synodiporia_ooc | CHARACTER RECLAIMS

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CHARACTER RECLAIMS

From now until endgame, Synodiporia is closed to new applications.

However, players who dropped or idled characters but who do not have a behavioral strike against them may reclaim characters at any time. Dungeons and app windows are no longer necessary. Simply comment below with "I'd like to bring [character (username)] back!" And we'll take it from there.

Players already at 3 characters who wish to bring back a 4th or 5th may do so so long as they're current on AC. Players wishing to bring in characters above 5 may request special mod permission.

If you are uncertain if you qualify to reclaim, please email us at synodiporians@gmail.com and ask!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

ready to become a footnote?

ACCEPTED!

We'll be powercapping his Charm abilities; but you can replace those with a single Telepathic Skill, & report that skill on the Acquired Skills page when you have it picked out!

Just one question, for clarity: does having the Vampire job represent a skill-set, or the actual condition or state of vampirism? I.E., is he a vampire, or is he a guy who has mastered a discipline of vampiric-type abilities?

(no subject)

reright - 2014-06-05 01:55 (UTC) - Expand

Hero with Bad Publicity

paint the sky with silver linings

The goal to become a gang-star!

Hello, thanks for replying and so sorry for the delay! Before we process your application, we'd like to request an expansion on Giorno's personality section.

Generally, the base details are there, but it reads a little bit too much like a history to get much of a real idea on what the characters thinks internally versus how he acts out towards other. If you could expand on his personality a little, that would be great. Examples would be: it's mentioned that he wants to be Robin Hood-esque in his mafia role but not why he feels this way.

Another thing is it is mentioned that his personality changed drastically because of his saving the man's life with ties to the mafia, but it's not really clear where he suddenly learned to act like this or why beyond the general idea of going from a timid boy to having much more confidence in his actions. As a boy, was he very emotional and friendly despite being scared or did he always feel that the "treat others exactly as they treat you" was the way to be or did he learn that from somewhere. Also, the boost of confidence: this is a big boost of confidence, it seems, did the man he save actually have personal direct influence on Giorno's change ( eg: did he become someone Giorno looked up to or a mentor or did they never even meet again, just the mafia got people to stop harassing him, etc).

Basically, we have a decent skeleton of what happened to him and what the surface of his personality is with a little bit more ( such as he doesn't want anyone to see his true emotions ) but if we could have a little more explanation and detail, that would be great!

I hope this makes sense but if you have any questions, please don't hesitate to ask for clarification ( I just got home from work and my mind is bleeding from dealing with customers so I may not exactly be getting my point across as well as I hoped ).

Also you have an extra day to get back to us because we took so long, sorry about that! We are looking forward to hearing from you, thanks!

P L A Y E R;
NAME: Ari
AGE: 24
PLAYER JOURNAL: N/a
TIMEZONE: Central
CONTACT: plurk @ redrumreversal
OTHER CHARACTERS PLAYED: Previous Saitou player.

C H A R A C T E R;
NAME: 天蓬元帥 ; Tenpou Gensui
CANON: Saiyuki Gaiden
POINT IN CANON: Pre-Gaiden. [Post befriending Konzen, prior to meeting Kenren]
AGE: N/a ; ageless.
APPEARANCE:

"A man with a beautiful face but strange behavior."

Tenpou is a tall, slender man of nondescript age with dark hair and deep thistle colored eyes. He usually has a soft expression oscillating between politely disinterested and utterly absentminded, the latter of which exacerbates his unkempt attire. If he's not clad in his military livery, he slinks around in a wrinkled labcoat and khaki trousers that may or may not have been washed within the last forty-eight hours.

CANON HISTORY: Wiki
Saiyuki Gaiden Setting Overview:

Saiyuki Gaiden is set 500 years before Saiyuki Gensoumaden and details the lives of three gods in their rebellion against Heaven. How long Tenpou existed before the start of the story is unknown, though it's assumed that it must have been a very long time, as he has a truly massive library and elaborate collection of lower-world items. Travel to said mortal plane is highly restricted and only possible through a single gate in Heaven sanctioned (officially) for army assignments alone. It's the policy of the gods to minimize their interaction and interference with the lower world, only officially deploying troops to Earth in order to subdue forces deemed harmful to heaven.

Subdue, that is, for all but the war god. Heaven forbids the taking of life (including for food, though Tenpou still partakes) with the exception of a single entity known as the Toushin Taishi, a being which exists only to act as Heaven's killing arm. At the time of Tenpou's departure, the most recent murder doll, Nataku, has already been put in place and unrest is beginning to seed into the ranks as a dark plot is born.

The likes of which he'll never fully know, as the absentminded god has spent days doing going through his latest literary niche and quite forgotten to rest again.

CANON PERSONALITY:

[ Mannerisms ] The first word normally springing from polite lips to describe Tenpou is eccentric. He rarely heeds hygiene or social convention when it's not mandated, and it reflects in his fleeting attention span, bouncing back and forth from idle points of interest until something new grips him. He can border, if not outright delve, into obsessive compulsion when that happens and disappear from his responsibilities for days to pursue his fancy, ever apologetic but hardly promising he won't do it again. For him, it's simple -- he has an eternity to groom and appease, so what's the trouble of doing it later?

(Unfortunately, this philosophy can also include sleeping and bathing, which while not 'necessary' for him in the way traditional to humans, is still problematic and leads to seemingly narcoleptic behavior.)

Though always a touch odd, he cultivates a lackadaisical demeanor that keeps him well liked, known for having a cool head and surprisingly nonjudgmental tongue for a deity. His tone is often self-deprecating and vague with the capacity to make a question feel resolved despite not providing any answers. Adding to that is his sincere tendency towards forgetfulness, sometimes in mid-sentence, and universally so: appointments, people, conversation subjects, sleeping, eating, bathing..

It's good fortune one doesn't need to remember to breathe.

[ Habits ] Smoke. If you're around Tenpou, or just looking for him, you can usually trust a cigarette or cigarillo to be hanging from his lips between thumbing through a book. It doesn't provide him any 'fix' nor is he capable of becoming addicted, it's just something -- like warm sake -- that he enjoys as a sensation, and often partakes in for that value alone.

He also collects random artifacts, items destined to litter his living space between the massive piles of books for the same reason he smokes and drinks. His collection ranges from a frog-mouth ashtray figurine to exquisite art and functionless but fashionable glasses, consistent only in that he once found each of them interesting.

[ Interactions ] His rank is not misplaced. Haphazard as he appears, Tenpou is a brilliant strategist in everything he does, and with the blink of necessity's eye, his entire demeanor will be discarded to reveal the true god. That 'person' is someone frightfully cunning, vindictive, and fiercely loyal to those of his choosing. Warnings be to the one who makes an enemy of him or his selected few, for he is both fully willing and able to devote infinite time to see all of his goals come to fruition, ethical dilemmas notwithstanding.

As an officer, he's (normally) deferential and well-mannered, leaving behind his dreamy persona for that of an orderly field marshal who's inspiring to his troops and respectful to his superiors. It's not from any genuine sense of respect, and most of them know that -- just so long as he's allowed his oddities and studies, he'll keep their egos afloat.

Part of what allows him to maintain this buoyancy is his fascination (and subsequent understanding) of culture, though he rarely interacts with it by choice. He prefers to work behind the scenes, watching mortals and gods alike with the detached curiosity of a scientist and historian, eternally observing and untouched by their plights. Tenpou is quintessentially a loner, one who carries all of his world alone by preference, and if it occurs to him that others are different, he's made no show of relating to it.

That said, he has a rather obvious weakness for children, be they youkai or immortal, and takes much more pleasure in their presence than their adult counterparts. His manner becomes understanding and patient, perhaps even jovial, going so far as to request he be called "Ten-chan" from a certain Seiten Taisei. The young embody something beautiful to him and bring out his better traits by doing so, Tenpou finding their innocence and sense of wonder incredibly refreshing and pleasantly rebuking. (But make no mistake -- it's not the innocence so much as their lack of bias that he finds thrilling, for all the older brains he knows are not nearly so open.)

[ Temperament ] He never acts without reason, but that doesn't necessitate always having a plan. Calm and constant as his demeanor is, his temper is hot-blooded and easily enticed with the right trigger, especially concerning those he deems worth protecting. Retaliation for perceived misgivings can be rash and violent or slow and methodical; Tenpou is just as likely to strike a superior for dire insult as he is to plot (and execute) their political demise, or both.

[ Battle ] In complete contrast to his ingratiating facade, Tenpou is hellbent on maintaining self-sufficiency in battle and doesn't tend to give his men anything to do beyond standing back and watching him. In part, it's because he doesn't trust in the competency (or judgment) of others, but it's also because he'd truly rather not see them hurt. Thus knowing his own abilities best, he feels comfortable (if indifferent) taking the risk with himself and bearing all the responsibilities of the fight. Fortunately, he's usually happy to share credit with his soldiers for a job well done regardless if they participated, as merely staying out of his way is still considered helpful.

[ Motivations ] Tenpou thirsts for knowledge, or perhaps -- hungers. Whichever allegory you prefer would be a fair comparison to his constant pursuit, never satisfied with scratching the surface of a subject or letting his curiosities go to the wayside. If he finds a thought more interesting than the conversation he's engaged in, he'll either interject with it or forget about the other person entirely until he's ready to move on again, quite content to live inside his mind no matter how rude it might come across. He isn't picky about what he studies, either, diving into herbal encyclopedias in the morning and reading about sewing patterns in Renaissance France by lunch, happily tolling away on just about any material as long as it's new.

When he's not burying himself in books, he lives (or exists, as is the case for such beings) for the moment. He describes the time in which he feels most 'alive' as being when he stops to appreciate the rich flavor of a cigarette, never tarnishing his worldly pleasures with cynicism or nihilism. No, it probably doesn't mean anything, but smoke still tastes good, and soup still smells delicious. Whether or not they have any physical effect on him doesn't diminish his ability to enjoy them.

[ Morality ] His moral compass doesn't have the strongest magnetism, so to speak, but it's certainly not broken. Tenpou draws definitive lines between right and wrong and then lives in between them, proceeding through the day to day in moral shadows where he might ruin someone's career for personal vengeance or show spontaneous acts of kindness in the same ten minutes. It's not something he thinks on very heavily nor feels a need to do so, letting his 'gut' rule his moral standing to the appeasement of his own standards (and only his.)

If a situation does push him past grey and into clear-cut territories, he's likely to become inflexible and indomitable until the slight is corrected. Tenpou doesn't care if that entails bringing the wrath of Heaven itself down: the right thing must and will be done.

POINT OF DEPARTURE: N/a.

ABILITIES:
[ Author's Note ] The Gaiden gods' abilities are not elaborated in great depth (explicitly) within the manga and appear to be largely based on the Buddhist devas, with some manga-expected tweaks covered in the first section. For reference, see here.

[ God ] The laws of life and death are governed by the properties of inertia for the Gaiden gods -- that is, without an 'outside influence', they will perpetually exist as they are, not subject to the woes of age and disease that plague the lower world. In this way, they are biologically immortal,and the higher deities can altogether forgo food and drink while still sustaining their physical form. They are expectedly stronger and faster than lower plane beings, demonstrated by Tenpou himself being able to rip a hard-cover book in half at its binding without any special preparation.

[ Invisibility/Manifestation ] He can manifest himself in a variety of manners to the lower born or not at all to his choosing, his physical body undergoing no change in the process but rather the perception of the viewer being altered. The only mortals who can circumvent this must possess extraordinary enlightenment (as defined by Buddhism) or specific psionic abilities, though all gods can and will negate it. In fact, Tenpou can neither be deceived by another god's invisibility nor can he impose it in turn, having acquired a level of awareness immutable to such illusion. (Source: Various Earth based missions in which the gods go unseen while performing their sealing—a process used to trap creatures of great harm, demons, without killing them.)

[ Swordsmanship ] His reputation relies on his intelligence, but he's a very capable fighter, and a truly wicked opponent when he's wielding a nodachi. He's shown taking down beasts (engineered, no less) with one hit and bested a god of the fighting family without any trouble at all, only succumbing to his enemy after a night of Heaven's bloodthirsty pursuit.

[ Genius/Awareness ] What he lacks in physical powers he makes up for with an intelligence worth noting twice and then once again. Tenpou doesn't miss a detail of his surroundings or the people in them when it matters, and it takes a truly orchestrated effort of higher deities to mislead him without incurring suspicion.

INVENTORY;
(1) Nodachi
(2) Packs of cigarettes
(1) Lighter
(1) Book on the uses of lavender

ANYTHING ELSE WE SHOULD KNOW? Nope, don't think so. Because of his nature I don't think it'd make sense for him to ever be an infiltrator, but that's more a player side choice!

S A M P L E S;
FIRST PERSON:

[ Interacting with mortals is an interesting affair, always, but especially here. In his world, contact with the lower-beings was restricted, limited to battle assignments and the not-so-authorized morale boosters. In L’Arc en Rêve, it was simply a matter of opening the leather bound lume and willing himself to manifest.

No one would tell him not to, no politics would chain him.

Still, he was a little hesitant. It wasn't the way of his kind to advertise themselves, nor was he the most social sentience in existence. In fact, Tenpou has spent days preparing for this simple transmission, walking around the city with aimless observation, taking in as many details as he could. He'd made sense of many of them, but not all, and it was becoming clear he would not illuminate their mysteries without outside help.

Chiefly, how to get out of Glinn. ]

Hello!

[ The feed opens at an extreme right angle before flipping around, adjusting itself many times until Tenpou is beaming in the center, a half-smoked cigarillo dangling perilously from his mouth. He gives a small wave with his free hand, canting his head to the side and clearing his throat. ]

I was hoping I could bother one of you fine denizens to be my guide...

[ He turns his mirror towards a nondescript patch of grass and trees, ten seconds passing by before he's seen again, looking surprised. He was just noticing how the bark formed Fibonacci spirals, a really very nice touch, and it's a wonder if he'll manage to finish his request at all. ]

Ah, right. Yes, a guide. I am greatly in need of --

I'm lost. Please take care of me.

[ Because it's really too much bother to pretend otherwise. ]

THIRD PERSON:

Groaning, he turned over to his side, stretching at length, the first intrusions of consciousness flitting in. Warm light swayed across his brow and filtered past his eyelids, staining the darkness of his slumber with the deep oranges and fleeting yellows of the afternoon sun. Reluctantly, his eyes opened, cringing against the brightness before a pale hand intercepted and provided shadow for the adjusting pupils, Tenpou languidly taking in his surroundings. Unsurprisingly, the god found himself sprawled out on the floor with tiers of his latest interests piled like a haphazard castle around him, old calligraphy and new prints forming towers and moats to one side while the other was a graveyard for consumed books.

For a moment, the scene was familiar enough to feel normal, complacent – then he remembered where he was, and a ferocious grin pulled over his features. That’s right. He wasn’t in his heaven, but that of others, enigmatic creatures known as the Weavers who had all amount of regaling and contradictory tale to entice his curiosity. This library wasn’t his, either; it belonged to the university, a place as equally spellbinding and mind-numbing as its creators.

(Not that he had managed to see much of the campus once establishing his roost, nor the city itself. All in due time, whenever that was, and oh, is that a new book on early Neolithic art?)

Tenpou hoisted into a stand, long digits seizing his latest shiny and flipping it open over his arm. “Oh,” he murmured, a touch disappointed to realize he’d read the material before, albeit with a different cover and name.

That’s the trouble with a fact, isn’t it? There’s only one of them, he mused, fishing a cigarette out of his labcoat and looking around for any annoying aides to condemn him for it. Mean as it was, he’d been having fun disappearing on them at random, leaving a literal smoke trail for them to huff and puff while he went on reading, usually no more than a few feet away. Finding no such victims (attendants) now, Tenpou wedged his cigarette at the corner of his lips with a lazy smile and set about his day.

First, he supposed, he should restock the shelves and look for something else to read. But it probably wouldn’t happen in that order.

embrace nothing:
if you meet the buddha, kill the buddha
if you meet your father, kill your father
only live your life as it is
not bound by anything.
- Siddhartha Gautama

(no subject)

powersthatbe - 2014-06-07 01:29 (UTC) - Expand

Quick question

powersthatbe - 2014-06-07 01:36 (UTC) - Expand

Re: Quick question

fieldmarshal - 2014-06-07 16:46 (UTC) - Expand

Re: Quick question

powersthatbe - 2014-06-07 19:11 (UTC) - Expand

Re: Quick question (wrong account)

geminisky - 2014-06-07 19:41 (UTC) - Expand

Fate in Our Hands

Ribbons and detours mean nothing to me.

That's me. Banging my head against the walls of tyranny.

Sometimes things seem easier when you look at them from a distance, you know?

Edited (you saw nothing) 2014-06-09 01:36 (UTC)

blood on my palms.

I'm full of bad ideas, remember?

(no subject)

tireur - 2014-06-09 07:18 (UTC) - Expand

(no subject)

powersthatbe - 2014-06-09 08:51 (UTC) - Expand

Application Link

Edited 2014-06-24 23:59 (UTC)

Re: Phèdre nó Delaunay de Montrève | Kushiel's Legacy | Reserved

powersthatbe - 2014-07-02 20:33 (UTC) - Expand

P L A Y E R;
NAME: Sam
AGE: 29
PLAYER JOURNAL:

dekaja
TIMEZONE: MST
CONTACT:

estamir / melodyoflogic @ gmail
OTHER CHARACTERS PLAYED: Toshizou Hijikata (

hakodate)

C H A R A C T E R;
NAME: Bartz Klauser
CANON: Final Fantasy V
POINT IN CANON: Just as the party enters the Interdimensional Rift.
AGE: 20
APPEARANCE: The official artwork contradicts itself, with two different designs both appearing frequently, but I err towards the design that actually appears in the game sprites, which is like this!
CANON HISTORY: It's a game about an evil tree. :|b

CANON PERSONALITY: Bartz is not a terribly complicated guy.

FFV's Warriors of Light are each chosen by one of the elemental crystals, and each embody a trait that particular element values; in Bartz's case, this is the wind, and he represents what's variously translated as "passion" or "quest" - the adventuresome spirit and drive to keep moving forward. (I've seen an unofficial translation call it "curiosity," as well, and I feel like that one might summarize it best of all, since the ending narration talks about the passion for knowledge, but Bartz is not exactly a scholar or a brainiac.)

Or, Bartz is a guy who's happiest when he's just wandering around the world with no company but his gigantic pet bird. Sure, he has his points of angst in his backstory - like so many good heroes, he has the obligatory dead parents, and he has a childhood incident that's left him with a deep fear of heights (although it's more played for laughs than anything). But he's the type to look forward, not back; he doesn't let himself be weighed down or held back by the past, and instead keeps moving, even if he's not moving towards any goal in particular. Like the wind, Bartz simply can't be held down.

(This may sound entirely too deep for a guy who pokes turtles because he thinks it's funny.)

He's not without a sense of responsibility, however - although Bartz starts the story as a wanderer who initially passes up on the chance to join Lenna and Galuf on their quest to check up on the wind crystal, his conscience doesn't let him leave them alone for long before he doubles back to follow them, and his conscience keeps him hanging in there, because aside from being a wanderer who likes to keep moving, Bartz is also a do-gooder when it comes down to it. He doesn't have any malice in him, and he'd rather do the right thing than not.

Both his wanderings and his sense of responsibility towards protecting the crystals trace back to his father, Dorgann. After the death of Bartz's mother, Dorgann - a constant wanderer - began to take Bartz along on his journeys, and when Dorgann died later, when Bartz was a teenager, as soon as he laid his father to rest back in their hometown he simply kept going. But in a flashback we do see Dorgann asking his wife never to tell Bartz of the crystals, because they shouldn't be his burden to bear - and Bartz, pretending to be asleep, overhearing the whole thing. This is actually the reason Dorgann travels so much; he stayed in that world rather than returning to his own in the first place because he wanted to keep an eye on the crystals, and on the seal binding Exdeath. We see Bartz first inherit his father's habit of wandering, but it's not long before he also inherits his reason for doing so, and his purpose to protect the worlds from Exdeath.

That's about as complex as Bartz gets, though, and in some ways he is...well, extremely simple. He takes a lot of crap from Ghido for being a bit of an idiot; he's not exactly a "let's stick this fork in an electrical socket" type, but he doesn't think too deeply on the tasks in front of him, and he's usually the one who repeats every plot-important term as a question. THE VOID? THE LEGENDARY WEAPONS? THE OTHER WORLD? He probably wouldn't sound half as stupid if he'd just keep his mouth shut and finish listening. (Then again...turtle-poking.) Bartz is not a thinker, and he doesn't make any claim to be; his reaction to most problems is "LET'S GO STOP IT" without putting much thought into what stopping it is going to entail.

Although this sounds like it ought to mean he's reckless, he is quite often a voice of reason...albeit simple, uncomplicated reason. In many cases someone else does something reckless or outrageous and Bartz is the one to go "wait, what?" When Lenna wants to politely ask the pirates to borrow their ship and Galuf wants to steal it, Bartz is the one left kanyeshrugging in the middle at everything; his thoughtlessness isn't so much recklessness as it's a tendency not to consider all of the complications too deeply - he'll still recognize the big, blinking neon ones easily enough.

He's very laid-back, as is fitting for someone who doesn't have any real pursuits in his life beyond seeing where the wind takes him. He keeps a sense of humor, he doesn't sweat the small stuff, and he's very much the type to take things as they come. There's only one moment in canon where Bartz seriously loses his shit, and that's when Exdeath drops his entire hometown into the Void (a move that has no strategic value and no purpose other than being an obvious bird-flip to Bartz).

In short: Bartz is about as straight-forward fantasy-hero as they come. He's a wanderer with a quest, he's got a sense of duty to complete it and to look after his comrades, and he's definitely in need of the obligatory wise old mentor's guidance to get there, but he doesn't let it get to him and he keeps looking ahead, no matter what.

(Also, turtle-poking.)

POINT OF DEPARTURE: n/a

ABILITIES: oh boy.

Like the other Warriors of Light, Bartz has been entrusted with the spirits of previous heroes, and can call on their abilities to fight! The practical result of this is that they're able to change at will between a number of "jobs" and these dictate how they fight, the spells and abilities they can use, and even modify their stats on the fly.

As a result, Bartz has incredible flexibility for a variety of combat situations - so long as he has a few minutes to prepare; jobs can be changed quickly and for no cost, but can not be swapped out mid-battle. (For the purposes of making video game mechanics work smoothly in RP narrative, I headcanon this as it taking some degree of concentration to ~commune with the spirits~ or whatever they're doing to change jobs. So he needs a quick moment in which he doesn't have to worry about getting stabbed if he closes his eyes, but it doesn't take a great deal of time to change out.)

In any given job, he's also able to pick a secondary ability; this can be from another job entirely, but only if he's spent enough time fighting as that job to learn it. I'm not about to assume he's mastered every job, so Bartz won't be able to go crazy with the secondary abilities, and for RP purposes, I mostly intend for him to just change to the job he wants to work with, because it's a hell of a lot simpler. There will be no dualcasting the top tier spells from every job here, nor any dualwielding rapid-fire or any of the shenanigans that people break the game with, because frankly, that's not all that interesting to RP anyway!

Changing jobs also changes his clothes into the appropriate (sometimes goofy) outfit, so if possible I'd like to just assume that Bartz comes in with the Hammerspace liminal skill, as it seems like the easiest way to explain where all of this is coming from. Presumably he's also got the appropriate weapons in there, though I'm not all that worried about him having good ones, so he wouldn't be busting out all twelve Legendary Weapons so much as he's just able to pull out something basic and serviceable for whatever he's fighting as.

So in summary, at any given time he'll have a pretty standard set of RPG hero type abilities and deficiencies in the appropriate areas - squishy mage with low power, powerful tank without magic, whatever; it's just that the archetype he's taking on will be different depending on when one catches him, and if he didn't pick the best one before trouble closes in, well, too bad for him and he's just going to have to muddle through it.

Most of these I don't see serious nerfing problems with, but a few specific notes:
- Blue Mages use spells learned from enemy monsters, i.e. they get hit by an attack and can then use it themselves. Not all enemy attacks are learnable, though, so this doesn't equate to "able to learn anything ever by surviving it." I think it could certainly be interesting if there were things it was possible for him to pick up in jaunts as a learned skill, but as an occasional interesting exception, not a rule (and something to be discussed with mods when the possibility comes up).
- Time Mages can cast a couple of spells that might not work. Teleport warps the party out of battles or dungeons, so that spell might be nerfed since it falls under liminal skills? Return is a spell that resets a battle; I think this is probably better nerfed for simplicity's sake. Banish is a spell that tosses an enemy into the Void to remove them from battle, which might be something to nerf (or might cause horrible antics when the monster winds up waiting for them in Liminal Space, iunno).
- Chemists are able to combine items to cause various powerful effects. A lot of these probably aren't necessarily a thing to be nerfed, but I see a limitation on this anyway as I don't intend for Bartz to actually have the potions and whatnot in inventory, so he won't really have a chance to use this - unless a specific jaunt is JRPG-esque enough that he might be able to appropriate items there and play around with them. (Or he might just blow something up instead, whoops.)

There were four extra jobs added in recent ports of the game (Cannoneer, Oracle, Necromancer, Gladiator); I'm ignoring these entirely and sticking with the original set, since I frankly think that's plenty and some of their abilities are weird and overly complicated.

INVENTORY; The crystal shards that contain the spirits of the past heroes. The clothes on his back - but as explained in the abilities section, these...change according to the job he's using at the moment, like a JRPG magical girl. I also assume that the costume changes will include a simple, basic weapon used by the job, but not a special or awesome one in any way. There are twelve Legendary Weapons in canon that the party has gathered up by now, but considering how ridiculously flexible the job changes make him, I'm fine with him coming with none of them to make up for that.

ANYTHING ELSE WE SHOULD KNOW? I APOLOGIZE FOR HOW COMPLEX THE ABILITIES SECTION GOT, it's a little ridiculous but I think some of the jobs could have pretty interesting ways of interacting with new worlds on jaunts.

It is my intention to app him as a veteran, with the three pre-game jaunts under his belt, but who's been stuck in a dungeon dimension since Belljar. I'd rather help with the infodumps than make other characters infodump at me. o/ (But I'm borrowing the candy museum version of Liminal Space for this third person sample because I like it, that's why.)

S A M P L E S;
FIRST PERSON: thread!

THIRD PERSON: There were times when even Bartz had to wonder if he'd bitten off more than he could chew.

Swirling vortex of void energy floating over the former kingdom of Tycoon? Airship getting sucked straight into it? Sure, who cares - easier to take the engraved invitation than to have to cut themselves a new path straight in by force. They were going to have to get in there somehow, and they were more than capable of handling it. If Lenna could get sucked in, spit out, possessed by a demon from beyond the rift, and still make it out okay with their help, what was the worst that could happen?

Operative words: with their help. As long as the Warriors of Light were together, as far as Bartz was concerned, they were ready for anything.

Finding himself in some weird hall full of melting and sweet-smelling art, in and of itself, wasn't anything he thought beyond his capabilities, but finding himself in some weird hall without the others? That was a little more troublesome, and his first instinct was to draw his sword, do a full 360, and look for the others.

(With none of them in sight, his second instinct was to approach a oddly wavering statue of some Gigeresque creature made out of ice cream and carefully poke it to see if it was alive or just melting, and with the later conclusion confirmed, his third instinct was to lick his finger and see if the stuff was quite as edible as it smelled. Hey, strawberry!)

"I kind of thought the Interdimensional Rift would be more...menacing?"

For a place that was supposed to be full of the most hideous fiends that had ever been locked into the void for the good of the worlds, this seemed strangely benign - "...unless that's what he wants me to think! Exdeath! I know you're here!"

His brilliant revelation was met only with the echo of his own voice through the halls.

ACCEPTED!

We'll be powercapping the Time Mage spells, by giving Bartz access to two Liminal Skills, but only when he has that job selected!

(no subject)

wayfaringwind - 2014-07-02 21:54 (UTC) - Expand

"Keep a strong spine."

(no subject)

powersthatbe - 2014-07-02 20:33 (UTC) - Expand

"You may think me a dandy and a fool, but a lot of people depended on me in the future."

Re: inigo | fire emblem: awakening | reserved

powersthatbe - 2014-07-02 20:33 (UTC) - Expand

NAME: Jes
AGE: 25
PLAYER JOURNAL:

lenity
TIMEZONE: EST, GMT-5.
CONTACT:

eldrant | aim: mathmaticing
OTHER CHARACTERS PLAYED: n/a

C H A R A C T E R;
NAME: Lucina
CANON: Fire Emblem: Awakening
POINT IN CANON: Post-game, unmarried ending.

"I choose to fight as Lucina now."

Here's the app!

ACCEPTED!

The extrasensory abilities of Fuuka's Persona are right on the boundaries of our powercap - if it's all right with you, we'd prefer you to pick out a pair of Telepathic Network Skills to replace her analytical abilities - her other support abilities would be left unchanged.

He thought of a world where anyone could enter any city and be welcomed there with open arms.

ACCEPTED!

We are still discussing the details of powercapping the Discipline Mind Control & psychic-type abilties. Come talk it over with us!

Don't underestimate me because I'm a woman!

P L A Y E R;
NAME: Trap
AGE: 23
PLAYER JOURNAL:

harmonia
TIMEZONE: CST
CONTACT: flowing runes (AIM & Plurk). PMs to this account are fine, too!
OTHER CHARACTERS PLAYED: N/A

C H A R A C T E R;
NAME: Hajime Saitou
CANON: Hakuouki
POINT IN CANON: After joining the Guardians of the Imperial Tomb.
AGE: 23
APPEARANCE: Here! Because of his early canon point, the leftmost picture is the most accurate. Long, dark hair usually kept in a ponytail, blue eyes, and tends to wear a lot of black. He is extremely fashionable, okay.

CANON HISTORY: First, to clarify, I will be playing Saitou mainly following the events of the movie, Kyoto Ranbu. Because the movie doesn't really go into pre-Shinsengumi events, however, I'll be drawing on events from Reimeiroku, the anime/video game prequel to Hakuouki, so that I can fill in his backstory. Given that major events don't really change between various versions of Hakuouki, I figure it should be fine to assume that the major events of Reimeiroku are still true. That said, I'll obviously be using examples from all over for the personality section, but as far as what's "canon" for him goes, it will be the events of the movie. The reason for this is mostly just because it'll be easier for me to keep track of this way, since the plot is linear, mostly focuses on the major events, and the outcome doesn't rely on specific choices made by the protagonist. Anyway!

Not much is known about the clan that Saitou used to serve, but the fact that he had one at all was something that set him apart from most of the men at Shiei Hall. Saitou dreamed of being a warrior, and having a clan to serve gave him an advantage over many of the men who gathered there, men who had a similar dream but lacked a lord for various reasons. Unfortunately, Saitou had a "problem" that would completely negate this advantage, and it was a problem that he had very little control over—he was born left-handed. No matter where he went, Saitou was shunned as a swordsman due to this one simple fact. Even though he was strong and defeated every single opponent he came across fair and square, he was called a cheater and kicked out of every dojo he stepped foot in, simply because a left-handed stance was considered "wrong" and he refused to change it. Generally, left-handed students would have their stance corrected while learning swordsmanship, so left-handed swordsman literally did not exist, but Saitou never went for that. Why should he fix something that's not broken? There was never anything wrong with him in the first place. So Saitou simply moved on, continuing to search for an opponent that could back up his words with skill.

It was while Saitou went from dojo to dojo challenging others that he eventually came upon Shiei Hall. Here, he challenged Souji Okita, the dojo's star pupil, and was actually defeated—technically. Souji was the first person Saitou had ever faced who actually presented him with a challenge, and even though Souji managed to land the first hit, the two refused to stop fighting until Toshizou Hijikata intervened and ordered the others to forcibly separate them. Even though he lost, Saitou expected to be kicked out once again, but what actually happened came as a complete shock to him: Isami Kondou, the master of the dojo, had nothing but praise for him, and Hijikata explained that a victory is a victory and anyone who blamed Saitou's left-handedness for their loss simply couldn't accept defeat. This was the first time that Saitou wasn't criticized for his technique, but his actual skill, and it was the first time that anyone had openly approved of what he was capable of. Saitou was truly in awe.

Saitou began to spend more time at Shiei Hall after this. Even though he was shy, the others welcomed him with open arms. However, Saitou did not wish to be a burden to the only people who had ever accepted him, so he didn't stay at Shiei Hall like the others did. Unlike people like Souji or Heisuke or Shinpachi, who had nowhere else to go, Saitou had somewhere to return to, so he only came by to train, spar, and have meals (which he paid for) before going on his way. Eventually, though, Saitou stopped coming to Shiei Hall, and no one knew why. Sometime after he had started to frequent the dojo, he had been challenged to a duel by the son of a hatamoto family, who asked that they use real swords as opposed to bamboo or wooden ones. As a samurai, Saitou thought the son would be able to accept the consequences of the match, so he agreed to the duel and won. Once again, things didn't turn out the way Saitou had expected, but this time, the outcome was not in his favor: despite winning the match fairly, he was viewed as a murderer for having killed his opponent, and was forced to leave his clan. Not having a clan meant not having a lord, and not having a lord was kind of a problem—having a lord to serve was a key part of being a samurai, so now that he didn't have one, Saitou saw no point in carrying his swords.

So he stopped. The thing is, after he stopped carrying his swords, Saitou realized that he was essentially invisible to the world. There was nothing that set him apart from the number of other people that he shared the world with. If he wasn't a samurai, then he might as well not even exist at all. That was when Saitou heard about the Roshigumi, a group of men who dreamed of being warriors and protecting the people and their city from lawless ronin. Not only that, but this Roshigumi also happened to be made up of the people he had met at Shiei Hall. That pretty much settled it—no longer having a lord but still wishing to be a samurai, Saitou sought out the Roshigumi's headquarters in Kyoto and formally requested to join. Just like the first time, he was welcomed with open arms, and Saitou swore that he would do whatever he could for the sake of the Roshigumi in order to repay them for giving him the chance to live again.

As a result, Saitou had found his purpose. He fought alongside the Roshigumi as it struggled to make a name for itself, although it usually didn't enjoy an especially positive reputation. Even though the shogunate approved of their existence and allowed them to operate, the Roshigumi wasn't an official part of the shogunate's forces, so their support was pretty limited. During this time of struggle, the Roshigumi was approached by Doctor Kodou Yukimura, who claimed to have the answer to one of their problems, which was a constant lack of manpower. This solution was called the Water of Life, a "medicine" capable of giving ordinary humans supernatural strength and healing abilities. The medicine had a few (read: a lot) of kinks that needed to be worked out, but if they could manage to refine it, it could turn out to be a powerful tool. Kondou and Hijikata hated the idea of treating their own men like test subjects, but they were eventually persuaded with the idea that it could be used on men who were going to be told to kill themselves anyway. Whenever they broke the rules, they would be given a choice: they could kill themselves, or they could take the Water of Life. The compromise was effective, and the Roshigumi now had a chance—they would lose fewer men this way and they had a shot at a weapon that could give them an edge in the fight. Whether they liked it or not, it was probably their only chance if they hoped to succeed, so they went for it.

Regardless of his personal feelings on the matter, Saitou supported the Roshigumi through everything—he supported them through Commander Kamou Serizawa's terrorizing reign, helped keep the secret of the Water of Life and the furies, and fought alongside the Roshigumi against ronin and rebels alike until the Aizu domain officially acknowledged them, giving them a new name. The Roshigumi became the Shinsengumi, finally giving them a piece of the recognition they deserved.

Unfortunately, the Shinsengumi still had the whole "fury" issue to deal with, and for that, they sought out Kodou Yukimura once more, hoping for his help in refining the Water of Life. Kodou was nowhere to be found, but they did run into Chizuru, his daughter, and decided to keep her around for the sake of finding her father. While the Shinsengumi continued to serve the shogun, they simultaneously continued their search for Kodou, but to no avail. As they worked, the Shinsengumi encountered yet another internal dilemma, one not very different from their previous one with former commander Serizawa—after discovering the Shinsengumi's involvement with the fury research, a newer member, Kashitarou Itou, decided to break away from the Shinsengumi and take some of its men with him to form a new group. Believing in Itou's politics, many men chose to go with him to fight on his side. Among the men who left the Shinsengumi was someone that no one had ever expected—Hajime Saitou.

But little did anyone know, Saitou hadn't left for his own reasons—he had left for the sake of the Shinsengumi. He left because he'd been asked to so that he could keep an eye on Itou and his men. As far as anyone else knew, though, Saitou was no longer a member of the Shinsengumi, but rather, a member of the newly-formed Guardians of the Imperial Tomb.

Hajime Saitou / Hakuouki / Reserved

undefine - 2014-07-02 04:52 (UTC) - Expand

Hajime Saitou / Hakuouki / Reserved

undefine - 2014-07-02 04:53 (UTC) - Expand

(no subject)

powersthatbe - 2014-07-02 21:04 (UTC) - Expand

"All right, then Zen can dress as a woman."

down the rabbit-hole

This is a very solid app, and we like your treatment of the character very much. However, we are going to app for a revised third person sample - something less dialogue-heavy than the thread provided, that gives us more of a sense of descriptive writing. it can be a thread rather than a custom-written sample; it would just need to be one that displayed more elaboration or prose than this one seems to.

(no subject)

liddellmisslost - 2014-07-02 21:48 (UTC) - Expand

(no subject)

powersthatbe - 2014-07-02 22:02 (UTC) - Expand

P L A Y E R;
NAME: Dana
AGE: 19
PLAYER JOURNAL:

sunshowered
TIMEZONE: PST
CONTACT: nyavericks @ AIM or

evergrace
OTHER CHARACTERS PLAYED: N/A

"In truth, I missed you."

ACCEPTED!

Ukyo's world-hopping / memory-retaining ability is potentially very powerful in this setting, and may need to be powercapped. We could simply replace it with a Liminal Skill &/or a Telepathic Skill, but it sounds like it's also part of what makes the character who they are - before we settle on a decision, we'd like to talk about what, if anything, you had in mind for how that ability would play out?

(no subject)

halfkill - 2014-07-04 05:50 (UTC) - Expand

(no subject)

powersthatbe - 2014-07-04 06:05 (UTC) - Expand

Surprise impulse app go!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

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