@Xan the G Well fair warning the RP is currently full. I have been debating letting a fifth person in in which case you'd be competing with sMoKe. I'm also posting the OOC today, so you'll be joining in later if I do decide to include you. Basically I'd recommend that Marcus is already on philitri and that he's been there a while so then we can have a nice continuity. I already have a backup plan if I let sMoKe in late, but for your character being on Philitri seems like the best option.
As for my current review of your work heres what I got:
stun rod (induces temporary paralysis on a pokemon)Pokegear. Neither of these devices would exist. Electricity is not common place and requires massive power plants or directly hooking up the device to an electric pokemon for the duration of its use as there is no chargeable battery. A pokegear is FAR too advanced for the 1830-60s anyway.
the trade is very interesting though I'm somewhat confused by it. basically from what I'm reading Marcus is like the crocodile hunter of pokemon literally running in and messing around with them, but then actually catching them. I think you'll end up butting heads or at least rivaling Robin the resident primordial pokemon ranger.
Also points for the zubat sprite yours or not points..
Marcus's trade is about surviving wild pokemon. Catching them 1v1 is on thing - surviving a herd of Charizards at their nest at the base of a volcanic mount is another. Marcus is good for the second.
@LiriiaI think that would make perfect sense. fell free to ask everyone here about any incidents not mentioned. I'd assume Robin's long time hospital stay would be noted.
jasper has had his fair share of injuries while testing things, but nothing too long term as medicine is rather advanced thanks to pokemon's healing abilities and upcoming medical research. But yes broken leg, bones popping out of sockets, etc. (Random medical side note Jasper shares a marvelous medical trait with me that our bodies both are very good at popping joints into place. I've had 4 different joints mess up in accident and they just popped right back into their place. Kind of nasty, but also really lucky). If physicals were ever done there'd be plenty of scars on Jasper's forearms/hands from metal work and such. But he's always been fit otherwise no major diseases in his life. Worst he had was a nasty cold that was made worse by smoke inhalation while working at his workshop and leaving the forge open which just smoked up the place, but since the cold ruined his sense of smell he didn't know for while. Recent years though healthy as you can be in the 1860s.
@Xan the Ghmm that actually seems much much less useful. I mean everyone here is an able bodied person we have a Solider, a gunsmith, and a self appointed "conservationist" who went and fought poachers (though poaching isn't really a thing this is the era of big game hunting.) and such. I mean Jasper and vincent both carry nice high powered fire arms, and by the time we go see a ton of charizard our pokemon will be at that level.
Ok question time for you all. What would you think of adding another player to this? I've been thinking on it and might be asking someone to join us. Want to get everyone's thoughts.
@MelancholyMelliei haven't heard otherwise. galg is just having a bit of trouble figuring out what Vincent would do on the ship right now. Haven't talked to liriia.
We don't have a post order. its whoever feels they should right now just no double posts of course. I'm fine with going back and forth need be.
I'm just needing to know whats up with Liriia. I've asked Xan to finish up his character since it was fitting character in the end. I noticed that there were some plot points I have written up where his skills might actually be better than I expected.
I can't believe I hadn't noticed this yet, but could@Galgarion@MelancholyMellie please add your characters to the character list. I was writing up more plot trees for your guys (basically back up plans to back up plans so whichever way you guys go I at least have a basic outline of plot options).
Besides that as the airship seems to have stalled everyone would we like to cut that down? I won't skip it, but I'd make it only last 3 posts per person (ex. I have 2 posts everyone else has 1 post so far. After everyone hits 3 I'd move us to Tinport.)
Putting my character back up - I'm guessing I need to change the job? How would 'Spy' work in the flow of the RP? Is there space for an reconnaissance unit in this RP? I was thinking someone who uses his pokemon to infiltrate bases and environments for missions when covert strategy is needed over brute strength.
@Xan the GI would say that is before this era, but yet steam-punk seems to make that far more viable. So yes, but be careful you wouldn't be james bond. If you were to play a more realistic spy you'd cover two very good sides. A spy has to be as knowledgeable (if not more) about culture and society as a citizen of that nation. this lets them blend into the populace and act from there. Then you have your whole infiltrator side actually going into buildings retrieving documents (maybe assassinations if you want to be that guy).
you also don't interfere with robin's sort of scout ranger character as you'd be stronger in the city areas rather than the wilderness. I could see this working.
Also if you need a Q Jasper is always up for some tinkering.
Skills/traits: Marcus is well versed in recognizing behavioural patterns in wild pokemon and people and additionally knows how to turn behaviour, reactions and conversation into useful information. This means he has limited means of understanding expressions of wild pokemon, but he has also trained his own pokemon to communicate with similar species. Marcus has a forte in stealth and covert movements and procuring things in similar fashion and even making an escape. He earned his Criminal Psychology PhD and has been working as a spy for the last 5 years. It goes without saying that Marcus is an accredited expert in tactical, strategic operations and traps.
Due to the nature of Marcus's job, he has developed sideline skills suited to larceny. He know how to move with stealth through hostile or enemy territory. Marcus effectively know how to pull off a heist. Marcus is also very quick to decide when someone else becomes expendable without orders to do so. He is not beyond using others as bait.
However, Marcus's expertise only go as far as to address how to manipulate pokemon and people, and his actions naturally disassociate responsibility to the environment over the actions he might take for the safety of his crew or employer after they are gone. He doesn't spend time keeping and maintaining himself in the wild, so while he can control pokemon to a limited degree, he doesn't know how to survive amongst them. His skills with wild pokemon also do not translate over into competitive battling which pits his skills against another conspiring human mind.
Equipment: Burn/Poison/Sleep/Freeze/Paralysis heals, potions, escape ropes, fast balls, Chloroform&Napkin, binoculars.
Appearance:
Marcus is irreverent. By far it is the one trait that he could most easily be caricatured. It stems from Marcus's lack of conscience towards other people and perspectives, rather than ignorance or a feeling of self-importance. As long as it isn't something he believes in, or isn't something he personally holds important, Marcus will always feel it is fair game to take a verbal punt at it to promote something that he does believe in. It's a waste of time rebuking Marcus about his jokes or comments being inappropriate for that very reason. He knew that before saying them and he said them all the same.
To go along with that, Marcus is very much a charlatan, in words and actions. When he speaks, even allies and friends naturally feel to analyse and be on guard about what he says. It's not that he just lies (though he might and will from time to time) but that he knows how to twist and spin things and direct attention when he speaks to divert it from a difficult issue or make loopholes to excuse himself or his actions with a rather devilish silver tongue. In his actions, this is very much mirrored. He is typically seen as a scoundrel. He is not cowardly, but is very dishonourable. He will cheat, quit and bail willingly, not because he is afraid, but because he typically lacks the honour and conviction to take legitimate risks for the sake of morals or ethics. He has them, and will agree with them, but is not willing to sacrifice to uphold them usually. However, because they are still there at the root of his character (somewhere), he will on extreme occasions be convicted by shame or morality to do the right thing even though it isn't the best choice for his own personal well being. When he knows that his soul is convicting him to act righteously when his heart is telling him to avoid the risk, he gets comically moody, throwing a tantrum over the fact he knows there's nothing in it for him other than good karma.
On the flip side, if Marcus can find a way to do the right thing without actually risking his own well being he will look for a to fake his sacrifice or at least hide the fact he's not really in any danger so that people will see him as heroic. Ironically, Marcus gets upset if he actually does the right thing just for the right cause sake and can't convince those around him that he took the high road, mainly because he didn't want to do it in the first place and can't even get recognition for it.
Marcus is neither violent nor a pacifist. He doesn't like challenging people head on, but also thinks it's pretty retarded not to throw a punch or two 'just cuz'. If he can sucker punch you while talking you out of punching him back at the same time he would. Since no sane person would fall something like that, Marcus settles for flipping intermittently between action and patience and will do so at the drop of a dime. All in all, Marcus is a good man's soul trapped in an evil man's habits. The main reason he gets the kind of remarks that he does is based on the fact those giving them to him know he has the potential to be better.
Marcus's first profession was as a thief. He was orphaned and moved from foster home to foster home, during which time the only consistency was his willingness and eagerness to pilfer anything he could get his hands on. Each time he was relocated, he kept trying to out do his last heist, getting more and more ridiculous until he would actively trying to steal something practically impossible. Every time MArcus was reallocated to a new family or home, he would continually up the ante on his schemes, starting small and almost inconspicuous and getting more and more obnoxious with his antics until he would be forcefully caught in the act by the sheer ridiculousness of what he was trying to do.
One police officer in particular kept tabs on the young boy after he happened to arrest him for one of his plots and Marcus ended up spending an entire night in a jail cell because no one came to claim him straight away. He saw the emptiness in the boy's eyes, realising that the boy was so distressed by his emotions that he couldn't find the energy to even be upset about being in a jail cell. Ever since, the police officer kept in Marcus's life, vouching for him at the station, taking over any cases that had to do with him even if he got relocated by the foster program. Eventually, the police officer fostered Marcus himself. He watched Marcus like a hawk, and now MArcus found even the smallest of his bad behaviour was being marked and noted. He understood what it was like to be significant to someone on a regular basis, for someone to have him in mind 24/7 even if he wasn't doing anything in particular. Worried that Marcus might not outgrow his cries for attention, the police officer enrolled Marcus in the police academy at 10 years old. All Marcus did for 5 years was attempt to escape through various means and schemes. The security at the academy was actually updated more than 10 times due to the weaknesses exposed by Marcus's escape attempts.
At 15 years old, Marcus found a way to escape for good. He put together a plan that he had to work through for nearly an entire year, practicing certain parts of the escape to match the routine of the security and also to procure all the things he needed for each level of security. During this year, the dean of the academy approached Marcus continually. Marcus was in the final year of the academy, after which he would have an opportunity towards higher education if he simply graduated. Being an old friend the the police officer who fostered Marcus, the dean made his own attempts to appeal to Marcus to simply wait out the year rather than escape.
As a last ditch attempt, the dean put together a record detailing all of the schemes Marcus had ever pulled and sent them on to an independent intelligence agency as a means of referral, noting that Marcus was likely to try and escape before graduation. On the day before graduation, Marcus made his escape, finally getting off School campus and onto the main road. He caught a late-night train, believing it would take him into the city. At the next stop a man in a black suit got on and sat down opposite Marcus. The man began to talk directly to Marcus, calling him by name and commending him on finally breaking the Police Academy security, noting that no one in the academy's history had managed to escape without trace before all the way till the next stop 10 minutes later. At the next stop, the train conductor announced the service would be terminating at this station, after which the man in the suit assured Marcus the announcement didn't apply to them. The train detoured from their, following unmarked rails that weren't leading to a station or even to an area of the city Marcus could recognise. Man in the suit explained that Marcus and had been honing exceptional skills this entire time without knowing. He explained that he would be able to offer Marcus the one thing he'd been searching for his whole life - a place to belong, a place he will be accepted for the talented young man that he was, but only on one condition. Praying on Marcus's insecurities, the teenager conceded, wanting to know what this man could offer him. The challenge was to break back into school to graduate the next day without anyone finding out. The train driver opened the door, with Marcus at least an hour's walk away from campus in a part of town he was not familiar with. Needless to say, Marcus figured out how to get back and managed to break into the academy to turn up for graduation the next day. His foster father arrived to see him graduate, but no one else came. Marcus packed up his stuff, wondering if he imagined the escapades of last night on the drive home from the academy. When they got home, there was a special package waiting for them, addressed to Marcus. It was a letter and a strange parcel of supplies, stating that he had been accepted to study at a university he'd never heard of with a full scholarship, and that a representative would visit their home the next day to confirm his enrollment.
The representative came, it being the suited man on the train he met the night before graduation. He explained that Marcus's test scores at the academy showed that Marcus had skills that the government could utilise in the highest form of civil service and that the government would be willing to pay Marcus's tuition to make him "mission ready" as soon as possible. Marcus and his dad agreed, and Marcus enrolled in Entrin University for a degree in Criminal Psychology. Marcus studied for the next 5 years, being mentored in secret to become an agent while earning his degree.
Pokemon
Species: Cyndaquil Name: Nova Ability: Flash Fire Moves: Tackle, Smokescreen, Ember, Will-o-wisp (Leer) Appearance: img06.deviantart.net/3e8b/i/2015/112/6.. Other:
@Xan the G did my first sweep only problem I have is the bus. I'd suggest a train. easily could have it still work. the car he's in is empty the other cars are mostly empty but thats where the agents can hide in plain sight. Then they simply switch tracks to somewhere else.
that and you'd be down to two pokemon as this is not a pokemon centric career. vincent has 3 since he was a K9 officer so he trains dog pokemon for a job specifically.
