We've been a bit worried about you Redbelle. You were a prolific writer here, then suddenly nothing. 

Just to let you know, we moved to Fan Fiction Site because of Internet Explorer issues with this site. Kel's tied into Internet Explorer on his PC - it's a long story, and this site won't let him copy stuff so we moved over there. Plus we don't have to deal as much with censorship issues since Jensaarai is the moderator of our forum. 

I hope you decide to join us over there. We really could use you. I've had an account there since 2013.

RB stirs!!! What's going on? it's been ages. We've missed you.

"Is an Asari ready to mate?" Wreav 2:12

"And The Shepard exiteth the elevator

and beheld before her an Eclipse mercenary whom she didst approach.

'Hast thou seen the assassin?' asketh The Shepard.

'If I didst, I would tellest thou not,' he spake.

The Shepard approacheth him. 'Thou hast two ways down: express or coach. Tellest me where the assassin is.'

But the mercenary understandeth not the gravity of his situation.

'I sayest nothing to you,' he sayeth.

The Shepard then cast him through the window and looketh down and spaketh. 'How about goodbye?'" - The Gospel of The Shepard according to Zaeed. (10th translation - original version would get me banned)

I have seen this post, and we're awaiting the reply.

Technically, the genophage was mild compared to what could have been done to Tuchanka and Garvug. At the time they gave Garvug to them as a reward for the Rachni wars and due to the lack of predators the Krogan flourished and quickly overpopulated the world... unlike the harsh world of Tuchanka.

What doesn't make sense is that since most of the troop replacements were probably not coming from Tuchanka, but rather from Garvug, the genophage was released out of the shroud on Tuchanka. They would have had to do an airborne release on Garvug as well which was never mentioned in lore.

It could have been worse for the Krogan, though. Imagine if the combined Asari and Turian fleets showed up and pulverized Garvug from orbit with good old fashioned dirty nukes. Cheap, destructive, with lasting effects. 

Good stuff, here. Good stuff.

How could humanity monkey wrench it exactly?

I couldn't resist the opportunity to use the pun.

But seriously. They've been on the galactic scene for 30 years. There was the First Contact War. The Skyllian Blitz. The Batarian terrorism. The perception perpetrated by Charles "Trump" Saracino that humanity is losing to aliens and he wants to make Earth great again. "Earth First!" "Build The Wall!" 

Now if the Asari had previously pacified the Turians and Salarians, but had secretly built up units like the elite Serrice Guard. And remember, the galaxy thinks the Asari accomplished everything without the benefit of a Prothean Archive. So there's that. 

Here's an example of what the Asari have to overcome with humans:

I sent these by PM.....

You've obviously watched the American election. You know what's happening. Think when the squid heads arrive.

"You humans are all racists."

Just playing ME2 again and I have to admit, I am getting way more annoyed by the little stuff than I should.

 

Example: On the derelict reaper, after killing the last of the husks in the open section, Mordin - so presumably the most intelligent crew member - has the line "Only remaining task is destruction of mass effect core."

Hey Mordin, remember why we came here in the first place? We want to find the IFF right? We don't have it yet. In fact, we got REALLY lucky that we found a reaper intact so maybe get your priorities straight!

Two minutes later when - through dumb luck - we do find the IFF before blowing up the reaper,Mordin's comment is :"Cerberus team succeeded, current location unknown." What? Who do you think were the husks we were fighting just now and what about the Cerberus guys on those Dragon's Teeth that we discussed 10 minutes earlier?

Seriously, who wrote this stuff?  It's like almost every second line in all of ME2 has little issues like that, like there was no coordination in the dev team at all. I mean one problem every now and then I wouldn't mind but when I go "WTF?" in every other line, it really starts to put a strain on the whole thing. It's like killing the story with needle pricks.

 

/random rant

You should never have read this thread. It makes you wonder who the bosh'tet was who wrote this crap.

Could be done. Humanity could throw a monkey wrench (pardon the pun) into the works. However, even The Illusive Man was banging a couple of Asari Matriarchs on a regular basis. So was the best for humanity... the Asari?

With no news from BW on ME:Andromeda except for writers leaving - yes the game is a year away and people found out that Canada is cold in the winter - and no support for all browsers, and strange support for Microsoft Word, something had to be done.

I am moving my characters over. Just copy into Notepad and paste. Notepad will remove outside links.

Okay then. Jen, go ahead and set up a thread: Chasing Spectres Story: Part II

I have the place bookmarked in my browser.

Having that major part of the story go poof after so long is a 

We'll continue to archive the materials in the Archive Thread. And let's get the story going.

********************************

This said, I'd like to refer you guys to an author whom I follow: KM Weiland. She's a great resource and helps aspiring writers a lot.  

Here's one resource I found excellent: http://www.helpingwr...es/free-e-book/

This book is about crafting characters. And it's free. Download to your mobile device AND your PC. How well do you know your character? While you might not want to go through all the detail for a RP, it's worth a read.

So let's have a reality check here.

I think our RP fits somewhere between the FanFiction guidelines of Fiction T and Fiction M inclusive. It certainly isn't Fiction MA - detailed descriptions of "adult content" which is not allowed on the site. We don't swear that much, and the violence and sex scenes haven't been exactly what I would call graphic. Most of our stuff is pretty mild. It don't think we'll have any problems over there if we continue as we have. 

I'll be honest here. The biggest issue is that we lost a major contributor recently - Redbelle. Losing Redbelle has one plot line at a standstill and it requires essentially writing out or putting in infinite limbo a set of characters (the Kings & Queens, Tarballs, and Jess Stone and Amy Babylon). Kel has a major character in the middle of a conversation with Tarballs at the moment IIRC. This is a problem and not a small one especially given the fact that we're about to do one of his plot lines.

It would not hurt to see if we could find someone to fill that void. Of course, they won't take over the characters. They could, and in writing video games and movie scripts this sort of thing has happened, but that's going to be up to us and we'll need a consensus for that because these are what we would call essential characters. It would require a major commitment from that writer. 

It also sounds like FanFiction.net would provide the best opportunity for getting new writers - more characters, etc so that the story isn't totally driven by us. I think new blood might be just what we need.

I would rather sacrifice a little customization and some content restrictions for the ease in getting new people to join. 

The question is, do we have a consensus?

Okay, how about we do the assus pullus method of bringing new characters into the story? i.e. if we're on a mission and you know how long our missions can take we just say that the new character is already with us. We picked them up at the last stop. Inclusion by retcon. It's messy, but it will keep prospective writers from dropping out before we get to them. 

We could use some new blood.

As far as location, I don't care as long as the forum works and someone from this story has moderation control over it. i.e. if we get an an a-h you can boot them from our corner.

Okay, just for some clarification on the FanFiction site. There are no problems with the copy and paste, but I need to point out there is a definition of Suitable for Teens. This means T-Rating.

How about "Elsewhere in the Galaxy"; or "While Shepard Was In Prison"; or "Back In Black"***

OH, you're talking about the MAIN FORUM title.... Ah Yes, 'Reapers.'

OR: Eternity Lounge == this was Matriarch Aethyta's place in ME2. Rule #1 - Beating customers with their spines is bad for business. Rule #2 - No sex, I just cleaned the bar.

Set it up like this Aria's Afterlife

Then have Eternity Lounge/Chasing Spectres Part I - and after all the content is transferred lock it.

For our working copy Eternity Lounge/Chasing Spectres Part II 

Create sub forums Eternity Lounge/Chasing Spectres: Characters; Eternity Lounge/ Chasing Spectres OOC Discussion

*** j/k but given the 1980s action movie excesses I've done with my Spectre..... 

The thing is that that particular place where we have Chasing Spectres archived for some reason is not paging, but other forums do.

For example: Aria's Afterlife: Behind Enemy Lines formats beautifully.

So what I suggest we do is put our stuff from here over there as an Archive. And start Chasing Spectres Part II. I'd like to see our working copy format like Aria's Afterlife.

Let's discuss this and make our decision over the weekend. Does that sound okay to everyone? Kel will need to try out the forum at work tomorrow.

Jen had an idea. Since Kel has been having difficulties with this site using Internet Exploder, if we have interest in continuing this this story to its conclusion, why don't we move this over to the FanFiction RP site. We already have a thread where we were archiving stuff.

https://www.fanficti...hasing-Spectres

I already have an account over there. It's easy to set up an account if you don't have one. Cnarf has one and Jen has one as well. We don't have to worry about BioWare Moderators locking us out for days, either. We just have to abide by their posting rules which is basically no foul language and no pr0n in the posts. 

But since this will be a major undertaking to archive everything I want to make sure that we have a commitment from the writers that are left for about another year. The Archive is done through August 2015. It would need to be brought up to date, and due to the format of the archive we should set up our own forum over there to use -- something that pages since the archive doesn't.

That forum might be more IE friendly. I don't know, though. I haven't tested it.

Kel, you might want to make an account and test it with some a post or two to a general forum and let us know before we go to all the work.

The bubble was a biotic barrier. Hence Space Magic 

Naleena

While they were orbiting Earth, Naleena sat tapping her index finger on her desk. There were a number of questions she had about the reapers, and there was only one person who could answer them. That person was currently in prison. Naleena pressed the button on VERA’s terminal.

“VERA, do you have the facility where Commander Jane Shepard is being held?” she asked.

“Commander Shepard is being held at the Alliance Detention Center in Vancouver, British Columbia,” VERA replied. “She is awaiting trial and access to her is restricted.”

“I don’t believe that will be a problem,” Naleena said. “Have Septerax prep the shuttle for launch.”

///////////////////

During her flight to the military base, Naleena was prepared to question Shepard thoroughly. Shepard would probably have been advised by her counsel not to answer any questions. Naleena was prepared. She brought with her multiple electronic jamming devices similar to the one used by Detective Hagen on Omega, but more sophisticated. She was certain the Alliance would have her turn over her weapons and anything like that so she had one available, but she also brought her cigarettes, one of which contained such a device, and she carried a backup in her right boot.

As she made her approach, she saw the typical military base in front of her with two Normandy Class frigates being serviced, and marines going through field training exercises. She landed her shuttle on the rooftop landing pad of the main detention building, entered the facility and displayed her Council Spectre Identification.

“I am here on Council business to see Commander Jane Shepard,” Naleena said to the guard.

The sergeant nodded. “You’ll have to sign in here, and we’ll need a retinal scan and your palm print for verification.”

Naleena complied and everything checked out.

“Please turn in all weapons and electronic devices,” the sergeant requested.

Naleena handed him her Carnifex and her pen. “I will need to keep my omni-tool to record our conversation.”

“That will be fine, ma’am.”

Naleena stepped through the metal detector. It went off.

“That must be my cigarette case,” Naleena said.

“I’ll need to look inside.”

Naleena took the case from her inside breast pocket and opened it displaying 7 of 8 cigarettes. The guard nodded, waived her through and opened the bar door. The guard on the other side of the bar door escorted her to the private visiting area.

The visiting room was empty except for two chairs and a table that were bolted to the floor. Grey metal doors with small wired glass windows were on either side of the white room which had one small high window, also made of thick wired bullet proof glass. Naleena took a seat and looked around the room. She noticed very small cameras in two corners. Minutes later Shepard was brought in, her hair cut short and wearing an orange jumpsuit.

“I don’t know why you even bothered to come here. I’m not talking to anyone,” Shepard said.

“Advice of counsel, I take it?” Naleena replied. “Just please, have a seat. You don’t have to say a word. We can just sit in silence and motionless then.”

Shepard cocked her head, but sat in the chair opposite Naleena. “Are you going to meld?”

“We could do that, but I’m not prepared for it at the moment,” Naleena said.

Naleena sat with her hands folded in front of her on the table, and indicated for Shepard to do the same. Shepard thought it was odd, but she played along. Naleena’s omni-tool lit. She reached into her pocket and took out her cigarette case, removed the second one from the left and twisted it.

“The cameras are now on loop, and I just jammed the mics. We can speak freely, Spectre to Spectre, without you incriminating yourself,” Naleena said.

“But I’m no longer a Spectre.”

“I don’t care about that. I’ll get straight to it because we don’t have much time. We made a deal on Omega, but it appears that you won’t be able to help me take down Cerberus after all. So I’m here on other business,” Naleena said. “I need to know everything you know about the reapers.”

Shepard told her about her mission inside the derelict reaper when they recovered the IFF that allowed them to pass through the Omega 4 relay. She described the ship in detail. And that even though it was severely damaged that it was not dead. That the only way to kill them was to destroy the Reaper core itself. She told Naleena about how the reaper cores are made: how the one in the Collector Base was being made.

“We found the Leviathan of Dis. The Batarians have it. It is still… alive,” Naleena said. “We’re running out of time. Is there anything else?”

“Kasumi Goto has a grey box. It contains memories of her deceased boyfriend, Keiji, but it also contains some very heavily encrypted information about the reapers that no one has ever seen. Keiji was killed before he could pass it on,” Shepard said. “Find her and see if you can talk her into giving you that grey box.”

“Thank you, Shepard,” Naleena said, and a guard burst in.

“Time is up!” he said and approached Shepard.

“You wasted my time, Shepard! I traveled half-way across the galaxy for nothing!” Naleena shouted with disgust and grabbed the broken cigarette from the table and stuffed it into her coat pocket. “Rot in the Void!”

Naleena stood and briskly left the room. The visit had been fruitful. One lead stood out: Kasumi Goto. She picked up her gear at the guard station, got on her shuttle and returned to the ship.   

Did I say that I absolutely hate the first three weeks of Daylight Savings Time? 

The entire nation walks around sleep deprived for a while. Now don't get me wrong I love the extra daylight in the evening, and the extra hour of darkness in the morning because up here, that hour of darkness does make a difference when the sun comes blasting in your window at 5:00 a.m. in standard time. But it's those first three weeks when we go from grande to three grandes just to stay awake and still feel like the walking dead for the entire day. Our bodies don't like to go to sleep even though it's past our bedtime by the clock and we're tired from dragging our asses through the day. 

This said, I'll get something up so we can finish this chapter and decide what's going to happen next.

He can't paste into IE, and has a child at home.

I'm having a really hard time with this lost post thing and I'm telling you, I'm pretty infuriated over it.  I'd be mad if I made a mistake myself, like not copying it and typing it raw, but this not being able to copy or paste is really really burning me and I am not good about it.

Losing a large post is infuriating, and I get it. I get that it is especially infuriating when you have no workaround. How about breaking up the longer post into two or three shorter posts labeling them Pt 1, Pt 2, and Pt3? That way if you lose the short post of three paragraphs, it's much easier to reconstruct?

Can you copy out of IE onto Notepad so you can rewrite back into IE? You should be able to do this otherwise there is something wrong with your computer.

Narf, there are ways you can work her into our story, too. Like there's a Spectre that's in the shape of a pretzel at the moment. You mentioned that this is sort of an urgent mission to me over Xbox Live the other night. The Council is kind of tired of paying Dalliax for doing nothing, so why don't they put her on the hunt for Xanthe?

If you get her active, I may even bring that handsome fellow back into the story and get him assigned to her ship to keep an eye on her. You know make sure she's not slacking. He's a bloody idealist. The two should get along famously.

And honestly that's why I didn't pick up The Division. I played the Beta. The enemies are bullet sponges. Unarmored enemies with baseball bats can take a magazine from an MP5 in the face and still beat you to death.

You know 'narf, you could come back and write some more Dalliax. We won't bite.