Avatar of Lugubrious

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Recent Statuses

23 days ago
Current Now running: World of Light: The Tale of the Dark Itself
4 mos ago
Forever and ever, amen
8 mos ago
Calling out from Scatman's world
1 like
11 mos ago
Called into action - by threats that seem harmonized
1 yr ago
Tomorrow comes

Bio

Current GM of World of Light. When it comes to writing, there's nothing I love more than imagination, engagement, and commitment. I'm always open to talk, suggestion, criticism, and collaboration. While I try to be as obliging, helpful, and courteous as possible, I have very little sympathy for ghosts, and anyone who'd like to string me along. Straightforwardness is all I ask for.

Looking for more personal details? I'm just some dude from the American south; software development is my job but games, writing, and trying to help others enjoy life are my passions. Been RPing for over a decade, starting waaaay back with humble beginnings on the Spore forum, so I know a thing or two, though I won't pretend to be an expert. If you're down for some fun, let's make something spectacular together.

Most Recent Posts

@Dusksong a good move might have been to meet up with Olivie.
Indigo Afina – Ballroom Center

@Oblivion666


So the ambitious, elegant beast-tamer had some sort of relationship with Salem Monroe, master of Pirate Lord? Or rather, Indigo corrected herself, division leader of Frenzy Plant. Interesting. Only a little serious, she regretted not knowing him better, so that she might be able to judge their compatibility as a couple. Few people in Fiore, and none within its number-one war guild, sported such an obsession with matchmaking as Indigo Afina. She ran a fingernail along her jawline, ruminating like a wise man deep in thought even as a mischievous smile flitted across her features. ”Noticed, did you?” The sorceress tittered. ”It's all harmless fun, I assure you.” For a moment Indigo's gaze fell away from Malice to dance across the room, trying to spot people of note. She noticed several council members, and noted the positions of all present guild leaders. In particular, she committed the sight of General Sanders standing opposite Jack Goran of Dragon Fang. Then her attention returned, a touch of dry wit behind her eyes. ”So, when do you suppose something is going to happen? Socializing is nice and all, but it stands to reason after today's disappointment that a certain few royals might be making an appearance, don't you think?” She clasped her hands and interlaced her fingers in front of her medallion, curious.

Cormorant Sanders – Ballroom Buffet

@Zarkun@Joshua Tamashii


Resplendent in his Wizard Saint's snow-white cloak, Jack returned the salutations of Frenzy Plant's General and Champion. Sanders nodded his response to the fellow guild master's question. ”Yes, everything's grand and showy. Just the ticket after the Games' festivities.” A cloud of wariness entered his eyes as Amelia approached. Her bearing did not speak of an abundance of self-assuredness, but the fact that she interposed herself in what surely resembled a meeting between two very important people told Sanders enough about how to treat her. His muscles tensed as he witnessed a flare of magic next to the girl followed by a noise he couldn't even begin to understand, but the next moment the apparition vanished. The General's gut reaction echoed his general feeling of unease; he knew very well how much potential magic filled this splendid hall, and he did not like to be so close to someone he felt he couldn't trust. Then again, he did not trust very many. Even Goran escaped that selective list.

For her part, Hyun remained as perfectly composed as ever, moving only to acknowledge Amelia with a tilt of her head. She left all the talking, as well as the emoting, to her superior.

Amelia ended up taking took the gracious opportunity Hyun provided to steal the show for herself, opening up to Jack about her feelings while Sanders waited patiently.

When the chance came, the old man seized it. color=8F9779]”Mr. Goran, if I may...the Games have brought to light, and perhaps worsened, some poignant conflicts between guilds. Yet, not all bonds are falling apart. I would be pleased to give you a better idea of what Frenzy Plant is and who the stellar individuals who constitute it are, and I would be just as happy to get to know Dragon Fang a little better. Perhaps we could begin by you telling me just what you have heard and think of my guild? Once I get an idea of our popular reputation, I can begin to cut away the inaccuracies and show our true faces.

Fleo Plector – Ballroom Outskirts

@Roseletta@hatakekuro@joshua tamashii


As the group's focus shifted to Cecilia, Fleo took her first good look at the cat. For a while now she'd known about Exceeds, particularly the purple, pompadour-wearing Dalton, but somehow Amaya's own companion escaped her notice. She wondered if Cecilia and Dalton would get along. The information concerning the new cat's appearance surprised her. For a while, actually, she'd forgotten all about poor Bert in the desert, driven to delirium and finally destroyed by the ashen blade of Nolan Waltz. While the two Exceeds said hello, Fleo waved to get Amaya's attention. ”Hey! By the way, I've been meaning to tell you something. I'm not mad or anything, but you've kinda been saying my name wrong for a long time. It's not 'Floe', it's 'Fleo'. Missed the 'ee'. I know, a weird name, right? It's from some old language.” She shrugged.

Joakim Fortinbras – Ballroom Edge

@The Wild West


At the end of it all, Joakim gave a low whistle. No affinity for storytelling made his own life any more of an interesting affair, so in a way he envied Flint, but when it came to the amount of torment the gunslinger went through, he was lukewarm at best. As a part of Frenzy Plant, Joakim had experienced some unforgettable things, and afterward he seldom failed to fill a few pages of his old leather-bound notebook with a summary of the whole event. Then, sooner or later, he'd find an audience with which to share those yarns. Remembering the past through tales, chronicled in paper but passed down by tongue, brought them to life, and to the dead and forgotten they paid homage. In listening to Flint's story, Joakim felt he tantalizing urge turn his comrade's experiences into a thrilling folktale. The northerner wrung much fulfillment from committing deeds to legend, for in he greater scheme of things, could there be any greater gift than being remembered?

”Thank you for sharing, my friend,” he murmured after taking a long sip from his liquor. ”With your permission, I'd like to write down your story, and retell it to others.” Another pause filled the air, though the hubbub of a crowded ballroom made any thoughtful silence a foregone conclusion. ”Hm...if you don't mind me asking, where's this Prisilla girl now?”
Sure.
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.
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.

@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.



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;


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


My apologies. I'll keep this in mind.
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.
@Lugubrious How much information does Sapphire have on Abel's background?


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