[?] A Certain Masked Man OOC

Aleister Crowley wrote:Iva, have you decided on how you want Mugino to continue? IS she going to let her underlings do the investigating? In which case I'll post up their findings once it comes time for her to hunt down Koyoko, but you won't have anything to do in the meantime. Or she could tail Miyako or one of the others? Or pick up something to investigate herself.

In any case, its time for Mirai and Oda to stumble upon a gruesome sight...

We'll see once I have actually posted. I'll either make that obvious in the upcoming post, or add explanation here, or something.

My post will either come Friday or Saturday, going by the fact that I have a long day before me and another busy one tomorrow, which also means my time and energy are a bit limited. Especially if we do consider the checklist I published on the chatbox this morning...

At least one of the two evaluations on it will have to be done before I can post.


Update!

First of all, I’m not enjoying the idea of publicly communicating ideas before I actually confirm my intentions IC. Making plans is something I preferably do in private, simply for the sake of figuring out if the respective players or GM agree, not to step on anyone’s foot. But, as for the rest of the cast members, at times it should be better to simply be surprised by what I am doing~ I’m kinda treating them as readers here more than anything.

Still, I’ll try to elaborate a bit on what I’m intending to do so far (which, admittedly, isn’t that much) and attempt to keep that trend going for the future.

Right now the plan is, as you mentioned and as my post hinted, for Mugino to forward the prepaid phone she found to the proper people at ITEM, while she also uses the photos she took of the victim to give them a basis for figuring out their identity. Furthermore I’m also going with the assumption that ITEM at least knows who the person is they originally sent Mugino after, since well…that’d make sense. With that I will decide, depending on the information I get from you and on how Miyako will react next post, what exactly I’ll do…

Because frankly, I have no idea.

I have to agree with Iva, traditionally ooc is more about coordination rather then planning. I would prefer to conduct my planning private to keep the readers 'guessing' all the same.

Please excuse the wall of text. I just want to make things clear.

Mugino Shizuri wrote:First of all, I’m not enjoying the idea of publicly communicating ideas before I actually confirm my intentions IC. Making plans is something I preferably do in private, simply for the sake of figuring out if the respective players or GM agree, not to step on anyone’s foot. But, as for the rest of the cast members, at times it should be better to simply be surprised by what I am doing~ I’m kinda treating them as readers here more than anything.

Still, I’ll try to elaborate a bit on what I’m intending to do so far (which, admittedly, isn’t that much) and attempt to keep that trend going for the future.

Right now the plan is, as you mentioned and as my post hinted, for Mugino to forward the prepaid phone she found to the proper people at ITEM, while she also uses the photos she took of the victim to give them a basis for figuring out their identity. Furthermore I’m also going with the assumption that ITEM at least knows who the person is they originally sent Mugino after, since well…that’d make sense. With that I will decide, depending on the information I get from you and on how Miyako will react next post, what exactly I’ll do…

Because frankly, I have no idea.

Oda Taichi wrote:
I have to agree with Iva, traditionally ooc is more about coordination rather then planning. I would prefer to conduct my planning private to keep the readers 'guessing' all the same.

This seems to be the key issue here. The purpose of threads such as these is not to 'surprise' the other players, but to collaborate with them. Think of it like a D & D campaign where the player party is working against the GM to overcome the obstacles in their path. Don't take this the wrong way, but it's not your job to surprise each other. That's my job as your GM. You should instead be working together to figure out how to achieve the goal (in this case, hunting down the killer). Your fellow players are not 'readers', they are team mates. Even if the characters themselves might not consider themselves as such.

The Masked Man thread is not intended to give players a hard time but it will still require that you work together later down the road, lest you find yourselves 'failing' the objective. An example of this can be found in the 'Intensify Episode 2' rumour thread. In that thread players were disorganised (And many dropped out mid thread) which meant that their opponent was able to overpower them one by one and then escape. Had they worked together, coordinating a response (and it wouldn't have had to be perfect by any means, I'm happy to fudge things in the players favour if it means a better story) then they could have beaten him and 'won' the thread.

I can understand that this isn't how you're used to doing things but bear this in mind and you'll get used to it. I've RP'd this way in the past (in fact this was how my first, dearly remembered RP was handled. I'd link it but I'd die of shame if you were to read my terrible 16-year old prose. ) and it does work if everyone's thinking collaboratively. Yes it requires a bit of planning but is that really such a bad thing? Compared to some of the minutely detailed planning I've seen for other threads here the 'planning' done so far is pretty minimal. All you need to do is communicate your general intentions to one another. If that inspires an idea in other players that idea can be fleshed out further between you. (Lemouri and Alex's discussion about how to get their characters involved was a good example.) I'm not going to be taking such a direct role in the future, spelling out options for you to take, I just thought I'd give you all some options and guide you along in the style of OOC posting you'll need in the future. Something that goes beyond 'I've posted now. It's X's turn next'.

And finally, I know some of you aren't involved yet, but some people have been a little less communicative (though understandable as half the cast has yet to get started) but it's a habit you should get into to get used to it by the time your character does get active.

That concludes my wall of text for today.

I would like to apologize for the delay in my posting. The heat around here has been breaking record after record, culminating in today's 41 C temperature. It's made me quite ill and lacking in energy and ability to think. After a good night's sleep, I plan to get my post in.

No problem. I have the same reaction to the hot weather. Luckily(?) it's pretty rare where I come from. Post when you're able.

I'll try not to delay the post for it too much if you're busy, but there is something I'm a little curious about before I write anything, Guy, so mind PMing me when you have some free time to spare?

As a general heads-up, though, I may take a little while to post regardless even if I am thinking about how to tackle it, so you guys have my apologies for that. I'm thinking I'll have Miyako exit the scene now since she's lingered around long enough for tonight, so unfortunately the two won't be catching her at the very least even if I don't know what Iva plans on doing in that regard.

May the investigation and their lives go well for the both of them should they encounter Mugino.

Well if Mugino remains there I do hope we have a choice to actually not just charge in and wait from a distance keeping watch. The Aura of a Yandere from Mugino should be enough for anyone to sense danger the very least Oda.

Of course you have the choice. You just have to decide between yourselves how you want the scene to go. (I know I'm talking to the two people who've actively voiced reluctance to the idea).

Right, finally got around to making my post, apologies for the wait. As I said, Taichi and Mirai have lost their opportunity to meet Miyako, but I figure having her retreat would be more reasonable than mysteriously hang around the crime scene now that she's inspected what she could.

I'm not too sure when I'll be reintroducing her during the following day (or daytime, I guess), but I'm thinking perhaps I'll stay out a little while the other half of the cast gets itself an introduction and a few scenes going for themselves? Your call on how you want that to go since I'm not too fussed anyway, Jin, Kita and Koyoko.

I posted this earlier but it seems to have been lost since it was the last post on the previous page. As long as I'm being called out, I'll just bring it back up.

Takamiya Jin wrote:A bit late for this, I know, but I was thinking about Jin's introduction since having him just kinda tagging along out of boredom feels rather forced. Perhaps instead, he comes across Koyoko being chased down and tags along out of curiosity and a lacking sense of self preservation?

For Koyoko's introduction, I'd probably have him wake up early in the morning from a phone call from his acquaintance, which can be controlled by Guy or me, whatever is easiest, giving him a heads up that he was being offered the delivery of a life time, a suspiciously large amount of money for a simple delivery that he cannot refuse given his financial situation. They would stress more on the fact as to not open the package, and to merely get to his destination on foot.

The first post will just be him receiving the call and getting ready in the morning to pick up the package and make a delivery. Where he is receiving it could be a public locker with a key left under his door to go open it, or heading to a certain address to receive it by hand.

Had forgotten to reply to this Guy, so apologise for the late response.

Aleister Crowley wrote:Please excuse the wall of text. I just want to make things clear.

This seems to be the key issue here. The purpose of threads such as these is not to 'surprise' the other players, but to collaborate with them. Think of it like a D & D campaign where the player party is working against the GM to overcome the obstacles in their path. Don't take this the wrong way, but it's not your job to surprise each other. That's my job as your GM. You should instead be working together to figure out how to achieve the goal (in this case, hunting down the killer). Your fellow players are not 'readers', they are team mates. Even if the characters themselves might not consider themselves as such.

The Masked Man thread is not intended to give players a hard time but it will still require that you work together later down the road, lest you find yourselves 'failing' the objective. An example of this can be found in the 'Intensify Episode 2' rumour thread. In that thread players were disorganised (And many dropped out mid thread) which meant that their opponent was able to overpower them one by one and then escape. Had they worked together, coordinating a response (and it wouldn't have had to be perfect by any means, I'm happy to fudge things in the players favour if it means a better story) then they could have beaten him and 'won' the thread.

I can understand that this isn't how you're used to doing things but bear this in mind and you'll get used to it. I've RP'd this way in the past (in fact this was how my first, dearly remembered RP was handled. I'd link it but I'd die of shame if you were to read my terrible 16-year old prose. ) and it does work if everyone's thinking collaboratively. Yes it requires a bit of planning but is that really such a bad thing? Compared to some of the minutely detailed planning I've seen for other threads here the 'planning' done so far is pretty minimal. All you need to do is communicate your general intentions to one another. If that inspires an idea in other players that idea can be fleshed out further between you. (Lemouri and Alex's discussion about how to get their characters involved was a good example.) I'm not going to be taking such a direct role in the future, spelling out options for you to take, I just thought I'd give you all some options and guide you along in the style of OOC posting you'll need in the future. Something that goes beyond 'I've posted now. It's X's turn next'.

And finally, I know some of you aren't involved yet, but some people have been a little less communicative (though understandable as half the cast has yet to get started) but it's a habit you should get into to get used to it by the time your character does get active.

That concludes my wall of text for today.

I understand the points you made, but as you all have seen in general and this is from both sides this style has been very hard to adapt. That's because other than this thread and one other thread, OOC hasn't really been used at all or at least properly encouraged. Sure certain people have mentioned it, but there was no weight behind these words to actually get this going for all future threads.

What has mostly been done at least for the many threads I've taken part in. We use private chatango boxes, skype or discord to privately discuss these matters. The reason why I also said 'surprise the readers' was not our fellow RPers in this certain thread but those who aren't. But honestly, it's not really a critical issue here we mostly discuss as a group how we would communicate before beginning. And so it has been decided to use the OOC more which isn't bad. I only mentioned what I felt about it as Iva originally brought it up, so it's not an issue I desire to change. Just thought I would just share my views at the time.

Since Kita is sort of neutral with no real connections, she is pretty much focused on trying to find any details or leads on the Masked Man after investigating the rumor for a few days. To be perfectly honest, I'm not really sure how to start interacting with Koyoko and Jin without making it seem like pure happenstance. One idea that I did have was that she could find the crime scene the next day, but that's just an idea and it probably wouldn't be the best way to proceed. I'm still kind of juggling ideas >~<

So will be posting shortly, now that Mugino has wandered off into the Night I shall post Oda's entry into the scene.

Kita Tsukiko wrote:Since Kita is sort of neutral with no real connections, she is pretty much focused on trying to find any details or leads on the Masked Man after investigating the rumor for a few days. To be perfectly honest, I'm not really sure how to start interacting with Koyoko and Jin without making it seem like pure happenstance. One idea that I did have was that she could find the crime scene the next day, but that's just an idea and it probably wouldn't be the best way to proceed. I'm still kind of juggling ideas >~<

Hmmmm....I don't know how thorough Kita is or if she can somehow find a connection with Koyoko's employer in short amount of time. The problem is Kita would need to be at the current crime scene which has the victim's phone to 'possibly' link it to the employer sending Koyoko out on the errand, and by consequence searching him out for answers she wont find. (Until the mask man shows up and stabs both of them)

Thinking from a different perspective to the masked man rumors, it wouldn't be strange to hear rumors that this masked man is attacking level 0's, Skill Out and Esper Delinquents. Koyoko isn't 'famous' but is notorious for getting into fights with Skill Out and other Delinquents, so perhaps she'd have heard his name and would seek him out to ask if anything weird has gone around such as missing friends, strange murders ect. Obviously Kita won't find anything, but if the mask man attacks somewhere along their conversation, then she'll be fully involved.

This is just me brainstorming, these ideas could be absolute shite or whatever, but I rather not leave you hanging to think on your own when you're struggling.

Alright at this moment, I'm not entirely sure if Oda should contact Anti-skill. I'm leaning against the idea because well wouldn't he get into serious trouble for being there at night? I mean he could leave an anonymous tip the very least. What do you guys think?

For Kita at least this comes after Ballad and she has been informed of the intended ending so we should able to use that connection to bring her into the plot. As it seems she has a passive aggressive desire to outdo poor Oda or at least being more curious than him. So how to get her involved? Well, Oda could've forgotten to have met up with her and other ballad characters so she decided to investigate and latches on there afterwards.

EDIT: If this suggestion is taken on board, we have to deal how they will interact since this takes place after ballad. Which shouldn't be an issue if Mura and I discuss how this goes down.

And maybe also Koyoko knows Oda from past experiences? Oda originally was the guy who beat up Skill-out members and so on because they're a bunch of dicks. Or the very least hes heard of Koyoko or the other way round. Maybe this night or the next day, Oda has to break up a fight or ends up arresting Koyoko for being a trouble maker despite the irony. Or he stops a fight between Koyoko and Jin? Seems very reasonable I mean he has no real powers, but he knows his way around a street fight.

Oda Taichi wrote:

I understand the points you made, but as you all have seen in general and this is from both sides this style has been very hard to adapt. That's because other than this thread and one other thread, OOC hasn't really been used at all or at least properly encouraged. Sure certain people have mentioned it, but there was no weight behind these words to actually get this going for all future threads.

What has mostly been done at least for the many threads I've taken part in. We use private chatango boxes, skype or discord to privately discuss these matters. The reason why I also said 'surprise the readers' was not our fellow RPers in this certain thread but those who aren't. But honestly, it's not really a critical issue here we mostly discuss as a group how we would communicate before beginning. And so it has been decided to use the OOC more which isn't bad. I only mentioned what I felt about it as Iva originally brought it up, so it's not an issue I desire to change. Just thought I would just share my views at the time.

That's fair enough. Really part of the reason this thread was suggested was so that we could use it as a way of getting people used to the alternative. I'm not expecting it to completely take over from the current standard, but I'd like to see it used a bit more as I think it could genuinely help inject a bit more life into the forum.

And if what you're saying is the case then the only real difference is that the discussions are made more public for others to see and react to should anything spark their imagination.

As I've said. Try it out. It will become easier with time. And above all have fun.

EDIT: I was going to butt in with a bunch of suggestions but it seems like you guys are actually handling that amongst yourselves now, so that's good to see. I'll keep a watchful eye on things and if it looks like you need a hand I'll throw in some ideas.

Well, it seems Kita, Jin and Koyoko are having the most trouble getting involved. So maybe you should add some suggestions nows.

Right then, since everyone's finally replied, I figured I'd tackle a few points.

Namely that firstly, regarding the issue of Kita and Taichi meeting despite their electrical relationship in Ballad of the Oddities, I'd like to warn that you guys should focus on making the better out of both that thread and this one rather than be concerned about contradictions to a point where it wastes all potential of a thread for that cast and enjoyment of said thread.

If you two, Alex and Mura, are struggling so much with making sure things go hand-in-hand between Ballad and MM, then I can only recommend you settle on a goal for their relationship by the end of Ballad and work towards it so that you can also work with it within Masked Man. SoL threads are much more easier to adjust and adapt in that regard than you two restraining your possibilities by trying to bend Masked Man's interactions instead.

And if it were that drastic of a problem anyway, the staff would be on it in the first place, so really, focus on making enjoyable experiences for everyone in both threads rather than pointless things like "avoiding contradictions" and "consistency". Kamachi's struggling with those things despite being a single writer, let alone multiple ones.

---

Now then, the actual ideas that were being thrown around. Since Guy's sleeping right now I figure I'll contribute a little.

In general, as of right now, the Masked Man's apparition in the city will probably cause an uproar both on a civilian and administrative level. It's very likely that a potential Code Red (failing that, Code Orange) will be triggered and stricter curfews will be enforced throughout Academy City for civilian safety (as a student from Dangai University was killed, meaning even young adults with abilities are at risk and not only children/teenagers), and that will impact daily life on everyone's front.

For now, rather than establish how everyone is going to connect to the other, it may be wise to take the approach of having everyone react to the changes going through the city (as the incident will likely cause a lot of rumours to surface, old or new, including the one about the Masked Man specifically; which people can use a la Saten to get a little ahead of themselves and not realise that rumours aren't just written text are boards?) and establish them as characters and individuals before in turn involving them with others.

Jin: Considering that, and if Guy's alright with that reaction to the Masked Man on Academy City's part, you could try playing off your idea supported by the notion that no one should be focusing on their part-time job while a potentially maniac killer is on the loose especially since Jin is a very curious and nagging individual and Koyoko an inherently suspicious one.

Though, honestly, the exact circumstances of how Jin would get involved with the investigation using Koyoko will heavily depend on what he does during the day after being assigned his job because of Jin's attention troubles, so we could try winding it and see if a good opportunity for him to involve himself beyond a simple boring "lol I saw him and he had funny hair so I thought I'd follow him" while keeping the basic idea in mind? Would need opinions from others here.

Kita: We've kinda agreed Koyoko is going to be the next potential victim of the Masked Man so I doubt it'd work well with Kita here, but nonetheless you could try using the situations I've mentioned above and seek ways to get involved in the matter against Judgement's (read: Taichi's, which is why it's better if you two stop getting hung up over the Ballad issue as it'll just make everyone's lives harder) better (and forceful) advice before realising she's stepped foot into something quite deep and quite difficult to turn back on now once the second incident happens with Koyoko?

But she can always try using what I mentioned about the rumours likely spreading around again, as she would have the easiest access to them as a teenage girl with hardly anything better to do of her time, which is additional grounds for involvement.

EDIT, Taichi: I'm going to sound like Guy and his outdated technology like phone booths here, but you could always try to find something you could contact Anti-Skill and leave an anonymous tip about the murder with so that Taichi doesn't get in trouble or temporarily suspended from duty/flagged as a suspect (though that would actually be an interesting plot twist when I think about it). Or at worse, if she doesn't mind being traced back at that hour since she has a history of going out at night-time, you could use Mirai's.

And then she'd be the suspect.

---

That's about all I've got to offer at 3 A.M and I'm looking for Guy's and other people's input and opinions before affirming anything (especially since I'm so tired I'm worried I'm hardly making sense), but you guys can feel free to expand on it as well if you have some ideas to support or extend the ideas I've mentioned.

Or make sense out of them if I didn't make any...

Honestly, Jin doesn't have that much trouble getting involved. He's naturally a nuisance curious, so as long as he sees something interesting, he'll stick his head in it.

As for Jin getting involved with Koyoko, my thought was that he gets interested in the guy who'se being chased by Meltdowner rather than just picking him out randomly from a crowd, but in hindsight that only works after he starts getting chased. Still, Mugino isn't exactly known for being subtle, so as soon as that bit starts it should be pretty easy to attract attention.

One way to handle that timing discrepancy would be to simply delay my entry until the chase begins. Alternatively, Jin could simply be messing about somewhere else until then- And possibly with some of the other characters on the case, which would give him a second level of involvement in the thread beyond just his curiosity as to how Koyoko pissed off the #5.

I indicated earlier that Mirai would be interested in obtaining one of the keys, but I figure it would be more interesting if she left it up to Taichi to figure out what to do next. It's not as though she's in a state where she can independently start grabbing items, anyway.

Hakusho Tsuru wrote:Honestly, Jin doesn't have that much trouble getting involved. He's naturally a nuisance curious, so as long as he sees something interesting, he'll stick his head in it.

As for Jin getting involved with Koyoko, my thought was that he gets interested in the guy who'se being chased by Meltdowner rather than just picking him out randomly from a crowd, but in hindsight that only works after he starts getting chased. Still, Mugino isn't exactly known for being subtle, so as soon as that bit starts it should be pretty easy to attract attention.

One way to handle that timing discrepancy would be to simply delay my entry until the chase begins. Alternatively, Jin could simply be messing about somewhere else until then- And possibly with some of the other characters on the case, which would give him a second level of involvement in the thread beyond just his curiosity as to how Koyoko pissed off the #5.

#4, you imbecile.

I'm not overly enthusiastic about Mugino and Jin possibly meeting. Knowing his personality from MissFits and all that, I can easily tell that his life expectancy is gonna drop to zero upon meeting.

Besides that, I dunno what I will do during day time. That will depend entirely on what I’ll be given by then.

Mugino Shizuri wrote:I'm not overly enthusiastic about Mugino and Jin possibly meeting. Knowing his personality from MissFits and all that, I can easily tell that his life expectancy is gonna drop to zero upon meeting.

You're saying that like anyone has any life expectancy in this thread with Mugino around...

EDIT, Taichi: I'm going to sound like Guy and his outdated technology like phone booths here, but you could always try to find something you could contact Anti-Skill and leave an anonymous tip about the murder with so that Taichi doesn't get in trouble or temporarily suspended from duty/flagged as a suspect (though that would actually be an interesting plot twist when I think about it). Or at worse, if she doesn't mind being traced back at that hour since she has a history of going out at night-time, you could use Mirai's.

And then she'd be the suspect

As much I like to encourage my sadistic side and to punish Mirari's laughter over B movies. I think Oda will protect Mirai from all this despite everything. Hmm, I'm actually interested in getting Oda in trouble now. This could lead into interesting context to explore where he stands among other Judgement members and his relationship with the group.

I'm doing it.

I indicated earlier that Mirai would be interested in obtaining one of the keys, but I figure it would be more interesting if she left it up to Taichi to figure out what to do next. It's not as though she's in a state where she can independently start grabbing items, anyway.

Alright makes sense, though leaving it to the dense guy maybe not bring fruitful results.  At least he will take some notes.


EDIT: After noting a few mistakes I decided to delete my post and will reupload it tomorrow morning. Since editing on the phone will be a pain.

Alright, my mistake guys my post needs to be edited so I'll get that done the next morning. This is what happens when you try to post on a phone I guess.

Sorry for the delay.