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Posted: Mon May 14, 2012 11:54 am
The drawing's smile dimmed slightly as she tilted her head to the side. "Really now?" The elf moved her head out of the way of the drawing's arms and sent a weak glare to Isa. "Please don't cause trouble." The picture looked like she wanted to say something, but stopped herself. Instead, she ruffled Reina's hair and sat on the desk swinging her legs.
Reina turned to look at Zane. "If she's bothered you in any way, I am sorry on her behalf." His statement was incredibly morbid. Surprisingly, this was what got her to reach out to someone else. "If you don't mind me asking," Reina stuttered, "what makes you say that? I don't think this is a bad place to be, and death has never really been a good alternative to anything."
The drawing raised an eyebrow at Reina, but continued to keep quiet. It seemed the sketch wanted to see how this conversation would play out.
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Posted: Mon May 14, 2012 3:46 pm
Alex was startled by the sudden appearance of the teacher's wife. The apology was lost on him, as he really was getting his work done and was losing interest in the class itself quickly. The other people of the class were working on the assignment but Dragn seemed confused on it, staying silent and not giving Alex anything to write down. Sighing at having to take matters into his own hands, Alex raised his voice to the others around him. "Can anyone explain this a little more? I'm still a bit up in the air on what to do."
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Posted: Mon May 14, 2012 4:24 pm
He looked up at the drawing. For a replication of a RP character, this entity was surprisingly polite. He couldn't be sure if that was not just a mask to hide the player's dark side, however. At the elf's question, he replied, "It's not that. It's just... an exaggeration." He shut his mouth then, not trusting himself to go on about how he had only been speaking in reply to the drawing's remark about being as silent as the dead. Poor Zane had just been trying to be witty. "I just can't help but think that my divine RPer is laughing at every single move I make is all." He gave a weak laugh.
At first, he made no move to answer Alex's question. As confident as he was in his knowledge of the personality tests and his ability to help him, he wasn't sure about the response he'd get for injecting his two cents on the matter after having ticked the guy off earlier on. In the end, he decided to give it a stab. "We're supposed to flesh out our personalities by doing a personality test. The result's some generalization of a personality type, like my INTJ one. From that result, you can get some points for your personality, or something like that."
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Posted: Mon May 14, 2012 5:24 pm
Alex nodded to the boy drawing, his name was Zane if he remembered correctly. He turned his attention back to Dragn. 'That help at all?', he asked mentally. Dragn nodded and held up a hand to gather some more data and study the almighty Wikipedia page. Meanwhile Alex walked over to sit next to Zane. "Thanks for the help. Sometimes my creator can be a bit lazy with his study work." He leaned back and looked from the seat Zane had been in earlier to the one he was in now. "So why did you move over here? Change in scenery or was there something wrong with that seat?"
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Posted: Thu May 17, 2012 7:32 am
The teacher finally looked up from his desk where he'd finished grading papers a few days ago but had become rather absorbed in reading an odd book titled Snake Bite Prevention and Treatment. There was a crease of worry to his brow and drawn tiredness in his expression when he first picked up the book but he'd calmed considerably now and was able to flash that polite smile at the class when he put the book down and stood up to wander through the desks. "Sorry for the delay, guys. End of semester's always busy and it's been. . . well, suffice to say it's been an interesting week. So, let's take a look at what y'all have," He leaned over the shoulders of the students as he passed to take a look at what they'd each written. Some hadn't written anything and two had faded away completely. Vay shook his head with a frown at the empty desks and poked a few of the students that had not finished their work as he moved down the isle. "Come on guys, it's important you do your work. Y'all are getting a grade on this and if you don't do your work it will not be a good grade. Also you're holding up the rest of the class. After this you can go hang out at your own speed and we'll divide the slower students from the faster ones in the next classes but for now please try to keep up," he poked at the neko's ears for emphasis then walked back toward the front of the class. "I'll give y'all a little more time on your last three assignments which, for those you who've forgotten, are as follows: 1) Fill out the character template on pg 2 of the workbook 2) Research archetypes and pick a few to fit you - put that in the concept 3) Take the MBTI to better define your personality "Please get those in as soon as you possibly can. After you've turned in your work you may chat with other students who have turned in their work," He turned pointedly towards Alex. "After you have turned in your work." Vay let that sink in a moment before he turned back to the rest of the class. "Please, if you have any questions, comments, concerns, anything really about the assignments speak up in class so we can all hear them. Also, any advice or suggestions you have to a specific student or the class in general about the assignments feel free to give them. The best way to learn is to teach so I'd really like y'all getting in there and helping each other." He gave the class a warm smile then glanced to the clock on the back wall. "I'll give y'all till the weekend before I drop another assignment in here but I'm going to post it in the OOC thread so the good students can get a head start and have theirs ready to post when I put it in here. We're getting close to the end of this class so it's important you keep up," Mr. Vay gave the late students a warning look for that as he walked back to his desk and sat down. Roll Call:Bourgeoisie Alice V Alice Valentine: a girl with a few mental disorders trying to find someone to understand her and not call her "crazy". Countess Misery Evalyn May Rose: a tiny stick of dynamite, not about to let anyone get in her way. Demon Fox Kyuu Evan Scarborough: a meek but friendly and happy-go-lucky artist. Deoxyribose-42 Ella-Brook: a driven, highly competitive, and unorthodox book lover. DragnGuy7 Alex Rider: a down on his luck slacker pushed into enrolling by his nagging parents. Isa-sama Reina Trasfer: a girl destined to save the world, she just needs to find the courage to do it. Jikial D'cund Vospa: a brutish male rock hominid hailing from parts unknown. Keynir Levi Jemison: a home-schooled and neglected boy determined to make something of himself. Kobochi Mayura: an easy-going girl with the hopes of making friends and having some fun and adventure in her otherwise boring life. Setses Basira Itzli: a sometimes meticulous, sometimes lackadaisical girl that does not do well under pressure. StealthNeko Fang Caligon: an adventurer, looking for a place to belong. Venom3001 Lloyd "Tombstone" Sanetha: an elf gunslinger from a postapocalyptic Wild West. Watervoir Zane Vincent: a somewhat paranoid hacker/conspirator and tortured RP character.
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Posted: Fri May 18, 2012 10:01 pm
When Alex turned, Zane tilted his head to get a glimpse of his roleplayer, or whatever stand-in of him there was. He sighed softly, wondering why he wasn't allowed the same benefit. It wasn't clear to him why she always resorted to email or text messages to communicate answers to his assignments. The more messages he received from her, the more he wanted to see the face of this mystery woman.
His attention was draw towards Alex's question. Move here? Zane smiled a little, fingers toying with the rim of his hat as he considered telling the truth. "A bit of both," he answered. "And a small extra." He stuck a hand in his bag, worming his fingers through his the drawstring bag to retrieve one of the marbles, which he then tossed for Alex to catch. "Take a look. It's a secret of mine though, so keep quiet about it." He doubted the other boy would be able to tell what the tiny ball really was.
Having completed all of the assignments so far, Zane didn't concern himself over the teacher's words much. He turned to the elf girl and, not wishing for her to remain silent and yet not one for idle chatter himself, prompted her with some meaningful questions. "So tell me... what did you find out about Rocky and Cowboy over there?"
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Posted: Sat May 19, 2012 6:23 pm
Reina stared at her shoes and gave a small "oh," to Zane's comment. She had never been very good at telling when someone was making a joke or not. The elf could relate to feeling like the player was making fun of the character. She pouted at the drawing sitting on the desk, but before she could say anything, the sketch girl said, "oh no. I know what you want to ask, and I can't tell you what the original me is thinking."
Another boy started talking to Zane, and Reina didn't have the heart to interrupt either of them. However, she didn't want to go back to being ignored, so she waited for a good opportunity to talk.
When the professor spoke, she didn't feel too worried about the assignments since she had finished them earlier.
And finally, Zane asked her a question. "Oh um..." She shrugged. "The other elf didn't talk to me at all," she stated, "I suppose he didn't find me an interesting person to talk to. As for the Rock creature--"
"His name is D'cund," The picture spoke up at the mention of the rock guy. "Sorry for interrupting, but seeing as my little artist here doesn't know a thing about him, I figure I'd answer the question in her place. He's a very sweet person. So is his translator." Sweet was probably not the correct word to use for Sigma, but Reina knew from experience that Isa tended to like (and befriend) the oddest of people.
Reina thanked her drawing for the information before turning to Zane again. "And what have you learned about the other people here?" Zane had been here longer than she had; he probably knew a lot more about some of the other students.
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Posted: Sun May 20, 2012 2:43 pm
Alex's paper in front of him seemed to suddenly gain writing as if an invisible pencil was scribbling across the page, but leaving a visible scrawl as it went. "I believe Alex to be a ISTP type of person. -he is more of an introvert and tends to stick to himself unless he deems it necessary or interesting to have company -he tends to try to focus on the real world rather than the strange one that he seems to live in so he likes to focus on the ground rather than in the clouds -although he tends to split his decisions between his own personal ideas and how things actually are, he tends to follow what's actually real rather than how he wishes things were -when faced with life changing or pivotal points of growth, Alex tends to try to prolong his time before he must approach them(thus his tendency to ignore deadlines and the like)" Alex looked down and shrugged, figuring his work to be done and examined the marble that Zane had tossed his way. He felt his way around the small ball, what was this little ball? Without breaking his focus on the marble, he directed his voice at Zane, keeping it low but audible enough to hear. "What is this? A marble? I don't see anything that would make this any different from a regular marble. Is there something inside it?"
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Posted: Mon May 21, 2012 3:13 pm
"The translator is a... very sweet person?" he repeated Isa skeptically. He turned an eye at the man that donned the flowing lab coat and had equally white bangs. Zane couldn't see Sigma's eyes, and he couldn't decide whether it was due to the angle or because the hair was shielding them from sight. The description didn't suit the image, but he was willing to take Isa's word for it. "Is there a reason he looks like that? What happened to his arm?" He was considering bugging that end of the room too at some point or another, and he figured now was as good a time as any to find out what he was jumping into first.
At Isa's next question, Zane answered, "I know him, you two, and her." A finger singled out Alex, then Isa and Reina and finally, behind him at Ella-Brook. He turned his head to check if she was still there before shrugging. "I don't know that many people here. I've only been here a little longer than you.
He leaned in Alex's direction, intent on shedding some light on his little toy, but positioning his body in such a way so that the conversation was open to Reina and Isa as well. "I'll tell you about this too, but don't tell your creators about them. This." In his hand was another of the marbles. "Is precisely a marble, but it also doubles up as a microphone. Everything's inside it, but no one would know it. You run this--" He held out his magnetic activator. "Over it to turn it on and off and to identify whether it's one of my marbles or just a run-of-the-mill dollar shop stuff. The marbles send everything to my phone. I've considered adding a camera function to the marble, but figuring out how to orient it so that it's not recording say, a wall, has been difficult."
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Posted: Mon May 21, 2012 4:25 pm
Alex looked back at his own marble and examined it closely, then looked back at the one in Zane's hand. Looking back at the marble in his own hand, he pulled his notebook out of his bag with his free hand. Flipping it open to a new page, he began to write down everything Zane had said about them and about his microphone idea. He quickly sketched a rough picture of the marble in his hand and made a few notes coming off of it, mainly noting ideas for things that could go inside the marble and all of the tech needed to fit inside it. Looking back at Zane, he spoke again in his low voice, but loud enough for Isa and Reina to hear too. "Would you mind showing me a bit more on how the inside of the marble works? I have a bit of experience with technology and would love to help you out if you'd like. Haven't had a good project in a while." He temporarily leaned around Zane to look at the girls for a quick moment and gave them a smile. "Oh, my name is Alex by the way. Nice to meet you two."
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Posted: Mon May 21, 2012 9:00 pm
Isa smiled and nodded. "Adorable was the word I used earlier on both of them actually." She shrugged at Zane's next question. "I don't know. But I'm going to go see if I can convince either of them to come and talk to us," the picture said as she hopped off the desk.
Reina shook her head, and muttered, "Didn't you bother them enough earlier?" Isa grinned and ruffled Reina's hair before leaving. "Nope!" As she passed by Alex's chair, she said, "My name's Isa, good to meet you too. Be right back."
The elf sighed before looking at Alex with a small smile. "I am Reina, and it's a pleasure to meet you." She turned back to Zane and said, "While she's off, could I see one of your marbles as well? They seem much more advanced than the technology I am familiar with." As she thought over the information Zane had given them, she asked, "if you don't mind me asking, does the marble send you everything as it's happening or do you have to retrieve the marble to access the information?"
Isa walked over to the Sigma and smiled. "I get the feeling you know you're being talked about." She lightly poked his arm. "Why not talk to them? Maybe learn a little about them? Making some friends here wouldn't be a terrible idea." She looked at D'cund and said, "And it seems that they're talking about some technological stuff, so you might be interested to go and ask some questions yourself. I doubt they'd mind more company."
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Posted: Mon May 21, 2012 9:20 pm
Despite all his quietness Sigma had actually been doing the work. Upon completion simply sat back in his chair with his arms crossed, staring blankly out over the classroom until his ears, hidden by his hair, perked at the mention of his name. His hearing was amplified by the same corruption that had a hold over the rest of his body, so he listened quite intently until he realised nothing interesting was being said about him. It surprised him that the drawing-girl came back and poked him. "Meh, friends..." Was all he had to say. Then his creator threatened to kick his a** if he did not go and be more social G@#$%! With a begrudging slouch he stood from his seat, quick to hide his left hand in his pocket should it be talked about again. Though there was nothing he could do for his feet or teeth. "I'll just follow you I guess..." he referred to Isa. D'cund was happier than Sigma. He reached a single finger from his large hand to touch her and spoke to her through it. "I believe this looks like I am poking you. I am not. What is this 'technology'?" The word had yet to be used on his world. To him the boundaries were 'tools' and 'magics'. D'cund then expressed concern. "I am afraid that if I move I will disturb the class. I am rather..ill fitting." Before the teacher says anything about Sigma's decision..."forced"...decision to speak to others, here's his latest. Sigma is an ISTP personality. Right now you're experiencing the rigidness mentioned in the first paragraph. Once he overcomes this rigidity, the rest of the personality will shine true. However, he will likely prefer to keep to himself if he has the choice.
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Posted: Tue May 22, 2012 5:40 am
Lloyd huffed out an almost-laugh sound. "Three ISTPs? No wonder we're having so much trouble keeping conversations going."
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Posted: Tue May 22, 2012 11:05 am
The teacher had gone back to his reading a while then got distracted organizing what looked like sheet music and making repairs to an abused tenor sax - some of which involved rubber bands and bending the bell. After fixing the wheels on a bari sax case he looked up from the work and frowned at the clock then gave the class a slightly flat look before shaking his head with a sigh and standing up to walk back to his perch on the front of his desk. "Past due for the next assignment again," he gave the class a weak smile. "And still missing half the class. Well, not gonna wait any longer. If the rest of you come back just make up the work." He nodded to the sleeping students then smiled at the clump of active ones that had conveniently grouped themselves. "So, this assignment is one of context. We're going to define our Genres," he explained simply then pointed at the workbooks on their desks. "Open to page. . . eeeh, I think it's 7. Under 'Genre' and read along," then he read the page aloud. "A genre is a categorization of an artistic work characterized by similarities in form, style, or subject matter. Genres depend heavily on the work's setting (character's world), the tone of the piece (character's personality), and the overall plot of the story (character's past actions and future plans). Style differences can be the break between two similar genres and a character can often fit into multiple, complimentary genres. However, keep appropriateness in mind when selecting genres as high school drama characters generally do not do well in the post apocalypse. Those are just two examples of common genres. There are a wealth of other genres in literature, film, and video games that work well for RP characters. "In this exercise we are going to define our genres in compound terms to make them more specific. Look at the lists below to find a term that best describes your character's culture then pair it with a term that best describes your setting's lore, and pair those with a term that best describes the nature of your character's personal story. Your culture is the basic attitude and technology level of your people and is most easily described by selecting a real world historical period. Your setting's lore is the existence and type of magic/advanced technology in your world. The nature of your personal story is the sum of events and thematic elements within your life and best described with a literary or film genre. If you do not find satisfactory terms on the list you may add your own." Vay took a quick breath after that and smiled to the class, looking up from the book to talk casually again. "For example, Mr. Pointy Ears there comes from a post apocalyptic culture, with a fantasy lore (has elves) and his personal story is basically a spaghetti western (that's a film term describing the westerns of Clint Eastwood's era which were directed by Italians and filmed primarily in Spain). So his genre is a post apocalyptic fantasy spaghetti western," Vay grinned then tilted his head to Lloyd for confirmation. "Don't think yer done, cowboy. I also want y'all to explain why you fit that genre so you still need to do that. Obviously I want more than just the declaration that you've got the criteria - I want examples." The teacher looked out over the rest of the class with a smile. "So, look at the lists below and pick your combination then explain why you fit that." List of common (Western) Cultures:- Distant Future: next few thousand years - Near Future: next few hundred years - Modern: western historical period from roughly 1980 to present - Vietnam: western historical period from roughly 1960 - 1980 - Postwar: western historical period from roughly the end of WWII - 1960 - Great Depression: western historical period from roughly 1930 - WWII - Prohibition: American historical period from roughly 1920 - 1933 - Victorian: western historical period from 1837 - 1901, like the works of Charles Dickens - Renaissance: western historical period from roughly 1450 - 1600 - Medieval: western historical period from roughly 400 - 1450 - Classical: western historical period from roughly 700 bc - 400 ad - Prehistoric: before written history The following can fit within some of the above- Post Apocalyptic: After the fall of a previous great culture - Apocalyptic: During the fall of the current culture - Steampunk: Retro culture usually with a Victorian feel but heavy focus on steam and clockwork technologies. Sometimes Post Apocalyptic. List of common Lores:- Fantasy: presence of old magic and mythical creatures. Like Lord of the Rings, WoW, Harry Potter - Paranormal: presence of unexplained pseudo science and modern monsters. Like Supernatural, Twilight, X-files, Fringe - Super Hero: presence of extraordinary individuals in an otherwise mostly normal world. Like Justice League, Avengers, X-men, Heroes and most other comic books - Soft Sci-fi: presence of advanced technology, maybe aliens, usually in space, often in the future but without real science to explain things. Like The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, most things with Star in the title (Star Wars, Star Trek, Battlestar Galactica) - Hard Sci-fi: presence of advanced technology, maybe aliens, usually in space, often in the future but with real science to explain things. Like the Alien series, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Gattaca - Realism: lack of fancy stuff List of common Stories:- Epic: complex story with a large cast and heavy impact. Like Lord of the Rings, Star Wars - Adventure: questing and exploration. Like Indiana Jones, Star Trek - Horror: intended to scare and unsettle. Like the works of Stephen King and Alfred Hitchcock - Slice of Life: the everyday mundane. Like most sitcoms - Romance: in the modern sense, people falling in love. Like most chick flicks - Mystery: search for answers, often related to a crime. - Comedy: light hearted and fun usually resembling another story type but not taken seriously Subgenres of some of the above- Satire: type of comedy that employs heavy sarcasm to make fun of a subject, often social commentary - High School Drama: slice of life focusing on high school students. - College Drama: slice of life focusing on college students. - Professional Drama: slice of life focusing on a certain profession. Like Mad Men, The Office - Action Adventure: type of adventure with little plot, lots of fighting and explosions. - Crime: type of adventure/mystery focusing on committing, solving, and/or preventing a crime. Protagonists are usually law enforcement or criminals. - Film-Noir: type of crime story popular in the 1940-50's focusing mostly on a tortured anti-hero (stereotypically a cynical PI or detective) and dangerous women in a corrupt urban setting. - Classical Western: type of adventure focusing on the rough life of the American Old West in a black and white morality where the protagonist often literally rides a white horse and right makes might. Like John Wayne Westerns. - Spaghetti Western: type of adventure focusing on the rough life of the American Old West in a darker tone with the protagonist often being a bad guy and might makes right. Like the Dollars Trilogy, Red Dead games, the El Mariachi Trilogy (not technically but in the style of) - Revisionist Western: type of adventure focusing on the rough life of the American Old West in a more realistic light with female and Native American characters often featured. Like Dances with Wolves, Unforgiven, True Grit Roll Call:Bourgeoisie Alice V Alice Valentine: a girl with a few mental disorders trying to find someone to understand her and not call her "crazy". Countess Misery Evalyn May Rose: a tiny stick of dynamite, not about to let anyone get in her way. Demon Fox Kyuu Evan Scarborough: a meek but friendly and happy-go-lucky artist. Deoxyribose-42 Ella-Brook: a driven, highly competitive, and unorthodox book lover. DragnGuy7 Alex Rider: a down on his luck slacker pushed into enrolling by his nagging parents. Isa-sama Reina Trasfer: a girl destined to save the world, she just needs to find the courage to do it. Jikial D'cund Vospa: a brutish male rock hominid hailing from parts unknown. Keynir Levi Jemison: a home-schooled and neglected boy determined to make something of himself. Kobochi Mayura: an easy-going girl with the hopes of making friends and having some fun and adventure in her otherwise boring life. Setses Basira Itzli: a sometimes meticulous, sometimes lackadaisical girl that does not do well under pressure. StealthNeko Fang Caligon: an adventurer, looking for a place to belong. Venom3001 Lloyd "Tombstone" Sanetha: an elf gunslinger from a postapocalyptic Wild West. Watervoir Zane Vincent: a somewhat paranoid hacker/conspirator and tortured RP character.
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Posted: Tue May 22, 2012 7:01 pm
"W-wait--" Zane started, but the drawing was already gone. A scowl flashed across his face as he turned away and it stayed as he observed Alex scribbling away inside his notebook. Zane wasn't sure whether to be annoyed or proud that the other boy had taken such a keen interest in his tech. He wasn't entirely comfortable with secrets like his marbles laid out where a third-party could find them, but then again, it did mean something significant when one found others with similar interests.
"My name's Zane," he tossed out rather dismissively as he handed Reina another one of his marbles without much thought. He had dozens upon dozens of those things and it was starting to become clear to him that his treasures weren't going to remain much a quiet matter for much longer. It didn't matter much though; his trove was a lot larger than a few glass balls. But it would always be nice for him to have it back. Surprise washed over him when she asked him a question. Now that the drawing is gone, Reina is a lot more talkative, he realized. "The marbles store the information until I decide to retrieve it wirelessly. I'd have to be in range, of course. Streaming it as it happens works too."
Switching over to Alex, he opened his mouth to begin sharing with him about the anatomy of the marble and how the most crucial part was a tiny MEMS microphone embedded in a hollow glass sphere with a coating along its inner edge, when he noticed that Isa was probably returning with Sigma, if not the rock monster too, behind her. Frowning, he ultimately answered Alex with: "I guess I wouldn't mind but... Maybe... later." He didn't want to start a conversation and end it right when Isa and the others were returning. Okay okay, so maybe he wasn't willing to tell the world everything yet. If Sigma wanted anything from Zane, the raptor-feeted man would have to earn it. As of yet, Zane didn't consider the man much differently in status from the cowboy running the peanut gallery from his own private side of the room. Sigma's appearance did little to improve the impression.
His phone buzzed and he picked it up to find a new file on his phone. Eh... I don't really feel like writing this out, he thought as he examined its digital contents:
"Zane comes from a post apocalyptic world set in the distant future. It has a mix of soft sci-fi and hard sci-fi elements in it, but it does not take place in space (or as far as he's aware). His genre is action, as much of the story is centered around a game show. The government is an oppressive one, so part of the story too is for the heroes not necessarily to overthrow it, but to find out the secrets it is hiding. Besides that, the main heros are popular competitors in the games.
In this story, Zane is not the main character, but he is one of the more important figures. His role in the story is to serve as the leader of a clandestine virtual network whose goal is to uncover the mysteries of the world around them and the political powers in charge, thus helping to further the main protagonists' plots."
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