Magical Teacher Professor Landry! - Discussion 3: Skipping through Time.

[Teal Mage]

Oh thread limits, you are so very inconvenient! Well, here we are on Discussion Thread three and the game, shockingly, has not died of horrible wasting from a sporadic posting schedule! How wonderful.

Title because timeskips have been central lately. Still estimating the next skip for Saturday.

But before we get to new news, here's some old Player Bios!

Jay Miles (Overcast), does not like the Scots!
Jackson Hall (Dracorion), wishes he was a better wizard.
Dalbhach Nuada (Krylo), sentenced to High School.
Dean William Hunter (krogothwolf), hates love.
Astarte Whitewrap (Armored Bishoujo), made a Mummy by her Mommy.
Sean Castevet (BardTheFifthLightWarrior), has a heart condition.
Johanna Imirsdotter (Arhra), is basically a giant snowcone.
Diana Tear (Steel Shadow), carries a camera everywhere!
Sao Opallios (Riin Whitewind), might be the class rep!
Shinobu Meguro (Girasol of Chaos), does not know what inconspicuous means.
Kohana Akecheta (SinrXIII), no shirt, no shoes, all fan service?

Now, new news!

Originally Posted by ironmajesty019

Relationships: Kurt Basan. "Twin of Kain" actually, a friend. He manipulates fire. He's almost identical to Kain except he has red hair and brown eyes. He's an inch shorter than Kain and has a completely different personality.

Neimi. Kain's extremely attractive probation officer who has taken quite the liking to Kain but must remain professional. Her gold blonde hair spills past her alabaster shoulders like springs of honey mead. Her full ample breasts are barely covered by... Wait... Wrong show... She's stacked. And about 5'10" with glasses. Smokin'.

I find these relationship characters acceptable, though I'll be controlling Neimi (she's a Teacher/Parent figure, after all) so we'll probably need to discuss what and who she is in a little more depth. Guessing she's a Witch and Kurt's a Pyrokinetic?

Oh, and since I don't believe I've said this before, in the event of a battle, any character who isn't your main PC will fall under my control if they're involved.

Back to your character, I was thinking a bit about the abilities. Have a vague idea of what each does (since you contacted me before posting this) but I'd just like to check again and get you to clarify them for the rest of the Players.

Originally Posted by ironmajesty019

Abilities: Charge palm strike (lvl 1) Kain delivers a punishing palm strike charged with electricity to any unlucky opponent. It sends a wave of electricity through an opponent’s body. Mildly draining to Kain.

Electricity resistance. Self-explanatory. The reason he didn’t cook like a bird in the chair.

Psionic Shield (lvl 1) : A 6ft by 3ft (roughly 2m by 1m) near invisible shield created by the mind. Effective for a period of time against most physical attacks.

Charge Palm Strike, he could use it with any part of his body, provided it's relatively similar to his hand in size (foot, head, knee, etc), correct? He wears gloves so I imagine it doesn't require skin-to-skin contact. It'll have a slight charge time and will require a second or so of focus (putting that much static electricity in a small area isn't super easy you know) - plus if he gets hit (hard) before he can connect with the electrified body part, the ability will need to be recast. The ability itself isn't hard to use really, but I don't want it to look effortless either.

Electricity Resistance, obviously, allows him to survive being filled with several thousand volts of electricity. But since that (probably) won't be a terribly common occurrence, I'd boost it a little to allow him to resist burns from fire or heat based attacks - though damage that's unrelated to natural burns would still go through. Also, don't try to walk into a burning building - that would end badly. Was that what you had in mind, or were you thinking of a difficult secondary effect here? As it stands, the ability is a tad too narrowly focused for me to call it viable.

Just some clarification on the last ability, Psionic Shield has a max coverage that's around the size of an average door, right? Limit-wise, it'll take a few seconds to expand it to that full size (it has to unfold) and if it happens to get smashed, you character will suffer some (heavy) mental backlash - something directly connected to your brain got smashed! It'll hurt.

Believe that should cover it. Provided you don't have a problem with any of that/I'm right on all my guesses and your repost your character bio so the relationships and the rest are in one post, you're approved.

Just can't post in-game until the Field of Honor.

Does any one else want to ask anything?

[Arhra]

Wait a second. You can issue a death sentence to a minor?

And this is just bugging me, but how can Kain not have a last name? Did his parents also not have last names?!

[Teal Mage]

Oh.

After reading Arhra (and Bard's) comments and going back over your character sheet (particularly after giving the stated personality some thought), I'm afraid I need to revise my previous statement.

There's a lot of problems in the Backstory and Personality right now that'll need to looked into, sorry Ironmajesty. I'm afraid approval's still a fair distance away.

You have my IM address, so if you're interested in trying to work it out, I'll still play ball.

[SinrXIII]

Actually, you -can- issue Adult sentences to a Minor, including the death penalty. It's becoming increasingly rare, and the US -has- raised the cut-off age to 18, but it's still feasible.

[Bard The 5th LW]

I don't think a death sentence would be issued to a minor. Even if he was 18, it probably wouldn't happen.

[Bard The 5th LW]

I imagine it would be unbelievably controversial. If he was 18, they might just send him somewhere to get mental help, minor or not.

[ironmajesty019]

This is ridiculous. With all of the over-the-top and completely unbelievable things going into this rp and it seems unlikely that a minor could recieve the death penalty for his parents being slaughtered? I mean no offense to the GM or anyone involved. It is, however, as Sinr stated possible for a minor to receive the death penalty for harsh enough actions.

The abilities are as stated. You pretty much nailed those on the head. And I'm fine with the relationships too.

Once again, no offense if I came across harsh.

Also, last name is Nova. When I turned in the character sheet I forgot to replace that...

[Teal Mage]

Originally Posted by SinrXIII

Actually, you -can- issue Adult sentences to a Minor, including the death penalty. It's becoming increasingly rare, and the US -has- raised the cut-off age to 18, but it's still feasible.

The fact that Kain was sentenced to the Death Penalty, in itself, was not what bothered me. Yes, I felt it was rather unlikely, but considering he was a suspect (at that time, was proven to be the killer) in his parent's murder, I assumed that meant that there was evidence linking him to the scene, and that he had motive to kill them. Thus, while it definitely would have been controversial, I didn't consider the penalty a problem.

Originally Posted by BardTheFifthLightWarrior

I imagine it would be unbelievably controversial. If he was 18, they might just send him somewhere to get mental help, minor or not.

It depends on the severity of the killing itself, I imagine. If the case had been publicized sufficiently, its possible that the Prosecution would have had to push for a Death Penalty to avoid looking soft on Minors. It should also be noted that he wasn't sentenced to Death until he turned 18, which sounds a bit like a legal loophole.

Originally Posted by IHateMakingNames

He can just not have received the death sentence. Being a kid who got arrested for murdering his parents is plenty of criminal backstory. If you really want the electrocution thing, make it an accident (Or an "accident").

Plus that gets rid of the odd time between not getting killed by a death penalty and still being in jail before the more awkward mistrial. You'd think not getting killed by the electric chair would have raised some flags or something.

As I understood it, the purpose of the Criminal Backstory was the Electric Chair, since it would make him being a non-human comparatively obvious enough to get a Super Natural Organization (within the Government or elsewhere's) attention. That's the reason he's in Amaranth in the first place, you see.

Perhaps they thought he was an alien when it happened? Either way, the news of the Mistrial would have arrived rather conveniently.

Originally Posted by Arhra

Secondly, what on earth could possibly bad enough/strong enoguh evidence to give a minor a death sentence? Did they find him squatting in the middle of a blood stained room with the parts of his parent's disemboweled corpses strewn around him or something?

Perhaps! But I was willing to handwave what the precise Evidence was, assuming the Investigators could establish both motive and had evidence linking him to the scene.

However, that said, my main issue is the personality stated.

Originally Posted by ironmajesty019

Personality: Very gentle and easy-going. He’s quite passive unless provoked or sticking up for someone (or himself). Kain wants to put his past behind him and move on. He’s trying to live a new life and make up for the time that he is lost. He’s very bright, and quite out-going when comfortable.

He sounds a bit too much like a Good Kid to get a Death Penalty. A suspect perhaps, but unless the Defense was entirely incompetent or the evidence was amazingly damning, I can't see him getting a Death Penalty if he was (what sounds like) a fine upstanding citizen.

I didn't read this section very careful in my initial review, so that mistake is mine. Assumed he was a rather troubled and unbalanced child at the time of the murder, you see. Then it could make sense.

But, that aside momentarily, isn't that kind of personality unlikely for someone who spent two years in Jail? I'd rather not go into detail about what happens to people there, but suffice to say that a passive kid like him would come out rather scarred. Not to mention bitter, violent, angry and a whole host of other justifiable emotions.

In summary, the Personality in this case is very important, and right now, doesn't hold it together.

Players may continue to weigh in if they like. I'll listen to your observations, though I can't promise to change my mind.

[Bard The 5th LW]

I guess. A ridiculous and over the top school system is amusing though. An over-the-top legal system is just sort of dark.

Not really my call though. Its up to Teal.

[Arhra]

It's part of the 'normal unless stated otherwise' assumption.

If you're going to have ridiculous and fantastic elements incorporated into a normal modern day world, you need the normal bits to act like normal bits.

Secondly, what on earth could possibly bad enough/strong enoguh evidence to give a minor a death sentence? Did they find him squatting in the middle of a blood stained room with the parts of his parent's disemboweled corpses strewn around him or something?