Lugubrious

Pokemon: New World

Right. I won't miss it this time.

Pokemon: New World

The road to the forest in which Feyhollow Town lay was not an exhaustive one, but the forest itself turned out to be another matter entirely. The overwhelming greenness of the place, from the thick brush on the ground to a profuse canopy that let very little light through, turned the path into the woods into a gaping maw that made Olivie furrow her brows. Upon entering, she couldn't shake the feeling that this verdant expanse was swallowing her up. Behind her, the visage of sunny meadows faded away into the distance, and Olivie felt as she glanced back over her shoulder at it that her adventure into parts unknown was truly beginning. Her partner Pokemon, Buck, padded beside her. Determination battled against weariness in the little Bidoof's body, and for what must have been the tenth time Olivie reminded herself to seek out a Pokemon Center as soon as she arrived at the town. In contrast, her new Cacnea walked in front if her, full of energy and bravado, unafraid of the shadowy maze of trees.

In most intimidating situations, silence set the scene, but here Olivie found it was quite the opposite. The forest around her, in every direction, brimmed with noise. The songs of bugs and birds blended together into a cacophony that confounded the brunette's attempts to relax. Every inch of the place, from the flowers, to the unafraid Pokemon that she spotted moving among the plants or across the path, to the dappled sunlight, filled her with a sense of natural beauty and vivacity. If that's what it is, it suits me perfectly, she thought with a wry smile, but in reality the entire scene unnerved her just as much as it fascinated her. In the end, though, she trusted in her new companions, and in her own martial abilities, to take on whatever came her way.

Roughly twenty minutes into her walk, she spotted a column of light next to the path up ahead. When she drew near, she recognized it as a little clearing where a single tree had been felled and a bench erected on its stump for weary travelers to sit. Olivie did not count herself as tired just yet, but thankfully took the chance to rest the feet of her and her Pokemon alike. The rough-hewn nature of the bench struck her as pleasantly quaint, but it didn't quite compensate for the hardness of the seat. Buck hopped up next to her to flop onto his side, and the girl's Cacnea pulled itself up with its burly arms. Glancing around, Olivie found that the bench sat in the middle of a fanlike array of creeping vines, which seemingly slithered out from between the other plants to wrap like curtains around the legs of the bench. This interested her for only a moment, however, and she was quick to check up on her Pokedex to see what updates awaited her.

”Six trainer points, huh?” she asked her Pokemon, who did not respond. Unbothered, the nineteen-year-old continued, ”They sure go quickly...I only have one Pokeball left. I'll have to make sure I don't waste it on some loser.” Her thoughts landed squarely on the Karrablast. Had it been a mistake to pick it up too? After all, until she found a Pokemon Center, it wouldn't even be able to help her out. As she mused on this, an ad popped up on her Pokedex, and as Olivie instinctively moved to close it, she happened to read something that bid her pause. Her interest piqued, she examined the ad. ”Hm. There's some team calling itself League Prime that sponsors battlers. Extra trainer points...?” Her eyebrows raised quizzically, but her decision had already been made. ”Hell yeah! We've got a lot of asses to kick before we're in the big leagues, so we might as well get bonuses for it.” The Cacnea watched her with renewed interest as she accessed the League Prime's site. Deftly her long fingers entered her information into a membership request form, and only a few moments later the application was on its way. ”Nice.” She looked up, taking in the forest around her, and putting the Pokedex away as she did. ”Well, let's get to it. Sooner we get to town, the better.” As she got up, her cactus companion hopped down after her, and Buck heaved himself to his feet to follow along.

Unbeknownst to her, a large, dark, angular shape began to move as well, steadily plodding through the underbrush as it pursued her.

@Balthazar007

Heroes of Beacon - the Next Chapter

I was going to write a big ol' thing rebuking one or the other of you @Lucius Cypher@Prince of Seraphs but I can't figure out who needs one more, so allow me to say that this entire thing is stupid and try to cut it down. So Lucius, please do not take tongue-in-cheek suggestions too far, and Prince, don't blamefully misrepresent things and make pronouncements about what fiction has to do or else be insensitive to reality. 'We', as in you, me, all white people, all people, or whatever you want, aren't responsible for the actions of a few. The actions of people in the past, be it colonization (whether British, Spanish, American, Japanese), to wars throughout history (including Egypt, Greece, and Canaan), to more modern undertakings like the Great Leap Forward, led to countless deaths, and that sure is a shame. But races aren't responsible; people are responsible. I don't believe anyone else here would have picked the fight with Lucius' joke that you have over this perceived issue. Lighten up, will you?

Heroes of Beacon - the Next Chapter

Sure, I'll take another look at it.

Pokemon: New World

@Dusksong @LuckyBlackCat @Zarkun @Lugubrious @Eklispe @KiritoAsuna @Iatos

Small Update:

I have lowered the barrier to entry for League Prime. Now you don't have to battle another user as a requirement. You can simply have a battle with a wild Pokemon. I esspecially recomend this organization for Olivie, @Lugubrious. She seems to like battling quite a lot. Might as well earn extra points from it!

Thanks!

@Balthazar007

Ah, that's neat. I'll consider it.

Phoenix Wing (A Fairy Tail RP-Always Open, Open)

@Lugubrious I suppose Joshua getting on 1-on-1 with Hyun or Zanders will be unlikely, if not impossible, eh?

@Joshua Tamashii

Probably not, but who knows?

Phoenix Wing (A Fairy Tail RP-Always Open, Open)

Ready to rumble.

Phoenix Wing (A Fairy Tail RP-Always Open, Open)

Frenzy Plant's Elite

After a few moments, the six soldiers drew apart. Silence reigned for a moment, but Dmitri could not suppress himself forever. A low chuckle escaped from his lips, and his shoulders shook in laughter. ”So that's the plan, huh? I'm full of energy...fit to burst with excitement! Seriously, I'm amazed. How do you come up with this stuff, Zander?” A wide grin adorned his face as he held his hands up in wonder at the Ruby Knight.

While Zander's face only shifted slightly, gripped as it was by his overwhelmingly serious attitude, he permitted some satisfaction to slip into his voice. ”I'm not the guild's Number Two for nothing, hot shot. This plan of action, executed in coordination by all of us, will ensure a tremendous triumph. That said, keeping the five-man team limit in mind, not all of us will be participating. Xyster, you fought bravely yesterday, but I ask you to bow out of the arena this morning.”

”What?” The Dullahan's wan face turned from eager anticipation to pouting. "Put me in, coach! You know I'm good for it!” Imploringly, she glanced around at her teammates for support. ”Why me?!”

Zander frowned. His comrades couldn't see the expression behind his new helmet, but they could hear the edge in his voice. ”Can you truly think of nothing?”

Suddenly realizing, Xyster slid a hand up toward the right side of her face—or rather, the lack thereof. Yesterday, an ash-imbued uppercut had blown an entire third of her head, including her right eye, into smithereens and then cauterized the wound. Even now, her injury was rife with ash. Had she not been a deathless monster, Nolan's overblown attack would have killed her then and there, though no doubt he only used the move because of his opponent's undeath. ”Oh! My face. Well, I might not be as pretty as usual, but you know what they say: in the land of the blind, the one-eyed...” She withered beneath Zander's gaze.

He shook his heat gently, clasping his hands together. When he spoke, he endeavored to keep all traces of condescension or meanness from his voice. ”From a critical standpoint, Xyster, you would offer the least utility to our strategy. Besides, we do not wish to test your endurance any further. We'll be counting on you, our only supporter, to cheer us on from the sidelines.” For a moment she considered his words, but it was a brief one. Filled with a sense of duty and understanding, the Dullahan tossed her head up, caught it on her shoulders, and nodded resolutely. Then, calm and serious, she returned the way she came.

That left five soldiers on the field: Zander, Indigo, Hyun, Dmitri, and Owen. They listened closely the the proclamations of the Game Master. Resentment smoldered against Sheldon's remark that the match today would decide the winners—it meant that none of what Frenzy Plant, or any of the guilds, had accomplished in days prior would matter. Indigo gave a bright, cheerful laugh when he said that the city of Crocus would serve as the battleground today. ”As if! We have everything we need to win right here.”

A sagacious grunt marked Zander's affirmation. ”Indeed. Ours rivals do not fight as guilds, but as collections of individuals. Perhaps two or three may band together, but none have lived the lifestyle that will allow them to work in harmony as we do. Because they fight alone, or as loners forced to compensate for one another by circumstance, they will hinder one another, become frustrated, and in the end, bitterly blame each another for their defeat. Today, Fiore's guilds will receive a stern reminder of what truly matters as they face the well-oiled machine that is Frenzy Plant: unity! And it will go down like clockwork.” He fell silent for a moment. The very atmosphere of the arena was full of tension. ”The bell will toll imminently and our battle will begin. Indigo, you know what to do. Everyone, get ready.”

Instantly, a cracking noise rang out—the sound of crunching stone. As Dmitri cracked his knuckles, heatwaves emanated from his igneous forearms, and droplets of lava fell to sizzle on the earth. With long, delicate fingers, Indigo slipped a tome from her book bag, and it fell open in her hand. Owen went to work strapping his buckler to his left hand and adjusting the ties on his clothing and armor. Not a moment's hesitation prevented Zander from drawing his ruby arming sword, which he held in a reverse grip with two hands. Hyun slowly slid her sword from her left scabbard. Rather than a katana, she instead held a flamberge. This 'flame-bladed' weapon, with its unique jagged blade, was an instrument to counter other sword users. Its many edges would saw right through clothing and into flesh, while the jagged steel would send numbing, painful reverberations into the hands and wrists of swordsmen who tried to lock blades with her. In the place of her second katana was another new weapon: a parrying dagger with an upturned crossguard and basket grip. Today, it seemed, Frenzy Plant's supreme swordswoman had relinquished her traditional weapons in order to gain more effectiveness.

After this, the elite of Frenzy Plant stood still, poised and waiting. The game was ready to be played, and each of the players knew his or her role. All that remained was the bell.

Pokemon: New World

I'm glad you're happy with how things are going, Balth.

Many, the guild chat's pretty crazy. I'll be glad when we have our own room.

The Three Realms War [A DMC, Bayonetta and Darksiders RP]

Mad World

@zarkun@lazo@kapuchu

A roar was intimidating...for a moment, that is, and to those not yet numbed to roars by countless battles against monsters. One did not issue from whatever behemoth lay inside the stone shell suspended before the Charred Council's agents. Instead, it remained still, the one monolithic eye open and staring straight at the intruders into its domain. Around it, the entire Hanging Jungle seemed still as a spider's web, motionless and silent but no less deadly to the flies dangerously close to its sticky, silken strands. Uhelei did not want to speak, or even move, but though the gaze of the hanging behemoth filled him with dread, he took some comfort in it: that for the moment, at least, death was not coming for him. From the shelter of this solace he worked up a reply to the hellhound who questioned him. “It is...a legend to my people. We call it 'Ourakekem' – the Baleful World. You must understand: I did not guide us to it. It moves through the great tangle as it pleases...or at least, it is said to. Maybe it is better that we found it than some of the things out here. Our tales do not say that it is evil; merely that it is 'above us'. I will tell you what I know.”

“Our realm, the Undersky, is said to have not been made by the Creator himself, but by a mad renegade mistakenly gifted awesome power. After crafting an inverted world, she devoted herself to making living things, from beasts to us tribesmen to beings that rivaled her in might and insanity to keep her company. Ourakekem was one of these elite spirits, a consciousness of energy. Eventually a great war brewed among the renegade and her toys situated at a place called Wit's End, which the lord Panoptos calls 'the Seal', which is our destination. The battle resulted in the destruction of all involved. The spirits perished, the remnants of their power laying dormant inside protective cocoons, some of which, like Ourakekem, became living things in their own right.” Uhelei glanced back at the massive, everpresent eye. It held no trace of wariness, or wrath, but rather a cool intelligence, calmly evaluating the specks that stood before it.

Panoptos, having somehow restrained himself from interrupting the boring dialogue, now put forward his two cents. ”My superior intellect has arrived at a brilliant conclusion. What if this Oura-thing purposefully bars the way to Wit's End as a test? Wouldn't that be a nice surprise.” He floated forward slightly, ascending as he did so. Almost imperceptibly, the eye of Ourakekem slid upward. ”Yoo hoo! Don't know if you understand me, ole buddy, but we've got an urgent appointment with the Seal. Mind moving out of the way?”

Nothing happened. The seconds, rife with tension, stretched farther and farther. Then, quite abruptly, the whole tangled canopy was in motion. Ourakekem's enormous tentacles began to retract into its body at a healthy pace, but as its limbs went in, something came out. Emanating from the behemoth's eye was a mint-green wave, sweeping across everything in sight and bathing it in a soft glow. The tendrils released the platform on which the agents stood, but it, and the rest of the hunks of land, floated in the air as if weightless. As more and more of the colossal tentacles retreated into the mountain shell, it became apparent that the behemoth itself was now hovering in the air, kept buoyant by the same psychic force imparted to the stone. Very soon, the entire region was devoid of strands. Far away, the ordinary, steely cables of the Hanging Jungle remained, but in the vicinity of Ourakekem there existed only a belt of floating platforms.

Admittedly, Souta was having a terrifically hard time not freaking out. Navigating the Hanging Jungle had been hard and nerve-wracking enough when it was just vines; now, he -along with the rest of his group save Panoptos, the very individual who'd gotten them into this mess- was at the mercy of this hulking aberration. He could only watch as yellowish light began to will up within the monster's shell, which resolved itself into a sort of fog that streamed around its body. By honing his eyes, Souta could tell when the fog came close that it was not mist, but billions of bugs. So this is the monster's power. We are so dead. A bizarre sound filled the air—some kind of reverberating mumble that he could not decipher. He guessed it to be the cacophony of insect wings, but above the noise, Uhelei shouted, “It is speaking in my people's tongue! It is as you said, lord Panoptos! It wishes to test us. We must weather its swarms until it determines whether our intentions will...will suit its purposes. Prepare yourselves, agents of the Council!”

Immediately, the swarms began to whirl through the floating array of stone. It took on the shape of lances, beasts, and even armed humanoids, attacking the agents both as projectiles to be blocked or avoided, and as facsimile opponents. Souta had no idea what was going on, but he knew that he had to fight, and to fight with everything he had. The Trawlers appeared, and the smith went to work.