/vx/ - Videogames and Paranormal

>>195468
"Heh heh, wow. There are many new faces here. So, you are starting school this week?"

>>195469
Amber isn't quite sure whether to admit her freeloading, or how she came to know the place, but feels reluctant to outright lie about attendance. She settles on an in-between answer. "I'm getting a feel for it, y'know. It's late to apply, but I hope they let me in."
Bluff: [1d20+3 = (16+3) = 19]

>>195470
The filly continues looking at Amber

Storm speaks

"So you don't go here?"

Mustard Trim speaks

"She said she just moved here. So of course she's still getting paperwork toegther"

Bluff [1d20+1 = (7+1) = 8]

>>195471
She purses her lips, concerned at Mustard's less-than-stellar delivery. "Not yet. But that ain't a problem, is it?" She looks between the purple filly and Storm, quickly thinking of a way to redirect the conversation. "New students don't have to sit at a different table, do we? I heard nothin' about that."

>>195472
The purple filly:

"No?"

Storm:

"So long as they are students."

Mustard:
"Just missing a bit of paperwork is all"
Bluff [1d20+1 = (7+1) = 8]

>>195473
Amber elbows Mustard in the side, hopefully sending a clear signal to him. "I hate technicalities," she mutters. "My ma already has to do so much, and the post is so slow nowadays...." She sighs and stares at the plate in front of her, genuine frustration evident on her snout.

>>195474
"Ow!"

All the same, Mustard places a hoof on the back of her head, and pats her

Mustard speaks
"She's adjusting pretty well to the city so far, I think. You heard how she's taking more responsibilities at work. She even has her own apartment."

Filly:
"I want my own apartment..."

Storm:
"How do you know that?"

Filly, staring at Storm:
"Probably because he listens"

>>195475
She stares at Storm. "I wouldn't be caught sleepin' on the street, you know, and this ain't a boarding school. Modest my place might be, but I'm happy to have a place, and happier still to have this as a school instead of wherever the...other creatures, on the East Side, go."

>>195476
Mustard,

"Oh no, it's-" He stops

The unicorn now speaks
"Other creatures?"

Storm:
"I'm pretty sure you're supposed to go to the school that's closest to you."

>>195477
"Oh, is that how it works? Nobody ever told me," she replies with innocent blinks. She turns to the unicorn and replies more thoughtfully. "I haven't been here long, and much of Baltimare is so very strange, but I can't believe how many creatures who aren't ponies live in the east part of town. I'm not sure where they're from, and certainly many have to be very nice, but a bunch are so rude. This school feels almost like a reprieve from being over that way. It's more...comfortable."

>>195478
The unicorn replies
"They are new commers to this land just like you. More so, actually. They may not know the language and customs."

The filly asks
"How long have you known Trimmy?"

Storm
"I'm pretty sure this is the filly he was talking about last week. You know, if you were listening."

Mustard
"No, I'm pretty sure this is her- her school"
Bluff [1d20+1 = (6+1) = 7]

>>195479
Another elbow hits Mustard's side.

She elects to ignore talk about herself as much as possible. "I'd hardly say I'm a newcomer to the land. To the city, yes, but my family has lived in the general area between here and New Horseleans for generations. I'm sure many of my neighbors aren't even from Equus at all. Do you go to the East Side often?" She directs this last question to the unicorn, and it seems to come from a place of curiosity.

>>195480
yelp

The unicorn:
"Well no. But again, they don't have it easy. They are here for the same reason as you. So just... have a little perspective."

Filly:
"Still better than bats. Those things creep me out. With their snake eyes, and the squeaking."

>>195481
"I very much doubt my Wingbardian landlord sailed over because of a famine," she replies skeptically.

To the filly, she nods with sympathy.

>>195482
"Did you even ask him? Or talk to him about his homeland? He can't have loved to leave it."

Mustard nods in sympathy as well
"He could go back though."

The Unicorn replies
"Could he?"

>>195483
"He doesn't seem to care about anythin' other than money...or those gross magazines of his," she grumbles. "The farther he's away from me, the better."

>>195484
He shakes his head
"You did not ask."

>>195485
Amber rolls her eyes. Then, a sly smile spreads across her face. "We could swap domiciles for a week. You would get the chance to ask him and my neighbors all the questions you want. After all, you don't go there very often, so it would be a nice chance to learn 'bout things. I don't know where you live either, and it'd be new for me too."

>>195486
"Really? I'd love to live alone, if you want to bunk with my brother."

Storm
"I'd do that."

Mustard:
"I'd do that"

Filly:
"I'd like it, but I'd miss my little sisters."

>>195487
The yellow filly's grin grows wider. "Do you want to shake on it? We can switch places in a day or two," she replies, her hoof outstretched. Her smile suddenly disappears as she recalls something. "But I never got your name."

>>195488
The Unicorn looks down at the hoof with growing apprehension, his eyes darting between the hoof and Amber's eyes

Unicorn
"Uh, well no, I don't really know you... Is there some kind of catch?"

Storm:
"Is she a changeling?

Mustard:
"No."

Storm
"How do you know?"

Mustard
"I checked"

Storm
"How do you check that?"

Mustard
"Well, she didn't zap me"

Storm
"Would she have zapped you if she were?"

Mustard
"I'd have zapped me"

>>195489
Amber facehooves. "I'm not a changeling. Why would a changeling ever go to a high school, anyway? That makes no sense. And my apartment isn't really that unsafe...at least I don't think so. I've been suspicious of changelings too...." She giggles, a blush suddenly tinging her cheeks before she composes herself again. "....But it really is better to think things through, instead of being too paranoid all the time."

>>195490
Everypony stares at Amber

Mustard:
'Well for our happiness and our love and stuff"

Filly:
"Well Princess Twilight said there was that one time that a demon attacked a high school, so uh, I think makes sense that a changeling would infliltrate."

Storm:
"Well obviously because you, I mean they, wouldn't want to catch us off guard so we can't really fight back"

Unicorn:
"You're really jumping to conclusions"

Filly:
"How long have you known her?"

Mustard:
"Last Tuesday."

Filly
"So one week?"

Mustard
"Yeah."

Filly:
"And you're sure she's not a changeling?"

Mustard:
"...."

Unicorn
"You... you weren't trying to get into my home, right?"

Mustard:
"Colts, she's not a changeling, okay? Let's move on."

>>195491
Amber is visibly a little annoyed now. She responds to the unicorn, "I don't know who you are, where you live, or anything about you. Nor do you know anythin' about me except what I told you. Yet, you were so quick to talk about what I should think about my neighbors, even though you don't venture out to where I live. If you don't want to step outside your comfort zone, just admit it, but quit talking about how I should 'talk to them about their homelands' when you're too afraid to ask them yourself. Or, stick to your principles and be as adventurous as I was movin' all the way out here."

>>195492
Amber feels a hoof patting her head

Unicorn
"Well, I'm skeptical that you know much more about your neighbors than you do about me."

Storm
"Vittle, if this is because of that zebra mare you were crushing on at that-"

Unicorn
"That is not what happened"

Filly:
"You sure were bragging about how far you got"

Unicorn:
"No."

Mustard giggles

>>195493
pat pat

Amber smirks. "Well, I have zebra neighbors...if I remember right. Griffons too, and plenty of other species. It might sound like a dream. Well, more like campin', but in a city, and with lots of other creatures around...." She narrows her eyes as she thinks. "Scratch that, not like campin' at all, but it's still an adventure.

Pokes head out

Who is here if we continue the main quest?

I exist.

>>195495
I will be here.
>>195496
Are you Posey?

>>195495
Can we continue Vir's story?

it seems that people are not as available as I had thought...

Maybe tomorrow?

>>195498
Soon. I think

Roll Call check for continuing the main quest tonight

>>195502
Here!

>>195498
You gotta keep bugging him and talk about what you want to do.

>>195502
Hello!

Okay, so we have Black Gryphon, Fluffernoodle, and even a Vir (yesterday, anyways)

Do we have a Posey?

I exist.

There's a dummmm sound, a low volume, high pitched hum. A repeated zap sound, and one light, then another comes online, illuminating the whole, grey mass of the boiler and engine room in first a red, then orange, and then finally almost yellow glow. A sucking sound from an opening in the boiler from which redlight shines. And then most loudly of all, a tug, then a tug, and then a repeated chugging sound from the second floor, beyond the railing, from a machine that Zara Zama earlier so lovingly identified as the auxiliary engine responsible for electricity generation. The room is loud once more, even as the actual engine - a set of pistons standing taller than one story, sit idle in the middle of the room. The great machine has once again come alive, a machine of steel, steam, electricity, and petroleum.

And yet, it isn't the only thing that has come alive. It must be fiften feet tall, that.... creature? Thing? That something, made of petroleum oil there between the boiler and the engine. Looking at it, the power of suggestion readily compares it to a pony, with a barrel, four legs, a big head, neck and ears. But it may just as surely be a fox, a cow, or any other creature of similar shape. In many ways it is like what the party has seen before in the constructs created by Our Fellow Traveler, which so often took either equine or avian shape, and which had black, oil-like skin that did not reflect light in the night. But this skin is not oily by metaphor alone. The surface is uneven, almost like an especially nasty icing placed on a cake. It is occasionally dirty. And in every instance it looks sticky, like you would not want to touch it.

As I understand, Kira is trying to stop the flow of still more oil from the bunker, and Posey is facing it, having just freed herself from being stuck to the floor.

>>195508
>>195509
Cavaliere has just jammed a rod in a valve and is trying to move it. Should he make another strength check?

>>195510
Yes Let's see if his luck is better now

Heave-ho!
[1d20 = 15]

>>195508
So, did the previous scene still happen? Are we still in initiative?

>>195513
The previous scene happened, but we may as well reroll initiative because of the time passage and the main combat not really having started

I'm hoping we actually have floof

>>195417
>>195512
Cavaliere, with the help of Kira, is able to force one of the valves closed.

>>195514
Initiative
[1d20+8 = (19+8) = 27]

>>195514
Initiative
[1d20+3 = (11+3) = 14]

Petroleum Monster
[1d20 = 10]

>>195514
Silver: [1d20+4 = (7+4) = 11]

Kira: [1d20+3 = (19+3) = 22]

>>195517
If initiative is being rerolled, does that mean the monster is flat-footed again?

Posey
Kira
Cavaliere
Silver
Petroleum Monster

>>195519
Yes