@PKMNB0Y Question: May I make a character around 8 or 9? Or do they have to be older in order to access the Ki?
Ah... Well, I wouldn't mind, so long as the reasoning behind their ability to do so is good enough. It takes some degree of precision and discipline to manipulate it, even at the lowest levels, but if you've got a good enough reason behind it I've got no complaints there.
Legacies untold; The sands of time bring to dust What was once glory.
The land of Kanami is one of splendor; with both man and nature living in harmony, both the people and the creatures living around it exist in harmony... Except, of course, when one side decides the other has overstepped its boundaries. Home to three kingdoms, the continent is accustomed to the fighting that breaks out every so often, but time and time again, balance is restored, and each side makes its amends.
The town of Mingdu, founded by an old adviser to the emperor of Yunzhou, the kingdom to the southeast, sits calmly in the center of the continent; a neutral ground, where merchants, traders, adventurers, and all manner of people come and go, but oddly enough, remains somewhat isolated from the three countries surrounding it. The scenic backdrop, a mountain range from which the rivers of the land flow from, brings even the most hardened of people to peace before their lives continue. While other towns revel in trade and are often full of wanderers and other such folk, Mingdu is a more tranquil place; the only draw, other than the location to which it provides access, are the temple and the school founded by the old adviser; only those chosen by his former students are allowed to attend, and those who exit become renown the world over.
As a resident of this simple town, life is simple; eat, train, sleep; laugh, cry, suffer. But is that really all that there is to life? A journey can never truly end without a beginning, right?
The World:
Kanami is a continent located in... Well, a world different from ours, for one. To the north, a nation based upon what we know as Japanese mythos, Rikoku, stands firm; to the southeast, Yunshou, a country based on Chinese fantasy, remains proud; to the west, Daeyang-gug, one based upon Korean folklore, remains at peace.
Rikoku is a an area of land that is... Well, relatively flat, for one. Its climate makes it perfect for agriculture, and coupled with the open fields and rivers, makes it the most logical way of life. Of course, this means that natural boundaries are sparse, leading the residents thereof to have to learn their own little tricks to ward off invaders.
Yunshou, in comparison, is a region with a climate as varied as they come. Containing everything ranging from deserts to mountain ranges to forests, its unpredictability, its people argue, stems from the stupidly proud who dared to mock the heavens and who were punished for their stupidity. Hunters who are skilled with the bow and arrow are often those who live well.
Daeyang-gug is a country that loves the ocean; for the most part, the dense forests that block off huge swathes of land are left untouched; instead, the coastline is populated with port cities all the way around. Fishermen and sailors love the country, and flock to it for their leaders' love of the sea.
Peculiarities
Kanami is not as simple a land as the above summaries might suggest. Each being, be it human or not, has a soul; this soul generates qi (or ki, whatever floats your boat), which, when learned to control, can be used for superhuman feats. Most things unconsciously use this energy in their daily lives, and for the most part none really care about its refinement and its abilities; even then, only a few ever have the ability to control these supernatural forces in the first place, who are as follows: - The soulbinders; those who can take the soul of a being (usually deceased) and bind it to an item with varying effects. More often than not, the soul is left without conscience, and the item remains as a tool to be used by whoever desires to use it. These people are rare, and their services are often highly prized. They're as rich as they come, regardless of where people are. Do note that the souls bound within can be released and rebound to something else with the right procedure, and that a skilled soulbinder can even retain the conscience of a soul even within an item, and thus skilled soulbinders can make money off the naturalists (below) who wish to buy a soul instead of hunt for one themselves. - The naturalists; these are people who have managed to, either by force or by contract, bind with the soul of a creature. By using this, the person is able to inherit some of the creature's strength, abilities, or even change in appearance. Both souls remain fully aware of the world around them, and one suffers as the other does. More often than not, though, the corporeal form of the creature is lost permanently. A naturalist can bind to more than one soul, but this takes a great amount of training and experience to accomplish. Contracts are permanent. - The lightseekers; these people are able to use their qi to not only affect themselves, but others around them. Be it by sealing pressure points, healing wounds, calming beasts, or even communicating with the recently deceased, these people often find themselves needed by the common populace for their own needs.
Creatures aren't creatures as much as they are, say, youkai from Japanese mythology. That's actually pretty close to what most of them are; with varying degrees of sentience, 'creatures' are actually just less populous beings that inhabit the continent. Unlike humans, they have access to what is called 'true magic'. While humans are forced to use their life force to control the world around them, these beings can manipulate the world around them to perform feats unthinkable to most. Human emulation of these abilities is rare, and they are often brought up to high society for assistance to their country's respective leaders.
There is no real 'religion' in this world; temples are built for self-discipline and search of enlightenment, which makes them quite similar to Buddhist temples of today. Most principles are rooted in either that or Taoism, which means that there are deities of all shapes and sizes living... Well, pretty much everywhere.
Name: Gender: Age: Appearance: Can Manipulate Qi/Ki?: Specialization: (Only fill in if above is a 'yes') Abilities (if any): Personality: History: Other:
So... Yeah. I got the idea for a more Asian-rooted fantasy RP (since those are actually REALLY scarce, from what I've seen), and so here we are. Any questions, concerns, or whatever, just toss them my way. Though I am mostly familiar with Chinese and Japanese mythos, I'm actually kind of rusty in regards to Korean mythology, so if anyone could help me out in the future, that'd be great. =w=;;
The fact that his partner managed to find him first caught James a tad off-guard; maybe it was trying to get a better vantage point that made him stand out, but... Well, what was done was done. His partner didn't stand out that much, though; the blue tint of his hair, once he managed to see it up close, seemed to stand out from the regular black hair that most Asians had, but... Eh, that was pretty minor, if anything. It'd take some time to come to recognize his name and face and associate it with his name, but... All in due time.
"Ah... Right. Well, that simplifies things considerably." he said, leaping down from atop the desk he had just moved up on top of and rubbing the back of his neck in nervous embarrassment. Right. he made himself stand out like an idiot in order to find a faster solution to the problem at hand. Well, it worked, at least...
"Heh... Shit. Well, it's a pleasure to meet you regardless. Apparently, standing up somewhere high makes it easier for others to see you just as it is for you to see them. Who'd've thought? Anyways... Akiya... Was it? Or would you prefer me to go by your last name?" he began as he began dragging his new partner through the crowd towards the nearest exit.
"Well, whatever. As for the answer to your question... Mind just calling me James? It feels really... Freakin' awkward to be called for my last name. Seriously can't get used to it."
... Wait, did his partner have the capacity to understand him through all of his... Well, 'method' of speaking English? Like, it seemed he had some grasp of the language, but... Well, only time could tell. Aaand he'd probably have to learn Japanese over the next few years, too, wouldn't he? God dammit, Mandarin was bad enough back in America...
Eh, whatever; life was life. Maybe... Icebreaker questions? But that would have to wait until he reached the exit...
Which, thankfully enough, didn't take much more than a minute or so to reach. The crowd thinning out as they walked over helped considerably, at least, for which James was quite grateful for; contests of strength had never been his forte, after all.
"Hell, it's about time. That took too long; where are the dorms, though?" he stated to nobody in particular as he exited the stuffy room, taking in a breath of the not-so-humid air in the hallway before turning back to his partner. "You got any clue?"
Oh. He was one of those people, wasn't he? The blush on his face, that awkward manner of speech, even the stiffness of his body... Well, she couldn't say she didn't see it coming. She wanted interesting, and boy, did she get it. Just... Not in the manner she expected, at least. Though... It was impressive that he managed to sniff her out so quickly, especially with the crowd still as thick as it was; she had deliberately chosen a location to slip away from the mess around her, but he managed to pick her out, with all these faces to fish through. Was it luck? Quite possibly. But maybe... No, it couldn't be. It had to be luck; there were too many other girls here with the same hair color, same hairstyle, same eye color... He took a shot in the dark, and hit the bullseye in one go. Impressive; she'd give him that much for now, but no more. First, she had to learn; to probe around, see if there was anything worth getting invested in. With a quick glance at the screen above (and with her face and that of the boy in front of her in mind), Mari silently confirmed the validity of his statement. Not just an odd duck; he was her partner.
"Hello, Keiichi-san. It's a pleasure to make your acquaintance; I'm surprised you found me so quickly, what with all the people in here." she said, bowing her head in a polite show of acknowledgement. "Though... I must ask if we could refrain from moving through the crowd for the time being; I'd rather not be crushed by the stampede of newly-paired students rushing to their dorms as they are now."
Gesturing toward the somewhat-steady stream of students flowing out of the room, Mari smiled towards her new-found partner. It was a slight smile, and one she had faked often to slip away from annoying peers who wanted to drag her on some silly venture. It would do. For now.
The appearance of the display above his dead was nothing short of 'surprising', but James found it more apt to not be crushed by a bunch of other students before turning his head up to take a good look at it. The ordering was a mess, for sure, but... Well, no, actually, there was no upside. Geez, the infrastructure for this facility needed a serious overhaul in the future; it was a miracle that they got anything done, even with the equipment that they had. Seriously, it had to take skill in order to goof structure this badly! At least make the damn thing alphabetized!
"Fuckin'... Okay, let's see here... James, James, James... There! Okay, my name's still in English, which saves me a lot more headache. And the winner is... Someone by the name of Akiya Nobuhiko. Hrm. Well, he doesn't stand out too much..."
Sighing, James looked around momentarily before the din of other students searching for their partners started becoming too much for him to bear. Seriously! Whose idea WAS it to set it up like this? Were they TRYING to blow out everyone's eardrums on their first day here?
"Son of a.. Alright, let's see if we can't..." he swore to himself as he slipped his way through the crowd in order to arrive at a somewhat-less overcrowded location in order to... Well, in essence, use the nearby equipment as a platform to get a better look around. Ruining his voice was overrated, and... Seriously, who would be able to see jack shit in this mess?
"Oh no. Oh no, it's happening..." Mari sighed, shaking her head as the list of names flashed brightly overhead, lording over the students (as it should); the cacophony that was every pair trying to find one another than soon followed made her instinctively shrink back. That was only temporary, though, as her ears got used to the blaring noise reminiscent to that of a concert (or so she assumed; she'd never been to one, but she'd seen enough online to assume). The listing seemed to be organized by the names of the Tuners, which meant that it would end up being more of a hassle to hunt for her partner that it would him... Or her... Well, whatever worked.
With that in mind, Mari quietly moved to the back of the room and... Well, waited. It'd be much easier to find her partner (and vice versa) if the rowdy ones did their jobs first. Granted, it'd take a bit longer this way, but if it meant not having to shove her way through this sea of people...
"Tch. Honor this, honor that, shit ain't gonna matter when you're riddled with bullet holes these days." Accelerator shot in return as he once again made his way from the edge of the building's roof to stare at Youmu. "Why is it that every person I come across seems to idolize that? Seriously."
With that, Accelerator took a few slow, casual steps towards the white-haired samurai and, with his ever=present scowl on his face, sighed.
"Not like you're gonna listen or anything. Well, whatever; I don't particularly take it as an insult that you thought I'd be stupid enough to actually be in danger there, seeing as how you're just about as clueless as they come. But hey, just for the record: it's better to try and catch people when they start falling, not before."
Okay, that was probably enough of that; kicking the girl's pride to the ground and grinding it to dust wasn't fun, but it certainly drove the point home whenever he did it. But... Then again, that was in Academy City, every everyone knew who he was and what he could do. Well, whatever.
"Anyways... I'm gonna go see if I can't get any reception here..." he trailed off as he pulled out a cellphone and started flipping through it. By some miracle, the internet seemed to connect for him, but... "...Huh. Never seen these articles before. Or this site..."
"'Ooh! Ooh! Misaka's seen that site before!' says Misaka as Misaka quickly steals the phone away from Accelerator to go search the web!" "Oh, for the love of- You know what? Fine. Not. Even. Gonna. Bother."
With that, the little Misaka clone began to clumsily type out a few phrases in the search bar. Like 'Academy City.' Or 'Sisters Project.'
The first one, Accelerator wasn't too worried about; the second one, a tad--no, quite miffed. Didn't she know--
"'Okay, everything makes sense now!' says Misaka as Misaka shows Accelerator a wiki page dedicated to everything related to Academy City!" "Wait... Those exist? Gimme that..." Accelerator spat as he grabbed the phone and took a closer look. ... Well, shit. She was right. Everything that had happened, summarized on a single page, open for all to see...
"Alright, that's it, I'm going to kick that Superintendent's shit in once I get back. No way that confidential info could've been leaked; even the Sisters didn't dare speak a word of what happened with that fuckin' Imagine Breaker that night..." "'Oooor something stranger is going on here!' suggests Misaka as Misaka takes away Accelerator's phone again to play Misaka's mobile games!"
With the little girl swiping the phone out of his hands again, though, Accelerator sighed and backed off. Once she started on those, there was no getting her off of them. But she did have a point; there was no way all of that information would've been willingly leaked by that test-tube weirdo. Something was amiss, much more so than he initially anticipated. But interrogating the local populace would likely get him nowhere. Who would gain from dragging the two of them here in the first place? Needless to say, the other two strangers were probably in the same boat, as well...
"...You think that reconnaissance work may be in order? I can only tell where we are, but nothing else..." he said, turning back to the two he had been ignoring up until just now. "And hey, surprise surprise, you two actually don't stand out here! Well, except for those swords of yours. Those are banned here. You'll get arrested."
James was irked by the seemingly-feeble nature of the researcher handling the organization of everything here. What, there wasn't anyone else available to rein everyone in? Nobody with a more... You know, confident atmosphere around them or something? ... Well, guess they were short on personnel or some shit like that. Only logical conclusion he could arrive at.
"Ugh, what a pain..." he groaned, sighing and shaking his head as the giant crowd of students seemed to stabilize around him. At least he wasn't being tossed around like a ship lost on tumultuous seas... Or some analogy to that extent. Whatever.
"So... Matched with a partner, huh? Man, this could get ugly..." Hopefully, whatever person he got paired with wasn't... Well, too annoying. He could be a bitch to deal with at times, yeah, but someone like that might only aggravate the situation. Socializing now was too much of a hassle, anyways; too many people, too many faces to remember... And a possibility of never seeing them again. Yeah, no thanks.
Too. Many. People. That was really all that Mari could think of, and it was what she hated the most about this whole ordeal. It was so much more packed in here than it was where she was before, and all the close contact and being pushed and shoved and crushed by complete strangers didn't exactly help. At all. Slowly slipping through the crowd as it seemed to come to a halt in the middle of this room (which she could very easily liken to a chicken coop or something like that), Mari made her way to whatever seemed to be the least crowded location in the room from her perspective and... Well, waited for the worst to come to pass.
A partner, though... Hrm. Results? So people wouldn't pick her, nor would she, them. That... Could prove to be interesting. Or miserable. Maybe both. Who could tell?
"I came all the way here for this mess? God damn." The first words out of the boy's mouth were, obviously enough, not pleasant in the least. Though he seemed to blend in with the crowd as a whole, his distinct, clear-spoken English was clearly different from all the Japanese that was flying left and right around him. He had managed to pick up some facets of the language over the last week or so since he came here, but learning a language was hard enough. Reading, he could manage, mainly because learning Chinese meant that he'd be able to get a general idea of what the heck some kanji meant without actually knowing how to say them properly. But speaking it... Well, fretting about it wouldn't fix anything. With a quick glance downwards, James checked the time on his little wristwatch. ... Damn.
The opening speech was, as expected, the usual boring spiel; hello, welcome, great time, blah blah blah. Definitely a miracle that it ended when it did. With that finally out of the way, he groaned and stood up, stretching his limbs out as the students around him dispersed. Was that all there was for today?
"...Apparently not." he sighed as someone who called herself one of the researchers of the facility directed them to some other room somewhere else on the campus. 4B, she said?
Shrugging, he silently left the area, following after the crowd that seemed to be heading downstairs.
The stuffy atmosphere of the area was suffocating for Mari, who, as someone who didn't particularly like crowds, found the sea of people to be incredibly oppressive. Could she recant on her entry yet? She'd be fine with going to a normal high school, a normal college, and whatever else; these agonizing minutes being stuck here listening to the principal droning on and on and on while stuck in this increasingly humid...
And just like that, it was over. Had she been worrying too much? It was certainly a possibility, though she herself would never admit to it. Saying not a word as the student began to mill about, the girl prepared to leave the area...
And was promptly redirected to another room downstairs, this one likely to be even more crowded. Oh, what joy this place was. Well, it was too late to leave right now. She would definitely savor every moment of free time she could get in the future; if every day was like this, then her luck was definitely taking a nosedive from here on out.
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