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Starter Pokémon! A compiled list of the starter Pokémon to choose from offered in Victory Road!
Player Name: Maxie E-mail: madteaparty92[at]gmail[dot]com Preferred Contact: PM, Plurk Timezone: EST Current Characters in Victory Road: Louie Duck (DuckTales)
Character Name: Boober Fraggle Series: Fraggle Rock Timeline: Post-"Change of Address" Canon Resource Links:Wiki Link
Personality: Boober is a gloomy, superstitious, cranky worrywart of a fraggle, and as such one might assume he's also a very unhappy fellow. The truth is it's complicated. Overall, Boober finds a sense of security in his anxiety and sadness - though there are certainly times when they overwhelm him. He may not find dancing and playing games fun, as other fraggles do - those sort of things, at best, just don't do it for him, and at worst, stress him out. But he finds his own sort of fun. He enjoys a lot of domestic and otherwise quiet activities, like cooking and especially laundry. In fact, doing laundry is his official job in Fraggle Rock, and he takes great pride in that and any other job he does well-- He's also taken on a lot of the cooking and medical work down there. He's one of the more consistently serious (and snarky) fraggles you'll see among a group of fun-loving optimists.
Socially, Boober needs his alone time, or at least his quiet time, on a regular basis. That said, he loves his friends and tries his best to take care of them in the way he can-- Honestly, in a way he often feels only he will think about. Because, yes, part of Boober's worrying is preparation for the worst. It's worth noting that as a result of this, when a disaster is actually present he's usually able to handle it rather calmly. The possibility is worse than the reality, with the catch that when a disaster is something he's never considered -- dogs getting into Fraggle Rock or humans polluting their water supply -- he's still a mess. However, in both of those examples he ultimately comes through. These instances where he had no choice but to come through in the clutch have created character development.
Now, there actually is a part of Boober that’s much like other fraggles. Sidebottom, the "fun side that Boober keeps on the bottom" is someone Boober doesn’t usually think of as himself. Of course, Sidebottom is still just Boober, and the struggle to accept this repressed aspect of his pen personality is something crucial to Boober’s development that isn’t truly resolved by the end of canon. So while Boober certainly becomes a braver and stronger fraggle throughout the series, and he’s on the path to reconciling this as well, there’s still room for him to grow.
Pokémon Information Affiliation: Trainer Starter: Rotom Password: Atomic Fireball
Welcome to the Wonderful World of Pokemon! Congratulations, you have a fun and exciting adventure awaiting you.
Now that you've been accepted... [○] Respond to this with your character's journal. This is a must! [○] Comment in the Taken Characters post, alphabetized by series: Here. [○] Join the following communities: victory_road, the_plateau, and ohmyarceus. Only Team Rocket personnel should join silph_co, but we ask that all Victory Road members subscribe to it. Note! You will not be accepted to the main or logs community until you've commented in the aforementioned places. [○] If you're still on the reserved list, please let us know that they've been accepted. [○] Please make sure to check out the Calendar for the weather and upcoming plots and swarms! [○] You can also find our mod plurk at victoryroad; if you have a Plurk, we suggest you become a fan!
We'd also like to take this moment to inform you of the Eastern Kanto Ferry! For only P2000, you can take a three day, all-inclusive ferry ride from New Bark Town to Pallet Town and begin a new pokémon journey in the Kanto region! Otherwise, feel free to start in Johto!
Player Name: Zumi E-mail: zumidotexe@gmail.com Preferred Contact:zumidotexe Timezone: EST Current Characters in Victory Road: Scrooge McDuck (DuckTales 1987)
Character Name: Gobo Fraggle Series: Fraggle Rock (1983) Timeline: Post-series Canon Resource Links:Wiki
Additional information: What the wiki greatly leaves out is that Gobo is an explorer and a leader. He's often spent time down the unknown tunnels of the Rock, whether with company or without. He's been in many different scrapes over time, whether caused by himself- such as the ill-fated "Gobo's School For Explorers" that nearly wound up in his own death disappearance -or stumbling into a misadventure of another making, usually due to the dangerous nature of living underground. Cave-ins, monsters, storms, fights with friends, Gobo has faced it all with bravery (eventually, in some cases). He's also an accomplished athlete, especially in the vein of rock climbing and racing, and takes pride in taking charge of a chaotic situation.
The wiki also only barely touches on it but after an entire series of near encounters he does finally meet Doc, and through that is responsible for introducing Fraggles to him, as well as the magic that's in, well, everything.
Personality: Gobo is pragmatism personified, barring impulsive or simple-minded (though not stupid) traits generally attributed to the Fraggle species. He likes to take a logical approach to life, going through it via map rather than via intuition, and is often the "straight man" to some of his friends' more wild schemes and activities. He disbelieves in luck, and though he does believe in magic, he takes even a thoughtful approach to that; the right magic for the right problem, rather than that it all happens by chance or whim. Occasionally this will put him at odds with the superstitious types, but it usually works out in the end.
Because of his pragmatism, he can often see the best way to solve a problem, and this has earned him respect from many Fraggles, not just his immediate friends group. ...Most Fraggles, honestly. His friends see him as their leader but so does the Rock, to a point; he's known as a great explorer and the nephew(/great-nephew) of other Fraggle explorers, outlier jobs for Fraggles themselves, and all the braver for it. As such others will hang onto his word or follow him and his advice; Gobo at worst is bemused by this attention, though he does have his moments otherwise...
On that note, Gobo of course has his negative traits as well. He's prideful, stubborn, and can be something of an insensitive jerk, though rarely maliciously; he just doesn't always realize his words or actions are going to hurt. Over the course of the series he broke through some of that, though he does tend to still get too much into what he wants to do without considering others. He has a HUGE competitive streak and can sometimes be a sore loser, and on his worst days can be dark, moody, or extremely argumentative.
More than anything else though, even what was just said, Gobo is good. This is a trait inherent to Fraggles, sure; even the series itself has evil repulsed by their mere presence. But Gobo himself has it in spades. He's more than nice, he's plain kind, and will reach out to anyone he thinks is hurting. He has a deep well of experience he can draw off of, and even if his advice is misguided or not needed, he's always there for support. There is, after all, a reason he's seen as a leader: he is experienced enough to know what to do, and intelligent enough to know when others can do it on their own.
Pokémon Information Affiliation: Breeder Starter: Growlithe Password: Atomic Fireball
Victory Road Sample: Gobo settled back as the campfire finally started getting going good. Sure, he had a Fire type for a partner, but sometimes he just liked doing it by hand. It was good to keep those skills. ...And besides, Matt- his Growlithe -was far too busy chewing on a big stick he'd found to really help with the fire anyway. Gobo laughed softly, watching this for a little bit, then settled back on his hands. So far, it had been pretty strange here, and that wasn't even regarding only the way he looked now. The monsters, being out here period, the reveal of so many other different worlds? It nearly blew his mind! All of that was a lot to comprehend, but right now? Right now was just him, his partner, and their little campsite. And it was a peaceful night...
Rustle. Gobo stiffened, looking up. Rustle crack. There was something in the brush. He carefully slid his feet under him, watching the bushes- A Spearow popped out. Then another. Then two more after that.
"....Matt?" Gobo said softly. Responding to the elongated name the Growlithe stopped and looked up, then hopped to his paws. He growled, even as more Spearow appeared- in the trees, above the bushes, cycling in the sky -but a sharp, simultaneous glare from all of them turned the growl into a whimper. Gobo watched as all these Pokemon appeared, with their sharp little bodies and their sharp little eyes.
"I think discretion is gonna be the better part of valor tonight..."
As if on cue all the Spearow screeched at once, and several took flight. Gobo snatched up his pack and started running- came back at a SKIIID to pour water over the fire then took off again. "Matt, c'mon!" Growlithe obeyed and took off after his trainer, running away pell-mell with a horde of Spearow streaking after them.
Welcome to the Wonderful World of Pokemon! Congratulations, you have a fun and exciting adventure awaiting you.
Now that you've been accepted... [○] Respond to this with your character's journal. This is a must! [○] Comment in the Taken Characters post, alphabetized by series: Here. [○] Join the following communities: victory_road, the_plateau, and ohmyarceus. Only Team Rocket personnel should join silph_co, but we ask that all Victory Road members subscribe to it. Note! You will not be accepted to the main or logs community until you've commented in the aforementioned places. [○] If you're still on the reserved list, please let us know that they've been accepted. [○] Please make sure to check out the Calendar for the weather and upcoming plots and swarms! [○] You can also find our mod plurk at victoryroad; if you have a Plurk, we suggest you become a fan!
We'd also like to take this moment to inform you of the Eastern Kanto Ferry! For only P2000, you can take a three day, all-inclusive ferry ride from New Bark Town to Pallet Town and begin a new pokémon journey in the Kanto region! Otherwise, feel free to start in Johto!
Player Name: Usami E-mail: lonewolfcry.13@gmail.com Preferred Contact:usamichan13 Timezone: Mountain (AZ) Current Characters in Victory Road: Fluttershy
Character Name: Luisa Madrigal Series: Encanto Timeline: Post-movie Canon Resource Links:Wiki link
Personality: Granted with the gift of super strength, Luisa is reliable as she is powerful. Whether it’s retrieving and lifting something heavy, rounding up some escaped donkeys, or even rerouting a river, no task is too big nor too small for her. She is always willing to lend a hand for her family and community, and does what she can to help with no complaints and no hesitation. She is dedicated and hard-working, so people know that they can count on her assistance.
And unfortunately, that was part of the problem. While Luisa does genuinely enjoy helping others, she often felt overloaded by the amount of work that she is asked to do. There was a constant pressure to perform and a need to please others, both at home and in town, that Luisa felt unable to turn down any request made of her. Despite her vast strength, she struggled to carry all the burdens that were placed on her. Yet she kept her feelings of anxiety bottled up inside her, because she was the “tough one” and felt she could not show any weakness. It wasn’t until she was confronted by her sister, Mirabel, when the family’s magic was threatened, that she was finally able to reveal how she truly felt.
Because deep down, Luisa fears that she has no worth beyond her strength. Having used her gift to serve her family and community since the age of five, when she first received her power, she felt that her strength was the only thing that made her important. Her strength was all that was ever called upon or needed, so she grew to feel as though she had nothing else to offer. When the family’s magic was fading and she began losing her gift, she grew very distressed and fearful of not being able to meet the expectations placed on her, because she didn’t know how else to be useful.
With the help of her younger sister, though, and with the support of the rest of their family, Luisa is beginning to learn that she is more than just her gift, that her value as a person is not dependent on what she can do. She is learning that it is okay to express her emotions, and that she can still be strong while asking for help. She is still a young woman who cares deeply about her family and community, and would do anything she can to help and protect them. But now she is starting to learn to take some time for herself as well, and that it’s okay to show the sensitive side of her that lies under the surface of her tough exterior.
Pokémon Information Affiliation: Trainer Starter: Larvitar Larvitar would be a good partner for Luisa because both have an association and reputation concerning mountains: because of her super strength, Luisa is often called the girl who can move mountains, while Larvitar is said to need to eat a mountain in order to grow. They are both quite strong, but are placed under an enormous amount of pressure; for Luisa, that comes in the amount of chores and requests she was asked to do because of her strength, and for Larvitar, it must eat its way through the dirt just to see the surface. Luisa is also shown to be quite tough, so it seems fitting to have a partner known as the Rock Skin Pokemon. Password: Atomic Fireball
Welcome to the Wonderful World of Pokemon! Congratulations, you have a fun and exciting adventure awaiting you.
Now that you've been accepted... [○] Respond to this with your character's journal. This is a must! [○] Comment in the Taken Characters post, alphabetized by series: Here. [○] Join the following communities: victory_road, the_plateau, and ohmyarceus. Only Team Rocket personnel should join silph_co, but we ask that all Victory Road members subscribe to it. Note! You will not be accepted to the main or logs community until you've commented in the aforementioned places. [○] If you're still on the reserved list, please let us know that they've been accepted. [○] Please make sure to check out the Calendar for the weather and upcoming plots and swarms! [○] You can also find our mod plurk at victoryroad; if you have a Plurk, we suggest you become a fan!
We'd also like to take this moment to inform you of the Eastern Kanto Ferry! For only P2000, you can take a three day, all-inclusive ferry ride from New Bark Town to Pallet Town and begin a new pokémon journey in the Kanto region! Otherwise, feel free to start in Johto!
Player Name: Simcha E-mail: keukelart@gmail.com Preferred Contact:keshet or cunnilinguist@4424 on Discord Timezone: EST Current Characters in Victory Road: None.
Character Name: Kirigaya Kazuto; "Kirito" is the name he'll use to introduce himself to people since it's what he uses in VRMMOs. Series: Sword Art Online Timeline: Post-Alicization Arc Canon Resource Links:Sword Art Online Wiki
Personality: In the beginning of the series, Kirito is shown to be awkward, blunt, and extremely cut off from people. He's heavily introverted and doesn't know how to make connections with others. It's revealed later that these aspects of his personality formed only a few years prior, when he discovered that he was adopted and his family had hid the truth from him. It made him question his place in their home and he began to shut others out, immersing himself in the world of video games, as he found the predictable nature of NPCs and AI to be easier to relate to than other people.
His feelings of isolation only grew in the world of Aincrad/Sword Art Online. When it was announced that they were stuck in the game and that if they died there, they would also die in real life, Kirito was quick to leave the large groups of people and head for the next village. While he tried to bring Klein, the only person he had connected to in the game, Klein refused to leave his friends, and so Kirito left him there to make his way on his own. However, Kirito states he never intended to stay a solo player. While he had initially done so to level up quickly, he had intended to party up with others or even join a guild. This became more difficult to do the more negative experiences he had in Aincrad. When he first partied up with Asuna in order to attack the first floor boss, people discovered that he was a beta tester. In order to protect the other beta testers from the hatred that was being thrown at them, he stated that he wasn't like the others, that he was someone who had vast knowledge of the game that he kept to himself. Dubbed a "beater", he let himself take on the burden of others hatred for what he considered the greater good.
Kirito has a tendency to be extremely self-blaming; we see this carry out through the series. This is best shown through an event early in the series. In a final attempt to become closer to others, Kirito lies about his level and joined a low-level guild called the Moonlit Black Cats, a group of kids who knew each other in school in the real world. They needed more members to successfully explore the dungeons and asked Kirito join after he'd saved them and partied with them for a few quests. Kirito agreed and he became extremely close to them. It's here that we started to see more of the Kirito from his childhood; he starts to tell jokes, he's more open, and he's extremely loving. He becomes particularly attached to their female member, Sachi, loving her like a sister. When she admits that she's terrified of dying, he lets her sleep next to him, and every night he tells her that she won't die and they'll get out of the game. He does his best to comfort her and to swear to keep her safe. So when he and the rest of the Moonlit Black Cats get stuck inside of a no-warp dungeon area, he blames himself when they are all killed. Sachi's death in particular deeply traumatizes him and because of their loss, Kirito goes back to shutting everyone out, even more so than before. It's that moment that he decides he will only ever be a solo player, even if it gets himself killed.
Outside of that event, his guilt shows up in a many other key moments. He considers himself a murderer for the two members of the Laughing Coffin, a Player Killer guild in Aincrad, he killed in order to defend himself. That blame carries into the rest of the series, and he even thinks it may be his own fault when he ends up poisoned by one of them, considering it karma for having killed two of their members. Kirito becomes so self-hating and guilt-ridden that in the Underworld, when he his best friend, Eugeo, dies in front of him, he ends up losing himself entirely. A glitch in the system erases his entire sense of self due to his self-hatred in the moment and he is left in a coma for six months. It's only when he is able to rebuild who he is, face his traumas, and forgive himself for being unable to save the ones he loved that he is able to put himself back together.
He is also highly intelligent. Kirito built his first computer from scrap parts when he was 7 years old. One of the reasons that he is able to so heavily advance in the VRMMO worlds is because he is able to learn the systems and then use the programming against itself to become more powerful. His fast reaction times and quick thinking skills earn him the Dual-Wielding ability in Aincrad, a Unique Sword Skill only given to the player with the fastest reaction time in the game. Once he manages to defeat the game, he is sought after by the heads of the Sword Art Online Reaction Team to learn more about Kayaba (the creator of SAO), the way the coding of SAO functioned in actual gameplay, and is consistently used as a consultant for making the VRMMO genre safer. His intellect also makes it easier for him to catch up in school after missing two years education while stuck in SAO and he is on his way to be accepted into any college program of his choosing (if he can just stop consulting with VRMMO companies for like two seconds, anyway).
His analysis and intellectual abilities combined with years of self-isolation can sometimes make Kirito come across as a jerk. He can be blunt and often thinks that he knows more than other people, often trying to override perfectly good suggestions with his own. Without thinking of the consequences, he breaks the best sword that Liz makes in her shop because he wants to find out if it's stronger than what he already has. He then tells her that she's not strong enough to come with him to get replacement materials and that she'll just slow him down. Early on in the series, he is often arguing with Asuna at the frontlines, questioning her command decisions, and believing that he has the better idea of how to work with and save NPCs while still fighting to get through the game in a way that spares the most lives. He is also cocky enough to think he can beat the highest ranking player in the game, Heathcliff. He arrogantly reveals that Heathcliff is in fact Kayaba at the end of the first SAO arc and in an equal bout of arrogance (and self-sacrifice due to his guilt complex) agrees to dual with Kayaba in exchange for freeing the players. He convinces himself he's the only one who can do it and there's no talking him out of it because of it.
His sense of humor can also be fairly sarcastic, usually heavily teasing people who he's grown to care about. With Sinon in Gun Gale Online, he decides that it's better to lie to her and pretend to be a girl so he can gain her help, not thinking about how it might emotionally impact her. After she finds out he was a boy all along, he teases her in front of her friends, taking situations they had out of context to make them sound more perverted, just to get a reaction out of her. At one point in Alfheim, he tugs on Sinon's tail in order to get a reaction out of her that he knows will embarrass her. When he's getting to know Leafa, he teasingly tells her that the players he ate in a monster form taste like crispy bacon, before biting her finger to carry the joke home. He rightfully gets slapped across the face for that one, but it barely earns an apology out of him. He often teases his best friend, Klein, calling him scruffy looking, a creep, and usually telling him that he's lazy. He only ever says it in good humor and would never put up with hearing anyone else make fun of the people he cares about.
Kirito has a large heart and genuinely cares about helping people, especially the more he progresses through the series. Most of his drive to free the players in SAO and then to protect the AI in the Underworld comes from his capacity to deeply care about humanity in all forms, real or virtual. He believes that AI are real people because of their ability to learn and grow in the same way as humans, even if it comes from code. Kirito constantly wants to help others, especially his friends. In order to help her deal with the trauma from her youth, he goes out of his way to find the woman that Sinon saved in the bank when she shot a robber, as well as the woman's daughter who she was pregnant with at the time. He risks his life to save Liz when they go to gather the metal ingredients from a dragon's lair, taking the largest impact when they fall into a pit because he knows he has more health. When he and Alice end up stuck on the outside of a large tower and she's too afraid to climb up, he uses his energy to pull her up to each level he manages to climb to by a rope. When Asuna loses her memories in Ordinal Scale, he fights several battles in a row to make himself stronger and gain a higher rank so he can go up against the final boss and get her memories back. He refuses to let any of his friends suffer and he always fights for the greater good.
He can be highly emotional, even compared to most of the people around him. Kirito openly cries when he's hurting or even when he's filled with extreme joy. He is quick to express any emotion that comes to him, usually in a healthy and productive manner. He feels everything very deeply and he has learned how to not stifle those emotions. He encourages other to be more open with their emotions as well and encourages them to constantly better themselves. It's what drives him to help Sinon when he can tell she's hurting in GGO. It's what makes him want to help Asuna realize that there is more to life in Aincrad than the one she was living by only focusing on clearing the levels. He helps Liz to realize that there is still warmth even in a world made up of code. His ability to help others is ultimately what seems to drive people to want to connect to him.
By the end of the series, Kirito has gone from a social recluse to someone with a large group of friends. No longer shutting others out, he's openly emotional and often tells people how much he cares about them. He is able to crack jokes and be friendly with people he doesn't even know, attracting them to him with a naturally charismatic personality. He can still be a little to blunt with his honesty, but he's learned to curb it more and use it only with people that he already has lower respect for. While he is still heavily introverted, he has learned that he still has to rely on other people in order to be healthy and happy. He has heavily grown throughout the series and become a mature, confident adult who just has a small goal of taking care of the entire world.
Pokémon Information Affiliation: Trainer Starter: Honedge Password: Atomic Fireball
Samples RP Sample:Here. And in case that's not long enough, here! It's SFW up until comment ~20, but even then it's mostly just fluff and nothing graphic (a hard PG-13).
Welcome to the Wonderful World of Pokemon! Congratulations, you have a fun and exciting adventure awaiting you.
Now that you've been accepted... [○] Respond to this with your character's journal. This is a must! [○] Comment in the Taken Characters post, alphabetized by series: Here. [○] Join the following communities: victory_road, the_plateau, and ohmyarceus. Only Team Rocket personnel should join silph_co, but we ask that all Victory Road members subscribe to it. Note! You will not be accepted to the main or logs community until you've commented in the aforementioned places. [○] If you're still on the reserved list, please let us know that they've been accepted. [○] Please make sure to check out the Calendar for the weather and upcoming plots and swarms! [○] You can also find our mod plurk at victoryroad; if you have a Plurk, we suggest you become a fan!
We'd also like to take this moment to inform you of the Eastern Kanto Ferry! For only P2000, you can take a three day, all-inclusive ferry ride from New Bark Town to Pallet Town and begin a new pokémon journey in the Kanto region! Otherwise, feel free to start in Johto!
Player Name: Horse E-mail: aymeric.grimsley@aol.com Preferred Contact: Horse#8008 Timezone:PST Current Characters in Victory Road: Dave Strider
Character Name:Hythlodaeus Series: Final Fantasy XIV Timeline: End of 6.0 Canon Resource Links:https://finalfantasy.fandom.com/wiki/Hythlodaeus Personality: Hythlodaeus is a little ray of sunshine if rays of sunshine were also naturally manipulative and too clever for their own good. At first blush, Hythlodaeus is a very friendly, welcoming, and curious person. He is well received by others and generally treated with respect.
He’s very perceptive as well, which allows him to notice and analyze things on the fly and make well-thought out, if sometimes unorthodox choices in the face of unusual or dangerous circumstances. In fact, he can’t seem to ignore things that pique his interest, like when he saw a weird little thin-souled creation that looked kinda familiar. He simply could not let it go, even at the expense of his traveling companion.
His day job is the Chief of the Bureau of the Architect, which oversees what all the people of Amaurot can do with their powers of creation. This is in spite of being unable to actually create or use magic at the same level himself. However, he is gifted with the power to see what things are made of, and this seems to extend and connect to the fact that he is perceptive as well. He is described as a man who notices much and misses little. With this, he has befriended and consistently manipulates one of the most powerful men on the face of the earth.
He does also know that he is smart, likeable, and able to get his way, which does make him smug as well. His closest friend admits that he is incurably smug, though as curmudgeonly as this friend is, he holds him in the highest regard.
Although he has been given this high office of Chief, a lot of jurisdiction, and is surrounded by some of the most powerful and influential individuals of his time, he also has an enormous capacity to be reckless and dangerous. Hythlodaeus is a little armchair experiment about what someone with zero empathy would do if raised in an idyllic environment. The experiment yielded mostly positive, if weird, results.
Although he is patently weird in his context, he is also passionately devoted to his friends, whom he would literally trade his own life to save or let the world come crashing down for their sakes. Which he did do! For all of his own self-involvement, his rich inner life, and his love of others, he did sacrifice himself for the chance that his beloved friends might survive. For all of his snide remarks about unnecessary sharks, his attempts to manipulate others, his small and large abuses of station, he ultimately cares about his loved ones over everything he has going on within himself. In fact, it is his enormous depth that makes this sacrifice all the more bittersweet.
And that’s really who he is. He knows the score. He knows what he’s worth, and realistically understands what others can bring to the table in a very big picture sense.
Pokémon Information Affiliation: Breeder Starter: Wooper Password: Atomic FireBall
Victory Road Sample: Alright, alright. I think I’ve spent enough time with the little creation to judge it fairly. Yet I would hate to bring my criticisms to the wrong department. So! So.. Whomever is responsible for this…
[Hythlodaeus lifts his Wooper into frame]
Please contact me! I promise to be fair and kind in my feedback. I’ll be honest, it could use a little work. Yet pray do not be discouraged! It has a wonderful overall concept, a delightful face, very competent combat abilities… Yet it leaves me wanting.
How do we feel about forelimbs? I think I would feel better about it if it had some measure of stability. The thing loves to climb, though I have not personally witnessed the process— It does find itself perched on lower limbs rather often.
This is hardly a one man committee, however! I would hear your own input, no matter how arbitrary.
By the by, I cannot seem to find the direct line for this city’s bureau chief. Who oversees all of this?
Welcome to the Wonderful World of Pokemon! Congratulations, you have a fun and exciting adventure awaiting you.
Now that you've been accepted... [○] Respond to this with your character's journal. This is a must! [○] Comment in the Taken Characters post, alphabetized by series: Here. [○] Join the following communities: victory_road, the_plateau, and ohmyarceus. Only Team Rocket personnel should join silph_co, but we ask that all Victory Road members subscribe to it. Note! You will not be accepted to the main or logs community until you've commented in the aforementioned places. [○] If you're still on the reserved list, please let us know that they've been accepted. [○] Please make sure to check out the Calendar for the weather and upcoming plots and swarms! [○] You can also find our mod plurk at victoryroad; if you have a Plurk, we suggest you become a fan!
We'd also like to take this moment to inform you of the Eastern Kanto Ferry! For only P2000, you can take a three day, all-inclusive ferry ride from New Bark Town to Pallet Town and begin a new pokémon journey in the Kanto region! Otherwise, feel free to start in Johto!
Player Name: Famine E-mail: nova.puppets@gmail.com Preferred Contact:[Bad username or site: ”novatierrie” @ plurk.com], timeskips#3493 Timezone: Central Current Characters in Victory Road: None (exchanging for Cylva)
Character Name: Estinien Varlineau Series: Final Fantasy XIV Timeline: After 6.0 Canon Resource Links:Estinien @ FFWiki
Personality: Quiet and intense, Estinien has spent the last few years changing from a man driven to terrible things by grief and anger, to one who has released that anger and turned his grief into a drive to protect. He’s not the sort of person who you would expect to see with the Scions, and before the end of the long war that caused him to put aside everything except his relationships with maybe 3 people, you never would have.
Despite not being incredibly book-smart, Estinien is observant and direct. He tends to be lost in conversation he doesn’t understand, and so he spends a lot of time standing against a wall being confused, but he is always listening and watching. He will speak up and speak his mind if he deems it necessary. Otherwise, he’s sparing with words and very generous with gestures, whether those be glares or going to pick up lassi for his motion sick friends.
There are also small pieces of himself he gives over without a thought, For instance when he traveled to Garlemald, he stopped over at Radz-at-Han, and found that he enjoyed the life of the city, the scenery, the food, and the people. He learned enough about it to even know some of the local beliefs, like the origin of the ever-watching eye symbol above its gates, the layout of the town, and even the name of the fountain in the main town square. (But he won't give you a tour so don't even think about asking.) He also mentions that he's terrible at coming up with things on the spot when he's being menaced by Sharlayan immigration authority. He expresses quiet despair at having had to go to tea with Alphinaud's mom because she wanted to meet him because he's not "made for idle chitchat with lords and ladies'' and admitted that he thought about running away, only to be stopped by the thought of Tataru never letting him live it down. He actually does run away from the twins trying to socialize him like a feral cat a bit later via jumping out the WoL's window. He's terminally awkward in most situations that don't involve him stabbing something, but his quiet love for everyone is obvious enough that God Herself calls him out on it. Later, his adoptive father marvels at how at peace he is with himself.
It's not even that he's particularly secretive about it. He is much, much more open with his emotions than he has been in the past, in the conversation with Alphinaud after leaving the tea party with his mom that he was so worked up over, he immediately said that despite his protestations he didn't actually mind because he didn't have anything better to do and it reminded him of his mom too. And that he's grateful to Alphinaud and the WoL saving his life and enabling him to come to terms with everything that's happened to him. And then immediately went "WELL THAT'S ENOUGH OF THAT MUSHY SHIT." Even his adoptive father (who he was estranged from for quite some time) comments on his new openness, saying that Estinien was more candid with him than he's ever been before, and he's learning to put his past behind him. Granted, he's not about to start pouring his heart and soul out to a stranger - he is more candid and willing to speak, but with the caveat that he does have to know the person he's speaking to well before they start unlocking much about him.
He's also started to use his perception to encourage people--he talks Vrtra into revealing himself to the people of Radz-at-Han, the dragon having spent centuries afraid that if his people knew that their leader was a dragon, they'd fear and hate him. He doesn't do it with a lot of tact, but luckily for him brutal honesty seems to work for him most of the time.
Pokémon Information Affiliation: Trainer Starter: Charmander Password: Atomic fireball
Victory Road Sample: [As he wakes, the first thing he notices is the music. He’d forgotten–and also forgotten how annoying it was.
Wonderful. This place again.
Though he’s not in Goldenrod, he’s back in the tiny house with an equally tiny woman shoving a bag (woefully understocked) in his hands and out the door. Iceheart–or any of his other team–is nowhere to be seen.
Instead, the one pokeball he has produces a small orange lizard with a flame on its tail who immediately starts crying and shifting from foot to foot in the snow and mush.]
Wonderful. We had best start walking, there’s not nearly enough supplies for us to be wandering around in midwinter.
[He hauls the Charmander up, and it drapes himself around his neck and shoulders awkwardly, tail hanging down his back. The warmth is nice, but they’re still going to freeze to death out here if they’re not careful.]
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The game itself presents a lot of distinct traits that are inherent to the Warrior of Light: a love of adventure, an eagerness to throw themselves at danger, and a deep well of compassion. The Dark Knight questline shows that they can certainly feel resentful for their nature being taken advantage of, but at the same time that story also shows them actively choosing to still put themself out there for other people. As the game has gone through more and more patches the writers have given players more options for the flavor of how their WoL responds (including the ever present joke of the '...'), but that undercurrent of a compassionate, reckless, and brave person still remains.
Personality: The first impression that many people have of G'rhyf is 'boisterous'; they take a great many things in stride, laughing off inconveniences and generally taking a positive view of people and events around them. They're quick to make a joke or find some way to lighten the mood, and will go out of their way to help someone they see in need. This can and has in the past brought more than a few headaches their way, but it's worth it to see people happy once all is said and done. But despite their friendly disposition, they do hold themself somewhat apart from people--even though it's not entirely an act, this persona of the friendly and helpful adventurer is one of many 'masks' that G'rhyf wears, and they are very aware of their role. (Perhaps in some ways, too aware of it.)
When they act as the Warrior of Light, a different facet of themself is brought forth. Serious, solemn, attentive--when the situation becomes grim G'rhyf is one of the first to step forward and put themself on the line, ready to do what is necessary to see the crisis through. Their kindness isn't stifled, of course, but given out carefully where needed; an encouraging word to a drained soldier, or a comforting hand for a civilian caught in the crossfire. They position themself as a beacon of hope, something for others to look toward and take faith in...and hopefully, something for the enemy to focus on rather than G'rhyf's allies fighting alongside them.
If forced into a political arena, however, G'rhyf becomes incredibly awkward. While they have excellent composure on the battlefield, the threat of one social misstep spelling disaster for an entire country is quick to make them panic, and so they find ways to fade into the background and let more skilled negotiators take the stage. Over the years they've learned to not allow their nerves to show...but still their stiff and abnormally still body language can give them away. They are not oblivious to their weaknesses, but in turn they also know the sway they hold with even those in the highest stations of Eorzea--a few words from them said at the right time can change so much, and they try their hardest to make sure that change is for the better.
This need to keep a proper image up, to be what they 'ought' to be in the eyes of others around them, while almost entirely of their own making is also a symptom of the sort of person they are. Anxious, people-pleasing, helpful to a fault and all too eager to give of themself until nothing is left at all. And the reason why is simple: they just want people to be happy. It's what drives nearly all of their behavior, the way the interact with the world and the decisions they make in doing so. They aren't naive enough to think that everyone can be pleased, or that they can fix every ill in the world--perfection will never be attainable. But if they can make things just a little bit better, help bring everyone a little closer together, then it's enough.
G'rhyf is compassionate, caring, and highly emotional--they often feel as if it all might burst out of them at times, and struggle to keep their 'mask' to the sorts of reactions that seem reasonable by comparison. They form opinions fast and hold tightly to them, yet in the same moment try their hardest to keep an open mind. They know their faults and weaknesses keenly, because they worry and self-analyze constantly trying to find the 'right' way to react...usually well before or after their impulsive nature makes the decision for them on the spot.
And behind all this, or perhaps because of it...G'rhyf is an incredibly lonely person. They're keenly aware of the gulf their status puts between themself and most other people, and even other powerful personages are kept at a careful distance on some level or other. There are very few people that G'rhyf feels safe enough around to fully let down their guard, to let themself be foolish and sad and frustrated around. They have a desperate need to be able to reach out to others, to be supported by them just as much as they support those people in turn, and when left without they can turn bitter and self-destructive, viewing themself more as a tool than a person. But when given that love and care they blossom into a wonderfully caring and loving companion--and one that would go to the ends of the earth to see their loved ones safe from harm.
Pokémon Information Affiliation: Breeder Starter: Ralts! My justification is A: at the start G'rhyf is going to need some serious emotional support for That One Quest reasons (when u get an entire trauma trigger around being a different species...), and B: Gender. Password: Atomic Fireball
Victory Road Sample: Everything felt very, very wrong. Anxiety buzzed under their skin and burned in places that no longer existed--a phantom ache at the base of their spine, a tingling atop their head that yearned to move. Yet their hands still looked the same, a glance to a window brought a reflection that was...almost right. Their face disturbingly bare but still scarred as it ought to be, their eyes the right color but not the right type. Hyur in all but name, save for the disturbing lack of a sense they had only lost once before.
(crawling through the snow desperate and terrified they had to move had to get up before he found them--)
G'rhyf wandered down the road from the house they had been ejected from not long ago--the confusion and near unreality of the entire debacle had almost felt nostalgic for a moment, in a way both welcome and headache-inducing. Yet what they had been able to glean from it was even more confusing; expected to go on a journey with the small creature they now carried in their arms, in order to...make it fight? And have babies, possibly? The woman had flipped the purpose of their journey over and over, G'rhyf wondered if she even knew at all.
"Oh, my goodness, dearie! I haven't seen one of you looking quite so lost in a long time!"
G'rhyf startled slightly and turned to look at on old woman sitting on her porch, bundled up in a cozy looking jacket and surrounded by what G'rhyf could only assume were felines. Pink and yellow and so round, and a few larger ones with purple markings and some form of...would that be a mane? The woman gestured for G'rhyf to come closer and they did as bade, managing to pull a smile to their face though they knew it was weak at best.
"I think lost might be an understatement..."
The old woman tutted and looked them up and down, and G'rhyf ached to be able to let their tail sway and consume some of their nerves but it wasn't there-- "And looking like you've just seen a ghost! Come, sit down and talk with me for a bit. What's troubling you?"
They sigh and make their way up to the chair next to her, stepping carefully over the cats lounging about and making sure the child-like creature in their arms remained properly bundled in their jacket as they sat down. "This...this isn't where I'm supposed to be. I'm not what I'm supposed to be."
"Oh, you're one of those sorts of off-worlder? You poor thing..."
G'rhyf blinks and looks over at the woman, taken aback by her blasé acceptance of what they had assumed would be an entirely baffling explanation. "A...sorry, I'm a what?"
Over the next hour or so the woman (Margaret, as her name turned out to be) explained what she knew of their situation. Many people from a myriad of universes pulled here by an unknown force, appearing and disappearing again at a whim with seemingly no purpose for it besides integrating themselves into this world for the sake of it. The change to their body and senses was still disturbing, but at least they weren't alone in such a plight--nor should it be entirely permanent. Moreover, talking with Margaret managed to ground them again, feeling less like they were floating halfway out of themself. Once the situation had been explained the topic turned to the stories Margaret had cajoled out of the adopters of her dear Skitties, and G'rhyf was happy to pay back the favor in kind with stories of their own adventures back home--some of the nicer ones, at least.
"...thank you for calling me over earlier," they say after a while, smiling down at their now dozing Ralts and the Skitty that had made herself quite comfortable next to him. "I'm feeling a sight better than I was before."
Margaret laughs and shakes her head, reaching to pat their arm. "No, no! Thank you for humoring an old woman's curiosity! You youngun's are always haring off somewhere, barely a moment to stop and chat with someone like me!" G'rhyf laughs and shrugs, and she leans back into her chair with a sigh. "It's nice to have a chance to hear about what's out beyond this little town."
"If I ever come back this way, I'll be sure to tell you more." Margaret beams, and the warmth of it chases away a bit more of that cold feeling in their chest. "...once I'm allowed up again, of course. She's made herself quite comfortable, hasn't she?"
"Oh ho ho, that's little Miss Dimples, for you! Never saw a lap she didn't love. Why not take her with you?" Margaret tuts and shakes her head, waving off G'rhyf's protests. "No, no, I insist! She's still a little young, but I can tell you're a responsible sort. She'll be in perfectly capable hands with a trainer like you!"
"...trainer, huh?" G'rhyf looks down again at the two creatures--the Pokemon in their lap, and they smile. "He did bid me find new experiences, didn't he...?"
Welcome to the Wonderful World of Pokemon! Congratulations, you have a fun and exciting adventure awaiting you.
Now that you've been accepted... [○] Respond to this with your character's journal. This is a must! [○] Comment in the Taken Characters post, alphabetized by series: Here. [○] Join the following communities: victory_road, the_plateau, and ohmyarceus. Only Team Rocket personnel should join silph_co, but we ask that all Victory Road members subscribe to it. Note! You will not be accepted to the main or logs community until you've commented in the aforementioned places. [○] If you're still on the reserved list, please let us know that they've been accepted. [○] Please make sure to check out the Calendar for the weather and upcoming plots and swarms! [○] You can also find our mod plurk at victoryroad; if you have a Plurk, we suggest you become a fan!
We'd also like to take this moment to inform you of the Eastern Kanto Ferry! For only P2000, you can take a three day, all-inclusive ferry ride from New Bark Town to Pallet Town and begin a new pokémon journey in the Kanto region! Otherwise, feel free to start in Johto!
Welcome to the Wonderful World of Pokemon! Congratulations, you have a fun and exciting adventure awaiting you.
Now that you've been accepted... [○] Respond to this with your character's journal. This is a must! [○] Comment in the Taken Characters post, alphabetized by series: Here. [○] Join the following communities: victory_road, the_plateau, and ohmyarceus. Only Team Rocket personnel should join silph_co, but we ask that all Victory Road members subscribe to it. Note! You will not be accepted to the main or logs community until you've commented in the aforementioned places. [○] If you're still on the reserved list, please let us know that they've been accepted. [○] Please make sure to check out the Calendar for the weather and upcoming plots and swarms! [○] You can also find our mod plurk at victoryroad; if you have a Plurk, we suggest you become a fan!
We'd also like to take this moment to inform you of the Eastern Kanto Ferry! For only P2000, you can take a three day, all-inclusive ferry ride from New Bark Town to Pallet Town and begin a new pokémon journey in the Kanto region! Otherwise, feel free to start in Johto!
Welcome to the Wonderful World of Pokemon! Congratulations, you have a fun and exciting adventure awaiting you.
Now that you've been accepted... [○] Respond to this with your character's journal. This is a must! [○] Comment in the Taken Characters post, alphabetized by series: Here. [○] Join the following communities: victory_road, the_plateau, and ohmyarceus. Only Team Rocket personnel should join silph_co, but we ask that all Victory Road members subscribe to it. Note! You will not be accepted to the main or logs community until you've commented in the aforementioned places. [○] If you're still on the reserved list, please let us know that they've been accepted. [○] Please make sure to check out the Calendar for the weather and upcoming plots and swarms! [○] You can also find our mod plurk at victoryroad; if you have a Plurk, we suggest you become a fan!
We'd also like to take this moment to inform you of the Eastern Kanto Ferry! For only P2000, you can take a three day, all-inclusive ferry ride from New Bark Town to Pallet Town and begin a new pokémon journey in the Kanto region! Otherwise, feel free to start in Johto!
Welcome to the Wonderful World of Pokemon! Congratulations, you have a fun and exciting adventure awaiting you.
Now that you've been accepted... [○] Respond to this with your character's journal. This is a must! [○] Comment in the Taken Characters post, alphabetized by series: Here. [○] Join the following communities: victory_road, the_plateau, and ohmyarceus. Only Team Rocket personnel should join silph_co, but we ask that all Victory Road members subscribe to it. Note! You will not be accepted to the main or logs community until you've commented in the aforementioned places. [○] If you're still on the reserved list, please let us know that they've been accepted. [○] Please make sure to check out the Calendar for the weather and upcoming plots and swarms! [○] You can also find our mod plurk at victoryroad; if you have a Plurk, we suggest you become a fan!
We'd also like to take this moment to inform you of the Eastern Kanto Ferry! For only P2000, you can take a three day, all-inclusive ferry ride from New Bark Town to Pallet Town and begin a new pokémon journey in the Kanto region! Otherwise, feel free to start in Johto!
Player Name: Sarah E-mail: sarahisborednow@gmail.com Preferred Contact: Plurk: iasant Timezone: EST Current Characters in Victory Road: N/A
Character Name: Yuuki Asuna Series: Sword Art Online Timeline: End of Season 4 after returning from 200 years in the Underworld. Canon Resource Links:https://swordartonline.fandom.com/wiki/Yuuki_Asuna
Personality: Asuna is an extremely resilient young woman who manages to rise to the challenges. Being in a setting where she is not able to return to her home or life is actually not a new circumstance for her to be in. When she was 15, she logged into the world’s first fully immersive virtual reality game, only to find out that she couldn’t log back out. She spent the next two years participating in trying to beat the game, which was the only way that the players would be released from the virtual prison. In the world of virtual MMORPG, there is a gender imbalance and Asuna was one of the few females in the game. Putting her even more in the minority, she was the only female who was willing to go and fight on the frontlines.
Asuna is a natural born leader, and she rose in the ranks of her guild to become the second in command. So not only was she fighting at the risk of her life, she was leading everyone else in battle strategies. These leadership qualities have followed her into other virtual worlds, including the most recent one where she was stuck for 200 years. In this world, the Underworld, she rose to become the kingdom’s Queen, starting off as a sub-delegate on a committee that was set up to protect the peace of the Underworld. Asuna isn’t cruel by any means, and is in fact incredibly protective to those important to her, but her leadership skills can make her come across as strict, direct, and sometimes even cold. She does what she has to do to get a job done and sometimes she forgets to have fun in the process.
Perhaps in part because she is always looking after others, she can be prone to putting the needs of others ahead of her own. Though this can be a very strong quality and helps her develop deep protective bonds of those around her, it can sometimes put her in a position where she’s not speaking up about her own needs. She’s dating and in love with Kirito, but most of their mutual friends who are girls have feelings for him. Though she can get a bit possessive and jealous, she also harbors some guilt that they are in love with a person and dealing with the pain of not being able to express those feelings. So she can act with a bit of reserve when it comes to being openly affectionate with Kirito in public. She’s not above putting her foot down when they act inappropriately, such as when Alice tells her she must ask for permission to see him when they meet in the Alicization arc. She also has a hard time speaking up for what she wants with her mother and has to really work at making it clear to her mother what her needs are.
There are other ways that she shows a lot of care for others, such as cooking and taking care of Kirito and their friends. She’s instantly protective and nurturing of Yui, a childlike AI she meets in SAO that she and Kirito adopt as a daughter. She takes quickly to the mothering role of Yui and will do anything she can to protect and care for her. She also sees no difference between those who live in the real world, and those that are of artificial intelligence. She will protect AI as much and she will protect humans. She also shows great care for a girl, Yuuki, who becomes like a younger sister to her. Yuuki is a girl who is living almost entirely in the full dive virtual worlds because she is dying of AIDs and it is a way for her to connect with others. She and Yuuki grow close not long before she dies, and before she dies Asuna goes to great lengths to help her be as much a part of the real world as she can. This includes helping her hook up to a system where she can participate in Asuna’s classes virtually, through a device Asuna carries on her shoulder.
Another important aspect to Asuna is that she is very competitive. It's a major driving force in what pushes her forward in SAO and continues as she goes back to the real world and other virtual worlds. She wants to be the best, or at the very least as good as she can be. She is not afraid to go up against hard battles and duels to prove herself. In an augmented reality game, Ordinal Scale, she climbs the ranks into the top ten players. She enjoys running into battles, despite the fact that it sometimes brings back some of her fear of dying. She often comes out of battles in each of the virtual games as the MVP and has built a strong profile because of it. She is listed as one of the most popular characters in SAO and even has a fanbase. Though she doesn’t necessarily enjoy the attention of the male population, she is intensely proud of having gone from a nervous gamer to highly decorated one. She is modest about her abilities, but very proud of them.
Pokémon Information Affiliation: Trainer Starter: Pachirisu Password: Atomic Fireball
Welcome to the Wonderful World of Pokemon! Congratulations, you have a fun and exciting adventure awaiting you.
Now that you've been accepted... [○] Respond to this with your character's journal. This is a must! [○] Comment in the Taken Characters post, alphabetized by series: Here. [○] Join the following communities: victory_road, the_plateau, and ohmyarceus. Only Team Rocket personnel should join silph_co, but we ask that all Victory Road members subscribe to it. Note! You will not be accepted to the main or logs community until you've commented in the aforementioned places. [○] If you're still on the reserved list, please let us know that they've been accepted. [○] Please make sure to check out the Calendar for the weather and upcoming plots and swarms! [○] You can also find our mod plurk at victoryroad; if you have a Plurk, we suggest you become a fan!
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Player Name: LuckyLadybug E-mail: lucky_ladybug7@yahoo.com Preferred Contact: PM this journal or mine, insaneladybug Timezone: Mountain Current Characters in Victory Road: None
Character Name: Radley Series: Yu-Gi-Oh! 5Ds Timeline: Post-Crash Town arc, after episode 92 Canon Resource Links:https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Radley There are two Wikis, but this is the better of the two. Neither is written that well, but this one at least doesn't actually give more drastic misinformation like the other one, which lists something as being canon to the anime when it's only canon to the separate game verse.
Neither Wiki explains this right, but Radley and his rival, Malcolm, fight each night to win new labor for the mine. Each puts up a Duelist and they play the Duel Monsters card game. The loser goes to work for the boss of the winner. The Duelists agree to these conditions.
Personality: Radley is young and charismatic, a motorcycle gang leader who also runs the town's diner and restaurant. Unlike stereotypical motorcycle gangs, Radley's Bunch doesn't rip up the town or terrorize the people, the latter of which Radley's rival Malcolm allows his gang to do. Apparently this is not part of what Radley teaches or allows. Radley treats his gang members as equals and enjoys hanging out with them at the diner every day.
He is a friendly, sociable person, but if he doesn't like you, he isn't above mocking you and your behavior. He can come across as immature with this quirk, but he considers that he is putting bullies in their place. If he wants to make friends with someone and they repeatedly reject him, he becomes very hurt and even bitter.
He loves making money, and as one of the two leaders in town vying for full control of a valuable mine, he is already quite rich. Unlike his rival Malcolm, his part of the mine is not shown in canon and there is no proof that he tortures his miners like Malcolm's gang does to theirs. Radley seems to be a sound businessman, and even if he has no moral objection, he likely would object on the grounds of it being bad business.
Radley may have a darker side, as he does threaten his employee Kalin Kessler that if he tries anything funny in a duel, the duel gun he's playing cards with will explode and probably take off his arm. There is, however, no proof that this isn't a desperate lie made up to keep Kalin in line when he thinks he will lose Kalin. Kalin is his hope for holding onto control of the town and keeping Malcolm from taking over, and with Kalin admitting he wants to lose, it's believable Radley might use such a lie out of desperation. Given his personality through the episodes, and the Bunch's goodness, to me it is not believable that he means what he says.
He is calm, cool, and collected unless pushed to his limits. He believes in Kalin despite the gruesome threat and stops one of the Bunch from taking over Kalin's duel. But when everything falls apart, Kalin loses, and Malcolm's brother Lawton unfairly beats Radley in a one-turn-kill duel, Radley snaps and screams at Kalin when they and Yusei Fudo are dragged to the mines to be tortured as Malcolm's slaves. Radley is terrified at the prospect of being stranded there for life and physically shakes from fear.
Radley has an affinity for jewelry and is never without an earring in his left ear and an arrowhead pendant around his neck. His leather jacket is studded at the lapels and his black hair is long and shoulder-length. He and the Bunch are very clean, as opposed to how many motorcycle gangs have greasy, torn, and stained clothes. His appearance combined with the fact of him owning an eatery suggests he is not a typical motorcycle gang leader. The diner also looks very clean and he likely keeps it in good, sanitary condition.
He waxes philosophical at times and has a good command of the English language. He doesn't speak like an uneducated thug at all. His past is mysterious, but it wouldn't be surprising if he comes from a background far different than the life he has chosen for himself.
Taking all of his personality into account, and the fact that canon never shows us any proof that he is a cruel taskmaster in the mines as Malcolm is, I choose to play Radley as a good person who was trying to protect his town from Malcolm's cruel takeover. He has his faults, but he is noble at heart. I also play him as being of Spanish descent, because of his original name being Ramon (which is often a Spanish name) and because he looks Spanish to me.
Pokémon Information Affiliation: Breeder Starter: Eevee would be my preference. In the Over the Nexus game, Radley uses a Crystal Beast deck. One of the monsters, Ruby Carbuncle, looks a lot like Eevee's evolution Espeon. Radley's deck is not shown in the anime, so I accept his game deck as being what he uses in the anime too. This deck is the source of his journal name too. Password: Atomic Fireball
Victory Road Sample: Radley slowly stirred, opening his eyes as he adjusted to the room around him. He was laying in bed, as usual, and he was hugging the pillow as usual, but this was not his room.
He was up like a shot, staring in disbelief at his surroundings. Everywhere he looked, there were Pokemon figures, plushies, and posters. It looked like Ash Ketchum's room come to life.
He rubbed his eyes in bewildered disbelief. Was Scotch playing a silly joke on him? No, Scotch might do this with one of the other Bunch, but not with Radley. Scotch idolized Radley too much. But if this wasn't his room, and it wasn't anyone else's room in town, then ...
"Eevee?"
He jumped a mile. A small brown furry critter was standing at the end of his bed, tilting its head as it looked curiously at him.
He slumped back. "Okay, now what are you? Some kind of animatronic? A hologram? Is Industrial Illusions going into Pokemon now?" He reached for it and his hands went firmly around its middle. It certainly wasn't a hologram. And as he lifted it up, it was also immediately clear that it was not an animatronic. He was holding a living being.
Now he could only stare. "What the . . . ?!"
"Radley?" a completely unfamiliar voice called. "Are you up yet? It's time to go!"
"Go?! Go where?!" He stumbled out of bed, shaking off the covers as he tried to hold on to the Eevee, which wasn't hard as it was already snuggling him. "Who are you? What's going on here?"
A woman he had never seen before in his life opened the door. "Oh good, Eevee found you! Hurry and get dressed! Today's the day you start on your Pokemon journey!" She beamed and clasped her hands. "I'm so proud!"
"Today's the day I what?!" Radley just gawked at her. Something was very, very wrong. If he hadn't hit his head, he must either be sick or in some bizarre experiment. If it wasn't for realizing the Eevee was real, he would . . . well, he wasn't sure what he would do. This lady was loco, but he was holding something living and breathing that wasn't even supposed to exist. That added a whole new unbelievable level of weird to this situation.
"I've made you lunch! Go on, get your clothes!" She practically flung some clothes at him, and he had to balance Eevee to grab them with one hand. At least, he noted, these were indeed his clothes, a black leather jacket and pants and a gray tank top. Eevee batted at a sleeve.
"Hey, be careful with that," he lightly scolded. He set Eevee on the bed. "Okay, I'll get dressed, but will you please leave the room first?"
The woman pouted. "I've seen you in your underwear before! But oh, if you insist, son!" She closed the door.
"SON?!" Radley almost fell over from shock.
One way or another, he had to find some answers to this mess. It didn't look like he was going to get any from this woman, so maybe he would have to play along until he found someone more reasonable to talk to.
His hands shaking, he slowly pulled off his sleep pants and grabbed for the leather. He was stuck in a weird house, with a weird lady claiming to be his mother, with a weird but cute animal standing on his bed watching him pull on his pants.
"What the hell is going on around here?!" he cried aloud.
Welcome to the Wonderful World of Pokemon! Congratulations, you have a fun and exciting adventure awaiting you.
Now that you've been accepted... [○] Respond to this with your character's journal. This is a must! [○] Comment in the Taken Characters post, alphabetized by series: Here. [○] Join the following communities: victory_road, the_plateau, and ohmyarceus. Only Team Rocket personnel should join silph_co, but we ask that all Victory Road members subscribe to it. Note! You will not be accepted to the main or logs community until you've commented in the aforementioned places. [○] If you're still on the reserved list, please let us know that they've been accepted. [○] Please make sure to check out the Calendar for the weather and upcoming plots and swarms! [○] You can also find our mod plurk at victoryroad; if you have a Plurk, we suggest you become a fan!
We'd also like to take this moment to inform you of the Eastern Kanto Ferry! For only P2000, you can take a three day, all-inclusive ferry ride from New Bark Town to Pallet Town and begin a new pokémon journey in the Kanto region! Otherwise, feel free to start in Johto!
Player Name: Maxie E-mail: madteaparty92[at]gmail[dot]com Preferred Contact: PM, Plurk Timezone: EST Current Characters in Victory Road: Louie Duck (DuckTales), Boober Fraggle (Fraggle Rock)
Character Name: Varian Series: Tangled: the Series Timeline: Post-"Plus Est En Vous" Canon Resource Links:Wiki Link
Personality: Varian is a gifted boy. He's intelligent and extroverted, and highly gifted in the field of alchemy as well as general mechanics in a form that is very advanced for his time period. He's eager, in everything he does, but particularly when it comes to doing things that he hopes make his father proud. He's very insecure about whether or not his father takes pride in him. In fact, his relationship with Quirin is a huge factor in most aspects of his life. When Varian's own mistakes lead to Quirin getting encased in magical amber, and he was unable to get the help he sought from Rapunzel and the rest of the kingdom of Corona-- Well, things went south, to the point where Varian's increasingly desperate attempts to free his father left him the main villain of the first season. ...He got better, but more on all of that later.
Varian can be cocky. He makes unsafe assumptions while working on his inventions. This is also in part due to his eagerness, once again, to prove that he's good at what he does. For all Varian's cleverness and willingness to socialize, he tends to overlook basic things in both his inventions and his social interactions. Socially, Varian also sometimes gets too excited. He gets excited about things in general, very much so, but the socially he comes on very strong and can get too caught up the potential for science and/or a new friend to rein in his exuberance. The mistakes and miscalculations he makes in his hurry to execute his inventions and help Old Corona village, are also at times made in his haste to make a good impression. That said, after Varian's season 1 villain arc and eventual redemption in season 3, he's gotten better at thinking things through! He's still got shortcomings there, mostly because he's still a teenager, but there are definitely times he has to be the voice of reason among the main cast in that third season.
Now, as far as that villain arc goes: Varian isn't always emotionally stable. When the whole "Quirin trapped in amber" thing happened, he went to Rapunzel for help, turning not just to his homeland's princess, but to a friend. When Rapunzel couldn't take the time to address the situation right away - justifiably, as all of Corona was in serious danger at the time - Varian... Well, he didn't really know how to process that besides as a betrayal. Between the guilt he felt about causing his father's predicament, his complicated relationship with Quirin to begin with, and the fact that he'd probably never had friends before Rapunzel and the gang? It's not surprising that he took it badly, though "unsurprising" doesn't mean "valid".
Also, Varian went a little further than "taking it badly," in all honesty. His attempts to right the perceived injustice were criminal and ruthless. He didn't care who got hurt if it would reunite his family, and this was doubly true as he became increasingly unhinged in the face of his seeming failure to rescue Quirin, and decided that if he couldn't have a family, he could at least have revenge. Varian was stopped and imprisoned for around a year, and evidentially in that time he did come to gain perspective and feel regret, to a degree. Once he escaped prison with the help of other enemies of Corona, who he then teamed up with, a big part of his motive was erasing his mistakes... By literally erasing the memories of his actions for the people of Corona. Ultimately, Rapunzel got through to him and the kid decided he didn't want to continue down the path he was on-- and Quirin was shortly after freed from the amber, which went a long way towards bringing Varian further stability.
He definitely learned a lesson about the kind of person he wanted to be, and didn't want to be, as seen when he tries to talk Cassandra to her senses when she takes on the role of villain later on. Everything he'd gone through left an impact. That said, Varian still has a temper, one that particular flares around issues regarding his father: Namely, when it's realized that Quirin might be a risk to the heroes in the series finale. He doesn't want to talk about it, although it's worth nothing he does come up with a plan for that possibility to keep on the back burner.
Varian can be a goofball, making jokes and doing things like turning his experiments into "sporting events" complete with his own running commentary. He's a good friend, who likes to be helpful and who always tries his best to be understanding of others. He gives everything he does 100% of his efforts. He's very curious about the world around him and loves to learn.
Ultimately, Varian wants to be seen as helpful, even impressive... But mostly just trustworthy and worthwhile. Sure, it takes him a while to find his way towards that, but he does get there in the end! At the age of just sixteen he ends up the Royal Engineer of Corona.
Pokémon Information Affiliation: Trainer Starter: Tynamo Password: Atomic Fireball
Victory Road Sample: "Wow, this place is pretty cool," Varian breathed as he took another step in the Burned Tower. There had just been something undeniably tempting about the old, forbidden building - even for a kid whose villainous days were firmly behind him, thank you very much! But, beyond the "cool factor" a decrypt and off-limits building held, there were also rumors of rare Pokemon here. He was here in Johto for the foreseeable future, so he might as well see what unusual wonders the place had to offer. Pokemon that the natives deemed "common" were already quite a sight to him, so who knew what rare ones would be like...
That whole train of thought was abruptly derailed when a further step resulted in the floor giving way under his foot, and Varian fell down a level into the basement with a shriek. Coughing and sputtering, he got to his feet and looked around. He didn't immediately see a way back up, but there had to be something, right? And besides--
"Huh. Even cooler down here... Oh!" That had been something, glistening as it sped by in the shadows. Varian called Lorraine from her Pokeball, and the sparks the excited Tynamo let off let him what Pokemon he'd encountered. He hadn't seen this one before, but the rat-like build - right down to the surprisingly intimidating front teeth - suggested it was part of the Rattata family. Which was cool; some training up of his team on a previous route the other day had ultimately become Varian fiddling with the Pokemon's empty Pokeballs - he'd figure out how they worked eventually, he was determined - while his team had played with a group of nearly-domesticated Rattata who'd been completely won over Varian offering them some snacks... Reminded him a bit of Ruddiger. He hadn't tried to catch those little guys, but now...
Welcome to the Wonderful World of Pokemon! Congratulations, you have a fun and exciting adventure awaiting you.
Now that you've been accepted... [○] Respond to this with your character's journal. This is a must! [○] Comment in the Taken Characters post, alphabetized by series: Here. [○] Join the following communities: victory_road, the_plateau, and ohmyarceus. Only Team Rocket personnel should join silph_co, but we ask that all Victory Road members subscribe to it. Note! You will not be accepted to the main or logs community until you've commented in the aforementioned places. [○] If you're still on the reserved list, please let us know that they've been accepted. [○] Please make sure to check out the Calendar for the weather and upcoming plots and swarms! [○] You can also find our mod plurk at victoryroad; if you have a Plurk, we suggest you become a fan!
We'd also like to take this moment to inform you of the Eastern Kanto Ferry! For only P2000, you can take a three day, all-inclusive ferry ride from New Bark Town to Pallet Town and begin a new pokémon journey in the Kanto region! Otherwise, feel free to start in Johto!
Player Name: Roswolf E-mail: feihu08@gmail.com Preferred Contact: Emails, PMs or Discord at Roswolf#4461 Timezone: GMT -8/Pacific Standard Time Current Characters in Victory Road: None
Character Name: Ichigo Kurosaki Series: Bleach Timeline: Post Thousand Year Blood War, disregarding the Epilogue, approx 17 yrs old Canon Resource Links: Bleach timeline
Personality: Ichigo has been through hell, but he’s managed to maintain some optimism. He’s not wholly optimistic, he knows that bad things happen to good people, but he prides himself on being strong enough to protect the ones he cares about and the ones who can’t protect themselves. He’s the type that’s not going to hesitate to put himself in danger if he thinks it’s needed. While Ichigo can come across as being grouchy or surly, it’s mostly a defense mechanism. He went from being a crybaby mama’s boy to having to raise his younger sisters at the age of nine because his father was too subsumed with grief and had to keep working to keep food on the table and a roof over their heads.
Ichigo wants to believe that people are inherently good. He trusts and gives second chances to people who behave sincerely, even though it’s bitten him in the butt before. He absolutely has issues; dying multiple times and being a child soldier will do that to anyone. While he wants to avoid conflict, he’s had more than enough of it, he will step in if needed. Otherwise, he is very willing to let things be handled by the people involved. Also, assuming that his name means “strawberry” will make him unwilling to listen to much of what you have to say.
Pokémon Information Affiliation:Ichigo will be a breeder Starter: Vulpix, female. Nicknamed Vox Password: Atomic, fireball
Victory Road Sample: Ichigo woke up in a bed that wasn’t his own to a woman that wasn’t his mother rushing him out the door. It was surreal, and left him feeling completely wrong footed. It was clear that this was not his world, and he couldn’t help wondering what kind of Shinigami related fuckery he’d stumbled into this time. At least, unlike The Bad Times, he could still sense the spirits of his power. That, at least, made the whole thing a little easier to cope with. And the hastily eaten breakfast was pretty good. Everything was almost faintly familiar, though.
Once he’d been unceremoniously pushed out the door to “start his adventure”, Ichigo had a little space to think. There was a sign stating that he was on Route 29. Staying on the trail, he walked until he lost sight of the house before stopping along the side of the path. Pulling off his backpack, he set it down and started to rifle through the contents. Clean underwear, a change of clothes, hygiene supplies and what he’d need to wash his clothes on the go. There was even clean water and a little food, though not very much. There was a coin purse that he pocketed; that needed to be in easier reach. And as tempting as it was, Ichigo didn’t count it there crouched in the open. That was just asking to be robbed. The sleeping bag looked nice enough, but there was no tent. Oh well, he’d slept in shit weather before. There was also a red apron with what he could have sworn looked like a pokeball on the front.
The design had Ichigo searching other pockets of the bag, leading him to find a small red device and a set of five red and white balls nestled with some bottles and a rope. “Well, shit.” Oh, Ichigo had heard of Pokemon, he’d been the one to save up his allowance to buy his sisters their own copies for their sixth birthday. There was an additional ball on his belt, one that had a slightly different look to it. Wondering if that was his starter, Ichigo pulled it off and tried to open it. As a beam of light came out of it and began to take shape, he pointed the device at it.
Vulpix, the fire pokemon. At the time of birth, it has just one tail. The tail splits from its tip as it grows older.
“Huh, are you my starter, then?” The fluffy little thing made a happy sound and pawed the air at him. It was just too cute. Ichigo gently scooped the vulpix up and held it in front of him. “Well, you’re a girl. That’s for sure, assuming male pokemon have external genitalia. But you’re way too cute to put back in that tiny thing.” The only problem was that Ichigo couldn’t figure out what to do about the tails. As Vulpix stretched a paw to bat at his nose, he grinned. “You don’t mind some squishy tails for a little while, do you? At least until I can buy a knife and a sewing kit?” Another happy sound came from the vulpix before he put her back down. “Okay, I have an idea.”
The idea was easy enough. Ichigo put the apron on, making sure the neck strap was plenty loose. Once he was sure the waist was nice and tight, he carefully put the vulpix in the upper part. She was facing outward, with her back legs sticking out the sides and her front legs hanging over the top. “There we go. At least until I can find or make something better for you.”
Unfortunately, we can't accept your application at this time. We do not believe that your personality section sufficiently provides an overview of your character. Although what you have is a great start, we would like to see you detail more of the aspects of what you've highlighted--for example, why does he stay optimistic despite going through hell? How does he show that optimism despite being grouchy/surly? We'd like elaboration on basically all the aspects you've touched upon, especially as Ichigo is the main character of the series.
Additionally, we would like to see another sample that better shows Ichigo's voice. Although the thread sample linked is fine, we believe that the other sample you've provided doesn't sufficiently demonstrate your character's voice. This, in tandem with the personality section, makes it very difficult to get a grasp on the character as a whole.
For these reasons, we cannot accept your application at this time. Please feel free to reapply as many times as you like.
Player Name: Q E-mail: dylandypwns [at] gmail [dot] com Preferred Contact:9_in_japanese Timezone: EST Current Characters in Victory Road: none
Character Name: Ulaz Series: Voltron Legendary Defender Timeline: Near the end of "Shiro's Escape" Canon Resource Links: Voltron Wiki Ulaz History - my own, the wiki doesn't have anything.
Personality: For the most part, Ulaz comes across as a very serious figure. He's never seen with a smile on his face in the short time that he is seen. His position as essentially a rebel fighter has made him more aware of the hardship in the world and less affected by such frivolity. He did after all spend some time involved with Haggar's druids who were responsible for maiming Shiro and potentially other prisoners in the Galra Empire. He also speaks seriously of the Blade of Marmora and their mission, using this as the reasoning behind most things that he does.
The interesting dichotomy and more subversive side of his nature comes in where Shiro and Keith meet Kolivan, the leader of the Blade of Marmora. Almost immediately Kolivan tells them the decision to reveal the Blade of Marmora’s location was not an idea approved by the Blade of Marmora, solely being a decision on Ulaz’ part, leading Kolivan to call his fallen teammate a fool for having given them that information. Kolivan even continues to say Ulaz was always breaking orders and doing what he thought was best.
This relays several interesting characteristics about Ulaz.
He continually uses the Blade of Marmora as the reason for what he does to justify it to himself, however he continually puts them in jeopardy of being discovered by Zarkon, first by giving Shiro the Thaldycon base location and releasing him, which did lead to the Prorok Robeast finding the Thaldycon outpost by accident though it was not capable to realizing its discovery, and second by giving Voltron the location of the Blade of Marmora headquarters.
So while dedicated, he’s actually forcing the Blade of Marmora more out into the open which, when they teamed up with Voltron, did bring the shadowy organization into a more prominent view in front of the Empire.
I think there is also a side that he doesn’t agree with the method of hiding in the shadows and doing the work in secret. As an individual transplanted into Zarkon’s ranks - living and acting as a member of Zarkon's vast army, not hiding but in plain sight gathering information - he has a distinct perspective of the war. It’s possible that he felt the Blade of Marmora would be put to better use having more of an active role.
Whether or not this is the case, he is clearly unafraid of Kolivan and continually challenges his orders, as Kolivan said he had a habit of this. This shows that he thinks they are on a more equal level where he can push back, evidence seen in that both Kolivan and Ulaz seem to be older Galra as both are no longer the bright shade of purple most Galra are and having white hair but also they are both seen wearing suits with a shoulder guard, something no other member wears. He also has less reason to be afraid of Kolivan, clearly having been allowed to break rules multiple times with no or minimal consequences, so Ulaz was willing to keep pushing his luck.
There is a very faint sadistic side in Ulaz that seems to be in most Galra. This is not only seen in his fight with the younger paladins on the castle, but also in the Blade of Marmora itself. Cue the brutal Trials of Marmora, where the initiate endures increasing numbers of foes, having to defend themselves with the hopeful goal of activating their luxite blade, which presents a dagger inactivated. In fact, Kolivan tells the paladins the Trials of Marmora leads to one of two things: knowledge or death. Ulaz surely would have endured this to gain his status as a Blade and he may have participated in testing others.
Despite Ulaz’ serious, stark nature, there is also an indication that he still does understand what the war is being fought for. The exact reason he gave Shiro for why he was helping escape from the Galra was "you give hope", showing that he is aware "hope" is important in the war they are fighting. It seems to me that he has more faith in the legend of Voltron than others do, considering he partially picked to free Shiro because the Blue Lion had been located on Earth and he breaks many rules to give Shiro the best chance of using Voltron to help fight the war, saying because of Shiro they are closer than they have been before to winning the war. The fact that he felt it more important to kill himself by allowing a Robeast to eat him than allow Voltron to be destroyed spoke louder than anything he could have said.
Pokémon Information Affiliation: Breeder Starter: Poochyena Password: Atomic Fireball
Welcome to the Wonderful World of Pokemon! Congratulations, you have a fun and exciting adventure awaiting you.
Now that you've been accepted... [○] Respond to this with your character's journal. This is a must! [○] Comment in the Taken Characters post, alphabetized by series: Here. [○] Join the following communities: victory_road, the_plateau, and ohmyarceus. Only Team Rocket personnel should join silph_co, but we ask that all Victory Road members subscribe to it. Note! You will not be accepted to the main or logs community until you've commented in the aforementioned places. [○] If you're still on the reserved list, please let us know that they've been accepted. [○] Please make sure to check out the Calendar for the weather and upcoming plots and swarms! [○] You can also find our mod plurk at victoryroad; if you have a Plurk, we suggest you become a fan!
We'd also like to take this moment to inform you of the Eastern Kanto Ferry! For only P2000, you can take a three day, all-inclusive ferry ride from New Bark Town to Pallet Town and begin a new pokémon journey in the Kanto region! Otherwise, feel free to start in Johto!
Player Name: Aspen E-mail: aking94rp@gmail.com Preferred Contact:ashstriferous Timezone: Central Current Characters in Victory Road:brokencode
Character Name: Aymeric de Borel Series: Final Fantasy XIV Timeline: 5.5, just after delivering the Scions to Revenant's Toll. Canon Resource Links:Character history + Background
Personality: Despite his position as Lord Commander (and Lord Speaker) within the lofty city of Ishgard, Aymeric is a rather modest man. Who wouldn't be, when they spend their time in the company of true heroes, such as the Scions of the Seventh Dawn and the Warrior of Light. This modesty, of course, should not be mistaken for a lack of self-confidence. He is a capable man, and knows himself to be the one to lead his country forward. When presented with the opportunity to travel with the Warrior of Light, he rejects the offer, knowing his place is amidst his fellow men, paving the way forward toward an uncertain future. That is not to say he is not without his doubts, though these typically manifest in personal matters, such as attempting to invite the Warrior of Light to dinner. When their ally hesitates, he seems to express a moment of doubt, despite his many heroic and dangerous actions.
His humility does not end there. Though he accepted the role of acting leader, his intention was always to rescind his position once Ishgard had made it through the process of brokering peace with the Horde, rather than to keep his grip on power.
Not that it works out for him, seeing as how he is quickly elected to the highest position within the House of Lords. Still, his willingness to set his own position aside for the sake of his people proves incredibly important. When he goes before Hraesvelgr to ask for aid in the fight against the wyrm Nidhogg (who seeks revenge on Ishgard for actions centuries prior), he goes forth with respect.
Likely, this humility stems from his youth. His position as Lord Commander is one typically reserved for someone from high birth. Being a Bastard (with his name further sullied by rumors that his parent is none other than the Arch-bishop himself), he has instead had to play the political games that Ishgard is known for. It is a role that he takes seriously, even when his personal feelings might be at odds with the position of his countrymen. In the absence of being able to act freely, Aymeric seeks to carefully game the political system, using the Scions position as a defense worth bolstering solely for Ishgard's sake. In doing so, he works to cement them as allies, as Ishgard is "not wont to lend its trust to outsiders." Thus, though he personally sympathizes and wishes to help the cause of the Scions, he must carefully pull the strings behind the scenes before he can publicly act to assist them.
Faith is another point in which Aymeric stands apart from his kin. Unlike those who believe in unquestioning servitude of the Fury and those who serve her in kind, he does not believe that such fervent belief suits him as a leader of the people. He refuses to allow his men to pursue their enemies through dangerous tunnels, reasoning that waiting to ensure their safety is more important than rounding up a few stragglers. His interpretation of holy scripture is that Halone "would value the lives of Her followers, over the deaths of Her enemies." Yet even as he says this, he harbors doubts for how those who came before him might have felt, knowing that scripture could only do so much to define those of another era.
This skepticism is absolutely crucial to his character, for when presented with irrefutable evidence regarding Ishgard's history, he not only accepts it, but agrees to champion it. Despite the fact that it would not only change Ishgard's future, but also paint its past as bloody and corrupt, Aymeric was willing to sacrifice his well-being in order to allow the truth to be revealed. He confronts the arch-bishop alone, buying time for the rest of his allies even as he is taken away to be imprisoned and, presumably, tortured for information.
The loyalty is not reserved solely for Ishgard as a whole, but for those around him as well. After he and his dearest-friend-to-be, Estinien Varlineau, prove to be the only survivors after a Dragon attack, he follows after the other man despite little ties to him. This loyalty inevitably saves Estinien's life, as Aymeric is able to shoot an arrow into the eye of the dragon, preventing it from killing his companion.
Though many of Aymeric's actions are taken in the best interest of his people from his perspective, he is not so arrogant to believe that his word is absolute. As dissent grows as a result of his attempts to broker peace between Ishgard and the Dragons, he is keenly aware of both the doubt and helplessness within his people. Thus, before he can go forward with peacetalks, he opts to instead bolster the spirits of his people by partaking in a friendly skirmish against the rest of the alliance. The eventual victory in this Grand Melee succeeds in lifting the spirits of Ishgard, allowing his plan to move forward. This is further evidenced in the Magical DPS quests within Endwalker. Though his plans for reformation have gone forward, when it becomes clear that his attempts have alienated many members of the faith and created a fatal despair within Ishgard, he is willing to accept this responsibility. In fact, he is visibly pained when he realizes that much of the despair has come as a result of his own actions. Before he takes action to address the tangible threat of the creature threatening his home, he prioritizes addressing the place (and importance) of faith within their society, despite the lies and bloodshed that lay within its history.
As the game, namely Heavensward, progresses, we gradually see many of the walls around Aymeric come down. Though he may be sparing with colleagues, in the presence of those he is close to -- namely the Warrior of Light -- tends toward a warm, if slightly starstruck, man. He laughs easily when regaled with the tales of demands made by the Moogle tribe. Though he cannot help but allow the conversation to drift back toward business and the fate of Ishgard, he nevertheless makes sure to find the time to ask after what the Warrior of Light wants. Aymeric considers this presence a welcome one, remarking that it's "a welcome change from the arid reports which fill my days."
Pokémon Information Affiliation: Trainer Starter: Swablu Password: Atomic Fireball
Snow and ice are familiar sights for Aymeric de Borel. Perhaps that was why he had been drawn to this city. High up on a mountain, it was not at all unlike his home of Ishgard, after all. And though he was, by all means, woefully unprepared for the journey, he made it a priority nonetheless. After all, the thinner, colder air was easier to think in.
And really, he had intended to come here solely to think. The peace awarded by this place known as Johto was an appreciated one, especially knowing that his indulgence posed no risk to his home. Yet if he were truly going to take advantage of this respite, he needed to do so with a clear mind.
Better to sit on a mountainside and think away his woes.
Yet as he stepped out of the Inn he'd made a temporary home, a purchased pastry in hand, he was quickly distracted from whatever thoughts he might have been inclined to have. At the edge of town, a creature lay sprawled across the snow. He'd long since learned of the creatures known as "Dragons" in this world. long since ascertained that they posed no more of a threat than the dragons he had befriended at home. But though he considered the dragons of Etheirys to be his allies, it was still an awe inspiring sight to see one in person.
So, too, was it to see this creature as well. With a long neck and beard-like appendage, the creature was was a far cry from many of the other dragons he had come to know. Yet there was a familiarity that came from such a wise visage. And that familiarity bred curiosity.
With boots crunching in the snow, Aymeric approached. The creature lifted its head, staring at him almost knowingly. With vision clouded only by his breath, Aymeric moved forward until he was face to face with the creature. And when he finally was satisfied, he knelt down onto one knee, a gesture of reverence toward the creature. He tucked a hand (the one still clutching his breakfast) over his heart, bowing his head as he finally found it within himself to speak.
"Hraesvelgr?"
Silence followed, broken only by the breaths they drew. Yet he could feel the creature drawing closer, breath stirring the hair atop his head. And then it, too, bowed its head. A knowing gesture.
"It is good to see you, old frie-"
Anything Aymeric might have wanted to say is abruptly cut off as the creature bowed ever further, until its mouth found the pastry clutched within his hands and took it into its mouth. And once it was satisfied with its quarry, the creature stepped away, lumbering off to some other corner of the village to con yet another unsuspecting passerby.
Welcome to the Wonderful World of Pokemon! Congratulations, you have a fun and exciting adventure awaiting you.
Now that you've been accepted... [○] Respond to this with your character's journal. This is a must! [○] Comment in the Taken Characters post, alphabetized by series: Here. [○] Join the following communities: victory_road, the_plateau, and ohmyarceus. Only Team Rocket personnel should join silph_co, but we ask that all Victory Road members subscribe to it. Note! You will not be accepted to the main or logs community until you've commented in the aforementioned places. [○] If you're still on the reserved list, please let us know that they've been accepted. [○] Please make sure to check out the Calendar for the weather and upcoming plots and swarms! [○] You can also find our mod plurk at victoryroad; if you have a Plurk, we suggest you become a fan!
We'd also like to take this moment to inform you of the Eastern Kanto Ferry! For only P2000, you can take a three day, all-inclusive ferry ride from New Bark Town to Pallet Town and begin a new pokémon journey in the Kanto region! Otherwise, feel free to start in Johto!
Player Name: Indy/Rowan (either is fine) E-mail: dizzydances@gmail.com Preferred Contact:swirlix Timezone: US Central Current Characters in Victory Road: N/A
Character Name: Concordia (usually just nicknamed as "Cordy") Series: Original Timeline: During the campaign's intermission, shortly after her abdication and the formation of the Vanthian republic
Original Character Background:The Beginning
Nerthus was a planet brimming with magic and populated by a variety of different fantasy races, like elves and dwarves, etc. In its distant past, advanced magitech inventions were commonplace, and the technology level was actually somewhat futuristic (albeit with magic instead of hard sci-fi bullshit.)
Then an event known as the Unchained Revelry occurred, which is basically just my way of saying that an evil god tried to destroy the world because of his existential crisis. He failed due to every other god in existence uniting against him, but in the process he kind of caused the apocalypse.
This left almost everyone on Nerthus who was left alive scrambling to rebuild. In practice, out-of-character, it was a way for me to build a TTRPG world that seemed medieval in its aesthetics 90% of the time, but had a convenient explanation for why I could throw shit like assault rifles, robots, lightsabers, Mad Max style vehicles, spaceships, otamatones, and modern slang in whenever I wanted.
The Kingdom of Vanth
In the years following the Revelry, a few ragtag tribes of humans got hit with some particularly shitty luck, ranging from natural disasters, to a plague, to famine, etc., all kinda back to back shit. Things got so bad, and the corpses started piling up, to such a degree that the survivors turned to necromancy to help rebuild themselves. Weirdly, it worked, and those survivors ended up forming the kingdom of Vanth.
Vanth is a kingdom where necromancy is not only legal, but socially accepted and culturally normalized. Most of the populace lacks the fear of undead that folks in other parts of this world have, so stuff like a dhampir princess would be considered kind of weird but not really a cause for alarm.
Unfortunately, no kingdom is immune to corruption and asshole rich people, and over time, several of the kingdom's noble families became involved in the cult of Graz'zt, a demon prince known for his hedonism and general evil-ness. Graz'zt had been eyeing various worlds and wanted to subsume one onto his layer of the Abyss in order to amass enough power to defeat his demon rivals, and become King Shit of Demon Mountain.
A few hundred years before Cordy was born, the Vanthian crown princess at the time had an affair with Graz'zt, conceiving a daughter with him. When her family found out, they ordered their daughter and the half-demon baby to be killed in secret, and then picked out a random peasant baby to pass off as royalty while forming a cover-up story that the crown princess died in childbirth.
Cordy and her immediate ancestors are all descended from that random peasant baby. Remember that, this will be important later.
Princess Concordia: The Formative Years Cordy was the first born of a set of twins, with her sister being the princess Astra. Her parents were the Vanthian crown princess (later queen) Ambrosine IV and a vampire who was said princess' ex-lover. The details surrounding Cordy's father are incredibly complicated and emotionally messy, but the only parts relevant to Cordy are 1) her nature as a dhampir and 2) the fact that her biological father is in no way a part of her life.
Being a dhampir is kind of a wash, really. Cordy lacks most of the weaknesses vampires have, but also lacks most of the powers, save for not needing to breathe, night vision, slower aging upon reaching maturity, and basically being clinically dead. I know this is mostly going to be irrelevant when she gets humanized, but this does influence a lot of her personality.
Shortly before Cordy's birth, her mother and maternal uncle teamed up to murder the hell out of her grandfather, thereby causing Cordy's mom to ascend to the throne and making Cordy herself the heir apparent to the throne.
But anyway.
Cordy grew up in the lap of luxury, never really having to deal with any sort of material insecurity. This does not, however, mean that her life was easy by any means, since from the time she was a small child, she was set with a very strict curriculum for her education, as well as merciless social "training" in the ways of court etiquette and politics. She eventually grew to resent her obligations, even as she was granted a small amount of freedom in her late teens.
When Cordy was a teenager, she started studying in a prestigious boarding school on the other side of the kingdom. She and a classmate she was casually dating attended a party held by another noble. Things were alright until the party turned out to be an initiation rite for members of the Graz'zt cult, who sacrificed Cordy's sorta-girlfriend to Graz'zt by having her eaten by demons. Cordy was paralyzed by fear for a while before booking it the hell out of there.
Cordy didn't tell her family what had happened for months, but after her mother found out that she basically had to watch her girlfriend get murdered, Cordy and her sister Astra were transferred to a prestigious school abroad in the goblin kingdom of Jarek, which was allied with Vanth. However, the resultant depression and survivor's guilt caused Cordy to drop out of school several months later.
Despite the queen being a somewhat strict parent, she wasn't entirely ignorant of her daughter's mental health issues, despite being kind of complicit in worsening them with all the pressure she was applying. Cordy was given a magical amulet to disguise herself and was sent to be the apprentice of one of her mother's secret contacts, a drow wizard named Nal'intra Kilani who had escaped to the surface about 25 years prior. There, she adopted the identity of a somewhat normal girl named "Calla", and slowly learned to be more independent. Her sister joined her after finishing school, adopting a similar disguise and the name "Amaris".
The official story was that the two princesses were traveling for some time, but very few people actually knew where they went.
Death's Buffet
Cordy met a group of adventurers after they found evidence that the Graz'zt cult had made their way to the town she had fled to with her sister and Kilani. Realizing it wasn't safe for her to stay in her new home anymore, she and her sister tagged along, where their main duties were to help manage the adventurers' equipment and help them with social contacts.
Throughout their adventures, the actual protagonists found out about Graz'zt's plan, and relayed this information to Cordy. She eventually came clean about her identity after the PCs earned her trust, which was shortly after they killed a bunch of nobles who were Graz'zt cultists. She still, however, kept up a fake identity to the rest of the world.
At this time, Cordy was growing increasingly disillusioned with the world, and the PCs convinced her to help them abolish the monarchy.
As part of their plot, they faked a kidnapping by bringing her and her sister to the kingdom of Neksdur, which was on less than friendly terms with Vanth. It was here that Cordy was accepted into the home of Lady Talaitha Cronut (yes, that is actually her name), a young, perpetually bored-sounding duchess who Cordy also found herself attracted to, but probably can't publicly date due to political reasons.
They managed to draw out Cordy's mother and negotiate with her, causing the queen to abdicate. This isn't the result Cordy wanted, but she resolved to abdicate herself as soon as possible.
During her coronation, Cordy narrowly survived an assassination attempt brought about by a demon girl named Cirona, who had lived for years as a socialite popular with the Vanthian nobility. Turns out Cirona was Graz'zt's daughter, the same demon baby borne of a now forgotten princess, who the royal family tried to kill hundreds of years ago.
I told you that demon/peasant baby switcheroo would be important later.
Her and her demon cronies imprisoned Cordy's mother in a magical crystal, yeeted Cordy into a glass wall, and tried to kill her. They were thwarted by the combined efforts of Cordy's stepmother and the PCs, who fought off all the demons.
Shortly after this traumatizing ordeal, Cordy remained queen for only a few more months, keeping away from the public eye while her stepmother acted as regent. Her final acts as queen were to establish something of a social safety net for her people and help the PCs draft a constitution, before quietly abdicating and forming the Vanthian Republic.
The Vanthian Republic
One of the PCs, a former street urchin and spirit medium turned revolutionary named Rune, became the first Speaker of the Vanthian Republic. Because most Vanthians are comfortable with the idea of communing with the dead, it was decided that their elected heads of state would be known as Speakers; people who ruled not only alongside their advisors and parliament, but also consulted with the spirits of Vanthians past to assist them in political matters. It would be like if the current POTUS had spirit medium powers and could consult with George Washington et al for insight on political issues. I'm not sure how useful that actually would be because I imagine Wash would mostly just be like "why is everyone talking so strangely and wearing funny clothes", but it seems to be working for now?
Cordy stayed with the PCs for a few months to help with the transition, but afterwards, left to go back to Kilani's wizard tower. At the point where she's being taken, she probably would have begun adventuring anyway, now that she's effectively a normal girl.
Personality: Throughout most of her life, Cordy has been educated in the ways of how to be a proper lady, in etiquette and the like, and let me tell you, she fucking hates it. She will absolutely utilize the skills she was taught if she feels it might benefit her, but in more day-to-day conversations, when she knows high society isn't scrutinizing her actions, she's pretty casual and can be crass as all hell. She wasn't allowed this freedom in the public eye and she revels in it now that she has the space.
Having to lay low for a while has made her aware of the privilege she had as literal royalty, As such, she's a generally well-intentioned person, even if she's not above acting petty when it comes to the small stuff. She was able to realize that the current situation with her people was untenable, although she lacked the initiative (or courage, or whatever you wanna call it) to help form a new way forward until the PCs helped convince her that no, actually abolishing the monarchy is a great idea.
She also tends to keep people at arm's length until she can properly gauge just what they want, if anything, from her. This is mostly a holdover from growing up in the court of Vanthian royalty, where literally everyone had some sort of ulterior motive. Even the PCs, who she trusts with some degree of confidence, had a fairly transactional relationship with her, and she knows this and doesn't resent it.
I'm mostly looking forward to her slowly learning to let down these guards, since, for the first time ever, she gets to be a normal person (well, a normal adventurer.)
Pokémon Information Affiliation: Trainer! Starter: One Sinistea, please! Password: Atomic Fireball
Samples RP Sample:Network post in a private sex game in which a vampire strip club is being opened (SFW, but talking about vampire strip clubs)
Welcome to the Wonderful World of Pokemon! Congratulations, you have a fun and exciting adventure awaiting you.
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Player Name: Ruka E-mail: violinistical [at] gmail [dot] com Preferred Contact:rukafais Timezone: GMT +9:30 Current Characters in Victory Road: N/A
Character Name: Kimmuriel Oblodra Series: Legend of Drizzt Timeline: Post-Starlight Enclave (most recent book) Canon Resource Links:History link. It gets sparse after a certain point so here's a brief dotpointed summary of what he's been up to since then:
- Manipulated by Lolth, his home city's ruling goddess, to summon Demogorgon by proxy by using his lessons with Gromph to plant psionic suggestions in the Archmage's mind; this was A Bad Idea. Later spent some time with an illithid hivemind in order to avoid Gromph being incredibly angry with him; eventually came back to aid in the reconstruction of the Hosttower in Luskan, serving as the hivemind's ambassador.
-Later fixed the Bad Idea he'd partially caused by using the power of the illithid hivemind he was in contact with to form a kinetic barrier that could absorb a ridiculous amount of damage and banish Demogorgon that way. (Homecoming trilogy - Archmage/Maestro/Hero)
- Took command of Luskan's defense during an extended siege while his co-captain Jarlaxle was busy, eventually driving out the demon possessing a key figure in the siege and forcing the possessed victim to help his organization regain control of Luskan properly. He aided several high-ranking priestesses in rejecting Lolth, sparking a civil war in his birth city between the cult's adherents and those who rejected it. (Generations trilogy - Timeless/Boundless/Relentless)
- Two years after the civil war started, he accompanied Drizzt Do'urden and his child to the Monastery of the Yellow Rose, serving as a bodyguard for the trip as well as using it to satisfy his own curiosity about certain philosophical ideas. (Starlight Enclave)
Personality: Often described as near-emotionless and passionless in both expression and personality, Kimmuriel is the cool-headed, confident and pragmatic co-leader of Bregan D'aerthe, a notorious mercenary band in the drow city of Menzoberranzan. He provides much-needed grounding and a sense of practicality and logic to the band's endeavors, having kept it running essentially by himself for well over a century while its founder temporarily abdicated responsibility. Add to this mixture his constant contact with illithids- traditionally feared by much of the Underdark as ruthless mental dominators - and his heritage as the last survivor of a House that practiced psionic powers rather than more traditional magic, and it's no surprise at all that many in his home city view him as unsettling and not to be trusted, on par with illithids themselves in being essentially non-drow - the worst category that one Menzoberranzan drow can give another.
It's an unflattering impression, but Kimmuriel prefers that fear; it deters those who might think to use him or sacrifice him for their own ends or for the favour of Menzoberranzan's goddess. He sees no reason to dispel such a reputation, and while he doesn't go out of his way to cultivate it, his penchant for complete disregard and manipulation of others' mental boundaries and ruthless, immediate violence to his enemies has given him the impression of someone who cannot be trifled with without an equally powerful trump card in reserve. He sees no problems with rooting through others' surface thoughts, restricting or controlling their actions, or threatening to subject them to mental torture in order to demonstrate his range of power and control.
He's not all ruthless logic and strategic manipulation, of course, as much as he tries to pretend otherwise. Kimmuriel is more than capable of other emotions besides the ones that make him a powerful enemy in his birth city, though he'd rarely admit it. Beneath an impassive surface seethes tremendous rage and a great deal of loneliness in equal measure, both ultimately rooted in the loss of his family centuries past and mostly smothered by his determination to never let his emotions, or his trauma, control him to such an illogical degree. Such control came at a terrible price; denying his emotions has meant he's been out of touch with them for a very long time, and so he doesn't usually understand them when they affect him.
Despite this repression, one outlet he's found to be acceptable is through his expression of curiosity. Kimmuriel is endlessly fascinated by the underpinnings of the universe, particularly the workings of gods and the afterlife - and particularly how much sway gods have on the path of mortals. His long-dulled feelings for anything reignites in the exploration of such topics, one of the only true indulgences he allows himself to have.
His capacity for loyalty, too, is something not to be understated. Despite his constant complaining and sometimes-threatening directed towards his co-leader, Jarlaxle, he engages willingly in the delicate push and pull of trust that constitutes their relationship without showing any desire to break it. He shares information and his own unique power more easily and freely with him than he does any other individual, and though he'd never admit it, Jarlaxle's interests in some ways have become his own. When shown trust, Kimmuriel is perhaps surprisingly ready to reciprocate - at least, if he finds that bond worthy of honoring.
Additionally, he's not much for friendship in the traditional sense, but he does find the open trade of information and favors to be a useful, practical thing. While he refuses to compromise his own bluntness to make himself more appealing to others, those looking for a simple exchange of information or payments made for services rendered will find a willing partner in Kimmuriel; as long as the exchange is neutral, he finds no real reason to cheat or withhold anything. Transactions of this nature are emotionally simple in a way he finds acceptable, and he finds it far easier to assign value to skill or monetary payment than to bother with the more tumultuous, uneasy ranking process guided by strength of feeling.
Pokémon Information Affiliation: Trainer Starter: Inkay Password: FAQ: Fireball Rules: Atomic
Welcome to the Wonderful World of Pokemon! Congratulations, you have a fun and exciting adventure awaiting you.
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Player Name: bii E-mail: all dot your dot beliefs at gmail Preferred Contact:obiisama Timezone: PST Current Characters in Victory Road: Greg, Steven D
Character Name: Jarlaxle Baenre Series: Legend of Drizzt (Forgotten Realms) Timeline: at the beginning of the Waterdeep Dragon Heist module (circa 1492 DR) Canon Resource Links:wiki!
Beyond the history in the wiki, I do want to note that since the siege of Gauntlgrym in 1488 DR, Jarlaxle ended up going on an expedition to the far north in 1490 DR and met the rather less cultish drow settlement up there and that in 1492 DR he’s in the city of Waterdeep, looking for the hidden gold dragons that Dagult Neverember embezzled from the city, with the intention of publicly returning them to the city and using that as impetus to join the Lords Alliance, as representative of Luskan. Although the module doesn’t specify any particular reason for wanting to join, besides an increase of Jarlaxle’s personal power, I will personally assume that the fact that the Lords Alliance has a mutual defense pact and literally no one helped Luskan out when it got sacked in 1488 DR, that might have a lot to do with it.
(Gauntlgrym would have, probably, but it was under siege at that point by allies of the very assholes who were sacking Luskan. The point is that Waterdeep and Neverwinter and every other Lords Alliance member didn’t lift a fucking finger for Jarlaxle’s shady pirate city.)
Personality:
"He's a narcissist with a heart. He's kinder than he lets himself admit, and more dangerous than he seems. More often than not, his success is not in how thoroughly he plans ahead, but in how he reacts to the chaos around him (and a healthy dose of luck). He'll always try to throw the players off with a nonsequitur clue or hint, so use that to your advantage."
Jarlaxle, quite simply, is who Menzoberranzan has made him to be. In his base state, he’s a naturally kind and friendly person, who genuinely likes other people. Unfortunately, he grew up in a city controlled by a really fucked up spider cult, so he’s all these things despite coming from a society that mostly values the ability to manipulate people and stab them in the back—though mind you, he is quite good at both manipulation and backstabbing. His talent at the first comes from the fact that he’s one of the few drow seen in the books with anything resembling emotional intelligence, while his talent for the second is mostly fueled by his desire for survival. More than anything, Jaraxle wants to live.
And why not? After all, he almost didn’t. Jarlaxle was Matron Mother Yvonnel’s thirdborn son, which meant he was destined to be sacrificed to the drow spider goddess, Lolth, immediately after being born. He wasn’t—but only due to interference from another priestess, who used her psionic abilities to keep the knife from penetrating his infant skin. However, the ruling House of Menzoberranzan couldn’t publicly be seen to not gone through with the sacrifice, so Jarlaxle was hidden—in 1018 DR flashback scenes from the book Timeless, Yvonnel is quite sure that none of her children (including Jarlaxle) know their true relationship, although the flashback scenes from Boundless—which take place a century later in 1118 DR—seem to indicate that by that point Jarlaxle did know.
Why does this matter? Well, Jarlaxle’s knowledge of both the family he was born to and also how very much he shouldn’t be alive probably informs a lot of his overwhelming ambition—and he is ambitious. Very much so. He grew up without a House, so he built one of his own—and by late 1400s, Bregan D’Aerthe is very much the size of a small House, even if its continued existence is on the sufferance of House Baenre. And his ambitions are not only limited to Menzoberranzan, but they’ve spread to the surface world too, where a drow male can dream bigger than he ever could in the Underdark. Indeed, by the same time period, Jarlaxle had become the shadow ruler of the notorious pirate city of Luskan… and in truth, the city was more stable under his own rule than it had been previously.
This would surprise some people, most likely, as Jarlaxle has—and has partially cultivated—a reputation for being a loose cannon and a wildcard. This is not wholly untrue, for he does seem to change plans and even alliances on the fly and he delights in disconcerting his opponents with his unpredictability. That said, the man is surprisingly responsible when it comes to him and his. When not underneath the malign influence of an evil artifact, he’s quite concerned with the continued survival of Bregan D’Aerthe and of his men, going so far as to submit to the sacrifice of his most valued companion, Zaknafein, when he could have fairly easily rescued him and absconded to the surface with Zak and his son—but not without leaving Bregan D’aerthe vulnerable to reprisals from their former patrons. He also pays more than sufficient attention to the daily minutia of maintaining an organization on that scale—in fact, he’s the one character we see the most at a desk, filling out paperwork.
Jarlaxle has a love for treasure and for magical trinkets most of all—a love that far exceeds that of most adventurers, who are already covetous souls. He collects these magical trinkets and uses them creatively in his adventurers—in fact, his penchant for the use of magical items has lead him to being able to attune to more items that most. His love for shiny things has gotten him into trouble before, most notably during his possession of Creshinibon, the intelligent and malevolent crystal shard which nearly led him to his doom.
That it didn’t was wholly because of the friends Jarlaxle had made along the way–and really, that is his greatest strength, his capacity for engaging with people and ultimately befriending them. Sure, most of them have wanted to kill him at one point in time, but the ultimate point is that they haven’t yet. Despite everything Menzoberranzan shaped him to be, Jarlaxle still likes people and he still wants to form connections—-and even if practicality sometimes leads him to betray those people, it isn’t without a sense of regret at the doing and he does try to mitigate the damage he causes when he does. As Bob Salvatore says, he’s both kinder and more dangerous than he seems—-and speaking for myself, I find it delightful.
Pokémon Information Affiliation: Trainer! He’s gonna catch them all! Starter: Sableye, “Euol” Password: Atomic Fireball
Welcome to the Wonderful World of Pokemon! Congratulations, you have a fun and exciting adventure awaiting you.
Now that you've been accepted... [○] Respond to this with your character's journal. This is a must! [○] Comment in the Taken Characters post, alphabetized by series: Here. [○] Join the following communities: victory_road, the_plateau, and ohmyarceus. Only Team Rocket personnel should join silph_co, but we ask that all Victory Road members subscribe to it. Note! You will not be accepted to the main or logs community until you've commented in the aforementioned places. [○] If you're still on the reserved list, please let us know that they've been accepted. [○] Please make sure to check out the Calendar for the weather and upcoming plots and swarms! [○] You can also find our mod plurk at victoryroad; if you have a Plurk, we suggest you become a fan!
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Mirabel is part of the magical Madrigal family, and she's the only one (outside the two men who married into the family) who doesn't have a magical Gift like the rest of her family members. She takes this in stride though and still considers herself part of an amazing family, which she loves dearly. It doesn't matter that she doesn't have magical powers, because she's just as special and the fact that she's part of the family at all is a Gift in itself!
... Or maybe it's not. Mirabel has unyielding optimism and does love her family, but she feels like an outsider without her own Gift. She doesn't really feel like she's part of the family, and that's apparent in the song "the Family Madrigal" where she sings about everyone else in her family BUT excludes herself. Even when the kids ask about her power, she doesn't want to admit she doesn't have one. She just sings about her family all over again while trying to avoid the topic of herself.
To make up for having no Gift, Mirabel tries to work extra hard to make herself part of the family. When the family prepares a party for her cousin Antonio to get his Gift, she's seen trying to make decorations to put around the house as a surprise and trying to help out in her own way. Because this is how she tries to find value within the family, and her attempts are kind of brushed over as she's told by her Abuela to basically stand aside and let everyone else do their part.
Deep down, Mirabel feels kind of jealous of the rest of the family. And though she tries to stay positive and happy all the time, the moment she's left out of a family picture makes it apparent that she's an outsider. During "Waiting on a Miracle" she laments over not getting a Gift and that she wants one too so she can finally be "seen" by the rest of her family.
This feeling of being left out is fueled by the family's matriarch, Mirabel's Abeula. The night when Mirabel didn't get her Gift, she told Mirabel to "make her family proud" and that line stuck with her. When she didn't get her Gift, Abeula turned cold towards her. She always acts like Mirabel is in the way, despite Mirabel's best efforts to prove herself.
When the family's magic candle, the object that gave everyone their powers, threatens to go out, Mirabel takes it upon herself to save the Miracle and everyone's gifts. This is where Mirabel's adventurous nature comes in - she doesn't know how to save the Miracle, but she's willing to do anything to keep her family happy. And there's a slightly selfish reason to it too, that she wants to do something that will finally make her family notice and accept her.
Mirabel is brave, and a little reckless too. When she goes into Bruno's Tower to find out why the Miracle is fading, she has to climb tons of steps. She still tries to stay upbeat and positive about it before breaking down in a tired mess. And then she has to cross a huge gap that would be fatal if she were to fall. She uses a rope to swing across instead of giving up. When the room Bruno has his visions in starts to collapse with sand, she risks her life collecting the fragments of his vision instead of immediately escaping. She does this again when chasing Bruno through the walls in the house, after she finds out he's been hiding in there. There's a huge gap in the floor, and she basically risks falling to jump across.
Out of all the family members, Bruno is probably the one who she relates to the most. He's an outsider, like her, and his Gift caused more harm than good which caused him to eventually "leave" the family when Mirabel was young. But despite "leaving" he ended up living in the walls because he still loved his family, something that Mirabel can relate to. She has no Gift, she can't help, but she still loves her family and wants to do what she can.
Perhaps one of the most strained relationships in the movie is between Mirabel and her older sister, Isabela. Isabela is pretty hard on Mirabel, telling her that she's getting in the way and when Mariano comes over to dinner she tells her that she doesn't "want a word out of her". Her sister is pretty hostile towards her, but Mirabel doesn't really make things easy either. Mirabel isn't so much as jealous, as she is thoroughly annoyed with her sister's seemingly perfect life. Mirabel sees Isabel as selfish and spoiled, and when it turns out that in order to save the magic they have to "hug it out", Mirabel is upset by the idea. When Mirabel goes into Isabela's room to "hug it out", they fight, and it isn't until Isabela's magic grows something "imperfect" that Isabela realizes she doesn't want to be the perfect child either, and Mirabel finally manages to connect with her when she understands that Isabela's life is a facade. It isn't until Mirabel lets herself see more than the perfect Isabela that she can finally have a better relationship with her sister.
Similarly, Mirabel and Abeula end up having an understanding of their own. Mirabel finally confronts her, telling her off for basically putting too much pressure on the family and that Mirabel feels like she'll never be enough for her. The house collapses after their fight, and Mirabel runs off thinking that she basically destroyed everything. Abeula shows up and apologizes, telling Mirabel the story of why she is the way she is, and Mirabel ultimately forgives her for the way she was treated. When she and Abeula with Bruno in tow return to the family, and the family rebuilds their home, Mirabel finally discovers her worth. She doesn't need a Gift, because her real Gift was bringing the family together again. The house is rebuilt, the family's magic is restored, and Mirabel is finally accepted as part of the family.
Pokémon Information Affiliation: Trainer Starter: Rockruff Password: Atomic Fireball
Welcome to the Wonderful World of Pokemon! Congratulations, you have a fun and exciting adventure awaiting you.
Now that you've been accepted... [○] Respond to this with your character's journal. This is a must! [○] Comment in the Taken Characters post, alphabetized by series: Here. [○] Join the following communities: victory_road, the_plateau, and ohmyarceus. Only Team Rocket personnel should join silph_co, but we ask that all Victory Road members subscribe to it. Note! You will not be accepted to the main or logs community until you've commented in the aforementioned places. [○] If you're still on the reserved list, please let us know that they've been accepted. [○] Please make sure to check out the Calendar for the weather and upcoming plots and swarms! [○] You can also find our mod plurk at victoryroad; if you have a Plurk, we suggest you become a fan!
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Player:Hobbit Name: Hobbit E-mail:Byakuen80@gmail.com Preferred Contact: Pm the journal and I can send discord information if necessary. Timezone: Eastern Current Characters in Victory Road:None
Character:Captain Levi Ackerman Name:Captain Levi Ackerman Series: Attack on Titan Timeline: At the end of the first half of Season 4. Canon Resource Links: Please note there will be SPOILERS for the complete season 4. Levi Ackerman
Original Character Background: N/A
Personality:
Levi Ackerman is considered to be the strongest human-partially due to his powers of being an Ackerman- and he is highly thought of as a soldier. Despite this he doesn’t boast about his powers or belittle others and occasionally becomes annoyed hearing others praise him so freely. He respects a soldier’s skills and knows that everyone has their strengths and weaknesses. He doesn’t expect others to be at his level. Often he will take on difficult tasks that he feels a regular soldier can’t handle. As a soldier, he is realistic and not afraid to pull back when he feels a mission is a failure, believing in the safety of his men first.
As a result of having grown up in the Underground World, Levi learned to that he had to be tough and make quick judgments. He learned quickly that most people reacted toward violence and fear, using this in order to gain the information he needed and to control. He didn't show compassion understanding that to do so often got one in trouble. His short height resulting from a poor diet at a young age, also contributed to this need to compensate using his fighting skills and strength.
Levi became used to keeping people at arm's length, having lost a lot of people over time and knowing that attachments got one nowhere when lives were often short lived. He rarely shows emotion aside from the obvious expressions of annoyance. Because of this, it is often hard for people who don't know him to understand what he was thinking and believed he doesn't care about anyone and that he was a cold individual.
On the contrary, one of his strongest traits he carries is empathy. As such, tries his best to not have a lot of collateral damage and bring back as many people alive, even if it means retreating from an assignment if its dire. It’s extremely hard on him when he does lose a lot of people or even just having to leave the dead bodies behind.
He also believes in action over words and doesn't waste time on simple dialogue. Often when he does speak it is blunt, insulting, or even vulgar. He doesn't mince his words and his sense of humor is often considered dark or vulgar.
Because of the fact that Levi was well known to be a leader of the thugs in the Underground World, authorities often mock and belittle him. They try to find ways to undermine his work and stop him from doing his job. This causes Levi to dislike most authorities. The only one he fully trusted was Commander Erwin and chose to follow him and leave the Underground World. He believed in Commander Erwin’s cause and wanted to full fill it.
He is not above insulting others outside his circle or those who seek to undermine him and his cause. He doesn’t respect a lot of people and has a hard time taking orders from those outside the small group of people he trusts. Even with the ones he does trust, he will still tend to do things his way if he feels it’s the better approach. Often people were at odds on how to handle him.
Levi will have a hard time adjusting to this new life style. It will be a rather big test for him on how to deal with people and the Pokemon themselves.
Powers: I realize that for the game in particular Levi’s powers are going to be cut back drastically. Despite his powers being cut back he would still be considered pretty strong for a average human. Nor will he be able to carry any weapon on him.
Pokémon Information Affiliation: Trainer Starter:Togepi Password: Atomic Fireball
Welcome to the Wonderful World of Pokemon! Congratulations, you have a fun and exciting adventure awaiting you.
Now that you've been accepted... [○] Respond to this with your character's journal. This is a must! [○] Comment in the Taken Characters post, alphabetized by series: Here. [○] Join the following communities: victory_road, the_plateau, and ohmyarceus. Only Team Rocket personnel should join silph_co, but we ask that all Victory Road members subscribe to it. Note! You will not be accepted to the main or logs community until you've commented in the aforementioned places. [○] If you're still on the reserved list, please let us know that they've been accepted. [○] Please make sure to check out the Calendar for the weather and upcoming plots and swarms! [○] You can also find our mod plurk at victoryroad; if you have a Plurk, we suggest you become a fan!
We'd also like to take this moment to inform you of the Eastern Kanto Ferry! For only P2000, you can take a three day, all-inclusive ferry ride from New Bark Town to Pallet Town and begin a new pokémon journey in the Kanto region! Otherwise, feel free to start in Johto!
Player Name: Raile E-mail: railerat [at] gmail [dot] com Preferred Contact:railerat Timezone: EST Current Characters in Victory Road: Dirk Strider
Character Name: Karako Pierot Series: Homestuck (Hiveswap + Friendsim) Timeline: Pre-Friendsim Canon Resource Links:Wiki. Player impact does not make a huge difference, and is covered in wiki.
Personality: In a classic Harlequinade, Pierrot's defining trait is his naïveté--he is seen as a fool, often the butt of pranks, yet nonetheless trusting. This jives with the player's first impression of Karako: just as startled by the player character (hereafter referred to as MSPAR, short for MSPA Reader) as MSPAR is by him, he jumps straight into the air and immediately gets stuck, having impaled himself by the horns into a low-hanging tree branch. He is left kicking his legs in the air helplessly, and the MSPAR is obliged to pull him down--which they do only after a great deal of explaining their situation and repeating that they mean him no harm and hoping that Karako does not use his belt(s) full of knives to fill them with holes.
On the ground, Karako Pierot turns out to be an expressive, upbeat young clown, 'chatting' with the player by means of honks and a few choice nonverbal cues. He quickly proves himself to be an attentive listener, open minded to the MSPAR's existence in a way many trolls are not (and without ulterior motive, as many OTHER trolls are not.)
Incredibly, he's a runt, and should have been culled back in the breeding caverns; instead, he was raised in secrecy by the self-appointed leader of the Jadebloods in charge of those caverns, and while he's supposed to be somewhat contained by the cloister, he's escaped 'to seek his fortune.' No lusus, no hive... just a pendant with his (dubiously appointed) symbol on one side and the words If lost, call BRONYA URSAMA on the other.
One would think that a troll in such a dangerous situation would be more suspicious and guarded, but this is not the case. One would also expect a troll in such constant peril to be more prepared, and in this sense... well, the MSPAR both is and is not disappointed. Karako is impulsive, clearly, but not unintelligent; for one thing, he's still alive, which is a pretty strong indicator of ability on its own. And he's no less bloodthirsty or dangerous than any other troll--in fact, he turns out to be bloodthirsty and dangerous in a new and terrifying manner, or at least one new to the MSPAR. (Terrifying is an objective quality here.)
Like any good purpleblood, Karako is 'down with the clown,' which in this case means he is faithful to the (clown) church, a believer in miracles and the mirthful messiahs. He paints his face (and, somewhat unusually, his horns) and wears a bandolier of Faygo across his chest in active observance of the traditional practises. Whether he actually attends massacre is unknown, but as canon shows, it doesn't matter: he is no less a true faithful of the Dark Carnival.
Because that's where he (and later, MSPAR) are taken in one of the possible endings, one where he takes on three seadwellers in his rage at their insults and mockery and is murdered for his efforts. The heavens open up and some janky, painted mannequins come down, suspended on obvious fishing line, and lift his repeatedly-skewered body up to the massive Murder Go Round in the sky. Whatever else Karako may stand for, his strength of belief merits the afterlife of his faith.
The Dark Carnival, however, is not Clown Heaven. I am so sorry that I have to do this, but taking from the ICP wiki:
The Dark Carnival is a concept of the afterlife in which souls are sent to a form of limbo while waiting to be sent to heaven or hell based on their individual actions. It features multiple rides and attractions which assist in this purpose, which are the focus balls of multiple albums and songs within the group's discography. These concepts are related by Insane Clown Posse in a series of albums called the six Joker's Cards. Each of the six Joker's Cards relate to a specific character — an entity of the Dark Carnival — that tries to "save the human soul" by showing the wicked inside of one's self.
MSPAR's actions after Karako's death embody this: horrified by the cruelty of the seadwellers and the brutality of troll culture, MSPAR takes a stand. A moral stand, one in which they refuse to accept the way things are on Alternia, the way Karako was ridiculed and then murdered. They decide to embody that morality, to choose what's right, to put morality into events through their own actions, to attempt and be morality in their little space of the universe, right here and now. They take up Karako's knives and his Faygo and take on all three seadwellers themself, despite being objectively weaker and less skillful than Karako. Which is admirable, but why am I talking about MSPAR's actions in Karako's app?
Because MSPAR dies. Like, that was fucking inevitable. But upon their death, the heavens open once more, and once more those mannequins descend on their fishing lines, lifting MSPAR in their arms and placing them onto the back of Karako's same Murder Go Round horse. (I have to note here that the term Murder Go Round is actual ICP canon lore.) Which leads me to my second pasting from hatchetpedia, the actual goddamn Juggalo wiki:
Carnival of Carnage is the first Joker's Card in Insane Clown Posse's Dark Carnival concept album series. This Joker's Card is a representation of the ghettos and the violence that occurs within them. It takes the form of a traveling carnival which releases the same brutality on those who have ignored the inner cities' cries for help. The Card issues a warning against the upper-class and government's negligence toward the lower classes.
This obviously describes MSPAR's actions, as inspired by Karako's death, but it also describes Karako's. Karako, as a reject, a runt and an outcast, is extremely sensitive to (and quickly enraged by) bullying and general unfairness. This despite his status as a purple-blooded troll, ostensibly the blood caste intended to become subjugglators--to subjugate the lower castes and keep them down. Given the ICP lore likely associated with him, and the way things unfold in canon, it seems likely that it's not just being picked on himself (though he surely doesn't like it, he's just very obviously used to it) which sets him off so violently. And he is super fucking violent.
He absolutely loses his goddamn mind on the seadwellers.
He's not on a hair-trigger, but he is surely quick-tempered--his anger is immediate (jaw clenched, face flushed), but stares at the seadwellers with stony dignity until they try to make him and MSPAR bow, mocking him for his anger. That's when he completely snaps. If allowed to attack them (the route that leads to his and MSPAR's deaths), he is so absolutely consumed with fury and bloodlust that the seadwellers are at one point described as 'dealing with hurricane clown' until they eventually manage to stab all of his own knives into his body. Also their own weapons. There are a lot of weapons stuck in his little body when he finally goes down. Like, there's an entire trident in there.
If he is restrained--a feat that takes all of MSPAR's strength and body weight, and is barely successful at that--he gets increasingly furious, so much so that he eventually unleashes the chucklevoodoos.
Even the seadwellers run in fear.
Yet this same clown opens his arms to offer MSPAR a hug--a hug he reconsiders for MSPAR's safety (he is wearing an awful lot of knives) and swaps out for a friendship-sealing handshake instead. And MSPAR is a soft, hornless thing, an alien being of a kind Karako has never seen before! MSPAR isn't on the hemospectrum. They're not even a Troll! Sure, MSPAR saves his life (twice), but that's not the kind of treatment MSPAR gets from... well, practically anyone, really. It's almost innocent of him.
It is innocent of him, really.
Word of god has confirmed him to be a wanderer (more specifically, he's living "the nomadic shrubbery lifestyle") and a good person, albeit still a Troll.
Which opens up the mystery of Karako's age, and.... truthfully? Information is conflicting. Friendsim confirmed Karako to be a tween (via narrative genuflection by MSPAR), but Aysha (one of the writers) told me on Twitter (I swear this is true) that this is a mistake, and he's actually the youngest Troll in Hiveswap, younger even than Barzum and Baizli. Who are... young. Definitely "children" and not tweens.
Which is... uh, frustrating. The fandom tendency is to characterise him as very young. A toddler maybe, or something like human five years old (not to be confused with six sweeps old, which is approximately human thirteen.)
I disagree with this pretty strenuously, though from an RP perspective, the details really don't matter. Karako's demonstrated intelligence and ability doesn't change in any way. His amount of lived experience does, but given how perilous Alternia is (especially for an outcast Troll like him) and the role of Pierrot as mentioned briefly at the beginning of this section... it plays out effectively the same way. His lack of verbal skills are still attributable to his existence as a runt. And he's clearly a minor in any case. However, since he needs "an age" for RP purposes, we've got a conundrum.
Canon indication is that Trolls in general just continue to get bigger as they age... but we don't really know how they age, whether it's different across blood castes, or what that means developmentally. I mean. Yes. Karako is definitely smaller than almost all of the Friendsim Trolls save for Amisia and maybe Barzum/Baizli, whose ages are also unknown, although Amisia claims to be "too young for quadrants." (Chahut disputes this, saying she that knows "a few motherfuckers what started younger," so Amisia can't be THAT young, but how young THAT young is... is a mystery.) But it's not clear how tall he is even compared to Amisia. The best we have is that they're both described as 'small' or 'little' and are shorter than MSPAR.
So, uh. As a solution, I'm putting Karako slightly younger than fellow Friendsim characters Wanshi and Tirona... the equivalent of human 8 years old, aka a human third grader. Which means that until proven otherwise (or told directly by a member of WhatPumpkin), I'm declaring he can read. Which is very likely, because Karako did share Wanshi's extremely sheltered life in the Caverns.
Even with all that, though? Tirona and the zodiac trolls are a much better comparison for life experience and maturity than Wanshi.... or the bizarre and isolated Barzum and Baizli. While his life was made easier in some ways (and possible to begin with, really) thanks to Bronya, Karako has an extremely difficult life overall. Mutant though he was, even Karkat had a lusus and a hive.
So far, Karako hasn't died (in this timeline, yet or to his knowledge), but that's the most one can really say has gone right for him. And technically, that's only gone 'right' for him because someone did the system wrong. It's... not great. He's a highblood who doesn't benefit from highblood privilege. He's certainly going to be hard to kill, but he lacks the societal benefit of his blood colour and a good chunk of the physical benefits. His horns are massive for his head, and that's because purples like him become fucking huge. Even less physically mature purples than Chahut are noticeably bigger than MSPAR. Not just taller, but bigger. Karako is not only shorter than MSPAR, he's pretty scrawny looking. At best, he's full of lean muscle but can't seem to bulk up. (Maybe when he gets older... but given he's a runt, I think it's doubtful he'll get much taller, if at all, so that's a mental image for you.) But the point is, anyone can pick on him. Anyone can threaten his life. And based on his route, it's easy to decode that they definitely have. MSPAR refers to him, at one point, as "a clown of suffering" while the seadwellers are mocking him.
Even staying alive is ultimately a futile endeavour... after all, he's a cull-on-sight runt, and has failed to keep (or even have begin with) a hive or lusus (which would also call for being culled, Alternia sucks.) He will never go to space and serve the Condesce in her eternal Space War... sooner or later, Alternian society or some other facet of Alternian life will kill him. So why does he even try?
... fucks' sake. Someone give this kid a flipping break.
Pokémon Information Affiliation: Trainer Starter: Galarian Meowth Password: Atomic Fireball
Samples RP Sample:Here, but you can definitely tell this was originally going to be the second sample and then I made it the top level instead. Sorry.
Victory Road Sample: It's not like Karako hasn't done this before. Hell, this is practically normal! Wandering byways and back trails through thick brush outside of inhabited areas, searching for food or fate or fortune despite the ever-present dangers of the outdoors. Native fauna and flora with massively oversized teeth and talons and stingers and spines and venom sacks and poisonous flesh and projectile weapons and--
And no weapons. Not a single motherfucking knife. Not even one lonely little blade. Nor a single can of miraculous bubbly elixir to lift his spirits and free his mind. He tried to find some--tearing through the hive of the friendly-but-frightening 'mom' like a hairy, honking barefoot tornado, pulling open drawers and emptying the contents of her thermal hull onto the floor--but to no avail.
Well, some avail.
He'd found some glass bottles of sweet, bubbly soda, which had seemed like a victory at the time. It wasn't until he'd made his way out into the wilds that he'd tried chugging one, only to be let down when it had no effects save to make his sniff nub hurt terribly for a few seconds. He'd broken the bottle on a tree, so he was slightly more armed than before, but mostly he was frustrated. Soft-bodied and warm and hornless and nearly-unarmed. Worst of all, he was disappointed.
But the Mirthful Messiahs had not abandoned him in this tamed jungle of mostly-inert plantlife, obviously not. His new friend, Gigglesnarl, was bright-eyed and coarse-furred, sharp of tooth and claw, and happy to lead the way. He didn't know where they were going--he didn't speak purrbeast and Gigglesnarl didn't speak Alternian--but they were going somewhere, and Gigglesnarl had already found him a piece of candy. Just one piece, but it was pretty clean, and still in its crinkly blue wrapper. They... had disagreed over who got to eat the candy, at least until Karako traded his new friend the bag of desiccated vine drupes and nut creature snacks for it. That had settled things between them. And now he could see they were heading into a cluster of bushes covered in fat, blue berries.
A veritable feast!
Uh.
Hm.
If they're not deadly poison?
It's never occured to him before that he might not be able to eat something (that wasn't trying to eat him). He's seen Trolls and wildlife both die from eating the wrong this or that, a price paid for picking the wrong leaf or berry or stem. It never worried him because (as a purple blood), he can survive pretty much anything. Even that one swollen, pustule-covered fruit that made the organs and soft tissues of that gobblefiend dissolve so all the rest of its insides fell on the ground and attracted a lot of ripperwasps for some reason....
While he's pondering, though, Gigglesnarl has stopped and begun stabbing fat berries onto each one of his six sharp claws.
The.... conversation... that ensues might not be intelligible, but the pointing and gesturing between the wayward young clown and his Galarian Meowth might be more facilitative of real communication.
"Honk?"
"Nyarrrrl?"
"Honk! Honk! Honk!"
"Nyaaaarl."
"Honk!"
"Nyaaaa!"
"Honk!!"
He's so relieved to learn that eating his fill of berries isn't a terrible mistake that he'll regret immediately that he could just.... he could just motherfucking honk. Instead, he grabs a double handful of berries and flashes Gigglesnarl a bright, toothy grin.
... and thus concludes this episode of moments paused seconds before disaster.
Player Name: Bramble E-mail: raspberrywhisper (at) gmail (dot) com Preferred Contact:bramblepatch or discord @ bramble#6628 Timezone: Pacific (GMT+8) Current Characters in Victory Road: none
Character Name: Vierna Do'Urden Series: Legend of Drizzt Timeline: After Chapter 5 of The Legacy, having transformed Dinin into a drider but before setting out to hunt Drizzt Canon Resource Links:Vierna on the FR wiki
Vierna also appears in the flashback sections of Relentless, which does not have a plot summary on the wiki yet; these flashbacks cover roughly the same span of time as the events of Homeland, showing the events of that time period from a less Drizzt-centric perspective.
Personality: Vierna is, fundamentally, both a product of Menzoberranzan and very much her father's daughter.
As a noble daughter of an ambitious House in the City of Spiders, Vierna has been taught from a very early age to trust no one, to revere the demon goddess Lolth, and to hold herself above all drow males and all non-drow of any gender. In fact, "taught" is probably not a strong enough word; "indoctrinated" or "brainwashed" is probably closer to the mark, as Menzoberranzan is a theocracy ruled by the cult of Lolth. Vierna, like all drow noblewomen, was expected to serve as a Priestess of Lolth for the advancement of her House, and her mother, Matron Mother Malice, and elder half sister Briza, were not gentle in teaching her the ruthless violence expected of her in that position. The early childhood of any drow can be assumed to be physically and emotionally abusive, although girls usually have a better time of it than boys, and Malice and Briza neither showed Vierna any mercy nor tolerated any display of mercy from Vierna toward others.
This was a real concern for them, as Vierna inherited her sire Zaknafein's sense of empathy - perhaps if Zaknafein had been permitted to take part in raising her, as he did her younger brother Drizzt, Vierna would have developed the morality and principled behavior that her father and brother both exhibit to varying degrees. Unfortunately for everyone involved, her contact with her father during her early years was extremely limited, both because as a lower-status male Zaknafein had little legitimate reason to interact with the daughters of the house, and because Malice intentionally allowed Zaknafein to believe that Vierna's paternity was in question as part of her centuries-long campaign of being as abusive toward him as possible in as many ways as possible. Drow men are not expected to take a parental role, but as Zak was easily the least-awful adult in the family compound, his disinterest in her as a child and open dislike of her priestess status as an adult was still painful - and even more so when he did take an active interest in her younger brother Drizzt.
Even without his direct influence, though, Vierna is unusually soft-hearted for a drow. She does not enjoy inflicting pain on others, and although she will do so as required by her station, her family was always perfectly aware that she disliked doing so. This was, of course, only a reason for her mother to place her in situations where she was required to harm others, frequently family members - most notably, her younger brother. She was given responsibility for Drizzt's early care and education, a role which included the expectation that she make liberal use of corporal punishment, up to and including with the magical viper-headed scourge that is part of Lolthian clerical regalia. Vierna both resented her brother and was honestly fond and proud of him, and only beat Drizzt in response to actual infractions or misbehavior. This lead Malice or Briza to frequently step in and deliver harsher and more arbitrary punishments than Vierna was willing to dole out - discouraging Vierna from showing mercy, and also denying her control over the task for which, in theory, she was solely responsible.
Because of the trauma that following her conscience has often caused, Vierna does not always - or even often - treat other people with kindness. She craves the approval of her superiors and the relative security that it brings, and tries to live up to the standard of cruelty expected of a woman of her station. The cognitive dissonance caused by the conflict between her inborn compassion and the violence expected of her, as well as her experience with having her agency over her own affairs denied to her because of her softness, sometimes causes Vierna to lash out or overreact - up to and including at least one case where she attempted to murder Drizzt as an adolescent, when she caught him sneaking out of the initiation ceremony/orgy that marked his graduation from warrior training. (Notably, though, she followed him immediately and her initial reaction was concern, until his defiance and blasphemy made it clear he would not voluntarily return to the ceremony; I believe that initially she welcomed the excuse to remove herself from the situation as well, if only temporarily.) She also does not handle change well, as her attempts to live up to expectations have left her inflexible in her thinking as she tries to stick to the behavior that she knows will keep her safest in Menzoberranzan. After the collapse of her House and the death of most of her family, Vierna became obsessed with regaining Lolth's favor and her standing as a noblewoman. Working with Bregan D'aerthe and under the protection of Jarlaxle, who had been a close friend of her father, Vierna was arguably more secure than she had ever been as a daughter of House Do'Urden; however, her sense of self-worth and security was too deeply tied to the power struggles of Menzoberranzan's nobility and she was unable to accept her change in circumstances, ultimately leading her to reckless and fanatical behavior.
Vierna's closest relationships are with two of her brothers - Dinin, older than her by at least fifty years, is one of the few people who ever genuinely cared about her wellbeing, and Drizzt, her only full-blooded sibling and most of a century younger, is in turn the only person she was ever allowed to nurture in any capacity whatsoever. However, these bonds did not ultimately offer either brother any protection from her desperate need for what she saw as redemption, even though they were also the only two other members of the family to survive the fall of their House. It was clear from well before House Do'Urden fell that it was Drizzt's heresy and abandonment of the family that had lead to them losing Lolth's favor and doomed them, and although it took her nearly twenty years to psyche herself up, Vierna ultimately decided that she ought to be the one to capture or kill him - a mission that was completely self-imposed, and which ultimately lead to her death when she refused to surrender to Drizzt, who honestly would have been only too happy to spare her. And where once she might have accepted Dinin's better judgment, when he objected to her plans to hunt down their long-absent and very dangerous brother, she transformed him into a drider - a cursed half-spider form traditionally used as punishment for drow who defy Lolth's priestesses.
And it must also be acknowledged that Vierna was relatively young when her self-destructive desire to fit in and succeed in Menzoberranzan lead to her death at Drizzt's blade - elves, of which drow are a subset, can live well into their 700s, and Vierna was only 144 at the time of her death (which occurs within, at most, a few weeks of her canon point). She also was forced into adult life young; all elves grow and age at the same rate, but by the lore presented in the Player's Handbook for Dungeons and Dragons, for which the Legend of Drizzt books are a tie-in, most elves consider their young people to be fully adult at around age 100; by the lore presented in the novels, drow nobles take on adult responsibilities when they graduate from their Academy training, which for most noble girls is somewhere in their 80s.
Pokémon Information Affiliation: Trainer Starter: Zubat Password: Atomic Fireball
Victory Road Sample: The sun had long set before Vierna had to admit that this strange new form’s vision was simply not adequate for her to feel comfortable traveling through unfamiliar territory by night.
It did not take her long to set up camp, with her gear as meager as it was – she found a spot by the side of the road where the grass was not so high as to hide wandering monsters, rolled out the odd bedroll from her pack, and morosely ate a little of the strange and laughably meager food. Then, out of responsible measures to take, she pulled out the red and white capsule and, flinching a little in anticipation, opened it.
She was rewarded, as she’d been back in the village, with a fair-sized blue-and-purple bat creature flapping excitedly around her. Vierna lifted an arm to shield her face, and the creature caught at her sleeve with claws so small as to be nearly invisible and settled, hanging at her wrist, as she looked at it in bemusement. Zubat, the pokedex had called it; she wasn’t sure what “zu-” was supposed to mean, but it was certainly very much like the bats of the Underdark. As she watched, it yawned, showing sharp teeth that shone very white in the darkness, and folded its wings around itself.
As much as she wished to return to her own plane and her own business... perhaps this wasn’t all bad. It was a rather appealing little animal, after all. “I suppose you’ll need a name,” she commented – how did one go about naming an animal? Vierna had never been permitted a pet bat as a child, which was perhaps for the best, given her mother and sister’s attitudes toward weaker creatures. It did leave her a little at a loss for what to do with one now, though. Could she just... give it a name fitting a person? It wasn’t a person, but anything else seemed demeaning, somehow. “Ethetyrr?”
The zubat shrieked – but agreeably, Vierna thought. She carefully lifted her other hand to scratch the creature between its big ears. “Ethetyrr it is, then.”
Welcome to the Wonderful World of Pokemon! Congratulations, you have a fun and exciting adventure awaiting you.
Now that you've been accepted... [○] Respond to this with your character's journal. This is a must! [○] Comment in the Taken Characters post, alphabetized by series: Here. [○] Join the following communities: victory_road, the_plateau, and ohmyarceus. Only Team Rocket personnel should join silph_co, but we ask that all Victory Road members subscribe to it. Note! You will not be accepted to the main or logs community until you've commented in the aforementioned places. [○] If you're still on the reserved list, please let us know that they've been accepted. [○] Please make sure to check out the Calendar for the weather and upcoming plots and swarms! [○] You can also find our mod plurk at victoryroad; if you have a Plurk, we suggest you become a fan!
We'd also like to take this moment to inform you of the Eastern Kanto Ferry! For only P2000, you can take a three day, all-inclusive ferry ride from New Bark Town to Pallet Town and begin a new pokémon journey in the Kanto region! Otherwise, feel free to start in Johto!
Welcome to the Wonderful World of Pokemon! Congratulations, you have a fun and exciting adventure awaiting you.
Now that you've been accepted... [○] Respond to this with your character's journal. This is a must! [○] Comment in the Taken Characters post, alphabetized by series: Here. [○] Join the following communities: victory_road, the_plateau, and ohmyarceus. Only Team Rocket personnel should join silph_co, but we ask that all Victory Road members subscribe to it. Note! You will not be accepted to the main or logs community until you've commented in the aforementioned places. [○] If you're still on the reserved list, please let us know that they've been accepted. [○] Please make sure to check out the Calendar for the weather and upcoming plots and swarms! [○] You can also find our mod plurk at victoryroad; if you have a Plurk, we suggest you become a fan!
We'd also like to take this moment to inform you of the Eastern Kanto Ferry! For only P2000, you can take a three day, all-inclusive ferry ride from New Bark Town to Pallet Town and begin a new pokémon journey in the Kanto region! Otherwise, feel free to start in Johto!
Player Name: JD/J-face (either is good!) E-mail: jchanofthegods@gmail.com Preferred Contact: Discord (Assigned Flug At Birth#7735) or DM Timezone: PST/PDT Current Characters in Victory Road: N/A
Character Name: Dr. Kenning Flugslys Series: Villainous/Villanos Timeline: Current Canon (webissodes, season 1 finale, supplemental book) Canon Resource Links: (I totally understand this might be a somewhat Obscure Fandom to some people, so I'll try to provide a few relevant wiki links, please let me know if you need anything else) https://villainous.fandom.com/wiki/Villainous https://villainous.fandom.com/wiki/Dr._Flug_Slys
Original Character Background: N/A
Personality: As a self-proclaimed Mad Scientist, it's appropriate that Kenning Flugslys is a Caustic Cocktail of Ego, Anxiety, and a dangerously desperate need for Validation. A former Super Villain turned henchmen, Flug is the Head Scientist of a Multiversal Mega Corporations known as Black Hat Organization, working directly under its Head Honcho: an Eldritch Super-Being known as Black Hat. It's a position that Flug has worked hard for, graduating top of his class in Black Hat's Private Academy, with a direct pipeline into this most esteemed, and punishing position - and overall, the entire experience has turned out a mess of a man.
Kenning Flugslys' past is an unravelling mystery; what little clues we have before his current situation do not bode well. Seemingly family photos with faces ripped, a figure shunned to the background. What we do know is that in his youth, he had some form of run-ins with several figures that set him on his path. Flug lives in a world where Superheroes are idolized, creating an order that heavily rejects anyone outside of the Accepted Mould, heroic figures presenting themes of hating their Villainous counterparts because they're outsiders, rejects, or just plain Maddening to interact with. Small threads hint at a young man who was constantly trampled by peers and expectations, something that heavily reflects in current encounters.
Heavily bullied in school, and having no powers of his own, Flug instead opted to advance with the merits of his own Intelligence. A catalogue of inventions, most becoming Key Signatures of Black Hat Organization, speak to his talent. Ranging from robotic minions and shrink rays to devices that give physical form the very whims of its user, Flug's job is to sell Villains their deepest desires. Even at a young age, he's proven himself more than capable, writing his thesis on concepts like Articifially Manipulating the emotions of others. He's a Genius, and he often isn't afraid to say it, sometimes coming across as Narcissistic and Overconfident, believing himself to be the Organizations most valuable employee.
His ego, however, has it's limits - often ending at that same sense of value. The young man shunned to the back of a torn family picture is the same one who falls apart when plans blow up in his face. When forced to, he's capable of thinking on his feet - but the process itself is heavily lined with self doubt and overblown panic. Shaking, sweating, crying, the man works on a knife's edge of uncertainty, not helped by a Leader who expects perfection, has the patience of a starved animal, and is not above both verbal and physical punishment. Yet Flug thrives on validation more than anything, his own self worth broken by a simple accusation of mediocrity, and nightmares only broken by the hopeful thought of his boss telling him he did well.
With these things in mind, the Mad Scientist title isn't to be taken lightly. Flug's mental health, to put it gently, is absolute trash. His personal notes often casually cite his dismal mood, inability to sleep without Horrific Nightmares, and general dissatisfaction with his life. All of these statements are usually passed over as irrelevant - or, on worrying occasion, cited as a build to an inevitable major explosion of suppressed anger, which reminds us of one thing: Flug is a Villain. Though outwardly rather soft, especially in comparison to the counterpart of his boss, Flug is prone to a Sadistic streak. He isn't squeamish to experimentation on live subjects, and hardly bats an eye to the grotesque actions of the people that surround him. Flug seems to heavily channel his disdain with his circumstances into Villainy. While he does have his own morals, taking pity on those who remind him of himself, and having a particular soft spot for his failed experiment, 505, he holds little limits in the casualties that occur in his line of work. These contradictions do show themselves in the finale, though, as of season 1 - with clear affection for someone who used him, both in his past and within the current, and a deep regret for the circumstances this puts her under, despite having come out on top.
At the end of this, its clear that Flug isnt set down the best path - but its the one that he's chosen, and that his Ego chooses to stick to, regardless of the harm that comes upon him.
Pokémon Information Affiliation: Rocket Starter: Munna Password: Atomic Fireball
Victory Road Sample: This was taking… much longer than Flug thought it would.
Since arriving, Flug had shown particular Thirst and Ambition within the Rockets. Not necessarily for the Top, but at the very least, to quickly rise from the bottom tier. Field work was below him - what in the world were they supposed to accomplish with just a bunch of common thieves? They needed someone who knew what they were doing. He would be of much more use in the labs, even starting with small tasks, drinking up every piece of information. Loftier goals could make them useful. His expectations were to be heading home any day now, with a brand new feather in the proverbial cap of the Organization - an in to the network, for Black Hat to worm his way up through. Surely this would earn him a bonus, at the very least!
But when a few weeks past he starts to… worry.
His advancements aren't as… quick as he thought they'd be. But they're not terrible. He's grateful for the extra time to observe these creatures. Even the monsters he'd designed by hand, shown off with pride, had nothing on what some of these things could do. He buries the concern in those studies, seeing what they can do, finding their limits, positing upon their potential. But that can only be done for so long. He networks - social interactions aren't his forte. But theres something oddly freeing about being able to talk openly with all these new people, all bonding over this experience. Any day now, it'd all be worth it. Any day now, Black Hat would come to retrieve his Head Scientist.
… yet still, that didn't happen.
He worries. He paces. He throws himself into work, goes days without sleeping, and when he does sleep, its the most restful thing hes ever experienced. Jung is the most amazing little thing he's ever met, and he really hopes he can take them with him. He tries not to hope too hard - the more he wants it, the more likely Black Hat is to tell him no. But as the two work the field together, exploring, getting stronger, he can't help it.
Does Black Hat not know he's gone?? Has he already replaced him??? Flug tries not to acknowledge that as of right now… that doesn't sound like the most horrible thing in the world.
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indigo_league) wrote2016-05-03 09:48 pm
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