When the towers first decended upon the world, humanity was whipped up into a frenzy. On that day, hundreds of pillars—each build of some sort of material, though seldom the same as one another—seemed to appear all across the planet without so much as a sound. The people living nearby would be hard-pressed to ignore such massive structures appearing all of a sudden, but the theories as to what they were and why they were here were few and far between. Some blamed aliens; others, an act of divinity heralding the end. But one thing seemed to be certain: no matter what people tried, each and every one was nigh impenetrable.
Or, rather, impenetrable save a sole pair of doors, massive and ominous, serving as their entrance.
It went without saying that the governments of each nation moved quickly to secure the areas; people were evacuated, containment zones set up—everything to at least posture like they had the situation under control.
But it was then that things grew... Strange.
Scientists who had begun to analyze the area quickly become aware of a certain something radiating from the towers—an odd element that seemed to have been absorbed by the people nearby and that was spreading out into the world around them.
And those nearest the towers as they first appeared began to develop powers that one could only describe as "magic".
The first scouting drones also soon reported back as to what was hiding behind those doors: spaces far larger than they had any right to be, filled with fantastical flora and fauna—and no small number of hostiles. Only one expedition in Tokyo found something different: a large floating gateway, bound by stone and glowing runes in the center of the floor.
Before any decision could be made to send a drone through it and see what could be retrieved (if any), though, those on guard soon found that whoever (or whatever) was on the other side had made the first move. The portal began to waver, and as the soldiers on duty readied their weapons...
Out came what could only have been described as a young man bearing metal armor lifted straight out of a fantasy game—followed closely behind by someone who, with pale golden hair and pointed ears extending behind her, could only be seen as an elf straight out of Tolkien.
In other words, a realm of fantasy awaited the people of Earth—and, in a way, a world developed bereft of magic awaited beyond the veil of their newfound "acquaintances".
To say that the coming days were chaotic would have been an understatement.
With no other tower sharing that same portal, delegates the world over flocked to Tokyo to try and establish relationships with that fantasy realm on the other side, in hopes that the world beyond might not only have an explanation to the strange phenomenon that had befallen them, but also to capitalize on the coming revolution.
The "Age of Fantasy", as many would come to call it, had only just begun.
A World of Swords and Magic
The fantasy realm that has since been connected to Earth goes by the name Valmerin, and it is by all accounts what someone on Earth would consider to be a "high fantasy" world. Though only very basic diplomatic contact has been established with the nation of Prynzfir by means of the portal within the tower in Tokyo, a few basic facts have been established thus far.
Technology has not advanced far past that of the medieval era on Earth; the exception to this rule is in the usage of magic in lieu of modern conveniences.
Some magical translation spell is at play when it comes to verbal dialogue. The written language remains undecipherable as of now, but linguistic trends indicate that their common tongue is phonetic and thus can be transliterated to some extent. As of right now, though, dialogue must be dictated and transcribed if it is to be recorded—and this goes both ways.
There are quite a few sapient species living within Prynzfir beyond just humans. Physiology does seem to differ between them, but none seem outlandishly "alien" by Earth standards.
The Nature of Magic
Magic—or magic so far as people understand it—is the process of using mana in a structured manner such that a desired outcome is created as a result of that. Magic, by nature, runs contrary to many of the laws of physics, even if what it creates may follow it, which has already left so many scientists attempting to consider the implications of such a system relative to the laws of the natural world. For the moment (and with the field basically unexplored both on Earth and within the realm it now connects to), however, magic is only really understood in the context of itself—especially when the "exceptions" start brought into the conversation.
Magic has traditionally been categorized into one of two categories, as per Prynzfirian records: "traditional" magic and "blessings". Traditional magic (or, more simply, just magic) is a blanket term used to describe any spell or field of magic that is not directly influenced by some sort of "divine" amplifier. The variety of magic types that this encompasses includes but is not limited to:
Elemental magic of all varieties
Status magic, which itself can be split into enhancement and debilitation spells
Healing and divine magic
"Life Magic", which is a general-use term for any number of miscellaneous spells generally used for day-to-day convenience (for example, maintaining the temperature of an object for a period of time)
Most traditional spells are single-purpose and are designed to execute one thing in a certain way. While their use cases may be flexible, the manner in which they act upon the world and the results they produce are clearly defined within the parameters of their spells. Changing those parameters would change the spell, and doing so without understanding the mechanics behind the spells (which are generally cast using some form of verbal or physical conduit) could lead to less-than-desirable results.
Despite the naming schema, blessed magic does not occupy the same niche as what we might consider "holy" magic—in other words, magic traditionally attributed to clergy in fantasy such as removal of curses or healing—but does derive itself from a similar origin. Blessing magic usually derives itself from the power of divinities of Valmerin, whereupon one such being bestows upon a mortal the ability to invoke power well beyond most of their kin at the cost of only being able to draw upon those magicks that their patron has an affinity for.
What might be more intriguing, however, is the presence of what seems to be a third category of magic—one unique to Earth, comparable in a way to blessings. Colloqually dubbed "unique" magic, wielders of this type tend less towards standard elemental or metaphysical schema, but more towards concepts and abilities with those as a basis. As with the magic of the blessed, those who wield unique magic cannot generally expand outside of their given domain insofar as we have observed. The only consistent thread we have found among these people is that they were in close proximity to a Tower when it manifested, and no more.
Right, that should be enough for a basis. I want this RP to be a bit looser in terms of structure than most that I've run, but the core concept is more or less presented as-is. As ever, I'm open for questions, so feel free to ask. For those who might have something cooking already while this is still in a preliminary stage, though, here's a form for your troubles.
Name:
Appearance:
Age:
Race:
World of Origin:
Abilities: (This includes magic, which is not mandatory for characters).
With his plan to flee the Zubat without further issues succeeding (as har as he could tell), Richard continued sprinting through the torch-lit caves to try and make as much distance away from the entrance as he could. By the time he had finally slowed down enough to gather his bearings, though, it seemed quite apparent that running blindly ahead left him with little recourse as to what path he had taken to get here. As Luna, who had run after him as best she could have in his haste, finally slowed to a stop a few paces behind him, Richard took a deep breath and turned around to confirm that she was still in well enough condition after their brief sprint.
"Sorry to spring that on you all of a sudden," he apologized, "but good job keeping up. We should be okay now, so let's take a moment to breathe before we figure out what to do next."
After a few pats on the head, Richard glanced around the area before briefly losing himself in thought. There were more than a few Pokemon here that would function well enough as combat training, and with that massive waterfall blocking any chance of (safe) exploration deeper in, it seemed reasonable to buckle down here for a while.
"...Right, I've decided. Luna, you see those Nacli up there?" he asked, gesturing at the cluster of Rock-type Pokémon staring down at them before reminding himself to point at the group with his Pokedex. "We'll start by trying to find more of those closer to ground level, but if that fails... I guess we try to get one of those down here."
Given how he had almost tripped over one on the way here, finding more at ground level shouldn't be too difficult...
With his arrow landing squarely between the joints of the stone statue, Masaru was more than ready to expect the follow-up to provoke some sort of reaction. When the choice of reaction was for the simulated monster to simply turtle up and let the next few arrows bounce harmlessly off it's shell, the archer quickly took a few steps backwards and aimed right at where one of the seams of the statue-turned shell was.
When the entire upper body of the statue spun around in an attempt to clothesline him, though, Masaru had a scant few seconds to react; the only thing he could do in that situation was to fall to the ground and narrowly avoiding being caught by the blow. With a slight wince as his body hit the simulated paved stone floor, the young man rolled to the side and readied his bow for another shot———
Only for the simulation to suddenly cut off and for the world around them to dissolve back into the same blank white slate it usually was. All of the tension that was beginning to build up in his body as the fight was about to go somewhere serious disappeared in the blink of an eye, and Masaru couldn't help but let out a small sigh of disappointment. This was the first time he had been interrupted in the middle of a hunt like that, which did bother him, granted...
But if the two of them (among others) were being called for a briefing, there was a real possibility that something was afoot. Given that the reason he had joined wasn't to loiter around (for the most part), Masaru hoped that whatever everyone was being pulled for wasn't anything too mired in administrative red tape.
Though the sound of broken steel did pull a bit of his attention (as did the broken blade bouncing on the floor on impact), the Agent chose to not acknowledge that part of the situation and instead sheathed his bow as he followed after Zhao towards the briefing room.
Throughout the briefing, Masaru had stood by in silence with the others as the higher-ups went over the operation at hand. While he was left feeling rather concerned about how many people were being sent in for a single mission (especially considering the relative scale) and the possibility that there was something being left unsaid about the Anomany they were slated to hunt down, the Agent simply stayed quiet and chose not to question the situation. Hopefully the sheer number of Agents (and the presence of a cooperative Anomaly on the team) would mean that everything would be resolved simply enough.
Key word being "hopefully", of course. At least this was a planned mission and not some spontaneous emergency breaking out.
Nagano Prefecture — Abandoned Mansion
The fact that Agent Yakumo's abilities could transport them over such large distances in the blink of an eye was terribly convenient, as it meant that he (and everyone else) didn't have to suffer through an hours-long ride through the highways of Japan with nothing but anticipation and tension choking the atmosphere in the back of some unmarked vehicle. A step through brought them from the carefully cleaned and regulated facility to the overgrown and dilapidated ruins of a once-grand mansion, and Masaru—assigned to the flanking team as he was—simply tried to get into his usual streaming-style mindset. Even if the problem ahead was likely responsible for more than just those few civilian deaths, staying hyper-anxious about the situation would only likely leave him too high-strung to function properly.
In other words? If it was banter they wanted, banter they would get.
After taking the charm from Ah-ryeon and slipping it into his pocket, Masaru increased his pace to catch up with the others as he unsheathed and held his bow to the side with his left hand.
"I'm not super keen on horror movies, but there are a few games I've played that fit the bill well enough," he added, raising an eyebrow at Zhao's own hopes before shrugging his shoulders. "If we're talking battlefields, though, uh... Kawanakajima, I think? Been a hot minute since I've stared at history stuff, but that stuff's famous enough for that to stick in my brain."
With that, though, Masaru pulled an arrow out of the quiver on his back and held it at the ready.
"In any case, I'm ready whenever you two are. Lead the way."
Upon hearing that Anne—who she presumed to be the woman who had escorted the kids here whose name she had not yet actually gotten proper—had directed any questions to her, Sanae opened her mouth in an attempt to protest before deciding to simply sigh and deal with the newcomers' questions as best she could. It was hard to refuse a request when the older woman was going to look after the kids, and given how she actually knew the newcomers better than the others (or, well, at all, really), it made sense to have her fill them in.
Didn't make it any less awkward, though.
"Um... So, uh... Where do I begin...?" the green-haired girl mused out loud, bringing one hand to her chin before shrugging her shoulders. "Okay. So. This is definitely another world of some variety. The way those soldiers—Raven Heralds, they were called?—were equipped isn't anything like the military equipment of the Outside World. We're long since past the era of swords and shields, after all, so that'd be my guess as to where we are. As for what happened..."
It took a moment for Sanae to recall the events that led up to her transportation to the church, what with her ind having been focused on helping people, but given how it wasn't actually that long ago, that much seemed straightforward.
"I don't know what everyone else was doing, but I was seeing off the last few visitors to the shrine for the day. Some super strong magical power surged up, some weird barrier kept me stuck in place, and about... Ten seconds later? I was in some sort of weird ruined church. Then everyone else popped up, we saved the two kids over there, came to this place, fought off the baddies, and... Here we are now?"
It was, admittedly, little more than a very haphazard explanation about their recent escapades mixed with some wild conjecture about what had brought them here. If anyone could tell them more about their situation, it'd have to be that goddess that brought them here. Given how the events of the last while had transpired though, Sanae reasoned that Millie had to be some sort of divine conduit if it was through her that they were all dragged here through time and space.
"But, uh... Huh. Lavielle was that goddess' name, you said? Gotta remember that," she continued on, "but, well... Honestly, your guess would be as good as mine as to why we've all been teleported against our will—or, well, I assume that nobody got taken willingly...? Either way, it's not like I know much about why we're here and how to get home. Our best bet would be to wait for the girl who channeled that goddess to wake up and have her do it again so we can have a little chat, but as you can see..."
With a small tilt of her head and gesture of her hand towards the pair of children. Sanae looked at Remilia and shrugged.
"She's been unconscious since we arrived. I'm going to hope it's just exhaustion from letting a god inhabit a body with no training—and yes, I would know how that feels—so hopefully she'll wake up come morning and figure some more things out then."
With a deep breath as she finally finished rambling, Sanae looked at the others waiting in turn before her gaze finally stopped on Lewa.
"Now... That aside..." she said, a curious glint in her eye, "Lewa, right? I wanna hear more about you and where you're from. You're a hundred percent machine, right? No weird mini-person piloting you? Not that that'd be bad or anything, but, like..."
Her enthusiasm was rather evident, but it was likely that if nobody else tried to stop her from rambling on, the young woman would likely rattle off her questions for a... Meaningful amount of time.
@VitaVitaAR@Izurich@DracoLunaris@Lugubrious When Anne finally approached him, Alvin felt as if his heart had turned to lead. There was this impending dread within him—a feeling that, though he knew the answer the lady who had protected them would give, a part of him didn't want to even try and consider thinking about it. But with his father nowhere to be seen after so long and uncle Kendrick back on patrol...
Surely he just had to be outside, helping the other guards make sure that the Heralds didn't come back, right? That even if he was injured, he'd still be doing his best for the town—for them.
But the way that Anne spoke to him only served to amplify that sinking feeling. If it was news that would soothe his heart, there was no way she would have spoken like that. Even he knew that; his dad had spoken the same way whenever something bad happened.
Some part of him didn't want to hear it, but with shaking, balled-up fists clutched at his side the young boy quietly nodded his head.
Once the virtual space around him had settled into something more natural and the simulation materialized into something more tangible, Masaru swiftly nocked an arrow and glanced toward the Agent at his side. Zhao, it seemed, was more than raring to go, and given how he was the first to make a move in the simulation...
Well, the streamer-turned-Agent had little reason not to oblige.
"Don't worry, I'll be just fine!" Masaru responded in tandem as he kept his eyes trained upon the massive statue barreling towards them. The Anomaly's name seemed to simply that the statue itself wasn't the target, but rather whatever was residing inside it; given how steel was more likely to simply bounce off the rock that composed it's apparent outer shell, that was probably more reasonable to handle.
Not a terrible matchup, in short, but one that would help him hone his accuracy to some extent.
As the statue catapulted forward, Masaru chose to dash forward and underneath the Anomaly's swing—an action that would be unintuitively suicidal for any standard archer—before firing an arrow towards where the joints in the statue pivoted around. Once the arrow was loosed, though, the Agent would waste no time in running behind the monster and trying to do the same with the cracks between its legs.
Hopefully the arrows would impede the thing's movement enough for his partner to finish the fight with a decisive blow sooner rather than not—assuming his first big swing didn't do that, of course, but it seemed unlikely that a monster copying human form would copy all of its weaknesses in turn.
While the others went outside to check on whatever commotion had arisen, Sanae quickly put herself to work trying to keep the injured from succumbing to their injuries. Her miracles, though noteworthy in their own right, could only do so much on short notice (much less with next to nothing to work with). The lack of faith wasn't exactly helping matters much, either; while she would be perfectly fine functioning as a half-divinity with powers to match, if the caliber of the enemies to come was enough to hold herself and the others off...
The green-haired girl shook her head in an attempt to dispel those thoughts as she finished another ritual on an older man who seemed to have lost an arm in the attack. While his face had been pale and his breathing shallow when she had gotten to him, some vigor had returned to his body by the time the spell had been completed. Whether or not he could live on without that arm wasn't really something she could control, though; she could work miracles, but something like that would take way too much time and focus compared to the amount of people who needed to recover.
By the time Anne and the others had returned—this time, with a pair of new faces in tow—Sanae had managed to finish aiding a majority of the townsfolk who were at risk of dying on the spot... Or, well, a majority of those who hadn't already succumbed to their wounds. There were still those who were in pain or worse, of course, but the place seemed to at least have quieted down enough to hear the thoughts in her head.
Not like she would really have a chance to, though, when a quick glance towards the newcomers to acknowledge their presence swiftly became a double-take.
"...Eh? Konpaku? Why are you here?" she asked, staring in surprise at the half-ghost gardener before bringing one hand to her head. "Wait, no, it was probably that goddess, right? But why now, of all times?"
Before she could begin questioning the only familiar face present, though, Rayne and Lewa's return—with an injured civilian and yet another acquaintance in tow—only left Sanae even more confused than she had been last.
"Welcome back? But wait, that person with you... Huh?" she began to say, only to find herself thoroughly confused as to why the master of the Scarlet Devil Mansion had also found herself in their company.
Whatever questions she might have had for that goddess apparent that had dragged them here only seemed to be growing by the second, but at the very least the knowledge that she hadn't been pulled here alone was an odd comfort in and of itself.
As the green-haired girl continued to try and piece together what she could about the situation before the others inevitably accosted her for answers, though, the man who had sent Rayne and Lewa off to find his family had quickly scrambled over to the group once he noticed their return. The concern and anxiety on his face swiftly turned to relief and joy as he took his wife and child back from the toa, and after confirming that the two were only wet from the rain but otherwise none the worse for wear...
Well, gratitude might have been a bit of an understatement.
"They're safe! Thank the gods!" he cried out, euphoria evident in his voice as he heard his wife's and child's shallow (but stable) breathing. "I can't thank you enough for finding them..."
All the while, though, Alvin seemed to continue watching the situation unfold, a complicated expression on his face as he continued to sit by his still-unconscious sister. By this point, the young boy had stopped trying to find what apparently wasn't present amidst the crowd, and it seemed as if his gaze finally panned back towards Anne and Joker in hopes that they might have the answers to the sole question burning itself into his mind.
Somehow, words didn't seem to be necessary to pick up what he wanted to ask the two of them.
With the pair having parted ways, Richard continued ahead in relative silence, with Luna continuing to follow close behind. The path that his Rotom Phone guided him down wasn't particularly dangerous, thankfully enough, and that lent itself well to making sure that he didn't go stepping on any toes on the way into the cavern proper. The smell of salt in the air was strong before he had entered—no thanks due to the ocean being so close by—but the intensity of that smell seemed to double once he took a few steps past the entrance. He didn't seem to be the only one who had noticed, it seemed; though he had grown used to the smell of seawater over the last few months stuck on the ocean blue, Luna's scrunched-up nose and mild look of displeasure made clear her feelings on the matter.
Turning to look at the grass snake Pokemon with a wry smile, Richard knelt down and patted her on the head.
"Well, we're going to be exploring a lot from here on out; don't think everywhere is going to be like this," he remarked before standing back up and continuing further down the cavern. It was at that point, though, that luck seemed to line up against him.
Though the Magikarp weakly swimming through the waters nearby barely deserved notice, the Zubat flying overhead were a bit more annoying—and, as far as he could tell, they seemed to think the same of him as they began to fly off through the cavern. Well, most of them did, at least. It seemed there was one in particular that had it out for him, and the other two wanted to make sure that he didn't just try to bail.
There was a brief moment of silence as he turned towards Luna, who in turn looked back towards him; then, almost as if in sync, they turned towards the sole Zubat standing in their way.
"...Luna?" he asked, keeping his eyes trained on the Zubat until the Snivy walked up next to him.
"Sni?"
"I've got... A dumb plan. It might work. Might not; heck, might even make these guys angrier if it doesn't work or even get more after us," Richard continued as he beckoned his Rotom Phone in front of himself. "Okay, just have to pull up this app, turn this up to max, and... Okay. Cover your ears and, when I start moving, run. Rotom, do your best."
As the Zubat continued to stand in their way, Richard quickly brought one hand to cover one ear and, after using the other to signal his phone, quickly covered the other. A high-pitched screeching noise began to radiate from his device, and Richard wasted no time in booking it past the Zubat and further into the cave. Luna was startled all the same, of course, but if there was anything she was good at, it was running.
So run she did, as the two attempted to break past the Zubat and run further into the cavern. The Rotom Phone stopped the ear-wrenching noise after a few seconds' delay before zooming past to catch up with its owner. There didn't seem to be any more Zubat and the noise wasn't loud enough to pull attention from any more from a few feet around the phone, so hopefully that disorienting noise would be enough to allow the duo to dodge the encounter and explore a bit more.
Hopefully the Zubat wasn't going to be the type that held grudges, else they might have to face it afterwards anyways when they tried to leave.
...Maybe there were other exits they could use instead?
As he was about to resume his training from wherever he had left off on the list, Masaru heard a voice calling out from behind him. Opting not to immediately set everything up, the young man turned around to face the person who had done so, only to find himself face-to-face with Zhao, who, as far as he knew, wasn't exactly on the straight and narrow.
Didn't make him any worse of a training partner, though. While first impressions hadn't done much for his image, having someone else to hunt in the training room with at least spiced things up a little. Never mind that it meant that he could try his hand against some of the bigger game, of course; that was just a bonus.
"Morning," Masaru responded, raising one hand in a casual gesture of acknowledgement. "And, uh... Yeah. Doesn't really feel like training to me, if I'm being honest. If you want to tag along, though, then by all means. Hope you don't mind Anomaly simulations; it's more or less the only thing I do."
With a partner at the ready, though, the young man began to look around for something more fitting for a pair of Agents to take on rather than the ones being suggested for solo training before ultimately deciding to leave it to chance. Hopefully the "Random" option wouldn't throw something too far out of their depth at them; on the off-chance that they [i]did/[i] actually need to get pulled for a mission, leaving one of them too banged up from training wouldn't be a great look.
"Should be everything set up. I'll head on in first," he said as he left the older man to enter the training area proper. Unsheathing his bow and readying an arrow for whenever the green light to start was given, Masaru took a deep breath and assumed a simple combat stance. A small smirk could be seen on his face as the room around him began to shift to fit the new landscape, but without the enemy coming into the picture yet, well...
There was really nothing left to do but wait and see.
Given that he had only "recently" been recruited to Sefirot, Tachibana Masaru still felt rather nominally out of place compared to everyone else who he seemed to be working with. He was by no means the youngest present, oddly enough, but in many ways he saw himself as the most normal—and, in a way, most fortunate of them all. Would he rather have lived the rest of his life as a streamer, maybe transitioning into variety content once he grew big enough? Quite possibly. But given how much money Sefirot had thrown at him and how insanely persistent they had been up until he had ceded to their offer, that might have never been a possibility after his miraculous victory over that Warped all those months ago.
Unfortunately, Masaru was acutely aware that such what-ifs mattered little in the moment, and that his life now would be one of constant hunts and peacekeeping. In a way, that was too far off from what he had done up until now; killing or capturing virtual monsters could be close enough to that line of work if one squinted hard enough. It didn't help in the least that the desire for self-improvement had more or less led to him talking himself into taking up the job, or at the very least played a meaningful role in the matter.
There was probably some irony to be found in the situation, but regardless of what had led him to this point, he was here now. Thus far, the Agent had not actually found himself deployed onto the field for any incidents, which meant that he spent a majority of his time loitering around base. Though that passed well enough the first few days, it didn't take long for Masaru to familiarize himself with the layout, and soon wandering turned to boredom. He was banned from streaming now, after all—too much of a hazard in multiple ways to do so—and though the hefty compensation they provided made up for the loss in income revenue, the overwhelming ennui over the next week led to him turning back to old habits.
In this case, though, "old habits" didn't mean anything inherently harmful to him, like tobacco or alcohol. No, in this case, it meant a return to what he was comfortable with: virtual hunts in a physical space. The training room was no Monster Slayer DX—though part of him was tempted to ask the staff to set it up—but it did have a bunch of data on some more physically destructive Anomalies that could be turned into simulations to go up against. A good number of them were meant for teams, of course, but the challenge to running into them whether or not anyone else wanted to join him was a good way for him to burn the day away if nobody had any plans for him.
For the moment, that meant slowly sweeping through the list of Avon-class Anomalies and bringing each one down in turn. The challenge seemed feasible enough in his head when he had first considered it, but the size of the roster left Masaru wondering how much time that task would take—doubly so given the number of entries added in by the day.
Hopefully not too long; maybe he'd actually get sent out for something instead of being stuck in combat simulations for the whole day. At least nobody was pushing him to go train, given how much he was "technically" training already.
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