Ack, sorry. Life has been a bit hectic lately. This coming week I'll have loads of free time, though, so during then that should be fine.



POTENTIAL TITLE:
Resident Evil: Cordova
All our characters start in detention in high school. Cue zombies, improv from there.


Sound alright as a go-point?

From their vantage point of Arsia Mons, Argus Swift looked over the city of New Constantinopolis. Little could be seen of the individual streets and roads, but from the assemblage of the buildings, one could see where major highways were, and the striking differences of the New City and the Old. Plotting a path from this rough amalgamation of information, Argus pulled a small backpack out from the ship. From it he took out a red scarf and an extremely frayed brown jacket. He donned the jacket, which immediately made his appearance very ratty and disheveled. He then tipped his head back, so his hair flowed somewhat towards the ground. He tied the scarf around his head, leaving his large-ish forehead quite visible without the mop hanging over it. Lastly he took his sunglasses off and slipped them into an inside pocket in the jacket.

Sempai failed to contain a giggle. Argus gave her a quick glare before saying "I'm rather well known in certain circles! I can't be recognized right off the bat!" in his defense.

"You still look ridiculous." She said simply and headed to the ship.

"So long as I don't look like a handsome Industrialist." He slipped his backpack over his shoulders. "You coming or what?"

Sempai jumped out from the ship carrying a cane. It seemed ordinary at first glance, but Argus knew well that her favoured weapon was a Sword-cane. "I'm coming, I'm coming. Lead the way, oh handsome Industrialist!"

"Just don't get caught, a'ight? I'm leaving it to Lazlo to make the scenes." He replied as they both began strolling for the city of New Constantinopolis.

While still out of view of the city still, the two talked. Once they got nearer, they would have to split ways, so they went over each others plans. Sempai, knowing the ways of Mars better, would go nearer to the government center and plot entrances and escape routes from the Capitol Building. Argus, meanwhile, chose his particular getup for the purpose of heading into the slummier area of the city and get the general concencus and opinion of the lower-class Martian people.

As they came fairly close, Argus nodded in the direction he would go, and Sempai nodded with hers. With a small wave, they went their seperate ways into the city.

Soon Argus was wandering around in the more slummy area of the New City. With so many other disheveled figures going around, Argus didn't get too many raised eyebrows, save for perhaps glances at his silly red scarf. All the while, he was plotting escape routes just in case things got hairy. Many of the roofs seemed like viable options, as there were quite a few ways to get up, if one had the upper body strength.

All the while, he kept an ear open for rumours and opinions. He soon learned to pick out conversations that were just about the recent pop culture and from the political going-ons. Unsurprisingly, it was the older citizens that seemed more inclined to discuss politics. The general opinion seemed to be that the war felt like it was over, yet the government was still taking a very militaristic stance with their rulings and fundings. Some thought the war should have kept going, most however agreed that it should stay in relative peace and just spend less on military. The size of the slums in the New City certainly seemed to give the impression that there was quite a bit of deficit to go around...

"Hey bud! How'bout ya buy some'o my stuff man?"

Argus turned to the shopkeeper that had addressed him. A squat old man with a small grin and scowly face looked at Argus from behind a booth laden with cheap wares. The immediate impression Argus got of the man was that of a short temper...

"No thanks, I don't have any money." Argus said in his most polite tones. Polite Earth tones...

A look of skepticism grew on the shopkeepers face as he leaned forward to look at Argus better. "Where ya from, bud?"

Mind racing, Argus said the first city name that came to mind. "....Istabulopolis."

The shopkeep leaped over his desk with surprising agility and started yelling and raving like a madman. "THIEF! THIEF! EARTHY THERE TOOK MY MONEY!"

Hours later, in retrospect, Argus realized he had made a silly mistake here. Rather than stand his ground and defend himself with diplomacy against this obviously very racist shopkeeper, he turned and ran to try and avoid attracting attention to himself. Which was precisely the way to look immediately suspicious...

Argus ran with most of his might down the crowded street, the shopkeeper keeping surprisingly good pace for his small stature. His voice was the unfortunate type that seemed to be able to echo through any kind of background noise, and thus with his silly red scarf and tall nature managed to catch everyone's attention. With almost a dozen people chasing after him, Argus ran at full-tilt and was starting to outpace them.

Though many still tried to chase him, Argus felt as though he was in the clear once he couldn't hear the initial shopkeepers voice. Just to be on the safe side, however, Argus ducked into a back alley, ran along the wall to a higher height, leaped off and groped madly at a fire escape balcony that was missing its lower ladder. With a painful impact his hands gripped thankfully sturdy metal, and he pulled himself up with just a touch of difficulty. Not his usual finesse, but it got him up higher as planned. He darted up the stairs and to the top of the building.

This is better. Argus noted as he looked around. The architectural nightmare that was the New City had nearly all its buildings extremely close together, which was prime for some good roof hopping.

Overheating from the exertion in his thick hobo jacket, he folded it up and stuffed it into his backpack. He gauged the distance in the gap between the building he was on and the nearest one, took several deep breaths, and took off at a bolt. Gaining speed steadily, he reached the edge, put a foot on the lip of the building, and pushed off with all his force. A scant six feet later the next building edge was, and Argus landed with one foot without incident. He kept his momentum going, tapping into running instincts he hadn't had to use in so long, and relished with joy as he saw a series of buildings that were barely five feet apart from each other. One after the other he leaped, not letting himself slow down for nothing.

When at last he was out of breath, he slowed to a walk and went to the edge of a building that overlooked a large clearing. Breathing heavily but grinning wildly, he looked over the edge to see... The Capitol Building! Instinctually, his brain plotted a route to some government-type structures that sat entirely too near to the Capitol Building, with an easily jumpable gap between them...

Catching his second wind, Argus set off for these buildings. Ten minutes of running later, he was at the gap between an office tower and the roof access of the Capitol Building. It was a much larger gap than he had initially thought... The horizontal distance wasn't the worry. Barely ten feet. It was, however, an almost two storey drop onto a fairly small plateu.

Pah! I've jumped bigger gaps in my time! This won't be a problem!

Argus took his backpack off and tossed it onto the Capitol plateu. A distressing amount of milliseconds later, it landed with a soft thud.

He began his breathing exercises... Deep breaths, calming oxygen, picturing in his head the air going through his system and to his entire body... He started stepping backwards, getting as much distance for the jump as possible. As far back as he could possibly go, he pictured the jump in his head. The angle to run, the best point to jump from, the best way to tuck and roll with the landing...

"I haven't ever seen you make a jump this big. Hope you're up to it."

Argus almost leaped right out of his skin. Somehow, right beside him was Sempai, hands behind her back in a calm manner, a small smile on her lips.

"Jeez maleez, Sempai!" Argus plunked to a sit on the ground, hyperventilating. "How the hell did you get up here!?"

"Same way you did." She pointed with her cane to a different roof hopping path than Argus had took. "There's only a very small amount of people in the Capitol Building right now, thankfully for us, and this seems to be the best way to get in unseen. No camera's at the roof access door."

"Yeah, but..." Argus stood up slowly and with a slight waver. His heart was still racing. "You and I are about the only ones who could make this jump. Lazlo's in good shape, but I haven't ever seen him casually run."

"There's a service access near the back that could allow entry. It has just one guard in that whole area, and I've already snuck in and added liquid exlax to his Red Ox energy drink."

"You carry that kind of stuff around on infiltration missions?" Argus asked with a raised eyebrow.

She smiled. "You've no idea how handy it is."

Argus began his breathing exercises again. "So we're both making this jump?"

"Absolutely! Handsome Industrialists first, though."

"Will ya give that a rest..."

Argus, calm in mind and body at last, started his run. Quickening his pace with each step, he had reached near his maximum speed once the ledge came up. He leaped from the edge lightly and began his descent.

The wind started slow, then rose to a roar in his ears after a maddeningly long-seeming two full seconds of falling. Feet first, he collided with the ground and instinctually curved his shoulder towards the ground and into a roll. His momentum diverted horizontally, he rolled on the rough floor of the roof plateu a few times before coming to a stop in a balled up heap. He came to a crawl and moved aside just as Sempai made a similar but much more graceful landing right beside him.

They both paused for a few minutes to let the air get back into their lungs. Even the unflappable Sempai had to sit and breath to cope from such a daring jump.

"I haven't ever seen you jump like that either, Sempai." Argus said between breaths. The exhaustion from all the roof jumping had suddenly hit him at that moment and he was laying on his back, looking to the foreign Mars sky.

"Oh, in my youth..." Was all she said.

After a few minutes of that, they finally stood up and focused on the door. Sempai was kneeling next to the keypad password entry and inspecting it. From seemingly nowhere, she pulled out a small tookit and had the cover off the keypad. She carefully removed the circuitry from their base, and was looking at the make and type of the electronics.

"I could get this open if I had a laptop..." She muttered under her breath. Argus reached into his backpack and pulled out his Mini Netbook, barely larger than a DS. Her eyes lit up when she was handed this, and quickly got to work on connecting the Minibook to the keypad circuits. Argus waited patiently.

Barely a few minutes later, she let out a quiet "Ah ha!" and the door popped open a tiny bit. Grinning at her success, she unhooked the Minibook, handed it back to Argus, then reassembled the keypad.

"I sure hope our fingerprint data isn't in the Mars mainframe." Argus said quietly as he slipped his backpack back on.

Sempai grinned her usual wolfish way. She pinched her hand, and seemingly lifted a layer of skin up from her hand. "Skin gloves. I never do anything incriminating without'em." She zipped inside the building and was silently dashing down the stairs. Argus descended with considerably less grace, but did try his best to not make noise.

At the bottom of the stairs, there were many branching paths leading to god knows where. Thankfully, there were some directions signs around, and not a soul to be had. He put a finger to his ear, purely out of habit. He sent out a Ralcomm message out and around him. Normally one needed to be in the McQuarrie to have any kind of range with their Ralcomm, but Argus and the heads of the various McQuarrie departments were 'Hub' Ralcomm users, which meant their range was improved, and didn't necesarilly need to be at the McQuarrie to use it. The range that two Hub Ralcomms could communicate between was never thoroughly tested, but estimates were at nearly a kilometer.

Sempai, if you can hear this, I have no idea where you went. I'm trusting you to know where to go, since you've been in here already.

A reply soon came. Just head to the ground floor. Staircase to your right, no one in the way. There's some important looking offices there. I'm already hacking into some computers of theirs.

Just be careful. Argus terminated the connection and headed to his right. True to her word, there was a wide and grand staircase. He quickly and as quietly as he could (not all that quiet at all) down a few floors and came to the ground level.

Not a hundred percent where to go from here, he looked to the signs and saw one that pointed towards the aforementioned offices. He set off quietly.

Glancing at the names that were on the doors of the office, he tried to find one that looked fairly important. John Newell, Criminal Justice. This seems a good place to start. He was about to head into the office when a loudspeaker in the roof above him erupted.

"Hello! I am Miria Harzelle, speaking on behalf of Mistah Imperial Martian Senator Anthius Yevitz."

Uh oh, he sounds important. Where's that broadcast coming from... Argus glanced around and saw a set of large doors ajar in a conference room. He snuck towards it as the voice continued.

"This is a broadcast to warn ya of any suspicious characters or ships in the area."

Argus' heart tightened a little as he tried to look into the conference room from the slightly open door.

"We are on the look out for Lazlo Falco-"

Argus charged into the room out of instinct. He saw an empty conference, save for one shapely woman, who had obviously been doing the talking. He bore down on her threateningly, acting only to quiet her up from saying any more about Lazlo.

Argus felt a sudden sharp impact across his head, and everything turned dark....






The message on the loudspeakers had worried Sempai considerably. Safely hidden in the dim glow of a computer monitor, she darted out from the offices to try and find the source of the broadcast.

When it abruptly ended... And then she was speaking with jubilation. And then... Lazlo's voice? Very curious. She looked down the hallway of offices, saw the ajar door, and headed towards it with the silence of a creeping cat.

Someone coming... She darted into an open office. Someone who exuded authority from his every motion came to the conference room. He stood at the frame of the door, looking quite livid. The ensuing conversation was difficult to hear, but it seemed as though Lazlo wasn't in as much trouble as initially expected... Knowing Yevitz's attention was entirely focused on the conference room, Sempai snuck out of her hiding office and crept silently into one right across the hall from the conference room door. When Yevitz walked off, then Miria and Lazlo, Senmpai peeked her head out slightly from her hiding place, just so Lazlo could see her, then winked, smiled, and put a finger to her lips to signify silence. Lazlo knew he wasn't alone here.















God knows how much later, Argus awoke to a splitting headache. What had happene-OHCRAP THE LAZLO BROADCAST.

He stumbled to his feet, failing a couple times, but managed to start heading for what he hoped was the direction of the ship. He started sending off messages to whoever had a Ralcomm nearby.

Argus here, I'm heading to the ship! They know Lazlo's here, and they're looking for him. We need to find him and get him off-planet soon as possible!

A calm reply came almost instantly. It was Sempai. Don't worry about it, Swift. He's not in as much trouble as we thought. I'm hidden in the building still, Lazlo knows I'm here. you get to the ship and start it up. We may need a very quick escape.

Uh... Okay! I can do that!

With a bit more of a collected and calm mind than before, Argus set off at a casual-looking jog towards the ship they had rode in on.

With life as it's been for me, I'm not near as high in the standings as I could be.

Ah well.

I kinda like the thought of just leaving this thread going until the next Tour De Vizzed, personally. Doesn't really hurt anything to just have it hanging around, I suppose.

YourMajestyKen : At the very least I'd be tryin' to give'em a black eye. *punches the air once or twice*



Now just out of curiosity; does the size of the post have any impact at all on this? Is it only 30+ word posts like the Blue jersey?

I like to think I'm pretty easy to read. I don't hide my feelings (unless I'm at work, in which I kinda have to) so I like to think that everyone else has an easy time knowing how I feel.

Though I generally follow up with little sounds. Deep grunts when angered, cute little squeaks at my girl, long Mmmmm's if I see food I like... Even though she can't see my screen, I'm positive my girlfriend knows what I'm looking at on the computer just by my reactions.

I used to think writing down my emotions was the way to go, but anytime I do that, I usually end up with a few pages of..... Words that don't really add up to a cohesive full. (though I'm improving that as time goes on)

soxfan849 : Hmm...... Interesting idea in theory, but I don't think it'd work that great in application. Perhaps if we chose a city either of us is very familiar with? (if I had to run a zombie RP that was set in my home city of Edmonton, Alberta, I would have absolutely no trouble.
But I don't want to just be leading the pack. I kinda want to be the local 'sherpa', who helps along and knows the area really well, but doesn't lead the way.)

Yeah, if sandwich posting wasn't an issue and Lazlo had more time, we'd be leaving everyone in the dust.


Everyone.

Lazlo Falconi : I guess I should specify 'perfected' Exo suit. I think a portable power source is still the issue with those.
Plus, that video's from 2007, and the wikipedia page doesn't have much info either.
Would love to have one at my work, though. I'm tired of struggling to move couches on my own.

I get told that my hair is dirty blonde, but it looks plain ol' brown to me.

What I mostly like about my hair is that it's exceptionally curly. My hair doesn't go down when it gets long; it goes everywhere.

Someone70 : Or, my favourite variation:
"If god gives you lemons you FIND A NEW GOD."


Heck, Powerthirst in general is absolutely amazing for one-liners.

People who say that Skyrim is bad are a bunch of nay-sayers with too much time on their hands.

I haven't played Skyrim, nor FFXIII-2, but one thing I saw on my Steam that shows that Skyrim is well and beyond the average is simply this: On my Steam list, all my friends had accumulated more than 400 hours total combined in Skyrim within the first two weeks.
And I only had three friends that played it.

killingyou123 : See, I've heard otherwise. I haven't played it myself, but from my friends that've played it, having four players going on the screen at once just leads to sheer chaos.

Well.... We've established with the majority of participants thus-far that a more action-adventure type of motif is what we're wanting to go for.

So!

Let's get a discussion going: What about setting? A city? Where in one? How big of a city? Dare we go with a stereotypical mall setting? This is all for just at the start, as we'll definitely need to keep on the move.

Lazlo Falconi : Just so ya know, RP discussion here. Even if you don't have the time to participate, just chiming in with advice and tidbits and humour (per your usual) is always appreciated!

Lazlo Falconi : If we're going jetpacks, I'd like mine built into a powered exo suit.
Much more expensive, but 10 times cooler.


Also: A Space Hotel is dang futuristic, but it's so close to happening that it almost doesn't feel like the future anymore. (at least I really hope it is that close )

Lazlo Falconi : My guess would be Nerdy Reftard, but that could be just me.

cuz RULEZ B SCRWED AMIRITE

I can't anymore.

I've never been able to see much of anything here in the city. Sometimes even Venus is hard to see.


But when I lived at my Dad's farm, well away from any city or ambient light, I would climb on top of the garage and lay on my back, staring straight up for hours and hours, once right up until 2am. (I'd started looking at about 8pm that night)

I really miss that... Having a vantage point I could casually climb, and one that gave such an incredible view. Despite living so high north, I don't remember seeing the Northern lights ever. Could be that there was always a huge, thick and tall forest north of my vantage point.

I'm much better about it now than I was a couple years ago. Nowadays, I kinda crash at 1-2am, get up at around 8am, and I'm good for the day.


Heck, even when I used to stay up until nearly 5am every night, I still woke up at the latest 10am... I'm not very good at sleeping in. Way too much of a morning person.

12:03


Hm, I have work in an hour. Sad.