Yeah, part of the reason I've always been a little daunted by Advanced is the potential of writing paragraphs of minutely-detailed text, but just from reading through people's responses has abated a lot of my anxiety already.
... and honestly, I don't have anything to add when it comes to story or character developement that hasn't been said by everyone else so far.
I've always considered detailing minutia to be a crutch for people worried about post length. I consider Advanced to be anyone who writes clearly, concisely, and compellingly who also has a decent amount of experience and an implied amount of commitment.
As long as I don't really feel pressured to write a LOT of the time, I don't mind staying in Advanced. I just tend to have a mental image of "Advanced" meaning paragraphs and paragraphs of what I view as fluff and padding. But if post length isn't a real issue, and it's just about giving the others stuff to reply to, then I should be fine with it.
I despise fluff to the point I'll skip reading things if the information is useless and uncompelling so like, we on the same page lol
This sounds genuinely fascinating! I'd like to throw my digital hat into the ring!
Lovely! If the other two are still interested that's enough for me to get going on everything else.
I'd just like the three of you to let me know what your wishes and expectations are when it comes to the story, post length, and character development, as well as anyone else who is interested. That way I can cater a bit more to my players.
Also if y'all would rather stay in Advanced or move to a High-End Casual format.
I use the advanced section because there tends to be a higher maturity, reading comprehension, and chance the RP doesn't die but do not care about post length as long as there's a decent amount of quality. If I get another similarly minded person to you two I don't mind moving to the Casual section with a [High-Casual] marker.
Edit: May just do it anyway depending on the next day or so, too excited about this idea to let it die lol
The Angel’s Eye Archipelago exists in the heart of the Net Ocean, the tumultuous aquatic domain of the digital world. Here the whole power of the world rests on it luscious green shoulders. The gateway that makes all other gateway’s possible, where the very soul of this digital universe lives. So why is it then that so few have ever heard of it...? Is it because the archipelago survives off its secrecy? Or is it because the knowledge of the divine should only be entrusted to few mortals? Maybe the very nature of being an unknown entity is sought after by the most powerful of manipulative forces. Whose to say, maybe you’ll get to meet the mastermind who works behind the scenes.
Until then, we should turn our gaze to the mysterious fog that has begun to roll in. Virtually undistinguishable from the natural, and a little too on the nose for a common trope, people who sail into this fog or encounter it on the archipelago’s islands return speaking of a great, dark ocean and creatures of nightmare gnawing at the edges of their vision. Some among these parties do not show their faces ever again in the waking world, others are so twisted and marred they bare no resemblance to their original forms. It is this very aberrant phenomena that lead to you being drawn into the archipelago in the first place.
Humans by their very nature are resistant to otherworldly powers and the laws of the digital universe, how else would we live so long without ever encountering the magic around us. Digimon make their homes behind the very screens we see day to day and yet we do not see the world that lives at our fingertips and thrives off of our dreams. So it would make sense that to fight against unknown powers you would need soldiers so existentially apathetic to their antagonistic forces that the very essence of it wouldn’t affect them, right? Well, only in theory. It’s never been tried before, new recruit, we’ll see if you can get the job done.
Welcome!
Welcome to Digimon Net Ocean: Nightmare Archipelago! A fandom roleplay set in one of the myriad of digital universes, inspired by unfulfilled plot lines in canon and the ever present occult nature of the stories that appear in the franchise. This will be a widely sea-faring adventure exploring the Archipelago and the mysteries within. You’ll be riding extravagant navel vessels, fending off pirate attacks, and encountering living forests. Don’t be fooled by the grand adventure that awaits as the mysteries within exist by the rules of cosmic level horrors and the equally unknowable essence of our very souls.
Your Story
You’ll be playing as a human brought to the Archipelago by KingWhamon, one of the three lords of the islands, and an island himself. The Lords have taken every precaution to keep the archipelago secret from the rest of the world to protect the source of the powers that be but have met their wits end. The otherworldly dark ocean will not show itself to them and they have been unable to investigate it themselves. Unnerved by secrets they themselves are not keeping, they sought humans as a tool to safely explore this unknown variable. Historically humans have always been brought to the digital world in great times of need, so the Lords of Angel’s Eye took a page from that book and have recruited a few chosen of their own.
Characters will manifest in the digital world with different tools at their disposal based on the states of their personalities and their subconscious. This is of course, a plot digivice to allow players to use whatever mechanics from the canon to design their characters. Enjoy the concept of armor Digimon? Want to punch bad guys in their faces? Want to become a Digimon yourself? All available to you if you can narratively justify it. That doesn’t mean the price you pay for your decisions is just time and creativity for a character sheet, your characters digital manifestations of power will greatly affect how the world and antagonistic forces will act against you.
Digimon and other Digital Entities
The nature of this digital world is an amalgam of inspirited computer files, an infinitely unknowable collective unconscious, and otherworldly forces taking advantage of a deeply manipulative medium to manifest and create life. It is different from the many other digital worlds in existence in that its sovereign entities and protective deities are not collectively responsible for the safety of the whole of the universe, but rather the many regions within, with the gods at the heart of the world unknown to all but the highest of orders. There is no king Yggdrasil, no Royal Knights, no Olympus XII, no recognized group of Holy Beasts governing each direction. Just a myriad of different deific energies controlling their respective regions, some vying for more power, and others content with their increasingly small domains.
The progression and regression of a Digimon's form in this world are greatly affected by the stimuli they feed off of and the nature of their root data. While most Digimon will follow a similar progression to what you've seen in the anime series, many may also follow the confusing interconnected tree(s) you'll find in some of the games. You may start an Agumon but by no means is it unheard of to end up a Lilymon when you follow the right psychological journey, it's just exponentially difficult the farther away from your base nature the desired form is and can takes months to years. Even more importantly, it seems the presence of human stimuli has a great effect on Digimon themselves, with human emotional data invariably having the greatest effect on their progression.
The world itself is wildly influenced by digital trends in the human world and the consciousness of humans that find themselves visiting for some grand task such as yours. Not only the world, but a human's very perception of themselves can alter their digitized forms from one moment to the next. This can range from the tame side of determining your outfit, to a more complex representation of your very own dysmorphic tendencies. The nature of exactly how much the human mind effects the world is unknown, volatile, and adherent to no observable rules. What that has to say about the rules guiding what exists beyond the ever-vexing fog is disturbing to say the least.
Other entities do exist in the digital world. Beings composed of digital matter but harbor no physical form to call their own are extremely common and have no more effect on the world than the breeze. There are natural elements of the world as well such digital copies of small animals such as squirrels and fish or plant lifeto fill up the landscape. Increasingly rare are other manifestations that take on human forms, possess willing hosts, and form the landscape itself.
Why play?
If you enjoy the darker or more complex themes in Digimon stories that appeal to its adult viewers I highly encourage you to participate. Possession, interdimensional travel, unconscious bias, the nature of self pity, Eaters, the dark ocean, and deranged deities are not uncommon to fans of the series, and they’ll not be uncommon in this story. I’m looking for a small to medium sized group of 3-8 characters that can shrink or expand based on extra-narrative needs.
I'm going for a more collaborative story here. There are several overarching narratives present in this world that you'll have the freedom to explore, but just like the effect of your character's psyche has on the world, your desires and writing choices will have an effect on my plots as well. The best stories are about the characters, not the setting.
Name: Beau Lewis Age: 27 Appearance: Constantly annoyed and perpetually raising an eyebrow.
Beau is a little on the shorter side, reaching only about 5’7”, and gives the vibe that the anger of “short man syndrome” has long been replaced with a dejected acceptance. He sports shaggy, medium length, auburn hair and just enough facial hair to say he has a goatee. Hazel-Green eyes that are always devoid of humor will stare at you from behind thick framed glasses and suggest you have 5 seconds to grab his attention or lose it.
Beau has some very masculine, angular features to his face, a strong nose and small eyes. He’s built like a hipster that drank a lot of milk as a kid. That is to say, he’d look like a fence post if his bones weren’t built like iron pipes. His Northern European heritage comes through very loud in this manner, making it seem like the gods got his height wrong comparatively.
Beau’s wardrobe consists of wrinkled button downs, worn out jeans, and dirty canvas sneakers. There’s an air that he might’ve actually been interested in keeping a well thought-out and consistent style but the fact everything in his closet lives for approximately two weeks before the moths get in the way of that leave the eye wanting more.
Concept: Plague Bearer. Shouldering a curse as a reminder of his past depravities and just trying to get through life one step at a time without falling apart, again.
Curse: Beau attracts insects, arachnids, mollusks, and other such creatures wherever he goes. Said creatures do not harm him unless he otherwise instigates them. They do however, constantly get in the way of his life. From infesting his kitchen and eating his clothes to being followed around by swarms of bees.
Beau has been cursed since an incident in high school he doesn’t talk about. The most anyone has been able to pry out of him is that he has a lot more money than he lets on and that his father’s death has something to do with it. It’s a sore subject due to both trauma and regret. Everyone has skeletons in their closet, in Beau’s case it’s an urn full of his father’s ashes.
Beau to this day, a decade or more later, doesn’t know who or what cursed him. What he has been able to ascertain is that this curse was meant to teach him a lesson, else he’d have succumbed to death years ago when compared to some of the victims of his particular brand of plague. Not for sure if it was ever meant to be broken, Beau has accepted it as a part of his life and has given up on the idea of getting rid of it.
Powers/Skills: Plague Bringer: Beau’s curse uses him as a carrier for the concept of “plague.” The creatures he attracts will attack individuals who commit acts of greed in Beau’s presence. The severity of the attack depends on the harm caused by the act. The curse will infect its victims and plague them for a proportional time afterwards, the attracted creatures often being hostile.
Accidental Entomologist: Beau can sort of read the patterns of movement in certain insects and ask them to do simple tasks. This ranges from telling how long a body has been dead to telling you which way a field of dandelions is.
Never Without Friends: Perks of bugs loving you? They’re everywhere. Unless it’s in the middle of winter or the weather is really bad, the sheer amount of flying and crawling pests that can get between Beau and his antagonists is enough to develop spontaneous entomophobia.
That Deep, Primal Fear: Entomophobia, Arachnophobia, and their cousins are some of the most common phobias in the world. The ability to weaponize his curse to conjure some of the most primal fears humans possess is something he shamefully admits to abusing.
What would Beau like to happen?: Some way to purge the negative aspects of his curse and gain more control over his little friends. At this point the buzzing of bees makes a place feel like home, he just wishes the moths would stop eating his damn underwear. What would WaywardK like to happen?: Intense interpersonal drama, an environment in which character development can thrive, and endless allusions to Innsmouth.
The light, ticklish feel of stilt-like feet skittering across his thigh rustled Beau out of a light sleep. The smell of fear and sweat pervaded the air as the last remnants of the chittering nightmares faded from his view. Arching his back like a cat disturbed from its nap Beau roared awake with an irritated groan and a mean look on his face. Was he eating something bad before bed or were these dreams getting worse?
Beau kicked his feet over the side of his bed and rubbed the dryness out of his eyes, trying to recall all the details of the night’s latest horrific subconscious movie. He grabbed a notebook off his bed stand and flipped to the next clean page:
“Hundreds of little cocoons, spun like they’d been trapped in a spiders web dotted the sidewalk. It’s hard to walk without stepping on them and it feels increasingly like looking at the smooshed remnants of what I had been stepping on would make me hurl. I notice one looks to be squirming, like something is about to hatch. Some morbid curiosity leads me to pick it up and look at it closely in my palm.
Little black legs poke a hole and start to tear the edges of the silk and I still can’t tell if its hatching or escaping. I get a sense of a reddish brown color starting to make its way through when I finally see that it’s some kind of fly buzzing its way out. I don’t get any sort of catharsis from identifying it before I feel like it looks like it has hair. I poke at the cocoon to turn it over and there on the head of the fly is my face, wide eyed and looking back at me.
My perspective shifts and I’m suddenly in the hand looking up at my body with a fly’s head on my shoulders. It doesn’t take me long to notice, in disgusted fascination, that the very skin of my stolen body seemed to be dotted by hundreds of wriggling eyes arranged in a pattern reminiscent of a pomegranate’s flesh. Realization dawned on me as each wriggling eye revealed itself to be the home of a pulsating larval denizen. Some foul hive of a human body cradled me in its hands, twitching like some horrid creature of undeath and seemed to regard me with the eyes of a necrophile discovering a fresh body in the morgue.”
Beau stopped writing, suddenly unwilling to conjure the images of the latest nightmare and puts down his notebook. Every night was something new and equally disgusting as the last. Parasites, pulsating eggs, and trypophobic images seemed to be constant themes in his dreams these days. As much as Beau had learned to love the more aesthetically pleasing forms of various bees, ants, and colorful winged creatures he thought the parasitic, hole boring, body horrors that invertebrates were capable of made his skin feel like it was begging to slither off and die like some disgusting molt.
The real questions was were these new dreams due to some subconscious rejection of his curse, or a sign that his curse was evolving in a direction he didn’t want to be apart of?
I kind of leaned into some unsettling themes for this character in the name of creeping horror, hopefully it fits the mood you're going for cause I'd love to join :)