{ a l c h e m y /

[Genkai]

{ a l c h e m y /

Alchemy can be described in three ways:

( a medieval chemical science and speculative philosophy aiming to achieve the transmutation of the base metals into gold, the discovery of a universal cure for disease, and the discovery of a means of indefinitely prolonging life.

{ a power or process of transforming something common into something special.

{ an inexplicable or mysterious transmuting.

The setting is what your character is unsure about. They have been told that the world has ended, they have been stripped of any devices such as weapons or technology they might possess. They have been captured by an unknown nameless group to help them further their study of alchemy. Your character finds his or herself chained inside a simple 3x3 cell with their ankle shackled to the iron bars keeping them in. Their memory comes and goes, they see flashes of light, smell smoke, taste blood but for the most part, they can't place the memories down to one single event. Your character has been selected for his or her special traits. If they're smart or handsome or strong or gifted in some other way like dance or singing, any unique talent could attract the eyes of this dark cult seeking to use the power of human decay to their advantage. Your character is suddenly taken out of captivity and led down a hallway and pushed into a room where they meet several other foggy eyed individuals. The doors lock and the group is trapped and then instructed to make history happen.

Each individual has a marking on their back: either a circle, triangle, square or hexagon.

Each shape represents one basic element: earth, air, water or fire respectively.

The individuals have been tested for the past 18 months, their skin, their soul, has been branded with the mark best suited to them. Their blood, their flesh, their bone, their anything will activate an alchemic reaction if imprinted on any surface: human or inanimate. The black cloaked group has tested the compatibility with various elements, some mesh well while others do not. As your character looks around at everyone else's naked form, it becomes clear just what kind of testing has been going on for the past year and a half. Chunks of flesh, twisted limbs, and other serious injuries have been inflicted upon one another. The lost group is then informed that if they complete one final test, that they will be released into the world which they had been originally told was gone. There is one single knife tossed into the room as the groups looks on from above with interested eyes. This was what they had all been waiting for.

This is something meant to be gory in the beginning but it will lighten up upon your character's release at the end of Chapter One.

This is a fantasy story, I was tip toeing on the idea of something modern or post-apoc but I think fantasy may have a better impact with people.

I have some very technical rules for alchemy and how it will be used and presented in the story. I haven't done something technical before so I'm seeking pretty advanced players for this fact primarily. You will be expected to draw out basic alchemy patterns I have outlined as feasible for certain techniques. There will be rules on how to place shapes with other shapes aside from your own. This will be key to the story as well because certain points in the alchemic equitation will require parts of your character (always blood but sometimes hair, skin, teeth, etc). While there will be some gore (haha, some) this is not going to be some sob story, there has to be fight, will to live. There is purpose for this happening but your characters will go through a period of reconnecting back at home before they were kidnapped by the cult. They will try to acclimate within their surroundings while dealing with the horrors they experienced.

So think of this as a horror meets fantasy meets slice of life meets adventure story.

Your characters will be in their mid twenties and I'd like 2-3 others to join. I'd prefer to double but I might not need to for this RP.

Either, I expect four paragraphs as a typical minimum. I post from that upwards of ten to twelve paragraphs when I double in ADV roleplays. As this will be more emotional and technical, I do expect keen responses where players know what's going on. Of course questions should be asked within the OOC but I shouldn't find any real errors with consistency in your posts. If character Bob is talking to someone across the room, don't have your character just change things up and think Bob is somewhere else entirely. Makes sense right?

So if you're a dedicated writer who likes mystery among a small intimate group (not as creepy as it sounds) who also wants something a bit more "hands on" when it comes to showing alchemic drawings/equations which have meaning (via Paint or Photoshop and attaching to your post), this would be a nice fit for you.

[MalTheAwesome]

This definitely sounds interesting. Consider my curiosity piqued. How exactly will the elements effect our alchemy in this? Like say I have a fire character, and he draws a symbol on a shield in an attempt to, I don't know, rust proof it by making it automatically evaporate water on its surface through heat. Would that be possible with fire, water, or is that kind of thing completely undoable?

[Genkai]

This definitely sounds interesting. Consider my curiosity piqued. How exactly will the elements effect our alchemy in this? Like say I have a fire character, and he draws a symbol on a shield in an attempt to, I don't know, rust proof it by making it automatically evaporate water on its surface through heat. Would that be possible with fire, water, or is that kind of thing completely undoable?

The fire symbol is compatible with air or perhaps water, think about how the shapes can form within one another. A triangle, for example can form three tiny ones inside against the original corners, leaving the empty space to be a hexagon. The more shapes you can make with just your own shape (ex: putting triangles together to make a square or hexagons put together to make triangles etc)

If you can befriend someone and have them lay their shape in or outside or overlaying yours, it's possible to combine the elements much easier but the impact won't be as great until you add something like a spiral or other accent marks to perhaps give your Earth/Water attack a flourish of lightning.

Hopefully that helped...?

[MalTheAwesome]

So, continuing the repulsion of water idea, theoretically I could enchant a shield to repulse water via heat, but it would be limited in its ability to do so unless I had a water buddy add his symbol to the mix.

Also, what are the limits of combining these shapes? Could fire and water mesh easily by simply putting a small hexagon within a square, or would that not work?

Sorry if I'm launching too many questions at you, I'm just curious as to how this will work, and really do want to play this.

[Genkai]

So, continuing the repulsion of water idea, theoretically I could enchant a shield to repulse water via heat, but it would be limited in its ability to do so unless I had a water buddy add his symbol to the mix.

Also, what are the limits of combining these shapes? Could fire and water mesh easily by simply putting a small hexagon within a square, or would that not work?

Sorry if I'm launching too many questions at you, I'm just curious as to how this will work, and really do want to play this.

Correct.

I'm aiming to have "limitless" (within reason) ideas, I want there to be a lot of meshing, alone or with your group you maintain upon being released back into the world itself. You can put a hexagon within a square which would give you more water in the attack. If you put the hexagon and then the square inside, then you'd have a more fire based attack with the water but if they overlay one another, they'd bring equivalent amounts of sacrifice and output to the equation.

No no, questions are fine. This is the on RP, I could happily improve the idea while clarifying things. Not everything is set in stone, this idea did hit me at 4 AM.

[Ghurdrich]

Surprised there isn't truckloads of interest here. I guess it's not simple enough to appeal to most people.

Well, appeals to me just fine, so consider me interested. My only request would be a little more indepth layout once you get the alchemy process more set in stone. You mention the four elements, but in one of your posts you mentioned a spiral for lightning, which makes me think that the four elements aren't the only things going around (I think this is a good thing.)

Also, obviously the characters we would be playing are part of the test group, is there room for others? You mentioned forming groups, which makes me think there will be more than just the initial 'party' sooner or later? Sorry if I'm misunderstanding something, I haven't slept right for a few days and my thoughts are a bit muddy.

Anyway, looking forward to seeing what sort of interesting things await.

[Genkai]

Surprised there isn't truckloads of interest here. I guess it's not simple enough to appeal to most people.

Well, appeals to me just fine, so consider me interested. My only request would be a little more indepth layout once you get the alchemy process more set in stone. You mention the four elements, but in one of your posts you mentioned a spiral for lightning, which makes me think that the four elements aren't the only things going around (I think this is a good thing.)

Also, obviously the characters we would be playing are part of the test group, is there room for others? You mentioned forming groups, which makes me think there will be more than just the initial 'party' sooner or later? Sorry if I'm misunderstanding something, I haven't slept right for a few days and my thoughts are a bit muddy.

Anyway, looking forward to seeing what sort of interesting things await.

Same here...though if it's just me and two others (with me never turning down the idea of someone doubling) that'd be cool too, I just assumed I'd try to take on a bigger group for this but in the future, you never know.

I do intend to outline in depth the technical details for alchemy and shapes and combining them in the OOC, I just didn't want to puke out the info here and scare away some. That and it's still in the "work in progress" stage. The four elements aren't the only thing going around, no, there will be plenty of room for more elements, nature as well as actual chemical elements.

I will be playing the antagonist cult and its followers who will keep an eye on the released group and test them. But primarily, the roles allowed around the kidnapped experiments. There may be more released but the process of branding bodies and making sure they don't die, take to their element and the trade...can be a long ordeal. The idea is that the people will want to try and return to their humdrum lives but can't, trouble keeps following and they'd be better, stronger, working and learning together.

Does that help you?

[Ghurdrich]

Yeah, sounds like good stuff to me.

[Genkai]

Yeah, sounds like good stuff to me.

Well if it does end up being us three, I may have an OOC up by tomorrow night. I have a bit to do tonight and I would rather approach the OOC with less on my mind.

[Genkai]

I managed to get some sort of OOC up for anyone who is interested.

{ a l c h e m y / ooc