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Object permeance is overrated.

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You have died. You know at least that much. Rather than growing old and passing, you left the mortal coil early. But you didn't die. Not in the traditional sense, anyways. Your eyes closed for the last time, yet they opened. You took your last breath, yet you breathed. You were gone, yet you're here. Except this wasn't your home anymore. It wasn't even Earth. This place was strange; you awoke holding your breath. It was difficult to open your eyes. But this feeling was familiar. It was cold and smothering, as if you were trapped underwater. In fact, you were trapped underwater. In a panic, you managed to stand. Your upper half erupted from the cold water. You were drowning in a fountain. Besides a few curious onlookers watching, nobody really cared about you.

Looking around, it was obvious this wasn't your world. Worn down stone tiles covered the ground. Wood and stone buildings had been built with impeccable craftsmanship, but gave wide berth to the fountain. The largest building had an extremely worn down path, but it was little more than a deep, uneven groove between the fountain and the building. It was the most ornate out of all of the buildings. Instinctively, you walked down the worn path to the building. You saw hundreds of signs outside the building. Languages. Some were familiar like 'Bienvenido', 'ようこそ', and 'добро пожаловать'. Some were in odd languages you had never seen before. But the largest sign was above the door. It was written as a collection of lines and dots formed in a way you had never seen before, but you could easily read it.

'Welcome to Rengoku'

Upon entering, light seemed to vanish from the world. Whatever windows the building possessed were covered by stacks of books and papers. There wasn't a single place to sit. In the middle of the room was a desk. Behind it, a beautiful man sat. His face wasn't distinct. Rather, you couldn't make heads or tails of what he looked like. Like a dream, his face seemed to change every time you looked away. Flowing garments of silk shrouded his thin form. With wire-frame glasses that were the only constant feature of his face and long, silk-like black hair, he pushed the paper and pen on his desk towards you. Without so much as a word from the man, you read the paper. On it, a single phrase and a single line.

'What do you wish to be?'

x


Welcome to Rengoku, a project that has been brewing in my mangled mess of a mind for some time. In essence, Rengoku is an RP about growth and character choice. Characters are intended to grow as the RP progresses, both in ability and character. Characters are intended to be at the beginning of their journey - weak, confused, but willing to push on. A core theme of Rengoku is uncertainty; the future of a character is uncertain. As a result, I would ask that people don't plan more than two steps ahead.

As the RP progresses, people will uncover the secrets of Rengoku. This is another core theme: discovery. Rather than being forced on a linear path, I will encourage freedom of movement. You can go off on your own, do things with friends, anything you want (not without consequence, however), you can do.

The RP will contain some level of randomization. Equipment gained, starting class, class abilities will mostly be done without meta-player input. The actions your characters take will directly affect how they grow and what they get. That being said, I won't force people to start out with things they don't want to. I will allow players to choose their own class at the start (if they so choose) and send me some abilities that they want, but I will be balancing that shizz out.

As fantasy adventures often have combat, I will have a D&D-lite type system. For some players, they might enjoy massive D&D battles, but others may prefer to write up simple fights. I will sort of split the difference and give players some choice. If one wishes to know what exactly their abilities do numbers wise, I will oblige and hand over the data. If one prefers a simple system that's pure writing, I'll hide all of the mechanics and translate them into plain text.

The world of Rengoku is neither light-hearted or grimdark. Rather, it remains in a state of purgatory between the two. While the RP will often be light-hearted, it will often go down dark paths as a more realistic view of a fantasy world. The world of Rengoku is standard to that of anime fantasy that's often seen in isekai. Safe areas are inhabited by weak creatures like slimes and oversized pests, seedy areas have goblins and orcs, while dangerous areas would be filled with demons and dragons.

As for posting expectations, I don't expect massive posts every time. After all, this is casual and I'm a sucker for quality over quantity. I would like to pace this RP at around weekly postings because that's a nice mix of not being rushed while actually progressing the story. Of course, that isn't to say you aren't limited to weekly posts. Posts that push the story forward would be weekly, but posts that are for interaction would be as many as you like (provided people aren't slammed behind via 8x posts in a day).

[img]Appearance[/img]
[b]Name:[/b]
[b]Age:[/b]
[b]Personality:[/b] (This exists to make sure there aren't 4 anti-social babies)
[b]Wishword:[/b] (A single word as exact as 'warrior' or as vague as 'destructive', it can even be in other languages)
[b]Skills:[/b] (Non-combat talents that carry over from your previous life, things like athleticism, climbing, underwater basket weaving)

[b](Class Name)[/b]
[hider=Additional Information] (Keep empty until packet is given) [/hider]
[b]Abilities:[/b] (Keep empty until packet is given)
[b]Equipment:[/b] (Keep empty until packet is given)
Forbidden Technique- The Girth Bar

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table of contents for me

i. Rengoku

"Hello."

With everyone together again, they exchanged idle greetings. Some put in more effort than others. More specifically, Matteo put in more effort than everyone else. Out of the four of them, he was the only person who said more than one word. Hannah didn't even say anything, she was just sour. Or upset. Or maybe about to puke? Ash couldn't really tell. But with the four of them together once again, they could finally sortie and do what they were assigned to. Get coin, kill monsters, and everything of that sort.

But where would they start?

Ash had some idea of the town outside, but no solid destination. She could probably find a way back if they just aimlessly travelled, but then they might run into bear 2, the sequel to the bear: the one that almost got Ash. Well, not that it mattered as much. Ash was pretty sure she could outrun them all, especially in the thicket of the forest.

"Would anyone know of a destination for newcomers like us?" She asked the rest of the group, "Or should we just go out and see where that takes us?"

She didn't really want to go out and see where that took her. It was really risky. Especially with bears living in the forest. Worst comes to worst, they could peer pressure Matteo into asking someone a good spot for beginners.
*dabs*

Sorry for not posting anything yet, I keep starting to type out a post then deleting it because I'm not happy with it. Been dealing with bipolar depression all week and it kind of murdered my motivation for the moment.


yeeps, have some of my good vibes my guy
With a second-hand bow and quiver on her back and an old but seldom used machete at her hip, Ash had arrived at the plaza. She wasn't even sure that she would ever see the others again. Maybe they found others, maybe they quit, maybe they trained for different amounts of time. They didn't keep in touch during the training. They didn't even make an agreement to meet up once they were all done. All Ash could do was wait for the others. In her lonesome wait, she began to reminisce about her week of training.



Training to become a ranger was, for lack of a better word, vague. Throughout the week, she learned about a variety of subjects. Outdoorsmanship and combat were the two main focuses, combat more so. Throughout the days, she learned how to fire a bow, how to fight with a machete, knowledge of common plants and animals, shelter building, firestarting, cooking, butchering, and anything a hunter would need to know. There was so much to learn in only a week, so Ash only received a basic understanding of these concepts. Rahere had also taught Ash an invaluable skill, Predator's Gaze, to enter a trance that allowed her to find and follow tracks with greater ease.

The first two days were hell. For half of each day, she ran. Uphill, thick vegetation, and the looming threat of predators forced her to push herself. The first day was standard; she jogged into the night, came back, and managed to sleep while her legs ached and blisters formed. Compared to the second day, the first day was baby's first jog. She had to do the exact same run, but with an extra 80 pounds on her back. She managed to complete the run, however.

The third day was more about learning experiences. The runs were toned back to make room for more learning. She learned how to butcher a deer. It was a gross and bizarre experience, but Ash managed to follow the lesson plans. While she had taken it slow, she still managed to overcome the bizarre sickness of slicing through the carcass. She didn't vomit once. She did gag and heave constantly, though.

The fourth day was a day of retribution. Punished for her previous days cardio training, the blisters on her feet popped with pus and blood. Mosquito bites punished her for resting outside. Everything hurt and was bloody. Rahere, her mentor, taught her some natural remedies. Nothing complicated, but enough to soothe the bloody, disgusting mess that was Ash's feet.

The fifth day was a massive boost of confidence for Ash. Being a hunter finally clicked. She understood how to move through the woods and her bow training shifted from the dreaded wooden dummy to the legendary non-threatening birds and deers. The discomfort of living off the land subsided, making her more used to the outdoors than she ever was. She even managed to find a cool spring to relax in, take a cold bath, and wash her clothes.

The sixth day was humbling. While traveling up the mountainside alone, Ash had stumbled across a bear. The two noticed each other at the same time, and Ash ran away. The bear ran after her. Despite having 200 pounds on Ash, the bear was almost twice as fast. It mauled Ash. As she fell into unconsciousness, a silver wolf leaped from the woods and tore at the bear's nose.

The seventh day was bizarre. She woke up in the church with anemia. Rahere was with her and told her about the their patron god. Kur-Inuus, the wolf that watched over life and death. It was tradition to leave an extra meal whenever one was out in the woods at night. He also went over some more general knowledge without enthusiasm. Throughout this day, Ash couldn't help but feel terrible. Not at her anemia, but almost dying from something as simple as a bear. If they were to hunt monsters, what chance did Ash have if she couldn't even escape from a bear?



Her recap was cut short when she finally saw her party. Ash joined them and thought about making some conversation. She didn't, however. There was a time and place to have a conversation with others. But now was the time to finally leave the safety of the city. Plus, Ash's nerves were pretty much fried ever since she was mauled by a bear.
As the Cassian opened the door, a dense wave of heat flowed into the office. The floor of the factory was industrial, to say the least. Everything was designed for utility. The outside of the office flowed with a left turn into a thin walkway, no wider than a man and a half. Thin metal rails prevented accident, but they felt uncomfortably low. Even if the fall was a meter and a half, it felt unnecessarily dangerous. The office was indented in the wall and the walkway led along the wall. About ten meters away, the path ended with a quick turn to dangerously steep stairs to another path, stairs, and finally the ground floor.

The ground floor was designed with the creation of metal rods in mind. Closest to them and on the left hand side of the wall was a cutting machine. Stopped halfway, the machine was a long V-shaped catcher made to collect the recently cut rods. On the wall furthest away from them was where girders carried out large rolling vats to pour into the machinery. It was open, but dark. All power had been cut, the remaining light coming from molten metal and dropped flashlights. It was enough to see, but it wasn't enough to make exact detail.

But that scraping stopped once the door fully opened. It came from the left. There, the abomination was fully in sight. Even in the light from the glowing metal, you could make out it's pink, skinless form. It was human in shape. Lean muscles were easily visible without anything to hide them. It's left arm seemed to slashed at the elbow, only to have a thick steel blade attached. It's right arm was normal. It was taller than most, but would be taller if it had most of its head. Rather than having a formed skull, the abomination only had a mandible. No face, no eyes, nothing.

As soon as that door opened and swung into the office, the abomination began to move. It slowly turned towards the door and began a slow approach. Moments later, it sprung, bone crunching as it quickly soared three meters towards them. It quickly began to claw its way on the ground towards them, the large blade being more of a hindrance to its movement.

But on the ground floor, Asche saw something different. On the right wall—his left—was another shape. Between them was nothing more than a raised pathway, high enough to barely be cover. It didn't seem to spot Asche at first, his back turned to Asche. Still human in form, the second abomination was another skinless abomination, fluid oozing from each strand of muscle. On its head, a thick metal helmet. Simplistic in design, it was as if someone put a shapely metal dome on someone's head and neck and bolted it place. On its back, just below the helmet, Asche could barely make out an odd symbol. He could see little more than a large triangle. Anything else was too difficult to discern.
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