NODES: Web pre-production Thread

[T51R]

Well, since things are on the way and the artwork is progressing well(albeit slowly, due to the quality that I want) I decided to make a progress thread that moves towards the launch date. Now, I know I wanted to webcast by April, but I fatally underestimated how much time it takes to design and build up pages that would make readers happy(and not scorch their eyes out with information overload) So, here's a small cover-story from an earlier thread on Rumbles:


Title: NODES:Web
Genre: Comedy/drama/blood and gore

General overview: Think "Friends," add in a dash of "Felicity," then a pinch of "Desperate Housewives." Bring to a boil. Add two spoonfuls of "Ah! My Goddess" and a cup of "Fist of the North Star." Then toss in a shitload of "Jackass" and bring to a boil. Serve in a bowl of exploding multiple-omniverse with lawsuits filed by their related and/or Creator deities sprinkled on top. Welcome to the world of NODES:web. "Over-power" will never be the same again. :D

About: What's a guy or girl to do when time doesn't exist? Where to go for a good cup of coffee or pancakes when the place you're in has no end? Where's a good spot for a barbecue when you exist in a place where dimensions are irrelevant things, and people use omniverses for deco, golf balls and explosives for digging a pool? How do you react when you find the universe wedged in your neighbour's nostril has choked him to death overnight, together with the hamster lodged in his throat? Is there anything to look forward to when Death cannot exist where you are, because it is a place of infinites?

And why are there two homelss Djinn knocking at your door, trying to sell you wishes that could make you, literally, God? They grab you on your way out. One of them snaps your leg while trying to sell you a multiverse full of catgirls. The other snaps your neck while saying they need a couple bucks for breakfast. Of course, you hand them ten bucks. You get three multiverses for the price of one.

Welcome to the City of Dreams. Take a shower, gel up that hair, put on some clean boxers and don't spare the deodourant. It's a special day, and someone's waiting for you outside the Gate. Get in the Mustang, start her up and peel out of the driveway while the guy next door yells "Keep it down" so loud it knocks the 'Verses off his porch. It doesn't even scratch your paint. Stop by the diner for enough time to grab a sandwich, coffee and a pack of ciggies. Tell Misha you'll pay her in the evening. While you were dead one of the Djinn stole your wallet. Back in the 'Stang; time's a wasting. Run the lights, Phase Shift through the traffic while the Angel hanging out of your back is yelling at everyone to get out of the way in every language except the one everyone understands.

Get to the lot, spend the time looking for a spot eating breakfast. Choke. Die. Come back just in time for someone to fill the spot you were looking at. Double park. Catch the train. After falling onto the track and getting dragged along under it to the pint you disintegrate. Come back again, jump off at the last station and hop on the bus. But watch the door. Too late. It clipped your head off. Come back, find yourself a seat. Least you still have your bus-pass.

Make it to the Gate ten minutes late. The kid outside's crying his head off. Shift through. He panics the second he sees you, and blows a hole in your chest with a blast that's enough to fry half a million dimensions. With a bazooka. Crap. Come back from that, get him to stop crying, and bring him in. Shift both him and you past the infinity theshold a few times over. You're at the Citadel. Take him inside. The Fates will find him a place to grow up, with people who will love him. "You can go now," Obsidian says. You ask her out. Again. She shoots you in the head with a 50cal, loaded with a bullet that's specially designed to trans-reality snipe hyper-dimensional cores. Well, at least it wasn't her sister. She deals with high explosives.

Get back to the lot after a hell of a train ride. Doesnt help that a cannibalistic foreign student ate your brain on the bus. Find that your car has been towed.

You're stuck. No money, no ride, a bus pass in your pocket and your ARAMUS unit's getting hungry. You look up. The suns are barely over the horizon. Good morning, Nudoru. It's going to be another one of those days.

:D




(c) NODES:Web, its characters and all associated elements are the intellectual property and Copyright of Sherwyn Tan, 2006

Sample page from NODES:Zero:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v319/MechaniX_034/samplepageNODES.jpg


I'll be putting up character art with revamps, story progressions as well as the background stuff as it gets generated.

Please, enjoy!:)

[Farealmer]

Yay NODES! Is that Nudoru saying peekaboo?

[T51R]

Nah, NODES: Zero features Sayaka and Kosei. Nudoru and Miso will feature in the origin arc, after Zero.

[T51R]

Previously posted artwork:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v319/MechaniX_034/KANNEWSTYLE.jpg

^^^Kanraku(Kan)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v319/MechaniX_034/yuuri.jpg

^^^Yuuri

[Lord of Nonsensical Crap]

Awesomness, T51R. Pure, badass awesomeness. I'm definitely looking forward to more drawn NODES:Web stuff.

[T51R]

Thanks for that m8, here's something a bit older:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v319/MechaniX_034/WEBpromo.jpg

[Lord of Nonsensical Crap]

Oh yeah, I remember that little promo. I actually once wrote a teaser trailer for Mugen tournament (http://forums.comicbookresources.com/showpost.php?p=4265034&postcount=24) based on it.

[Farealmer]

I just hope the internet can handle all this Power and Win.

[T51R]

Oh yeah, I remember that little promo. I actually once wrote a teaser trailer for Mugen tournament based on it.

Yer I remember that one, was pretty long ago wasn't it?


I just hope the internet can handle all this Power and Win.

In the (slightly bastardized) words of Tetsuo Hara, "Next: its the stoopidest trip to the movies ever, IT'S YOU WHO WILL DIE!" :D :D :D

[Lord of Nonsensical Crap]

Yer I remember that one, was pretty long ago wasn't it?




In the (slightly bastardized) words of Tetsuo Hara, "Next: its the stoopidest trip to the movies ever, IT'S YOU WHO WILL DIE!" :D :D :D

That trailer was for a "Make your own trailers" thread on rumbles, which was...maybe 4 months ago. I can't remember.

[Farealmer]

Question, how many NODES are their? And will you be showing all of them or just some?

[T51R]

There's a principal cast, but there is an indefinite number of them. How many more get developed further will depend on the needs. The primary cast also includes a further 32 characters.

In the City of Dreams, mathematical concepts do not apply. :evilsmile

[Farealmer]

In the City of Dreams, mathematical concepts do not apply.
The other snaps your neck while saying they need a couple bucks for breakfast. Of course, you hand them ten bucks. You get three multiverses for the price of one.

I don't know that sounds like alot of concepts to me;).

[T51R]

Thanks for spotting that m8! .:) :) :) Guess that's what the thread's about; finalizing stuff and ironing out the inconsistancies [wish it could help finalize my last assignments though]

[Farealmer]

Thanks for spotting that m8! . Guess that's what the thread's about; finalizing stuff and ironing out the inconsistancies [wish it could help finalize my last assignments though]
You were serious?:confused:

At any rate i hope one of those 32 badassess is Seicross.

Edit: Seicross is still in isn't he?

[Farealmer]

Hello T51R, you there? Is Seicross still in?:confused:

[T51R]

WAAAAAAAAHAHHAHHA LAST PRESENTATION OF THE SEMESTER TOMORROW!!!!!!!!!

Oh yer, Seicross is definitely in; he's one of the Principal Cast. And his FAX MACHINE OF DOOM will, as always, be hungry.:D

[Lord of Nonsensical Crap]

WAAAAAAAAHAHHAHHA LAST PRESENTATION OF THE SEMESTER TOMORROW!!!!!!!!!

Oh yer, Seicross is definitely in; he's one of the Principal Cast. And his FAX MACHINE OF DOOM will, as always, be hungry.:D


WAAAAHAHAHAHAAA THAT'S AWESOME! It's made all the more awesome by the fact that my essay will be done today, which means we can finally revitalise Mugen.

Looking forward to the next batch of pics, as always. In the meantime....because I am completely insane, I might try drawing (albeit badly) some Mugen moments of my own.


As soon as I find a scanner.

[T51R]

Hehehe my last essay was deivered TODAY!:D :D :D And yer we really need to get MUGEN kickstarted again, end-of-semester tribulatiosn always slowed it down eh?

I'll be doing a slight character revamp, as well as putting in development sketches from this point onwards for NODES:Web.

[Farealmer]

A few questions.
1. You imply that there will be camoes from other fictional works in NODES is that true?

2. What's the minimum power level you need to be to go to the City of Dreams?

[Lord of Nonsensical Crap]

Some other questions:

1. NODES:Web, canonically, is taking place after the events of Mugen Tournament, right? If so, as per FFR's question, will we be seeing cameos by Mugen characters?

[T51R]

1. You imply that there will be camoes from other fictional works in NODES is that true?

Apart from being a comedy/drama/blood-and-gore work, there will also be cases of neurotic insanity, binge drinking, reckless driving and failed attempts to get boyfriends/girlfriends being spread to other Creations. Hair-pulling, frustration-induced-overdosing knows no limits.. :D

What's the minimum power level you need to be to go to the City of Dreams?

See the sample on Page 1, where Heion professes what he thinks is "child-like." Heion himself doesn't/cannot comprehend that The City is there. The extent of Heion's power will be shown, and its mind-boggling to conceptual beings, standard-case Abstracts and top-level God/esses.

NODES:Web, canonically, is taking place after the events of Mugen Tournament, right? If so, as per FFR's question, will we be seeing cameos by Mugen characters?

The "timestream" works very differently on both the NODES Plane and in The City; the events of MUGEN could have happened at any time. But we will see the purebred insanity spreading to other places. For instance, in Nodes:Zero, you will see the Planet Houston Universe. Could it go any further? Depends if there's enough potential for fun in it; I don't want to do any dark-and-gritty stuff just yet even though there will be some heart-rending installments. So I'd like to have something that will make everyone at least smile for an hour or two. Helps if they start laughing uncontrollably for no reason later on though. :D

[Farealmer]

Heion himself doesn't/cannot comprehend that The City is there.
Does that mean everyone there is more powerful than a Disark Lord?

Also does other CoD entities need platforms to interact with lower realities like NODES do?

[JDogindy]

The "timestream" works very differently on both the NODES Plane and in The City; the events of MUGEN could have happened at any time. But we will see the purebred insanity spreading to other places. For instance, in Nodes:Zero, you will see the Planet Houston Universe. Could it go any further? Depends if there's enough potential for fun in it; I don't want to do any dark-and-gritty stuff just yet even though there will be some heart-rending installments. So I'd like to have something that will make everyone at least smile for an hour or two. Helps if they start laughing uncontrollably for no reason later on though. :D

Hey, Mech. Can you explain to the people a little bit about the way Nodes:Zero will work. After all, it is MY universe you are covering in this issue.

Besides, I'd like to see one more page that you got done :D.

[OverMaster]

The "timestream" works very differently on both the NODES Plane and in The City; the events of MUGEN could have happened at any time. But we will see the purebred insanity spreading to other places.

Huh, I thought NODES Web and MUGEN would be two separate, alternate continuities...

Just like the lemon, LOL.

But anyway, guys, I'd say there's no need to make T51R to put in characters from any other continuities in this dream work of his if it detracts from the main NODE cast. OK, the Planet Houston crossover may be a good exception, but I'd suggest to let that world to develop itself fully before we see any more crossovers.

[T51R]

Does that mean everyone there is more powerful than a Disark Lord?

Also does other CoD entities need platforms to interact with lower realities like NODES do?

Generally, yes. The Disark themselves did not know/think that The City simply was. Other people interact in their own way, each finds their own solutions. Again, there are no limits. So expect some wierd shit. :D

Hey, Mech. Can you explain to the people a little bit about the way Nodes:Zero will work. After all, it is MY universe you are covering in this issue.

Besides, I'd like to see one more page that you got done

M8, its better not to tell the plot before the book is out.:p But I will say that Tiffany will have one of her innermost questions answered. And its the same question that many people ask.

Huh, I thought NODES Web and MUGEN would be two separate, alternate continuities...

NODE units can and do operate in different and seperate Continuities simultaneously, or partially "out of phase" with them(hence "Phase Shifting" and also why they are equiped with weapons like the TSC, or Transcontinual Singularity Collapse) This is an advantage of the "Platform System" which makes it impossible for targets to escape, even if they run to disparate Creations, try to create "partitions" or generate new Creations to escape into altogether. So in truth, there are no alternate timelines or alternate universes/dimensions that are the norm in other fictional works. Expect crazier sh*t to happen because of this particular system. Especially for Yuuri. :D

As for the inclusion of trips to other continuities, note that there will be none of the "hero meets hero, gratitious fight between heroes, heroes team up and kick baddies' arse" stuff. It has been done to death, and N:Web is not a superhero comic or an action-adventure strip. It's about everyday life, so expect any crossovers to be about more daily and/or normal matters(ie. trying like mad to get Rave tickets, trying to find a good vacation spot, searching for the ultimate bungee jump, etc etc etc.) Remember, units can only intervene at the top level. But there's nothing to say they can't get(or steal, or beg) a daypass out of the resident OAA in order to grab some time off. (Which leads to many a OAA doing a Pedro:D )

[T51R]

Some sketches from development:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v319/MechaniX_034/pagetest.jpg


Meet Kouhii, Yuuri's ARAMUS unit(Angel) He's a sattellite type, and has a bad case of stuttering. :p Yes, he does have legs, but they're usually contained in the sphere in his sattellite form. Yes, he CAN merge with the parts around him, using them as heavy armour. Kouhii is the only ARAMUS to feature dual-modes: a medium-long range heavy strike, mode and a heavily armoured meelee combat mode. Likewise, the various parts can become different things.

[JDogindy]

M8, its better not to tell the plot before the book is out.:p But I will say that Tiffany will have one of her innermost questions answered. And its the same question that many people ask.
[/SIZE]

Man, it's just that I can't wait to see the inagural issue! The anxiety is killin' me. But I think I can enjoy it more if I didn't know how it's all going to turn out in the end.

At least can you PM me a Sayeka/Tiffany page once you make it to preview?

[T51R]

Man, it's just that I can't wait to see the inagural issue! The anxiety is killin' me. But I think I can enjoy it more if I didn't know how it's all going to turn out in the end.

At least can you PM me a Sayeka/Tiffany page once you make it to preview?

Yer no probs with that! I'll also PM you the storyline background ince it's getting to tose pages and I eed to get your OK for the portrayels of your characters.

[JDogindy]

Yer no probs with that! I'll also PM you the storyline background ince it's getting to tose pages and I eed to get your OK for the portrayels of your characters.

Yeah, you do that. I mean, I want you to do my chars correctly, so I appreciate that. Let's get started as soon as possible, 'k?

[Farealmer]

Do you have a sketch of Seicross?

[T51R]

Yes. However, Seicross is the last of the principal cast that will be revealed so I won't be posting him here. If you want I can PM you a roughie/doodle. :)

[Farealmer]

Yes. However, Seicross is the last of the principal cast that will be revealed so I won't be posting him here. If you want I can PM you a roughie/doodle.
Absolutly, Seicross is rapidly becoming a favorate character of mine, his name alone is badass. Seicross, Sei-cross, S-E-I-C-R-O-S-S, yep no matter how i say it, it's awesome:D.

[Lord of Nonsensical Crap]

Absolutly, Seicross is rapidly becoming a favorate character of mine, his name alone is badass. Seicross, Sei-cross, S-E-I-C-R-O-S-S, yep no matter how i say it, it's awesome:D.

Fanboy.

Seriously, though, Seicross only had a brief appearance in Mugen, and I dimly remember what he was like (aside from being a completel bastard that is). The characters I'm most looking forward to are Sayaka and "CS Freak" Kanraku.

[JDogindy]

Fanboy.

Seriously, though, Seicross only had a brief appearance in Mugen, and I dimly remember what he was like (aside from being a completel bastard that is). The characters I'm most looking forward to are Sayaka and "CS Freak" Kanraku.

Yeah. I wouldn't like the character just for the name.

On another topic, Mech, when can you PM me that storyline?

[T51R]

Yeah. I wouldn't like the character just for the name.

On another topic, Mech, when can you PM me that storyline?

Yup, will do. Now on the next page of Zero. Should be ready to go online in a bit.

[JDogindy]

Yup, will do. Now on the next page of Zero. Should be ready to go online in a bit.

Can't wait to see that. Really, I can't.

[Farealmer]

Fanboy
Damn right, if i wan't so lazy i would start a NODES fanclub. T51R really knows how to sell his creation, i went from near hating NODES when i first learned of them, to now loving the whole damn City of Dreams:D. But Seicross(cool name and all) i am really looking forward too.

[T51R]

JDOG, please check your PM's.

[JDogindy]

JDOG, please check your PM's.

I did. I actually enjoy the setup, and I'll PM you a full response about it.

[T51R]

Promo Wallpaper and FANSERVICE coming soon. :D

[Farealmer]

Promo Wallpaper and FANSERVICE coming soon
Yay, MOAR NODES.

[T51R]

Wallpaper for 800 x 600.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v319/MechaniX_034/WP2.jpg

Niku and Sayaka, in the kind of gear you'll normally see them in. :p Their armour's a lot harder to draw than their everyday clothes I'll have to admit.

[Lord of Nonsensical Crap]

Wallpaper for 800 x 600.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v319/MechaniX_034/WP2.jpg

Niku and Sayaka, in the kind of gear you'll normally see them in. :p Their armour's a lot harder to draw than their everyday clothes I'll have to admit.

W00000000000000T!:D

Damn, T51R, you really should have been drawing more fanservice for Mugen Tournament.

(volunteers self to help Niku up):D

[Farealmer]

W00000000000000T!

Damn, T51R, you really should have been drawing more fanservice for Mugen Tournament.

I'll say, they can interface with my universe any time they want:D.

[T51R]

Upcoming artwork:

-Misha, Yuuri, Etsu and Etsuko: Wallpaper for 1280 x 768
-Obsidian, Amethyst and Amber, The Fates: First Look + profile
-Sutiki Jagaimo & Gokoku, last NODE: First Look + profile
-George & Tabitha Anaheim: First Look + profile
-Etrigan L'reau: Profile
-Exodus, Genesis, Stasis, Aranox, Rifle: First Look, profile + Garage Power profile
-Arashi Seneda: First Look + Profile + "Headbusting For Girls" dojo corporate profile
-City of Dreams streetscape + country

Seperate planes(non-City of Dreams)

-Rod Haxon & the Red Unit: First Look + corporate profile
-Drak'a'lar: First Look + profile + World
-Street 16: First Look + Profile + World/s
-Kombat: First Look + Profile + World
-Chrome Soldier: First Look + Profile
-Vetasuri & the Wolfen world: First Look + profile(Niku's pet omniverse. That regularly invades her apartment.)
-Anjia and Prema: First Look + Profie + World
-Mechna(one of Kokumotsu's Creations): World, profile, street/cityscapes, country


This isn't the end of it by a longshot; the expanse of the whole thing is pretty insane and also ecompasses the multiverses of other earlier Creations by my friends and I.

[Farealmer]

Misha, Yuuri, Etsu and Etsuko: Wallpaper for 1280 x 768
-Obsidian, Amethyst and Amber, The Fates: First Look + profile
-Sutiki Jagaimo & Gokoku, last NODE: First Look + profile
-George & Tabitha Anaheim: First Look + profile
-Etrigan L'reau: Profile
-Exodus, Genesis, Stasis, Aranox, Rifle: First Look, profile + Garage Power profile
-Arashi Seneda: First Look + Profile + "Headbusting For Girls" dojo corporate profile
-City of Dreams streetscape + country

Sweet, sounds like were going to be Livin Lavita Noda:D.

[T51R]

Bonus: the test material for the coming wallpaper:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v319/MechaniX_034/mishawhoohooWALLPAPER.jpg

BRING ON T3H CATGIRLS!!!! :D :D :D This is Misha, the lesbian catgirl who's constantly after Sayaka. She's a very happy person. BWAHAHAHHA....

[Farealmer]

Upcoming artwork:

-Misha, Yuuri, Etsu and Etsuko: Wallpaper for 1280 x 768
-Obsidian, Amethyst and Amber, The Fates: First Look + profile
-Sutiki Jagaimo & Gokoku, last NODE: First Look + profile
-George & Tabitha Anaheim: First Look + profile
-Etrigan L'reau: Profile
-Exodus, Genesis, Stasis, Aranox, Rifle: First Look, profile + Garage Power profile
-Arashi Seneda: First Look + Profile + "Headbusting For Girls" dojo corporate profile
-City of Dreams streetscape + country

Seperate planes(non-City of Dreams)

-Rod Haxon & the Red Unit: First Look + corporate profile
-Drak'a'lar: First Look + profile + World
-Street 16: First Look + Profile + World/s
-Kombat: First Look + Profile + World
-Chrome Soldier: First Look + Profile
-Vetasuri & the Wolfen world: First Look + profile(Niku's pet omniverse. That regularly invades her apartment.)
-Anjia and Prema: First Look + Profie + World
-Mechna(one of Kokumotsu's Creations): World, profile, street/cityscapes, country

Wait a second:confused:...NO SEICROSS:eek: :(

[T51R]

Seicross is the final character to be shown, when all the preliminary artwork is completed.

[JDogindy]

That's some cool wallpaper you made, Mech. If it's not much, can you make a promo wallpaper for Nodes:Zero that I can put on my computer?

That'd be cool.

[Farealmer]

Seicross is the final character to be shown, when all the preliminary artwork is completed.

I like that it gives him a certain mystery. I guess it's fitting since he used to be God of the City of Dreams.

[T51R]

Previously posted artwork, imported from MUGEN: Universe supplementry thread:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v319/MechaniX_034/demo01-1.jpg

Inked version of sample page.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v319/MechaniX_034/1-04small.jpg

Another sample page.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v319/MechaniX_034/TIKI.jpg

Concept sketch for "Tiki."

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v319/MechaniX_034/etriganLWEB.jpg

This is Etrigan L'reau, one of the Great Mages. He's one of the few survivors of the Disark War, and hails from one of Kokumotsu's many Creations. He's a political activist campaigning something or other. [Constantly, to the extent of doing one-mage picket lines in front of KFC] He used to lead a sect of renegade Mages before the Disark War fighting for independance for their magically cloaked island nation[that also happened to be several times the size of Pangea and suspended in the upper atmosphere by magic]

He's an absolute phenom it all things magical, an excellent planner as well as being exceedingly good at preparing for bad situations. His right arm, as well as half his face were lost in a brutal fight before the D-War, against the result of a mortal race experimenting to create their own version of NODES.[and they wondered why their planet exploded]

Etrigan's home is still the Island, but these days it floats around wherever the Currents take it in the Seicross Realm. It's a place with its own unique ecosystem and indiginous species, as well as its own unique brand of wild, chaos magicks[that gets sold as souveniours after being bottled up] Of course, the place got recognised as its own sovereign state. But what it didn't have, was an economy that Etrigan keeps trying to build.

It doesn't help that his "country" meets the same fate as the SHIELD helicarrier more often than he'd like[read: gets crashed into the ocean, thrown into other dimensions, blown up, swallowed by the negative multiverse growing in its core, overrun by (giant)native fire-ants, used as a hideout for terrorists and has its own cannibal civilisation, which keeps eating the tourists] Etrigan's woes are plenty; his island is THE ultimate vacation spot, and with everything on his plate from it being pelted with Nova Rain, Niku using it for a meditative retreat, Sayeka using it as a hunting ground for men and Nod and Kansai playing with demuirgic firecrackers[and blowing it to kingdom come again] on the beach, and least of all high-school students infesting its rivers with genetically altered pihranna, you might guess Etrigan's one of the most tortured characters in the series.

[T51R]

More previous artwork:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v319/MechaniX_034/KANkokuJPEG.jpg

Kanraku + Kokumotsu

Koku owns and runs the webcafe/LANgaming club in the centre of town, and Kan's the hopeless CS-addicted NODE who can't seem to shake the habit[doesn't help that he's a full time BETA-tester in his day job either] His specialty is shoot-em-ups, and he's responsible for the webcafe's staggering electrical bills.

Combat-wise Koku's a bit short on raw power[he's the machine-god who had 551 of his Creations destroyed in the Disark war, and he fought the insurgence alone, in their own Omniverse hoping to make himself the barrier between the Disark and his people] He makes up for that by drawing power straight from Kan. His strengths are his flexibility and analytical abilities, as well as being able to find the best solution for every situation. He's based on Mr. Spock[Leonard Nimoy's character because Spock was the reason I began to watch Sci-Fi, LOVED his portrayels!] and so is hardcore logical.

Kan's a bit different; he doesn't have the glitches the other NODES have, but his LAN-gaming addiction causes him to do many, many stupid things[ie. what to do when your internet crashes in the middle of the night? Try and jack someone else's, with hilarious results]

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v319/MechaniX_034/CUTEBRIGADE.jpg

"Cute Brigade"

Arashi's the local pervert who's leaning towards pedophililia, which causes him to be sent o the hospital very often. Unfrtunately, he also runs a small martial arts academy which is only for girls. And since Niku teaches there part time, so you can imagine what happens to him.

Misha is the lesbian catgirl who's stuck on Sayaka, and her brother Atilla is the local problem child. He's spoilt, whiney, and an all-round brat. Too bad Kadachi's his substitute teacher.

Etsu and Etsuko are a pair of destitute, homeless Djinn who sell wishes to get by[how much damage can they do anyway, seeing as it's possible to blow Kansai to pieces and not harm the landscape? ] This pair of girls have it hard, and they'll have an arc dedicated to them later on about how they ended up living on the streets, and where they end up[heads up, there's somebody who's gonna have a crap ton of pissed off NODE's trying to squeeze their way into their Omniversal Creation]

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v319/MechaniX_034/Iida2.jpg

Finished Niku's Angel. Here's Iida, the latest-gen Angel. She's the same as her host, and a completely new evolution on Miso's design. Like Niku she's faster, stronger, more capable and a whole lot more lethal than her predecessor. And like her host, she also has a problem: she's got ADHD; Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v319/MechaniX_034/c98d0784.jpg

Concept drawing + colours for Niku. Her armour design is changed for production version of NODES: Web

She's bloody random, and has an extreme glitch: she's got OCD. Unfortunately for everyone else, she's the last active NODE unit left. Which means she's technically the only "God-Killer" left in existance. She's also an EX-U, or EXperimental Unit that incorporates pretty much the epitome of the rest of the unit's systems making her the most powerful NODE unit built to date.

WHich is bad news. Since she tends to do things that are completely retarded for no apparent reason. Combat wise she's normal, but the rest of her life...hoo boy. If you think Nudoru and Kansai cause their neighbourhood to be unlivable, it does help[a bit] to know that Niku's a city girl. Because she's even worse.

And you might notice, she has a crap-ton of Runes at her disposal.

Personality wise she's one of the extremely sociable char's, and she's really nice in person. But when her OCD hits...expect PAIN. ie. I have ascene planned where she literally headbutts Kansai though a planet.

[T51R]

The concept sketch for Sayaka:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v319/MechaniX_034/SayakaandKosei.jpg

Brief bio:

Production run #: 02 [yup, she was hot off the bio-forge after Nudoru was built]

Job: Magazine assistant editor[yup, she edits high-zoot magazines which have nothing to do wth pr0n]

Personality: Bubbly and friendly, but thanks to her programming[wich she can't really control too well] she's prone to bouts of ultra-violence.(Guess who's usually on the recieveing end.)

Lives: Townhouse across the road

Angel: Kosei [mutation unit]

Drives: Mini Cooper S

Favourite food: Three-cheese lasagne[on the NODES Plae, it is impossible to open a packet of this without getting assaulted by Sayaka and having your food stolen]

Claim to fame: NODE posessing the laziest Angel ever

Issues: tends to get hit by things, and tends to hit things as well

Story: The second NODE to be built, Sayaka's one of the more sensible[read: NORMAL] ones who's more of a victim of circumstance. She retired along with the rest of them, but unfortunately she ended up living right across the road from Nudoru and Kansai. And yes, the two of them generally drive her insane with their antics[hence leading to periods of ultra-violence] Other than that, she does get along well with everyone else. Kosei generally lives on her couch and refuses to move. This leads to her trying to summon her back-up, but failing miserably. Usually leads to Kosei getting the crap kicked out of him when she comes home.

Skills: Cooking, writing[obviously] housekeeping[she lives alone; every man who enters her house gets attacked by Kosei, incl. the mailman] Karaoke, knitting, multiversal fabric repair, mechanics specialising in engines using Demuirgic Pulse Detonation, and misc. other shit.

Fighting style: Capoeira/Wing Chun

Capabilities: One of the best theta-taskers built, she can support a simultaneous offensive across a record high of 30,271 disparate omniverses without needing tangents between them. Thus far, no upper limit has been established for her offensive capabilities. Defensively, she has withstood heavy-offensive type bombardment by other NODE units while unshielded[read: Kansai trying to dig his yard up to put in a swimming pool and throwing five separate multiverses filled with anti-matter through her window by mistake. You prolly know what she did to him shortly after.] Her Angel Kosei is pretty much perfectly matched to her, as long as he isnt stoning; Kosei has much more offensive power than Miso, but lacks defensively because of his mutations; he doesn't have Miso's techo-organic/energy wings. Sayaka has the total standard package that a NODE unit gets when it comes to being equipped, however she picks her weapons and sticks to what would work with a scenario for minimal damage. Kosei just nukes the whole place flat even before she starts up[read: more violence]

Uniform colours:

Coat: red
Tank top: white
Miniskirt: White
Unitard underlayer/armour: metallic
Straps: black

Hair: blonde
Skin: fake tan

Friends: Hangs out with the three man-hating Fates on Friday nights, tries time and again to get a boyfriend. However, since Kosei bites every guy whe brings home...you can imagine what her life is like! Adding to her distress, Kosei pops out of nowhere to attack her dates! The only one successful date she had was when Obsidian[one of the Fates] clubbed the holy hell out of Kosei in a straight fight then sealed him in the multiverse within his own chest. Hangs out after work with the rest of her colleagues, but tries not to bring them to the neighbourhood since the goofballs next door will prolly do somthing stupid and cause them to go to hospital. Her closest friend is Misha, a lesbian anthro cat-girl who keeps trying to get into Sayaka's pants[how this friendship kept going for the last few billion years is anyone's guess LMAO] As a side-note, Kadachi keeps trying to get Misha to go out with him but keeps getting clawed to death, or beaten to death by Sayaka.

Her Editor keeps hitting on her, but when she hits back...he usually ends up in another dimension filled with wierd and/or painful things

One guy she has her eye on is Corinth, a later-run NODE who has things pretty together. Unfortunately, he's allergic to her cooties, whih makes things complicated since he also has sudden-death syndrome.

Kosei: One of the more unique angels[besides being lazy, and a stoner who sucks bongs whenever he can] he is a living rune given form by Seicross[making him one of the most powerful Angels attached to a NODE] His wings are skeletal bone with webs trailing between them, talks normally and DOESN'T have a case of tongues. Usually speaks like a person who's high[think Afroman] Has a second maw in his chest which houses a multiverse of infinite Genesis energy sealed in it, that he uses to feed his offensives. He has no eyes, but the lines on his body are the same runic symbol that he was created from. He does talk a lot, which results in both his mouths being taped shut.

Other: She doesn't die, but ends up in hospital and in bandages very often[especially during the Beach Trip arc, where she goes for a swim and gets hit by a nuclear sub, followed by an oil tanker] She tries to pimp almost everyone's ride, causing plenty of out-of-control projectiles. She's in competition with the five guys[mechs] at the local garage, and they end up creating things that would make West Coast Customs throw up more often than not.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v319/MechaniX_034/Xovercopy.jpg

Nudoru Kaarage and LONC's Original Character, Zarabeth(height referrence)


[B][I]
All comments welcome

[T51R]

Upcoming artwork:

-Misha, Yuuri, Etsu and Etsuko: Wallpaper for 1280 x 768 DONE
-Obsidian, Amethyst and Amber, The Fates: First Look + profile
-Sutiki Jagaimo & Gokoku, last NODE: First Look + profile
-George & Tabitha Anaheim: First Look + profile
-Etrigan L'reau: Profile
-Exodus, Genesis, Stasis, Aranox, Rifle: First Look, profile + Garage Power profile
-Arashi Seneda: First Look + Profile + "Headbusting For Girls" dojo corporate profile
-City of Dreams streetscape + country
-Dr. Thrash Edwards, Mizuno and Danielle Edwards: Anthromorphic community, First Look, CycleWorks corporate profile
-BoxMan: First Look + Profile
-Theonia, Etrigan's Island

Seperate planes(non-City of Dreams)

-Rod Haxon & the Red Unit: First Look + corporate profile
-Drak'a'lar: First Look + profile + World
-Street 16: First Look + Profile + World/s
-Kombat: First Look + Profile + World
-Chrome Soldier: First Look + Profile
-Vetasuri & the Wolfen world: First Look + profile(Niku's pet omniverse. That regularly invades her apartment.)
-Anjia and Prema: First Look + Profie + World
-Mechna(one of Kokumotsu's Creations): World, profile, street/cityscapes, country
-Disark Lords
-Homonpheu, Disark High Lord
-Disark dimensional ships
-Trafalgar-class Red Unit transveral vessels(Destroyers)
-Icthyon, First Look + profile
-"Dark Demon," First Look + Phantom Entity species profile
-Project X & Y, First Look + profiles
-Vaughnn, First Look + Profile
-Tachyon-series orbital defense Entities(NODE clones)
-Upsilon-series parameter defense entities(NODE clones)



Final:

"Seicross" ~ First Look, Profile, Fax of Doom.




UPDATED.

[quddusaliquddus]

T51R. Im completely new comics but i still desperately want to create my own comic. Have you got any tips on how to learn to draw or anything else? I ask you coz your work is amazing. I look forward to seeing more of your material!

[JDogindy]

T51R. Im completely new comics but i still desperately want to create my own comic. Have you got any tips on how to learn to draw or anything else? I ask you coz your work is amazing. I look forward to seeing more of your material!

Well, I'm the guy he has helped out the most. He basically taught me how to improve my artwork and storywork, and he's usually impressed by the way I have advanced myself.

I think he might PM you a few pointers.

[T51R]

T51R. Im completely new comics but i still desperately want to create my own comic. Have you got any tips on how to learn to draw or anything else? I ask you coz your work is amazing. I look forward to seeing more of your material!


Sup bro, and thank you very much for your comments.

Well, I think that good artwork is somewhat necessary, but the most important thing is being original in your characters and story. Look at many good webcomics these days:

1.TwoKinds
2.Inverloch
3.Earthsong

We don't have people like Superman or Batman in them, but what we do have are the most important things and incredibly good storytelling fudamentals:


Endearing and memorable characters with distinct personalities and traits
A very well thought out context(world) and great attention to detail when describing it
Excellent, DEEP storylines that revolve around both the characters and context
Great character dyamics and interaction


IMHO these are the core values to any good story.

As for generating artwork, well, it only takes practice. Look at JDog, he's made some incredible progress with his art since we started writing MUGEN: Universe. He used to draw these gumby-type figures, and now his characters have form, shape, pose and musculature(he's getting better at this too!)

The best way to start is to get drawing. Grab a ream of A3 copier paper, a big clip, a few "H" and "B" pencils(you can buy them in kits, Steadler is fine to start off) and a kneadable eraser. Look at anatomy and how the pro's draw bodies and faces. Know which genre you want to draw; I can draw traditional "comics" style, but now I'm learning the simplified "manga/anime" style. I'd pick the traditional "comics" style first because it emphasizes the fundamentals of figure-drawing strongly. Manga/anime is a more "free" form, and learning the more illustration-type form first is very important in order to be able to stylize and abstract better in the future.

Hope that helped! :)

Edit: Oh yer, JDog since you mentioned it, how are you coming with your latest works? I'm very interested to see how you've improved!:)

[quddusaliquddus]

Thank You! I think I'll copy and paste your comments into notepad for future reference :D

[T51R]

^^^Replied in your thread.

[quddusaliquddus]

T51R - are you talking to me?

[quddusaliquddus]

Its ok. Now I See.

[T51R]

Wallpaper, for 1280 x 768:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v319/MechaniX_034/wallpaper3FNALcopy.jpg


Brief profiles:

Misha:

Besides being a catgirl, a lesbian and constantly trying to get into Sayaka's panties, Misha also owns and runs the diner at the Depot, one of the transport nexus' that lead into the City of Dreams.

She's a pretty good cook, and she can cook fast(handy when you have five or six NODE units coming back to The City after surviving an air-crash into the Void Lands beyond The Gate) Her hobbies are Thai Bo, inline skating and surfing yuri porn.

When she's not working she's usually around at Sayaka's, or disturbing her neighbours. She lives up the road from the rest of the cast, and gets to work via car-pooling with Kadachi, Sayaka and the Anaheim twins. Comes back by other means.

Yuuri:

Yuuri's an EX-U, or EXperimental Unit. A special NODE running prototype hardware and software, she and Niku easily outgun the rest of them.

Like almost everyone else, she also holds down a job. As a bus driver for a local school(she's fond of kids) When she's not working she's usually hanging around one of the beaches, where she has her own little group of friends. She lives in The City itself, and besides her Intervention Role she also helps out around the Citadel while heading out for parimeter patrols with the local God/essess as a part-time.

She's fond of tanning, watersports and girl-watching(yup, there's a reason shes called "Yuuri.") Unfortunately, her neko-allergies put Misha out of her reach.

Etsu and Etsuko:

A pair of young, destitute, homeless Djinn living in poverty and skipping from home to home, they sell wishes to get by. Wishes that can make you into God should you wish it. Their story's a pretty heart-wrenching one, and it'll be covered in an arc dediated to them. They're very young by City standards and their power hasn't really begun to develop, having only been around for several thousand Hyper-Continual Eternities. So they can supply the Loli. :D

They hardly have any pastimes; they're too concerned with making it through the day. Because of this, they're usually chosen to recieve children from other Planes at The Gate, who lived similar lives to them before dying and being forsaken by their own Gods.

They have a house somewhere, abeit its pretty decrepid but they roam The City for a reason; day after day, they keep searching for their mother, who dissapeared after granting a wish. Every day, they get further and further away from home.

[Lord of Nonsensical Crap]

Wallpaper, for 1280 x 768:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v319/MechaniX_034/wallpaper3FNALcopy.jpg

Yes. Hell. Freaking. Yes.:D

[Farealmer]

Great work, i await more.:D A friend i showed this to also likes it, probably because it's familar.

[T51R]

Next, wallpaper and intro for the Anaheim family. :D

[JDogindy]

HOT DAMN! That's a freakin' cool wallpaper.

I'm going to PM you a question, Mech in a few minutes, so expect it.

[T51R]

Well here's the next-up; this is what the Anaheims looked like before they came to The City of Dreams;

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v319/MechaniX_034/anaheimkindred.jpg

Brief bio: http://forums.comicbookresources.com/showpost.php?p=3845120&postcount=57

George and Tabitha(Tabby) Anaheim are my homage characters towards the silver-age heroes, which defined their costume design(I took a few cues from the old school Spirit costume as well as the long gloves and boots for Tabitha) I guess that was the period which I enjoyed most in comics; Tarzan, Spirit, V for Vendetta, and Phantasmagoria or something like that. It was all about monsters and how the "monstrous" culture was. Vampires, werewolves, mermen and banshees all in a bar, talking with one another. It was AWESOME.

George goes by the alias "Anaheim," his surname which he adopted when coming to The City. Tabby keeps her first alias "Kindred," from before joining Anaheim's group, the Iron Guard. They are the first and only super-types to make it into The City, and with their more down-to-earth perspective they narrate many of the stories, except the ones that are on-mission.

They are the surrogate parents to quite a few of the cast, including Nudoru, Niku and Yuuri. I guess Tabitha's somewhat adopted a few NODES as an extended family, her own power levels keeping her from entering Creations herself and thus unable to visit her deceased relatives in-person. It doesn't stop her from using other people's phones to make ungodly-distanced calls though.:D They have two children of their own, Morganna(Morgan) and Nathaniel(Nathan) who are in Kadachi's class. It's a HUGE generation gap between the kids and their parents; the kids are growing up and going to school with beings that produce instances of infinity as a side-effect of simply being whereas their parents are more used to dealing with things on a much, much smaller scale.

It's all good but. The Anaheim family is very open and very caring, and about the best neighbours you can wish for. George is a strict but fair father who has great emphasis on family values and quality time together; it isn't uncommon for him to put his costume on and tell the young Godlings stories about the "old days" in his own, now-nonexistant 'Verse where the concepts of Good and Evil clashed hardcore every other week. Tabitha's an alright mum, and she cares more about her kids' development as people than their grades(they don't have the sheer power to keep up most of the time, and they pull through with brains together with a crapload of heart & determination) When Nathan and Morgan don't quite make the grade(Kadachi is a hell of an uncompromising marker, but he does stay late to help the kids out) she would tell them about the many times when the Iron Guard had to take on threats that they were ill-equipped to deal with.

They live around the corner just down the street, and their place is the unofficial hangout on lazy afternoons; for some reason the Field Architecture is especially strong there and things don't get damaged as easily.

Next up...the Anaheim family, and what they look like after Acension.

[Lord of Nonsensical Crap]

Anaheim held up both halves of the Verse, taxing his body to its limits while Kindred made a suicidal bid of her own; she wasn't going to let the man she loved die alone.

Whoa. Anaheim is officially badass.

How old are they in human terms, BTW? Because I'm a little weirded out by the fact that Tabitha is smokin hot, and yet may or may not be in her 50s-70s.:confused:

[JDogindy]

Hmm... the Anaheims look kinda cool, especially Tabitha. Can't wait for the others to show up, Mech.

[T51R]

How old are they in human terms, BTW? Because I'm a little weirded out by the fact that Tabitha is smokin hot, and yet may or may not be in her 50s-70s.

They're at retirement age, late-50's(Tabby) and early 60's(George) in human years. This is more of a flashback drawing, with them looking the way they did when their 'Verse ended(Kindred's powerset will explain her looks; its a very unconventional powerset but it is very potent if used properly. Its ironic that she only realized her full potential after her career as a superheroine ended) In NODES:Web, Tabby looks younger as does her husband. Their physical condition is the same as in their youth thanks to The City's unique Field Architecture.

However, they are now much, much older than that.

I should probably list their powersets too soon.

[T51R]

Next up, Tabitha and George as they appear, with their kids. As well as a powers profile for all four of them. Follwing that, Nudoru and Miso, Kansai, Kadachi and Tiki, out-of-armour and in proper character. Yer, Kansai with his mask off. :D

[T51R]

Tabby and George as they normally look, brief linework and fast colours:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v319/MechaniX_034/georgetabbycopy.jpg

A brief breakdown:

Tabitha: Her powers are rooted in Causality; she is able to predict and control to a degree the cause and effect that is intrinsically present in some universes. At least, those were her power levels when she first joined the Iron Guard. After her defeat by the Sky Giant, she began to unlock her "deeper" abilities, becoming conciously able to control the flow of causality on a much larger scale, becoming able to stop the effects of cause and to re-engineer them into other, self-determined events.

However, at that time she could only effect events at the planetary scale. It was in the dystopic multiverse that George tore into that she began to expand herself even further, becoming able to control some cosmic events, but not others.

It was only after she met Sayaka after her own "Ascension" that she truly began to understand her own potential scope; and the meaning of her namesake: "Kindred," as in "in relationship with, and linked to all." At this point she can effect events such as the beginning and end of Creations as well as everything that occurs between them; as long as there is sufficient cause, che can control the effect to a an equal mangitude(ie. she cannot take an exploding galaxy and turn the causility effect from that into a flower blooming; it must be of similar magintude ie. she can cause several thousand suns to be born, or a minor Cosmic to be created as a by-effect of changing and challenging fate)

She hardly uses her power these days; she's satisfied that she did all that she could and was lucky enough to find a great husband who continues to be a great father and provider. The kids take up most of her time too, along with making sure everyone else in the neighbourhood is doing alright(she's a tad nosy, but what else is a retired superheroine to do with her retirement? Especially when she knows that retirement is going to stretch a long, long way.)

Usually, when the kids are at school and there isn't much to do she'll bake, drag her husband into the bedroom, go to The City, whatever passes the day. She does teach part-time when there's a need(like Yuuri, she loves younger kids) She still holds on to her old faith(Roman Catholic) even though the God she worshipped has long since lost its power and dissipated into the Currents; in her crucifix she keeps the remainder of His essence, for the memory that He once gave her and her husband their marraige vows, that they still live by. She's also set up a memorial for Him in the subdimension called "Eden," where humanity began in her original 'Verse. Kokumotsu furnished Eden with its own replacement Cherubim, going off envronment "maps" from the Old Times where Tabby's God still existed before the Disark War(Yaweh did not fight in the D-War; he was gone long before it happened)

Regardless, Tabby still keeps the Bible and an alter in the Anaheim residence, and her children were also raised Catholic, something that George also wanted for them.

I'll go George's one in a bit.

[Farealmer]

Can we please get some George and while your up...


...MOAR NODES:D!

[T51R]

Righto, as promised, a character description for George:



Anaheim:

George is one of the few heroes who uses his surname as his operating alias; he was a public figure in both his lives once being the mayor of his small town after retiring from the Iron Guard to marry his long-time love, Tabitha. As the premiere superhero of his world, George Seymour-Donovan was born into a normal suburban family and brought up a staunch Christian. In his late 20’s he began teaching at Sunday School, while holding a normal job as a town planner and architect with his own practice. His alter-ego, “Anaheim,” became a full-time Superhero when he partnered with his venture up with Donald McLain, of V&L Architects International. Donald had for a long time been a fan of Anaheim, and secretly suspected that George was the man behind the mask. When presented with the merger proposal, Donald called for a private meeting of both company owners and told George “simply to do what needed to be done,” and to “leave the rest to him.”

What followed was a mutual understanding and life-long friendship between both men; since childhood, Donald and George had been close and though the latter had a good nose for business, the former often wondered just why it was exactly that George hadn’t expanded his enterprise more aggressively. Donald had never asked and George never told; both were of the same mind and understood each other intimately; perhaps even more than brothers, they were true kindred spirits.

In fact it was through Donald that George met the woman who would one day become his wife and the mother of his children, though at the time he wasn’t aware that Tabitha was also in secret the causality-controlling heroine calling herself ‘Kindred.’ At the time, Donald was himself a married family man who had a passion for old artifacts, his hobby being amateur archaeology. By the time the partnership occurred, Donald had already published several papers on the subject, though none of them met any wide critical acclaim.

George started out early as a hero, with his first adventures beginning when he was 18. Early in his career as “Anaheim,” he started out the same as most heroes; making a grand debut in what would become his signature red leather costume, with armour plate protecting his neck and chest. Opting for a similarly red cape, his costume was in part designed by Joanne Dellinger, his high school sweetheart who had turned ballistics analyst in her mid-twenties. In his first battle, he fought and narrowly defeated the villain who would become his arch-nemesis: the self-proclaimed King Chaos, a dictatorial despot who ruled his own private nation and had almost unlimited scientific, underground and monetary resources. Their feud spanned most of Anaheim’s career, with King Chaos finally being unmasked as the foreign student who once schooled with George; where George was the good-natured, intellectual lad who held his own in sports, Abdullah Bhakir, a well-built and handsome young man of Arabic-American descent and next in line to the throne, excelled in sports and was spoiled rotten. In their epic battle, King Chaos was seemingly killed, but in realms outside the Void Lands, there are whispers that Bhakir may have survived the destruction of his own ‘Verse.

In the decade that followed after his debut, George continued to develop his powers but more importantly, took an interest in philosophy which saw him begin to study the fundamental likenesses between good and evil, beginning to strive to understand them instead of simply placing a label on either then sticking to his guns. In his eighth year as a full-time hero he founded the Iron Guard, a group of crusaders against the “negative and potentially detrimental elements that would willingly cause harm to the planet‘s populace,” in his own words. Operating at first as an Earth-based team, the Iron Guard’s exploits soon took them off-world and earned them respect as well as recognition in the interstellar scheme of things; they were instrumental in diffusing potentially explosive interplanetary feuds as well as taking part in operations to counter multiple-cosmos level threats. In assembling his team, George sought out individuals who had not only proven themselves in terms of power and skill, but also in terms of ideals and matters of conscience. He did not want a band of mercenaries or hardline idealists; the world had enough of those. Instead, he brought together people of level minds and more importantly, open minds. He ended up with nine companions who shared the better part of his adventures, and finally ten when Kindred joined them. As a group, the Iron Guard earned for itself even greater acclaim in not only its own ‘Verse, but also in neighbouring dimensions and timelines.

In its twenty-seventh year, with its members closing in on their mid-forties, the Iron Guard’s members declared personal retirement and the group disbanded leaving behind its protégés, a band of young heroes who had been independently chosen to succeed each member of the old team. Calling themselves the New Guard, they continued in Anaheim’s footsteps and ideas for the next eleven years. Many new heroes joined them, many new teams were formed, and the Platinum Age came thanks to great advancements in science and technology.

During this time George and Tabitha married, finally realising the dream they each held for just over a decade. For another five years, they lived in bliss with the hope of children. George went back to his practice, and was welcomed back by Donald. Declining a Director’s seat, he again took to the more interesting work in the field and formed a new establishment within V&L that dealt with landscaping as well as earth-moving equipment. At this time he also met and conversed with many current philosophers studying the works of the Greats, deepening his own views on light and dark. He earned an Honorary Doctorate for the paper he co-published with Donald, that analysed the nature of “good” and “evil” throughout the history of mankind as perceived by man in various stages of development. The paper met limited acclaim before it was eclipsed several months later by another paper with an anonymous author. George returned to teaching in Sunday School, and became active in the local community before successfully running for Mayor. In the process of taking office, he sold his shares in V&L back to Donald for a sum that would allow both him and Tabitha to retire comfortably. It was the perfect ending to a life of serving the public, keeping them safe from any and all threat.

[T51R]

Until that fateful day came, when the skies turned blood red and his ‘Verse’s Creator began to lose its power; a new Creation was about to be formed, with a new God to oversee it all. Taking this as his chance, Elphin, their God’s first Creation, seized control of the Heavens and Hells in a grand coup de etat, with the intention of breaking the cycle of birth and rebirth where God’s will would carry over from one Creation to the next.

Anaheim and Kindred once again donned their uniforms and stood shoulder to shoulder for what was to be the last time with the re-formed Iron Guard and a new generation of heroes, though many other warriors from the previous generation also turned out in exceptional numbers to fight for their home, and for the deity that had treated them so well. It was a battle that ended in futility; Elphin triggered hyperdimnsional collapse in a final act of spite towards his Father and the multiverse, with all its Continuities, began to collapse into a single nexus from which nothing further could be reborn. With oblivion staring them in their faces, Kindred finally admitted what she had been hiding for the last month: she was pregnant, with twins.

The thought of never seeing the children he had waited so long for became too much to bear, and in that instant, Anaheim awakened into his true powers: while Kindred retroactively attempted to manipulate Causality against a fast-disintegrating timestream, Anaheim summoned the last off his strength and held both halves of the collapsing multiverse apart for long enough that she could pinpoint in its fabric a point for him to tear through. This he did, and the survivors from a ’Verse now extinct found themselves in a dystopic Creation ruled by a sadistic God whose forces were far greater in number and strength than Elphin’s, and whose power exceeded the Deity that they once worshipped.

In this ‘Verse, they found a small resistance, a world that needed protecting in the face of constant assault by both Angelic and Demonic forces. For the next seven months the remnants of the Iron Guard as well as two generations of heroes and converted villains fought the good fight, even tough they realized it was a futile effort. George’s reason was simple; at the very least, he wanted to meet his children before his death. The end came sooner than expected; both Hell and Heaven came to Earth as the Deity itself appeared. In a field of broken bodies and charred corpses, with the lifeless, soulless shells of their comrades around them, the Donovan family made its last stand.

A last stand cut mercifully short by a NODES System Intervention. Their presence an anomaly, they qualified to receive a unique choice because of their exploits and unique situation: be reborn into the newly-recreated Omniverse as individuals, or leave their level of existence behind and go to a place. They chose to stay together and to brave the unknown; with their friends dead and their ’Verse gone, all they had was each other and the twin lives growing in Tabitha’s womb. They became, then, the only two mortal beings to witness the staggering capabilities of a NODE on the clock: they became the first mortal beings to witness the Tactical Dimension Tide and one of its many applications.

The Donovan’s were later inducted into the Void Lands, where they lived for the equivalent of one and a half months. During this time they operated a halfway-house to guide, educate and keep newly-deceased children before they could be summoned to the Trans-Continual Gate leading to the City of Dreams. They were themselves allowed into The City after their period, and The City was where their twin children Nathan and Morgan, were born. The running of the halfway-house was subsequently taken over by Seraph, a being created and maintained by the NODE unit that ushered the Donovan family into a new un-life. (Seraph is a very special creature; she embodies the life after and caters only to innocent entities. As such, she holds sway over Death and other conceptual beings that plague the sentient consciousness, whether such sentience belongs to mortal or God/ess alike. She is special for the reason that NODE’s don‘t Create very often. As such, hers is the power to cancel concepts, ideas, souls or even imagination)

In The City, George and Tabitha took on the surname of Anaheim (recommended by the Fate, Obsidian as a tribute to their old ‘Verse. At this time, Obsidian also presented Tabby with the only remaining thing from their old home: the remnants of their God‘s essence and a Bible to remember Him by.)

George now runs his own practice as he did before, but in his office he set up two chairs and desks: one set for him, and one for the childhood friend he lost; Donald. Likewise, on his letterhead, he keeps “Donald McLain” written as “partner in principle.” He works extensively with the City’s planning council, headed up by Amethyst (another of the Fates) and Etrigan,
And has also redesigned and reworked parts of Seicross’ home office (primarily to keep the fax in a separate room)



Powers:

George is a low-level reality warper, and his limit is that he may only effect reality within the scale of his own body. Thus, he can manifest everything from unbeliveable levels of personal strength, an unbreakable skeleton, increase the temperature of his skin to that rivalling a supernova, become invulnerable to projectiles, change his bouyancy, "ride" the solar winds, dash through the timestream as a function of strength, or simply swap the orientation of gravitational fields inside himself so as to move as quickly as he needs to in-flight. He may also relocate himself instantaneously via "wormholing," or, becoming a wormhole through subspace. His abilities are unlimited within the structure of his body, thus he must think ahead to use them and consider carefully how the effect will manifest outside of his body.

The source of his abilities is unknown(to him, his family, and to the scientists and mages in what was his world) what is known is that he began to manifest his powers when he tured 16, and from that point on continued to hone them.

However, Gasari (the Spirit residing in Nikuu's largest sword) seems to know a thing or two about how Anaheim actually got his powers, and has spoken with Kokumotsu at length about the subject(Koku drops by once in a while to check up on the family; he has been named Godfather to Nate and Morgan and continues to help them develop. One of his concerns is their lack of power, considering their parentage. He theorises that at a later age, they will draw even with or even surpass their peers if they come to understand sufficiently)

In The City, George has stopped refining his powers as part of his retirement and hardly uses them(except to keep certain other people from blowing themselves up)

Anaheim, like most every other character, will have an arc dedicated to him.

[T51R]

Nudoru Kaarage & Miso:

http://i198.photobucket.com/albums/aa173/sherwyntan/NODmiso2.jpg

The first unit built, Nudoru and Miso are the prototype NODE and ARAMUS respectively. Brief bio to follow.

[T51R]

Expaning on the NODES cast further:


Next up, Street16, a group of Trans-multiversal travellers from different periods of the Earth's existence before the Disark War. They are:


-Damascus Altaine, a genetically enhanced and cyberized Future Soldier from humanity's 5th evolution. A man without emotions and bred as a killer, its his ship, the Earth Cruiser ‘Turbulence’ that the wayward group calls home.

-Holli Fontaine, an anthro mouse girl from the Wild West. Quick on the trigger and with a temper to match, she keeps her feelings, simple wishes and gentle nature barricaded inside herself. It was a harsh world that she came from, and she’s used to hard work and long days.

-Oberon, a renegade, albino Daemon from a world of swords and sorcery who's well steeped in White Magic. His innermost desire is to sever his bloodline’s hold on his future; he’s net in line to Hell’s throne.

-Trish Hudson, a scientist from the modern day, has alien nanotechology flowing through her bloodstream thanks to a failed experiment at Area 51.

-Keisuke Seneda, a Fox-type Ninja from old Japan who carries one of the temporally-displaced swords belonging to the ancient Sengoku warrior called Yamato, a cursed blade that once slew the Son of Darkness. Yamato holds the other, and both swords call to each other.

-A’saathi, Ancient Atlantean, bio-morphs between humanoid and mer-folk. Water elemental, philosopher, the group’s heart and centre.

-Georges Saint, a medieval Knight who turns Werewolf

-Countess Elena Dirage Helvetica, a Vampiress from old Europe during the Industrial Revolution, businesswoman, inventor. Can take full-on Primal Form.

-Vaughn Shepard, from another planet whose civilisation once encountered NODES and attempted to re-create it. Vaughn is the end-product, but does not possess the reality-shattering combat systems or the Divinity Instrumentation Drive; in fact, he’s not even on planet-busting levels. He looks to be in his late teens, but has the mind of a fifteen-year old thanks to his upbringing at the hands of his developers.

-Samantha Colbert, from the near-apocalyptic future. The most introverted of the group, she distrusts practically everyone and has very strong survival instincts. Thanks to radiation, she is slowly mutating and will one day cease to be human. it’s a condition that Trish is constantly helping her through.

-Osiris of the Ascendants, being from the far-flung future where humanity has shed its physical form and exists as energy.



In Nodes:Web, S16 basically plays the part of the people who you ALWAYS run into no matter where you go. You know, the people you somehow run into wherever you go but dont know very well. The main cast usually bump into them while sneaking into other Deities' Creations to shop, rave, or just party. And for some reason or another, they tend to get stuck together until the (mis)adventure ends.

I might do a short run on them, but who knows, they're very complicated when it comes to group dynamics.

[Lord of Nonsensical Crap]

Late replies FTW!

Street16 actually sounds pretty cool. I don't get the rationale behind their name, though (since there aren't 16 of them, and I see no references to streets in their description). I'm looking forward to a potential group shot of them, though.

[Farealmer]

I might do a short run on them, but who knows, they're very complicated when it comes to group dynamics.

It especially be interesting to know how they get from one creation another, how they formed(and why), and why they call themselves Street16.

[T51R]

Well, they're basically inspiried by the Olympian Gods and their huge chessboard of mortals in Clash of the Titans. They're the living the dickery of one particular God/ess, without even knowing it(they don't realise that they can choose to go against their causality) But, to an extent they really are enjoying their time together and don't want it to end(hence subconciously avoiding the choice)

Everyone in S16 realises that this adventure brings infinite possibilities, so its something that's embraced instead of rejected. They want to go home, but at the same time they want to know what's out there. And the personal relationships that form make going home all that harder; they've met very interesting people and experienced incredible cultures, and through it all they've found great friends who they don't want to leave behind.


Some fast facts:

-At one point they will spend a good amount of time in the Void Lands, and be the second group of living beings, after the Anaheims, to see the transcontinual Gate.

-They will be meeting the Sengoku and Sendiri on one of their treks, entering into Drak'a'lar's Creation. Here Keisuke will take center stage as he's drawn into battle with the ancient swordsman Yamato. Expect hell to break loose when both the swords are reunited after Keisuke's was flung through Creations in the distant future of that ancient Earth.

-They will also experience Kokumotsu's first Creation, a dual-world where there is a technosphere and a biosphere, a world strong in both technology and magic(it has an inner sphere and outer sphere)

-They'll cross swords with Rod Haxon's Red Unit and its interstellar fleet.

-They will also spend a good deal of time on the Wolfen world where they will live with Vetasuri(an albino wolf-girl and her adoptive father, the exiled techno-organic mercenary called Kombat. Here, we'll discover something else about the Disark)

-And at some point, someone will fall victim to Sayaka's womanly frustrations. :D

[Farealmer]

I have another question, you say most people in the City of Dreams are more powerful than disarks to the point where they're at least within spitting distance of NODES in terms of power. Why then didn't any of them smite the disark before the spatial processing web created NODES?

[JDogindy]

BUMP!

Hey, Mech, are you going to show anything else you'd like to present before the comic gets launched?

[T51R]

Next page in progress,

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v319/MechaniX_034/sample.jpg

All questions answered soon, gotta get some lunch. :p

[T51R]

BUMP!

Hey, Mech, are you going to show anything else you'd like to present before the comic gets launched?

Progress pics will be put up prior to and after launch, and hopefully post-launch I'll be able to post updates and teasers here.

I have another question, you say most people in the City of Dreams are more powerful than disarks to the point where they're at least within spitting distance of NODES in terms of power. Why then didn't any of them smite the disark before the spatial processing web created NODES?

This will be investigated in the "Kombat" arc, where we will get an in-depth look at the Wolfen world and Nudoru discovers something about his first assignment that he couldn't initially anticipate. As a by-note, NODES hasn't really made any headway with its encoding ever since entering the City; The City is the one place that The Pulse failed to reach. In effect, NODES reached the City ahead of the Pulse.

So, you may find that the individual units aren't really all that compared to some of the more ancient entities to be introduced later. (They still get driven crazy though, being ancient doesn't save you from that.:D )

[Lord of Nonsensical Crap]

Next page in progress,

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v319/MechaniX_034/sample.jpg

All questions answered soon, gotta get some lunch. :p

WOOOT! SAYAKA!

Keep 'em coming, T51R.

[T51R]

Yer, I need to step the pace up and I finally got my page formula down. Which helps TONS with production speed and the grahpical layout.

How's my artwork BTW, please help me to get better! :)

[Lord of Nonsensical Crap]

I really like the swirly light effects in that last picture, so yeah, I'd say you're steadily improving.

[Farealmer]

This will be investigated in the "Kombat" arc, where we will get an in-depth look at the Wolfen world and Nudoru discovers something about his first assignment that he couldn't initially anticipate. As a by-note, NODES hasn't really made any headway with its encoding ever since entering the City; The City is the one place that The Pulse failed to reach. In effect, NODES reached the City ahead of the Pulse.

Excellent, is the Pulse what annonced the Disark?

So, you may find that the individual units aren't really all that compared to some of the more ancient entities to be introduced later. (They still get driven crazy though, being ancient doesn't save you from that. )

Even more powerful than the NODES:eek:.

How's my artwork BTW
It's great, i only wish i was as good.

[T51R]

Excellent, is the Pulse what annonced the Disark?

-The Pulse will be described in the origin arc, Nodes 01: Nudoru Kaarage

Even more powerful than the NODES:eek:.

-Its comedy and general insanity with a big-arse helping of utter wrongness, it isn't a PL wankfest. Hell if I wanted to do that I'd actually be re-condensing lots of curent works. How else are fledgeling Gods and Goddesses supposed to get molested and scarred for life? :D


It's great, i only wish i was as good.

-Thanks for that bro.

[Farealmer]

it isn't a PL wankfest
Well i wouldn't use such a extreme phrase myself. But i wouldn't say that PL isn't a factor at all, otherwise you wouldn't put so much into reinforcing NODES and City of Dream level beings capabilities compared to OAA types and the Disark. I understand that it's meaningless on the level that they will interact with beings on all PL's. But considering the board you frequent, you should know that PL is taken in just as much as everything else. Even if the author didn't intend it to be about it. Afterall PL is one of the hooks you use to sell NODES to begin with.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v319/MechaniX_034/WEBpromo.jpg
;)

Hell if I wanted to do that I'd actually be re-condensing lots of curent works.
What do you mean?

[T51R]

Yer, where else can topped-out PL having entities be driven insane, molested, blown up, run over, hit by nuclear submarines while skinnydipping and chase after other beings designed, enginnered and built to kill them, chasing after them with CHAINSAWS no less? :D

I dunno about how some webhosting will deal with minor nudity though.:evilsmile

[Farealmer]

I dunno about how some webhosting will deal with minor nudity though.
*Does nosebleed dance*

[JDogindy]

Hey, that's a cool page you made with Sayeka.


Progress pics will be put up prior to and after launch, and hopefully post-launch I'll be able to post updates and teasers here.

(like a little kid) But I want to see them NOW!!!

(matures) But I can wait on that.

[T51R]

JDog, I'll send you the previews for approval as soon as I get to those pages. Sorry m8 but its taking more time than I thought it would.

But anyhoo, here is the completed page:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v319/MechaniX_034/sample-1.jpg

[JDogindy]

JDog, I'll send you the previews for approval as soon as I get to those pages. Sorry m8 but its taking more time than I thought it would.

But anyhoo, here is the completed page:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v319/MechaniX_034/sample-1.jpg

Hey, that page is looking good.

And I can't wait to give you feedback when Sayeka goes to the PH universe.

[Lord of Nonsensical Crap]

JDog, I'll send you the previews for approval as soon as I get to those pages. Sorry m8 but its taking more time than I thought it would.

But anyhoo, here is the completed page:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v319/MechaniX_034/sample-1.jpg

(Squints) Can't...see...the dialogue....

But who cares, the art looks great, and it's clear that Sayaka is about to kick major ass. Do more, I say!

[T51R]

Next...prepare for YUURI! :D

[T51R]

And now, here's Yuuri! :D

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v319/MechaniX_034/yurrisexypose.jpg

Type: EX-U(EXperimental-Unit) 01 of 02.

[Lord of Nonsensical Crap]

And now, here's Yuuri! :D

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v319/MechaniX_034/yurrisexypose.jpg

Type: EX-U(EXperimental-Unit) 01 of 02.

[Borat voice]Eeeet is niiiiiiiice.:D [/Borat voice]

[T51R]

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v319/MechaniX_034/vaughnsmall.jpg

Quick & messy sketch. Meet Vaughn, from Street 16. Bio to come.:)

[JDogindy]

BUMP!

I just had to do it.

Mech, I've sent you several private messages. Why haven't you answered them?

[T51R]

Sorry about that bro, I've been pretty busy doing work for Uni and Ive only been able to reply to one or two messages at a time. :( it's THAT packed by way of timeframes now.

[JDogindy]

Sorry about that bro, I've been pretty busy doing work for Uni and Ive only been able to reply to one or two messages at a time. :( it's THAT packed by way of timeframes now.

Ok, I understand. I was just worried about some things.

Anyway, I was asking about comic page formatting (the setup of the page), because I'm considering making a mini-comic to showcase what I can do. I have everything explained in one of my PMs, and I just wanted to know if you can help.

[T51R]

UPDATE: Still in production, unfortunately. 4th year really slowed things down, but things are going ahead full swing...

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v319/MechaniX_034/NWEBDEMO.jpg

:)

[Viktor Bogdanovic]

dinamic page.

the effects are a bit too dominant for my taste (especially the energy balls in panel 4).

nice work, overall.

[Lord of Nonsensical Crap]

UPDATE: Still in production, unfortunately. 4th year really slowed things down, but things are going ahead full swing...

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v319/MechaniX_034/NWEBDEMO.jpg

:)

Looks absolutely awesome. Great to see NODES:Web back in business.

(And yes, I shall return to writing for Mugen Universe now that the Christmas holiday is in)

[JDogindy]

UPDATE: Still in production, unfortunately. 4th year really slowed things down, but things are going ahead full swing...

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v319/MechaniX_034/NWEBDEMO.jpg

:)

TIGHT PAGE!

Hey, I don't care how long it takes for you. Get the things done, aight?

[T51R]

Looks absolutely awesome. Great to see NODES:Web back in business.

(And yes, I shall return to writing for Mugen Universe now that the Christmas holiday is in)

Thanks bro. How'd Uni go for you BTW? I saw my transcript online, 5 credits, the rest filled out D's and HD's. W@HA! Hopefully they'll pay me well enough.

Next up, the last NODE unit and ARAMUS.

[T51R]

Aight, design completed for the final NODE unit for the first run:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v319/MechaniX_034/FINALNODES100.jpg

I decided to try and make each and every unit as unique as possible, as well as to give them very diverse quirks. So.

Here is the last NODE unit(or rather, units, since in this case a secondary NODE functions as the ARAMUS/Angel and both are armed with "bits" for wings.) Mame and Hakate Sarada, a "brother" and "sister" combination of units designed by the NODEs system to hold unparalleled combat power; they are a new evolution entirely in design. But the "problems" carried over from the earlier models.:D

Unfortunately, Hakate's stone blind and Mame's partially insane. Being unable to percieve in light doesn't bother Hakate though; at the level they function and work at, sight isn't a necessity; its more of a weakness because auxiliary systems need to be used to accelerate it to match perception as well as processing speed. Light is pretty much an unnecessary by-product in The City. However, his heightened perceptions cause him a lot of stress: he senses what underwear other people are wearing, earning him multiple clobberings just from walking down the street. His automatically knowing where every single ounce of fat is on the more vain Goddesses also ends up with him being abused. Adding to that, his "sister" is a fan of blind man jokes and tends to walk him out into the middle of the road(and leave him there to be run over) aiming him towards cliffs, into oceans, into black holes and the like.

She also webcasts her pranks, and Hakate's quite a web celebrity thanks to all the abuse he's copped(he holds the highest number of hits on his website, and the number's constantly growing)

Mame's also tasked as the pair's "handler," seeing as how Hakate has problems finding the phone. She's also chronically lazy, and thus the pair live in near-poverty thanks to her re-routing missions to the other NODES(poverty being relative here; they also hold the highest count for confiscated Creations and Prime Deities held so they do get by quite nicely on allowances) Like Nikuu, they live in the City itself and not in the outskirts with the other bums(or those with special interests like Sayaka, whose Dumuirgic Pulse Detonation engine experiments cause some noise even though they don't cause any damage) They're several blocks up from Nikuu, closer to the core of the city where the Cathedral is. As such, Mame makes up the 5th member of the much-loathed "Five Diva's of Doom," so-called at the mall due to their penchant for crazy antics(and ridiculous haggling; the other four are the 3 Fates and Sayaka)

Unlike the other units, Hakate and Mame don't really have lives because of their unique "conditions," Mame needing constant remote mantainence and Hakate not being able to go anywhere while she's being worked on by the System. Which doesn't mean that he doesn't try, with hilarious results(he keeps "escaping," while Mame keeps coming up with ways to keep him at home up to and including nailing his feet to the floor, gluing him to the ceiling, stuffing him into Nudoru's trunk, etc...) That doesn't mean they don't work though; Mame leaves her "brother" at a repair store that specializes in Macro-Omniversal Troubleshooting, about the only job he's actually any good at while she minges off of him and goes to the mall.

More data to come...

[JDogindy]

So all the NODE units have been sorted out, Mech. Will you show me an example on how you'll have Sayeka go from her dimension to the PH dimension, or at least explain that. You said that she has to go through some changes, IIRC.

[T51R]

If you mean the "dimensional downshift" with her scout platform, yer I can post up some sample artwork for you. Might be a week or so though, since my computer's off at the shop getting serviced and upgraded.

[JDogindy]

If you mean the "dimensional downshift" with her scout platform, yer I can post up some sample artwork for you. Might be a week or so though, since my computer's off at the shop getting serviced and upgraded.

Yeah. I was wondering what that meant.

You know, the way I'm going in my classes, I might be able to upgrade your computer myself. ;)

[T51R]

Next up...who likes FURRIES? :D

[T51R]

Well, things have stalled again. My old and faithful Compaq died a glorious death, but let me back up all my files before it expired. Two years of hard, overclocked abuse, fed on CAD with multiple applications running at any one time saw it go to that big scrapyard in the sky.

In its place though, I have this MacBook Pro. So I decided to test it out with one of several old characters I decided to bring back for NODES:Web. Meet Xtaxis(pronounced "stasis.")
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v319/MechaniX_034/XTAXISPOSTER.jpg

He's one of the more dedicated people who you'll fins around The City, having given his previous lives to the pursuit of Martial perfection. So, he attained that. What next? Well, since he was re-made by Kokumotsu to help out in the Disark War he decided to go into business with the surviving members of his team, four other Transcended Mechanoids from Koku's many Creations built specifically to fight the insurgence.

They went into business and opened a workshop, "Garage Power," that hots up people's vehicles. Business is slow, but one of the good things about being part of a team of 'ots with their own workshop is that they never have to worry about mantainence. They generally butt heads a lot with Sayaka, whose favourite engine is the super-high output Dumuirgic Pulse-detonation type(they boys prefer the old-school, less efficient Akashic Driver. They claim it gives a vehicle its "soul." Unfortunately, they were right; most of their customer's cars turn out to be demonically possessed.:D )

Away from the others Nakato hangs out a lot with Arashi because of their similar martial backgrounds(he lives in the complex behind the "Headbusting for Girls" dojo) Nakato's a quiet loner, and has few friends and often being found meditating on Etrigan's island on his days off. His favourite time is the Meditative Retreat, when Etrigan closes his island off to tourists and hosts a small tournament and skill contest(leading to more chaos when everyone else tries to sneak on board and spectate)

His claim to fame? Super-addictive Wasabi! That people queue for Eternities to get their hands on.

He's one of the five mech units in existance equipped with a bona-fide Mass Driver, that allows him to shift scale from his standard 9-foot frame to obscenely large.(By obscene, I mean OBSCENE.)

His schtick? He's the prerequisite cool and collected guy. Who gets flung into the most otherworldly situations one could imagine; imagine people trying to catch you because they're after your metal to use as tin foil on the barbecue! :D

Right, NEXT will be something furry! I promise!

Edit: And it won't be Tiki, either!

[JDogindy]

Oh, I was hoping your computer would make it. But at least you saved the files, and that's a good thing, Mech.

I wonder how you're going to make the transaction from a PC to a Mac.

[T51R]

The above artwork is the first test of using Adobe Creative Suite in the Mac environment; I think it came up cleaner and better. It seems to like the WACOM better than the PC environment, and the image quality is definitely better. It feels more sensitive to the WACOM movements, so its allowed finer detail work. BTW you have PM.

[T51R]

Aight, here's the furry something! Meet Sapporo and Asahi, the girls who are in charge of taking Seicross' Citadel where its supposed to go(as a necessity their own power is comparable to Seicross itself) Unfortunately, as their names suggest, they're usually inundated with alcohol.

So you can imagine what happens to the Citadel.:D

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v319/MechaniX_034/Sapporoasahi.jpg

Brief character bio:

Sapporo and Asahi are the attendants of Seicross' Citadel, one of the bigger jobs around. They move the gargantuan construct to where its supposed to go, navigating the fields and currents that flow throughout the City of Dreams, and elsewhere if need be. They have a good deal of access and clearance, including weapons, drives, and can access high-security areas f need be. They share an apartment close to work right smack in the center of the City.

Sapporo:

An almost introverted girl, she's young compared to the other denizens of the City. She doesn't leave her apartment all that much and is a hopeless romantic at heart, stocking up on tale after tale after tale from many Creations by trading for them; stories from different Creations are something of a novelty. Her own personal "dream" that she keeps guarded beyond anything else is to meet her own "prince charming," leading her to fantasize while looking out her window. While looking like a total dork at the same time. (Yuuri, Nikuu, Mame and the Fates have an ongoing game between them to guess why Sapporo keeps sitting at her window. Kadachi figured it out a long time ago, but keeps mum about it knowing that it is extremely unlikely that such a thing could concievably happen; the gap between a full-blown God and a mortal is simply too great. The gap between a full-blown God and Sapporo can't be imagined, which makes things especially tough.)

There isn't much else she does, and her collection's somewhat of a legend in trading circles to the extent that she does have to make periodic trips beyond the Void Lands to meet with the lower deities in order to make exchanges(Deities don't have the sheer grunt to exist inside the transcontinual Gate system, or enter the Void Lands let alone the City itself) Because of this, she also serves as the unofficial "mule" between the beings of the City and the Creations that can't exist near it.

Away from work and her only hobby, Sapporo's the one who keeps the apartment livable thanks to her room mate's lifestyle; she likes doing the cooking, and in a way is on a "passive lookout" for that special someone.

Her more obvious past-time, between looking out for stories and legends, is of course fine beers. Which she also trades for. In extreme quantities. She's quite selective in what she drinks, and only goes for the best. She isn't fond of the harder drinks and likes her beverages light and smooth. But with the rate she plows through her stock, it doesn't matter how light they are: she gets smashed either way!


Asahi:

The more belligerent of the pair, Asahi's almost never at home except to recover from the previous night's party. She's usually hung over, even at work.

Besides rampant drinking and partying, Asahi's other hobbies include current-gliding(she managed to get her hands on a Disark MOSS, or Macro Omniversal Siege Ship from Nudoru that she had modified into a Glide Platform at Garage Power.) and she takes part in some of the localized Glide competitions that are run by the local schools off the top of the higher constructs in the City; the MOSS is a disadvantage since under normal circumstances it can't exist, let alone function properly inside the City, but with the modifications she does manage to be pretty competitive(she traded for a Dumuirgic Pulse Detonation drive with Sayaka, which gives her a definite advantage in comps; while many people can control the DPD drive, Asahi seems to have a special affinity for it which allowed for hers to be turned up to suicidal levels of output, to the point that the Dumuirgos Reaction simply can't sustain itself beyond this setting. The only other known powerplant that can move something better is in Nudoru's Mustang, that uses a pure-Field block and 8 similar units working together. Which results in fatal accident just backing out of the driveway more often than not.)

Personality-wise, Asahi's an extreme extrovert and has tons upon tons of friends all through the City; if there's something you need, Asahi can hook you up. Which is what she's fond of doing anyway; she's the story's self-proclaimed matchmaker and almost all her matches end up in disaster(she has had a few hits though)

If she's not drinking, partying or Gliding, she's usually hanging out at the mall or at one of the pubs in the suburbs. She's the one with personal transport between the pair("personal" meaning something special that she's found and keeps in the city by her own power; it might not be more efficient than just "going" by will, but it's definitely more fun) in the form of a Nissan Skyline GTR that she traded for untold Eternities ago. She's also one of Garage Power's more frequent customers, having had the boys modify the GTR to work on an Akashic Driver powering each of the car's six cylinders(they needed to have a special Cybernite block made up with the rest of the thing re-formatted in Im-Material to withstand the stresses of simply existing inside the City; these materials are two of the only three that can) Sapporo also borrows the car from time to time, to make her short trips easier(it's equipped with Shift Shields and automated D-Shift-Down systems so that she doesn't need to navigate Fields and weave between other people's Omniversal Creations on the way to her destination)

Unlike Sapporo, Asahi has plenty of suitors even though she's a bit "catty," thanks to her outgoing attitude. And she plows through them like she plows through alcohol. Who they are? Well, like almost everyone else Asahi will have an arc dedicated to her and her past, so you'll have to wait to find out.

[T51R]

Character bio excerpts added. Please enjoy!

[T51R]

Wallpaper Update!

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v319/MechaniX_034/bigspansmall2.jpg

PM me for full-size version. For the later artwork, please enjoy! :)

[JDogindy]

I know this is a bump, but I just had to do it.

[Farealmer]

Question, are you going to reveal the origin of the Disark? For example are they beings that developed(naturally or otherwise) to that level or are they the "always have been" type?

[T51R]

Question, are you going to reveal the origin of the Disark? For example are they beings that developed(naturally or otherwise) to that level or are they the "always have been" type?

I'm planning for that to be done during the Wolfen arc that focuses on this bloke called "Kombat." Nudoru will be pretty surprised in this one I'll guarantee you. Their origin will also be explained in this arc, and why they did what they did(get ready for a few big ones; I want to do this particular story as Kombat's history. Also known as the "Forest Retreat Story.":D )

[T51R]

Some more wallpaper.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v319/MechaniX_034/nodeswebOLDCHARSWPcopyJPEG.jpg

I'm playing with the art style a bit now, and I think I'm getting a bit better. These are also the finalized character designs and how everyone usually looks: wearing casuals.

If you noticed that Nikuu's eyes are different, you're right. Her sighting system is the same as Yuuri's in that she "sees" through MOV Macro Refraction, or simultaneous pre-imaging and after-imaging. Its a development through which other sensing systems are made redundant in preventing temporal and cross-continual attack or defense; there's no point in splitting a previous or future version of you into a different dimension or Creation and attacking from there; she'll catch it straight away where earlier non EX-u's are a bit slower in picking that up. It also makes it impossible to escape through being Omnipresent.The MR system also makes it near impossible to pre-empt, counter or defend against what she's going to do.

The main cast are the only NODE units that haven't applied the upgrade, preferring to go by experience instead of the EX-u technology.

[JDogindy]

Some more wallpaper.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v319/MechaniX_034/nodeswebOLDCHARSWPcopyJPEG.jpg

I'm playing with the art style a bit now, and I think I'm getting a bit better. These are also the finalized character designs and how everyone usually looks: wearing casuals.

If you noticed that Nikuu's eyes are different, you're right. Her sighting system is the same as Yuuri's in that she "sees" through MOV Macro Refraction, or simultaneous pre-imaging and after-imaging. Its a development through which other sensing systems are made redundant in preventing temporal and cross-continual attack or defense; there's no point in splitting a previous or future version of you into a different dimension or Creation and attacking from there; she'll catch it straight away where earlier non EX-u's are a bit slower in picking that up. It also makes it impossible to escape through being Omnipresent.The MR system also makes it near impossible to pre-empt, counter or defend against what she's going to do.

The main cast are the only NODE units that haven't applied the upgrade, preferring to go by experience instead of the EX-u technology.

So what defines a NODE unit now is whether or not they they decide to use the technology?

You know, I'm probably deciding to try changing from Photoshop to the Gimp, Mech (for some bizarre reason, my PS keeps crappin' out and I'm making the transaction from PS to PhotoStudio and back). I'll be willing to show you a page from my pilot comic once I get it done.

[Lord of Nonsensical Crap]

Great stuff, T51R. (So THAT'S what Nudoru looks like without his mask) Where the heck is Miso, though?

Anyway, looking forward to more...um...stuff. Yes. (Resumes staring at the catgirls in both pics)

[T51R]

JDog: Technology and combat ability is pretty much secondary here; what defines the characters is how they choose to live(work selection, pastimes, social groups etc.) other than that, each NODE has a different means of acticating their ARAMUS counterpart(I've been pushing this development to make the series more unique) They also use their arsenals in different ways: Kansai is basically brutal, blunt force trauma where Hakate and Mame are more manipulative at work. Sayaka's pretty over-the-top creative and Nikuu's just plain scary. Yer, but the biggest defining factor is personal traits.

LONC: I wanted to do a huge spread for this one but cramming more into the screen would have made it a bit messy. I think I'll do the three Fates next(as well as a bit on their Familiars)

[JDogindy]

JDog: Technology and combat ability is pretty much secondary here; what defines the characters is how they choose to live(work selection, pastimes, social groups etc.) other than that, each NODE has a different means of acticating their ARAMUS counterpart(I've been pushing this development to make the series more unique) They also use their arsenals in different ways: Kansai is basically brutal, blunt force trauma where Hakate and Mame are more manipulative at work. Sayaka's pretty over-the-top creative and Nikuu's just plain scary. Yer, but the biggest defining factor is personal traits.


Oh. Thanks, man. I just needed a refresher on how a NODE unit is definined.

[T51R]

Next up are Amethyst, Amber and Obsidian. Collectively known as The "Fates." Shown here in casual dress.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v319/MechaniX_034/theFATEScopy.jpg


General Overview:

Role in The City:

“The Fates” is the collective nickname given to the three office workers who find homes for the Lost Children who appear beyond the Void Lands outside the City of Dreams. They leave the City late and return early since they’re usually inundated with work. Instead, a “gentleman’s obligation” can be accepted by anyone in the City to usher in the young ones. Any of The Fates can send a number of people out to do a retrieval, but they tend to select NODE’s since the task can sometimes entail confrontation with Deity Primes who are reluctant to release their Creations. These children generally were discarded by their Deities or were used as playthings. As such, they knew little or no joy and lived out their short lives in either poverty, disease or simply didn’t survive long enough to know them. It’s the job of Amethyst, Amber and Obsidian to find them homes with people who will love them regardless of their pasts.

They have no administrative control of the Citadel, but they managed to set up their offices in there nonetheless(one of the biggest dramas in the City was when they just showed up with several dimensions and Macro-Multiverses worth of stuff leading to a short confrontation with Sapporo and Asahi. Which ended before lunch.) The three of them were given the five more scenic decks opposite Reception, as well as a Gate of their own and haven’t moved since(they occupy some of the best spots in the Citadel, and they know it.)

Crazy stuff:

Over time they formed a close bond with the pair of catgirls who run the place and the five of them are considered one of the most powerful groups within the City of Dreams. Including Sayaka and Mame, they make up the “Seven Divas of Doom,” an all-girl Power Metal group with a penchant for causing widespread deafness every time without fail.

Away from work and their friends, they’ve chosen to live together as a family of sisters. Unlike the rest of the main cast however, they choose to travel to and from The City; they assist Seraph in the evening at the halfway house in the Void Lands and live there as well. Their home is the extension that was built for the staff; until they came along, the place was empty except for Seraph and the many children waiting to enter The City(Seraph’s charges) They also have rooms at either Sayaka’s or Nikuu’s places if they need them. Seraph for the most part plays the role of the eldest sister, having taken on the housekeeping and cooking duties while her younger “siblings” go out to work. Unlike The Fates, Seraph hardly ever enters The City seeing as she can’t leave her charges and come back later without having to clean up randomly created instances of Existence.

One of their most memorable outings was when they faced down the five incarnations of the original Fates themselves: The Parcae, the Moirae, the Aristoare, the Beten and the Weird Sisters in a trans-versal relay not unlike a cross between The Amazing Race and Survivor. They were disqualified for blowing up several Macro-Multiverses by starting a low-yield Duirmuirgic Pulse Detonation Drive that they smuggled along with them(they had hoped to use it to power a Farer Vessel to take them to their next destination, which exploded along with the rest of that Creation. This incidentally also sent their competition to their doom; the three of them had to Re-Create the five sets of Fates from scratch after the explosion) Unfortunately, the show ended that episode as the audience was also admitted to Intensive Care due to Amber’s WOMD going off unexpectedly. It also prompted plenty of other Prime Deities to beware of engaging them in cosmic contests because to put it simply, they cheat.

Pastimes:

Besides shopping, they tend to hold small concerts beneath The Citadel as it roams around the place. Since they can’t leave easily, they schedule their gigs to coincide with its travels so that they can have them after dinner. They’re also avid beach-goers. Most of the time however they tend to stay home resting while pursuing their own interests: guns for Obsidian, bombs for Amber and various sharp instruments for Amethyst(Seraph does insist that if they are going to go to the beach, then the children should go as well)

Other than that, they really don’t get out much and are usually seen either very late or very early thanks to work. They travel together and are almost never apart.

Personal Bio's on the way as well as Ceremonial Dress

[Farealmer]

How long have children been brought to the city of dreams?

[Farealmer]

Um T51R, did you see my question?

[T51R]

Um T51R, did you see my question?

Haven't been browsing here for a bit m8, sorry about that. I'm trying to think about whether to say it here or wait actually since that's one of the more important elements to the City of Dreams. If you want I'll PM you it but if anything I'd like to have some material in reserve.

[Farealmer]

Haven't been browsing here for a bit m8, sorry about that. I'm trying to think about whether to say it here or wait actually since that's one of the more important elements to the City of Dreams. If you want I'll PM you it but if anything I'd like to have some material in reserve.
I just mentioned it because it might be a plot hole depending on the time. If it happened during the riegn of the Disark, wouldn't they notice random children dissapearing from their area of control? If the answer requires spoilers by all means PM me.

[T51R]

More character art:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v319/MechaniX_034/SUPPORTINGCHARACTERS.jpg

Info pack on the way.

[JDogindy]

More character art:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v319/MechaniX_034/SUPPORTINGCHARACTERS.jpg

Info pack on the way.

Lookin' good, Mech. BTW, where are you at in terms of NODES: Zero? I mean, you should be at the point where Sayeka is facing off with the other guy, probably.

[JDogindy]

I've decided to bring this thread back up to showcase that T51R's future webcomic in the makings.

Or, simply, I bumped.

[Lord of Nonsensical Crap]

As usual, badass. (Though Arashi reminds me of a fusion of Ken from Street Fighter with Archer from Fate/Stay Night)

BTW, I realize I've had a loooooong absence from RPing (for which I apologize), so what's happened with Mugen Universe while I was on hiatus? Is it still going, or has it activity on it more or less died?

[JDogindy]

As usual, badass. (Though Arashi reminds me of a fusion of Ken from Street Fighter with Archer from Fate/Stay Night)

BTW, I realize I've had a loooooong absence from RPing (for which I apologize), so what's happened with Mugen Universe while I was on hiatus? Is it still going, or has it activity on it more or less died?

I'm not sure. I haven't done anything with it in weeks, and neither have OM or Mech. Personally, I'm trying to get my name out for the webcomic by setting up a DeviantArt account and posting some works.

[T51R]

Hi guys, just letting you know that NODES:Web isn't dead by any means. here's what's been happening in my life thus far:

-I've been allowed to remain in Australia after my studies on a bridging visa as I intend to settle here. However, employers don't take kindly to people with these visas as they may or may not leave on short notice. Hence, to maintain myself while having a stable income I have decided to start a business here in Oz.

This has taken up most of my time, specifically in R&D.

-I've also been climbing the Club ranks in circuit racing, and in yesterday's joint EXE/Circuit Club event, finished third overall. Victoria took the majority win over New South Wales, and out of the top ten positions won 9/10. I believe the next event will be a reverse battle, with the VIC boys going up to NSW to race on the host's home ground. I believe my current PB time puts me in the top-15 field of Evolution drivers, of the Ametuer ranks(if I did the math right LOL)

As for the webcomic proper, I am re-starting production with a more refined art and storytelling style which has been in development for several weeks now, I will post sample art and I think it is far superior to the original pages displayed. It concentrates much more on flow than graphics. The re-production will also focus more on the PH context, leaving the City of Dreams for NODES 01: Nudoru Kaarage. JDog, it will still follow the storyline we discussed so please don't worry.

FFR, I am currently producing a short to address your question, and it will also demonstrate JDog's want for imagery of the "Dimensional Up/Downshift" that happens when a platform returns to its Node Prime.

[T51R]

Here's the first five pages:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v319/MechaniX_034/NODES%20CBR%20Short/page01.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v319/MechaniX_034/NODES%20CBR%20Short/page02.jpg

[T51R]

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v319/MechaniX_034/NODES%20CBR%20Short/page03.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v319/MechaniX_034/NODES%20CBR%20Short/page04.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v319/MechaniX_034/NODES%20CBR%20Short/page05.jpg

[JDogindy]

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v319/MechaniX_034/NODES%20CBR%20Short/page03.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v319/MechaniX_034/NODES%20CBR%20Short/page04.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v319/MechaniX_034/NODES%20CBR%20Short/page05.jpg

If there's anything Death doesn't like, it's rhetoric. :biggrin:

As for the webcomic proper, I am re-starting production with a more refined art and storytelling style which has been in development for several weeks now, I will post sample art and I think it is far superior to the original pages displayed. It concentrates much more on flow than graphics. The re-production will also focus more on the PH context, leaving the City of Dreams for NODES 01: Nudoru Kaarage. JDog, it will still follow the storyline we discussed so please don't worry.

FFR, I am currently producing a short to address your question, and it will also demonstrate JDog's want for imagery of the "Dimensional Up/Downshift" that happens when a platform returns to its Node Prime.

Well, considering your revisions, would you be willing to send me an example of your new concept, like, say, Tiffany encountering Sayeka in the bayou river. That's the moment where the two planes officially meet.

[JDogindy]

Bump, cuz I like seeing this thread in the first page of the Artists forum. :wink:

BTW, Mech, how far are you on the little example I asked for? I gotta get moving because I'm busy signing out of HS.

[T51R]

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v319/MechaniX_034/newWALLPAPER2008copy.jpg

[JDogindy]

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v319/MechaniX_034/newWALLPAPER2008copy.jpg

Ooh... I like Gray so much. So this means you're back, Mech? Just outta curiousity, where are you at in NODES: Zero? We still got that pact.

[T51R]

Having to get other stuff done now, I haven't gotten very far with it at all. Anyhoo, here's some of my pencil sketches that deal with the PH cast for the Zero crossover.


http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v319/MechaniX_034/PHcharactersketches.jpg

Hope you like it. :smile:

[JDogindy]

Having to get other stuff done now, I haven't gotten very far with it at all. Anyhoo, here's some of my pencil sketches that deal with the PH cast for the Zero crossover.


http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v319/MechaniX_034/PHcharactersketches.jpg

Hope you like it. :smile:

I like it so much! It's the Stallwalls.

[T51R]

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v319/MechaniX_034/street16PENCILS.jpg

A bit more from the sketchbook: Elena and Holli from Street16.

[T51R]

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v319/MechaniX_034/newWALLPAPER2008copy.jpg

A bit about Gray:

Name: Gray(just Gray)
Appearance: humanoid female
Production run #: unknown

Character notes: Gray's origins are either unknown to the NODES system or classified top secret. The only unit to have the tasking capacity to operate two seperate ARAMUS tactical support systems she is an anomaly that, according to Kokumotsu and the Fates, could have happened only at three points in the history files of the NODE Prime: instances when two or more units scrambled full-powered Intervention platforms into the same Creation and engaged in combat.

What the other units do know however, is that when she first came online it took both EX-U's as well as other residents to finally bring her under control when she appeared in front of the Transcontinual Gate system, across the City of Dreams in the form of a small child with silver hair. In a concerted operation Yuuri and Nikuu simultaneously engaged her as a "Category One, State-55 Security Breach," meaning, with full intent to either contain or failing that, destroy. Barely able to handle Gray on their own, the day got steadily worse when she deployed her own ARAMUS units Light & Dark in response to the multi-planar assault. The NODE Prime finally decided to reign in the new, unclassified unit through overwhelming force and dispatched two of its most experienced specialists: Kaarage Nudoru and Kansai as well as its Special Operations pair of nutters Mame and Hakate.

The battle ended outside the City, with Gray finally contained and her Divinity Instrumentation Drives locked down(under examination, it was discovered that most of her systems were paired and independently sentient) No efforts were spared to find out how a unit could have simply popped up out of nowhere, and the only short-term conclusion was that she was produced when data produced by two independant units re-created a Pulse, henceforth starting a mini-evolution of a seperate entity. The "entity" was found to have evolved only one unit, Gray, and was thus co-opted into the NODE Prime itself.

Gray was finally re-activated as a NODE unit and allowed to "grow up" in the City with her "brothers and sisters," being given an apprentice's role. Unlike other NODEs, Gray exhibited a very peculiar aspect: from her first appearance, she physically developed into a young woman wose initial power more than tripled the more Combat Data she took on from the other units. Unlike the others, she is barred from the Intervention Cascade, the special area in the City of Dreams from which the other NODEs watch over the macro-omniversal Creations of the lower Deities, Gods and Goddesses. The reason for the decision was quite simple: she was found to be unable to use the Platform system, and thus unable to enter into other Creations without outright destroying them. She was found to have several times the multiplanar mass than most of the others, and is still waiting for a compatible Platform plug-in to be developed in order for her to complete on-the-job training(even though she has the complete library of mission files, she still needs to build up her own tactical library)

In the end, she accepted a position as the Citadel's head of security answering to Sapporo and Asahi while continuing to train with Arashi. Several people have conducted their own investigations, Kokumotsu and Seraph pairing up to take the lead in research on Gray while Nakato(Xtaxis) concentrates on finding out what makes her dual-ARAMUS system tick(they seem to be a part of Gray herself, rather than the traditional independant unit that is attached to a NODE)

Currently: Gray lives out in the suburbs, well away from everyone else. Not knowing exactly where she came from exactly gives her a more "mortal" outlook on her role and responsibilities. She accepts that it was probably two weaponized Data Bursts that led to her evolution, however, she is quite clueless as to who her "parents" might be. She's a bit of a hermit, partly because she does have various data packets that seem to have no bearing on anything.

Sapporo is perhaps her closest friend, with the two of them being the quiet type preferring to stay indoors. Gray herself isn't too crazy about the boisterous nature and often off-the-wall antics of the others, and so usually communicates remotely. Everyone else of course, keeps trying to break her out of her shell. Its quite possibly Kadachi who understands her best, with his experience as a teacher he knows that it will take time for Gray to develop further as an individual and that for the time being, she will need to reach out on her own.

Personality: Gray is quite shy, and about the only one in the City who still has questions about her origin. She'll shop either early in the "day" or when everyone else is at home. Her reserved nature comes out in her sense of style, which in contrast to her form-fitting and skin-tight tactical armour, is usually very concealing: long dresses, baggy pants and loose-fitting shirts fill out her wardrobe. She often wonders why her peers' ARAMUS units are independant and have their own personalities, while Dark & Light are nondescript and don't speak. In that respect she does hope for a companion one day, but realises that in her unique position, that is very unlikely. It might be this common "dream" that led her and Sapporo to form their bond, and thats reinforced by the tales and stories that she borrows in rather large quantities.

Combat: In a scrap, Gray is downright brutal in her methods employing a visually stunning mix of fighting techniques learnt at Headbusting for Girls. Unlike the others, she tends to prefer grappling to striking, ending her battles with a deft stomp to sensitive zones or brute force amputations.

Glitch: The mystery of Gray's origin is further compounded by the strange mix of glitches she has: she is prone to dying multiple times a day and seems to attract strange objects to herself(usually in the form of projectiles) She doesn't seem to be able to pilot anything to save her life either, once sending the Citadel into the ocean and cutting several buildings in two by turning Asahi's glide platform into an impromptu, airborne chainsaw. Her ARAMUS units, when deployed, also act up sometimes and commit random acts such as petty theft, vandalism, battery and assault. :biggrin: All these factors led Amethyst to conclude with Kadachi at one point that Gray might not actually be a NODE(his argument was that there are some forms of data that she can't directly assimilate, and those forms of data are cross-compatible even with EX-U's) and that she might be something else entirely, something mysterious, new, and incredibly dangerous.

[T51R]

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v319/MechaniX_034/NODEZZerocovercopytype2.jpg

Are you ready? :evilsmile:

[Farealmer]

Are you ready? :evilsmile:
YES!!!
"ready dance"

[JDogindy]

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v319/MechaniX_034/NODEZZerocovercopytype2.jpg

Are you ready? :evilsmile:

It's about time!

[T51R]

Here's the finished pt. 1 of the mini strip; pt 2 will show more of the new graphic style.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v319/MechaniX_034/NODES%20CBR%20Short/page01.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v319/MechaniX_034/NODES%20CBR%20Short/page02.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v319/MechaniX_034/NODES%20CBR%20Short/page03.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v319/MechaniX_034/NODES%20CBR%20Short/page04.jpg

[T51R]

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v319/MechaniX_034/NODES%20CBR%20Short/page05.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v319/MechaniX_034/NODES%20CBR%20Short/page06.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v319/MechaniX_034/NODES%20CBR%20Short/page07.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v319/MechaniX_034/NODES%20CBR%20Short/page08.jpg

[T51R]

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v319/MechaniX_034/NODES%20CBR%20Short/page09.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v319/MechaniX_034/NODES%20CBR%20Short/page10.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v319/MechaniX_034/NODES%20CBR%20Short/page11.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v319/MechaniX_034/NODES%20CBR%20Short/page12.jpg

[T51R]

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v319/MechaniX_034/NODES%20CBR%20Short/page13.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v319/MechaniX_034/NODES%20CBR%20Short/page14.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v319/MechaniX_034/NODES%20CBR%20Short/zlastpage1.jpg

[T51R]

Next...welcome to the Void Lands, and the Halfway House!

[JDogindy]

Nice presentation of the short, Mech. BTW, did you get my PM?

[T51R]

Here's some artwork for JDog's birthday. Yes, I have been reading Kodomo no Jikan. RELIGIOUSLY. :biggrin:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v319/MechaniX_034/TIFFANYLOLI.jpg

[JDogindy]

Tiffany's a loli? What have you done?! :biggrin:

Seriously, good work on it, Mech. And I'll be using this as an example for that new tip, although I should point out that I won't be drawing her in that way.

The undies are cute, however.

[T51R]

Tiffany's a loli? What have you done?! :biggrin:

Seriously, good work on it, Mech. And I'll be using this as an example for that new tip, although I should point out that I won't be drawing her in that way.

The undies are cute, however.

LOL you must provide Fanservice, too though! :biggrin: JK Seriously though, could you PM me some of your current work? I'd really like to see how you're getting along(especially with Tiffany's spacesuit designs)

[JDogindy]

LOL you must provide Fanservice, too though! :biggrin: JK Seriously though, could you PM me some of your current work? I'd really like to see how you're getting along(especially with Tiffany's spacesuit designs)

Yeah! I'll promise to have some fanservice in PH, but not a lot. I don't want to be Negima! :rolleyes: .

I did send you an inked image of Tiffany in the basics. Now, as for her spacesuit (battle armor) designs, I have been taking a breather from the armor drawings, but now that you asked, I'll get back to it and whip something up. I have been looking at more resources, like Gundam.

The one thing that I do want to do is draw the group of the protagonists from my comic, but Tiffany's suit designs are a top priority now. Again, I'll send you some works in a few days (I gotta rip some things for my game project).

[T51R]

Looking forward to seeing them bro. Anyhoo, here's teaser cover art for the finish of "Endings Anew," that will work as a showcase for the revamped art style:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v319/MechaniX_034/Page13.jpg

Hope everyone likes! :smile:

[T51R]

Some graphic art:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v319/MechaniX_034/RandomArt2.jpg

Been mucking around with the "power projection" visual representation, think it almost there, too

And of course, a bit of an art teaser for the new style:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v319/MechaniX_034/RandomArt1.jpg

[JDogindy]

That image of the forest of Yggdrasil is nice.

In regards to the next thing that I want to send you, I ran into another wall in the creative, but then I took a break (like you told me once) and I had a dream that pictured a good design. I'll crudely sketch what that was, so I don't forget it, but I'll wait until the creative juices get going again before I work on it enough to send it to ya.

[T51R]

Uhh, dude. That's a generic area, probably the only time I'm going to use those templates(they're the prototype pieces, and I used flattened CGI to make them, and used "forced perspective" to blend the character art and BG's a bit better. Much more effective than what I was doing before. Managed to get a look at some professional Manga equipment, and so managed to cook up the digital version) Using this technique I can "assemble" almost any background necessary without going heavy "full-on 3D" style CAD.

The completion of "Endings Anew" will show the actual Yggdrasil Forest(templates being built now, as the "roots" are giving me some trouble) as well as its guardian before the pretty obvious ending.

[JDogindy]

Uhh, dude. That's a generic area, probably the only time I'm going to use those templates(they're the prototype pieces, and I used flattened CGI to make them, and used "forced perspective" to blend the character art and BG's a bit better. Much more effective than what I was doing before. Managed to get a look at some professional Manga equipment, and so managed to cook up the digital version) Using this technique I can "assemble" almost any background necessary without going heavy "full-on 3D" style CAD.

The completion of "Endings Anew" will show the actual Yggdrasil Forest(templates being built now, as the "roots" are giving me some trouble) as well as its guardian before the pretty obvious ending.

Well, it looked nice. Isn't THAT all that matters? :tongue:

[T51R]

Righto ladies gents, minor update:

I have a job interview this coming Thursday. If I can carry it off, it will allow me to afford the Web Hosting for both the webcomic AND professional online portfolio.

WISH ME LUCK! :smile:

[JDogindy]

Righto ladies gents, minor update:

I have a job interview this coming Thursday. If I can carry it off, it will allow me to afford the Web Hosting for both the webcomic AND professional online portfolio.

WISH ME LUCK! :smile:

As a man trying to find work to cover his basic needs, like video games, I wish you the best of luck.

[JDogindy]

BUMP!

Hey, Mech, two-part question:

1. Did you get the job, and...
2. Did you read my latest PM?

[T51R]

Sayaka redesign; tried to make 'er more of a tomboy to contrast with the rest of the girls...

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v319/MechaniX_034/SAYAKAREDESIGN.jpg

Hope you like!

[Farealmer]

Yay and update, i was beginning to fear you've abandoned NODES.

[T51R]

Nah m8 I'm not abandoning it. Plenty(actually, ALL) of fiction is based in this world, but when you have to literally design-a-context after this world and all its elements have faded to the Currents, it opens up a huge can of worms. The worms are being slowly but surely eradicated but. Its like trying to plan a factory to make swiss army knives, or something.

[Farealmer]

Nah m8 I'm not abandoning it. Plenty(actually, ALL) of fiction is based in this world, but when you have to literally design-a-context after this world and all its elements have faded to the Currents, it opens up a huge can of worms. The worms are being slowly but surely eradicated but. Its like trying to plan a factory to make swiss army knives, or something.
Believe me i know the feeling only in my case instead of the art i have to design game mechanics for such a world.

[T51R]

Believe me i know the feeling only in my case instead of the art i have to design game mechanics for such a world.

I hate to say it, but if you're having to come up with game mechanics you're double-fucked if you're inventing your own systems of physics. Hope you've stocked up on Panadol, you might very well need it(if you don't already do) :eek:

[Farealmer]

I hate to say it, but if you're having to come up with game mechanics you're double-fucked if you're inventing your own systems of physics. Hope you've stocked up on Panadol, you might very well need it(if you don't already do) :eek:
Fortunatly i piggybacked off the d20 game system. So the worse work is done, it's the heavy modification for things the d20 system was never meant to handle, such as statting beings on Galactus, Eternity, God and even NODES level and the removal of dice that keeps me busy.

[JDogindy]

While I sorta mean to do this as a bump, I do it for two reasons:

Reason 1 is personal: I sent you (T51R) a PM, and I was hoping you got it (and if so, please respond) and...

Reason 2 is all about this very webcomic. I am aware of real-life problems, as well as you setting up a new artstyle, but I was wondering if this plan will be set up in motion.

[JDogindy]

I decided to bump this one final time, and I mean final, because I would like to know the overall status of NODES: Web. Mech, I know that you are working with jobs (and a trip to Singapore, to boot), but are you still setting things up with your webcomic?

Also, I'd like to know about the status of the card we discussed. I'd like to know when I can probably see it, because I've been wanting to look at it for quite some time.

Have a good day.:smile:

[Sharkerbob]

Dis here be some funkadelic stuff, dawg. FFR just directed me to this thread, and I see some very interesting world set up here. Fascinating stuff, I can tell the amount of heart and fun you're putting into it. Good work.

[T51R]

Dis here be some funkadelic stuff, dawg. FFR just directed me to this thread, and I see some very interesting world set up here. Fascinating stuff, I can tell the amount of heart and fun you're putting into it. Good work.

Thanks for that Sharkie. And no, NODES:Web isn't dead. Not by a longshot. I'm settling into a new job now, and its the job I've been waiting for for the last 2 years. But anyhoo, here's the latest piece:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v319/MechaniX_034/finalwork.jpg

Back row: Instructor Nakato "Xtaxis" Fujiwara, Instructor Gyuuniku "Niku" Mijuku, Headmaster Arashi Senada

Front Row, assistant teachers: Nana(Found Child) Karu(Found Child) Suko(Found Child) Saito(Found Child) Forte(Found Child) and Sora(Found Child)

This is the core group from Martial Studio: Headbusting For Girls which is, obviously, an all-girls martial arts training facility for the young ones who have just been ushered into enter into the City of Dreams. HBG works as a form of secondary education after the Halfway House, which gets the Lost Children used to their new forms while Seraph teaches them how to restrain their power.

HBG however, teaches the young ladies how to use their power, and how to control it. It has no sister studio, as the entities that take a male form have a different culture when it comes to development: a mentorship system where they understudy while living in-house with someone who is more experienced.

However, the young ladies take a different path that is better protected and more structured.

This is the job of Arashi Senada, headmaster and Principal Instructor of Martial Studio: Headbusting for Girls!

How effective are his teachings? Look at it this way: during Nana's graduation ceremony from HBG, Nudoru cranked his Void Phase up to full and decided to attack through the incoming blow that would be both negated and diffused. Nana hit him hard enough with her opening attack that she overwhelmed the Void Phase system and forced him to soak the rest of the blow. needless to say, for Nudoru, it was the start of a very, very long day(though, she didn't have as much luck with Kansai's armour systems during her Kumite, that every young lady has to fight in order to leave the Studio as a student for the last time)

Tasty tidbit:

The HBG graduation ceremony

It is conducted in two parts: the first part is a ceremonial event were someone who is close to the Graduate is chosen to bar the way to the special chamber where the certificate is presented. The Graduate is escorted to the chamber, which is at the center of the HBG complex, and then has to get her own graduation certificate through any of the means taught at the Studio. The "defender" will protect the hallway leading to this chamber, and will try to stop the graduate from passing through. This usually ends in success, as the "defender" will usually hold back unless the Graduate is really that exceptional.

The hallway is highly visible from the dormitory hallways affording the other students a great view of the proceedings. After this stage is finished, the Graduate returns to the dorm to pack her things and prepares to leave. This begins the second pat of her trial:

The Kumite.

The Kumite is a very special part of the graduation ceremony, where one says "goodbye" to her fellow students for the last time; the next time they walk into HBG, they return as friends.

After the graduate has packed her things, her fellow students bar the way out of the dorm(basically saying "don't leave us, we'll miss you!") The Graduate must then fight her way out of the dorm, and into the Training Area. The students will engage the Graduate one-by-one, and this stage takes the longest.

In the Training Area, the Assistant Teachers will be waiting, and the Kumite continues. This is a formality of course, and it isn't an all-out fight. So, there's lots of cheering from the students and lots of laughs as cheap shots and dirty tricks adorn these two stages.

The third stage is where it gets serious, as the Headmaster himself will bar the way to the exit. At this stage, the Graduate needs to land only one clean hit to pass through, and when she does, she goes to the parking lot. Where things get really serious: as an initiation to the City of Dreams(read: wake-up-call as to how serious things can really get) the Graduate will have to hold her own against a fully-fledged and skilled fighter. Winning is not a necessity(after all, recent graduates don't have as much experience or knowledge) but at they are not allowed to be knocked out.

Upon passing the last defender, the Graduate is out in the real world, and the friends she has made outside the school come to pick her up(no-one else is allowed in the school during the ceremony, so the visitors only get to watch the street fight) Normally, many old friends who have entered The City, met at the Halfway House come to watch and meet their old-time playmates as equals, for the first time.

Across the road however, is a reserve that is quite a beautiful bit of ground that's used for picnics on the weekend and quiet time during the week. So needless to say, the after-party continues on well into the night.

The next day, some Graduates return to the Void Lands to stay at the Halfway House until they can arrange their own homes in the City, while others go straight to work that they have lined up before graduation. Others take a vacation, while yet others go on to mentorships(ie. Sora and Forte understudy Grey in order to become security specialists later on, but in the meantime work as Arashi's assistant teachers)

And very few follow in Kansai's footsteps. And become bums. :tongue:



Character profiles coming soon...

[T51R]

Character Profiles

Alrighty, here's a short rundown on whoever's involved in the day-to-day running of Martial Studio HBG. Some you've met before, and some are being introduced here in this post. Let's begin with the ones we already know:

Nakato "Xtaxis" Fujiwara

Here we see Nakato with his full-face cowl retracted(as he usually appears; he only uses the cowl when welding stuff at his weekend job down at Garage Power) As another Martial Arts enthusiast, its no wonder he quickly became friends with Arashi and was one of the first to respond when he founded HBG and sent the word out that he needed teachers.

Nakato hails from one of Kokumotsu's many Constructions, the Machine God offering several of his exceptional people the choice as to whether or not they could follow him into the City of Dreams. As such, Nakato remains in the City via Kokumotsu's power, with his former Deity Prime acting as a sponsor(in truth, Koku just wants people around with whom he can talk about the old days) Nakato jumped at the chance to see what lay beyond the veil that even the True Gods couldn't penetrate, and to witness first-hand the power that crushed the Disark in one fell swoop.

What he found however was not only normal, but the life he had been secretly looking for: daily work that he enjoyed, with no-one who would look at him differently and his "brothers" close by. Being once mortal, and a flesh-and-blood humanoid, he identifies very well with the children who come and go from HBG, and helps them settle in both when they arrive at the front door, and when they leave to take up work in the City itself. He's quiet and studious, and can most of the time be found in Arashi's study trying to make sense of the scrolls his employer had received during his travels between the 'verses of his many mentors.

He and Arashi share a strong friendship born from their common interest in martial arts. In fact, it can be said that even at journey's end, Nakato re-ignited Arashi's passion for fighting and was one of the motivating factors in HBG's founding.

A practitioner of the magickal killing art known as the "Kuj-no-in," he is happy that he's found a place beyond the reach of life and death, where Creation and Destruction have no meaning other than being words from a 'Verse that has long since passed into the Currents: in the City of Dreams, the Kuj-no-in can be practiced freely as a form of exercise and mental stimulation, and doesn't need to be kept a secret(where it had to in Creation; its killing potential was simply too great to let out into the general population) And at HBG, he can teach every facet of it without worrying about his charges killing each other with it(he encourages the girls to have fun with it. Shortly after, they invented the "Death Game" during which they administer all sorts of pain upon Kansai during the resident Lolicon's nightly panty-raids and ill-fated shower/toilet photography sessions. Whoever gets the most kills by midnight wins. At midnight, its lights out.)

Nakato's claim to fame was being one of the few who stood shoulder-to-shoulder with Kokumtsu at the end of the Disark War, in the final moments before the first NODE came online and ended the threat on a permanent basis. As Xtaxis, Nakato forms the right arm component of the Ultimax Zero, a machine developed by Koku to act as his support unit during his plan to directly engage the Disark Lord seeking to enslave not only him, but the people in his Constructions as well. Even in his mortal existence, Nakato was a truly exceptional and powerful fighter: during his life, he shattered a meteor bound for his planet, parried the shockwave into space, then smashed a second immediately after via leaving the planet under his own power(coming back was tricky though; he found that in order to avoid being burned up by re-entry, he would need to parry the atmosphere. So, he did. And made splashdown just fine. After parrying the ocean. Unfortunately, he couldn't parry old age. And he had a much-celebrated natural death at the age of 137 years young.)

Nakato's second life came more than a thousand years after his death. When the Disark finally reached Kokumotsu's sphere of power, Nakato was one of the chosen few hand-picked to be reborn on the planet Mechna, at the forefront of the conflict. This entailed growing up all over again, though he did it better the second time around.

"Growing up" entailed eventually leaving Mechna, the world lost to the Disark Lord shortly after. Lost and adrift, on the run from what seemed like an alien power, he joined his brothers Exodus, Genesis, Aranox and Rifle on a ship carrying refugees into the cosmos.

And, they crash-landed on Kokumotsu's equivalent of Earth. In the year 1879: the wild west. Camouflaging their ship as a mountain complex that seemed to appear overnight, they met several of the locals who joined them in preparation for the coming assault; already events of Earth were going strangely, with alien beings serving(or enslaved by) the Disark descending upon the young world.

Naming themselves Max-Fist, the rag-tag band grew to include Lang and Zack Slater, brothers from the modern period of that world flying for a super-secret wing of the US Air Force that used alien technology and the double agent Natasha Romanov, "the Vixen." Incidentally, this small band also included a relative of one of Street-16's members: Olga Fontaine, Holli's grandmother, a Russain immigrant from the period in which the refugees from Mechna landed.

When the time came to leave the Earth and join the battle to re-take Mechna, Olga opted to stay on the Earth as she was pregnant with Hollis' mother and her uncle. Lang, Zack and Natasha however chose to fight, and left for the alien world as representatives from their Earth in repayment for Max-Fist's assistance over the last few years(the Ultimax Zero had been successfully formed by then, and beat back the Disark Lord's forces to the point of retreat) The mission on Mechna? Unseal the planetary core, and in doing so make it once again possible for the Machine God, Kokumotsu, to walk the mortal plane.

This they did, though the cost was paid in lives. In the last moments before the turning of the battle, the Disark Lord appeared and was engaged directly by the Ultimax Zero, leaving Lang, Zack, Natasha, and several Mechna'an to press on towards the core. During this last-ditch effort, Lang was killed fighting hand-to-hand against one of the many races by then serving the Disark. In the end, it was Natasha who unlocked the core. With the structure of the 'Verse suffiently strengthened, a small aspect of Kokumotsu joined the battle on the dimensional planes and the conflict soon reached the Macro-Omniversal scale.

The rest as they say, is history. Koku and Nakato consider each other old war-buddies, and they sure act like it.

Though, they did get a hell of a shock when Nudoru finally told them what the Disark really were, and why Koku had so many problems in dealing with them(read: they shat bricks, there and then.) At this point, Miso pointed out that Kokumotsu was the most powerful True God that they had thus far encountered. After which, the pair left for the NODES Plane. They would meet again Eternities later, when Koku transcended himself and became the first True God to shed both his form and power to earn the acceptance of the City of Dreams, and thus the right to both enter and live in it. He ended up joining with the NODE Kanraku Shukuhai as an ARAMUS unit, drawing power from his friend in order to expand his own(oddly, Koku tends to reason out conflicts and any Intervention he's involved in seems to end in amicable agreement instead of broken heads all around. Kanraku just challenges everyone in the vicinity to CS while Koku does his job)

Zack and Natasha married eventually, and settled the Old West after promising their Constructor that they would enjoy their time together while keeping out of history's way. Once in a while, Nakato returns to his home Construction to visit the graves of his old friends, enters the afterlife to visit with them, and to watch over their descendants(though, getting shot several times by Holli wasn't one of his intentions...)

[T51R]

More on Arashi Senada, Headmaster and Principal Instructor, Martial Studio:Headbusting for Girls.

Do you know what its like to be the odd guy out, the guy who was so scary-looking, that no-one wanted anything to do with him? Well, welcome to the story of Arashi Senada's mortal life. Born of mixed bloodlines, his mother was turned out by her own family for falling in love with a man of a lower social standing. Nevertheless the pair made ends meet however they could, and even though the hardships were many they held on.

Arashi was born to a frail mother and an ordinary father in the slums, where they had moved to after losing their home. Growing up, he learned his craft on the street: he had to fight if he was going to steal, and he had to fight well if he was going to steal enough to help afford the medicines for his mother. His father slaved night and day, and finally, scraped together enough to put the young Arashi into school.

This marked a turing point for the then-eight year old Arashi: immediately, he began enrolling in the martial clubs one-by-one, and began fighting for money both in tournaments and on the street. It was the only way he knew to make a living, and as a yung up-and-comer finally landed the sponsorships that would see his being able to afford a home for his family by the time he was fifteen. At this point, his father took ill and began to slide down the proverbial slippery slope: some of the jobs the man worked had shortened his life, though his love for his son spurred him on.

For the first time in his life, Arashi found an opponent he couldn't defeat with his fists.

His father passed shortly after, and although his mother was comfortable, she too was beginning to show signs of her hard life on the street, homeless, moving from shelter to shelter and staving off, barely, malnutrition. Her body was withering, and even though Arashi brought home nutritious food every night it was already to late to reverse the damage.

Arashi fought on, desperately trying to save enough for the expensive operations that would prolong his mother's life. Until one night, with the rain pouring down, she called him up to the bedroom that she once shared with the man she loved.

"You've earned this life for yourself," she said to him, "thank you so much for sharing it with me."

With that, she joined Arashi's father in the afterlife. And with that, the young man of 17 years found himself alone in the world. It didn't help that he had gained notoriety as a fighter; no-one dared to hire him, and even fewer wanted anything to do with him. It helped even less that he was naturally scary-looking; people would scurry away whenever he looked at them.

He fought on, until there was nothing and no-one left to fight: on his world, Arashi Senada reached a level of strength that was untouchable. And yet, his heart was empty. Sitting at the top of the world, he secretly wished for a God to come and take him to Heaven, where he could be with his family once again.

It wasn't a God that appeared, but an Angel that fell from Heaven above beaten, bloody and close to death. She told the young Arashi of a great betrayal; one of her kind had staged a Coup De Etat, and had taken Heaven's Throne for himself and slain the Almighty with his own power. She told him to make his peace with the souls of his ancestors, and she told him of how souls were being enslaved so that the new "God" could his own empire over the dimensional 'verses.

Needless to say, the last part set Arashi off something fierce; he knew how much his parents had suffered for his sake, and he could not stand the thought of them doing the same in the life after death. "Take me there," was all he said, and hence began the legend amongst True Gods of the mortal man whose "Fist halved all Heavens and whose Feet felled all Hells."

Although, since no mortal man could hope to go to Heaven without first dying and losing all his strength, the Angel(she said her name was Aaritka) suggested that Arashi train as a disembodied soul instead of flesh and blood. This Arashi refused, saying that "this is the body my mother and father gave me, and I'll free them with this body." In order to know death, Arashi began an almost suicidal campaign against whatever being of dark or light he could find, until Death itself was sent to claim him by the new God.

Having learned enough about the Celestial Arts from the beings he had already beaten(in many cases, to death) Arashi marched headlong into his first big fight, knowing that if he succeeded, he would earn the right to enter Heaven as one of the Deathless Ones. The only difference being, that he would be the only Deathless One who had actually fought for and won his position instead of inheriting it.

Death returned to Heaven and reported its failure, only to be destroyed as punishment by the God which now sat upon the Throne. The omniscient and omnipresent One scoured his domain, and found no sign of the man who had beaten Death with only his fists.

Because the latter had punched through into another 'Verse, and was taken in by a neighboring deity(along with Aaritka, who was now his constant companion) Arashi and Aaritka spent aeons in that other 'Verse, and returned to his own as an even scarier-looking, and more importantly flesh-and-blood commander of his adoptive 'Verse's Heavenly and Hellish armies(imagine the amount of arse he had to kick to get there...) Backed by a power equal to his own God's, the fight would have gone on for Eternities with countless losses on each side.

IF. Arashi had not insisted on going it alone. Leaving his troops at the bridge before Heaven's Gate, Arashi walked forward alone. And tore the gate down with his Ki alone(as a side-effect, he also knocked out 1/4 of Heaven's army which had come to "receive" him. The other 1/4 that was there were outright destroyed) The Captains and Generals came out, and the General asked if he was there to free the souls back into the afterlife.

He answered, "no, I am here to free only two of them."

Arashi made his entrance to the palace by throwing all three of the Captains and the General through the front door(he literally used them as a battering ram) The last half of Heaven's army charged him, and Arashi threw his first punch since entering the Great Hall. Said punch annihilated the remnants of the Army, and shook the palace so badly that most of it collapsed. Most of it, except the Throne upon which his God sat.

Suddenly, Arashi realized a problem: he could not kill his God outright since the souls would also fade away. He had to reach another solution. And he did. He threw another punch, with his other hand. Right at where the omnipotent, omnipresent and omniscient One was sitting. The Throne blew apart under him, leaving him on the floor. "Release the souls, and leave." was all he said. "Whatever you have to give, I will take. And then, I'll show you what it means to feel mortal pain." Arashi proved his point by parrying the prerequisite "blast of white light from the Hand of God Himself," and walked right up to Him. "Do you believe me now?" (It also helped a good deal that by now, Arashi looked so scary that even the souls of his mother and father ran away...)

Needless to say, Arashi's God promptly left his domain in a hurry. Unfortunately, he didn't look both ways when he entered the space between 'Verses. And was promptly run down by a passing Sayaka(actually, he got too close to the intake on her bike and was converted back into pure Duirmuirgos to further feed her forward motion. She still doesn't know why that particular tank of gas gave her an added "oomph," as the True Gods who are in the know usually leave their excess energies outside for her to collect.)

Long story short, since Arashi's parents couldn't recognize him any more, he had to cut his hair and change his clothes. Along with having dental work done so he didn't appear to have fangs. Some time later(after a 200-year long makeover) Arashi was reunited with his parents, who still couldn't recognize him at first, but at least this time they didn't run away. Aaritka also made her name during that time, and stood in the place of power where the Throne once was(one does not spend aeons training with Arashi in the Celestial Arts and not pick up a few things. Said things come in handy when there's a power vacuum, and you need to beat everyone else into submission...)

"I told you that I'd free them with the body they gave to me," were Arashi's first words to his guardian angel(and now patron True Goddess) when they spoke again in private. Sighing, she asked him to secretly tell her the name he had given to his fist(so that she could seal it properly; by then Arashi's fighting had reached a level where it was just ridiculous, even to True Gods)

"Uhh," he replied, "I never thought about it. To me, its just head-busting..."

And so, Aartika, in all her divine and glorious power, named Arashi's style of the Celestial Arts "HEAD-BUSTING.":biggrin: And promptly sealed the name and the art. "Come and rest by my side," she offered after the deed was done, hinting that she had feelings for the still-mortal man. She paused. "Will you ever come back to us? To me?" In her omniscience, she knew that wanderlust had found its home in Arashi's heart, now that his mission was done. "Then, go. But write. And please, come back."

And off Arashi Senada, the Deathless, he whose fists halved all Heavens and whose feet felled all Hells, went.

One day, after surpassing all his mentors, he arrived at the Threshold. And was met by the hero, Anaheim.

The rest as they say, is history.

And yes, he did go back to Aartika eventually. And their relationship is now long-distance.:biggrin:

[T51R]

Dammit, not enough space. So. Lets continue with a new post in which we'll have the...

Tasty Tidbit:

"Headbusting for Girls" is the name Arashi chose for his school, because it was Aaritka who named his fighting style to begin with. Its his homage and sign of recognition/respect to her.

Originally, he wanted to place Aartika's symbol somewhere in the Dojo area, but Sapporo cautioned against this as the symbol would be a feedback path to Aaritka herself: as soon as it was formed, The City's power would flow backwards and annihilate not only Arashi's home 'Verse, but his Goddess as well(most likely everything else at that level as well. )

Then, he wanted to use her name. But Misha pointed out that the effect would still be the same.

So in the end, since he would be teaching his own stuff together with his fellow instructors, he followed tradition and named his school after his own form: HEADBUSTING, the name which was given to it by Aartika. And since his is an all-girl's school, well, we end up with "Headbusting for Girls.":biggrin:

[T51R]

Here's some scenery of the school. First, the normal dorms(this is the South Dormitory, which faces a forest and plain) Viewed towards the extreme corner of the complex:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v319/MechaniX_034/HBGpano-1.jpg

The entire complex is warmly styled, and it looks very normal(this is deliberate, so that the girls feel some familiarity with it which is very important) It enjoys a highly reinforced Field Architecture, enough to withstand Grey's long-range barrage(while protecting its occupants) when she first appeared in the City.

Living at Martial Studio: HBG is very informal, so its more of a community than a dojo(although, keeping the hallways clean and clear for others is a given.) Inside the shared rooms, which house 4-6 students each, the girls can may arrange things however they want.

There isn't much of a need for extra safety(notice the very big holes in the railing, and the height of the top dorm which is above the forest canopy) since Death and Life have no meaning here, and in knowing that it isn't uncommon for the newer students to just jump from the top floor to get to the bottom more quickly; as long as they don't land on someone else, it's just a great big "thud" if they land face or head-first.

The older students however, tend to take the stairs as after a while, the girls take things more slowly while they mature.

Tasty Tidbit:

The big, red sign on the door of the dorm tells that there is someone in this room who is about to graduate from the Martial Studio. The sign is put up a month before the graduation, and is changed as the countdown ticks down. It lets the other students know where to send their going-away gifts, and usually a room where an undergrad is staying is very lively until the night before the presentation ceremony.

[T51R]

Instructor profile: Instructor Gyuuniku "Niku" Mijuku

Now, one might wonder what a NODE unit, let alone a very special EX-U version is doing at a place that teaches very young girls control, finesse, skills of being, and how to fight. The answer is pretty simple: Niku liked being there to start with, and after the Gray Incident, she felt obliged to stay on after Arashi's students gave her a place to fix herself up after the beating she took.

In the beginning, Niku met Arashi through Yuuri, the second EX-U, who was delivering a very special child whom she would eventually "adopt" as her own(Yuuri was just going that way, and Niku thumbed a lift) Arashi's interest was quickly piqued as he had not ever seen any being with such offensive abilities, and he immediately offered Niku a "learning match." The match didn't go too well for Arashi, but the shaky friendship that it spawned eventually led to a bond of respect and mutual admiration: Arashi liked Niku's innate ability to quickly bond with his students, and Niku admired Arashi's stubbornness and outright refusal to abandon even the so-called "lost causes" among his charges. Slowly, Niku began coming by more and more often until she became a common sight around the place.

She and Nakato are closer as friends, the two having met through Kanraku before Martial Studio: HBG was founded. And it was through Nakato that she finally gave Arashi her trust. Unlike her co-instructor and employer however, Niku doesn't practice with her students as her EX-U weapons and tactics were called "too damned dangreous" to use with the girls, and so she only instructs. The students however, are well aware of what the NODE units can do as Arashi does give them use of the dojo area during certain periods to blow off steam(and when this happens, the entire school is invited to watch)

Niku's tenure as an instructor began after the Gray Incident, when an unknown being simultaneously appeared in front of the Transcontinual Gate system spread throughout the City of Dreams. One of its Aspects had also appeared in front of a nearby Gate, and it slipped right by Niku's sensor grid; she wasn't aware that something was coming until the first shot hit the complex and shook its Field Architecture to the core. Straight out of the kitchens, Niku set up her position in front of the school as Arashi, Xtaxis as well as the other assistant instructors locked the Martial Studio down and began moving the students to safety. As Niku began shooting down the incoming, she herself quickly became the target. The long-range barrage intensified, HBG's built-in defenses barely holding up, while Niku's own active shielding coped fine. Until the attacker's Aspect showed up. Miscalculating, Niku summoned her weapons, her ARAMUS, and engaged. And it went badly. Very badly. So badly in fact, that on that day Martial Studio: Headbusting for Girls, its students, instructors, and assistant instructors claimed their day in the sun: with Niku on the brink, they opened up the shelters and charged the Aspect en-masse, finally getting it to change direction but not before the assistant instructors managed to get Niku back inside the perimeter shield(Arashi even got to show off all his special moves, which made him very happy even though he got knocked out. Xtaxis got the shock of his life when Nana pulled a huge one out of nowhere and hit the Aspect so hard, it was actually forced backwards. Later he realized that she had used one of Yuuri's moves when he saw the battle in the City on TV. They found out the hard way that one-on-one, none of them could come close to the Aspect, and so Gray's remote Platform found itself in a one-sided gangfight)

The day wasn't over for Niku though; the NODE Prime(the System itself) sent the call out. In the first-ever concerted operation between no less than five NODE units, Niku was called back to the Citadel in order to defend the City. Barely finding her feet, she joined Kansai, Kadachi, Nudoru, Miso, Yuuri, Kouhii, Hakate and Mame along with her own heavily damaged ARAMUS, Aiida in an effort to merge the Aspects from around the City, and engage the result as a State-55 Breach.

At the end of it all, only Kansai's heavy armour system survived intact with the others taking heavy damage but still managing to pull off a narrow win. With Gray(the five NODE's named her that for her hair) locked away and being examined, Niku collapsed from the damage she had sustained in not one, but two big battles with the same opponent. When she woke up, she was back at the Martial Studio surrounded by not only her co-operators for the battle, but the people who she had slowly come to call "friends." Arashi gave her a room in the teacher's quarters, and there she stayed for quite a long while(the damage a fairly young Gray did to her was that bad) Even though she wasn't that able during her self-repair and regeneration, Niku still managed to help around the kitchens, and began teaching Multiplanar Combat Theory. As she got better, she started taking an active part in the lessons.

Eventually, she returned to her duties in the Intervention Cascade but still, something was missing. She went back to HBG to think, and the students greeted her with open arms. Then and there, she realized that she'd found her place. Now, even though she still has her apartment in the middle of the City, she lives at HBG with her role as a NODE becoming, to her, more of a second job that just needs to be done.

These days, even though Niku is still distant from time to time, she has become closer to everyone at the school and on dark and stormy nights, when the lights have failed and a student needs to go to the bathroom, its not uncommon for shrill screams to be heard when someone finds Niku following them around in her pajamas(part of her glitch: Niku has OCD, and she follows people around without realizing it)

The times she finds most painful however, even though she doesn't show it, is when one of her students graduates. She doesn't show it, but in The City, you never know when you'll run into someone again if you let them out of your sight. And to this day, Niku hasn't seen a good deal of her students since the day they walked out of the door(though she knows they're well, she would still like to meet them again one day) Needless to say she was elated when Karu(who Niku considers her best work as a teacher) came back to teach, as she'd been in contact with many of her former students and had brought with her letters from almost all of them. The rest who didn't write, came back for the day with Karu and they had a merry little reunion.

Tasty Tidbit:

When one of the girls graduates, Niku gives them a very special gift: a 'Verse that she's confiscated during her duties in the Intervention Cascade(part of her work is to find homes for 'Verses and People whose Deity Prime had to be "sanctioned" in one way or another) For many of the graduates, this Creation, given by Niku, is their first great responsibility(although some of the girls have their own that they'd brought with them from the Void Lands)

For her favorite students, she has something even more special: a private learning match where she imparts some of the nastier tricks of her trade, just in case they ever get into trouble over their heads(How effective is she as a teacher? Consider that the final stage of Karu's graduating Kumite was against Hakate, and she actually managed to knock him down twice)

Niku also has the (somewhat unwanted) distinction of being the first unit to be overwhelmed by battle damage. The problem was fixed before she returned to duty, and in a testing session against a freshly reactivated(and by then much, much stronger) Gray, the newest NODE unit failed time and time again to repeat her feat and the session ended in a war of attrition which was stopped before either of them got too damaged. The upgrade was passed on to the rest of the NODEs, making the lot of them far more resilient that they already were(or at least, Gray-proof)

Unfortunately, the upgrade still didn't help their case when faced with sub State-0 objects, so stabbing them with sporks is still quite rewarding indeed.

[T51R]

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Character Profile this evening...

[T51R]

Assistant Instructor profile: Nana "Hell's Pixie" Dekitate
Type: Found Child
Origin: Her own(she keeps her Home 'Verse, and her own Creator somewhere on her person, by her own power; she successfully reconstituted it after it was faded to the Currents)
General education: Halfway House and Martial Studio: Headbusting for Girls graduate, understudy of Kuyuuri Dekitate(adopted mother) Multiplanar Mass Assault tactics, understudy of J.C Whitney in Creational Management(completed) Trade apprentice of Exodus and Rifle(Garage Power) Akashic Driver maintenance and repair, completed


With a past not much more tragic than many of her brother and sisters at the Halfway House in the Void Lands, Nana Dekitate's come a long way since her death. The subject of a hit-snatch-and-grab operation by Yuuri and Kouhii, she's one of the better outcomes that both her schools have produced even though she wasn't anything really special early on. What sets her apart from many of the Lost, and subsequently Found Children however is that when she left HBG, her first act wholly on her own was to reconcile her past, face down her own Creator as a fresh Graduate, and to take both it, and her home 'Verse under her care without so much as a harsh word(it didn't help much that her home 'Verse had already passed into the Currents, and so she had to pull it back together with more than a bit of difficulty and reinstate her own True God) To that end, she learned how to take care of it from JC Whitney, the Caretaker(basically if you happen to be a True God with any number of Creations, and you need a day off, you can leave your stuff with him and come collect it when you get back...)

Spunky, confident and cautiously outgoing Nana's a very private person on her own, but when her adopted "mother" shows up, expect her to cut loose; for some reason or another Yuuri tends to inspire an extra level of confidence in her "daughter." She knows that Nana idolizes her, and she does her best to set an example(Nana's one of the Found Children to adopt NODE combat methods and tactics, and thus far the only one to be able to carry them off with success hinting at quite a bit of potential on her part) Although she isn't really fully "grown" yet, she does pack an incredible punch, capable of sending Kansai backwards with sheer brute force even though she hasn't had much luck with getting through his heavy armour and shielding(she tends to lurk around HBG at night to sabotage the Lolicon's attempts at stealing panties, and so she keeps trying. She absorbs his counterattacks pretty well, and only gets flung around which is expected with that kind of gap in raw power)

One of the most resilient students Arashi managed to produce, Nana's a real glutton for punishment and as she proved in both her Graduation Battles, can stand toe-to-toe with the earlier NODE units at least for long enough to get a few good shots in; in her first attempt at getting her scroll, she forced Nudoru's regeneration systems to go to work after breaching the Void Phase with one attack, which she followed up quite nicely. After which she had to leave the Ceremonial Chamber in quite a hurry(read: she ran for her life when Nudoru deployed Miso and prepared to fight seriously. Unfortunately for the pair Sora, then still a student, stabbed them both in the back of their heads with a lit stick of dynamite each, and promptly ended the pair's pursuit)

Nana's the quiet one among the Martial Studio's teaching staff and needs a bit of extra coercion to take part in the excursions and other events that Arashi organizes to give his students some exposure to what they will be facing when they leave HBG. That isn't much of a problem though, since she does have quite a sweet tooth and all too often gets baited along with brochures of "famous" cakes and other sweets from the locations(this the rest of the instructors trust Sora with, and in turn Sora counts of Karu to somehow filter the information down without being too obvious about it)

At work however, Nana's a damned dedicated teacher and will even spend her own rest hours with students who have problems with the day's teachings, or personal problems; its not at all uncommon for her not to be in her own quarters and to be found sleeping in the student dorms the next morning; being once a Lost Child herself, she can identify with what the younger girls have been through and the emotional/psychological trauma that some of them have trouble letting go of; most of them are content to just carry on, but some of them just can't.

Away from the Martial Studio though, Nana's life still hasn't changed much since her days in the Void Lands with Seraph since her circle of friends tends to move through their new states of being together; Sora, Forte, Karu, Suko and Saito were some of her closest friends at the Halfway House. The six of them were so close, that they even timed their own development around entering the City of Dreams together(THIS was rather funny, as all of them together with their case officers had to fit into Nudoru's car, which ended not unlike a massive and painful game of twister in the back seat, followed by an even more painful car accident) With the exception of Saito and Forte, who went on to understudy George and Misha respectively, they have always been together. The bond between them is so strong, that they even represented the Halfway House together in the Island Tournament and did quite well in their first try(even stalemating some of the more powerful beings known to compete, and doing it as a unit)

The only bond that Nana has which probably is stronger, is the one with her adopted "mother," Kuyuuri Dekitate, whose name she took without realizing what it meant(by the time she did, it was already too late...) And with two groups of people competing for her weekends, Nana isn't, like Misha, above using the ages old "trick" of omniprescence to spread herself out just enough(although she doesn't carry it off as well as Misha, who out-muscles her handily and has much more experience to boot) On her free days, she tends to spend her time at Yuuri's place baking(her hobby) and when she manages to score a day off now and then, they can be found prowling the City as a pair. Strangely, Nana doesn't trigger Yuuri's, well, Yuri tedencies and so their relationship actually works. To a certain degree, of course; Yuuri's AARMS system seems to have taken a liking to her. Which ends up in incestual yuri molestation more often than not.

Unlike most her age who are still searching for their calling, Nana already has her claim to fame: during the Gray Incident, she landed the only clean hit that actually moved Gray's Aspect from its chosen spot against its will. To this, Arashi and Nakato began to suspect that Nana might actually be a hell of a lot stronger than she realizes, but its potential that she doesn't tap into because she'd sooner rely on her friends to help get the job done. Those suspicions are reinforced in that during her studies with her mother, Yuuri keeps encouraging her to push her own limits to find just how far she can go(noted by none other than Seicross himself, who mentioned that though her skills might be lacking, Nana may be a very rare kind of pint-sized tank even by City standards. Albeit a tank that hasn't really gotten its act together just yet)

Relationship-wise, it isn't that easy for Nana to land one since she doesn't only have her friends looking out for her but an exceptionally powerful EX-U as well. They know that she can be a bit air-headed, and so go out of their way to keep her safe: she's been through enough, and to them she doesn't need any more pain. Which leads to problems for many potential suitors; they get stalked by Saito and Forte in the street, intimidated by Yuuri, and very often find themselves being the subject of long-range warning shots from Sora. And with Karu, the old roommate being constantly present, Nana is possibly one of the hardest people to approach.

Other than all that, Nana's your average girl next door. Friendly? Definitely. Pretty? More or less. If you like them "horny." Reliable? If you're on good terms with her, you can be damned sure that she'll have your back.

[T51R]

Next up, the first brother and sister pair of assistant teachers from Martial Studio: HBG!

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v319/MechaniX_034/Graduationparty.jpg

Character profiles to come shortly. And yes, THAT'S a "graduation party." :biggrin: In this post, we'll be focusing on two of the supporting cast who like everyone else will recieve a storyarc of their own: on the left Forte and on the right, Sora. Behind them our favourite pair of numbskulls Nudoru Kaarage and his Aramus unit, Miso(the only two who would choose improvised weapons when the real deal is closer at hand...)

[T51R]

Righto, lets get to it.

Names: Sora and Forte

Appearance: Humanoid, ranging from Loli/Shota forms to full adult or amalgamated adult. The amalgamated one doesn't have a name, but is called "Sortie" by everyone else; the pair only use it when they need to travel on one ticket, are dead broke(as is often the case) and have to get by on single meals, or need the extra firepower.

Type: Found Children

Origin: Unique "Godless Universe"

General Education: Both are graduates of the Halfway House, Sora is a graduate of Martial Studio: Headbusting for Girls and Forte completed his Apprenticeship under Misha. Currently understudying Grey to eventually become security specialists withn Seicross' Cathedral.

Occupation: Full-time Assistant Instructors at Martial Studio: Headbusting for Girls, part-time Security Assistants/Understudies, Citadel.

Residence: Martial Studio: Headbusting for Girls

History:

A "Godless Universe" is a rare thing to find; a Creation with either no Creator, or one that was built so damned tough that it outlived the True God that at some point brought it into being and managed it. Though rare, they exist. And such a place is what the twins Forte and Sora knew as the place of their death; though their home has long since passed into the Currents they still remember it as being violent, cruel and holding nothing very special at all. Their story begins not at the end of their lives, but at the end of their tiny Creation, when it and its parent Omniverse finally gave out and faded away along with all its Gods.

With short lives filled with nothing but suffering, their souls were allowed to pass into the Currents with their Creation and their Creator but their essences offered salvation by the Caretaker, J.C Whitney due to their potential shining out of the collapsing "is" and "is not" like a flashbang while actually surviving it. Curious that a Godless 'Verse could have birthed two potentially Transcendent beings, the Caretaker subjected the pair, then no longer sentient, to the ultimate test: one that even True Gods, and he himself, had failed time and again to pass. Calling upon an old friend, he cast both essences toward the Threshold. An action that would either destroy them completely, or see them ushered into the Void Lands. Both the beings essences survived wholly intact, and were retrieved by the keeper of the Halfway House, Seraph.

Reforming themselves into what most closely resembled their living bodies, the twins could hardly remember their own names and so were given ones by the other Lost Children, according to what they kept calling each other: Forte and Sora. Seraph at that point realized that she had something special on her hands, and a second call to the Caretaker brought her the entire story. Macro-Omniversal collapse, Seraph reasoned, was unnoticeable to the Caretaker. Much less so to anything that could withstand being exposed to the Threshold. Less again, for any being that could pass through it.

The boy and girl who had been entrusted to her care had survived both without harm, as nothing but pure essence.

During their time at the Halfway House both Forte and Sora they showed Seraph many things, but most of all they showed the propensity for violence and bloodshed that had been ingrained within them in life, and such was the extent of their bloodlust that Seraph finally decided to give them what they wanted: a lesson to teach them their place and the order of things. The pair had already proved themselves quite masterful in the use of weapons favoured by mortals, and were quickly learning how to extend their own potential in order to improve their deadliness. As such, she called upon the EX-U, Kyuuri Dekitate, whose penchant and capacity for combat far exceeded the pair's. For the first time the Halfway House entered its lockdown stage, and as Yuuri entered the main field the pair ambushed her with a combination of melee and ranged weapons. Unfortunately for the pair they found themselves not only on the receiving end of an unyielding Multiplanar Assault, but under massive fire from Kouhii, Yuuri's ARAMUS unit. Their long day got steadily longer, with every tactic and maneuver the twins forced themselves to remember during the battle being not only perceived before-hand, but stopped cold. In the end, they were left smoking wrecks within craters punched into the Void Land's own field architecture.

That was their very first taste of what resided outside the realms of True Gods and Goddesses. Following that, they learned their place quickly.

Beaten and broken, the pair then showed Seraph something else: the way they could react to kindness when offered friendship by a small, horned girl called Nana and her close friend Karu. This began their process of healing, and Seraph was shown the pain the pair endured while alive. She then realized that violence was the twin's only recourse when faced with the unfamiliar, and came to regret not understanding further before acting. Growing reclusive at first, the twins began to forge relationships with the other Lost Children and finally found their own little piece of the home they never had when alive. The pair, along with Karu and Nana, slowly became inseparable. In the end they finally offered an apology to Seraph and the rest of the Lost Children, and were told exactly what they were, and where they were. Realizing just how far out of their league they were for the first time, the pair came to see Karu and Nana as their means of survival in an unfamiliar place that couldn't even be called a "world." Still wary due to the mental and physical abuse they suffered when alive, their circle of friends was finally completed when Saito and Suko, another pair of siblings were brought to the Halfway House. They bonded almost immediately with the latest additions to their circle of friends, looking up to Saito as an elder brother and Suko as a younger sister due to the pair's almost-similar suffering and circumstances.

In the end, the two pairs of siblings ended up healing each other's emotional wounds and came to recognize each other as part of the same family; Saito was elected the eldest brother before Forte, and Karu the eldest sister ahead of Sora, Nana and Suko. As the bonds strengthened even further their little group began to show Seraph a curious dynamic: none of them continued to exert themselves to their fullest and instead, began playing games to each other's strengths. The bond deepened further, to the point that when one would lag behind in his or her studies, the rest would do badly on purpose to keep their "family member" company during the extra class. Seraph realized later that these six Lost Children would be the first to do something incredible. In fact, they had already made their intentions clear: either we, at the end of our studies, enter the City of Dreams together, or we don't go at all and remain here in the Void Lands as assistants to the custodian of the Halfway House.

They even submitted resumes to prove their sincerity. One evening, Seraph called them to her own study and laid everything out before them: to gain the acceptance of the City as a party of six who would enter the Gate together, they had to prove to the City itself that they were a family.

This was the easy part.

The hard part came after, when Sora, Nana, Karu and Suko found themselves before Arashi Senada, new students to the Martial Studio: Headbusting for Girls. The girls felt that they were being forcibly separated from their elder brothers, and the boys felt likewise. Until Arashi spoke.

"Until now, your strength came from each other. From this point on, grow on your own, and become more than you alone are, for each other's sake." Each and every one of the circle of friends accepted it, the girls putting on their training gear for the first time and the boys meeting the teachers who they would live with until they finally learned enough to live by themselves.

Separated for the first time, Forte and Sora were in agony without each other to rely on. So they learned to rely on themselves, and a few others. At the Martial Studio, Sora found herself giving up her weapons with the realization that she could become, if she chose, a weapon in her own right. Forte, understudying Misha, forged a close friendship with Nudoru and Miso, and began to learn of the lower Cosmologies he and his sister had once called their home. During this time of painful separation, they found their independent callings and passions. And not surprisingly, they were the same thing: both of them began to enjoy making clothes with Sora becoming the Martial Studio's elected seamstress, and Forte beginning to clothe his neighbours, even up to being allowed to make subtle alterations to Anaheim's time-honored costume. The pair also realized that they needed to put roofs over each other's heads after graduation, and began to look around for work on their days off.

During their job-hunt one fateful day(yes, they even managed to arrange their rest days so their little family of six could be reunited) the pair chanced a meeting with Yuuri and Nana, who the EX-U had become close to. This immediately sparked a feud between the pair of once-murderous twins, and one of the City's most powerful residents. Thankfully Nana, who had watched the pair's first altercation with the NODE, interceded and managed to convince Arashi to let them settle things on their own terms: with a showdown at the Martial Studio itself.

[T51R]

It didn't go any better for the pair, even though they had grown stronger and were cornered by Arashi, Nudoru and Misha(Yuuri had in her corner Nana, who wanted to stay by her chosen Guardian's side) After the altercation, Arashi and Xtaxis invited everyone involved to a private dinner in his quarters and the Instructors acted as intermediaries where everything was laid out in the open. Seraph again offered the pair her apologies on-screen, with Yuuri and Kouhii doing so in person. The twins in the end realized that the blame was theirs to begin with, but rather than simply accept their apology, as a peace offering, Yuuri offered the pair a second round of battle in private, at a slower pace, where she would help refine their technique. Arashi saw through it immediately, and pointed out that in the City of Dreams, the pair could and should learn to enjoy what they once considered to be a matter of life and death. He also pointed out that an EX-U was still too far out of their league for them to enjoy themselves. Hence, he offered to take Yuuri's place and kill two birds with one stone: he was also interested in Misha's teachings and how they might have improved Forte's attitude, and he could teach them to enjoy their combat slowly. The pair refused, and instead offered to take Yuuri out for dinner on their next day off.

That went without a hitch, much to Nana's relief. And it left Sora and Forte broke(days off were spent at the Martial Studio for a while, with Forte and Saito meeting their sisters in the visitor's yard or in the park across the way)

Soon after, the four girls gave Arashi the same proposal they had handed to Seraph: that they wished to graduate together, or not at all. The Headmaster considered this, and was on the lookout for a good candidate to guard the path to the graduation chamber, as well as a final opponent for the last stage of the Kumite when he realized that doing so would only hurt the development of his charges. He had to find a middle ground, and this he did: on the day of Graduation, for the Kumite, the four would first fight against former students one by one at the ceremonial chamber, then the entire school, followed by himself and Nakato, and lastly a gang-fight in the parking lot. For the final stage, he elected four NODE units the girls had no previous contact with(except for Kansai, the Lolicon scourge of the laundry, dressing, baths and bathrooms in HBG) The girls would get to pick their opponents at the last stage, and once they did, they weren't allowed to switch for more than eight blows total. Needless to say, Kansai ended up receiving ALL of them.

On that day the girls all graduated with Sora, Forte and Yuuri among the crowd cheering them on. And on that day, the little family whose members had adopted each other was reunited for good. It's also good to note that at this stage, "Sortie" made its first appearance when an overly happy pair of twins came together after an extended time living apart, and promptly fused into a single entity. Much effort was needed to separate them afterwards.

As none of the six had managed to arrange for work or homes in the City, they returned to the Halfway House to live while doing just that. When they saw the numbers of Seraph's charges increasing, they hit on a plan: they would offer themselves as Assistant Instructors at the Martial Studio in exchange for lodging, food and a small allowance until they could find something more. The plan worked, mostly because of Seraph reasoning to Arashi that being Lost, then Found Children themselves, the six recent Graduates would be more easily able to reach out to the Martial Studio's students. And it became so, after a long period of intensive training in order to turn six of the closest friends into HBG's first generation of Assistant Instructors.

And then the Grey Incident occurred, allowing all six Assistant Instructors to prove their worth. For the first time, Arashi and Nakato saw the team dynamic that Seraph had so long ago told him about: five of the six worked to create an opening through Grey's offensive for Nana, who managed to land a hit so hard, Grey's remote platform actually moved. All in order to get Nikuu back, and to safety, after which they rejoined the other students and Instructors, finally managing to get the Aspect to change direction instead of plowing straight through their home.

Following Grey's reactivation and installation as the Citadel's security chief, Sora and Forte began to think about opening up their own boutique out of which they'd trade clothes. And to do that, they'd need more work and living experience. Re-enter Grey, who came to the Martial Studio looking for trainees to take on as additional security. Needless to say she didn't find any current students willing to take up her offer, as they'd all scattered back into their rooms. Since Grey wanted a pair who would operate together as well as Dark and Light, her ARAMUS units, Forte and Sora were the obvious choices. Arashi agreed, and released them from some of their duties while increasing their allowances: with Nikuu back in action and now on the teaching staff, he could afford to.

And they're still working there part-time to this day, and living at HBG.

Character profiles to come.

[T51R]

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Righto, in the next post we're looking a bit more closely at Forte and Sora, as well as introducing Saito and Suko, another sibling pair. Saito's the tallest one with the hairband, Suko's the loli in the green tanktop.

[T51R]

Well since a blow-by-blow would be a bit boring, let's try and lump it all together and combine everyone's everything in the one hit, eh?

Since Forte and Sora landed their working assignments, life for the pair has been radically different from their time as students and from their time in the Void Lands. For the first time, they have been in charge of their own direction, and they revel in it. In the City of Dreams, this almost overly energetic pair take their work very seriously. After all, they're in part responsible for "raising" successive generation of residents for the City, all while making sure the Citadel, one of the most powerful artifacts within the City, stays safe.

Away from work however Forte and Sora are known for being boisterous and almost extreme extroverts; up to the moment of their deaths, they had few if any friends. And in that light they do try, even if its a little too hard, to make up for lost time. As teachers however, like their peers, they bond quickly with their students due to their shared experiences of hardship and almost-unbearable pain and to many of the new students, are living examples that the new lives they have earned through their sacrifice and personal losses are really, the second chance even a True God would envy. As a rule, they teach on a case-by-case basis and make up lesson plans for each particular student, something that Arashi watches carefully; their classes seem to progress the quickest, but their inexperience shows in their lack of attention to the smallest of details. Good then, for them, that they are teamed with Nikuu as a senior Instructor.

However, because of their loud and almost child-like personalities and curiosity, their students often experience a rude shock on their first rest days.

As martial artists they have adopted smoother, modified version of the magickal killing art "Kuj-no-in," taught to them by Nakato(part of why they fared so badly against Yuuri in their rematch) Modified to operate within the City of Dreams, in order to reproduce the art's original lethal effectiveness against almost anything. Slightly less direct and violent than Arashi's "Headbusting" form, its no less effective. Though, they have begun to study different schools from the mortal 'Verses, lately being introduced to the "True Shadow Arts" of one of Kokumotsu's Constructions, which they seem to take on board almost intuitively.

As far as their personalities go they are almost exact copies of each other, and they seem to want to show it by choosing almost-identical forms with very slight modifications to allow for gender: Sora looks tom-boyish while Forte tends to look effimate. All to bring themselves closer in appearance, all the better to confuse people with(well, it doesn't really work since no-one really goes by visible light in the City, but meh...they do it anyway.) One thing they do consistently though, is to move around and even live as a pair: after being separated while Sora was attending the martial Studio as a student, the pair have never been seen apart again.

They are also highly mischievous, trickery being one of their collective hobbies to go with their near-obsessive passion for fashionable clothing. Normally, such a pair would quickly ostracize itself as they seem to live in a world made for just the two of them, to the exclusion of everyone else. But, thanks to a pair of friends they met at the Halfway House, they do have a bit of a "lifeline" when someone, especially a newcomer to the City, has trouble understanding them.

Enter Saito and Suko, a brother and sister pair whose deaths almost match Sora's and Forte's in terms of sheer brutality.

Where Forte and Sora left the world of the living practically hours apart Saito was forced to watch his sister die from hunger due to his own childishness and lack of knowledge, himself lingering on for months before succumbing to the same malnutrition. They don't know which NODE unit was responsible for the operation that ended up with them in Seraph's care, but they have asked some of the more prevalent ones to pass on their thanks(they even got a card back, but since it wasn't signed, they still don't know which NODE it was...)

The only thing they know now, is that they are together again. And that this time, even the combined wills of the True Gods can't pull them apart.

Another thing they know for sure, is that they remained in their Creator's "Heaven" until it, and their 'Verse also expired and faded to the Currents One of Saito's last memories of life after death, was pledging to Suko that "if there is a life after this one, then I'll find you!" before losing sight of his sister in the midst of Macro-Omniversal collapse, the end of their 'Verse, as well as their God and Creator. His third other memory, strangely, is a number: 1945.

Quite different in character from his adopted family members, Saito, the elected eldest brother, is a hard worker and remains so even in the City. He does, however, still carry some guilt with him for Suko's death even though it's been long since they were reunited. As a result of this, he cares for the other five members of his adopted family very deeply, perhaps to the point of obsession for their safety(which others tend to find strange; each one of them has endured far worse during their trials during their rites of passage...Suko herself was hit with the NODE equivalent of a WOMD by Kansai, Halcyon's Blade, which she struggled with but still managed to come back from during her Kumite) As such, it isn't unheard of for Nana, Karu, Sora and Suko to find him following them during the later hours, looking out for them when they know it's really not needed(Nana finds this doubly troubling as Yuuri also does the same, once leading to a particular incident where Saito was mistaken for a pervert, and promptly beaten into the ground during one of her off days...)

Saito, during work, was chosen by practically everyone else to fill the role of "Evil Drill Sergeant" due to his stature and looks(Arashi once noted that when he brushed his hair forwards, Saito looked a lot like he did during his mortal, pre-Deathless days.) To that end, its not uncommon for Saito to be ambushed before his lessons and his hair re-styled with what amounts to superglue. Normally its Forte who holds Saito down while Suko and Sora do the honors; among the six, only he and Nana are Saito's match physically. However, even despite his intimidating outlook many of the girls also ended up adopting him as their elder brother(something which irks Suko to no end, even causing her to declare monopoly on him as "elder brother")

New students are often taken aback by his harsh training methods, but those who have been with the Studio for a while know the man, and they know how big his heart is.

[T51R]

Suko however, is a different animal entirely; closer to Nana and Sora in attitude, except without the latter's crudeness and the former's propensity toward being cautious. She keeps her young-looking form for her brother's sake, and hasn't changed it since she arrived in the Void Lands(highly unlike Forte and Sora, who switch looks, genders, places, forms, and even combining into Sortie whenever they feel like a change) She looks a lot like how she would if she had survived into her middle-school years, though Arashi's training has reduced her visible mass and made her put on a good deal of physical power(hence why she looks like a junior triathlete...)

As they youngest "sister" of this adopted family of six, she's the baby of the household and she knows it, often using that fact to milk candy and other sweet things from her siblings; just as she was in life, then in the life-after-death, she keeps her sweet tooth. Which leads to grabbing-battles between herself and Nana when the desert arrives.

Suko in particular worries for her brother, stressing time and time again that it wasn't his fault that she died, and that he did his best by her. She knows that he's growing out of it slowly, but it hurts her to see the guilt on his face and the pain he still has in his eyes every time he looks at her. So, she came up with an "exchange" of sorts: she would try to stay as close to the person she was when they were young, years before her death, in order to remind Saito of the good times way back when.

Niku however, has a different opinion which is shared by many others who know the pair: that Suko should quickly grow up into the person she wants to be, and show Saito that it's because of his care that she'd gotten that far.

Unlike Sora and Forte however, who insist on resting in the same quarters, Saito and Suko rest apart. Mainly because of Saito insisting that its "unladylike" for a young woman to rest with her brother(leading to plenty of teasing from their neighbours) They do however share the same front door, with theirs being the only Instructor's Dorm to have a living room. Which also means their dorm gets invaded the most often.

As a teacher, its Suko who is closest to the students since she looks a lot like them(indeed, Nakato often mistakes her for one of them even though she wears an Instructor's uniform) even to the extent of playing with them during the rest periods. Make no mistake though, she's a damned good teacher even though her methods are a bit out-there from the norm. Unlike Saito, Forte and Sora, her specialty happens to be attention to detail; she also has the best level of understanding, and hence the greatest level of technical skills of the six.

As martial artists, this pair uses a mash-up of styles with Saito opting for the straight, no-nonsense "Headbusting" form of his teacher, Arashi while Suko adopted the very basic NODE combat tactics from Niku, combining them with the Kuj-no-In. Saito's strength is basically staying power, while Suko's is just plain escapism(often with the aid of thrown objects, making her the group's "self-extraction specialist.") In a pinch, this usually leads Saito to be teamed with Karu, with Nana in reserve as the eventual "battering ram."

Along with Forte and Sora, Saito and Suko seem to be an inseparable bunch, especially when it comes to stalking Nana's would-be suitors. Even without that, where you see one pair, the other won't be far away. The four of them also also known for tardiness and almsot chronic late-coming during their days off(how they arrive on the dot for their lessons, no-one wants to know)

Tasty Tidit:

Its been speculated by some that both pairs of siblings were actually either from different periods of the same 'Verse, or different 'Verses within the same Creation with Sora and Forte only arriving at their potential after the end of that 'Verse where Saito and Suko were snatched from an earlier point where the structure of time and Heaven still existed within that Creation.

Nakato is the main proponent of this theory, though Arashi points out that their levels of understanding are quite far apart; where Sora and Forte understand almost instinctively, Suko and Saito tend to need a time of study in order to grasp the same thing.

In reply, Nakato points to the (slightly)more brutal lives the former had while in the latter's case, they were quite normal before their deaths(indeed, fighting has been almost second nature for Sora and Forte; Saito and Suko in contrast were quite placid and content to just be together again when they arrived at the halfway House)

The ones with all the answers it seems are the Caretaker, J.C Whitney, and an as-yet-unknown NODE unit.

[T51R]

Next up! The last but not least of the six Assistant Instructors: Karu. And just to keep things interesting...introducing the second character which exists outside the Threshold: the "Enforcer."

Yup, we'll also be looking at how dangerous things are outside the domains and Creations of the true Gods.

[T51R]

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v319/MechaniX_034/KaruandEnforcerJPEG.jpg

Character profiles and histories coming soon...

[T51R]

Alrighty, here we go. Two at a go, because both characters have a bit of a history together.

Her name's: Karu(just Karu, since she went and cut it down to make it easier for everyone else...) She's the one in pink, her own personal colours. And yes, for reasons only known to her, she does mis-match her gloves, socks and shoes.
She's: a Found Child
Origin: Passed into the Currents though she's decided to salvage one memory from her own 'Verse, just for old time's sake.
Education: Graduate of the Halfway House, and Martial Studio: headbusting for Girls.
Works as: Full-time Assistant Instructor to Niku(since she has no other goals at the moment)

Her name's: Unknown. By the True Gods and Goddesses that exist outside the Threshold, she's come to be known as an "Enforcer" of sorts.
She's: an unknown entity; far beyond the measure of practically every True God or Goddess, with the exception of a few. One of whom is Aartika, whose only edge against the Enforcer is the Celestial Arts: Headbusting form.
Origin: No-one knows. She's skillful enough to be able to bypass, block or disable Omniscience, and she isn't talking either.
Education: Probably doesn't have any, hence why she behaves like a hooligan.
Works as: a self-declared "enforcer," a macro-cosmic vigilante for all intents and purposes often turning up before NODE system interventions.
Her home is: assumed to be somewhere between the Folds. But, since no contingent of Gods that has gone to look for her has ever returned, it's tough to speculate on.


A bit on Karu:

Nana's closest friend and also her roommate during their days as students at the Martial Studio, Karu is the force of reason in her little adopted family of six. However her life and death were quite different than her brothers and sisters. You see, Karu was never truly alive: she was not born, but rather created by a race now passed into the Currents as a symbiotic weapon, and in order to protect someone important to her, she chose to sacrifice herself. Another snatch-and-grab operation subject by a NODE, Karu was ushered into the Void Lands by Kanraku Shukuhai and his ARAMUS unit, Kokumotsu.

Of the six Assistant Instructors, Karu spent the most time at the Halfway House out of all of them watching generation after generation leave and enter into the City of Dreams, herself lingering on, waiting for a friend who would never become, liker her, Transcendent. She knew the facts of course, that her last act not only empowered her special person but allowed that person to live a normal, whole life. Still, she waited. And hoped. Until Seraph herself began to give Karu work to do around the Halfway House as she seemed intent on staying there until she could meet her friend again. To that end, Karu was a mentor of sorts to generation upon generation of Lost Children, preparing them for their eventual "graduation" to the City.

It was a state of being that she had pretty much embraced, until the day Yuuri came by with a timid, pink-haired, and much-scarred horned girl named Nana.

The two became fast friends, with Karu pretty much taking personal responsibility for Nana's development and in turn, Nana began to fill the void in Karu's being(though she promised that she would never, ever try to replace the person Karu had spent so long waiting for) The pair began to share almost everything, but Karu insisted on keeping the memory of her important person just for herself. Nana agreed, but suggested that if Karu did finally choose to go on, then in the City, she might be able to either find a way to see that person again, or even meet them if they had become Transcendent themselves. Karu agreed, and again began to take part in Seraph's teachings even though she knew most of them at that point(she chose to keep Nana company through it all)

It was during this time that the pair met Sora, Forte, Saito and Suko. And its at this point their histories become one and the same(since they're almost always together)

Unlike Saito and Suko who had spent their afterlives in their Creator's Heaven, Karu spent what amounted to an eternity as a faint consciousness, forever holding onto the memory of the short months she spent as a humanoid with her special person while drifting through her home 'Verse. When she arrived in Seraph's care Kokumotsu had to take Seraph aside before letting her see the child, in order to tell her that Karu's consciousness had almost completely faded from her being(effectively, she was catatonic) Seraph ignored him, and slowly nursed her back into being. After a very long process of rehabilitation, she was finally introduced into the Halfway House's population of Lost Children.

Where she still looked lost.

After all, a Lost Child holds much more potential than the True God or Goddess that initially created it, and is resilient enough to withstand the Threshold. In that, Karu did know at some level that her friend had lived a long and fruitful life, had given birth, had become a grandparent, and had finally passed on while thinking of her.

In a cruel twist of fate, that person was admitted into Heaven, while Karu herself was left as a wayward, lonely consciousness.

As the elected eldest sister, Karu is normally the one to reign in Sora and Forte when they begin to bounce off the walls too much for their own good, and the one who goes to get Suko back when she manages to run away from something. She doesn't worry much about Nana, as her ages-old friend is quite capable of taking care of herself(although, since she is quite naive Karu does often insist on acting as a chaperone when it comes to potential suitors) Which is bad news for the suitors, since Karu doesn't tend to fight: she much prefers wreaking psychological chaos within the being of anyone she suspects isn't worthy of her best friend.

Barely making the grade in order to enter the City of Dreams together with her closest companions, Karu only began to come into her own when she began her lessons at HBG under the watchful eye of her then-teacher, Gyuuniku "Niku" Mijuku. And under Niku's tutelage, Karu blossomed into a smart and often very creative fighter as well as a student with great depth of thought and maturity for her relatively young age. She took an immediate interest in the workings of the lower cosmologies, as well as the philosophical writings of the True Gods(otherwise known as the "Idiot's Guide to Creational Management, what to do, how to do it, and how not to muck up.") Indeed, she was exceptional as well as exceptionally driven. So much so that Niku began to suspect that she was a person on a mission all her own. A rather serious person early on, Karu began to learn how to enjoy her new state of being and even though she's still prone to bouts of zoning out in thought, she is very warm towards others(while at the same time being very defensive of her adopted family)

She didn't only graduate from the Martial Studio, but also received Niku's "Special Gift" after her Kumite; she came back a bit later in order to participate in a learning match against her former teacher, but this time as equals. In this match, Karu earned a special mention from Arashi as the only recent graduate known to have been able to adapt quickly enough to at least partially overcome Niku's MOV-Refraction system, enough to turn the learning match into an almost-even battle(though for Karu, it was a double-edged sword as Niku began to see her as a worthy adversary. Karu got herself smashed at a much slower rate, but Niku did mention that with patience and understanding, Karu could one day rival or even equal an EX-U in sheer power and tactical ingenuity, the latter she seems to have a knack for.)

Karu's martial form, as taught, is also a mix-up of her observations especially during the Grey Incident. She tends to pick things up very quickly, which led Niku to in turn observe that she really doesn't have a "style" as it were; she's a highly adaptive fighter, as well as extremely calculating.

One of her first acts as a fresh Graduate was to go looking for the remains of her home 'Verse after recieving a personalized Assistant Instructor's uniform from Forte and Sora, and it was during this time that she encountered someone truly incredible: a being that existed outside the Threshold but yet could hold its own against a being that could withstand, survive, as well as thrive within the Void Lands...

[T51R]

Dammit, not enough room. Continued below...

On that first foray into the Lower Cosmologies, and being watched from the Intervention Cascade in case she got herself into trouble, Karu crossed paths for the first time with the "Enforcer."

Due to a clash of philosophies(not to mention personalities) a long enmity between the pair emerged from their first encounter, which resulted in Karu barely escaping; where Creations are present in whatever form, Karu can output enough force to literally snuff them out even with her smallest movement. And so she did all she could, and that was to basically absorb the Enforcer's assault while trying to minimize the damage to herself. In the end, she had to be retrieved by Sayaka(which also caused tremendous damage to the Enforcer thanks to the Demuirgic Pulse Detonation engine on Sayaka's bike) Karu then learned a harsh lesson: the space between Creations was extremely dangerous, and that without weaponizing her Aspects, she risked losing them all over the place(losing Aspects is seen to be a mark of inexperience and sloppiness in the City, even though its in no way harmful to the being. However, it does reflect on that being's education, so no-one wants to lose an Aspect.)

Back at the Martial Studio Karu found herself again studying under Niku, this time about the Platform System which the NODE's use in order to carry out their duties. After re-thinking and reworking(to quite an extent) the form of her lower-cosmological manifestations, she decided to have another go at finding whatever remained of her own home 'Verse. Though, she also followed Niku's advice this time around and focused on retrieving only her one, precious "memory."

Again Karu found the Enforcer on her back, though this time she had prepared her Aspect Manifestation well for it. And for the first time, the Enforcer was shown the quality of a Martial Studio graduate even on the Lower Planes; it was the Enforcer's turn to retreat. She did however appear again, when Karu had finally found the memory she had been looking for. This time though, the Enforcer deployed her most powerful weapon, the so-called "Arm of Ultimax," a remnant from the Disark War. Surprised at the firepower a being from the Lower Cosmologies could muster, then compounded by one of Kokumotsu's greatest Constructions, Karu's Aspect was left on the ropes, while protecting the memory she had waited so long to find with her own body; in that memory, was the person who had given her short life meaning.

In the final moments, before her Aspect was destroyed and lost, she decided to risk it all and took the "memory" into herself(effectively tying it to her own consciousness in the City, rendering it blatantly unassailable) That had a side-effect though, and the Enforcer bore the brunt of it: Karu's hair turned from brunette to blonde, and her eyes from brown to green(her current form; Karu didn't always look like this) It also granted her a layer of "active shielding" somewhat similar to Niku's, and an enormous increase in speed and striking power. The biggest boon that came with the "memory" was the "knowledge" of the Currents it had gathered during its time floating around, and that's what turned the fight around in Karu's favor: now her Aspect could cut loose and hit as hard as she wanted without endangering nearby Creations and by extension, their Creators(if not outright blowing them away)

Returning to the City, Karu found that her Prime self had also changed to reflect her becoming one with the "memory," the same with all the other Aspects that she had sent out in order to look for it.

On that day, she finally got her wish: the voice of her special person began to resonate in Karu's being. "I knew I would see you again, but it seems that this time our roles are reversed!" Karu had not only found the memory she had been searching for, but had also been reunited with the person she had held dear during her short few months as a mortal being. And since her friend did not become Transcendent as she had hoped, the pair reached an easy solution(for them, anyway) in that Karu's special person would continue living through her, this time, in a place where they would never be separated again.

To this day, Karu and her memory are still one, even though Karu is the only one who can hear her. Which leads to her zoning out even more than usual when she isn't working.

Tasty Tidbits:

-Unlike Sora and Forte who are basically so close that they are like the same person sharing two bodies, Karu shares her own being with the only friend she had ever made during the time she was alive. As such, Karu can rest in the middle of the day while her friend takes over. Strangely, that "friend" never reveals her name. And so has earned the name "Karu's Friend," which everyone calls it.

-This practically makes Karu the only person who can, for all intents and purposes, "sleep." Which she does enjoy, because the pair of them have a mutual plane where they can both meet while resting within Karu's being. In this place, they appear as they were when they were young, alive and still in each other's company.

-"Karu's Friend" is basically a sentient memory, though, through the merger, a side of Karu herself woke up again and propelled her further toward her potential. In a second learning match against Niku after the pair merged, they did far better than just Karu herself; they could actually tank several of the EX-U's direct hits.

-Karu can't keep house for nuts; "Karu's Friend" handles the cleaning, cooking, laundry and Nana's wake-up call. It also handles the household affairs. Yes, it is damned weird to see Karu walking around and doing the chores while resting at the same time.

-Both Karu and the Enforcer, to this day, consider each other people they really don't like. However, the Enforcer has pretty much given up trying to match her for the time being; in order to end the cat-and-mouse game that got played out every time Karu and her friend entered the Lower Cosmologies, using Aspects, they literally dragged the Enforcer close enough to the Threshold where they could manifest in their own form. That scared the living piss out of the Enforcer, who also needed plenty of time to recover from the exposure(she was almost destroyed, and this time she understood what Karu really was) Enforcer now has a routine when she sees Karu's projections: she runs.

-Karu dispatches her Aspects wholesale to Aartika's 'Verse, also Arashi's home Creation. Reason being, Aartika's library is one of the most "complete" around. The Goddess doesn't mind at all, as Karu also brings with her literature from other Creations, exchanges from Sapporo.

-Karu and Aaritka have one thing in common besides their strong liking for good stories and texts: both of them really don't like Enforcer. But where Karu just disagrees with the ideals Enforcer represents, Aartika considers her an enemy.

[T51R]

A bit about the Enforcer


There is a place before the Threshold where the Creations, as well as their Creators reside. In this place is the realm of the True Gods and Goddesses, beings that can rightly claim to be Omniscient, Omnipresent as well as Omnipotent. However, where mortal beings from within Creations see them as supreme deities, they are in fact, on their own terms and in each other's company, quite social. You see, they compare notes. They call each other. They visit, as many of them see each other as neighbors. They exchange tips and tricks when it comes to Creational Management(or the day-to-day running of their 'Verses) Hell, they even have several magazines dedicated to the subject(not to mention their own version of the internet...) Some exist within their own Creations, going outside to borrow things or seek advice from others of their same stature. Others exist outside their 'Verses, choosing an outside-in management style. Yet others embody Creations, making their 'Verses part of their own being. There are many different styles of management, and all are experimented with at some time or other. Within this place of places, the True Gods and Goddesses mingle, often visiting each other's works.

And in this place, a lone vigilante has carved a niche out for herself as a heavy-handed "peacekeeper." An "Enforcer" of sorts, tackling issues far below what would be grounds for a NODES system Intervention, yet too great for any Counsel to address. And as such is she known, made infamous for her crazy ramblings and "dynamic entries."

Wily, hardly witty, uncouth and a major proponent of tasteless jokes(hell, most of them are in bad taste, anyway!) the Enforcer is the self-employed, Creation-less entity who prowls the place between 'Verses trying to "fight evil." Unfortunately, she doesn't seem to realize that "good and evil" stopped at the feet of each Creator, who defines both. She's a person who's as inflexible as she is loud and obnoxious; her philosophical outlook very often overlooks the fact that the element of "time" is contained within the structure of a Creation, and cannot exist outside it as each Creator tends to respect the space of another(hence making her proclamation that "what has been taken by the Currents should be left to the currents!" moot, often making her look stupid. Leading to even more ramblings) Her intentions are noble, but the way she carries out her self-sanctioned "missions" leaves a lot to be desired; unlike the almost surgical nature of a NODES Intervention, Enforcer's work is markedly haphazard and badly thought out leading to even more complications after she's done, leaving others to clean up her mess between them.

Being a lone "superhero" in a place where good and evil don't exist is a tough job(many True Gods have told her her its pointless too, and that she needs to find another line of work) and in this Enforcer has one ally who does seem to understand things much better than she does, a boyish-looking entity who helps her plan her outings on the condition that he be allowed to remain anonymous. Even though theirs began as a professional, working relationship they quickly found themselves to be the only ones who could stand each other's company, both of them being prone to temper tantrums, depressive binge-eating and throwing random objects when things don't work out(which is quite often) As such the pair have set up shop somewhere between the Folds where there be monsters; no True God or Goddess of sound mind would ever go there, as the creatures within the Folds readily consume such beings for sustenance. Even this was not thought out well, since they were going for what amounted to a typical superhero's headquarters but instead ended up with a result that looked more like Ming the Merciless' Tower-of-Extreme-Evil-Complete-with-Dungeons-and-Torture-Chambers instead!

The Enforcer might be of noble intentions, but her childishness and lack of planning often causes their grand schemes for keeping order to backfire on them. Her ally however plans better, and has much more experience in the wheelings and dealings of the Creators. He doesn't find working with Enforcer easy, but for the sake of her company, he keeps at it.

Which isn't to say that she can't handle herself; where her ally is almost powerless(his simply being so hints that he, at some point, possessed extreme power) Enforcer herself packs a huge wallop thanks to her own innate potential. It doesn't help others much either, that she also stumbled upon and learned(somewhat) how to wield the Arm of Ultimax, a piece of Kokumotsu's greatest Construction, and a remnant of the Disark War. That she is also smart enough to have only heard about the operations of the NODES, and was able to fashion similar armour systems that worked in roughly the same way is also troubling to the Creators(who again told her that she needs to find another line of work, one that actually suited her talents) While having almost no training in the ways of combat, Enforcer's brutish and haphazard fighting is in itself her biggest shortcoming. That and her tendency to hit first and ask questions later, being the things that make her quite the pain in the neck. Still, she is tolerated by the True Gods and Goddesses simply for the fact that she makes "being" a bit more interesting.

Though, she has proven her worth more than once against those Creators who would hatch plans of conquest of others and their works; the Enforcer has been credited with foiling the schemes of several "renegade Gods" and as such was deemed to "have a place after all." Which basically means that she doesn't have posse's of Creators hunting for her all the time. None of the NODE's mind her either, since her being there means that they work less, and can get away with simple clean-up duty. What the Enforcer doesn't know however, is that her movements are shown at all times in the Intervention Cascade; she has a unique designation in that she can be either trouble, or a solution.

On the inside however, Enforcer's personal motivations are a mystery. None of the True Gods know what drives her to do what she does, although they do know that she's skilled enough to block or otherwise disable Omniscience, stealthy enough to bypass Omniprescence, and has enough firepower and armour that Omnipotence is only a minor problem. No-one knows her history other than that one day, she just popped up from between the folds and began looking for evil-doers to beat the hell out of(no, she didn't find any for obvious reasons) The only thing they do know however, is that she has a lot of growing to do and that she's got to calm down enough to just do it. Although her personality makes it quite difficult to eke any such commitments out of her. And it's her personality that also earned her the wrath of Aaritka, one of the youngest and most skilled true Goddesses when it comes to Creational Management as well as the Celestial Arts.

Aartika and the Enforcer go back a long way, the pair first clashing soon after Aartika's enthronement and recognition as the Deity Prime of her 'Verse; she had submitted some cutting-edge management methods for review and was on her way to a Symposium to talk about them, but stopped for a while to share her theories with the offspring of a particular God and Goddess(yes, they even co-habit. The merging of Creations in this way isn't uncommon) in order to broaden their horizons. The Enforcer happened to be passing by and made her disagreements known quite crudely(she shouted her opinions so loudly that she could be heard from inside that particular 'Verse.) Not one with much patience or tolerance for such things, Aartika popped her head out to see what the problem was and promptly got a punch in the face.

[T51R]

More...

And hence their feud began with the Enforcer being adamant that Aaritka should just stick to doing things like everyone else does, and the Goddess trying to make things continually better for her peers; Enforcer sees Aartika as an unnecessary agent of change where no change is needed, but Aaritka considers Enforcer to be an abrasive, rash and needlessly violent impediment to progress. It is good to note at this point that Kokumotsu, after his Transcendency, was replaced by Aaritka as the strongest Deity Prime of the lot(even though the gap between herself and the rest of them isn't as large as when Kokumotsu was still active and roaming around) Though, when the matter was brought up over brunch at Misha's Diner one day Arashi pointed out that compared to Koku, his Goddess was in fact still very young and was constantly growing. No-one disagreed. Though Aaritka and the Enforcer do consider each other enemies, they don't go out to intentionally make each other's lives difficult; it mostly boils down to random acts of sabotage and vandalism by both parties(they are both very young in the grand scheme of things, after all...) After all, it's enough work to properly take care of whatever Creations were left over after Arashi's march on his own Heaven all those ages ago. And its more work maintaining good will and relations with the neighbors(yes, even Enforcer herself is roped in to do grunt work at times when she declares herself "off-duty." She also seems to be quite good at it; she can prune Creations very quickly. Another of her skills that others see great potential in but she herself ignores is that she is also very artful in her pruning work; the structure of Creations very often looks like a Bonsai when she's finished...)

Enforcer has also locked horns with several residents of the City thanks to her abrasive personality, most notably Karu and Nana, the former who more often than not prompts Enforcer to go into hiding and the latter with whom she settled on an uneasy ceasefire with(where she managed to actually hurt Karu's Aspect, she didn't get as far with Nana's projection due to it being so damned tough. In fact Nana's Aspect proved to be so resilient that even the Arm of Ultimax was pushed past its limit and failed, needing repairs afterward)

Most notable however is her beef with Anaheim, the ages-old hero more than once offering to tutor Enforcer in the ways of keeping the peace only to be brushed off. Its not that george wants to see her grow in the traditional mold as it were, he knows that for a being of her caliber such a thing will be very difficult. His main worry is that instead of her achieving her goal of being a force for order, she will eventually end up becoming an agent of unbridled chaos and in the end attract the attention of the NODES system as a threat reminiscent of the Disark. It also seems that George has reasoned out a great deal about Enforcer's motivations, as he keeps appearing to her with the same offer.

He seems to know that her ultimate goal might not be to be a heroine at all, but something far grander all in order to achieve the smallest, most simple yet most important thing anyone could want.


Tasty Tidbits:

-One of Enforcer's self-proclaimed duties is to keep the monsters from between the Folds at bay, thus keeping True Gods and Goddesses safe from being eaten(they literally use these beings as a food source)

-Enforcer has a regular arm when she removes the Arm of Ultimax. Forcibly removing it however causes her a lot of distress(and pain) since she has to literally combine with it.

-The Arm of Ultimax also gives Enforcer a full-mecha "mode," acting as an armour. The "suit" has been damaged or destroyed before; once by Karu, and shattered by Nana after which it took a while to pull itself back together. Aaritka's use of the "Headbusting" form of Celestial Arts has also damaged the Arm, but not to the same degree as the HBG students.

-Enforcer's armour is modelled after the operating principles of NODE armour, though it can't stand up to the same abuse because she doesn't have enough grunt to power it. However, that she can even manifest something along those lines hints that she is a force to be reckoned with. She can't produce the "full-body" tactical armour either, for the same reason(thus leaving her with a miniskirt and hot pants)

-Enforcer is not as powerful as a Disark Lord, but the operating NODE in the Intervention Cascade continually monitors her progress in case she ever approaches that level of output. In such a case, a protocol was written just for her: that she would then be investigated as a potential threat, meaning that she could possibly face Intervention.

[T51R]

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Their names are: Etsu and Etsuko
And they're: Transcendant Djinn
They're: dedicated every moment of every day to finding their mother, who disappeared after granting a wish. In other words, they're unemployed.
They're from: the City itself(natural residents)
Their level of education: is quite extensive; they were home-schooled by their mother long before her disappearance.


Histories:

Etsu and Etsuko are a pair of homeless, penniless Djinn who were "born" in the City of Dreams itself and who did not have to undergo the teachings of Seraph nor the tutelage of Arashi; they are only two of its "natural" denizens. But unlike most other residents, they are a pair of Loli on a mission: to find their mother, who vanished after granting a wish.

And their bread and butter happens to be, you guessed it, wishes.

Its something the both of them take great pride in. Not only them, but also the Djinn of the lower Cosmologies who are involved in the same business. You see, unlike most other races the Djinn do have a specific and very strict code of conduct: they refuse to renege on wishes, and deliver to the best of their ability and skill as a matter of professional pride. It's a lucrative business in Creations, though the most powerful Djinn routinely seek permission and special sanction from the True Gods and Goddesses to conduct business in different Creations. It's also a case for most Djinn, with the exception of the Excommunicated, to "grant the heart's desire," and not the verbal expression from the client(the pair's catchphrase is "we will grant that which you need, and what you need may not necessarily be what you want.") Independent Djinn are also created by Deity Primes, and if their skills and natures allow it, are very often allowed to join special "Guilds" which also include contact with their peers from outside the realms of their Gods(in such cases, their respective Gods/Goddesses will permit, by their own power and through liaison with his or her peers, their Djinn to meet and do business. It is not uncommon for certain Gods or Goddesses to request a specific Djinn from another Creation whose skills lie in a certain area. Indeed, some of them even employ the Djinn as consultants.)

Then there are those Djinn who become Transcendent, and specialize in serving the Creators themselves. These outstanding individuals live a highly idealized life, existing solely but for their profession, and to reign in the "Excommunicated," wayward or renegade Djinn who bring disgrace to the work. Etsu and Etsuko's parent is one such person, who in time learned and understood enough to earn the acceptance of the City and thus the right to both live in it, and work from it.

To a Djinn, especially the ones who Transcend themselves, the granting of a Wish is all. For their methods and techniques are scrutinized by all their peers, and only the most skilled are recognized as "Executive Elite," a rank held by precious few.

Etsu and Etsuko's mother was just such a Djinn, and the first to take the trade into the City of Dreams. Trading wishes in exchange for small favours and random trinkets, most if not all Djinn who knew her held her in the highest regard. And they expect her daughters to follow in her footsteps, as a new class of "elite" Djinn, the first-ever to come into being within the City. The pair remember that all their lives, they were taught with strictness and care to always honor the code of the Djinn. Such had been drilled into them for as long as they remember, together with their mother's love(specially imported, of course) and the knowledge of their peers. For Etsu and Etsuko, the time they spent with their mother was a very happy period and quite normal; they were trained in their trade at home and enrolled in several clubs which taught other skills essential to living within the City. They remember her travelling great distances to pick them up, very often thumbing a ride with other denizens of the City even though some modes of transportation scared her to death(they remember that their mother was mentally traumatized after riding pillion with Sayaka on her bike, but continued to accept lifts from her just to be there at the clubroom door on-time when the gatherings were dismissed) Their early stages were filled with good memories.

Then came the day that their mother descended to the Lower Cosmologies and vanished, along with her Prime Self in the City leaving two very young Djinn with a home, a good stash of things to trade for living expenses, a large library of case files to do with all the wishes she had ever granted, and the knowledge they would need to eventually join the other Djinn serving the City. She also left them a large Tome containing her best tricks and tips, together with techniques for fate-weaving and causality engineering. Her final act as their mother before disappearing was to prepare for them a large meal, which Etsu and Etsuko found ready for them on the day their mother disappeared.

For a while they lived in the home they had shared as a family, but rather soon it became obvious that their mother was not coming back. They then realized that they were on their own, and that their mother had enough faith in them that she could leave them to their own devices.

Thus began the search.

For you see, they decided to abandon everything in order to find out what happened to their mother, where she had disappeared to, and what had become of her in the end. They traded their home for large amounts of materials necessary for their profession, and found a cardboard box that they specially engineered into a mobile base that they could use as cheap, long-range transport(they routinely mail themselves to wherever they want to search, including different Gods and Goddesses, using Aspects) The box itself is seemingly compact but thanks to field manipulation, it holds their mother's library, their rooms, a living room, and a very sophisticated surveillance array that they traded for. It also has a self-contained kitchenette, gaming room, meeting rooms, and a boardroom where they service the wishes of clients who work in co-ops. Its pantry is immense, and it also has an extended warehousing facility where they keep trinkets and objects, things that they receive in exchange for wishes granted. So yes, their box is quite well-worn on the outside. And so are their clothes; the pair hardly shop or trade for anything: besides their work, they dedicate every waking moment to the search for their mother(often not having time to cook or clean themselves up, hence why they look decrepit 99% of the time they're seen)

They also get by mostly on charity; in the City, there aren't that many Wishes to grant as most other residents can do that themselves. Indeed, Wishes are seen as small gifts of little actual value, but very high emotional value(example, Nana and Asashi often recieve Wishes as gifts from suitors, Sapporo traded for several open-ended Wishes to give to her special person, if she ever found one. Forte's favorite prank is to "Wish Someone Hell," Seraph gives out small Wishes to her charges ahead of holidays) As such passers-by give them food, clothes, and very often receive token Wishes as thanks for any information they can spare regarding the whereabouts of their mother.

In the search for their mother the pair have dealt with not only the True Gods and Goddesses, but the beings and creatures from between the Folds(up to and including sometimes working with the Enforcer, and at other times clashing with her) They have solicited the help of several NODE's, from the Mage, Etrigan, and very often from the students of HBG; Lost Children by this stage often remember a great deal and the pair are smart enough to not ask for a particular person. Instead, they ask if certain events have occurred in their home 'Verses that suggest that their mother had at some point set up shop there at least temporarily. They have also mailed themselves, and in some cases smuggled themselves into the Creations of the True Gods and Goddesses, in order to quietly look for signs of their mother's work; they know her modus operandi, the "fingerprint" as it were for each particular Djinn. For quite a while, they found no signs of their mother.

[T51R]

Until the day Tiki, Kansai's horrifically mutated hamster, summoned them to the parking lot outside the Intervention Cascade.

There, they were handed a folder of information containing the "fingerprint" that they had waited so long to find: a tiny and almost nonexistent trace of their mother's handiwork in the granting of a tiny wish, proving to the pair that their mother was still somewhere out there and still plying her trade. The news prompted the pair to seek out the recipient of the Wish, and found that a man had been made into a God, complete with his own Creation, and apprenticed to his Deity Prime. Having been granted permission, the pair interviewed the once-mortal man and found that it was indeed their mother whom granted his wish to become a God(not to be confused with a True God) A meeting with the Creator of that 'Verse brought only bad news: that their mother had again disappeared without a trace after granting the wish.

The trail had gone cold, again. But this time, there was a ray of hope: Etsu and Etsuko knew that their mother still existed, and to this day the pair spare no effort in the hope of meeting her again.

In their travels, they have met many beings from the Lower Cosmologies. Indeed, they have travelled with Street16 for a time on board the Turbulence and have spent time with the Sendiri, Creations of Drak'a'lar, one of Kokumotsu's many subordinates. They have spent time of Mechna, and in the town of Blackriver, where MaxFist once operated during the Disark War. They have even sought out Kombat, the bio-mercenary on the Wolfen planet, and journeyed to the NODES plane for a prolonged forsenic analysis of the remains of the Disark Empire that are still there(the came back suffering post-traumatic stress disorder after seeing the tactical capabilities of a NODE for the first time)

And their search has also yielded a small clue to what may have been the fate of their mother: they enjoyed their time in the Lower Cosmologies, mingling with the mortal and immortal beings there. So much so that they stayed in some places for extended periods. That led themselves to ask:

If their mother still existed, was it possible that she was now living a mortal experience?

That she was both skillful and powerful enough to evade detection, even from the Intervention Cascade, they reasoned to themselves that such a thing was plausible.


Personalities:

Etsu and Etsuko are optimists; they have to be in order to have kept their search up for so long even against the advice of several NODE units to respect the choices their mother made, and to grant what seems to be her wish to meet her daughters again as equals once they were fully grown and established as Djinn themselves. Etsu is the serious one, and the pair's analyst. Etsuko however bases her decisions on her intuition, with about the same rate of success as her sister. Just because they're on a mission doesn't mean that they don't know how to enjoy themselves; they do take periodic breaks to rest and freshen up before starting again, and they're very sociable(which leads them to be stalked by Kansai, the resident Lolicon often enough) Enough to land them invites to dinners, picnics, and small parties. They also take these chances to bathe, change and manicure when need be.

They never turn away a potential customer, and as a matter of pride will go to the ends of the City in order to grant a wish once they have accepted a job(not an easy task, given the nature of the city; they have found themselves camping in the Yggdrasil Forest on more than one occasion, looking for particular things)

Etsu can appear cold, but that's because she doesn't talk very much preferring to emulate her mother's professional cunduct when on the job. Etsuko however is very bubbly and friendly, the more open of the pair and very carefree. Given their ages, they have made many friends at the Halfway House where they sometimes stay when they make repeated trips through the Threshold, and at HBG where Arashi accepts them as guests from time to time, especially when they request to go through his collection of scrolls looking for hints and signs of their mother's whereabouts(the scrolls change periodically to reflect alterations in their home 'Verses, and Arashi has a whole damned library of the things.) The pair are very smart and industrious, capable of very high degrees of reasoning despite the short time they have existed. This has earned them the respect of many in the City, and they consider it the highest compliment possible to be compared to their mother.


Tasty Tidbits:

-The are undercutters by nature, selling Wishes for cheap, much to the ire of their fellow Djinn.

-Since they're not part of any Guild yet and have not yet received any official recognition as being part of one, they are considered "free agents" by their peers who also admit that their level of skill is quite high, even though their experience may be a little lacking because they haven't been working long in the business.

-Their mother was highly regarded in the City both for her work and for her compassion for others, including the beings from the Lower Cosmologies, down to the lowliest mortal creature.

-For a skilled Djinn, a Wish to become a God or Goddess is quite an easy task, although for the obvious reasons they will normally not grant it immediately; for the sake of the Creation they have to produce they will often apprentice the new God to its Creator Prime, after which he or she will be allowed to go on their way with a note which states they have completed an extended apprenticeship, making them both fit to work at that level and to receive assistance in management should they need it.

-A good number of these "manufactured" Gods and Goddesses eventually find themselves facing Intervention by the NODES, often becoming abusive of their Creations over time.

-Unlike the NODES and other entities that are equipped for combat, the Djinn are not trained in the martial ways and so it is not uncommon for them to hire bodyguards; one of the Enforcer's jobs is this very line of work.

-It is frowned upon for a Djinn to engage in combat; it is seen as a noble profession and thus is kept as non-violent as possible. Which is not to say that they are not capable of all those things: the "Excommunicated" Djinn often cause trouble and the more powerful ones ally themselves with True Gods with plans for conquest, earning them the attention of either the Enforcer, or the NODEs.

[T51R]

Righto, let's pick up and finish off with...

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Endings Anew. Because we left off at THIS POST (http://forums.comicbookresources.com/showpost.php?p=7638841&postcount=157).

This is also a "load test" of sorts to see how quickly I can get good quality stuff out, so please bear with me.

[T51R]

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Page 1. Read traditionally like a Western comic.

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Page 2. Still read left to right like a traditional Western comic.

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Page 3

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Page 4

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Page 5. Apologies for the long wait, we've dealing with a death in the family for the last few months.

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Page 6. Merging CAD and Photoshop for the backgrounds. Hopefully it worked.

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Page 7.