Lugubrious

Pokemon: New World

Sure.

Project Crossover [Video Game Crossover RP]

Slayer
Level 1
Day 1
Location: Near Abandoned Castle
@Hylozoist @Holy Soldier
Word Count: 619
Experience: ||||||||||

Walking through a murky but verdant forest, softly abuzz with the droning of insects and interspersed with birdcall, never struck Slayer as unpleasant. Compared to some of the things he'd witnessed in his travels, it was no great shakes in terms of serenity, beauty, or anything much, but that didn't mean the vampire couldn't appreciate it. He knew that soldiers would often search out pleasurable or at least wonderful experiences on the eve of battle, and while putting him in their place reeked of comparing apples to oranges, he supposed he could find some parallels. His own battle, after all, waited not far off. Rather than his opponent, his thoughts lay on the team to which he'd been assigned. An ulterior motive, more than any pivotal strategic advantage, had spurred him to leave them behind. Slayer couldn't find it within himself to have any faith in his supposed allies, whether their competence in battle or if they'd even turned up. They would need to prove themselves to him, for Slayer already felt as though he'd been let down.

He stopped on a knoll at the brink of treeline and the clearing in which the Abandoned Castle stood to puff his pipe. No movement could be seen from his position, but Slayer's intuition told him he'd already been spotted. Any kind of sentry worth their salt knew the land surrounding his bastion like the back of his hand, so anything out of the ordinary, even if no more than a lone, impeccably dressed gentleman, warranted a response. Of course, since it was his mission to destroy the castle's only occupant, the vampire wasn't exactly hiding, either.

Around him, the air crackled with a hollow reverberation. Slayer heard only one word, but it told him all he needed to know. Giving a wry smile, he took a final puff of his pipe before clenching it between his teeth and adjusting his collar. While he didn't know what it was, he felt something behind him. The voice echoed once more, inviting him to turn around, and Slayer accepted the invitation. Before he'd even completely revolved, a red diamond cannoned from the unknown assailant. All the gentleman could see was a ripple of darkness before Oswald thrust his gemstone-tipped sword through Slayer's guts.

A quiet moment passed, as one might expect. So swift was the blade of the Shadow Knight that seldom did its impaled victims immediately realize they were dead. At the end of this pause, however, Slayer uttered an unexpected sound. ”Hm.” It would not have been out of place in a university library, yet it issued from his lips rather than the agonized sigh of death. After a moment of scrutinizing Oswald, Slayer continued. ”I felt that rather keenly...this world must have some sort of effect on my constitution. I had not expected you to be a young man. Brigan's ramblings set you up as some kind of monster. Ah, where are my manners? My name is Slayer. It's a pleasure to make your acquaintance. Regrettably I have been asked to destroy you. Since you got the drop on me, though, you should definitely have the upper hand. Fair's fair, after all. Let's say I'm at about fifteen percent vitality. One more strike and I'm 'done for'. And who knows, it may be true. I've not felt this much pain in quite some time. Sound good?”

No response. Slayer shrugged. ”Very well. Let us fight like gentlemen.” A shlurp sound met their ears as Slayer dodged backward, removing himself from Oswald's sword. In the same instant, the vampire pivoted and dashed in from the side, his right fist wreathed in blue flame and shooting toward Oswald's head like a cannonball.

Pokemon: New World

Salty spray and stinging sand whipped at the backs of Olivie, Bernard, and their Pokemon as their headlong sprint toward town came to an end. Out of breath, the pair threw themselves on the pier that overlooked the Friending Pool. She dumped Gespenst beside her, who tucked into a roll to lessen the impact, and his spikes brought him to a stop. Having vanished shortly before the skirmish with the Malamar started, the Araquanid befriended by Bernard now stood on the other side of the pool, its thoughts imperceptible. Olivie's chest heaved as she tried to get her wind back without opening her mouth, lest unwanted sand fly into her mouth. A couple of slips into tide pools of varying depths on the way back had left her leggings soaked and dirty, so she kicked off her shoes and yanked the sullied garment off. After that, she let herself relax, reclining on the mossy wooden boardwalk. The irritating wind, it seemed, brought with a wave of clouds spreading over the horizon like jam. As they sped along, they clumped together, blotting out more and more of the sky. Olivie's eyes narrowed as she saw how the sunlight filtered through the odd clouds to create a bizarre, green sky. Bemused, she turned to Bernard, who'd also noticed the heaven's weird hue, but he knew nothing more about the phenomenon than she did. Once the pair recovered just enough to move somewhere out of the rising wind, they skedaddled.

Moments later, they stood in the threshold of a floating building called Ribbly's Raft. Sitting on an enormous pontoon in a pool in the middle of a boardwalk ring, the round structure buzzed with the sounds of conversation and merriment. From its open windows drifted the smell of cooked fish, and through them the trainers could see an assortment of patrons. Altogether, it gave off a lively impression—one wholly opposite of the state of two of Bernard's pokemon. ”You go ahead,” the young man told her. ”I gotta get back to the pokemon center. Just thinking of Painkiller's arm makes me sick. I've got to get him healed.” Olivie nodded, and off she ran. The sight had made her skin crawl; she couldn't begin to guess how she'd feel if it was Gespenst who'd been mauled. As her thoughts turned to the perpetrator of the injury, her blood boiled. The sound of grinding teeth caused her Cacnea to look up in alarm. While the Malamar enraged her, however, she could not go back out into the biting winds and get her own party -or self- torn apart as well. The resulting feeling of helplessness made it even worse. With heroic effort, Olivie reigned in her fury to enter the building. Her revenge would have to come later.

At first the bruiser thought she'd entered a bar. It had all the quaintness and other traits that any brewhouse might put on display. A handful of customers even glanced her way, giving her pointed or curious looks. She did spot some plates of food here and there, though, and a soda fountain. Wearing an ugly frown, Olivie made her way to the counter and seated herself on the stool, and reflexively she tugged on the bottom of her sweater-skirt. The person behind the counter, a barrel-shaped man with pronounced mutton chops, sidled over. “What'll it be, missy?”

Olivie maintained an unpleasant countenance as she asked, “Cola?” Without a word the man turned around, grabbed a clear plastic cup, and started filling it from the fountain. ”Let me ask you something,” the girl began as soon as he turned around, and he gave a nod as he gave her the drink. ”I just ran into this tentacle monster down on the beach. It had a beak, and it used moves called Superpower, Foul Play and Psyche...uh, Psychic Cut. Do those things have anything to do with dreams?” A shred of Olivie wanted him to say no. As much as she wanted to tear the wild pokemon a new one, she got the sinking feeling that it would be her on the receiving end of the tearing.

The guy crossed his arms. “Ya mean Malamar? Well, there's good ones and bad ones. Some of the bad ones do hyp-no-sis, but I ain't heard of any makin' bad dreams.”

A soft, melodic voice from behind Olivie called out, “Are ya a trainer?”

When the girl turned to look, she found a young woman with a huge black afro and glasses, her face sprinkled by dark freckles and sporting an intrigued expression. Wondering what the stranger wanted, Olivie gave a curt nod, and her new acquaintance continued, “Ya must be lookin' to solve the nightmare problem. Well, hon, ya don't have long to wait. I 'spect since ya new here, you ain't had the pleasure of one of Stillwater's Green Days.” Noting that Olivie now paid rapt attention to her, the woman smiled. “Usually our town's quiet and peaceful-like, but on some days the wind rises an' clouds roll in that turn the sky green as the sea. If anything's gonna give ya a hint 'bout the nightmares, it's gonna be tonight. Just ya wait an' see.”

-=-=-

By evening, the wind had died down, but the sky turned from leaf to kelp. Dark clouds swirled over Stillwater, and at 8:00, the moon rose over the ocean. It shone through the clouds, a spectral, emerald orb. Goosebumps lined Olivie's arms and legs as she stood on the boardwalk by Ribbly's Raft, and not just from the cold. In the hours that had passed since arriving at the place, Olivie had made the rounds of the town. Two repels were in her bag, ready for use against meddlesome, annoying wild pokemon that might get in the way of something important. She'd gotten a bite to eat, freshened up, and even found a pair of jeans at the little local shop to wear. Yet, she hadn't found Bernard. His failure to return, while surely for a good reason, rubbed her the wrong way. Since being told about the Green Day, she'd indulged in every local tale she could get a hold of. She'd learned about Lunaala and Darkrai, the two Legendary pokemon said to favor this region, and about the things that went bump in the night. Sleepwalking, night terrors, and even disappearances, with some of the vanished found laid out on the shore days later, and some never seen again. How could these people not be more terrified? And many of these events occurred on or near Green Days. Anxiety from this realization threatened her courage, but here she stood beneath the rising moon, ready to find out what was going wrong even as the townsfolk retreated into their homes. They regarded the nights of Green Days with suspicion, and best avoided. Tonight, Olivie stood as Stillwater's lone sentry.

Or rather, she stood along with her party of pokemon. Buck, Gespenst, Verrine, and Bifrons all shared her resolve, though visible in different ways. Olivie shifted her view constantly, scanning the coastline and the town for any disturbance.

The Benevolent Beauty Turned Boisterous Bruiser

Current Location: Stillwater Shore
TP: 44 + 1 – 10 (Repels) = 35
CP: 23+ 1 = 24

Be Advised:
@Dusksong
@LuckyBlackCat

Pokemon:
Buck the Bidoof – lvl 3 – healthy
Gespenst the Cacnea – lvl 5 – healthy
Verrine the Karrablast – lvl 4 – healthy
Bifrons the Nidoran♂ - lvl 2 - healthy

Heroes of Beacon - the Next Chapter

@Crimmy It was worth it tho!

---

@Lugubrious Hey!

I'm thinking about giving Sangue a Semblance upgrade, so I thought about maybe using this as an upgrade.

Semblance Upgrade

“Gauze Venom” – Sangue has the option to alter the properties of venom that makes physical contact with her. She can choose to cause the venom to become more toxic or alter it so that it steadily heals them instead. Unlike her normal venom, the healing version lasts for around thirty seconds and sinks through skin harmlessly when applied on an organic surface. The healing it provides is far from impressive compared to the wide range of healing abilities, but it can at least prevent internal bleeding by the time the duration ends when used once. The healing only works if the venom is mixed with her saliva, so she tends to use her mouth.

When Sangue is hurt, she cannot intensify the strength of the venom’s toxicity, but she can still use the healing alteration if she chooses to use it. She cannot heal herself with this.

The above thing is going to be a sub-category for her current Semblance so the one in her current CS shouldn't need too many changes. What do you think? o-o;

@NarayanK

I have no problem with it, but I'm curious about who 'them' refers to. Er...and does this mean that Sangue is going to be drooling on people's wounds?

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

What Lily did while Souta busied himself mattered not to him. He even felt as if he could reflexively create a barrier of rushing water to block any kind of standard attack that might come his way, perhaps in retaliation for how little fun he was to mess with. When she moved to stand opposite him as he worked, however, he suppressed a groan of frustration himself. Why couldn't this lady take a hint? And he still didn't know what she was. For all he knew, it could be an illusion conjured by the old geezer. The chance that she was a new team member, however, or that she was someone of great significance, meant that he couldn't get unpleasant. After all, if this gorgeous girl could whip out a concealed weapon or unleash some kind of eldritch smackdown if he so much as looked at her the wrong way. Souta hated not knowing; he hated having no control.

Lily spoke, and he glanced her way, eyes narrowed. Her focus lay on his sword, though. Did she think to try and play along with him? Warily, the smith considered what she had to say, but in the end he turned up a surprising abundance of not-caring. A reply bubbled to the surface, but before he could say anything, the demoness continued. She strove to meet his eyes, their uncanny, inhuman warmness sending paradoxical chills down Souta's spine, and she held up a forging mask. Unamused, Souta took a hand off his still-dodgy weapon for a moment and tapped the side of his head. A small spray of water flew out from the place where his finger made contact, evaporating almost instantly in the ambient heat. ”Thanks, but no thanks.” He removed the sword from the grindstone and lackadaisically tossed it toward he bucket of discards. It hit the barrel and fell to the floor with a clamor. ”Doesn't matter. I'm just getting a feel for it. Not making anything. It'd be hard to kill a sheep with anything in this room, let alone a monster. Nothing productive's coming out of this place until I get more tools and some half-decent materials. Still, I'm kinda busy...and I'm sure someone else would be a lot more fun.” Souta turned halfway away before holding his hand over the anvil. A torrent of water sprang from his jacket to swirl on top of the hunk of metal, and from it the firearm Deluge materialized. With quick hands and practiced precision, he began to take it apart and clean each piece with a little pipe brush he produced from a pocket.

Project Crossover [Video Game Crossover RP]

@LugubriousIf you're passing in your turn, then let someone know. Silence is never a good answer.

@Holy Soldier

My apologies. I'll keep this in mind.

Project Crossover [Video Game Crossover RP]

I'm still here. I haven't posted because in my last post I started walking, and the next step logically is to arrive at Oswald's castle and engage the good fellow in combat, but I don't have the context. I don't know about the terrain, where Oswald is, what he looks like, or much about the castle other than it's a silhouette in the distance. Since I got the feeling that making a short, empty post in which Slayer just walks closer would be a waste, I opted to wait until the next GM post.

Heroes of Beacon - the Next Chapter

@Lugubrious How much information does Sapphire have on Abel's background?

@Prince of Seraphs

Not much, I don't think. I don't believe there have been any serious inquiries.

Heroes of Beacon - the Next Chapter

[color-007fff]Abel Fulgurate – Race Grounds[/color

We're here!

Abel froze, and the crepe halfway into his mouth slid off the fork to dangle from between his teeth like a huge, sagging dog tongue while he read the words on his scroll once more to confirm them. He wasted no time slurping it down to make sure he made as little of a fool of himself as possible, then picked himself up from the folding chair where he'd parked himself to depart hastily. By now, a fair few people had turned up in anticipating of the grand day off's first event. He'd been looking forward to sampling the free food and seeing what people trickled in with their families. If any single characteristic united Beacon's freshest crop of hunters-to-be, it was that they were an interesting bunch. Their mothers, fathers, and other family members could only be more so, but some sadness had needled the guardian as he realized that quite a few of the students might be going around the day alone. Now, he mused, he'd been looking forward to the whole ordeal a bit too much, and in doing so nearly forgot about an arguably quintessential element of Parents' Day: the parents.

With as much hustle as a big guy could muster, Abel hightailed it out of the racing ground and into the school. A dozen or more eye-catching sights confronted him along the way, but as Abel saw it, he could wait to join in the general mood of the day once he'd reunited with his mother and father, who judging by Abel's new message had just arrived via the sky. Remembering the distress that had plagued him the day he arrived at the academy following his first-ever air travel, he wondered how his parents had fared. The fact that they weren't too airsick or overwhelmed to make use of the modern age's newfangled doodad suggested they were fine, at least. In only a few minute's time Abel burst from the academy's front doors to jog toward the airdock.

The ship by which Abel's mom and dad came was easy to spot, but they themselves weren't that much harder. One look at the guardian's parents explained his unusual height and size. Edom Fulgurate was, to put it simply, a mountain of a man. A barrel chest, broad shoulders, bulging muscles, and a rather rectangular head all made for a hell of a stature. By now, at the end of his growing years, Abel stood a remarkably 6'6”, but his father still towered two inches higher than he. Of course, Abel couldn't discount his mother. The blonde-haired woman, her smile indicating that she'd spotted Abel as well, stood about as tall as her son. If Edom were a mountain, Flavia was a tree, her yellow crown hanging down in a curtain around her slender, lithe frame. Abel's dad tracked her gaze, and developed a craggy grin as well when he laid eyes on him. “My boy! C'mere!” The three collided in an enormous hug that made Abel realize, as unbelievable as it seemed that only two and a half weeks had passed since the semester began, he missed them greatly. A surge of joy rushed through him to stand with his family once again.

A moment later, the guardians broke apart to stand in a close ring. At the same time, Edom and Flavia crossed their arms, and the latter began to speak. “It's so nice to see you again!” she beamed. “Wearin' the jacket your old mom got for you, too!”

Edom chimed in too, his deep voice rumbling like a landslide but full of enthusiasm. “So this is the place, huh? Real fancy, sittin' up on a cliff. What're those lights up in the tower?”

Abel released a noise somewhere between an embarrassed grunt and a chuckle. He didn't know who to respond to, so he went in order. “Yeah, thanks. I wear it almost everywhere, actually. You better not tell anyone that my mom got it for me...and I dunno what the lights are. There's really cool at night. Uh, how was the flight?”

A shudder issued from Abel's mom that he felt might have been a bit exaggerated. “Oh, my goodness. When we first started risin' up off the ground, I thought I was gonna have a heart attack.”

“Drama queen!” Edom nudged his wife jokingly before turning back to Abel. “Heh, I was a little rocky myself at first. Once we got underway, we were fine. And the view! Just like lookin' at a map.” He clapped his hands together. “So! We just gonna stand here by the docks like a bunch of bumpkins? Show us around. Or, more to the point, show us to the eatery. Ships stopped servin' peanuts last quarter, apparently.”

Charged with his duty, Abel spun around to lead his folks into Beacon

-=-=-

A few minutes later, the blue-wearing spearman appeared at the racing grounds, this time with his parents in tow. No historical buff or trivia enthusiast, he hadn't taken the time to offer tidbits about every little facet of the facility they came across, but the trip took longer than his last one anyway. By now, quite a few were assembled; Abel got the impression that the event would begin in only a few minutes. Luckily, that left plenty of time for crepes and Shiny D. After visiting the food tables, the Fulgurates found a spot at the back of the seating area to situate themselves.

Pokemon: New World

@Dusksong what kind of towns and pokemon can we start with?

@Masterkeun

I can help with that. You can start in any town listed, and you can have an unevolved pokemon with a type that is included in the area's types. For instance, if you picked Central City, you could start out with a fire, water, grass, normal etc. type, but if you started in Feyhollow you could begin with a fairy type, for instance.

You'll be able to find all locations in the OOC OP. If you want to start somewhere with other players with which you character can interact, check the IC. Most post have location tags in them.