Hand Puppet Comments

[Urthdigger]

I don't know why, but I keep feeling like I'm giving myself too big of an ego with my character, saying he can do this, or that, and so I feel compelled to have him get his ass kicked. I've actually made it impossible for him to stay dead in my other stories for the express purpose of killing him again and again and again.
The hardest part of this post was coming up with the last names. I hate coming up with last names. A first name can be anything, it can be random. Here I just grab random names from anime for the japanophile coons, or make them up, not too hard. The last names have to have meaning though, they have to fit with the culture. I tried to base them off of Makoto's name, him being the only arakun I've ever seen in the game with a last name... actually, I'm going to ignore the fact that I didn't follow that scheme for Terrence (Gonzales, hasn't been mentioned yet), Max, Rick, or Vlad, although I suppose Rick and Vlad are outside of the community and thus could have other types of last names, and I think I can find a reason for Max and Terrence.

[Urthdigger]

I'm not feeling very happy right now. More than ever I'm getting bugged by everyone to reinc out of Hand, all of them saying it's a pointless guild. The wizzes and some close friends are the only ones saying I should stay. I don't want to reinc though. I don't want to lose all that training and have to farm all that gold for it all over again. I don't want to have all that work I did for a fricken year go down the drain. In addition, I'd have to stop writing as well. Being a Hand is the main reason I'm writing this, playing as something else it'd feel fake to be writing this, and with my current mood I'm not sure I can write anything glorifying the Hands.

[Kereth]

"I'm a hand. I'm weak. My guild is underpowerd and nobody respects me." would make a really interesting start (concept wise, not actual text) for an rp story. . . The same could be done for druid or psi or any other guild that people are (grossly inaccurately) thinking are useless lately.

Seriously though, I was in that boat once. I was quite weak with barely over freemaxed training and substandard eq. You can recover from that. I barely have time to log in anymore, and it seems I rarely party, but when I do, it's with people who know full well what a properly trained Hand is capable of.

Your guild isn't weak. Actually, you're not that weak either. I had you midrowing for Arictor and I a while back, and you pulled down some nice damage. ...and what was I talking about again?

Meh. Anyway, there's always... PE... or fund raisers! That worked for me. A little.

Anyway, partying is easier to do as a midrower and it requires fewer skills. You could always try that and invest in some cheap epr gear for a while or somesuch. . . or idle about until the rumored path comes in and we all get force reinced with gold free training. I'd recommend the prior though.

Yeah, see, I totally forgot what I was talking about. I hope I said something nifty somewhere.

[Urthdigger]

kereth said:

"I'm a hand. I'm weak. My guild is underpowerd and nobody respects me." would make a really interesting start (concept wise, not actual text) for an rp story. . .

Actually, that's the premise of the next two chapters of my RP and a bit of the current one, one reason why I can't write the current part very well when I'm depressed about it. Harriel cheered me up a bit, I just wish I could find what's acceptable aside from the elitist "racemax everything" that everyone tells me.

[Kereth]

The only other option, actually, seems to be "specialize and racemax the important stuff." Yeah, I know, it's not a lot better, but because so many people max train and get the best eq available, the difficulty of mobs has to be set accordingly, so that people who don't do those things fall behind. That's why I recommend getting your midrow skills up first, as it takes fewer skills (like a mage who maxes one attack spell, mage blasting, and quick chant. They work, just without the same delicate efficiency as a mage who trained absolutely everything.)

Notably, dealing good midrow damage as a hand takes more total skills, stats, and other requirements than it does as a mage, but becoming a worthwhile blaster is (in every guild capable of it) a whole lot cheaper than becoming a worthwhile healer/protter/tank/etc. It's a good stepping stone to getting your tank skills up. Blast first, then tank, then work on your utility skills.

And fear not elitism. As a Hand, it's part of your religion.

[Urthdigger]

There's a bit of an odd story behind Ed. I wanted the captain to mention something demeaning about arakuns, then just say off-hand "No offense". For some reason, I got the idea of the guy responding something like "That's not what your mom said". After that, I started thinking of Ed from Shaun of the Dead, who keeps saying innuendo about the main character's mom. I'm wondering if that was in poor taste, but it's already posted and there isn't a thing I can do about it.
Not much to say about Ed finding the head, although I liked thinking up the uniform. In my opinion, arakuns are perfectly capable of wearing torso and head gear, you just need to be creative about it. I'm thinking of maybe a suggestion for 'ghost slots', slots that don't support normal types of armor, but can support special armor types. Might be too much work for the wizzes though, and would need some balance issues.
I'm not as satisfied as this Vlad section as I am with the others. It's interesting to write these though. First off, there's almost no dialogue. I both didn't want to make it any longer than I had to, and also each time I switch to a different person being the focus I tend to write in a style reflecting how that person thinks. In this case, he's a silent loner so details such as conversation are largely unimportant to him. He doesn't talk much anyway. Being a fan of the more intellectual pleasures in life, Vlad's sections contain more complex words and phrases than the other portions, and make many analogies to art, theatre, and music. I'm certain I've misused at least one word though, as I don't usually talk like this and could use more practice.
I'd like to thank a random retro newbie (who specifically asked not to be named for some reason) for coming up with "Holy Crypt". I asked for people to give me some retro related expletives to convey the same meaning as "Jesus Christ!", and got "Holy Wysoom!" "Holy Welstar!" and even "Crypt Welstar!".... what the heck were they thinking? Doesn't flow at all.

[Kereth]

Nooooo! Not Ranger Rick! He didn't do it, I swear!

[Urthdigger]

This post was the thing I was building up to with these portions. For some reason, I just loved doing this dark storyline, though I think I'll try to put more comedic portions in now to counteract that

Rick can't hold his liquor, Rick can't hold his liquor... (relatively obscure joke here, I think)

I've been thinking lately about how I make names. Each name usually has some significance or something that I picked it for. Ivan's name was taken from the leader of the Myreque in RuneScape, with his last name being picked out of a hat pretty much. Olga was just a name to go with Clause. Ed as I mentioned earlier was inspired by Shaun of the Dead, his last name taken from the "I got wood" shirt he wears at one point, and because it's kinda funny when said. The 4 guards mentioned recently, Pierce, Aya, Leon, and Chris, are all cops from PS1 games. Aya and Pierce are from Parasite Eve 2 (With Pierce retaining his penchant for loading the wrong type of ammo into a gun), and Leon and Chris are named after characters in Resident Evil 2. Fred is named after a character in the night watch in Terry Pratchet's Discworld novels. In one book they do the 'ginger ale trick' to interrogate a prisoner, with Fred providing the blood curling screams. The last name Wisey was given to me by one of my co-workers, when I described the character and she exclaimed "You should name him Wisey!". So I did. Rick's named after Ranger Rick (No idea where I got Taylor from it just seemed to fit), Anne is named after a bit character from a legend in the anime Slayers, and Vlad is named after Vlad the Impaler, with Mason supposed to be Manson (Charles Manson), but I typoed it and decided it looked better that way.
In the arakun village, Terrence was originally just going to be named Turbo, but I added Terrence as a T name for him, Gonzalez being from Speedy Gonzalez. Max Kale... well, there's a reason he's named that, I'll deal with him later. Most of the arakuns are named after anime characters, with the last name being something either foresty or going along with Mokoto Quicktail's last name. One odd group is Urth's neighbours, Ralph, Melissa, and Bert. They're named after the main characters from the canadian cartoon show "The Raccoons", which I actually didn't watch as a kid since it was before my time (aired in the US in early 80s), and didn't run into when researching raccoons. I was looking up old tv show openings on YouTube when I saw that on a related link. Took a peek, and I'm starting to like the show.
That's everyone I can think of for now...

[Urthdigger]

Hmm, while it IS kinda nice to make a HUGE post and post it up, I really should be splitting it up more. First off, that'll mean more posts, giving the illusion that I'm working harder than I really am (Loktai commented the other day that he thought the RP had ended ), it'll make people less intimidated to read it, and it should probably split it up better. I'm almost done with the sidestory (No, I'm not actually done with that bit. Vlad's part is still unresolved) and when that's done I'll have no reason not to post as short as I want.

[Urthdigger]

I was wondering whether to put the conversation between Ralph and Karren in. On the one hand, it does explain a few things like why all the guys wanted to kick his ass, and it made for a nice little joke (No man can defeat him, but the first girl he was up against totally whupped him). On the other hand... I dunno, I was just feeling like it didn't contribute much or something. Just something didn't feel right.

[Urthdigger]

Jeeze, I've been stuck in that stuffy village with only the occasional Rick/Vlad post for breaks for how long?

I was tempted to have Urth try to convince Karren she's pregnant, as a slight jab at what's going in in Not Only Raji, as well as since he's done this in the past (actually, it was done with Karren Stormeye, his old girlfriend back in his home dimension). However, this kinda fell apart as both of them know he can't get her pregnant. Arakuns are more or less intelligent animals, whereas catfolk are humanoids with animal features. A slight difference in terms of physical appearance, but fairly different on the inside. In fact, the only other Gifted One race arakuns can produce offspring with is other arakuns.

[Urthdigger]

I've noticed that although I may not get many people saying anything to my face about my RP, I have noticed something that lifts my spirits in a way to know that people are reading it. I've noticed people are getting the impression that arakuns are nothing but pervs . I'd like to point out that for the most part, what's happening in Hand Puppet is due to the season, and they're borderline asexual the rest of the year (or at least the ones that give in to the season are. Those who refrain don't get a chance to let it all out). Granted, this shouldn't change people's perspectives as far as IC goes, people will notice a bunch of sex crazed maniacs for more than they'd notice a bunch of abstinent monks. In addition though, the characters aren't even that perverted for the most part, which just goes to show how much people notice the pervs more than the prudes. Sure, Ara's a bard, Natsuki and Sakura will be shown to be (though in odd ways), Vlad raped a girl, and Terrence (Turbo) asked to screw Karren with Urth standing right there, but they're not all bad. Urth resists as best he can, Ayaname is just falling in love with her latest hero, Gendo is a controlling boyfriend, Max is abstinent (though he does a bit more than drink when he's alone in his office, but that doesn't quite make him a perv), and both Rick and Anne and Ralph and Melissa are just doing what married couples do.

No real reason for me to say this I guess, just seemed like as good a spot as any to say it.

Oh, and since nobody took the bait and asked, to answer my last post there are non-Gifted races arakuns can produce children with, those being the animals of the forest, producing dire raccoons if the arakun is female (the mother usually dies in the childbirth as well), or fairly clever members of the animal's race if the arakun is male. However, bestiality is treated even harsher amongst arakuns than amongst other races, as the results of such a coupling is considered reckless and harmful interference with nature, with the exception being if a race is nearing extinction due to outside forces, but there hasn't been cause for that for hundreds of years, and there have been no sightings of any 'altered creatures' in quite some time.

Why am I saying this? I dunno, I'm tired, though I have told a few people about this as an example of the weirdest thing I've thought about concerning arakuns.

[Urthdigger]

Bleh. Staying up late used to do wonders for my muse... but I found out that trying to go on 3 hours of sleep a day does terrible things to your creativity when done for a whole week. Was still able to work and go to class (well, put down notes in class for later), but when it came to actually using my brain... fizzle fizzle pop pop.

I'm still not getting enough sleep, I love my new lappy too much

[Urthdigger]

Well, finally got my muse back. As a few people may have noticed, I've had an obsession with "The Raccoons" lately, and this method of getting inside the guarded fortress was actually taken from the 3rd special, "The Raccoons and the Lost Star". In addition there's a reference to Shawn of the Dead with the hapless guard saying "You've got red on you."

Anyway, as I haven't posted in a while I feel like giving a small teaser: All Un-Gifted are one of two types: Those who can change their fate like Max, and those who sought to attain power without working for it. Sakura and Natsuki are two such Un-Gifted, and in a post or two it'll be shown just what Sakura gave up for her strength.

[Urthdigger]

I don't know if it was too clear, but Sakura gained immense strength for her race in exchange for her sanity. With all that power, she loves to use it to kill people, taking great pleasure in it. Consequently, it's a bad idea to get her excited in any way, as she may lose her grip a little more so than usual and start ripping heads off and crap.

This post was actually done a while ago, but as it's a bit more pervy than my usual stuff, I felt odd posting it. While I'm trying to work on removing my tendency to go with naive and kiddy stuff by seeing just how adult I can make this, at the same time I'd rather not people think I'm the kind of guy that thinks with his crotch, I'm a lot more complex than that.