Ammokkx

Secundi Lux

---

---

Chie was quiet and observant, as is her nature. She exchanged pleasantries well enough when prompted, but her focus was dedicated to learning about the other three rather than them getting to know her. They were nice. Conversation between the four of them was a constant, even if the subjects themselves barely held any kind of importance. Chie did, however, learn where her fellow Ars Magi-to-be all came from. Crystal hailed from Norba, Selma's past lay with Hasta and Rivka had made her home in Baeterrae. Nova Lux scouted the four girls from every corner of the world, it seemed like. Maybe there would be even more kinds of people waiting at the academy itself.

Her musings had to take a backseat when captain Wei informed all of them that they'd be getting off soon, another change of travel plans being made. It made Chie uneasy. Was the attack so severe? She didn't notice anything amiss before all this, but she couldn't help but worry for the safety of the people she left behind just over half an hour ago. It made her shift uncomfortably in her seat. Looking away from the rest of them. Distracting herself by watching the lights flicker by. She stopped thinking about the other three, forgot they were even there.

When it was time to step out of the railcar, Chie had found the atmosphere just as unsettling. Calcaria's railways were bustling during the day and she didn't have much experience with this dark, barren wasteland stretching out in front of her. She wasn't used to how dark everything was, to see people so silent and distant. Even though they had the military escorting them, somehow, it felt like something would jump out of the shadows at them. Some kind of void that slipped through, somehow, and was aiming for them specifically. A ridiculous thought, surely.

Instead, it wasn't ridiculous enough.

Chie felt some kind of impact, sudden and violent, throwing her back. Her ears were ringing, her vision went black and she was too shocked to move her limbs. She tried to get her bearings on the surroundings, but everything spun and moved. Her body hurt. In a daze she weakly tried to move her arm, but found it stuck on something. Same result with the other one. Then, Chie noticed the reason why. Something was dragging her. Clarity shot through Chie, as did panic. Some manner of void must have bust through. They were going to drag her off and kill her, like... like they...

"G-GET OFF! LET ME GO!" she hysterically yelled, struggling and thrashing in the grip of her captors. She didn't know the truth of the matter, of course, and it's not like she could do much. Whoever, or whatever had her in its grip also strongly overpowered her. "H-help! HELP ME!" she continued her panicked shouting. It was all she could do.

Secundi Lux

April 8th, 117AV

"Congratulations!!"

"Huh? What? Why... huh?"

"Surprise, Chie!"
"We kinda sprung this on her out of nowhere..."
"Don't worry, the teacher said we could use the classroom!"
"Hey, come sit! This is your farewell party!"

"Farewell party? I didn't think it was that important..."

"Quit the modesty already Chie! It's Nova Lux you're going to! Nova Lux!"
"I don't really want her to go, though..."
"I know, right? I don't like goodbyes."
"Come on, everyone... keep a smile on! I don't want to see Chie go either, but we should support her, right?"

"..."

"Hey, Chie, try these! I baked them myself!"
"Oooooh... why have I never gotten some?!"
"These are farewell cookies. You come to my house enough as-is."
"...Huh? Hey, Chie, is something wrong?"

"No... no, nothing at all. Thank you, everyone."

---

---

---

The dim light coming out the screen of Chie's phone was more than enough to see with for the darkened night sky which surrounded her. It wasn't pitch-black by any means- the abundance of night lighting at both the dock and scattered through the vast city below made sure of this- but the artificiality of it all didn't comfort her any. Anticipation, nerves, fear, longing... the emotions Chie felt were complex, compounded by her incessant staring at the minutes counting down. Her escort was a rather tall, serious man and had made for a poor company. Not that Chie had tried particularly hard to strike up a conversation, but most any of her questions were answered swiftly and with no hope for a followup. She was left with nothing to entertain herself, save for the act of slowly watching time tick and tick by.

It felt strange. She wasn't particularly bound to her home, but now that it was almost time to leave...

"Ah!"

Chie's thoughts were broken as she heard the airship dock. Naturally, it was at the station where she'd been (im)patiently waiting. She looked back up at her escort who, after a bit of hushed chatter with his earpiece, told her to wait just a little longer. It wasn't long before three girls were escorted off the airship by a slew of military personnel. Chie thought to ask some more questions, but before a word could escape her lips her escort had already begun explaining. He informed her that the airship would not be used to make the rest of the journey. Instead, she and the other three would be lead to a railcar which would be making the rest of the trip in its stead.

It hardly took any time for the five to get settled, but a silence hung over them nevertheless. It was quite the... interesting group. Out of the four, Chie figured she looked the most ordinary, but maybe each of the other girls thought much the same about themselves. One girl had hair unlike everybody else's, vibrant and colourful. But even more than the colour, what stood out how well-maintained it was. It looked like it'd give the feeling of silk were you to touch it. Another one was more modest. Her hair was fashioned in twintails and what stood out most about the her was just how fidgety she seemed. She'd been fiddling with something, or otherwise had been nervously twitching her legs or fingers, all the way from the airship to here. As for the last one, well...

"Hallo!"

The last didn't take too long to make herself known. She introduced herself as Selma, no family name given, and was a taller woman than Chie could have imagined possible. It was no secret that the people of Calcaria were shorter than some of the more western-laid city city states, but Chie hadn't even seen a man as tall as Selma. The girl seemed nice and friendly enough, but the difference in height was going to leave Chie uncomfortable for a while longer. Selma had introduced herself, however, so it wouldn't do to not respond in kind.

"My name is Masuzu Chie. I don't need help with my luggage, but I hope we can all get along from this point forwards."

Chie waited to hear the names of the other three.

Secundi Lux

Chie

(Source)
Name
益頭知絵
^{(Masuzu Chie)}

Age
16

Sanctum City
Calcaria

Personality
Chie is social yet distant. She keeps a cool, collected but not unfriendly aura around her. She's willing to listen to the problems of others, but much less so to share her own. Chie likes keeping her relationships to small talk, though she isn't afraid to tease other girls. It's hard to get a read on her because of her constant, slightly playful smile. It doesn't indicate her good mood, but just acts as the veil of mystery hiding her true thoughts and emotions. It's the disposition of someone who observes before others are allowed to observe her. She just has a naturally closeted personality.

Background
Chie is from a middle-class family in Calcaria. She used to be an energetic child, playing and socializing with other kids until her breath gave out. Chie was a far-cry from the cool girl she would later become. A common thread through her evolution would be loss. It started small enough, only losing a pet at a young age, which would give her an initial lesson in how to cope. Chie got along great with her grandmother, who she spent a lot of time with as her parents weren't always around, but her grandmother passed before Chie could reach double digits in her age.

Her mom and dad weren't home a lot of the time, so she felt lonely and distant from that point. Chie grew out of her cheery demeanor and put space between her and her friends. When her mom didn't come home again one day, and with dad refusing to tell Chie why, she completely closed off her heart to those around her. She started to listen instead of speak, to bottle up instead of cry. Chie was used to being alone, and maybe thought it was better that way. She wouldn't be tied down to people. It's that kind of unfettered disposition that made her fearless of joining Nova Lux. She promised herself that she wouldn't care for the friends she leaves behind, and that they wouldn't care for her.

Magical Girl Self

(Source)

Armgaus Name
Magnified White Quartz

Gladius

(Source)

Chie uses a pair of ornate chakrams to fight.

Parma
Chie's hair loses its colour as her eyes change to gold. Her clothing is replaced by a white dress with no strings and black stocking on her thighs. Both her hands turn black, that same effect continuing a bit into her forearm, and past that spot on the left arm she has the same fabric as her dress extending out to her shoulder. Her hair is adorned with a red hair accessory housing three diamond-shaped protrusions as her neck is covered by a warmer in the same colour of her hands.

Elementum
Gravity

Elementum Abilities
Chie's control over gravity manifests itself in the modification of its pulling properties. By changing the rules of how dense an area's matter is, Chie can create a field wherein objects collide faster or slower with each-other. Designating an area, its gravitational pull will either gradually increase or decrease depending on Chie's intent. She cannot instantly make something pull harder than it did before, as her power needs to ramp up over time. However, like a snowball rolling down the mountains, the longer she keeps it going the faster and stronger the effect will increase. To reverse her own magic requires the same kind of effort in reverse. Examples of practicality are making objects collide with each-other or jumping high into the sky while coming down slowly.

What character archetypes/characteristics do you gravitate towards?

I remember this thread as being way older than it is and am also shocked I never posted in it.

Go me.

I like to think I play a fairly varied range of characters, though all within the umbrella of "very anime". The variance for me comes more in the personality than it does the appearance, since 50% of the time I'm playing a cute girl and the other 50% is a boy under 16, or at the very least man barely out of his teens. Call it a lack of exposure to any other kind of character.

Then again, a friend of mine says I only really play two characters: A really goofy, energetic person or a cold, distant person. I can't say he's entirely wrong.

Nova Lux: A Magical Girl Game

I think obviously everyone wants as many people to play the game as possible.

@Plank Sinatra

i mean i've been campaigning pretty hard against this even if it may cost me a spot for it

Another possibility, if we do get pared down to 4-6 players, is to just assume that everyone else is still in the school. It is an academy, there's got to be more than half a dozen girls enrolled at a time, right? If retention becomes a problem and someone drops, all the sheets here have already been given at least a tentative thumbs up - poll who's still interested who might not have been immediately picked and then give them a chance to slide into the action.

@Plank Sinatra

To me this is the most sensible option. There's no reason *not* to keep a "reserve list" in case of drops. Give priority to those who wanted to sign up from the start, and if that pool's exhausted due to no or negative response, start scouting for new players (if so desired). Granted it would mean some don't get to play at the start and that runs the risk of them losing interest later down the line even if a spot opens up, but it's a better option than taking on the burden of more players than is needed.

I also dislike campaigning for co-GMs. It's better for the GM to spontanously want a co-GM they think is right for the job rather than the players suggesting they take one on, since it's a position inherently governed by trust. A GM that doesn't trust their co enough leaves the co with too little power, and a GM who trusts a poorly chosen co too much runs the risk of the co-GM running the show in their stead.

There's no real perfect answer to these things, everything has its pro's and cons. I'm pretty cynical by nature, and I've been around for a while, but I also recognize that uh

I don't

have the best track record when it comes to people wanting to RP with me, specifically

Nova Lux: A Magical Girl Game

I mean personally, I’m not sure if it would be awful to start with 12 or so characters, if nothing else because RPs on guild typically don’t have the best retention rates. I struggle to think of many games that don’t drop like half their players in the first few weeks. Ultimately though it’s your decision, just figured I’d give my thoughts.

@Onarax

You're still dealing with 12 players at the start though. It's a mess on the players' front, too, because who do you interact with? The first few pages are going to be bloated with all these disparate character interactions and somebody might not even show up on a page if they're a bit unlucky.

Personal experience has left me as not much of a fan, but it's Inedible's choice in the end. I can see my position is in the minority anyway, as from what I can tell, everyone here is assumed or hoped everyone got in.

Nova Lux: A Magical Girl Game

I'm giving some thought to running two versions of the game for two separate groups, but I won't make any promises.

@Inedible

Wouldn't recommend it for the sake of your sanity. GMing even one group is kind of a pain, and keeping track of two at once means your workload is also doubled. It's not just keeping track of everyone, but also double the amount of writing you need to do, and that adds up quickly.

Nova Lux: A Magical Girl Game

I'll be honest, I totally missed the Small Group tag when I was drawing up Selma's sheet.

@HereComesTheSnow

she good tho

Nova Lux: A Magical Girl Game

<Snipped quote by Ammokkx>
Personally, I hope nobody's left out, this seems like a very interesting premise, but I understand that not all games and not all GMs can handle this many people.

@shadowsaint007

10-11 people is a ridiculous number unless you have a team of like 3 to manage everyone. I personally don't really blame Inedible. I once GM'd an RP with a ridiculous amount of characters and after a while I struggled with coming up with stuff for all of them to do.

Hell, I know of a few people who've been in massive conglomerates and more often than not it feels like a couple of players just get ignored in favor of a more rapid few.

Nova Lux: A Magical Girl Game

@Inedible the cast is growing quickly...!

should we move accepted characters over to the character tab? or has no one been officially accepted yet?

@Zoey Boey

I'm going to walk back my earlier statement and close a bit earlier than planned. All submissions will be due by Wednesday the 14th. I'll pick 4-5 from that group.

@Inedible

that being said, while I made the "Are you a betting man" joke earlier, there's tough competition in here and idk if my character does enough to stand out. Good luck to everyone regardless, tho.