banjoanjo

✮ Stardust Memory ✮

@wxps350 We are still accepting, currently.

Your character is accepted! Welcome aboard.

@Leslie Hall

@wxps350 Yes.

Retrocausality

. James Xiao .

Zi gong (a disciple of Confucius) asked: "Is there any one word that could guide a person throughout life?"
The Master replied: "How about 'shu' [reciprocity]: never impose on others what you would not choose for yourself?"
--Confucius, Analects XV.24

Alternatively:
"Do no harm but take no shit." - Unknown

Alternatively:
“God, give me patience, because if you give me strength I’ll kill them.” - Unknown

Polite, irritable, tries hard, violent, fit, self-restrained, self-aware. (Oh sweet, I actually used ten words! Wait, do the last two count as two or four?)

• Musical soundtracks
• Sitcoms
• Korean barbecue
• Messing around with friends
• Cycling around town with no real destination

Get into a decent college with a sports scholarship. Don't want to be even more financially tied to my dad because of tuition fees, so the savings from a lacrosse scholarship would be pretty rad. It's not like my grades are gonna land me a place anywhere. I'll probably study something like Urban Planning or whatever at college. Hope you weren't asking for something further in the future cos I've honestly got no clue, haha.

Hoo boy, where do I even start? My temper, the violence that is derived from my temper, the sailor mouth that gets triggered by my temper... You seeing a pattern here? Okay, what else? I guess the fact that I have no real skills besides lacrosse is a pretty big one too...

Another hider cos this one's pretty big too :/

During summer vacation in tenth grade, the dude in front of me, screaming, had greenish eyes. But it was a murky green, a brownish green. Shrek-swamp green? I didn’t know the name of that shade. Either way it was not a very attractive colour.

He seemed to finally be simmering down from his initial rant so I raised my hands to try and calm him further. The gravel imprints were still pressed into the skin of my palms, as well as a few specks of blood from when I touched my cheek earlier.

“Look, I’m sorry,” I struggled to keep my voice even. This wasn’t even my fault. Mostly. I think. Hard to tell when I’m always second-guessing my perception of events. “I’ll have my dad contact you and pay for all the damages.”

The dude’s face contorted in fury and the cheek muscle under his left eye twitched. Moss green? No, it was still Shrek green. An ugly expression to go with an ugly eye color.

“Did you not fucking pay attention to anything I said?!” the guy roared in disbelief, “My dad’s going to fucking kill me if he finds out I wrecked his Porsche! If you had any idea what…”

“Please stop yelling,” I winced. People yelling at me always made my blood boil. People’s voices shouldn’t be able to be that loud. I don’t think he heard me over his tirade. Crap, it was getting a lot harder to not lose it. I started to grit my teeth involuntarily and curled my fingers. Crap, crap, crap. Just concentrate on something else, James.

The yelling dude’s nose scrunched when he was mad. It was a very straight nose. Greek, perhaps? It was rather long and pointed. Obviously never broken. The fucktard in general looked like he’d never been in a fight. I wondered if I would be the first person to break this prick’s nose. It looked like a very breakable nose. It would’ve been so fucking simple, I’d just have to… Nope, nope, don’t go there. Bad train of thought, very bad. Think of something else, literally anything else.

I glanced past him and at the wreckage. It honestly didn’t even look that bad. My bike looked pretty unscratched. The same went for the convertible Porsche, if you ignored the broken driver’s seat window. I had managed to brake in time to avoid a more severe collision but unfortunately I was sent flying straight into the tinted glass. I glanced down at my arms. They were covered with little cuts but that was nothing compared to the large gash on my cheek. I’d landed face-first, onto a particularly large area of broken glass. It stung like a bitch but I was too busy concentrating on not getting mad to do anything about it. How was this my fault again?

The asswipe’s tirade seemed to direct itself to my belongings now. He stomped over to his car and threw my bike aside, littering the road with the house’s groceries for that week.

“Hey!” I snarled. This bastard was making it impossible to keep my cool. “Don’t touch my fucki—“

“Or what?” he sneered. “You’ll kick my ass? I’ve heard about you, James Xiao. If you lay a single fucking finger on me, I’ll make sure your ass gets expelled.”

I recoiled and stepped back to my original position. When had I stepped forward? Oh god, my body was starting to move on its own. This wasn’t going to end well.

The prick made a big show of kicking through the groceries. I watched in a strange combination of dismay and restrained fury. Fuck, what was I supposed to do in this situation? It was like the world intentionally sent assholes my way just so it could laugh at how little it took to make me snap. I did the breathing exercises I saw online and dug my fingers further into my palms. They were drawing blood now. Ouch. But that was a good thing. The pain helped me see things clearly.

I took a deep breath and tried to do a mental checklist of the things I would need to go back to the supermarket for. Tomatoes, instant coffee, Tracy’s skittles. Wait no, those looked fine.

I breathed a sigh of relief. As if on cue, the Porsche driving prick picked up the candy packet. He’d seen my relief. Fucking fuck.

“Those are for my sister. Could you please—“

“Oops,” the fucking bastard smirked and ripped open the packet, letting its contents spill onto the asphalt. I stared at the suddenly brightly colored road and stuck my curled fists into my pockets. This wasn't fucking fair. I was trying so hard not to lose it. My teeth were aching from how much I grit them. Come on, I could do this. I could get past this. Just shut up, pack your shit and go.

I sullenly crouched down and began picking up what I could salvage. I did it silently. Couldn’t trust myself not to say something wrong. My heart was pounding from the pent-up frustration. I could do this. I could get past this without beating his face in, without disappointing Tracy and dad again. As much as it made my hands twitch and my face flush in anger, I just had to take it on the chin. Yes, I could do this. This was going to be a new leaf for James Xiao.

“Wow,” he scoffed, “You Xiaos really are a bunch of fucking pans—“

My fist shot out and made a very substantial connection with his face. Huh. His nose really was easy to break.

Letting my dad talk me into going to this preppy school. Seriously, it's like a gold plated jetski. Just cos we can afford it, doesn't mean it's a good idea. I'm nowhere near hipster enough to keep up with these smarmy bastards.

Someone nice and pretty who knows when to slap me over the head when I'm being stupid. And who knows how to cook a mean lasagna. Oh, did you want a gender too? I don't think I've really thought about it much but I guess I'm fine with any.

I've never really liked lacrosse that much, even though people call me a prodigy. I get too angry when people shove into me or when we lose. Not ideal for my state of mind.

Find my young self a new talent. Something like piano or drawing. Those sound nice and relaxed. At least with something like those, people would stop questioning why a jock is attending a predominantly arts-based school. Hell, even finding a different sport like volleyball would be better. No physical contact there. The ball is a lot softer too...

✮ Stardust Memory ✮

MITSURU SAZANAMI

Flitting past the Sun Princes was simple enough. Simple, not easy. Being in smoke form for anything over five seconds was exhausting and the toll it took certainly applied in this situation. Mitsuru struggled to maintain a brisk pace as they hefted the bubble through the streets, their mind still reeling from the flashy bastard’s words.

Who the hell did that shiny, rose-scented prick think he was? Typical Sun Prince cockiness. Suuure, the situation was totally being “handled”, as the Rose Prince put it. Of couuurse, there was absolutely no chance of the numerous swarms of Shadows endangering the poor fellow who had wandered in while the Sun Princes were trying for a Shadow-slaying personal best. Bastards, the whole lot of them. Mitsuru doubted that they would have even noticed if the civilian had gotten killed. They probably would have been too busy with their show-boating and sparkly special moves.

Mitsuru did have to admit though, they got spooked for a second back there. They didn’t expect the Rose Prick to actually go after them. Mitsuru scowled at the memory. He probably wanted to hog the glory of saving an innocent civilian too. But despite all the resentment they held for the Rose Prince, Mitsuru had to acknowledge that he seemed like a powerful and versatile fighter. They remember glancing back with a sly grin as they took off with the bubble, though the smirk soon fell when they witnessed the thick vines emerging to create grand-looking platforms for the Rose Prince. Needless to say, Mitsuru was quite relieved when the arrival of more Shadows forced the Sun Prince to abandon his chase. They grimaced at the thought that they almost needed to fight the more experienced adversary. If the rumours of a turf war were true, Mitsuru would need to get stronger very quickly in order to hold their own against Sun Princes like Flower Boy. And that meant not getting completely worn out after using their smoke ability for only five seconds and jogging a few hundred metres while holding a civilian. Speaking of the civilian…

“Hey!” the bloke called out and rapped his knuckles against the surface of the bubble. His voice was muffled but still slightly audible.

“What’s… Am I gonna get to ask anything after you guys are done with those...whatever they are? Shadows or something, I heard?"

“Well…” Mitsuru stalled, genuinely stumped by the question. The senior princes had talked about this before, right? Out of the corner of their eye they noticed another Prince, watching them from the top of a building then proceeding to fall off it as he laughed. Ouch. He didn’t seem hostile or harmed by the fall. A Moon Prince, perhaps? At least an ally hopefully. Mitsuru spied some Shadows further ahead that they could definitely use some assistance with.

“If I recall correctly, your memories of your time here will vanish as soon as you leave the Otherworld,” Mitsuru replied in a composed tone as they found a nice level spot to set the bubble down. They summoned their weapon to engage the shadows, “So to answer your query: probably not?”

Suddenly, a stray, rather loud, thought pierced through their anticipation.

'Honestly, has no one ever taught you manners?' an irritated voice that wasn’t Mitsuru’s spat, 'Hate the man, not the suit. You never dirty a gentleman's suit.'

Mitsuru whirled around, trying to find the source of the mental intrusion. They couldn’t spot anything that could have transmitted the thought messages. Unnerving. Unseen potential threats were unnerving. Ignoring the shadows down the road, Mitsuru once again picked the bubble up and made their way down a different route. It wasn’t long before they saw some more Shadows in their way and another telepathic message came through.

“Slow down, Smokey!”

Mitsuru froze in their tracks, internally sighing in dismay. It seemed that nickname was going to stick around. The senior Moon Princes had laughed and slapped Mitsuru on the back, calling them “Smokey” after they introduced their powers. A more important thing of note was that the voice was male. That ruled out the chance of it being a witch attack. Mitsuru turned to greet the new arrival but was faced with nothing. They turned back to find a fellow Moon Prince had already dispatched the lesser Shadows and constructed a sort of shelter with his magic cards. Ah, so he was the Prince of Tricks.

Without further delay, Mitsuru carried the bubble into the safe zone before exhaling from exertion and relief. It was nice to finally have a small break.

“Thank you for the assistance,” they bowed after setting the bubble down once more, “I’m quite new to this so please forgive the inconvenience.”

Four Winds

@GamerXZ

Basically this RP is coming back from a hiatus, with some slightly altered elements in the setting. The GM is still tweaking these changes so we're not 100% sure what they are yet.

Right now we're in the middle of conducting a sort of roll call to see who's willing to participate in the post-hiatus RP and since you were one of the newcomers who had expressed interest before the hiatus struck, we were wondering if you still wanted to submit a character and join in.

EDIT: @HeartlessNobody too. Sorry mate, posted this before seeing your own post but it seems like you've got the gist of the situation. Welcome aboard, dude.

Four Winds

@Scio

Ready to go.

✮ Stardust Memory ✮

@Pudding

It's not really floating...

Mitsuru rematerialised before picking up the bubble and is practically strolling along with it. Wouldn't it be reasonable for a Cosmic Prince to be slightly concerned that a shady looking stranger has taken a helpless bystander in the middle of a mystical battlefield with countless hostiles?

Four Winds

@Scio

Would it be possible to keep the whole "magic is hated/feared" thing? The idea of magic being a hidden society was what appealed to me in the first iteration of Four Winds and it was an integral part of quite a few characters' backstories.

Four Winds

@Scio

Does this mean that our character's ages aren't confined to teenagers anymore?

Four Winds

@Scio

Man, it's awesome to have you back. Hope things aren't too rough where you are.

Personally, I'm not a big fan of medieval settings. It's a bit tedious to write in accordance with a foreign time period's mindsets, lifestyles, clothing, etc, though if it's a Fairy Tail style anachronistic setting then it makes things a lot easier and more interesting for me. That's just an opinion though, I'll gladly stick with Four Winds no matter what setting it's in. Donovan's douchebaggery and asshole-y shenanigans are far from over.

I'm keen for that idea of magical items, though would the mages be incapable of performing their magic if they were separated from their item?

✮ Stardust Memory ✮

@Leslie Hall @Pudding

I feel like I should wait for the Sun Princes' responses to a bubbled civilian being stolen away before posting. Or should I just go ahead and post?