FujiwaraPhoenix

I Reincarnated into the World of an Otome Game, But———?! (Now Accepting)

Reginald von Afah

Given that he was more searching for his maid than Elastasia's brother, Reginald was caught completely off guard when the white-haired girl opted to start pulling him down the street. Though taken aback by the sudden pull, the black-haired student quickly regained his composure and followed his companion's lead without too much hassle.

It was convenient, then, that finding Terys would also incidentally lead him to Mella. There was a brief moment of contemplation as his eyes glanced at the scene in front of him before a sigh finally escaped his lips.

"I suppose this works just as well," he remarked, nodding towards the smaller boy as he gave his apologies in turn. The humility, at least, was a nice change of pace from some of the more indignant nobles that would frequent social gatherings. "If that is all, then—"

Though the black-haired student was apt to take his leave, the sound of some chaos nearby quickly pulled his attention. There were a few more mischeivous students running off in another direction, for what little that was worth, but the real commotion seemed to be coming from where they were running from—that is, to say, the group of shopkeepers and students trying their hardest to catch a few creatures that were scrambling about.

"...Well. That's... Something," Reginald said, frowning as he took a step forward. "I suppose it's only right to try and help resolve the situation."

Not that they really had much of a choice, though—not with a few of the beasts making their way towards them. Whether or not this was event that had occurred in the original work was less relevant now, though, given the absence of the heroine... Though maybe something like this always happened, regardless of what she had chosen to do?

@Raineh Daze@Rune_Alchemist@AThousandCurses

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"Suddenly... Fainted? Interesting."

There was a pause as Johan considered Anne's words before he drew back and squinted at the unconscious Noctis.

"Well, he seems to be in perfect health otherwise. No signs of heatstroke or the like..."

It wasn't long after that, though, before the activity within the nurse's office promptly tripled. Another student—this one, with somewhat more tangible injuries—was brought in, which swiftly drew the nurse's attention towards her instead. Following her, of course, was a noble lady of rather noble make, and following that came the revival of the young man whose consciousness had escaped him. Rather than try and make a fuss about things, though, Johan simply stared quietly at the one who had just awoken.

"...Well, I'm not quite sure that'd be a reason to pass out, but for the moment, I'll not pry further," Johan stated before standing up and dusting himself off. "Though I suppose you should be wary of sleep deprivation regardless; learning is rather difficult without proper sleep... Not that I'm one to talk."

Rather than linger ere long, though, the nurse's assistant simply made his way back over to what he had been carrying earlier and began to sort what he had out. The other students, he reasoned, could do well enough among themselves; so long as they didn't treat this place like their personal hangout, then he could care less.

@VitaVitaAR@Pyromania99@MagusDream

I Reincarnated into the World of an Otome Game, But———?! (Now Accepting)

@Chiro: Uh... I would rather you not play royalty, if that's what you're asking.
That aside, uh... We probably want to try and balance the cast in terms of abilities/personality to some extent...?

I Reincarnated into the World of an Otome Game, But———?! (Now Accepting)

Right, I FINALLY have time now.

@DrabberRogue: Hm...
I think the character would have more to gain by not being super heavy magic spec, personally? Having it in the repertoire is fine, but I think that with our cast, too much magic might not be the greatest path to take. We don't have any mixed magic/physical people in the crew, for example, and reasonably speaking if you want that combat spec you should consider something like that instead of going for super magic focus. That's a power thing, though. Reasonably, it being rare should be sufficient to make him valuable, not that it should need to have access to the BEST of the rarest.
As for personality... I think you could probably do with making it a bit more defined? I get a feel for what he's like, sure, but only in a bit of a vague sense where I get how he "acts" but not the sort of person he "is", if that makes sense.

So I think for now it's not quite a rejection, but... Not acceptance, either.

@Chiro: We're still open, yeah. As for that concept, though... It's all about execution on that front. Gotta come up with someone compelling to be more than just "a character who tries to mess with meta-knowledge" like that.

I Reincarnated into the World of an Otome Game, But———?! (Now Accepting)

Reginald von Afah

Though he seemed somewhat lost in thought as he proceeded forward, the concerns that Elastasia had were not necessarily ones that Reginald shared... Or, at the very least, not for the same reasons. Regardless of when he was meant to meet the heroine, the fact that he was a capture target to begin with couldn't be ignored...

And, as he wished to do for most of the people of concern, Reginald wished to keep tabs on as many of those as possible. The fact that he was also fundamentally tied to one of the best generalist magic units in Cross Heart Academy—in other words, the girl following behind him—only meant that trying to maintain a decent relationship during his time here was of a rather high import.

Not that he shouldn't have already been worrying about such a thing; keeping up airs was rather important despite the "equal" footing the school tried to place on them in terms of status.

"Well, if you are to search, I suppose starting here is as good a place as any," he said, the streets abuzz with chatter as the pair walked into the markets proper. "Though... Hm. That might prove difficult, given the crowds."

With the flow of students constantly shifting about them, it would indeed be rather difficult for anyone to spot anything, regardless of their height—but through the smallest of gaps, a fleeting glimpse of some rather distinctly familiar white hair could be seen before it disappeared back into the sea of people.

@Raineh Daze

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With all of the people moving throughout the marketplace, it was but a given that people would end up bumping into one another on occasion. The streets were not so crowded as to outright hinder movement, but with all of the new students eager to explore the academy's town-within-a-city, it was difficult to not expect at least a little pushing and shoving here and there.

What would likely not have been expected to Mella, though, was a full-on collision with a certain overeager white-haired boy. Nary had a moment gone by since Cervantes had said his farewells did the maid find herself run into at full force by the new student. The boy had fared no better, of course; rather than landing on top of her, the momentum he had built up dodging through the crowd had left him unable to properly maintain his balance once he had failed—which, in this case, had led to him rather comically tripping over himself before tumbling onto the ground.

"...Ow..." he groaned, slowly pushing himself off the cobblestone below with a few more cuts and bruises than he had moments ago.

@Rune_Alchemist@AThousandCurses

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Christopher looked at Anne with mild surprise at her near-instantaneous declaration to stay behind before smiling and nodding.

"Your friend is very lucky to have someone so concerned about them at their side. I would certainly like to stay and make sure he is well..." the prince began to say before shaking his head, "but I do have other things I need to attend to. We should speak again in the future, though; in the meantime, I hope your time at the academy serves you well."

And with that, the prince promptly left the room—only for a brief knock on the door and the nurse's motion to open it reveal someone else of import. With a somewhat gloomy atmosphere about him, a young man with dark purple hair walked into the room, a crate of bandages in hand.

"Master, I've brought the bandages you requested," stated one Johan Kyrman, his gaze slowly panning across the room before landing upon both Anne and the unconscious Noctis. "...I see we already have a patient, though."

"Oh, thank you, Johan! You can put the bandages over there," the nurse said, gesturing off to an open area to the side. Though his gaze lingered upon the pair for a moment, the young man simply followed his "master's" orders before promptly walking over to the unconscious Noctis and checking the student's temperature and vitals.

"...Hm. No sign of any irregularities..." he muttered to himself before turning towards the nurse for a moment, then towards Anne. "What happened to him?"

Needless to say, the nurse's sigh rather than any attempt to stop him would have made it clear that the young man at their side was more than a little "eccentric".

@VitaVitaAR@MagusDream

I Reincarnated into the World of an Otome Game, But———?! (Now Accepting)

@DrabberRogue: I think that framing for dark magic is fine, honestly.

I Reincarnated into the World of an Otome Game, But———?! (Now Accepting)

@DrabberRogue: Aye, baron would work fine. Dark magic... Would likely need to be defined a bit clearer, but depending on what that is it could probably pan out well enough.

I Reincarnated into the World of an Otome Game, But———?! (Now Accepting)

@DrabberRogue: Hm...
I think that talented from a noble house would function fine, but given how we have... I think three? People from ducal houses, it might be a good idea to consider a character that prioritizes that hard work over lineage.

Other than that, though? First point seems solid enough, second one's possible but not necessary, and the third's... Probably doable? Assuming that a villainess exists (lol). It's hard to make clear calls when everything's just ideas being floated atm.

I Reincarnated into the World of an Otome Game, But———?! (Now Accepting)

@DrabberRogue: Again, still open, but as you might've been able to tell by the last few posts, I can be a bit picky when it comes to character concepts.

Big problem I can see here, though, is that there is a... Lot of overlap with my own character. Like, I think most of the core aspects overlap, and I don't think that'd pan out quite well with regards to character diversity.

I Reincarnated into the World of an Otome Game, But———?! (Now Accepting)

@Shiyonichi: Okay, I have multiple problems here, but let's try addressing them one at a time.

• The thing with 'force of nature' villains is that they are usually intended to "force progress" or create some sort of risk/reward factor. You mention, say, Lu Bu or Nemesis, but I'd also put villains like FE3H's Skull Knight or FE9/10's Black Knight in that. But, like, even putting specific generalizations aside, three of those four examples have a meaningful character behind them... And can be/ARE actively avoided.
  No, seriously. Most engagements with Lu Bu in DW games can be dodged around, for example, and you're never meant to take him down but also never meant to directly engage him in normal combat (or at least not before the game gives you the okay to). Sure, all of those characters can pop up and force player movement around them, but only Mr. X/ Nemesis actively pursue the player (and, like, RE is a horror franchise; they're MEANT to be that ever-looming presence that creates tension when you have few tools to effectively deal with them). The others appear and may posture a bit, but because of their nature as scripted encounters, usually won't actually jumpscare you for no good reason. Usually. And then after the fact, you're able to effectively play around their presence because they might only jumpscare once or twice, if ever.
  In short, I am of the opinion that even 'force of nature' villains should have proper character and motivations, regardless of what service those might actually provide... To say nothing of the fact that you just want the character to pop in for a random gank and murk a bunch of party members on a whim. That is, in my opinion, a bad design for a recurring character that would have no place in most scenarios; doubly so when the inherent presence of the character would warp gameplay to such an extent that you always have to play around them even if they never actually arrive... And in and of themselves have no inherent counterplay to deal with besides "just deal with it". Otherwise, villains who posture to just go around murdering people but have no meaning in the grand scheme of things are just handled as one-offs anyways OR end up becoming more of a nuisance to the player's progress rather than any sort of looming threat... Because, well, they wouldn't meant to be ones in the first place. This is completely divested from the personality of the character in question, but on that note...
• I still don't like the idea of the personality being what it is. The idea of a character basically going "and then I occasionally have sudden psychopathic urges and a desire to kill" feels super ham-fisted in my opinion, and if I'm going to be honest, I don't think I'd want a character in the RP who would do something like that. This is to say nothing of the power you've put them at to begin with, which would basically equate to "okay now we have a girl who probably needs actual psychiatric help wandering around who could at any time just murder a cast member" when you consider that a fair chunk of them don't actually have any sort of combat capabilities. That, I feel, is more problematic than the actual 'core' personality being proposed here. I don't really care if the mental image of a big bad hulking monster who would snap your spine like a twig is all nice and friendly because it'd be 'funny' when the cast will try to actively avoid them anyways by dint of their nature AND because of all the metaknowledge they would have. It creates problems in terms of creating natural interaction between characters and just generally creates dynamics that aren't fun to play with or around for the most part.
• There are, again, better and more meaningful ways to lead to circumstances to get a character from that sort of background integrated into the world in which the characters exist in. I do once again want to emphasize the idea that, being presented as the world of an otome game as it is, that this school has very high ranking children of nobility and royalty present. Allowing a child picked up off the street to enroll for no reason beyond saving the child of the headmaster for and ignoring the prerequisites of knowledge needed to enter to begin with and not immediately fall behind/drop out is pure folly in my opinion, and would reasonably never happen in a sane world.

My opinion, fundamentally, does not change. I don't like the character as they are presented now, and the logic and justification behind them doesn't change that fact. These follow-up statements, coupled with the points I made in my last reply, still stand. Character still rejected for the reasons given prior.

I Reincarnated into the World of an Otome Game, But———?! (Now Accepting)

@Shiyonichi: Right, form analysis...

• I think at her core, your character is a bit too tonally dissonant from the rest of the cast. I can feasibly see child soldiers in the criminal underbelly; that's a very commonplace thing. But the specific circumstances behind the character's inception (the whole kodoku-esque creation method in particular) leaves a bit of an unwanted taste in my mouth, as the very specific trait of "possibly bloody psychopath hitman child murderer" with no real narrative weight behind it isn't something I think would fare well in the world...
  And, if I'm going to be honest, feels a bit one-note as written. A boss with a high difficulty spike who appears out of nowhere with no real meaningful history feels more like... Well, just that. I'd point to, say, SMT3's Matador, for example. People remember that boss because you're forced to fight them on the back foot and kind of just sucker punches you because you don't expect them, but otherwise isn't exactly memorable as a character.
• The circumstances behind her entry into the school in this 'timeline' feel a bit contrived. While I would agree that she would need an excuse to get off the streets to attend, "saving the headmaster's kid and getting adopted by him as a result" seems a bit too convenient. There are probably better, more reasonable routes to doing so that would lead to a character who ended UP with a reputation as a damn good killer (and you don't need to be put into a tournament to the death to facilitate being good at killing, if I'm being completely honest; it gets you the person who is the best at surviving, not killing), and I'd recommend considering those routes. Easy examples include things like "forced nobility to adopt her into the family" or "missing child now found" and so on and so forth, but I'm not going to force anything in that regard.

For the reasons above, I'm choosing to reject the form as it is right now.