Yankee

Current Mood in One Gif

Cacophony Concord

^{CaCo is catching on}

I second a group discord or similar for after everyone meets proper in game, variously brought in by others?

For Amelia, her main media accounts would probably be FB, Reddit and Instagram. Definitely frequents r/RelationshipAdvice.

Gaming interests:

• RPGs & JRPGs
• Adventure Games
• Puzzle Games
• Action Games
• Visual Novels
• Dating Sims
• Lifestyle Sims
• Mobile Games including Gacha

Non-gaming Interests:

• Food
• Fashion
• Cosmetics
• Those groups that post about sales and discounts all the time
• Cheer & Sports
• Cute Animals

Cacophony Concord

Amelia and Katherine can be online buddies~ maybe not the horribly depressing one which I am going to take a face value and assume is a section for straight up depressing stuff. I think Amelia would probably frequent the more popular/easily accessible sites to talk about game series she likes and branch out from there. Disclaimer I have no idea how reddit works but if you can make a friend through it I'm down

I think Amelia, Katherine, and Raymond (and Theresa?) are the most "normie" so it might be easier to connect those few, and harder to connect them to others. For example the hardcore MMO players and our resident esportsman, at least for me Amelia didn't really have an interest in those before CaCo (yes I'm gonna call it that). However the MMO players might have run into each other once or twice in other games. If there are two or three "groups" then we'd just need a bridge to connect them.

And for someone like Lew, because of his large interest in P***mon, and that franchise being what it is... if he is active in fandom groups for it it's easy to connect him, I could easily see Amelia being delighted by his love of the cutesy monsters in video games (with his "other" desires unknown of course).

It's a bit hard to connect everyone but, well, this is my two cents. Form a venn diagram of friend groups.

Cacophony Concord

What are the "security systems put in place to prevent distasteful actions between players" in that case? Rather, what is a distasteful action that doesn't fall into above categories?

As for player relations, I'm gonna do some brainstorming (most of you know this amounts to a light rain shower at best), but I still think the easiest way to have everyone connected ahead of time is through some online forum or chatroom. However it's also possible that the party could know each other like a chain? For example Character A is friends with B and C. B is not friends with C but knows D and E, etc. from there...? So it wouldn't be necessary for everyone to know one another as long as there is a string of acquaintances...?

I hear there's rping here!

Yeah there might be RPing here.

Welcome!

Cacophony Concord

@71342 I don't think you're late friend, the post deadline is next Wednesday (unless I vastly misunderstood the deadline), so everyone is pretty early.

World of Light

Word Count: 533 (+1 exp)
Level: 5 - Total EXP: 2/50
Location: Spiral Mountain Battlefield

Cadet listened to both the women with him, one explaining the golden disc in his possession and the other with a daring plan that he sincerely hoped would work after learning his own plans definitely wouldn't work. It was no skin off his nose though, they didn't call him the Ace Strategist for a reason. He tucked the trophy base away and peeked out from behind the giant tree whenever it wasn't his turn to be awkwardly pummeled by Blazermate as she recharged. Unsurprisingly the battlefield was changing quickly as their motley crew got nearer and nearer to the snipers' tower.

"Your, uh, army is getting pretty close," he announced to Blazermate, watching the rotted humanoids steadily march up the twisted mountain. The marksmen at the top of the tower were smart enough not to waste their energy with the things, instead focusing purely on the heroes. Most of their attention had been diverted to said heroes who had already made it to the mountain's path, but Cadet didn't dare think that the rest of them still in the field were safe from their arrows by any means. Still, he continued scanning the area. It was littered with walls and patches of ice, and a few more interesting things.

The monster hunter considered making another trip out from behind cover to gathered more of the trophyfied members of their group, but the tiny red Kameks were doing a fine job of that. He was sure they were all grateful the little guys were willing and able to retrieve the ones that had fallen into the water. Anyone else that had to swim with luggage was just asking to be shot. Once the Courier's trophy was safely behind bark, Cadet touched it's base to free him - but not before grabbing one of the toadies by it's foot and pulling it closer.

"If you guys can, get that - " Ace Cadet told it, and pointed out the shimmering spirit of the sniper that had floated down from it's perch, " - and bring it back here too!" The princess had said they would need strong spirits after all. He released the toadie and when it rejoined it's group to continue their rescue missions, Cadet decided he wanted to help out too. There was still one more small trophy out there. The redhead turned back to Peach, Blazer, and the newly revived Courier with a grin.

"I'm gonna move up! I think I can make it. Blazermate, if your plan works you should try and move everyone else up too - it's a lot easier for them to hit us when we're out here instead of in there!" His words were common sense, but he said them with confidence. As soon as the Ace Cadet thought he had an opening and the snipers were focused on the closer threats, he made his mad dash. What was left of the frozen walls made for decent cover for part of the way, but eventually the young man had to break into a dead sprint across the open expanse. On his route he expertly scooped up the trophy of Cuphead, catching it by it's base. His goal was, of course, the stone tower.

ꇙ ꒤ ꋊ ꋪ ꒤ ꋊ ꋊ ꏂ ꋪ ꇙ

---

^{Canyon: Evening}

---

Asante moved with the rest of the group at the veteran Runner’s signal. He might have urged his mount a little too quickly at first, her claws flinging sand up behind her as she scrambled forward towards the front of the caravan, but soon enough she calmed and the boy riding atop the boga relaxed a little. He was wrapped up in an oversized scarf of deep purple, the top tied around his head and face while the rest was draped over his shoulders. As he’d thought earlier, it was a lovely night - the sands stayed warm for a while, and the duo of moons were bright overhead. At several points in the early part of their journey, Asante found himself trusting the reptile below him and fixing his gaze skyward.

The ride felt different with such a large group of traveling companions. Not just the company of course, naturally anyone would feel differently when they were more used to solo rides through the dunes. This ride however imparted some measure of responsibility to the Sunrunners that were a part of it, and Asante was no exception. Although he could often be seen looking up at the Twins and the stars, it was never for too long. He kept his attention sharp, did his part. Eventually the moonlight bled into dawn, and the first real test of the mission came upon them - and quickly.

A sandstorm was an aggressive adversary like any force of nature, but that was all it was. They could have run into any number of people more vicious than a storm. From the sounds of it the sandstorm wasn’t far off, so Asante didn’t waste any time. With a harsh flick of the reins he directed the boga back toward the schooner as quickly as it would take him there. Now the young man’s strong suit was dexterity, he wasn’t exactly built for strength. If he needed to use the boga to pull he would, but in the middle of his considering a better course of action for himself the armored man, August, made a sound suggestion. Asante’s eyes flickered to the man still astride his horse and gave him a pointed look.

The next moment the purple maned boga leapt aboard the schooner. The young Runner looked between many of the faces on the deck, some startled by the creature's sudden appearance. After barely a moment's hesitation Asante dismounted and helped two of the crew into the space he'd just vacated. "There," he said to the boga, pointing out the cave Hawke has spotted, "then back to me." He'd chosen this boga specifically for her intelligence, and he was confident she'd do a fine job ferrying people off of the schooner. As soon as she was gone, scrambling over the sand and stone of the canyon's base, Asante turned a dark gaze on the men still on the vessel.

"You heard them, right?" he questioned, "Ready the harpoons or get off the ship and pull." If the sandstorm wasn't so close, the sight of the young man giving out orders when the more veteran Runners were right there would be comically. As it were, most scurried off with Asante's words and the boy himself moved to the bow to lend any hands he could.

---

^{H e a l t h ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ 100%
E f f e c t s : None
W i t h : Everyone
N o t e s : None}

Cacophony Concord

^{___________________}

"Wow..."

The not-Earth glimmering below had Amelia completely entranced. She spent what felt like a long time gazing down at the planet, tempted to reach out to it every time it looked like something might break it's atmosphere. It was beautiful, and seemed so... alive. Much different than seeing a picture of a planet or watching a video. It really was like Amelia was there, floating in this foreign space, looking down at a living world and seeing it with her own eyes. That's what these VR games are supposed to be like, right? This one looks so pretty though... the blonde thought to herself as she stood among the stars, I'm glad I shelled out for that full dive machine.

"Quite a sight, no?"

The sudden voice startled Amelia, her head snapping up to find it's speaker. The bird was huge, it's dark feathers nearly blending in with the void of space. Amelia smiled at it.

"Yes!" she replied, though it already began launching into a programmed spiel. An NPC, of course - or rather, something more simple? A base program or something. The newcomer nodded along with the owl's words right up until a screen appeared from no where, and on it - Amelia blushed a furious scarlet.

"Huh?! That's - !"

"You may alter your current form however - "

"You can't just put up a naked picture of me - "

"a model for you based off an image you can upload - "

"And how did you even get it anyway?!"

"can be experienced via the ‘Trial’ button, but as a precaution - "

"I was wearing clothes when I started the game! I still am!!"

"intense psychological discomfort afterwards."

"I definitely didn't give my permission for this!!" The owl and Amelia talked over each other as the girl hastily moved through the menus with a purpose, until finally toward the end she found a nudity setting. She instantly set it to personal, and breathed out a sigh of relief when the image of her in her birthday suit currently on display changed to at least blur out her more personal bits. She fell backwards and floated there as if lounging. That model was pretty damn detailed too, even down to her moles! She gave the bird a suspicious look, but it didn't seem offended - it merely raised a feathered brow at her.

"...eh, wait, what was that last part you said?"

...after persuading Minerva to repeat his entire speech, Amelia dove into her character creation. At first she fiddled around with her own body. She made herself buff, gave herself all kinds of piercings, scars and tattoos - even pitched her own voice down. The avatar on the screen came out looking like some kind of hardcore 80's biker movie reject. Oh well. Back to the drawing board! She hit the "revert to default" option and the censored model of her actual body returned. About an hour of work, thrown to the wind. She glanced at Minerva, but the avian didn't seem impatient or anything.

Okay... what next... Amelia's eyes slid over the various options. They landed on the gender slider - which wasn't a slider, exactly, but more like a button that ticked between a couple of genders. She switched the avatar's gender to male, and it's sex changed along with it. She was now looking at, perhaps, an alternate universe "Amelia." This is kind of uncanny... thank God my AU junk is still blurred.

She changed the model's hair color and length. It's jawline was already a bit stronger than her own, it's nose a bit sharper. Now that the avatar wasn't exactly like a male Amelia, she found it... somewhat cute. Opening up every possible slider in the character creator, she fiddled with everything she could fiddle with. She measured it's height in comparison to hers, fine tuned it's eye color to be the perfect shade, stuck two cute little bangs on either side of it's face... even slapped a tattoo on it for shits and giggles. Finally, after three more hours, just when Minerva was starting to look a bit exasperated, the girl stepped back from her creation and smiled.

"Aw, he's perfect!"

Character Creation

Username: Ames
Race: Human
Gender: Male
Height: 176cm
Weight: 69kg
Voice Pitching: -45
Decorations: Tattoo - Lower Back
Appearance: Everything that could be tweaked has been. Using her own body as a base, Amelia's avatar has changed quite a bit and become what is commonly known as a "bishounen." He's a bit on the short side for a male, with a youthful face and lean body. His haircut is medium length mess, but a perfectly crafted mess. It's a rich red color that fades into pink at the very ends, with two pink locks coming down on either side of his face like antennae. Eye color is equally red. The skin color hasn't changed much from Amelia's own, the light peach of a Caucasian.

Attributes

HP – 10 (100)
MP – 10 (100)
SP – 10 (100)
STR – 10
AGI – 9
END – 10
DEX – 10
LUC – 11

Classes: None

User Experience

Perception: Fantastic
Gore: Pixelated
Pain Setting: 40%
Clothing Damage: On
Nudity Censor: Personal
Profanity Censor: Off
Combat Action: Stylish
Spell Incantations: Stylish

"...Oh, right, a name huh? Honestly I'm kind of bad with names... Um..." She tapped a finger to her chin a few times before settling on something simple. Ames. A nickname from her childhood she hadn't heard in a while, and honestly kind of missed. As for everything else, she mumbled aloud as she went through the last few options after settling on the appearance.

"Stats... I don't really know. I'll just start off balanced, that's fine, probably. Oh, wait... this...? Okay. Perception... don't really wanna see gore... pain setting...?" Amelia blinked in surprise. Sean wasn't kidding, this game was in-depth. Briefly she thought back to the most painful thing that had ever happened to her, a broken leg due to a bad fall after a botched toss. She considered turning the pain setting off entirely, but she could think of some reasons not to. The rest were easy choices. She clicked accept.

"Okay~ I think I'm ready now, Minerva! Time to get this show on the road."

Cacophony Concord

Player: Amelia

Name: Amelia Marescol
Age: 22
Gender: Female
Nationality: American
Description:
A down-home girl from the Midwestern United States. Amelia's friendly personality, positive outlook on life, cute face and, frankly, her girl-next-door vibe made her quite popular in the rural little village where she lived. The place had barely 5,000 people residing in it and was home to all the charms of small town living: close-knit and nosy neighbors, a single gas station where local kids loitered, fields of corn and wheat as far as the eye could see and of course, a high school full of students hoping to leaving their hometown far, far behind once they'd graduated. Amelia was no different.

While growing up Amelia had much the same desires as other girls her age... to get whisked away by a nice man, move to a big city and live a more exciting life than she could ever have in a small town like the one she was born in. When she wasn't daydreaming about that she passed her days reading romance novels, keeping up with school and her cheer squad, and... playing videogames?

Her interest started with what is commonly referred to as a visual novel. While on the search for more love stories online, she happened to stumble across one and ended up enjoying it. She considered it sort of like a choose your own adventure book! This led her down a rabbit hole of otome games and mobage. Her gaming hobby, if you could even call it that at the time, wasn't a secret or anything. She even attended her school's gaming club when she had the time between cheer tournaments. The guys in the club introduced her to what they called "real videogames," and they turned out to be a lot of fun. Contrary to what a hollywood high school romcom might have you believe, Amelia's confident, cheerful demeanor meant she could keep up with both her extroverted friend group and the school's gaming fans without coming off as weird to either party. Amelia's summer days were filled with long drives down country roads with local athletes and fellow cheerleaders, and her nights were filled with adventure games and virtual romance.

Once graduated, Amelia took the first opportunity to leave her small town behind with a friend from her cheer squad. They moved into an apartment together in one of the state's larger cities. Amelia enrolled in college and began her search in earnest for a nice guy, cool job, and exciting life... and found none of those things! Going out with friends every now and then was fun, but RPGs were a lot more exciting than her current student life. And her love life was especially dismal. None of the guys she dated could measure up to the SSR cards she'd collected on her phone games. However! She was determined not to give up! She poured her all into school work and speed dating, leaving her little time for hobbies - including games. Unsurprisingly this quickly led to a burnout and a break year.

Two months into the break year, Amelia reconnected with one of the guys from her old high school gaming club. Sean had always been particularly nice to her. He'd lived next door back in their hometown, and let Amelia borrow games when she was still just getting into them. The surprise lunch chat they'd had was the most refreshing conversation Amelia'd had in a while. He recommended a certain game to her by the name of Cacophony Concord - which he had nothing but praise for. The only down side was she'd need a machine that could facilitate a full dive into it's virtual world. MMOs were a genre she'd played a little of, but hadn't really gotten into. However the appeal of an exciting virtual experience was alluring, and on her old childhood friend's recommendation she promised to give it a shot. Her roommate was speechless when not even a week later Amelia lugged a FDD through their apartment.

After setting the game up and logging in for the first time, a sudden whim came over Amelia and she created her avatar to cater specifically to her type - a cute guy with a main character vibe. It'd slipped her mind that this was a VR game... as in, first person. However! She wouldn't let that stop her!

If I can't find my own knight in shining armor, I'll become him! Or something like that.

Character: Ames

Username: Ames
Race: Human
Gender: Male
Height: 176cm
Weight: 69kg
Voice Pitching: -45
Decorations: Tattoo - Lower Back
Appearance: Everything that could be tweaked has been. Using her own body as a base, Amelia's avatar has changed quite a bit and become what is commonly known as a "bishounen." He's a bit on the short side for a male, with a youthful face and lean body. His haircut is medium length mess, but a perfectly crafted mess. It's a rich red color that fades into pink at the very ends, with two pink locks coming down on either side of his face like antennae. Eye color is equally red. The skin color hasn't changed much from Amelia's own, the light peach of a Caucasian.

Classes:
Warrior lvl 50 (+10% HP | +10% STR | +10% END)
Animist lvl 0 (+10% HP | +10% MP | +10% SP)
_{Weapon Proficiency: LVL 3}

Attributes:
HP – 55 (810)
MP – 60 (660)
SP – 60 (690)
STR – 65 (98)
AGI – 52 (74)
END – 50 (65)
DEX – 65 (80)
LUC – 70 (78)

Abilities:
▶ Power Attack _{Actively consume SP while preparing for an attack; unleash for increased damage on attack.}
▶ Combat Stance _{Passive. Increase STR, END, or DEX by 10% at will. Five second cooldown.}
▶ Double Strike _{Active. 25% SP cost. Attack twice with your weapon, dealing incremental bonus damage based off SP consumed. Can be combo'd into from Power Attack.}
▶ Sundering Blow _{Active. 40% SP cost. Strike downwards, causing a burst of energy around you and dealing damage to all enemies. May inflict Stun. Range increases by 5 meters for every 100 SP consumed, starting from a radius of 10 meters. Can be combo'd into from Power Attack.}
▶ Harmonic Cycles _{Passive. 5% of HP/SP/MP can be converted into HP/SP/MP. Can be used once per round.}
▶ Art of the Split Soul _{Active. 5% SP and 5% MP per round. Imbue a Weapon or Shield with a portion of your soul, enabling it to float within a 20m radius of you, attacking or defending at your command. This bypasses Equipment slot restrictions. Imbued Weapons or Shields do not grant stats or effects.}

Funds: 15883 Rishi

Item Pouch (Common):

• Ankle Bells (dented)
• Common Health Potion x4
• Common Antidote x2

Equipment

• Main Hand: Water Tiger Hook Sword UC +7 STR +3 DEX
  • Weapon can be used to Grapple while attacking, at 80% efficacy.
• Off Hand: Adventurer's Buckler C
  • No extra effect.
• Head: Battlerider's Cowl R +50 HP +10 AGI
  • Increase [Charge] attack damage by 20%. Increase [Riding] proficiency by 10%.
• Armor: Lacquered Woodplate UC +30 HP, +20 SP, +5 END
  • Reduce damage taken by wind and water attacks by 50. Increase damage taken by fire attacks by 15.
• Arms: Phantom Flame Bangles R +100 HP +3 AGI +5 END
  • Reduce fire damage by 35. Consume 100 HP to enhance your equipped weapons with magical flames.
• Legs: Barbarian Leg Paddings UC +20 HP, +4 STR, +4 AGI
  • 10% resistance to Restraint effects.
• Shoes: Sturdy Sandals UC +5 AGI, +2 DEX
  • 5% resistance to Knockback effects. Mitigates difficulties of movement on slippery terrain.
• Accessory: Divining Rattlebones C +8 LCK
  • No extra effect.
• Accessory: Banner of the Raid Chief R +30 SP +15 STR +10 DEX
  • x% chance of increasing ally’s damage by 10% when they attack. X equals 5 x the amount of party members. This effect does not stack.
• Accessory: Deep Red Cloak C
  • No extra effect.
• Accessory:

User Experience:
Perception: Fantastic
Gore: Pixelated
Pain Setting: 40%
Clothing Damage: On
Nudity Censor: Personal
Profanity Censor: Off
Combat Action: Stylish
Spell Incantations: Stylish