AmazinglyVivid — Roleplayer Guild

Water. Earth. Fire. Air. 

Not so long ago, the four nations lived together in harmony. But everything changed when the Fire Nation attacked. Only the Avatar, master of all four elements, can stop them. But he is still a child, and has a lot to learn before he's ready to save anyone. Still, I believe that we can -that we must- raise him into someone who will one day save the world.

Plot

The main point of divergence in this RP is that the volcano on Avatar Roku's home island didn't erupt until six years after it did in the show. This means that the new Avatar was not Aang, but rather, a child born several years after him. Their identity had only just been discovered when Sozin's Comet appeared. An air monk (or nun) was able to escape with the child. (S)he resolved to protect the Avatar until they came of age to defeat the Fire Lord, and to find other bending masters to help train them.

This RP will be heavily arc-based. I will plan these arcs based on input from you, the players, and on the actions of characters IC. 

Expectations

I will not make any hard rules because, well, we're all adults and in the advanced section. I'm sure we're all familiar with the basics. However, these are a few expectations I have for both you and myself.

Firstly, please be an active, participating member of this roleplay. If I ask a general question of everybody, particularly regarding the plot, please respond. I don't expect a post every day, and I won't put a minimum frequency requirement, just please don't hold up the RP. If you have a problem with something me or another player is doing, politely bring it up. Especially do so if the problem is with me; if you think that something I'm doing is godmodding or not fair, it is almost certainly not intentional, and I'd appreciate you calling me out on it at once.

Going along with that, please also be open to criticism from your fellow roleplayers and myself. We're all just trying to make the best roleplay possible, and so if I ask you to tweak your character or something when you're applying, please don't take it as something malicious. That said, any sort of rudeness will not be tolerated. This is supposed to be fun, not stressful.

Finally, on the topic of length; I will not be setting any hard minimums. However, please use your good judgement. This is advanced, and so just a couple of short paragraphs for something like an introduction just won't work. However, for interaction heavy-scenes, I know it's hard to write a post with a few good sized paragraphs when your character is in the middle of dialogue. Therefore, I strongly encourage making use of collaborative posts for conversations, any fights between player characters, and stuff like that. That way you can hammer out a dialogue in no more than a few hours, instead of taking days or weeks doing it with individual posts IC. I will also expect us to follow a general posting order, unless there is a good reason to skip someone, so collaborative posts are also good at keeping in the posting order.

Characters

Roles

Water Master: Malik, Played by Nevermind
Earth Master: Name, Played by Username
Fire Master: Jin Zoulu, Played by Tomahawk
Air Master: Name, Played by Username
Nonbending/Weapons Master: Kala Hishen, Played by Pietra

Applying

As I mentioned in the interest check, this will not be first come, first serve. If you would like to join, please submit an in character post that demonstrates your character's personality, and something of their history and skill set. I would also like to know their age -I will almost certainly not be accepting characters younger than twenty- and appearance -you can use a picture, but it must be accompanied by a description- as well. I won't be asking for their entire life story, but if there is something important in their history that you don't want to share with your application post, please run it by me via PM. I'll be mighty peeved if I accept your character and learn halfway through that they're the long-lost Northern Water Tribe princess or something. 

Though it doesn't need to come up in your application post, please be thinking of a way your character will be joining the group. For the airbending master, it's obvious, and I had an idea that maybe the firebending master could be a soldier who defected during the attack on the air temple, but other than that, I've got nothing. The first arc will be recruiting/character introductions, so it's okay if their first encounter with the group takes a while.

Finally, all characters should be a master, or pretty close to it, of their element. That said, they should still have weaknesses. I want to see well-rounded characters. Besides, where's the point to this RP if our characters could just march up to Sozin and take him out themselves?

Also, just so you know; I will have higher standards for the air monk/nun than others, since it is the role I was originally going to take for myself. I ended up deciding that I would like to leave it open, in case somebody had a concept I liked better than my own for the character. Just keep that in mind. Also know that, because they are a monk/nun, I expect the character to be at least relatively pacifistic in nature.

That's all there is, then! If you've got any questions/comments/concerns, or would like to run a character concept by me before making an application post, please do so!

PS: Credit to 71342 for the title.

"Get your hands off me, asshole!" The muffled, angry tones of Theo's voice emanated from behind the clenched, sweaty palm of another hand gripping his face.

Wrapping his olive-toned fingers around the thick fist of Iikka's arm, the Latino teenager wrenched with all his might to free his face from the older boy's fierce grip. Gritting his teeth in both anger and pain, Theo managed to free himself, backing away panting as he spat out a spiteful retort to the confused teen's misguided plea, "Go home and cry to your mommy if you want, but I'm not doing jack for you!"

Iikka stumbled away, barely keeping his balance as he threw his arms out to the side wildly to keep himself on his feet while cursing in a vicious streak. As he steadied himself, his gaze zeroed in on Theo, filled with rage and rancor. Setting aside the otherwise entirely all-consuming belief that he was about to die, Iikka decided that Theo had to die. He was about to make a leap, when Nierefiem’s thought-speech flew through his mind, filled with pain yet filled with a clarity of intent. Iikka paused, momentarily teetering between taking the war prince’s words at face-value and succumbing to unadulterated panic due to the disturbing auditory hallucinations.

He wasn’t able to reach any sort of stable conclusion, the brink Iikka stood upon expanding into a wide Mesa of ‘perhaps.’ It wasn’t much of an improvement, but finally Iikka began to absorb the situation properly as he simply stood hunched over to the side, listening.

Moving far enough from the deranged Iikka, Theo turned his attention to the rest of the group as he rubbed his nose and stretched his jaw. Mario had returned with something in his hand, a small, blue cube. It was hard to make out from this distance, but it seemed to the freshman boy that the cube was glowing.

Glowing.

It was more than Theo could take. He turned to face the blue-furred horse-thing. Centaur. Whatever. "Wait," he started, "you're telling us that little box is going to let us turn into animals? By what, dosing us with radiation? Infecting us with a retrovirus?"

"And then what, we become our own petting zoo? I can see this making us all reeeeeaaally popular at school. There goes my excuse for getting out of gym. I'll just get told to become a cheetah or something."

"Well? Please tell me nobody is taking this seriously."

“I’m taking it seriously!” Max cut in, oblivious to more recent revelations of cubes and animals. “He’s dying. Why doesn’t anyone care?”

“Or you could think about this in a different light.” Mario responded to Theo’s latest comment. To Mario, this situation seemed too elaborate to be some weird trick that would for sure land them in first place at America’s Funniest Home Videos for sure. Does any technology that allows individuals to communicate telepathically actually exists?

“Consider this. Instead of being ‘our own petting zoo’, we would be like the Transformers, except we’re not robots and we’re turning into animals, not cars. Wasn’t there a 90’s cartoon that was about Transformers who disguised themselves as animals?”

“I am not taking this seriously.” Iikka said with a complete deadpan, raising his hand off to the side. “Any second now some asswipe with a shiteating face and a camera crew is going to roll out from behind some rocks and start expositing about method acting.” He rolled his eyes emphatically, but stopped halfway through the motion as he stared up into the sky.

“Ok, scratch that, I am now taking this 144% seriously. There’s more ships up there guys.”

Though they were high up in the atmosphere and nearly impossible to see against the black night sky, the fast-moving and large lights of two strangely insectile, cockroach-like vessels had appeared and were very rapidly closing in on the crash site.

“It’s just a bunch of lights,” Theo scoffed as he leaned back to take in the night’s blackened sky.Yet as he continued to stare, the lights grew larger and moved in impossible ways. No human aircraft moved like that, not even helicopters were so agile. As their form grew more distinct, the freshman boy’s eyes widened as he made out the shapes of the crafts. If the centaur’s ship was Klingon, these ships were more like Ferengi, but not quite. They looked more deadly, cruel. Before he knew he was opening his mouth, Theo found himself uttering an incredulous, “Whoa.”

Suffice it to say, Theo had changed his mind.

Max was only half paying attention to what her classmates were saying behind her, but for Max, even half paying attention was a good step up from the average. She was vaguely aware they were arguing, fighting, some physically...though she more or less trusted Clay to step in before things got too messy. She trusted him slightly less to keep them from getting messier.

Right now, she was just subduing the urge to turn around and yell at them all to shut up because how could they be fighting about something so stupid when someone was in pain, dying, right in front of them. And it was stupid, whatever it was. None of them had been there long enough, even knew each other well enough to fight about anything worthwhile. Certainly nothing more important than a life.

Somewhere, in the back of her mind, it occurred to her she ought to have been worried. This was either an elaborate prank keeping her from getting home on time, or else this creature was dying...heralding very bad news, and very strange gifts. Max was about to tell him to put his glowing rock away, let her help -- and then Iikka spoke. And for once, she heard what he said.

Hazel eyes flicked back up toward previously empty space, then down to the blue creature again. He returned her gaze with kind, understanding eyes.

“We can’t fight them,” she blurted quickly. She didn’t know or care whether it was true. She wanted to leave now. She wanted help. She didn’t want to watch the alien person die. She couldn’t.

“We have to go,” she told the others, and herself. Mostly herself. “We have to find some way to get him out of here, and we have to leave.” Clay had been almost completely silent, content to listen to the others bicker. Not that he had turned over a new leaf and suddenly became a more introspective person, but rather, his panicking manifested itself in his calmness. He was loud and aggressive on a daily basis. Faced with dying aliens bestowing him powers? His panicking was just as present, but in lightning-fast strands of fear and anxiety in his head.Still, his panicking helped him in one way. While the others fought and argued, Clay thought to himself silently, trying desperately to assess the situation. He knew this wasn’t a prank. It was too elaborate, and not funny enough to be one. It wasn’t a hallucination either, none of them could be seeing the same thing. All things considered, Clay hoped in the back of his mind that it was a dream.All of this was somehow, someway, real. Nierefiem, his ship, the cube, they were all real. And so was all of the damage. Clay hadn’t ever seen a person die before, but he saw it in Nierefiem. He wasn’t long for this world, and if the looming ships that Iikka pointed out landed, Clay got the sense that he and his friends weren’t either. But they were panicking, and even if Clay appeared stoic in his silence, he was panicking the most.“Don’t think we can, Maxie.” He said with a grunt. “And for certain, I know he can’t.” Blunt or not, he had a point. He walked toward the dying war-prince, close enough to touch. Close enough that he could smell his charred skin and fur, and close enough that he could see the alien quietly shiver.

“The displaced construction worker posing as a student is right.” Iikka said nonchalantly. Max glared but said nothing, and Iikka went on. “That is 800 plus pounds of soon actually dead centuar weight that we cannot drag out of here. Not like we could hide it anyway even if we could take it with us.”

“I hate to admit that we cannot save our blue centaur friend, but Clay is right. We need to get ourselves out of here so that we can live for another day. Bringing him,” Mario said as he pointed at War Prince Nierefiem, “along would only give us dead weight to carry. And no offense meant by it either. I can’t imagine us carrying a wounded horse out of here. Why would we think that we could carry him out?”

Clay was perhaps saved the brunt of Max’s utter look of betrayal only by Mario cutting in. She tried not to notice how the heavily-muscled body under her hands, under layers of bloodsoaked hoodie, was going stiller. Colder.

“That’s no excuse not to try!” she nearly yelled. But she knew she was losing. Even Nierefiem had already given up on himself. And without Clay on her side, her chances were slight at best. She felt her jaw set in a stubborn almost-pout, felt angry tears threatening for the first time in a long while.

Crossing his arms in front of his chest, Theo shrugged, casually remarking that, “It’d be a waste to try, we’d expend all our effort just getting him three feet. If these Yeerk things are real, like this guy says, I’m not sticking around.”

“And besides, that is every excuse not to try. Last I checked none of us could revive the dead, and this guy is so done he has a fork in him.” Iikka said, a mixed expression of dismay and annoyance crossing his face as he shuffled forward a few steps closer to the fallen prince. As he spoke, he made a crude stabbing motion with his right hand, punctuating his point. “Can we please make with the running now, argue later?” Even as he spoke, Iikka eyed the cube thoughtfully, weighing the odds. The only reason he hadn’t already split the scene was because of the cube. He had no way of knowing whether it could actually do what the alien said it did, but if there was even a chance any of it was true...All he needed to do was get close enough. Grab it, hop up a pile of debris and girders to the right, go up the wooden pylons to the second incomplete floor, and hop out the nearest window. The others wouldn’t be able to catch him...but he wasn’t sure he entirely trusted his coordination right now, after the fall, and he was pretty sure he couldn’t avoid them around town either.

Clay hesitated for a second, clutching the cube tightly.“We ain’t got nothin’ to lose right now.” Once again, blunt or not, he had a point. They were running out of options, and the ships were drawing closer. They couldn’t save Nierefiem, that was certain. But if they took his “gift”, they may be able to save themselves. With a gulp, he turned back to face the group for a moment, with a face that was almost apologetic. Iikka gave him a nonplussed expression, mouth half-open to utter the obvious retort that they all had their lives to lose, but apparently thought better of it. He instead settled for extending a hand and gesturing to wrap it up. Clay turned back, looking the war-prince in the eye.
Max found she couldn’t look at her friend, which was maybe okay, because she was still staring at the blue alien centaur, her own expression mirroring Clay’s in a strange and dark sort of irony.

From the expression on Clay’s face, Mario knew that the late arrival had decided what the group should do next. When Clay turned back to the dying alien that laid before them, Mario’s assumption was further strengthened. Therefore, Mario stepped forward, standing abreast to Clay. After Mario snatched the cube back from Clay, he crouched down so that he might be closer to the War-Prince. With an outstretched hand, Mario placed the small, glowing cube in the hands of the blue alien.

“So now we’re sticking around to sing Kumbaya with the guy?” Theo asked as he glared at Mario’s gesture, his expression nonplussed. When he had decided to stick around for some more adventure, waiting for their impending doom to drop from the sky with a dying alien was not exactly the Latino boy’s preferred definition. Part of him wished he was back at home already, playing video games with Jeremy again. “What happened to leaving?”

“What happened is the area was saturated with enough energy by those ships to evenly redistribute all of our particulate matter throughout the surrounding environs.” Iikka stated calmly, the very picture of serenity. “We’re all ghosts haunting the site of our last shitty decision to loiter where we shouldn’t be and oh fuck it we are going.” Iikka took two long steps forward, and deftly swiped the cube from Nierefiem’s hand where Mario had placed it. “He wants us to have it and we, or at least I, want to live. Morphing cube acquired, duhn bum bum duhn duhn. I’m going now, those of you who have any vestige of a survival instinct can come with.”

“We don’t even know how to operate the ‘cube’?” Mario said in response to Iikka’s desire for a swift retreat, “What use would it be to us if we just take off without knowing how to use it? I’m pretty sure that thing doesn’t come with an instruction manual. We need the War-Prince to at least explain to us how to use it. So just chill for a second, please!”

The dying alien, slipping farther and farther away by the second, finally spoke up. <I must touch the cube at the same time as the rest of you for it to work,> he explained, weakly holding out a hand. <Give it here and, those who wish to gain the ability to morph, lay your hand upon it. Hurry!>

Max was...conflicted, to say the very least. She knew she’d lost the argument – stay or go, there was no saving their new friend, if he could be called as much, and the others seemed to have come down pretty hard on that front, too. She knew she’d fight like hell to stay there with him, even if it was stupid and life threatening – Max did a lot of those things, though usually without realizing it. But she also knew Clay wouldn’t let her stay. He would drag her, kicking and screaming, and if he asked, she might even acquiesce.

Nierefiem was dying. Objectively, she knew that, even if she wasn’t quite there yet emotionally. He was dying, and there was nothing she could do about it, no matter how hard she fought, or how much she wanted it. He was going to die, right there in front of her, with his blood on her hands.

She didn’t want to take the cube. She didn’t want to touch the cube. If she ever saw anything remotely block-shaped again, from one of her brother’s Legos, to those ugly box cars, it would be too soon.

But the blue prince was dying, and Max had already failed him once.

She stood slowly, feeling tears burn in her eyes, though she refused to let them fall. She took the block from Iikka, and for once in her life, she was prepared to fight back if he argued. She didn’t say a word to him, or any of them. She didn’t even look at Clay. She just knelt again beside the dying creature, trying to ignore how warm his blood felt through the knees of her jeans. She held out the cube in shaking fingers. She still wasn’t sure she believed any of what was happening, but that didn’t seem to matter now.

Then, very, very quietly, she said, “I’m sorry.”

Glancing between Iikka and Mario, Theo considered the two adversaries. The two were at opposite ends of the spectrum in school, one a popular jock and the other an outcast and a bully. It was no different to see them at odds here, either, each staring down the other as the alien, the blue centaur thing, tried to urge action without really picking a side. The freshman boy watched the two juniors, waiting to see who would back down first.

He didn’t expect Max. No one expected Max.

Theo watched as she handed the blue cube to the dying alien like a bloody heart. He was astonished, here was this girl, tears in her eyes, doing what none of the boys had the courage to do. Were they all that selfish? Was he? On the one hand, Iikka had a point, getting far, far away was an ideal choice. By tomorrow, either the National Guard would be here to take on the alien invaders firsthand, or it would be a hoax that would all blow over in a few days. If it was a hoax, Theo had no intention of making himself the laughingstock of the school by getting duped.

On the other hand, Theo considered, being a laughingstock would be a step up from being ignored. And if this was all real, if aliens were really invading, and this dying alien had the key to fighting them, then this was a bigger thrill than any video game could ever be. The Latino boy considered the dilemma for a moment. Blissful ignorance or a fighting chance. Blue pill or red pill…

All at once, Theo found himself on the ground next to Max. He glanced at her, the one person who had paid any attention to him at school, who was actually kind to him, and gave her a reassuring grin. The boy lifted his outstretched arm and placed his fingers on the blue cube in Max’s hand. It was the red pill after all. Theo turned to the alien and, nodding, declared, “I’m in.”“Me three.” Clay spoke up, placing a hand on the cube. He patted the smaller boy on the back. He would’ve liked to have said it was for admitting the alien was real and agreeing with Clay, but really, it was for not abandoning Max. He had been silently watching the situation escalate, waiting for Iikka to so much as take a bad tone with her. After all, he had been compared to being her mangy guard dog in the past, and not for no reason. But in the end, he didn’t have to step up, because Theo did. Even without knowing his name, the freshman won some respect from Clay. For a split second, the small act of camaraderie lifted the tension. Clay used the opportunity to turn back to the other students he barely knew, nodding his head towards Nierefiem. “Last chance.” Truth be told, he was content with the group he had now. There was Max, the scrawny kid who came to her side, and himself. The spaz, the nerd, and the delinquent. Not exactly The Avengers, but he wasn’t in any rush to extend his invitation to Iikka. He barely knew a thing about Mario, but he seemed alright enough. “Ya’ll takin’ it or what?”

“Wasn’t this my idea in the first place?” Mario asked, recalling that it was Mario who had first brought forth the cube and handed it over to the War Prince. It was Iikka who had started all the drama by snatching the cube and attempting to flee with it. Mario left behind Iikka and walked up to where the other three “misfits” were crouching down beside the blue centauresque alien. He placed his hand on the cube, which the other three had already grasped.

Mario had to set an example. He was the eldest of the group (grade school wise and he was not far behind in age from Clay). Mario could not be shown up by the younger members of this group. If he could not set an example for the group, then who would? Mario had started this whole ‘cube mess’ by finding the object in the spaceship in the first place and carrying it back to the rest of them. Now he had to show his support. No matter the consequences.

Iikka was the last to lay his hand on the cube. Nierefiem looked gravely between them with his main eyes, and then centered his focus on the cube. An oddly pleasant tingling, almost electrifying sensation passed through their bodies in a process that felt far longer than the few seconds that it actually took.<There. It is done.> The alien pushed the cube towards Mario.<Take the cube and hide it. If yeerks obtain this technology, then all is lost.> Lights flashed in the sky, approaching dangerously close.<Now go! Hurry! And remember, do not remain in morph for longer than two of your Earth hours.>

The youths fled and hid, some more hesitant than others. For his part, Nierefiem pulled himself a little higher, ready to face death with what honor he could. If any of the humans looked back and caught his eye, he'd even manage, with his eyes alone, something like an encouraging smile.

Finally, the new ship appeared above the site. It was twice the size of the andalite ship and similiar in shape to a cockroach. It landed, and from it emerged several large, worm-like aliens, with round mouths filled with teeth and and legs ending in vicious claws. <Taxxons,> Nierefiem explained, <Disgusting creatures who willing sacrificed themselves to the yeerks for the promise of flesh to feed on.>

After them came twice as many aliens that were roughly humanoid, the smallest among them not shorter than seven feet, with appendages covered in sharp blades. Each toted what looked like some sort of gun. <Hork-Bajir,> Nierefiem continued his explaination, desperate to give them as much information as he could before expiring, <A naturally peaceful race completely conquered by the yeerks.>

The aliens lined themselves up as they exited, forming two lines on either side of their ship. The last creature to emerge was perhaps the most surprising of all; an andalite. <Visser Three.> Nierefiem's loathing rolled off of him. <The only yeerk to posess an andalite body and, with it, morphing->

<Well, well, well.> The Visser's booming thought voice projected to all those in the area, drowning out Nierefiem's. <War Prince Nierefiem. What a funny coincidence, running into you here on this backwood planet.> He barked cruel laugh, approaching the fallen War Prince with the ease of one who wanted to draw out their victory as long as possible. <Oh, but where is your cute little dome ship? The loyal soldiers whose lives you were trusted with?>

It was unclear whether Nierefiem ignored him out of pride, or pain. No matter. The Visser continued, circling his foe's fallen form. <Ah, yes, I remember now. They're dead. All dead, except for you. May I ask how it feels, to know that you failed them.> Silence. <What? No response? You've been so chatty in our previous meetings.> More silence. Annoyance broke through the Visser's faux pleasant demeanor. He poked at the War Prince's wound with his tailblade.<Speak!> Nierefiem clenched his eyes shut, but still made no noise.

<No matter,> The Visser said, stepping back. His body began to shift. <I'm sure I can get something out of you.>

Over the course of about a minute, The Visser's andalite form shifted into a huge, monsterous creature, with dozens of tentacles and large, gaping mouth. <If you grovel well enough, I might consider granting you a... well, less painful death then what I have planned now.> The offer was met only with a glare. <Very well. Goodbye, Nierefiem.>

One of the Visser's tentacles slithered towards the War-Prince, and lifted him up slowly into the air. He brought him closer and closer to his huge mouth, a sadistic happiness rolling off of him. FInally, the Visser dropped Nierefiem into his mouth, who lost the struggle to keep his silence in his last moments.

His dying screams would echo in their nightmares for years to come.

After he was done, the Visser started to morph back. <Search the site, and kill anyone who might have been witness to what happened here,> He ordered. The ghastly aliens scattered.

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