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Emily Marneth rolled 1 20-sided dice:
17
Total: 17 (1-20)
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Posted: Sun Jul 01, 2012 10:12 pm
((training weights; 100 pounds additional weight
1d20 + 32 (1d20+ (STR MOD - 100/10)*2]
DC: 10 + [100/10] 20
1/20 successes 0 failures))
Arin shrugged and began to pace her room again, turning ideas over in her mind. If one thing can be said about her time on M13, it was that she now possessed a much more critical mind. Endless horus of study in what remained of the temples had sharpened her wit, and she had spent more time than necessary on the logistics of warfare, as the M'Erians would teach it. There really isn't much difference between hunting a giant, subaqueous beast and the dynamics of taking a stong opponent. You had your team, and each played to their own strengths. Alone, even the strongest M'Erian would be defeated by just one creature in the oceans, but together they stood (er, floated) strong. So all it would take was a little adjustment and she would be able to plan some effective strategies for the Tenkuu to exploit in battle.
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Emily Marneth rolled 1 20-sided dice:
19
Total: 19 (1-20)
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Posted: Mon Sep 03, 2012 5:13 am
((training weights; 100 pounds additional weight
1d20 + 32 (1d20+ (STR MOD - 100/10)*2]
DC: 10 + [100/10] 20
2/20 successes 0 failures))
Arin considered the dynamics of three-dimensional combat. In truth, a very similar technique was employed in underwater combat as was in aerial combat; you can move in three dimensions in either. Surrounding your opponent to prevent their escape is a very real and even expected tactic for the one who has the strength of numbers. The problem of either is that it is much harder to prevent someone escaping when you have no real way to ground yourself. Bracing for impact can prevent you skipping away as a stone on water if you have two feet on the ground, but in the air, there is relatively little to stop you from being launched away save the expenditure of ki. It seemed a woeful waste of resources when every ounce of energy may be the difference between life and death for either party.
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Emily Marneth rolled 1 20-sided dice:
14
Total: 14 (1-20)
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Posted: Mon Sep 03, 2012 5:25 am
((training weights; 100 pounds additional weight
1d20 + 32 (1d20+ (STR MOD - 100/10)*2]
DC: 10 + [100/10] 20
3/20 successes 0 failures))
The young queen continued to pace absently as she pondered the issue. Underwater, it was true, you had little choice but to accept your fate and keep your feet off the ground; it wouldn't do you much good anyway. But in the air, the only real strategic advantage to taking your feet off the ground lay in either swarm dynamics or in very short bursts to gain a momentary upper hand. The sacrifice of your defense and the new open holes in your form (as few combat styles were designed for use in mid-air combat, most of them had severe deficiencies in preparation for assault from so many angles) Arin resolved to refrain from flying as much as she could; she realized the folly of such action now, though she never had before. Her --albeit brief-- existence without ki seems to have opened her eyes to the many problems the stuff produces.
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Emily Marneth rolled 1 20-sided dice:
15
Total: 15 (1-20)
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Posted: Mon Sep 03, 2012 5:46 am
((training weights; 100 pounds additional weight
1d20 + 32 (1d20+ (STR MOD - 100/10)*2]
DC: 10 + [100/10] 20
4/20 successes 0 failures))
There was little actually in the queen's mind as she followed a path very familiar to her. It seems that she spent a lot of time walking lately. She roamed freely, allowing her mind now to simply wander. There were a great many things that had led to her rise to power... She marveled at the absurdity of it all. No one would believe such stories as her life has already provided her.. It's probably a good thing she could kill the people who called her a liar. But who would believe a saiyan stranded in the middle of the saiyan district would grow to be such a powerful monarch? Arin herself had trouble believing it sometimes.
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Emily Marneth rolled 1 20-sided dice:
9
Total: 9 (1-20)
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Posted: Mon Sep 03, 2012 5:53 am
((training weights; 100 pounds additional weight
1d20 + 32 (1d20+ (STR MOD - 100/10)*2]
DC: 10 + [100/10] 20
5/20 successes 0 failures))
It was difficult to remember, for more reasons than just the years that had passed. Her earliest memories were merely scraps of buildings and of people, marble and gold structures that she could never recall completely. Beyond that, she remembered only the buildings of Nexum, and at so young an age she was already a feral beast, scraping a living from the forest as best she could. In those early days, she had spent enough time near the city that she was not in too terrible a danger, and there were some humans who would take pity and leave scraps of food for her to scavenge when she could not catch some creature or another to devour.
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Emily Marneth rolled 1 20-sided dice:
6
Total: 6 (1-20)
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Posted: Mon Sep 03, 2012 6:01 am
((training weights; 100 pounds additional weight
1d20 + 32 (1d20+ (STR MOD - 100/10)*2]
DC: 10 + [100/10] 20
6/20 successes 0 failures))
It came to her: the first kindness Arin remembered being shown her. A young human woman has seen the beast-child stalking like an animal in the trees near the human's settlement and had offered her a part of her sweetroll. Arin had run away when she realized she had been spotted. Having already been run out of the saiyan sector for being a feral creature, she was of no mind to repeat her mistakes with the tailless ones. But for several days, that girl had come back at the same time, with two sweetrolls, and would wait with a soft smile until night had thoroughly fallen before she would leave, leaving one sweetroll for the girl of the trees.
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Emily Marneth rolled 1 20-sided dice:
20
Total: 20 (1-20)
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Posted: Mon Sep 03, 2012 6:12 am
((training weights; 100 pounds additional weight
1d20 + 32 (1d20+ (STR MOD - 100/10)*2]
DC: 10 + [100/10] 20
7/20 successes 0 failures))
For almost a week, Arin skirted the area, the human girl occasionally catching glimpses of the child as she went about her nightly scavenging, endlessly wary of the strange girl waiting for someone to come. Arin gradually grew curious and would creep a little closer each night to the clearing, at first hiding in the trees, and then peering through the lower foliage, but always running as soon as she was spotted. This always made the girl's smile grow slightly, and this perplexed Arin. She had never seen a smile this close before, and it confused her. In five years of life, Arin had never really been close enough to anyone who would dare smile in her presence. She was a rabid animal among rabid animals, too feral for even the saiyans, who knew little of the proper way to care for a frightened creature. She would lash and claw and bite ferociously when they tried to approach her. Her saiyan hair was knotted and tangled, her clothing torn and filthy. They had given up trying to capture her (she had a fondness for grabbing and biting tails when cornered) and had begun attacking her whenever she approached. The child that would become Arin began watching every night from a tree branch for the person the girl waited for.
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Emily Marneth rolled 1 20-sided dice:
1
Total: 1 (1-20)
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Posted: Mon Sep 03, 2012 6:21 am
((training weights; 100 pounds additional weight
1d20 + 32 (1d20+ (STR MOD - 100/10)*2]
DC: 10 + [100/10] 20
8 + 1/20 successes 0 failures))
In truth, the child didn't even have a name yet. No one had cared enough to give her one. She began feeling bad, though, as she watched. The woman seemed so happy to wait. It had been almost a month and the woman still came back each night to wait for them, every day with two new sweetrolls, taking the stale one with her when she left, and had eaten her own. The child had gathered her courage, approaching the stone that the thing rested on one day while the woman had not yet come. The child had approached it and sniffed lightly, jumping as the smell overwhelmed her senses. It was unlike anything she had known before. She touched it cautiously as she felt her mouth water. It was soft, moist and sticky. She had wiped her fingers on the ground to clean them of the sensation and eyed the thing carefully. Her mouth was almost dripping as the scent of the thing washed over her.
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Emily Marneth rolled 1 20-sided dice:
12
Total: 12 (1-20)
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Posted: Mon Sep 03, 2012 6:27 am
((training weights; 100 pounds additional weight
1d20 + 32 (1d20+ (STR MOD - 100/10)*2]
DC: 10 + [100/10] 20
8 + 1/20 successes 1 failures))
At that moment, the girl heard something in the clearing line. It was the woman coming to again sit and wait. The child froze and looked at her before running away into the forest. She had returned later that night to see the woman smiling and standing to leave. The child had waited until she was certain the woman was gone before approaching the stone again. Her greed was overpowering her. She didn't know why the woman came here, but the thing was so delicious-smelling that the girl had to have it. She poked it and licked her finger, her eyes rolling back before she sat down and devoured the thing. Too quickly it had been gone, and the stone was empty.
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Emily Marneth rolled 1 20-sided dice:
19
Total: 19 (1-20)
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Posted: Mon Sep 03, 2012 6:48 am
((training weights; 100 pounds additional weight
1d20 + 32 (1d20+ (STR MOD - 100/10)*2]
DC: 10 + [100/10] 20
9 + 1/20 successes 1 failures))
The girl had eaten the whole thing. She had wolfed it down before she even knew she was eating more than just a bite. It was amazing. But she felt bad... The woman who smiled had left this here... Should she have eaten something that wasn't hers? She frowned and stared at the rock, simultaneously willing that another sweetroll appear and for her to have another one for herself... She gave up and her brow furrowed as she tried to think of a way to right her wrong. The child had jumped up and sprinted into the forest. She only had until dusk to get ready. She got everything that she needed and brought it back to the rock.
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Emily Marneth rolled 1 20-sided dice:
4
Total: 4 (1-20)
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Posted: Mon Sep 03, 2012 7:14 am
((training weights; 100 pounds additional weight
1d20 + 32 (1d20+ (STR MOD - 100/10)*2]
DC: 10 + [100/10] 20
10 + 1/20 successes 1 failures))
The girl assembled the construct on the rock. It was a small bundle of stems from flowers that had a sweet flavor, the blossoms themselves even sweeter, and she had topped it with honey. It was nothing like the sweetroll had been, but it was as good as the girl could think of, and she felt a small smile on her lips as she ran to the trees and waited for the woman to come back. When she did she saw the small treat left for her and a warm smile spread across her face, and she sat down the sweetrolls, taking a bite of the treat left for her and smiling more. The woman ate the whole thing slowly, still smiling.
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Emily Marneth rolled 1 20-sided dice:
10
Total: 10 (1-20)
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Posted: Mon Sep 03, 2012 7:44 am
((training weights; 100 pounds additional weight
1d20 + 32 (1d20+ (STR MOD - 100/10)*2]
DC: 10 + [100/10] 20
11 + 1/20 successes 1 failures))
The child had watched the whole time with a smile. The woman left another sweetroll that night, and the child had left it, along with another treat. For some reason, the child liked seeing the woman smile like that. The child didn't know what to call it, but it made her feel a whole new emotion, that gave her energy, and made her face feel lighter. She examined her face in a reflection the next day, and saw a strange look on her lips and in her eyes. It was like the woman had. The face seemed to come with the feeling. The child made the connection that this good feeling was what the woman must feel all the time, and she smiled again, seeing the familiar expression looking back at her. That night, she left no treat for the woman.
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Emily Marneth rolled 1 20-sided dice:
10
Total: 10 (1-20)
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Posted: Mon Sep 03, 2012 7:52 am
((training weights; 100 pounds additional weight
1d20 + 32 (1d20+ (STR MOD - 100/10)*2]
DC: 10 + [100/10] 20
12 + 1/20 successes 1 failures))
Instead, the girl found a flat rock that looked like the tray the woman carried the sweetrolls on and made two treats. When the woman came that night, she saw the rock and her eyebrows raised lightly, but yet she smiled. She sat down in her usual place, and sat the tray on the stone. After a short time, the little girl worked up enough courage to slowly step out of the treeline carrying the stone and nervously smiled, cautiously approaching the woman. The child set her own stone down and imitated the woman's way of sitting. It was slightly uncomfortable, but she wanted to make the woman smile more. And she did. The woman's mouth opened to show her teeth, and the child's eyes widened before she realized that the woman was not baring her teeth in a threatening way. Her eyes were still that same way. This must be another new feeling, and as the child imitated it clumsily, she realized that it was just the same as before, but a lot more of it.
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Emily Marneth rolled 1 20-sided dice:
20
Total: 20 (1-20)
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Posted: Mon Sep 03, 2012 7:57 am
((training weights; 100 pounds additional weight
1d20 + 32 (1d20+ (STR MOD - 100/10)*2]
DC: 10 + [100/10] 20
13 + 1/20 successes 1 failures))
This seemed to amuse the woman, and a soft, bell-like sound rang through the clearing as she made a sound the child had never heard before. She figured it must be some higher level still, and it made her feel so much more of the feeling that the child's face stayed the same way it had been since she came forward. Something made her feel safe here. Her feral attentiveness was dulled as she let herself relax for the first time in years. Every long time, there was a big light in the sky, in many colors. These times scared her, but she used them as some measure of time, and she could remember five of them. She had never been relaxed in all that time. It was a whole new feeling, too.
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Emily Marneth rolled 1 20-sided dice:
2
Total: 2 (1-20)
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Posted: Mon Sep 03, 2012 8:10 am
((training weights; 100 pounds additional weight
1d20 + 32 (1d20+ (STR MOD - 100/10)*2]
DC: 10 + [100/10] 20
14 + 2/20 successes 1 failures))
The woman held out a sweetroll to the child "Arin?" The child smiled and her eyes lit up as the woman handed her the treat, and she set it down and handed one of her own treats to the woman. The woman smiled and accepted it with a small bow of her head. That night, they ate together and the little girl felt that same way all night. As the little girl devoured her sweetroll (she still hadn't learned to slow down and taste it yet) the woman let out that same sound as before "You really like that, don't you?" She pointed to the sweetroll "We call that 'Arin'. I make them at home." The little girl had very little language skill, but her eyes lit up as the woman pointed to the sweetroll, and the woman made that bell-noise again."Would you like another one?" She held up the pastry to the girl "Would you like this Arin?"
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