Kalas

[TEST] THREAD PLEASE IGNORE

"Esports. Otherwise known as Professional Video Gaming or 'Pro Gaming'. This career-path was once only available to gamers who resided amongst the upper-echelons of the digital scoreboards, whose minds calculated strategies in mere seconds and executed them with extreme precision and sheer efficiency. When 400 Actions-Per-Minute could only be reached by the true greats amongst the Pro Gaming scene. In 2015, the global Esports audience was estimated at around 226 million. During the year 2057, that figure has just reached a staggering 5 billion. Finally surpassing Association Football/Soccer as the World's Most Popular Sport.

Throughout the years, the games used to test the abilities of the World's Greatest Gamers have changed many times. From legendary First Person Shooter titles such as Quake, Counter-Strike, Call of Duty & Valorant. Fast-paced Real-time Strategies like Warcraft III, StarCraft 2 or Age of Empires. Bone-breaking Fighting Games in the form of Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat, Tekken & Super Smash Bros. And the ever-enthralling Multiplayer Online Battle Arenas spearheaded by Dota 2 & League of Legends. Regardless of the title of the game, however, one thing has always remained: Only the Elites are truly remembered.

With the meteoric rise of the NovaStar Corporation globally, the world of Esports has been propelled to new heights and has earned its spot as the top sport in history. But with new money, popularity, technology and the ever-changing times, there has been a call for new gaming titles and platforms to set the standard for the next generation of 'would-be' Pro Gamers. That's why, we here at NovaGames Studios are proud to present to you - the next generation - with this..."

Three Years Before Present Day...

The crowd at NovaGames Expo '57 erupts into thunderous applause, shaking the very foundations of the NovaCorp Entertainment Center. Michael Elijah Festo, President of the NovaStar Corporation strides across the stage, his trademark smile beaming out towards the adoring press and public alike, as the stage lights illuminate him for all in attendance to see. Despite being the head of the Corporation, Mr. Festo had taken a personal interest in the Game Development division in order to bring about fully-immersive Virtual Reality as a genuine and superior option for gaming around the globe.

"Now, I know some of y'all have been waiting a long time for this!" Another cascade of cheers fill the air. "Well we wanted to make sure that it was ab-so-lute-ly perfect!" Michael punches the air to exemplify his point. The crowd continues to cheer, followed by further applause.

"Today, here at the NovaGames Expo, I stand before you more humbled than I've ever been in my entire life! But I'm also excited! Excited for this announcement, excited for you guys to finally bare witness to the years of hard work and dedication from our amazing team at NovaGames Studios, excited to be standing on the precipice of the future for all Gamers alike!" He takes a few seconds to look out into the thousands that have arrived for this moment, savoring it.

"Today, I am honored to announce that we have completed the development of the Arcade All-Star Virtual Reality System. A fully-immersive gaming system that lets you dive right into the action and experience the game like never before." The room is filled, yet again, with raucous applause.

"But that's not all!" He roars, animating his point with the wave of his arms. "We are, also, beyond delighted to announce a brand new Esports title that will ship alongside the System completely, and utterly, for free!" Yells, shouts, even screams of surprise come from the crowd in acknowledgement of the man's words. "That's right, Ladies & Gentlemen, for free." Michael smiles more sincerely than he ever had before now. His whole life had been leading up to this moment.

"Now, without further ado, allow me to share it with you!"

Welcome to the Interest Check for Arcade All-Stars. An RP set in 2060 on an Alternate Earth, where the advent of fully-immersive Virtual Reality Gaming has arrived, allowing for the World's Most Popular Sport - Esports - to transcend towards the next tier of greatness. In this roleplay, the VR tropes usually seen and explored in similar RPs of this genre will take a backseat to the stories of the actual characters themselves.

You are Gamers. Whether that's a Pro; trying to deal with being thrust in the spotlight of billions of people, or an Amateur; working your way up the scoreboards to finally be recognised amongst the World's Elite. Whilst this RP will obviously focus on how well you perform in-game, I also want to focus on how your characters react with the outside world. Maybe you're a gaming prodigy, a high-school dropout, a NEET or an aging ex-Pro. Either way, these are the stories I'm looking to explore.

Alongside these stories, your characters will take part in what has rapidly become the World's Most Played Game and the leading Esport of this generation:

Triple-Tag Strikers

REMOVED DUE TO WEBNOVEL

[TEST] THREAD PLEASE IGNORE

Imagine if RolePlayerGuild were a large City-State.

Picture the different sections of the site as Districts within that city. Each having their own neighborhoods and cultures, separated by entry checkpoints and guarded accordingly. The population that make up these Districts each vastly different from the rest and yet they still manage to work together in order to better the city. Life as a citizen of RPG was considered a relatively good one. Industry and economy generally thrived whilst the strength of its' military only continued to grow stronger, becoming more than capable of defending itself from any external threat. For the longest of times, the city was a paradise.

Now imagine that the Guildfall event of five years ago was a series of disasters that has left the prosperous city crippled and on the brink of annihilation. A sudden virus outbreak, ground-shattering earthquakes, a scorched-black sky and the sudden appearance of unknown, yet hostile, shadow-beings. The culmination of these crises have caused untold amounts of chaos and destruction within the once-thriving city of RolePlayerGuild. And on top of all this, Mahz, the esteemed and revered leader of the City-State, has gone missing without a trace.

Now, trapped within the place that they used to call home, the survivors have been forced to defend themselves by fortifying the Casual, High-Casual & Advanced Districts of the city. Most of the other Districts are either sealed off or inhospitable, whilst the remaining few are too dangerous to survive in. What could have caused these sudden, destructive happenings? Who could have orchestrated them? And how will the survivors ever bring peace back to their beloved city?

________________________

⮞ Play As Yourself!

That's right. In this RP, players are encouraged to role play as themselves. This could be the first time you've ever had to consider how your online persona might look, act and feel. Though this is not a requirement, the whole idea is to imagine ourselves as real citizens of RolePlayerGuild.

⮞ Play As Your Friends!

Providing you gain their permission first, feel free to create a character sheet based on any of your friends who have joined the site or even introduce them as NPCs. Who knows, maybe they'll even join up themselves?

⮞ RPG Welcomes All!

RolePlayerGuild is home to many people from all over the globe consisting of all colours, shapes and sizes. With that in mind, your character can be from any species you'd like. Be it a Demon, Angel, Vampire, Lycan, Elf, Dwarf, Fairy or any other race you can think of! (Gods/Demi-Gods excluded)

⮞ Freeform/Sandbox-Style Play!

Take charge of your own actions within the city of RPG. March forth into the Free District to cull the infected hordes. Prove yourself as a fighter by entering the Arena Section and take part in the eternal battle that rages on between members. Attempt to discover the secrets behind the four Calamities. Or you could simply decide to take up a job within one of the many Survivor Divisions.

⮞ Story Missions and Side-Quests!

Story Missions will be handed out periodically by myself for you to complete in order to advance the overarching story. Only once a number of missions have been completed will the story then progress, helping to make sure that nobody gets left behind. Side-Quests will be generated in a similar fashion. These will normally be much smaller in scope and allow players much more free reign to do as they please.

⮞ PvE & PvP!

Within the remaining sections of the city, you will find many opportunities to do battle against the NPCs that threaten your continued survival, or you may choose to fight amongst yourselves. The Arena District within the city is specifically PvP-based with the only way out being death. (Any PvE missions set within the Arena District are the only exclusion to the No Exit Rule)

⮞ Co-GM Spots Available!

I'm hoping to make this RP quite extensive, meaning I'll need help to run it. I am looking for one or two Co-GM's to help with the smooth running of this RP. Please PM me if you wish to apply. (Prior experience preferred but not required)

⮞ Always Open!

If all goes well, then new players should be able to join at any time and easily pick up the plot at the same point as everyone else. It is my wish that always being Open will encourage a healthy amount of players to take part in this harrowing tale, based on the Guild's real life experience.

________________________

- Map of the City -

Our Beloved Dreams of Sinnoh | Pokemon

Hmmm seems like we're running with the squad we have if @NeoAJ and @Kalas don't speak up.

@Ambra

My apologies, I won't be making a sheet for this RP afterall. Good luck with it though, hope you have fun! :)

What are you reading?

AMERICAN DESPERADO
MY LIFE AS A COCAINE COWBOY
Jon Roberts & Evan Wright
Ebury Press, an imprint of Ebury Publishing, copyright 2011

What are you reading?

MINDHUNTER
INSIDE THE FBI ELITE SERIAL CRIME UNIT (Media Tie-in Edition)
John E. Douglas & Mark Olshaker
Arrow Books Ltd, an imprint of Cornerstone, copyright 2018

A Gym Challenge-styled Pokemon RP~

Tentative interest

The Tower: Bright Dawn

^Sheet

_{Location: Darius' Apartment - Industrial District, Marlon City}

In Search of Truth: The Message

---

_{Interaction(s): None}

Previously: N/A

Darius had been dozing peacefully before the loud vibrating of his cell, which had been placed at his computer desk, woke him completely. He shot bolt upright from the aged, leather couch where he had attempted to steal even a few hours of sleep and rubbed his eyes to rid himself of his sluggishness. The phone was ringing. Which was odd due to the simple fact that it never rang unless something of great importance were currently happening. By the time he'd reached his desk, however, it had stopped. The call had been from a withheld number. Not that that really mattered to him too much since there were ways and means of finding out who would bother to do such a thing. Fortunately though, there wouldn't be any need for him to do that. No sooner than the caller had hung up came a text:

> Get online. NOW! - is0

is0 was his contact for the 'Shadowlands BBS' site. An extremely well hidden Dark Website, operated exclusively on an Overlay Network, dedicated to the gathering and dissemination of private information pertaining to Corporations, Government Agencies and, more recently, Parahumans - illegal or otherwise. It was perfect for a man of his profession. 'Former.' He reminded himself, although these days he found it to be exceedingly necessary for him to be able to operate against the Lorne Corporation and to generally get by. Since his departure from the company that had practically raised him, Darius had found that life on your own was actually quite difficult and the city had grown incredibly small without access to all the previous contacts and information the Corp had supplied for him.

Foresight had been a rather strong-suit of his, however. Which is how he had managed to keep such a low profile in the months since the Tower incident. His membership as a part of the select and secretive group of Shadowlands users had been the result of a recent favour owed to him by an overzealous hacker, to whom he knew simply as is0. Some years prior, during an assignment to destroy data backups of a rival tech firm, Darius had come face-to-face with is0 in the server room of the aforementioned company. And although it was his duty to eliminate all witnesses during this particular phase of the assignment, Darius had decided to spare them their life due simply to the audacity - and skill - it must have taken for them to not only break into the server room before he did, but to be able to do so without him even suspecting a thing. And so, after choosing not to dispatch of is0 and allowing them to make off with the files they had worked so hard to retrieve, Darius held their marker as a backup for if shit ever hit the fan - which, of course, it eventually did.

Darius had settled in at his terminal by now and had quickly booted it up. Which didn't take long at all given that it was a state-of-the-art Lorne Corporation machine that he'd manage to swipe from an inbound shipment of new devices that had been sent from one of their various factories abroad. Naturally, he had is0 take a look at it beforehand, who was able to root the device and load it with their own custom OS. One that would give him that all-needed access to the Shadowlands. He double-clicked the corresponding icon impatiently. Even despite the rapid load-times, Darius was still eager to see what is0 could possibly be so worked up about. It wasn't often that they called him, if at all. As his connection was being re-routed through various different servers and his IP address masked several times, a program opened that looked incredibly similar to the old-fashioned Command Prompt of yesteryear. The Owner and Administrator happened to be a massive nerd when it came to this sort of thing. According to some, even the theme of the board itself had been taken from an age-old video game that he just happened to be a huge fan of. Apparently even his User ID was supposed to reflect that.

# Welcome to...
# _____ __ __ __ __
# / ___// /_ ____ _____/ /___ _ __/ /___ _____ ____/ /____
# \__ \/ __ \/ __ `/ __ / __ \ | /| / / / __ `/ __ \/ __ / ___/
# ___/ / / / / /_/ / /_/ / /_/ / |/ |/ / / /_/ / / / / /_/ (__ )
# /____/_/ /_/\__,_/\__,_/\____/|__/|__/_/\__,_/_/ /_/\__,_/____/
#
Bulletin Board System
Version 3.0.8 August 1. 2049
SysAdmin: J@ckPo1nt

> User: RUL3R
> Verifying Biometrics...
> Identity Confirmed...

As soon as he logged on, Darius could see the board exploding with activity. New posts every few seconds from hundreds of users based around the city and beyond. It wasn't long before his attention was brought to a small chat-icon blinking away at him from the bottom-right corner. It could only have been is0, his sole 'friend' on the site, which he preferred to keep that way.

> is0 [16:49:22]: Check this shit out: .../MPD/Admin/Live_Cams/Trans_6
> RUL3R [16:49:25]: How did you get this?
> is0 [16:49:29]: Nevermind that.
> is0 [16:49:31]: Just watch.

When Darius clicked the link it opened another window filled with several different live camera feeds. All from an MPD Transport vehicle which seemed to be holding Parahumans. The situation looked far from ordinary, however. On closer inspection, Darius could clearly see that the truck had overturned somehow and a figure was just now killing the two guards who had occupied it. Darius recognised the figure from various images posted to the board over the recent months. It was Obsidian Edge. He continued to watch as the man opened the pods of the withheld Parahumans. Neither of these he recognised but that was a fact he was glad for as one of them began - what he could only describe as - consuming the bodies of the two guards. Darius felt his stomach churn.

The second Parahuman was like nothing he'd ever seen before. A mass of constantly morphing black tendrils - or was it energy? He couldn't tell either way but it didn't seem to want to have anything to do with Obsidian Edge or the other escapee, who was now beginning to form into the shape of a woman. 'Is she feeding on those guards to survive?!' He wondered. No sooner had the pair escaped from their confinement did another vehicle arrive on the scene followed up by the sharp crack of high velocity rounds piercing through the air clearly aimed towards Obsidian Edge. The sound seemed off, however, as if the mic were situated in another part of the transport truck separate from the camera feed he was currently focused on.

> is0 [16:55:09]: Crazy, right?
> RUL3R [16:55:11]: No shit, who is that?
> is0 [16:55:15]: Obsidian Edge, of course!
> RUL3R [16:55:20]: I'm not talking about him.
> RUL3R [16:55:24]: Who's the chick with the questionable eating habits?
> is0 [16:55:27]: Oh, her? That's Pest-

Without warning Darius' terminal display glitched suddenly, drawing his ire momentarily before he could fully notice the large, blinking eye which now dominated his view. The image continued to glitch as a horribly distorted voiced rang out from his speakers.

"You are not alone… The Change comes to all things in time. Break your shackles and embrace true freedom."

Then it was gone.

---

_Placeholder

Next Post: TBA

What are you reading?

Alright, I'll bite...

PERMANENT RECORD
Edward Snowden
Metropolitan Books, an imprint of Henry Holt and Company, copyright 2019

The Tower: Bright Dawn

CODENAME: Ruler

D A R I U S B L A C K | 2 6 | B E T A T H R E E

GRAVITY MANIPULATION:
Darius possesses the ability to control and manipulate the fundamental force of Gravity within a 30 meter radius. The true extent of his control allows him to alter the direction and intensity of the pre-existing gravitational force within that radius to suit his needs, as well as create and manipulate entirely new sources of gravity from within various inanimate objects that may enter or be already situated within his vicinity of control. This ability to create and control gravity also extends to living organisms too, although Darius is far more limited in his range of applications with regards to this aspect.

By manipulating how his own body responds to the gravitational pull of the Earth, Darius can effectively grant himself the ability to fly. He may also create a new source of gravity within himself to attract and repel objects to and from his own being, provided they remain within his control radius. In order to be able to directly affect how other living beings respond to his Gravity Manipulation, Darius must be touching and remain in continuous contact with that being.

LIMITATIONS:

• Whilst manipulating existing Gravity, or creating an entirely new source, Darius remains almost immobile, only being capable of moving his body at a significantly reduced speed until he has finished.
• The intensity of g-force used against living beings, other than himself, can not exceed 9Gs _{(Fighter Pilots may experience up to 8/9Gs with special suits to prevent fainting)}. In other words, Darius couldn't use his ability to force someone to implode or explode. The most he could do is force them to pass out with the chance of internal hemorrhaging, depending on how long he is able to maintain contact. _{(The effects of g-force don't actually affect Darius due to his proficiency of self-manipulation)}
• Objects that enter Darius' vicinity of control, at a velocity that any normal Human Being couldn't possibly register - Bullets, mostly - are unable to be directly affected by his Gravity Manipulation, unless he was notified of the object beforehand and fully concentrating on it during entry. _{(There's no way he could stop a hail of bullets. Maybe one or two, if someone were to literally point a gun at his head)}
• Darius may only concentrate on one aspect of his Gravity Manipulation at a time. Be it, altering the existing Gravity around him, creating/manipulating a new source within an inanimate object, creating/manipulating a new source within himself or creating/manipulating a new source within another living being via direct contact.

SKILLS:

• Highly trained in C.Q.C. i.e. Proximity hand-to-hand combat, close-quarter target negotiation with short-range firearms & various forms of Swordsmanship including, but not limited to; Fencing, Kenjutsu & Taijijian.
• Extensively schooled in the art of Corporate Warfare, mostly leaning towards Security, Sabotage and Assassinations with limited experience in Cyber Systems.
• Exceptional aptitude for evasion and subterfuge gained from his time as a Lorne Corporation Security Officer/Consultant _{(Corporate Spy)}.

WEAKNESSES:

• Standard Human Physiology, aside from Cybernetic Arms.
• Official Lorne Corp Status: AWOL - Contain & Capture. Unofficial Lorne Corp Status: Excommunicado - Shoot on Sight.
• Socially handicapped due to his previous position and conditioning to become a Corporate Spy. Often works alone, has difficulty working in groups.
• Often motivated by money, struggles to empathize with those who stand to fight behind true causes.

FACTION:
Lorne Corporation

HISTORY:
Darius' life prior to his personal involvement with the Lorne Corporation was a rather mundane one. The only child to a pair of Lorne Corp. Scientists until he was very suddenly and rather surprisingly orphaned after a 'freak' lab accident that caused both of his parents to fall severely ill and continue to deteriorate rapidly until their deaths, which occurred only days apart. Barely past the age of 6, Darius was thrust into a world of unknown but not before it was decided by a Corp. Executive to formally adopt him through the Corporation itself in order to re-home, educate and train him as an in-house Security Officer. This would secure him as a very capable asset many years later and placate the various media outlets, who had attempted to used the deaths of Darius' parents, as well as his subsequent orphaning, as a means to attack the Lorne Corporation, which the Mainstream Media were wont to do at the time.

Several years later, at the age of 18, Darius had proven himself as an exceptionally skilled Security Officer for the Corporation and was swiftly promoted to Consultant, where he was given far greater autonomy for his assignments aimed outside of the Company and often left to his own devices. This would lead Darius down an irrevocable path to finding the truth behind his Parents' deaths, although that wouldn't happen until some years later. Before then he would infiltrate several tech companies, to whom Lorne Corporations would consider either rivals or some promising start-up, in order to enable them to stifle new technological discoveries due to be unveiled by their competitors or initiate in a hostile takeover once certain scandals or calamities had been well-fabricated.

By the time he'd turned 26, Darius was well on track to becoming Deputy Chief of Security. However, with the sudden explosion at the top of the Tower and a certain truth revealed with regards to his parents during this event, Darius found himself inexplicably thrust into a world of unknown yet again as he was now considered 'Excommunicado.'

OPERATION: Kingfisher

"No more Para's! No more Para's! No more Para's!"

Darius stood amongst the crowd of angry protesters, who had occupied the park outside Lorne Corporation's Tower for some hours now, baying for blood after news spread of the most recent 'Para Attack' within the Exclusion Zone. A triple homicide if the reports were to be believed, just one shy of a mass murder. Not that any of it particularly bothered him, he wasn't here to protest. He'd simply kept his silence and watched, feigning being part of them, as members of the MPD tried to contain the reckless mob and news reporters scurried onto the scene to be the first ones to narrate over the current events taking place.

But none of this concerned Darius in the slightest. He was only here as part of an impromptu reconnaissance mission. Once he'd heard about the initial protests, Darius had rushed across town to join them. This would be the perfect opportunity for him to gain some insight on the Tower's upgraded external security systems. He wasn't going miss a chance to gain some easy information. It had been just over 4 months since the explosion that had rocked the Tower and changed the lives of thousands, his own especially. Though not merely due to his new-found abilities but also due to a secret truth he'd unearthed that same night amidst the Tower. The real reason behind his parent's death. It had broken him and, at the time, his world had come crashing down around him, before the Tower itself followed suit.

Darius didn't remember much after the explosion, only that he had used the opportunity to escape the Tower and the Lorne Corporation entirely. But it wasn't long before they sent out an All-points Bulletin to the MPD, clarifying his status as AWOL and designating him as a Parahuman. How could they have known? He himself had only become aware of the fact after he'd escaped from the Tower. He tried not to dwell on it too much. Darius' mind was pulled back into the present by the growing rowdiness of the crowd. People had begun jostling each other more violently now that the MPD had arrived and began attempting to corral them away from Tower as much as possible. 'It's time to go.' He thought to himself.

Darius took one last look around, confirming the information he'd gleaned from this visit and then plotting his exit from the protests so that he wouldn't raise any suspicion from the MPD units who were growing in number by the minute. He'd covered the bottom half of his face as he usually did. Fortunately enough there were some protesters who had thought to do the same. Darius could tell things were bound to grow out of control the longer he stayed. He began slinking his way towards the back of the crowd, heading for an alleyway to the south-west of the park grounds. After that he'd have to take a random route to lose any potential tails before heading back to his rundown studio apartment located in the middle of an industrial estate on the southside of the city. The Lorne Corporation had eyes everywhere, a fact he knew well from the years spent working as one of their lap dogs.

This had been the first time he'd visited the Tower since the explosion, but he was sure it certainly wouldn't be his last.

_{^{angry cop outside a donut shop ;)}}

The Tower: Bright Dawn

@Kalas

Approved. Make the power Beta and just toss him over. Also I would like a pm about the 'secret's as well so I can work it in.

@GrizzTheMauler

Awesome. I hadn't actually thought about what the 'secret' would be at all just yet, since I wanted to work on that with you anyway.