Ground War - recruitment and OOC

[Highland Sniper]

setting up hidden forces to hit the enemy wave from the rear might also be a fun idea.
Pin them, and blow them to pieces.

[PaintSerf]

Front Towards Enemy has been added.

Unfortunately, that’s not completely the end of the auto-da-fe arc.

Trust me, I really wish it was – almost as much as I wish it had never been.

[Azazeal849]

Man, that’s rough.

[PaintSerf]

Yep.

I figured the Baraspini who’d enact a mass casualty terrorist attack against non-combatants (not on my Bingo card for the Legion when they were conceived) would almost exclusively be those with the grimmest lived experiences, who’d be the most likely to be broken completely by the Cam’s bullshit and the almost non-response from the crusade. I figured it was mandatory that their motivations be shown.

And that’s also why it’s taken over two and a half years (and what a glorious time we’ve all had…) since Cf first mentioned the frateris would go looting for me to actually force out these scenes.

[Azazeal849]

If you want to stop it there I'll fully understand, but you also have my massive respect for seeing it through.

In the meantime, I have moved Team Patriots ahead to the defensive mission discussed above - there will be an end of round 2 / start of round 3 summary for all sides once the other round 2 missions are wrapped up, as there's a couple of spoilers and a couple of things that are dependent on how those missions play out.

[Highland Sniper]

I figured it would be fine
but would there be good president for blowing the bridges as a last middle finger to the imperium in the case we're over run?

[Azazeal849]

It's the standard tactic of last resort in such situations, so yeah.

[Highland Sniper]

got it.

[PaintSerf]

If you want to stop it there I'll fully understand, but you also have my massive respect for seeing it through.

The events at the faire are done, as I don’t think anyone needs / wants the gory details.

I had waffled on whether or not to write Lina’s escape from the frateris / capture by the responding Guard (as she’ll be one of the few actual deserters shot before a live studio audience) and Grigor’s demise (where he’d briefly come face to face with Odervank, who’d single handedly disable the Goliath) but overall decided it wasn’t worth it, as my motivations were self-indulgent and counter-intuitive: a morbidly ironic moment of Drake and Rana (because of course the 44th are the QRF) disgusted by soldiers deliberately attacking a civilian religious ceremony (*cough* PM Az for the novelized edition of The Lesser Evil *cough* *cough*) and the whole exercise in having the Legion deserters attack as they did was to have Odervank and Gwen be more or less useless bystanders to their flock’s culling.

Unfortunately, I do think it’s necessary to continue the auto-da-fe segue…but the barracks scenes will have to wait, as some of those will work better / hit harder if some of the other (and frankly essential) C1-C2 scenes are completed. Including, but not limited to: Commissariat Measuring Contest, Gerry and Crenshaw’s mano-a-mano / Gerry-napping (Pt. 1, Pt. 2 already in the can) / The Honeymoon – will all have some feedback into those scenes, principally those dealing with the fallout from the ADF, and framing the reorganization of the Legion as a consequence of all the carnage…which, well, see below.

Which those are all almost exclusively by and large (not to mention mammoth sized) co-post scenes…so I’ll be reaching out to AD and Dakka as those scenes start coming together. I have been taking nibbles at the Gerry and Crenshaw scene (and at the Vaxan commandos for Patriot Ground…but they’re officially no longer going to appear) as I’ve been able to find the time.

On that note, fair warning: this coming week, and potentially the next couple, my writing time will range from limited to non-existent.

In the meantime, I have moved Team Patriots ahead to the defensive mission discussed above - there will be an end of round 2 / start of round 3 summary for all sides once the other round 2 missions are wrapped up, as there's a couple of spoilers and a couple of things that are dependent on how those missions play out.

I have some too damn early in the morning thoughts that I’d welcome the group’s take on.

I’m back leaning towards cutting through the ungodly knot of scenes and either sideline or scrap the Legion. ADF colossally fucked the premise of the Legion, and honestly even grinding through those scenes felt like sunk cost fallacy in motion. My main motivator for keeping them has been (not an Adrantean) Grace’s personal arc…which is terrible for regiment of Adrantean loyalists, when I no longer have the ambition to delve into their rich potential narratives – even when I know that with AD, upstanding collaborator that he is, there’s zero risk of another ADF-like scenario happening again.

I would envision the Legion sidelined as more or less treat them like the other inactive Imperial Ground units (Cadians / Camites / Havenites) so that Grace is available for scenes with Bridgette, if AD’s still in for that arc – otherwise, scrapped would have them relegated to a conflict like Soryth, off screen. Either way, if another Imperial force was needed to balance the numbers, I would provide something new – and something much, much more straightforward / self-contained.

Retaliator was more or less intended to be the other side of the coin to the Loyal Legion, so she’s also on the block – especially since Coseflame was the engagement where she needed to have POV, and it’s all but done. It doesn’t feel like there’s a whole lot of value in retroactively chasing the narrative when the moment has already been missed. I do not expect I would replace Retaliator.

Other than that, about the only narrative which could be easily trimmed from my side is Imperialist – which I’m most hesitant to do, even though I genuinely have nothing actually posted for them yet - as all of the individual character arcs (Saph, Gerry, Stan, Crenshaw) are already underway / much too well developed to alter or remove at this point – and, holy shit, there’s some critical scenes to do.

I swear I might actually need to be committed if I don’t write Saph’s Sermon to the Triarii.

[Azazeal849]

(*cough* PM Az for the novelized edition of The Lesser Evil *cough* *cough*)

I have just spent this afternoon re-reading that story instead of what I was supposed to be doing, but I regret nothing. Far from my best work as far as prose goes, but such a fantastic cast of characters, all believing themselves to be the good guys. Or, I suppose, the lesser evils.

Unfortunately, I do think it’s necessary to continue the auto-da-fe segue…but the barracks scenes will have to wait, as some of those will work better / hit harder if some of the other (and frankly essential) C1-C2 scenes are completed...Which those are all almost exclusively by and large (not to mention mammoth sized) co-post scenes

As per usual, I am available to collaborate and to help work up scene skeletons!

On that note, fair warning: this coming week, and potentially the next couple, my writing time will range from limited to non-existent.

That's fine - next week is looking pretty busy for me as well...

I would envision the Legion sidelined as more or less treat them like the other inactive Imperial Ground units (Cadians / Camites / Havenites) so that Grace is available for scenes with Bridgette, if AD’s still in for that arc – otherwise, scrapped would have them relegated to a conflict like Soryth, off screen.

I would prefer the former just because it leaves the door open for things to be picked up again or post-hoc backfilled even if there's no immediate pressure to do so. Most likely via a mention of them being nearby in any given scenario so that they can jump in (or be retroactively slotted in) at any given moment.

When the time comes to download, edit and properly organise this beast (along with a few other RPs I haven't yet novelised...) I suspect I will consider de-canonising the ADF and rewriting from there, but on the other hand that's expecting everyone to bend to deal with a problem that was my fault for allowing in the first place, so I will take advice closer to the time on whether the preference is to do that or for me to just own my fuck up and draw a line under it.

Retaliator was more or less intended to be the other side of the coin to the Loyal Legion, so she’s also on the block – especially since Coseflame was the engagement where she needed to have POV, and it’s all but done. It doesn’t feel like there’s a whole lot of value in retroactively chasing the narrative when the moment has already been missed. I do not expect I would replace Retaliator.

Understood, though as with the Legion the references to Retaliator being present are there should the story be picked up (or expanded / rewritten in post-production).

Other than that, about the only narrative which could be easily trimmed from my side is Imperialist – which I’m most hesitant to do, even though I genuinely have nothing actually posted for them yet - as all of the individual character arcs (Saph, Gerry, Stan, Crenshaw) are already underway / much too well developed to alter or remove at this point – and, holy shit, there’s some critical scenes to do.

I kind of feel the same - Elle has a somewhat self-contained story that has minimal chance of being messed around by knock-on effects of other subplots, which makes it easier to leave aside for the moment, but I am interested in seeing it play out one day.