012 8:24:48 GMT -4
Mm! Tasty delicious ideas.
I do like the big plot arcs, they give substance instead of the usual go to high school/work, wackiness of a minor nature occasionally ensues or life goes on as normal sort of plot. And it gives everyone something to talk about. Having the world shakeups is something I love, because it's like, we put all this stuff to the side in a box but if you want to reach in and pull something out of the box and attach it with a paperclip to the side of your character, that's cool too.
Like for example, I'm still liking Dr House!Rahne. I don't think she got enough play before the carnival fizzled out. I've never seen this concept before, I've never played it before and I just like it. She's cranky, and kind of take-chargey, but still has a core of marshmallow sweetness. Just now it's all closed in by layers of pain from her leg with a little soupcon of frustration as a doctor having seen just all this before. So I keep her in the main board which is kind of random normal x-game fare (I'm just assuming here), but maybe I can throw Pigtailly!Rahne, or even College!Rahne into the Expelled board at the same time?
Also I am not sure I will ever give Jubilee as an Acolyte up. That may need to be pried from my cold dead fingers. Because she is so awesomeeeee. Sometimes it feels like I've played a billionty Jubilees, but I have such love for this one.
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Post by Gambit on Mar 15, 2012 8:37:59 GMT -4
I will admit, I was the archiver. I wanted to clean the board up a bit so that the Expelled part was more prominent, and since we were finished with HoM I figured that could be archived and the boards hidden. Now I don't mean finished in the sense of "it's over, now let's forget it ever happened" but more that we always had an ending planned and we had been working toward that ending before it all fizzled. The ending is what Beast summarized here and Expelled is what we offer as a direct continuation. So in posting there your character can remember all of HoM or not. The usual offer we seem to extend applies to where you pick them up in this new world. For how it appears, I think Kurt said it pretty well despite being a bit confused: Like a warzone of years past, everything bent and broken, where nature is trying to take over again but even it is failing. For the other boards, I hadn't actually thought of running two parallel universes, we were focused on coming up with something new that might interest people with something completely new, but with a less elaborate set-up, but if this is something people want to discuss we can certainly do so. And last but not least, I just want to say that I've missed this place and the people here immensely. It really has been a big part of my life, off and on, for so many years.
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Post by Hank McCoy on Mar 15, 2012 10:11:50 GMT -4
I'm totally in favor of the "play this Rahne here" and "play the other one here" idea. Fair game. Mind-wipe. Retro. Clones. Clowns. Whatever makes you feel like "this is a starting point I can live with". Today. The other characters may not understand it or may need to compare notes (or introduce themselves) but I think the one thing they consistently understand is "This is not exactly what I remember...." and "I have to find a way to accept that and move on with the problem right now".
I have some thinking to do about a character or two. I left Beast behind in a place where he was a villain who suffered multiple painful deaths. (And rightly so.) I'm not sure who he is any more - but he's more the "before that" Beast than he is that guy and hopefully something new at the same time just for the sake of growth. But I also totally get the concept of not wanting to give them up. I like the paperclip analogy quite a bit.
I like the big ideas, too. And despite my hesitation and general grouchiness about it, I do like the "get this old stuff out of the way so we can focus on what's going on NOW". But I always reserve the right to paperclip or continue whatever is useful from before.
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Post by Jubilee on Mar 15, 2012 10:50:54 GMT -4
Expelled to me sounds a little bit like the Constantine-verse Hell dimension...but with less of the scary half-head scooped away demons. And maybe less gale force winds. Also I agree, Kurt did a great job!
Expelled would actually be a place of greater solidity than the 'real' world. Everything in the real world can change in a heartbeat, take one step and not only is where you are not exactly the same, people aren't the same either. And they don't remember you. Or things just don't fit quite right around the edges, and everyone's pretending everything's alright for the sake of their own sanity. That everything actually does make sense and the world has real proper rules dictating the nature of reality, and they're not insane.
I'm just tossing things out here, really.
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Post by Hank McCoy on Mar 15, 2012 11:11:08 GMT -4
It's funny that you mentioned demons - only because on the drive in this morning I was daydreaming what things might be like (and looking for Marvel alternatives) and a motorcade of Ghost Rider flaming-head Harley-riding ghouls went buzzing by Storm and Nightcrawler on the highway....
I just can't let the Feverpitch jokes go, I guess.
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Post by Gambit on Mar 15, 2012 14:12:53 GMT -4
I know what you mean about Acolyte Jubilee. I tried to reboot Gambit the last go around, thinking it would be easier than continuing to play with all the baggage of characters that weren't even necessarily even around anymore, but I found him so difficult to muse. All those elements made him the character he had become, and it wasn't the same without it. I haven't quite decided what to do with him yet in this world, but i do think he may be more like his old self if Jubes still wants her best friend. I read 'solidity' as 'solidarity' originally, which was part of our discussion going into this. Face with such a strange world, seemingly deserted, will divisions still form? will they band together? It sets up some interesting possibilities and dynamics, and an excuse for all characters to interact instead of shoving them off in their separate headquarters. But how they handle it will be interesting, much like during the original Sentinel plot where all the mutants attempted to live under one roof and work together.
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Post by Jubilee on Mar 15, 2012 17:09:31 GMT -4
The Firecracker's really just indispensible to a properly fulfilling day. And of course she does. Although, it might be interesting if Ed makes a reappearance to have her swing more between Logan and Gambit, those two sets of associated memories. Play the tension between canon!Jubilee and our!Jubilee a bit more. Breaking down the divisions is such an interesting idea. So are there like, background characters in Expelverse? Or just the characters, wandering around? I think I kind of like the idea of there's just the main players. The only ones with enough... oomph, enough editorial belief to be spat out into the 'verse.
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Post by Hank McCoy on Mar 15, 2012 17:50:36 GMT -4
That's really the key element -- what makes a good story? I'd say right off that it's just the main players because that's all they have verifiable knowledge of.
I wouldn't rule out that events reveal something different, but that's certainly where Kurt and Ororo are.
And the point about the characters being spat out that I think needs emphasis: it doesn't have to be characters we saw in the last story at all. New reality. New rules. Some may have come from there but some may have had a different journey.
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Desperado
Training Mutant
Former teacher. Former husband. Former agitator. Former slave.
Posts: 29
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Post by Desperado on Mar 15, 2012 18:26:11 GMT -4
Ah, finally off of work. Been keeping up with the board, but couldn't post.
So...is it like the dumpster of the multiverse or something? Cause that would be very interesting, though it would get awful weird real fast if allowed to.
Still, having the main characters be the only characters opens up all kinds of interesting dilemmas. I seem to recall that certain characters are monstrously telepathic. Suddenly hearing a relative silence will be interesting to see played out. I also seem to recall that certain characters have powers tied to other dimensions (including one of my own!). I wonder how being in a new place will affect them.
Also, Forge in a world without access to high tech might be the most hilarious and awesome thing I can think of.
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Post by Hank McCoy on Mar 15, 2012 20:13:23 GMT -4
Forge could make an iPhone out of two toothpicks and a piece of chewing gum.
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Forge
Training Mutant
I would build us a time machine, but I haven't gotten a note from myself telling me to do so.
Posts: 27
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Post by Forge on Mar 15, 2012 21:01:17 GMT -4
That would be fundamentally impossible.
I could make a Cyclotron out of a washing machine, though. Or a radio out of a coconut and a hunk of iron. Just don't ask me to fix the boat.
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Post by Jubilee on Mar 16, 2012 22:59:25 GMT -4
But can you make me a sandwich?
XD
Anyway, I think I have enough grip on this. Are we ok to start jumping in the pool?
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Post by Hank McCoy on Mar 17, 2012 12:17:45 GMT -4
Yes, characters may join in at any time.
But you don't have to jump in at the same place or the same time that anyone else did. As Kitty already figured out - her arrival wasn't the same as the others we've seen. You can join them, or materialize elsewhere or when. Maybe you fall on top of someone. Maybe you see the smoke from their fire.
Maybe they hear your screams or cries for help.
But....
Nobody started here. If there are locals, you're not one of them.
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