[OOC] Academy Wars: Rituals and Technology in the Modern World, a Magitech School RP

[Silvan Haven]

Only anime physics, I promise.

[VitaVitaAR]

Once @Crimmy posts, I'll be ending the fight.

As for the pending bio I'll look it over again tomorrow.

[Crimmy]

Yeah I'm working on it.

[Silvan Haven]

Updated gun.

The Judgement 12 is pretty basic. It has several fire modes, Normal, Armor Piercing, Ricochet, Explosive and Tracking. The amount of mana that each shot uses can be adjusted on the fly through voice commands, although a base level normal shot will use one percent of a full charge. As a Sacrifice Cauldron the weapon takes small iron ingots inserted into the handle and converts them to mana.

[VitaVitaAR]

I think the actual Divine Gear is still less useful then it should be. And... I'm on the fence about starting to let people have multiple items honestly.

Since it IS a tournament in the end, and any of the possible item types can have multiple parts.

[Silvan Haven]

I'm not entirely sure what problem you have with a player being underpowered. It's hardly going to break the game and if I end up behind the power curve that's my fault and I'm the one who will have to live with it.

As for the second piece of gear, originally all I had was a normal gun. You suggested that I needed to upgrade it a magitech weapon. Your worry about giving out more gear to some people is perfectly understandable, however my setup is apparently still underpowered so I hope it's not as much of a problem as it might be otherwise.

[Raineh Daze]

I'm not entirely sure what problem you have with a player being underpowered. It's hardly going to break the game and if I end up behind the power curve that's my fault and I'm the one who will have to live with it.

As for the second piece of gear, originally all I had was a normal gun. You suggested that I needed to upgrade it a magitech weapon. Your worry about giving out more gear to some people is perfectly understandable, however my setup is apparently still underpowered so I hope it's not as much of a problem as it might be otherwise.

@Silvan Haven

The problem being less 'underpowered' and more 'the character's main ability is actually not terribly relevant'. Second part is... well, the basic premise is of a tournament and using multiple pieces of magitech is a bit iffy (and normal guns are constrained by this thing called 'chemistry', so...)

Would probably work better if you skipped the myth basis and combined the two things? Like... scoped rifle with all the sight things and a pistol?

[Caasicam]

Crimmy convinced me, working on a CS right now.

[VitaVitaAR]

Looking forward to it!

[Caasicam]

Name: Orimono Chikazu 監物 千量
Age: 17
Gender: Female
Appearance: A 5’ 3” mess of raven hair, midnight-hued eyes that might as well absorb light and happiness, and obscure postmodern punk rock band tees. She is built lithe, her generally active lifestyle being to thank.
Personality: Offbeat, carefree bordering on reckless, and a distant demeanor that could be mistaken as a disregard for the results of her actions.
Skills: Though not a physical powerhouse, she is suitably athletic enough to keep pace with most of her peers. She relies more on her Ritual Device, and the abilities that it grants, more than hand-to-hand combat, though trains out of necessity. Focuses primarily on negating the strength of opponents rather than meeting them head-on and trying to match them blow-for-blow.
Equipment: A pair of thick ceramic bracelets. Their glassy, obsidian surface are inlaid with a spiderweb pattern of lodestone shards. They have no obvious clasps or releases, and suffice to say she is never seen without them. Though two separate objects, they function as a single Ritual Device (and thus cease to function when apart) for Ometeotl, the god of duality and souls. It manifests itself physically as either its male or female aspect, a pair of sullen twins who could pass for her younger siblings, referred to as Ometecuhtli and Omecihuatl respectively. The Ritual Device was given to her by an older sibling, and she is still learning the intricacies of having a pact with a god.
Abilities: The nature of the god that her pact is with allows her, put simply, to link two objects together. These links take the form of ethereal red strands from one to the other. Through these links, she can cause one to take on the properties of another, whether it be temperature, mass, or even velocity. Alternatively, she can bind the fate of them together, causing changes that would have only affected one transfer to the other. This ability allows her to effectively clone objects, granting her the ability to form an arsenal should she have access to a single weapon. This is easiest to accomplish on inanimate objects, though she has had some success with linking herself with something else. Binding a target with itself has the peculiar effect of amplifying its traits in a feedback loop, which she uses to great effect to boost her own physical capabilities beyond what her body could naturally handle.
Brief Backstory: Born to a middle-class family in Tokyo, her childhood was nothing exemplary or paticularly notable. Her family’s business dealt with the construction of various modern Ritual Technology, though primarily as a contractor to the larger corporations that designed and sold the devices themselves. Her older brother was expected to attend an Academy, and he had been supplied with a Ritual Device, though he dropped out after a year to help run the business. Not ones to waste, her family convinced her to take her brother’s place at the Academy.

[VitaVitaAR]

I'm a little concerned that the Ritual Device doesn't have enough capability to be used in combat.

[Raineh Daze]

I'm a little concerned that the Ritual Device doesn't have enough capability to be used in combat.

@VitaVitaAR

That is... the roleplay's entire premise is that a combative tournament is substituting for murdering random monstrous invaders. With an ability like that and fighting skill of 'I know some self defence', you go from 'underpowered' to 'I like glorified suicide'.

I can see several ways it would be useful in combat, but none more actually... worth using than just having a really strong headbutt.

[Caasicam]

<Snipped quote by VitaVitaAR>

That is... the roleplay's entire premise is that a combative tournament is substituting for murdering random monstrous invaders. With an ability like that and fighting skill of 'I know some self defence', you go from 'underpowered' to 'I like glorified suicide'.

I can see several ways it would be useful in combat, but none more actually... worth using than just having a really strong headbutt.

@Raineh Daze

Thought the applications were more than sufficient, I'll buff it up a bit though. Not going to argue against that.

[Caasicam]

Going incrementally back to my original idea for the ability; how's this look?

The nature of the god that her pact is with allows her, put simply, to link two objects together. These links take the form of ethereal red strands from one to the other. Through these links, she can cause one to take on the properties of another, whether it be temperature, mass, or even velocity. Alternatively, she can bind the fate of them together, causing changes that would have only affected one transfer to the other. This ability allows her to effectively clone objects, granting her the ability to form an arsenal should she have access to a single weapon. This is easiest to accomplish on inanimate objects, though she has had some success with linking herself with something else. Binding a target with itself has the peculiar effect of amplifying its traits in a feedback loop, which she uses to great effect to boost her own physical capabilities beyond what her body could naturally handle.

[HereComesTheSnow]

Name: Eri Nagase

Age: 16

Gender: Female

Appearance:

A girl of ever so slightly above-average height for her age and nationality at 166.5cm tall, Eri cuts a lean, fairly athletic figure thanks to her former involvement in sports and dabbling in martial arts. Owing to her somewhat more active lifestyle, her fluffy, shoulder-length brown hair is usually seen done up in a ponytail, and her warm golden eyes carry a constant spark of determination and resolve, unwavering in the face of whatever comes her way. It is just a spark, though, and for all intents and purposes, she likely appears to most as a fairly normal young woman, if with a certain sardonic air half the time.

Personality: Eri likes to think of herself as "as close to normal a girl as I can reasonably get". Like any other teenager, she cares about her friends, enjoys chilling out, and will toss out the smarm without missing a beat should a situation needing it arise. Completely normal, right?

Not exactly. For one, she is uniquely stubborn, whether it's shown through being the far and away hardest worker on the track team, to still finding ways to stand back up, fight, and win a battle that others would have called off long before, to even doggedly prodding her friends about how they shouldn't keep telling her "no I'm fine" when they're obviously sick. A conscience and need to look after people that permeates through her in every level. In this way, the girl is almost like an unrelenting blizzard or monsoon, befitting her connection with her god in a way that she probably hasn't realized.

Not to say that she isn't intelligent by any means. On the contrary, she's actually pretty bright, as far as high-school girls go. Maintaining good grades through diligent study and being quick on her feet, Eri doesn't find herself wanting for any ability to put things together. She may be no genius, but she's definitely sharp and well-read enough to consistently hold her own with anyone she decides to banter with. And believe you me, this girl loves poking fun at things, especially if those things are old friends.

Hobbies? Yeah, those are a thing. Unfortunately for her, Eri suffers from "became best friends with a huge stealth nerd" syndrome, and thus by osmosis has developed a pretty extensive reference pool of games, movies, and anime to draw from. She may not have consumed everything, mind you, but thanks to him she sure as hell knows about them.

Has a very light Kansai accent, hailing from Kobe.

Skills: As stated above, Eri is a quick thinker and hard worker, willing and able to use both traits to her advantage. A member of her former school's track team, she is naturally in good shape due to her constant runs in the afternoon, which now serve almost as a time to think or vent more than bodily upkeep or specific training. Thanks to this, she boasts an impressive dash speed and cardiovascular endurance, which as she soon learned, helped immensely in the combat classes she's now taking. In addition to these, the other reasons she survived as a newbie where what were, admittedly, just spurts of dabbling in martial arts. A little Karate from your best friend's fighting-obsessed sister, a little Judo from trying out the club for a while before track season, just little bits and pieces that served as more foundations than anything else. "How to punch someone properly, without breaking your hand", little lessons like that.

Equipment: Ritual Device: After an eventful trip to an old Shinto shrine one spring, Eri has established a contract with Kuraokami, the Dragon God of Rain and Snow. To represent this, she wears a silver band around her right wrist, stylized with imagery reminiscent of a Japanese Dragon. Almost as if it was one wrapped around her finger. Through the mouth of the dragon, the band collects moisture from the air (stored for later use as an emergency supply). Upon activation of it's powers, the bracelet expands to a stylized gauntlet, evocative of the arm and claws of a dragon. Pistons within pump the stored moisture out on command as either liquid water, or a "cool" to "blisteringly frigid" mist.

Abilities: As someone contracted under Kuraokami, God of Rain and Snow, Eri has been granted some dominion over ice and cold. Specifically, she has what she likes to call Frost Touch: the ability to rapidly decrease the temperature of anything she touches with her gauntlet, even the air itself. With this ability, she can cool food, inflict frostbite, fog up an area, or even create opjects out of ice, by shaping the effects of her power within water. This is where the captured moisture can be a lifesaver, as it ensures that she always has water to work with. All but the most ridiculous, large, and obtuse of constructs created in this manner, she will be able to wield mostly comfortably.

Brief Backstory: Nothing too much of note here, in all honesty. Born just as a young family (two parents and one now-onee-chan) had settled into Kobe, Eri grew up living a fairly standard life. Got into athletics, worked hard in school, and made a decent circle of friends through familiar faces that would always pop up whenever she moved up a grade level. The Spring after her first year in high school, she and a friend took a trip to a local Shinto shrine to Kuraokami, partially to hang out and partially to admire the old scenery because he was a bit of a nerd like that and she needed an excuse to get out of the house after one lazy day too many.

And what an excuse it turned out to be. The next thing she knew, she'd forged a contract with the God of Snow and Storm, her best friend's ahoge was on the fritz, and she was no longer going to be able to look after his dumb self-sacrificing ass in school anymore, being now fast-tracked to an entirely different school, away from home, family, and friends, and learning how to battle with her newfound abilities.

Stuck in this new school, she understandably feels a bit of a fish out of water, but time will tell how long it lasts before her better nature pulls through and she starts reaching out to those in need—or who just want to be friends.

[VitaVitaAR]

@Caasicam: Discussing with Rain to see if we think it's enough or it needs more buffing.

@HereComesTheSnow: Looking good, accepted.

[Raineh Daze]

Decided to contribute to the faculty.

Faculty:

• Name: Dr. Sakura Saotome (Western order)
• Age: 29
• Gender: Female
• Appearance

  Seems immune to ageing, and is actually pretty huge for a Japanese woman--5'9.
• Personality: Sakura is shy and rather lacking in confidence, especially as she's not had to do any sort of teaching for a while (nor supervise people when they might set things on fire). She's unfailingly nice, though, even if easy to upset... and incredibly competitive with video games.
• Skills: Though she's out of shape, Sakura did attend a Ritual Technology school and hasn't forgotten how to employ her Divine Gear to fight, which is rather more threatening because it's been worked on and upgraded over the years, mostly by Sakura herself. Her knowledge of the science behind Ritual Technology is pretty comprehensive, and science in general. Most importantly, however, she can and will beat you at video games--explaining how her ability to use the Gear hasn't decreased.
• Equipment: A nameless glove that Sakura's uncle initially built, but has been extensively altered and customised. It's a pretty thin black-and-silver deal and looks a lot less threatening than it is--though the lenses hidden amongst the silver are a giveaway. Since she's left-handed, that's where the glove is worn.
• Abilities: As a Divine Gear that's been tinkered, upgraded, and rebuilt by an occasionally-mad scientist over the past fourteen years, the glove has quite a few abilities, customised to Sakura's preferences:
  HoloDisplay: Always on when the gear's in use, it generates a HUD-type deal over her glasses. This actually has three modes--one's basically just a personal planner and clock and another links to the Divinity Network and positions a virtual keyboard in front of Sakura. The third is the more useful one for a fight: it shows an aiming reticle where her fingers are pointing, a recharging bar, and can be set to highlight enemies in red and friends in blue, which helps with darkness. The other component of the display is basically a sidebar showing representations of different forms of shot, because...
  Finger Gun: The glove... can shoot, should Sakura start making the appropriate motions. It has numerous different firing modes, with the mana consumption for the large ones requiring a recharge before anything large can be fired. They are, unsurprisingly, modelled on various FPS guns: a standard bullet, rapid-fire machinegun, a quick but chargeable laser, an exploding orb-cum-rocket launcher... but also arcing lightning, a plasma-lookalike flamethrower mode, and a close-quarters choice that just has five bright strands from her fingers, because energy whips are handy if people get close.
  Stay-Warm Feature: The glove can keep drinks she's holding warm. Handy, that.
• Brief Backstory: Sakura was never a student at Otsuki, attending a different, older institution that actually managed to win. Upon graduation, she proved her intelligence by making her way into Todai, eventually leaving for a private research company after completing research on a cheaper Light Engine manufacturing method.
  Unfortunately, the company went bust and, after over a year of being unable to find a job, she by chance met one of Otsuki's teachers one night and found that they were looking for a science teacher. Though Sakura really didn't think herself particularly suited for a teaching position, it was better to try than nothing and she started working there shortly before the summer break.
• Position: Science Teacher, Ritual Technology repairman.

[VitaVitaAR]

Accepted.

[Raineh Daze]

Going incrementally back to my original idea for the ability; how's this look?

The nature of the god that her pact is with allows her, put simply, to link two objects together. These links take the form of ethereal red strands from one to the other. Through these links, she can cause one to take on the properties of another, whether it be temperature, mass, or even velocity. Alternatively, she can bind the fate of them together, causing changes that would have only affected one transfer to the other. This ability allows her to effectively clone objects, granting her the ability to form an arsenal should she have access to a single weapon. This is easiest to accomplish on inanimate objects, though she has had some success with linking herself with something else. Binding a target with itself has the peculiar effect of amplifying its traits in a feedback loop, which she uses to great effect to boost her own physical capabilities beyond what her body could naturally handle.

@Caasicam

Would that also amplify injuries taken?

[HereComesTheSnow]

beautiful

now, how to start her off...