Adolescence of Evageeks OOC

[Atropos]

Welcome, one and all, to my little game. I hope you'll enjoy your stay.

This is one of those 'play by post' game things that you usually find in the 'Role-playing' sub forum. However, as this is not NGE-related, it is located here instead.

As the name indicates, I'm deriving inspiration mainly from Revolutionary Girl Utena, a series you can read about here, here, or here. However, if you don't want to click any links while reading this thread, I'll provide my own summary:

PLOT  SPOILER: Show

Somewhere in Japan there is an elite private school known as Ohtori Academy. The student council at this school is currently involved in a series of duels for control of the Rose Bride, a silent girl of mysterious origins, at the behest of an entity calling itself 'End of the World.' After they win her - and defeat all challengers - they will be granted the 'power to bring the world revolution.' For various reasons, they all decide that this sounds like an awesome idea. Swordfighting ensues.

These swordfights are all conducted in a secret dueling arena hidden in a forest behind the school, only accessible to those possessing a rose signet ring. At the beginning of each duel, the Rose Bride pins a rose to the chest of both combatants. If this rose is removed during the duel, its owner has lost. Both the beginning and the end of a duel are signaled by the ringing of bells.

Another interesting fact of the system: while the challenger's sword can come from any source, the duelist currently in possession of the Rose Bride fights with the Sword of Dios, which he (or she) pulls from her chest.

That's what this story's all about. However, I do not intend to turn this RP into a rehash of the television series. I'm bringing my own ideas to it, along with almost everything I've found in fanfic and specula over the years - along with stuff that's just there to amuse me. Plot suggestions are also welcome, though I can't promise their implementation.

And I should emphasize: NO KNOWLEDGE OF UTENA IS NEEDED. In fact, it'll be better that way, since you won't be expecting a lot of what I'll throw at you - although there'll be plenty of surprises for folks familiar with the series.

Rules  SPOILER: Show

1. In terms of tone, I'm aiming for 'serious business, with occasional bits of lulz' - which means that in between all the swordfights and teenage angst there will be time for body-swapping curry.

2. The outcome of combat will be determined by an anonymous vote of the non-participating players. However, the losing competitor gets to write the scene. (If you don't like this mechanic, please inform me - a large part of the problem will be that we may have too few players...)

3. As part of this RP, you will occasionally receive in-character messages from me. They will be marked as such.

4. I'd advise anyone interested in joining to read this post. (Requires an RPGnet account to access; if you don't have one and don't wish to make one, I'll quote it below.)

5. I reserve the right to alter the rules as the game continues.

6.(NEW) Posting works on a "first come, first served" policy. If you take too long a time to post, other people can swoop in and do what they want—including messing with your plans. There's no time-jumping to account for posts that happen between yours and the one you're responding to.

Characters  SPOILER: Show

Just some helpful guidelines.

- Describe your character any way you want, but please include the following elements: age, gender, preferred sword, and hair color(YES, IT'S IMPORTANT).

- Since swordfighting will be big, a background in fencing or kendo is also useful.

- Fairytale motifs are also big, especially the archetypes of the prince, the princess, and the witch. A fixation on one of these can be a significant part of a character's personality.

- Include a reason for the character wanting to bring revolution to the world. A traumatic past is one possibility, but another is a beautiful past to which the character longs to return.

The layout of Ohtori Academy:

SPOILER: Show

However, the layout is fluid and mostly dictated by me. I'll probably just include the dormitories on-campus for convenience.

Notable NPCs:

SPOILER: Show

Rybys Inoue is an eighth grader (14 years old) at Ohtori Academy. Despite her Japanese family name, her appearance is more Mediterranean, with olive skin, dark blonde hair, and gray eyes. She is a quiet and agreeable girl who seems to care for little except tending to her rose garden.

Her past is a mystery. Records show that she has a full scholarship to Ohtori - but how that scholarship was received, or who granted it, is unknown. She appears to have no family of any kind, and most students avoid her. She shows very little aptitude in school; although she attends classes, she rarely participates and shows substandard work when she does.

The Clown is a mysterious figure who has started showing up at Ohtori Academy at the same time as the duels. His mission seems to be to taunt the duellist and fan the flames of their doubts or aggressions. He only ever seems to show up to one duellist at a time though, and then only prior to a duel.

He has medium length snow white hair and wears a mask, almost always ‘comedy’, wearing a black sleeveless shirt, tight crimson pants and dark red gloves and boots. Can occasionally be seen brandishing knives.

Finally, accepted characters:

SPOILER: Show

Scarriotte Alfonse (19)
Sihaya Cherem (17)
Ryo Hayashi (17)
Kaijin Iwakaen (15)
Kayoji Hitomotori (15)

I'd like 3-4 players to begin the game, but I'll accept late arrivals.


Aaaand here's the linked post.

SPOILER: Show

The hardest thing I have learned in PbP gaming, and I still struggle with, is how much to push. Because we don't have instant feedback like a face-to-face conversation, so it's terribly easy for a few "I stand around and wait" posts to turn into a weeks-long delay. I've been there, so many times. So I've been adapting my PbP style over the past couple of years to compensate; I'm still learning.

You may have noticed that I've been playing Rei and Ritsuko very aggressively. If I just do a "Rei says nothing" post, nothing happens. So I had Ritsuko's anchor descriptions forcing events forward and specifically calling out other people to give them something to riff off of, and I had Rei become unusually talkative, so that her conversation has a few hooks for the next person to grab onto, and I'd give trivial dialogue and reactions to NPCs who technically weren't under my control so that I could advance the important bits of the scene quickly instead of waiting for call-and-response.

I know most people don't play like this, but I do gamemaster like this now. Every post I make pushes things forward, sometimes gently, sometimes rapidly, and ends with: (A) a choice, or (B) an opening of options, or (C) a problem that must be responded to. In other words, I try to craft a post that can't be ignored, but has to be responded to, and hopefully that you want to respond to. Because if I don't, we sit around for a couple of weeks making "I wait for someone to do something" posts, and I hate that. So the knack of GMing for me becomes recognizing when the players are making their own fun, and when they're stuck or out of things to do, and adjusting the flow of new information from me to suit. And after GMing like this for a long time, I bring this attitude with me when I'm a player. I'm not just playing my character for myself, I'm trying to generate reactions from all the other characters. It's very meta.

But the risk of doing it this way, the path of aggressive scene advancement, is that you may push too hard and end up utterly dominating the play, forcing other player characters around and basically writing your own damn story, which of course is a bad thing in a role-playing game. ("Five years later, at Asuka's funeral, my character says…" "STOP! BACK UP!") Fear of that is one reason why I think we—people, I mean, 'cause I do it too—tend to default to "I nod and smile" posts in conversations, because we're waiting for something to grab onto, but are afraid to force things. This being Evangelion makes this behavior very, very ironic. Hedgehogs with dice!

This is one reason I've been, for me, unusually chatty in the OOC thread, because I'm trying to give feedback and trying to coax feedback out of others without having to force things IC. It's perfectly okay to riff off my posts, or grab my characters and drag them around on stage to set up your own spotlight scenes! But if I don't say that often, it's easy to forget, I think. If I ever think someone's going too far, I'll say so! Otherwise, I'll adapt and riff off of it. And if I'm pushing too hard, please, tell me! Or if I'm not giving you the hooks you need for a scene ("Why am I in this scene again?"), please, tell me!

That's where I'm at, anyway.

This playlist contains the entire OST of Utena; feel free to use it in your posts.

Last but not least, a link to the IC thread.

[BPES]

Well well well, so it's finally here.

Hmm I guess I'll join as a competitor, just need to organize my mind as to who to use and why from my large roster of characters... or failing that make something new as oft comes up.

[Lavinius]

First I was about to say that I would love to join but I didn't have a character. Then I realized that such a post would be utterly useless, so I was about to say nothing at all. Then I remembered that I did have a spare character lying around.
In case you're wondering, I've seen first couple episodes of Utena.

Name: Sihaya Cherem
Age: 17
Gender: Female
Sword: Since I want something unique, how about a Seven-Branched Sword?
Hair color: Mostly gold with purple highlights.
Appearance With dark brown hair and eyes, Sihaya is fairly pretty, except for her emaciation and pustules. Most of the latter are covered by her clothes, except for one on her cheek that she refuses to cover up to serve as a constant reminder of her condition.
Background: Her ancestors were a small family of Pashas descended from a devout Janissary. The daughter of poor booksellers, at the age of ten she was discovered to have a hideous and fatal genetic disease involving the digestive and reproductive systems, possibly the result of her ancestors' habit of cousin marriage. Because of this, she is bedridden so often that she simply cannot be bedridden and goes about her busineess in significant discomfort. Her parents, in absurd desperation, hoped that by spending all their money to get her into Ohtori Academy, she somehow could gain scholarships and eventually be able to afford a non-existant treatment. Sihaya went along with it, she had no other choice, though she knew that she was doomed no matter what. Thus she is cold and detatched, she does not, even forces herself to not, care about anything that she will loose when she dies, and though she does well in her academics, it is only out of duty and boredom. Until, of course, she receives a letter from a certain End of the World, promising the chance for revolution, or in her case, the redemption of her blood and kin.

[Squigsquasher]

Sounds interesting! I'll write up a character soon.

[Atropos]

\Name: Sihaya Cherem

Hmmm. Interesting. Accepted!

(Just FYI, and for anyone else, your character's first letter from EotW coincides with the beginning of the game.)

[Squigsquasher]

Name: Scarriotte Alfonse.
Age: 19.
Gender: Female.
Sword: A very broad Zweihander with an angular, square-tipped blade, plated with brass. An eye is engraved onto the hilt.
Haid colour: Auburn red.
Appearance: Diminutive girl with blotchy pale skin and amber eyes. Hair usually done in short bob cut. Left eye missing, covered by eyepatch with brass skull pin. Flat as a board. Despite her small size and slender build she is quite muscular, mostly from training with her massive Zweihander. Youthful face, looks a lot younger than she is. Quite heavily scarred, has stitches running down her arms and a long scar over her missing eye. Wears dark red cotton bandages with intricate markings beneath her clothes at all times. Would be fairly pretty were it not for her scarring and sausagemeat complexion.

Background: The daughter of a famous scientist from a little town in coastal Italy. Her mother sadly died in childbirth. She was renowned for her beauty but distrusted due to her father. At a young age she fell gravely ill from a consumptive disease, the likes of which had never been seen before. Her father worked day and night to save her and, after weeks of studying forbidden sciences and dark magics, found a cure for Scarriotte, although the disease had permanently stained her skin an ugly greyish colour.

Unfortunately, when the townsfolk discovered the means by which the girl had been saved from her disease, they accused the scientist of witchcraft and lynched him in his very own home. Although Scarriotte escaped, she lost an eye and gained horrific scarring in the process from the people who tried to murder her, seeing her as an abomination. Stealing a sword her father had forged as a gift to her, she fought her way out and made her way to the streets of Milan. She spent many years as a street urchin, surviving on money she made from fights with her sword, her father's final gift to her. Her luck turned when she received a letter from someone known only as The End of the World, promising the opportunity to bring about a revolution-in her case, an end to ignorance and the triumph of science, progress and reason.

She is a bitter, angry individual. She has little time for her fellow human beings, spending almost all her time either studying scientific academia or training with her Zweihander. However, deep down she is a very lonely person, having lost the only person who ever really loved her-her father-so many years ago. While she believes that she strives for the death of ignorance, truly what she wants is just to be accepted. Unfortunately, she refuses to accept this, and presses any soft feelings deep beneath a layer of anger.

[Atropos]

Tentatively accepted. The presence of supernatural elements in the backstory worries me, as does the street urchin part, but there's that one little thing that made me laugh so much I couldn't turn it away.

Utena  SPOILER: Show

Her father was lynched for being a witch. Effin' fantastic.

[Agentomega]

Count me in for sure. Now, I'll need a couple o' days to forge an interesting character XD

[Squigsquasher]

Tentatively accepted. The presence of supernatural elements in the backstory worries me, as does the street urchin part, but there's that one little thing that made me laugh so much I couldn't turn it away.

Utena  SPOILER: Show

Her father was lynched for being a witch. Effin' fantastic.

I can change it if you need, so just tell me if you want anything altered.

Technically, there (probably) isn't any actual magic involved, just extremely arcane scientific and medical experimentation that is to be kept vague, that the ignorant villagers mistook for witchcraft. If anything, her father is a Thaumaturgist (someone who performs "miracles" through scientific or practical means). He probably did read a few books of black magic and witchery, but whether or not they actually had any effect is left vague.


If you want the entry tweaked then just sling me a PM, and I'll edit whatever you want.

[BPES]

Well time to put this here methinks

Name: Kaijin Iwakaen

Age: 15

Gender: Male

Sword: Twin Katana made for a two-sword style.

Hair colour: Chocolate Brown

Appearance: Kaijin is a lean athletically built boy with decent muscle tone and a slightly above average face. Notably his hands are rather calloused and he has a small crescent scar under his left eye though he claims he doesn’t remember where he got it.

Background: Kaijin’s family was always large and close at hand in his life, and he had always believed that it would be the case no matter what. His family were craftsmen by tradition, often making things and Kaijin learned young how to handle blades and other tools for such a cause. He and his younger sister were always causing trouble here and there but it was a happy childhood.

But of course, nothing lasts forever and his mother fell gravely ill during a trip into the countryside when he was 8. Despite frantic efforts to get to the nearest doctor to get his mother the treatment she needed, Kaijin’s efforts were in vain. The loss shook his immediate family to its core and Kaijin bore witness to his Father’s subsequent suicide a few scant days afterwards.

Kaijin and his sister went on to live with their uncle, who acted more like their big brother than anything else. Kaijin spent the next two years of his life trying to find something that would break him out of his shell. Woodwork, metalwork, cooking, sewing, pottery, painting, kendo, swimming, fishing, but the one thing that really managed to catch his attention was Acrobatics.

While attending Ohtori Academy, his sister got caught up in a bad accident and was hospitalized, with doubts about her ability to recover.

Kaijin pursues the Rose bride in search of eternity, which he hopes will give his sister the help she needs, and his own quivering heart solace.

[Atropos]

Accepted!

[MAGI_01]

I think it's time to reveal my oc!

Name: Ryo Hayashi

Age: 17

Gender: Male

Sword: Katana and Wakizashi. Katana has a black colored blade and the handle wrap is also black. Wakizashi has a wooden handle.

Hair color: Red

Appearance: Ryo is pretty lean, is athletically built and has above average muscle tone. He has medium length red hair and blue eyes. He has an above average face and looks a couple of years younger than he actually is.

Background: Ryo hails from a small town in Japan. It was a close nit community that always worked together to help each other in times of need. When he was 9 years old a massive fire broke out and burned much of the town down, killing not only his Mother and Father in the process, but many of the other townsfolk as well.

The shock of the disaster caused Ryo to build a wall between himself and others and for a whole year he spoke maybe two whole sentences. In an attempt to bring him out of his shell, his Aunt and Uncle who took him in after the tragedy, pushed him into Kendo despite his resistance to the idea. Over the next few years Ryo changed. From the once friendly and helpful boy that turned mute and withdrawn after the fire turned into a hot headed and arrogant young man as his abilities and confidence grew.

He pursues the Rose bride to prove himself and his abilities.

[Atropos]

Accepted! Now we're just waiting on Agentomega, and Lavinius if he wants to create a new character.

[Lance of LoL]

I'm interested, but given my computer's current lack of life, I'll likely be late to the party, don't wait up though, I'll just show up later, like that insane black rose plot.

[Zeldafan888]

Might as wellparticipate in this.

Name: Kayoji Hitmotori
Age: 15 3/4
Gender: Male
Sword: A custom-made Rapier with an Gold painted hilt and a high-quality iron blade.
Hair: Lavender with a taint of black
Appearance: With his Long Lavender Hair and Great body shape, Kayoji is a fairly attractive male overall, he is about 40.00 Kilos physically and has Green eyes.
Background: Born of French-Japanese, Kayoji is a Upper clansmen, born of a rich family he is a Prodigy who excel at Maths & Science; He also does Fencing and also knows french as secondary language from his french origin.

But then he lost his parents in a plane crash 7 years ago he not been the same, his Aunt on his french side was kind enough to look after him, at 10 years of age, he was transferred to Ohtori Academy for educational reasons and that his Aunt want him to start living on his own.
He is popular with the students there, he was well-renown for his great fencing skills and his attractive appearance which made him popular with girls but he has trouble getting close to anyone in Romantic and Non-Romantic way because of that incident which is why he agreed to join the student council after receiving a letter from the End of the World so that he can use the power to grant revolution, to get rid of the thing that preventing him from true happiness.

[Atropos]

Hmm. This is an unexpected development. Accepted!

Now, should I wait for Agentomega, or should we start with the expectation that he'll join up eventually?

[Squigsquasher]

Just ask him. He did say he wouldn't mind joining later.

[Agentomega]

Indeed, I also don't mind showing up late to the party. It kind of adds to the intended aspect of my character. I'm currently in the process of creating a backstory.

[Atropos]

Alright, seems there's been some confusion.

If you haven't received a letter from End of the World, PM me and please do not post until you receive one.

[Zeldafan888]

Alright, seems there's been some confusion.

If you haven't received a letter from End of the World, PM me and please do not post until you receive one.

Sorry I did't known that the you had to get a pm/letter from the end of the world before you starts roleplaying in the thread before posting my first contribution in that thread at the time of that post.

I've edited my post in that thread to reflect the pm Atropos sent and his recent post in this thread.