[OOC] Strange Gospel: An Urban Fantasy RP

[VitaVitaAR]

Oh right, I'd rather not triple post but I would also like people to actually notice this, um, your character does not have to be a regular user of the app but they do need to have seen it in action with the phone in their hands at some point.

[Dblade26]

A bit bare bones, but I've discussed a lot of the rest of his details with Vita already.

FOR GREAT JUSTICE!

Name: Soma Yuuichi

Age: 29

Gender: Male

Appearance: like this

Personality: A crusader for justice and safety, but with a realist streak, Detective Soma has been fascinated by crime and the sometimes dangerous nature of human beings after a childhood incident left him emotionally scarred, but dedicated himself to becoming a top-notch police officer in order to protect people from those who give in to either one. He's driven to excellence in the hopes that he never has to face failure in protecting others. To that end, he even strives to act like a kindly and dependable authority figure, always ready to help out his community in whatever way he can.

Skills: Detective Soma is a skilled marksman and aikidoka as part of his training as a detective. He's also naturally ambidextrous and has a fairly keen investigative mind and knowledge

Equipment: His five-shot service revolver, chambered in .38 special, a collapsible baton, proof that he's a detective.

Soul Arts: A medium-sized shield gained from a chip inserted into his right hand's palm. The shield is incredibly durable and can neutralize damage from most forms of harm it comes into contact with instantly, even some things that might not usually be blocked by a simple piece of metal. Because of its extreme durability, it also has some use as a bashing weapon, though naturally its main focus is to protect its wielder and others from harm.

Brief Backstory: Soma Yuuichi lived the life of a fairly ordinary child until he was around nine years old and all of that was shattered. His mother was murdered, and poor Yuuichi was the one to find her body. The murderer was never found, and the crime stayed unsolved and eventually went cold. Naturally the experience scarred and deeply affected the young boy, but he decided to try and channel it positively, vowing to become the country's best police officer and prevent or catch any and all evildoers who might do something like that to anyone else.

In the years since, he's become one of the fastest rising special investigators, especially with his work regarding homicides. Volunteering for and being chosen to work the Strange Gospel case and investigate the disappearances occurring to uncover the truth behind them isn't just a career move for him, but a chance to save innocent lives and stop 'bad guys'.

[@VitaVitAR]

[VitaVitaAR]

Since we discussed this before, accepted!

[VitaVitaAR]

@SaintRice@banjoanjo@Nerevarine@Altasaire@ERode@Dark Lugia

Since the RP started, here's a mention for everyone who hasn't gotten a bio up yet but shown interest in the thread. You have plenty of time to complete your bio, so don't worry!

[Nerevarine]

• Name: Hotaru Ozawa
• Age: 17
• Gender: Female
• Appearance: Bonjour
• Personality: Hotaru is a rather mellow and passive young woman. She's typically found at home or at the library studying, and if not there, she is likely working from home or in an activity with her church. A constant hard worker, Hotaru is surprisingly disorganized and messy for someone of her demeanor. Those who have visited her home make note that her room is full of garbage like half-eaten food and empty soda bottles, as well as dirty clothes that act like a second carpet.
• Skills:
  - Translation: Hotaru's particular specialty is her skill in translation. In addition to a mastery of the Japanese Language, Hotaru speaks English at the level of a native and has high skill in Mandarin, Korean, French, German, Latin, Greek and Hebrew as well.
  - Encryption: In connection to her skill with languages, Hotaru has developed and honed the ability to create intricate and complex cyphers.
• Equipment: Hotaru carries around a backpack with her that contains a notepad and pens, her work computer, a series of langauge drill primers, and her bible. As well, she's rarely seen without her smartphone, wallet, and her portable game console, usually loaded with an RPG or puzzle game.
• Soul Arts:
  Ghosting: Inserting the Soul Art's chip in her neck behind her ear, Hotaru is able to take on a state wherein her body density can be manipulated, allowing her to change into a lower density state to increase speed and dexterity in battle, as well as increase density to add more power to her punches and take hits better.
• Brief Backstory:

Hotaru is a native of Nagasaki. Her Father and Mother, Mr. and Mrs. Hiroji and Megumi Ozawa are Roman Catholics who moved from Nagasaki shortly after the birth of their daughter. Since then, the life of the Ozawa family has been pretty ordinary. Aside from their religion, they are a completely normal Japanese family.

Hotaru Ozawa is an average girl in many ways. She is not too popular, but not to vilified. She arrives to her classes on time, has a modestly sized circle of friends, regularly goes to church, and has a facination with video games. Perhaps her only major quirk is her skill with and love with languages and her job as a translator for a video game company. Hotaru first came in contact with Strange Gospel at her school and downloaded it to investigate it, but was horrifed by the content and quickly denounced it as Satanic and refused to assocaite with it any further. When the issues of horrifying and disturbing imagery came up, Hotaru was once again quick to denounce the app as something Satanic and began to encourage everyone around her to cut all interaction with the app and avoid in all possible ways.

As of now, Hotaru has been working as hard as she can to avoid all interaction with Strange Gospel, and devoting herself extra to school work and her job.

@VitaVitaAR

[VitaVitaAR]

@Nerevarine: While I'm not usually prone to accepting things very late at night, I'm very awake this time and see no problems with your bio, so accepted.

[VitaVitaAR]

Incidentally, I'd like for everyone to somehow run into each other before I get things going.

If you're having trouble with that, I can post to help out with it, but at the moment I'd like everyone to meet somehow.

[VitaVitaAR]

I feel bad about triple posting again, but I'd like to make it clear that everyone can sign up with up to two characters, including if you're using a villain.

I'm saying this because I decided to introduce a human character to help out with some things. ^^;

• Name: Sasegawa Hikaru
• Age: 15
• Gender: Female(as of now everyone should believe her to be male)
• Appearance: Hikaru has light skin, very dark red hair, dark red eyes, and tends to wear black clothing. She is just under five feet tall. Copious amounts of binding are involved.
• Personality: Hikaru is a very serious individual. Her belief is that she must focus on her work as a detective above all else, even to the detriment of all other aspects of her life. Wishing to honor her father's memory, and to be taken seriously, Hikaru disguises the fact that she is a girl. She believes that others would doubt her skills and think that she only achieved her dream of being detective because her father was a highly respected detective himself. She is deeply self-conscious of this fact and fears that this belief would tarnish her father's memory, and therefore she hides her femininity. Hikaru has no friends to speak of, dedicating most of her free time to detective work. She is proud of her work, and takes pride in doing things properly. When she cooks, she follows recipes to the letter. When she works, she carefully inspects every single angle. Hikaru is very blunt and to the point, and somewhat unhesitating to call others stupid or foolish. This is both due to scorn at times and due to her tendency to plainly state what she perceives. Hikaru is very self-conscious about her femininity, and hides her figure in concealing clothing as a result. She is actually quite easily embarrassed or flustered in spite of her blunt attitude, but it's not likely that anyone will find it easy to do so while she still is believed to be male. Finally, Hikaru has difficulty understanding romance or why anyone would desire it with her, feeling very awkward about the prospect. While she is celebrated by the police, she also is aware of being resented for her youth.
• Skills: Hikaru is extremely intelligent and analytical, excellent at observation and analysis of her surroundings. A skilled detective in spite of her young age, Hikaru has solved multiple cases, including murders, using her capabilities. She is also a remarkably capable cook, but only when using recipes. She also excels at marksmanship, being trusted with a revolver in spite of her young age and the strict gun control laws in Japan(obviously not on school grounds).
• Equipment: Hikaru carries with her, when she is not on school grounds, a police-issue revolver. Aside from that, most of her typical detective equipment is on her person at all times. This includes the means to dust for fingerprints and various other methods of observation.
• Soul Arts: BANG! A Shocking Development!!! - Hikaru's Soul Art is inserted directly into her palm. Once inserted, she gains a translucent pistol alongside her revolver, which can fire bolts or bullets of electricity. The bolts are more powerful, but the bullets can hone in on her targets.
• Brief Backstory: Hikaru was born to Sasegawa Mami and Sasegawa Ryouji. Sadly, her mother passed away not long after her birth, leaving her to be raised by her father. Hikaru was brought up on stories of justice, stories of detective work paying off in getting the bad guy. Naturally, her own dreams were formed by this, and she made the decision to become a detective herself, just like her father. This goal was furthered by her naturally high intelligence and analytical attitude. Unfortunately, none of this could prepare her for her father's death on the case. Now living with a friend of her family's, Aoi Yumeko, Hikaru resolved to become a detective who could uphold the Sasegawa family name and carry on her father's legacy. Fearing that she would be treated as nothing more then the product of nepotism due to detective work largely being a male profession, Hikaru decided to hide her female nature and pretend to be male. Working with the police force, she has solved multiple cases that include several murders. She is currently assigned to the Strange Gospel case. At Yamamura High, she is believed to be male and has a very long list of female admirers.

... Before anyone says anything, I know she is basically Naoto(the one Persona 4 character I know anything about) but that was by accident until I realized what I'd done and just decided to roll with it. ^^;

[RolePlayerRoxas]

Meant to post a lot sooner. Home life suddenly decided I don't need time to myself after work these days.

[banjoanjo]

@VitaVitaAR
Sorry for the late submission. Here ya go.

Hoshitani Yuuga

Name: Hoshitani Yuuga (星谷 優雅)
Age: 17
Gender: Male
Appearance: The prettiest boy.

Simply put, Yuuga is really, really, ridiculously good looking. Equipped with a natural height and a flawless skincare regime, the 183cm tall boy is quite the dazzling sight to behold when he strolls down the hallways. His naturally black hair has been grown to a length slightly above his shoulders. (If anyone were to watch him for an extended period of time, they’d notice that he seems to swish it around super frequently for a dude.) He occasionally ties it into a low ponytail, for kyudo practice mostly. Alternates between glasses and contacts, depending on what he's doing and what look he's trying to pull off. Every morning his uniform is meticulously arranged to look casual yet classy, the top two buttons of his shirt left open and his tie in a loose knot below his collar. His sleeves are left unrolled though. He’d rather not tread that line between looking casual and looking like a delinquent. (He has a reputation to uphold, after all.) Yuuga sometimes wears a light, woollen jumper over his school shirt.

Personality:

Years of active socialization has honed Yuuga’s amiability to a sharp and shining point. He’s laid-back, that’s for sure. Charming too. Classmates will find that he’s a boy who smiles a lot more easily than others (“No one likes a sadsack, right?”), more willing to help with small favors, and all around just a swell guy. He’s likable, to the point where it’s kinda eerie sometimes.

It’s not an uncommon thing to find that Yuuga is a bit… too much at times. People who aren’t swept away by his charm view him as a narcissistic try-hard, some kind of faker behind that dashing veneer. The try-hard part’s not entirely untrue. In the name of preserving his reputation, Yuuga will more often than not go out of his way to do the more undesirable tasks people push onto him. He wouldn’t hurt anyone though, no way. Small tasks, like staying behind to help with festival preparations or filling in for the soccer club. Things like that, he can do. If you have an annoying chore to do and subtly mention how good it’d make him look, Yuuga will dive into that work with the grace of a swan. In other words, play it right and he’ll be a total pushover.

The narcissist part is far from the truth though. Sure, he’s petty and image absorbed. Sure, he gives his hair a touch up whenever he passes a reflective surface. But Yuuga doesn’t think that highly of himself. He knows his faults, knows that all his popularity came from excessive amounts of behind the scenes work. He knows that unlike the natural extroverts and good-lookers in his clique, he needs to work hard to maintain his status. Because in high school, in this world of all-encompassing social media, reputation is everything. Average losers who don’t conceal their mediocrity behind smiles and sociable personalities fall behind. That can’t happen. Yuuga won’t let that happen.

Skills:

Extensive knowledge of skincare products and routines. Barely above average grades and below average athletic ability, much to his chagrin. Godlike selfie game. Quite detail oriented. Proficient in kyudo, having done it since middle school, though his skills are nothing awe-inspiring. Fairly good at household chores such as laundry and cooking.

Equipment:

Smartphone, usually in his pants pocket. Apart from the standard school supplies, his schoolbag contains his glasses case with cleaning cloth, lip balm, comb, and selfie stick.

Soul Arts:

Grand Reversal: His Soul Art is inserted into the base of his neck, just above the sternum. Yuuga gains the ability to control or negate friction within a 10 meter radius. Applications of this ability can include making it easier to climb walls or rock faces, sending charging enemies slipping past, and making a dynamic and flashy entrance with Yuuga gracefully sliding into the scene.

Brief Backstory:

Yuuga was born to an infuriatingly average family, an only child with a stay-at-home mother and a salary-man father. Elementary school was… fine. He went through the usual motions, making a reasonable number of friends, trying out hobbies, thinking about girls. Nothing exceptional, nothing terrible. Life was a stagnant, horizontal line on a plane. Nothing ever stood out. He wouldn't have been able to accept it if he never became more than what he was destined to always be, if the rest of his life was a death sentence of relentless mediocrity. So he rewrote himself.

A look in the mirror told him that he was pretty alright-looking. With some hard work he could turn it, himself, into something spectacular. He started grooming himself, taking care of his diet and face. He joined the kyudo club. He started talking more, laughing to jokes that weren’t all that funny but made the others feel like laughing was the right thing to do. And it worked. People, girls even, started noticing him. Eating lunch with him. Inviting him to group chats and karaoke hangouts. It was everything he’d dreamed. So he continued the hard work.

By the time high school rolled around, Yuuga had successfully cemented his place in the popular cliques. Keeping up with social media was the only sensible thing to do in his position so joining Strange Gospel was a given. Of course, he’d dropped it once all that creepy stuff started happening. But with the disappearances connected to that cursed app happening around him, Yuuga can’t help be feel spooked. Already, he’d heard news of distant friends of friends going missing. Would he or someone he knew be next?

[Mercurial]

Simply put, Yuuga is really, really, ridiculously good looking.

@banjoanjo

[Crimmy]

<Snipped quote by banjoanjo>

@Mercurial

Godlike selfie game.

[VitaVitaAR]

@banjoanjo: While it's late, I'm pretty awake so I feel like I can okay him.

[Nerevarine]

If we can have a second character, I'm gonna add one in. The team could use more men too

Straight outta the dairy farm

• Name:
  Eto Nobuyuki; he has an Ainu nickname "Resak"
• Age: 16
• Gender: Male
• Appearance:
  If you've ever eaten cheese, I am your god
  The most immediate trait of Nobuyuki is his size. Standing at about 6 ft tall, he also complements this by being extremely burly, with wide shoulders, large arms, and general bulk that comes as the result of growing up on a family dairy farm. His hair is very black, and he keeps it slicked down with copious amounts of oil, if he does not, the hair becomes very frizzy and voluminous, resulting in something resembling a tangled mess of curly hair.
• Personality:
  Nobuyuki is a very loud and brash young man. He has a notoriously crude sense of humor, a very rough demeanor, but is generally friendly, if only something of an acquired taste. While something of a slacker in school, he does have a very strong work ethic; he just prefers manual labor to academics. Nobuyuki has a strong interest in outdoor activities, in particular, he loves hiking, and is a major fan of baseball.
• Skills:
  He is strong, very strong. Along with his strength, Nobuyuki is familiar with animals, and is good at handling them.
• Equipment:
  His phone, various entertainment magazines (usually sports focused)
• Soul Arts:
  Charge!: Nobuyuki builds up energy in his arms, legs, or whatever he's striking with, and releases it in a powerful shockwave upon impact that augments the damage done by his punch or kick. The soul art is inserted into his shoulder
• Brief Backstory:

Eto Nobuyuki is a transfer student from a small town in Hokkaido. He is an ethnic Ainu, the youngest of 3 brothers and 2 sisters, most of them adults, and his father was a dairy farmer. Unfortunately, an accident left his father paralyzed from the waist down. His eldest brother bought out the farm, leaving Nobuyuki, his youngest sister, and parents to move. Nobuyuki and his sister entered into Yamamura High last year, with his sister Yumi just graduating. Nobuyuki and Yumi, who was often called by her Ainu nickname "Toitoi" by her brother, were particularly close, and when the fad of Strange Gospel began, Nobuyuki made sure to let his sister know about the goings on. The two thought it was pretty cool, that was until Apocrypha came along, with the two deciding at that point that it was best not to mess with it anymore. However, Yumi couldn't help but give into the temptation to figure out more. Yumi went missing not too long ago, and Nobuyuki has been crushed by his sister's disappearance, though he tries not to let it show.

[Crimmy]

@VitaVitaAR

"Some guy asked me if I'd eat like, tiny people if they tasted like steak. But humans taste like pork and I don't eat them, so why would I wanna munch on some midgets?"

Name: Chiyu Shoukei (朱 祥瓊)

Age: 16

Gender: Female

Appearance:


Despite her shockingly pink head of hair (all-natural, thank you very much), the five foot three teenage girl isn't someone with a particularly noticeable aura, unless one of her many strange ideas pops into her head and she recklessly decides to go ahead with some action that draws people's attentions. Indeed, one merely needs to take a gander at Shoukei's ridiculously sparse wardrobe (stocked just in order to ensure that she can alternate between outfits when some are in the wash) to conclude that, yes, if she has a fashion sense that isn't tailored entirely towards looking like a brightly-coloured background extra, it's one that's almost nonexistent. While definitely not totally lacking in savvy towards clothing, she definitely is somebody whose care ends at "being presentable", although depending on whether or not she'd brushed her hair that morning, even that can change. Sometimes she wears glasses. She does, however, have an incredibly expressive face.

Personality: At first glance, Shoukei seems like one of those quiet, studious types, someone who prefers to keep silent and fade into the background rather than engage with the rest of society on a regular basis. That view is ... half-right; while it is true that she doesn't care for being in the forefront of life and whatnot (despite a mild attention-seeking streak) due to all the energy it would require of her, the actual reason behind her seeming lack of social activity is her constant need to think things through around strangers. As someone already not too predisposed to talking, a lot of the time she spends her efforts formulating the proper conversation starters, thinking through the consequences of what words she may say, and whether or not others would welcome her actually talking to them. And then it turns out that she's lost her window of opportunity, so she simply shrugs her shoulders and decides to do better next time.

Of course, none of her planning actually comes into play when she actually gets into a conversation.

Shoukei's manner of speech is, to put it bluntly, incredibly off-the-cuff, with a certain irreverence to it that some people could construe as rudeness. She certainly doesn't try to be rude, of course, and that's pretty clear to see in her interactions with figures of authority (who tend to receive polite addresses from her), but the moment she crosses the hurdle of "should I actually try talking to this stranger", she starts loosening up, and any attempts at staying formal immediately devolve into incredibly casual dialogue (and depending on the situation, loudness). Under the seemingly quiet persona she's accidentally adopted, it becomes pretty telling that the pink-haired girl is an amicable lass, although the contents of her words can be, at times, a bit eccentric. The closer she is to you, and the more casual she is, the more likely it is for her to not bother with thinking through her words. Sure, the running commentary in her brain (which is, despite her friendliness, somewhat dismissive from time to time) is always turned on, giving dry observations of happenings, but even that can't stop her from blurting out what's on her mind.

And her mind certainly can come up with weird things.

She isn't too fond of being a weirdo, however, although she's resignedly accepted that, yes, she's definitely somewhat more eccentric than your usual gal. It doesn't stop her brain (which ping pongs from nihilism to shining optimism like a table tennis match in high level Chinese leagues) from constantly trying to pretend to have some veneer of normalcy. It's why it's easy for her to play both funny and straight woman if necessary, because ignoring her inherent strange nature, she likes the concept of an easy, quiet and perfectly normal life. Her exasperated snarking does tend to be more mental though, because she doesn't want to verbalise any disrespectful thoughts too much. She still does, but they're not too common, thankfully.

Or at least not common enough to do much to her reputation (which admittedly isn't too great but hey, nobody thinks she's anything worse than a weirdo).

Something to keep in mind is that Shoukei possesses a pretty sizable streak of selfish cynicism. While she does do her best to keep it under bay, it does end up colouring a lot of her worldview. And serve as a source for some of her materialistic ambitions. Even if she prefers the quiet life, there are just some things that she really wants, and will do anything to get it. Like the position of Student Council Treasurer, triumphing over her rival to do so.

It can be noticed that she's rather petty, too.

In the end, however, she's still a studious and diligent young girl, and for all her flaws and eccentricities, Shoukei can be someone hard-working and effective in her duties, to the point where you can describe her as some sorta freight train in her intensity. She has an almost unhealthy sense of responsibility to almost any task she's been assigned (a flaw which she acknowledges and awkwardly tries to avoid by convincing others of her lack of suitability as being in charge of things), and will fight 100% to make sure it comes out properly.

Even the smallest things. Especially the smallest things.

She'll get them done, no sweat.

Skills: For all her weirdness and tendency to leap before she looks, Shoukei's actually pretty smart. Grasping and understanding the concepts of how things work comes pretty easily to her (which explains the overall excellence of her school grades), so it doesn't really take long for her to suss things out. Lateral thinking is something that she still needs to work on, but when getting down to the nitty-gritty details, she can definitely get it through. Her diligence towards getting things done is almostly inhuman, to the point where she can function on almost zero sleep (well, almost - if she's had a few late nights, do expect her to be taking advantage of any break to snooze). Physically, of course, she's not that amazing, although some say that if she's either scared or super pissed, the adrenaline turns her from "mediocre" to "Usain Bolt's got nothing on this lassie", but that's just an exaggeration of her tendency to perform slightly better when motivated. She learnt to speak Chinese from a Beijinger, hence her excessive rhotic consonants. Her cooking boils down entirely to ... well, boiling. And eggs.

Equipment: Mobile phone; wallet (bank card, cash, library card, photo ID, fabric store loyalty card, coffee store loyalty card, some old receipts she's forgotten to throw away); a lot of pens; a notebook of miscellaneous deeds; chopsticks case

Soul Arts: Lil' Miss Acoustic - when inserted into a slot present on her right forearm (usually hidden under her sleeves), Shoukei gains the ability to reduce some of the damage she takes from enemy attacks by converting the energy received from them into sound waves (through a complex series of events which boils entirely down to "her body starts oscillating"). In itself, this ability would be admittedly useless, and an added strain on her body, but once she begins to produce sound waves, she can manipulate the direction of their displacement (usually by redirecting it towards her foes). The intensity of these waves depend on the attack she's redirecting, although it goes without saying that she's definitely more powerful underwater (given the denser medium). Of course, that means she's useless in space.

Brief Backstory: The firstborn daughter of a government clerk and a teacher, Chiyu Shoukei grew up in a rather normal upper middle class household, albeit one with a significant focus on education. Her early years were rather bland, having spent much of them merely going to school and absorbing everything that her teachers and parents sought to instill in her and training up her head for numbers through her maths classes. It wasn't really until the later stages of her elementary life (and bleeding into middle school) that she (and her fellow self-actualising peers) realised the extent of her eccentricities, a revelation that she promptly sought to correct through a series of rather embarrassing and unspeakable events that she refuses to acknowledge ever happened. Yet the repercussions on her reputation stuck, and so Shoukei threw herself even further into her studies, hoping to quickly get into high school and blot out that stain on her person.

Her wish, fortunately, was somewhat fulfilled with her arrival onto the campus grounds of Yamamura High. While it was impossible to entirely avoid being seen as a mild weirdo by her peers (particularly when some had gone to school with her earlier), the pink-haired girl, despite her background extra-like nature, proceeded to establish a niche for herself as someone studious and diligent, settling into her new school with requisite gusto. At first, she decided on trying to have a rather quiet life, but on a whim, she found herself throwing her name into the ring during the student council elections.

Much to her surprise, she was given a position.

Despite her relative youth, Shoukei was thrown straight-first into the position of Treasurer, forcing her to give up her dream of an entirely quiet life with the realisation that she was now in possession of great responsibility. The assignment also coincided with the introduction of Strange Gospel, which, while she did download, found itself being left to the wayside as she struggled to handle her new job. Being a treasurer was hard work, and the ever-responsible Shoukei decided that a random mobile phone app was of no import when compared to balancing the budgets and serving as a receptacle for school clubs complaining about funding cuts. With the sketchy rumours emerging around it, going back to using it has only become less appealing to her, allowing her to focus her efforts entirely on her work.

It might not be entirely fun, but the duty is one she must bear.

[VitaVitaAR]

@Nerevarine: Accepted.

@Crimmy: Accepted.

[Crimmy]

@VitaVitaAR What month is it, in-game?

[VitaVitaAR]

April.

[Crimmy]

Okay, start of the school year then.

Huhm, looks like Shoukei's probably in her second year?

[VitaVitaAR]

Unless she just turned sixteen, yeah.