UndeadSpartan

Pokémon: The Pillaging

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Haruhana Aoi & Kaijin

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"Hahhh?" A long, drawn out, almost whiny exclamation came from the girl, ignoring the growling of her Scyther. There was of course the saying "be careful what you wish for," but for it to be quite so effective was astonishing. Adrian wasn't exactly the company she'd envisioned either, even more so given that he seemed to be without a pokémon partner, which could only mean that it was hiding somewhere nearby. No one in their right mind would go into the woods at night alone, and this point was quickly reinforced when Dante showed up with Crackers, leaving Aoi not with one, but with two squatters. Letting out an irritated groan, she rose to her feet and pointed a thumb over her shoulder to her Scyther.

"You try anything funny and Kaijin here won't hesitate to kill." Sure enough, Kaijin snarled in what was probably agreement... Really, with the hostility it was showing so blatantly, it wasn't hard to imagine the Scyther attacking even if they didn't try anything. Seeming sort of displeased regardless, the girl turned her attention back to the steaming hot roast and concluded; "Still, I don't own this forest, so I can't really kick you out, in which case you might as well fill up some of this empty space... For starters, why don't you give me your names? I'm Haruhana Aoi, although I doubt you'll have heard of me."

It was hard to tell if that really was approval, but while she still seemed a little bit on-edge, at the very least Aoi wasn't hostile... Well, not very hostile. As she resumed picking at the roast, Aoi's glance kept switching between Adrian and Dante, waiting to see who'd speak up first, yet seemingly unaware of Jirai lurking in the shadows. On the other hand, she was very aware of Crackers' pleading eyes focused on the meat. She certainly wouldn't recommend trying to take Scyther's food though, and she wasn't sure she wanted to share her own roast either... Depending on how well Dante had tamed his Shelgon, things could get ugly fast.

Pokémon: The Pillaging

@Paradoxial@ShepherdOfHope
c3p-0h has also opted to sit out for the first couple rounds and meet up later. That means that we're waiting on the two of you now. If you'd also like to join the squad on the bench, don't forget to please inform me so that I can move on without having to feel guilty about skipping people.

Also, while we're at it, may I suggest you join the discord? It's not strictly necessary, but it'd make it easier for me to poke you guys and for you guys to stay up to date and ask questions.

Pokémon: The Pillaging

@c3p-0h
Looks good now! Go ahead and put it in the characters' tab.

Pokémon: The Pillaging

Kiwi has stated they'd prefer to wait until a while later to hop in because they feel weird all randomly grouping up like this.

If you feel the same and would rather hop in a bit later too, please let me know. Do be aware that this may take a few post-cycles, though.

Pokémon: The Pillaging

@Paradoxial
Yep, looks good to me! I'd be sort of a dick if I actually let color be a gamebreaker, especially when the rest is pretty much fine and done. On that note, do go ahead and post your character sheet in the characters tab.

Pokémon: The Pillaging

Let's get this party started! The first post is up. Once you reply, please maintain a cyclical posting order; wait for everyone else to post before replying again. If for some reason we'll be skipping someone, either I or that person will tell you so.

Also, not unimportantly since I'm a doofus and forget to specifically write my location, the forest is within the white square, which is roughly the middle ground between where most characters come from.

Pokémon: The Pillaging

"Come on, Gramps! Isn't there anything to do around here?" A boy asks his grandfather, with whom he's staying while his parents are out of town. "Just how old-school can you get? You don't have a TV, no computer, nothing! What do you even do all day?"

"Now now, quiet down sonny, you've made it very clear you don't enjoy model trains last time you were here, and you know I can't take care of a pokémon anymore. Like I've told you back then, if you're bored you should read a book! ...Sheesh, I'm lucky I've already retired. How can you make a living as an author when the only thing youths care about nowadays is their silly computers?" The grandfather sighs.

"You were an author, gramps? You wrote books? But I've never once seen a book with your name on it!" The boy looked somewhat confused at the sudden revelation, but his grandfather simply smiles at the conclusion. While it was true that his books hadn't been best-sellers, back in the day it had earned him enough money to make a living... Times were different, back then, but perhaps he could preserve just a little bit of those times through his grandson. Smiling faintly, the grandfather reaches into a cabinet at the back of the room and retrieves a dull-looking book with a monotonous, tan cover. On the front it reads; "Arotura: An immoral tale," in curly black letters.

"Curious aren't we? Alright then, I'll read it to you."

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Chapter 1

Unlikely Encounter

This story begins on a cold evening like any other. A young woman in clothes far too light for the weather warms her hand by a bonfire, waiting for a large piece of meat to finish roasting. Beside her sits her only companion; a Scyther, impatiently gnawing at another chunk of meat, this one raw. The woods were honestly the last place she'd have chosen to spend the night, but dusk had already fallen and night would soon follow, leaving her with little other choice. As she waited for the meat, she quieted her breathing and focused on the forest's ambient sounds.

She could hear the crackling of the fire, the soft noises of her pokémon eating, the rustling of leaves and even the sound of flowing water in the distance. It was a peaceful kind of quiet, and though she preferred this silence over the racket and the pressure of her old life, being alone like this every night was taking its toll on her. How long had it been since she'd fled Yaewong? Since she last went to sleep covered in bruises? Years now, and in that time she'd done things she wasn't proud of... Life moved on though, ready or not.

"We should go to town again tomorrow, Kaijin, our stockpile is completely empty..."

The girl's voice pierced the silence like a knife, despite how she kept her voice down. The Scyther, in response, merely shot her a bored look before it continued eating, eliciting an exhausted groan from the girl. Her Scyther being a pain do deal with was nothing new sadly, but at the very least it pulled through when she needed it. With a slight pout, the girl stood up, walked around the sloppily made spit gently moved it away from the fire, then carefully plucked at the meat where she hoped wasn't too warm.

The sensation of heat burning on her fingertips formed a sharp contrast to the cold, piercing winds blowing through the forest. She almost burned her tongue as she quickly blew on the strip of meat and put it in her mouth, but when she did she discovered all over again how just how nice warm food could be. Her pout was quickly replaced with the slight traces of a smile as she continued to pull strips of meat from the roast. Tonight she had good food, a bonfire to warm herself by and she even had some water left. The only thing missing was company, but even without any this night was better than average already.

Pokémon: The Pillaging

@SilverPaw
While I'd love to say yes, I'm afraid that with the people I've already accepted and the people I'm still waiting on I have quite a large group already... More than I'm certain will go well, in fact. So while I'd really like to welcome you to my potential playerbase, I really don't think I should.

I'll change the status from Apply to Full, and if you want I can shoot you a [ @mention ] if/when people drop out and I feel comfortable I can handle more people again. Sorry for wasting your time, for now.

Pokémon: The Pillaging

@Th3King0fChaos
It looks very nice indeed!
The only thing I can really remark is that "Bowman ship" would just be "Archery" or "Marksmanship," so if you fix that little detail you're accepted.

Ravings-About-Plots-and-Settings

Introduction

Right so, here I am! Some may know me by now, most will not. For those who don't know me, I am the UndeadSpartan, usually referred to as Undead, Spartan, or just Dead. So I'll just get right to the point; in this "interest check" I will simply be listing a few concepts I've had for settings, plots and mechanics. If you see anything interesting in here, first of all I'd be flattered, and secondly, I'd probably be willing to work it out further (if I haven't yet) and make it into a roleplay, so...

TL;DR:
I'm going to write a bunch of ideas I've had here, and if there's interest I might make the idea into a roleplay... That makes this several interest checks at once.

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Concepts

Fate/Possessor
Yeah, the name's a bit odd, but whatever, I think it gets the message across. This concept involves the Fate setting, but instead of summoning heroic spirits to fight for you, you wield their power as your own. I've had this idea when thinking of ways to circumvent having an awkward 2-characters-per-person team, which I've found is usually either very awkward for interaction or even limits certain people to talking primarily to their servant an no one else. The concept is quite simple, you pick your servant like normal and receive their noble phantasm and power to wield. It's similar to the transformations from Jeanne d'Arc (PSP), which I thought was a fun system, even if the plot was all over the place. Inevitably, there would be a grail war, but unlike normal, you'd play a singular character.

Fate/Bizarre Adventure
I probably don't even need to state my two sources for this idea, but for the sake of putting it out there, I will anyway; it's the Fate series and JoJo's Bizarre Adventure. This is another idea I came up with when trying to avoid 2-characters-per-person teams. (Yes, this is a term now.) Much in the same way you'd borrow your power from a heroic spirit in my Fate/Possessor idea, in Fate/Bizarre Adventure you'd summon a heroic spirit which would then function much like a stand. Sorry hamon users... SYKE! of course I wouldn't forget hamon. I sadly can't offer you much in terms of hamon, given that this premise is quite heavily stand-oriented, but at the very least you'd be able to have hamon as a type of magic, the holy grail war is a war between magi after all.

Modular... Mecha
That's all I can really say about it so far. I've been inspired by Custom Robo Arena and numerous old school mecha games. While I'm not usually at home in the Sci-Fi genre, I think it would be really cool to have a setting with extremely modular robots beating the snot out of each other.

Throne of the Monster King
Okay, so I'm completely making this up as I go, but hear me out on this one. First of all, it's not a fandom thing. With that said, let me dive right into this thing; The world is Hell (Hel, the underworld, Naraku, they'd be interchangeable in this setting), the year is meaningless. Hell remains the same no matter how much time passes. Monsters feast on the souls of the damned and fight each other to prove their superiority. Occasionally a rift opens to "the real world," and monsters pour out, but that's hardly relevant now. The supreme monster who sits atop the food chain as a lone ruler, known simply is the "Monster King," has disappeared. Of course, powerful monsters were quick to proclaim themself the new Monster King, but the consequences of this disappearance nonetheless reaches small fry like you. Monsters grow stronger as they consume, be it the souls of the damned, live humans or other monsters. Having sat atop the food chain for so long, the Monster King was an unapproachable, unsurpassable, monster. These self-proclaimed Monster Kings however, aren't like that at all. In fact, if you were just a little stronger... This would be a story of a (group of) upstart monster(s), devouring their way up the food chain, aiming to become the next Monster King.

Relics: A Strange History
Aliens did build the pyramids and while they are long since gone, the relics they brought with them still remain however. An untold number of them still rests within the soil of Egypt, many of them still wind up in the wrong hands and a vast collection of relics has already been locked away by The Organization. Officially, The Organization is an elusive mafia-esque group, but below the surface they're a government-funded organization of special investigators tasked with locating these ancient relics and locking them away. You discovered The Organization by chance, or perhaps they were the ones who discovered you. Either way, you've been with them for over a year now, and you've recently been assigned to a new unit. Along with this promotion you've received a relic of your own, for protection. A tale about magical relics focused on investigation, morality and the value of power.

Aerda, Land of Turmoil
An open-world RP setting that is my precious baby. Not 100% finished, but once it is it should be a glorious little thing! The land of Aerda was once tormented by a great evil being whose name was lost to time. This being ruined the planet and nearly wiped out humanity, only to be stopped by four heroes hailing from each of the four continents. The four heroes returned as gods and tried to help humanity rebuild, to little avail. After a decade they came up with a plan to counteract the evil being's curse laid upon the land, in the process however, they disappeared without a trace. Now, over 700 years later, Aerda once more thrives, but trouble lurks around every corner...

Apocalypse in Another World
Yes, that's literally "Apocalypse Isekai." Shameless, I know. A group of regular people get transported from all across Japan at 2:30 PM exactly. All of them had previously been going through the motions of a completely ordinary life, attending school or working their dead-end job, but now find themselves landing on the hard cobblestone of a medieval city. They don't have a lot of time to figure out what happens as a giant, three-headed draconic creature rises over the city, causing nothing but destruction and panic. Will these people find a way to defeat this monster? Will they be able to return to their own world? Only time will tell what fate has in store for them...

Through the Gate
In a Japan not too different from our own Earth's, people frequently reported sightings of yokai. Initially they were dismissed as the product of an active imagination, but with the increasing number of yokai sightings their existence has been all but accepted by the Japanese populace. In response to this, an organization of onmyoji and miko (Exorcists and Shrine Maidens) has risen to defend against the threat of malicious yokai. They've existed in the shadows for far longer than anyone can truly say, but only in the last few years they've been working publicly. You, the players, were just visiting the shrine for the new year's celebrations when you were caught up in a large-scale yokai attack... When confronted with these strange and dangerous creatures, you all stood your ground and wound up joining the organization. Now, you've been tasked of learning what it means to be an onmyoji, so that you may one day venture into the spirit realm and aid in the search for the cause behind the increase of yokai activity...

The Pokémon Genome
A futuristic world in which pokémon are real, but have lost the popularity they had in the past. Not to say people don't rely on Pokémon anymore; on the contrary. Commoners still train and battle with Pokémon and even soldiers rely on their strength... Just not in the same way; by isolating specific pieces of pokémon DNA from extracted blood and fusing it with human DNA they've found a way to create injections that can temporarily grant a person a Pokémon's power. By injecting themselves with the DNA of Pokémon, soldiers have achieved a level of power and function exceeding that of any human-Pokémon team on record, while being far more easily attainable. As a member of a new squad of these enhanced soldiers, it's your duty to take down any threats as they appear. Whether it's taking down organized crime, infiltrating enemy territory to save innocent citizens or even countering terrorism, you'll be expected to try your hardest to maintain the safety of the people.

SMT: Devil Survivor Unclocked
T.B.A.

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Afterword

And... That's pretty much all I have right now. Expect more concepts to appear in the future, as my mind is always racing with new and exciting ideas. If these ideas and the possibilities they bring haven't at all excited you though, then I apologize for taking up your time, and hope that you'll still occasionally come have a look and see if there's anything new that does interest you.

Let that be all for now. If there's anything you'd like to ask or say after reading this, don't hesitate to do so!