PKMNB0Y

Of Gods and Men—An Urban Fantasy RP

Steven Fan

Driving a car through the streets of Fairstone City was about as dull as navigating traffic in any other city. There wasn't anything in particular that Steven liked about driving, to be frank; it was simply a necessity to learn how to do so if he wanted to get much of anywhere without relying on public transportation. He knew the roads well enough, at least, so it wasn't like he would accidentally get lost or anything, but if he had to pick between this and walking, the latter would usually be his preference.

Well, that was under normal circumstances, at least. The hulking beast of a man sitting in the back, of course, changed that dynamic from 'dull' to 'slightly nerve-wracking' all too easily. It wasn't the first time he had met Fremont; there were quite a few meetings between the both of them and Donovan (who was off handling another job at the moment), and his co-worker's ability to pull the truth from the ex-convict's lips made life far easier for Soulflame to confirm his intent to not decimate every person who he came across. That didn't mean, of course, that he was any less intimidating up close.

"Ahem. Well, Mr. Lundgren, have you finished reading through the papers I handed you earlier?" Steven asked, slowly bringing the car through the early morning rush hour traffic. "Despite working for Soulflame now, however unofficially, you are still technically being held under parole. That being said, as much as I'd prefer to not advocate breaking the law, well... Our job kind of necessitates it. Contact details of people who you might need to know, the location of a few minor bases across the city, your soon-to-be place of residence, and... Ways of dodging the long arm of the law if it becomes necessary. As much as I hate to admit it, our cover-up team works immaculately so long as you aren't being brazen in attacking people in broad daylight. Or, well, breaking the terms of the contract or your parole outside of jobs, but I'm sure you already knew that."

It felt somewhat wrong for Steven, as a prosecutor, to say that sort of thing—that breaking the law was not only allowed, but encouraged under the right circumstances. But if there were already people who were committing crimes outside of the law, then it was their duty to stop them. Or, at least, that's what he had been told. The papers he had handed over also had a lot more miscellaneous information, but he wouldn't go into detail about everything.

"In any case, it looks like we're going to be getting out of this traffic and nearing your new home sooner rather than later. If there's anything you want to ask about, then ask away."

Of Gods and Men—An Urban Fantasy RP

Okay, that's both forms in, so let's check them out.

@Raineh Daze: Accepted.

@KoL: Also accepted.

That was easy.

Anyways, this'll probably start in a few days, but we'll still be accepting here even after that. Feel free to chuck forms in whenever.

Of Gods and Men—An Urban Fantasy RP

I'll evaluate moon girl once the other character comes in.

@Tominas: Accepted. Char in the chars tab, please.

Of Gods and Men—An Urban Fantasy RP

@VitaVitaAR: Well, if you add the stuff I asked for elsewhere plus all this into your form, I can give it the go-ahead. Accepted once that's all added in.

Of Gods and Men—An Urban Fantasy RP

@VitaVitaAR: I feel like in that case, Soulflame might be more willing to accept an agent to work for them but never actually give them any concrete information (because, well, foreign agent and unknown status for the future). If you're fine with them being in a limbo state of 'technically a member', then that should be fine.

I guess further elaboration of why a girl at age 21 can be grabbing a mid-level Contract is the last thing I need here to make the final call.

@RolePlayerRoxas: Looks fine. Accepted.

Of Gods and Men—An Urban Fantasy RP

@Silvan Haven: Accepted.

Also, I finally decided to post my form in chars, so you and @TheFake can, too.

Of Gods and Men—An Urban Fantasy RP

• Name: Steven Fan
• Age: 26
• Appearance: "As the law dictates."
• Personality: Steven is, above all else, meticulous in his work, which also means that he is, for lack of a better term, a workaholic. He is driven towards helping to make his home a better place by means of rooting out criminals from society, but unlike the being he has a Contract with, he believes that there is room for repentance should the crimes not be as severe as he believes. In other words, he acts as both a vigilante and a just prosecutor, simply at different times, and while working as the former he is far less merciful than he might be otherwise.
  Outside of work, though, Steven tends to spend time just wandering about the city according to his own whims. He is, of course, open to conversation at any given time, but his innate habit of being a judge of character (combined with his primary Contract) means that he doesn't always pull away his mask when making small talk. With friends and acquaintances, though, he's quite talkative and all ears... Assuming there's nothing that needs to be done, of course.
• History: To say that Steven had any sort of encounter with a Contractor prior to his becoming a lawyer would be a bald-faced lie; up until he graduated from law school, he had absolutely no contact with the supernatural. His world was turned upside down, of course, right after he graduated, as a firm heavily linked to Soulflame approached him. His natural aptitude was high, and his other talents and history were a boon to their line of work. Not knowing what he was being dragged into, of course, Steven accepted the offer and entered the branch located back in Fairstone.
  It was then, of course, that he was introduced into the world of Contractors, and it was then that he first made contact with the Yama. Impressed with how diligently he had worked to obtain his position and predicting that he would become a boon in the future, the King of Hell formed a contract with Steven (after a bit of legal probing that the young man was naturally inclined towards after seeing all of this inanity). In short, Steven would act separately from the other Contractors under the Yama to mete out judgement alongside Soulflame, as though he had many connections to other Anchors, there were many times where the groups turned a blind eye for the sake of unity or times where his men could not act for fear of being removed themselves. In return, of course, the Yama would grant him a textbook that would allow him to 'study' for the exams he would give to raise the level of the Contract between them.
  The whole ordeal was incredibly surreal to Steven, of course, but after a few days' worth of discussion and negotiation with the members of Soulflame, Steven decided to accept both the Contract and the job, leading to his position now.
• Affiliation: Soulflame
• Level: Low
• Primary Contracted Party: King Yama (Deity)
• Abilities: Steven's primary Contract with the Yama allows him to strike those who have committed misdeeds with attacks representing one of the Eighteen Hells. Of course, this necessitates that his assumptions on his opponent's actions are correct, as being wrong would result in him tasting his own attacks in turn. Other than that, though, Steven has the ability to make contact with (or even attack) incorporeal spirits, if only to send them to the Yama himself for judgement.
  At his current level of ability, however, Steven is only able to invoke the Hell of Needles and Hell of Flames, which allows him to create needles to stab an enemy with from any location near him and create (and fire) flames from hell from his hands, respectively.
• Skills: Other than being an amateur criminal prosecutor (and having all of the connections that that entails), Steven is adept at drawing information out of people and digging up little things that might work as pieces of evidence against his opponents. He is not adept at things involving physical exertion, of course, but that does not mean he cannot act swiftly when the situation calls for it.
• Other: Given the stipulations of his contract with the Yama (which technically includes a pathway for him to gain the strength needed to do his job better), Steven's work is often set to 'study the textbook more' in between cases or jobs from Soulflame. For the sake of his sanity, though, he's not allowed to study more than a couple of hours during the weekends.

Of Gods and Men—An Urban Fantasy RP

@Dead Cruiser: Yes, assuming Soulflame, and yes for when starting, but only Supernaturals.
Odin's ravens are Supernatural, yangwu is Supernatural, and the last one is... Somewhere between a Deity on the lower end and Outlier (mainly because trickster god associated with a creation myth).

@golani: Well, let's start the analysis.
First, minor nitpick sorta thing: when everyone else is using illustrations (even if they're stylized), using a real person for an appearance feels kind of... Odd. I think I'd prefer just a text description over that plus an actual person's image, if possible.

Next: Once again, even if we've got a scenario where a person was trained extensively starting at a young age, college grad-level tutoring plus talented at CQC and with firearms, PLUS mastering multiple languages, and then way too many thieving skills on top of all of even that. Um.
I don't know, it just sounds a bit too... Absurd to me.

Then, abilities... I feel like strength isn't as necessary if you're focusing more on the 'cat' aspect here, as most people don't think 'strong' when you say 'cat'. Agile, limber, and surviving a lot of things that they usually shouldn't? Yes. But strength? Not... Ordinarily I would think.

@VitaVitaAR: I think my only issue is, as usual, 21 plus medium level Contract. If you could elaborate more on the Fianna, their reasoning behind letting the character 'work' for Soulflame, and a viable reason for why Soulflame would give the go-ahead for this exchange, it would help in me making my final decision here.

Also because this would make, like, three characters "technically" from other Anchors, but given the size of the group of RPers I'll let it slide.

Of Gods and Men—An Urban Fantasy RP

@Grand General: Uh. Hm. Oh boy, where do I begin...

First: Name. No parent in this day and age would ever give a name that essentially means 'Lightning Lightning' to their child. It's baffling to even imagine, to be quite frank. And having the katana be named "LIGHTNING SWORD" is... How about no? It's painful to think about, having taken the language for four years, so those names have to go. Pronto. Or, well, at least one of the lightnings in the name.

Second: Age 23, famous for iaido, MMA, and wrestling. Also an Olympic gold medalist for Japan. Let's put aside how absurd this whole scenario is for a second (because despite this being an urban fantasy RP, it still has roots in reality) and point out that the dude was outstanding enough for a deity to just recognize him. No motives, no hidden agenda: just because he was that good, the god decided to go and make contact with no strings attached. Quite frankly, that's way too absurd. Like, really? All he has to do is pray and slap a picture of the god on his stuff? What drawbacks? Caveats? Anything with meaning behind the contract? Then what's keeping Take-Mikazuchi invested in this person in the first place, especially considering he's not a part of the Japanese anchor and instead personally reached out to the guy? That leads me to...

Third: Famous (likely worldwide), but is working in a city in the US (not a very famous one, by the way) for an underground semi-vigilante organization. You think that isn't going to raise alarms? Cause problems? His actions have him heavily affiliated with the nation of Japan, so why the hell is he working here in what is more or less a lifetime gig?

Fourth: Lower-middle contract at age 23. I guess I should have clarified that there's only low/mid/high for this, so I accept the blame for that, but being halfway there at that age is simply absurd, especially when stacked on top of all the abilities he already has in that (fairly stacked) form. Also, what the hell is 'affinity to Storm' supposed to mean? I don't mention anything in that vein in the OP.

Fifth: Abilities and skills. Simply linking to a pair of sites is in bad form. It's the equivalent of a student telling a professor to 'just Google it' when asked a question during a lecture or during an exam; it's just not in good form.
On that note, just tossing a bunch of martial arts styles together and expecting me (or anyone else) to understand what they mean at a glance is assuming that we know what thought process was taken to reach this point. What ABOUT the styles were used? Just because you know doesn't mean everyone else will. Also, why the hell is a person so adept at hand-to-hand combat using a sword in combat? And why does he have an actual sword in the middle of an American city without hiding it? Metal detectors are EVERYWHERE these days, after all, and it's not like he can just skip the law because it's famous (especially when that sword starts tasting some blood). Oh, and let's not forget that even if it's a modern-forged sword, there are still people who can (and probably will) just shrug off blows from blades like this like nobody's business.
Also, once again, that name is dumb. Sorry not sorry.

I think those are the major points of contention in the form. Revision or a complete overhaul is highly recommended, friend.

Blades of Iron Roses: A fantasy Knight RP

Tiral simply nodded at the division of teams before walking back to the Captain's side. A two-pronged assault was simple enough to execute, at least, and he had already planned on interfering with the orcs' ability to move the moment he had seen their positions. Casting such magic over the entire battlefield, even if it was on the enemy's domain, though, was a bit of a worrisome job to him. He had initially planned to act a bit more conservatively, deliberately interfering with any enemies that charged at them from crucial locations, but in the end this probably worked out just as well. The only problem, of course, was if the enemy would adapt in turn and, if so, how quickly they would.

"If it's a flanking attack, then something quick and simple should work fine to notify the other party. Silent, visible but not to the point of being obvious..." he pondered for a moment before sighing. "I can use my ice to reflect some light towards the other side of the forest once we arrive. That should suffice as a signal from our end."

He would leave with the Captain once everything was set and done, but any more than this really wasn't necessary on his part in terms of preparations.