King Cosmos

Worm: Earth Drega

To be fair if memory serves, isn't the whole Wards being kept away from the more dangerous threats thing more fannon than cannon - or at the very least substantially exaggerated in fannon? If I recall correctly the Brockton Bay Wards were literally deployed against Hookwolf of all villains at some point in the past, which isn't exactly the safest thing to do.

@TheMushroomLord

It's more that it's what's supposed to be done but the reality of the situation often means that Wards get deployed to more dangerous situations than the PRT would like. The Protectorate in Brockton Bay was massively outnumbered after all; Empire 88 by themselves had more capes than the Protectorate and Wards combined, even before you start adding the ABB, Coil, the Merchants, the Undersiders, Faultline's Crew and the independent villains. I don't recall them every being deployed against Hookwolf, but it's been a decade since I read Worm so they might have been.

The idea isn't to keep them away from villains though. It's to make sure Wards aren't being placed into undue risk above what they are capable of or what they feel comfortable with; which is something that is going to vary from person to person and doesn't stop the Wards from throwing themselves into dangerous situations.

Worm: Earth Drega

I don't particularly want to RP out-of-costume high school antics or cover PRT bureaucracy

@King Cosmos

Well I do >:(

@Punished GN

My wording was a little too strong in that post.

I'm not opposed to including that stuff in the RP; the bureaucracy around Parahumans is one of the more interesting thing about the setting for me. I just meant to get across that I'm not asking to sideline the superhero stuff in favour of those things because it's "realistic" for Wards to be required to still get a full education or to be kept away from the more dangerous threats.

Worm: Earth Drega

Sweet. Mind if I ask what you find iffy?

@Blizz

It's mostly the concept of creating a team of underaged superheroes while flouting or removing the majority of the safeguards put in place for them; particularly the part about getting rid of the limit on hours worked. I get that that's pretty much the entire point of this premise, and that the city is desperate to rush this team into action, but it just pushes a little too much at my suspension of disbelief that this would be allowed. Particularly when there is an in-universe organisation setup specifically to make sure the PRT and other teams with underaged members don't do this kind of thing, who can and will leverage legal action and PR campaigns against them if they do.

I'm just overthinking things though. I don't particularly want to RP out-of-costume high school antics or cover PRT bureaucracy, but the pedantic part of me would want it to at least be addressed.

Worm: Earth Drega

I'm a little iffy on the premise of this one, but it's not often you see a Parahumans RP. I'm interested.

Why Were We Reincarnated as Orcs?!

Akeno

It was a good thing that the Orcs at the entrance to the camp didn’t press her about how the cat snake had gotten as burnt as it had, because she had no intention of answering that question and had a feeling that wouldn’t go over too well. She wondered if they just hadn’t expected any of the runts to eat anything while they were out hunting, for them to just obediently do as told and bring back the first creature they managed to kill as soon as they killed it. That seemed pretty naïve, but maybe young Orcs were actually that keen to follow commands when they weren’t hijacked by the souls of humans from another world.

Or maybe not all Orcs could absorb the skills of the things they ate? Her memories of the conversation she had with the goddess before being reborn was starting to get a little fuzzy, like it had happened months ago instead of… days? Weeks? Maybe it had been months. There was a period there where she still hadn’t quite become herself again, where she really was just a regular Orc baby before remembering who she was. Whatever the case, she remembered the goddess saying that they would be given some blessings but could only remember the part where they could understand all languages and something about having a closer connection to the ‘system’. Nothing about copying skills from what they ate. So was that a regular Orc thing? Or something only they had?

Until she figured that out Akeno would opt just not to say anything, a decision that was reinforced when the head warrior gave her a suspicious look on seeing the burnt offering. He didn’t say anything despite the look though, which either meant he didn’t care or that he was shrewder than the gate guard and that she would need to be careful around him from now on. At least for now she was done with the hunting quest and was back in the camp, though now she had to figure out what to do next.

Another quest had appeared to give her some direction for that at least, though she wasn’t sure how happy she was that video games pop-ups were now dictating her life choices. Be at the training circle tomorrow, find more food, find shelter or take an optional quest; the first was easy enough and was something she’d probably do even after meeting the other requirements, acquiring food and shelter was also something she would need to do regardless and the optional quests, which she interpreted as just doing odd jobs for people around camp, might help her get those things.

There was also another level up, which Akeno wasted very little time thinking about before choosing to take more HP. More magic would be useful, especially since it seemed like she couldn’t use too many fireballs before running out, and the extra skill slot was tempting since she didn’t even think to consider that those might have been limited in the first place. HP was HP though; Akeno liked being alive and more health would make it more likely that she continued to do that. Simple choice.

With nothing better to do for now Akeno began walking around the camp, trying to get the lay of the land now that she was free of the brood pit so that she would know where things were in the future. Along the way she kept an eye out for anyone who looked like they had some kind of trade or purpose in the village; blacksmiths, tailors, cooks, doctors. For one thing it would be useful to know where she could find the important people in the camp, but those Orcs were also the ones most likely to be able to give her jobs or things to do. In particular she wanted to keep her eye out for anything that looked like a kitchen, canteen or just general dining area; while she wasn’t great at it her limited cooking skills were about the only thing she had to offer in terms of service right now.

Unless these Orcs were interested in letting a runt open a karate dojo in their camp anyway.

@Zeroth

Why Were We Reincarnated as Orcs?!

Akeno

Akeno’s strategy, even if it did just boil down to ‘hit it really hard, really fast’, had worked even better than she expected. She had caught the catsnake-like thing completely off guard and taken it down before it could do so much as growl at her and now she had a mostly intact creature to take back to camp so that she could finally complete this damn quest.

She didn’t even need to confirm the thing was dead, since the useful message pop-up already told her the fight was over.

Akeno walked over to the Tatzelwurm and despite already being informed that the thing was dead, kicked the corpse anyway just to make sure. When the thing flopped over onto its back and didn’t do anything else, she bent down to pick it up by its torso and began to figure out how she was going to carry this thing by herself.

This fight had gone much smoother than the one against the chickens earlier this morning and had been much less risky than heading blindly into a cave to fight something unknown. Not to say that this wasn’t also dangerous and reckless; Akeno knew that fighting alone, with no support, had a whole host of dangers associated with it. Even so, this had felt so much more comfortable than fighting as part of a group or enacting some grand plan beyond their means; just her, a single opponent and a fight that was low to moderate risk for an adequate reward. It was simple, straight forward, with as few variables on possible.

When it was just her, every variable on her side of the fight was something under her control; she knew her own body and her own capabilities, less so now that she was smaller and green, but the point still stood. When it was just her the only unknowns came from her opponent and how they would react, even more so now that she was fighting wild and magical creatures instead of other people, but being able to react to and adapt to her opponent was something she was used to. When it was just her, or maybe just her and one other person she could understand, then she could focus and not have to worry about anything but what she was doing.

She wasn’t a great fighter. She wasn’t some master martial artist, hell she’d barely even earned her black belt before she’d died. She never even won a tournament, despite entering so many. That was why she needed to minimise how many complications were involved when she fought, to give herself the best chance of getting things right.

After struggling for a minute of two Akeno managed to wind enough of the snake-things tail around her arms that she could carry it without letting too much of its body drag along the floor. With the weight of her kill in her arms, she set off in the direction that she thought the Orc’s camp was.

@Zeroth

Don't Forget Me

This looks interesting. I'd be down to do more sci-fi and I always enjoy the worn-down, gritty space aesthetic.

Why Were We Reincarnated as Orcs?!

Akeno

As the cat-snake dove from the tree towards the ground, Akeno raised her arms and settled into a loose fighting stance. The thing had been quick to react to the fire, escaping from the tree almost as soon as her spell had made contact with it; she’d kind of been hoping that it would panic a bit more and cause itself more damage before coming to its senses. Luckily, it wasn’t quite as quick to get its bearings once it was on the ground and rather than lunge straight for her as she had expected it instead began to roll on the ground to try and put out the flames.

Given that it likely wouldn’t stay distracted for long, Akeno decided to strike while the fire was still hot; both literally and metaphorically. Shifting her weight forward, she charged towards the cat-like creature, noting and then ignoring the message about her low MP as she gathered another fire bolt in her right hand and pulled it back for another attack.

She wanted to take no chances with this one, sure that it was going to be her last for a while, and waited until she was almost on top of her prey before flinging the fire bolt down on top of its upper body from as close as she dared get without getting caught in it herself. Then, continuing her forward momentum, she would follow up on the spell with a soccer kick aimed at the underside of the things chin.

@Zeroth

Interest Check - Future RP Ideas

Link to the Spirit World - A Yugioh RP where varying styles of dueling will take place. An ancient evil, sealed within the Spirit World, threatens to be released upon the multiverse, and you will be one of many chosen duelists to stop it.

@Darkmoon Angel

Well, I'm always willing to give a Yu-Gi-Oh RP a shot. I'm curious what you mean when you talk about the varying styles of dueling though.

Also, I think you would need to be more specific with your preferred power level, since "casual decks" it a very broad term.

Why Were We Reincarnated as Orcs?!

Akeno

By the time she made it back to the forest, Akeno had managed to work up a bit of a sweat. The distance between here and the cave wasn’t too far, but it wasn’t close either and the shorter legs of her new body made that distance feel all the further; even so, that she was feeling this worn down from just that amount of exertion was another reminder that this was not her old body and her level of fitness was a lot lower than what she was accustomed to.

The point she had put into stamina helped, she could tell. Any future levels she gained would probably go to either that or making her tougher; magic was nice and had endless potential, but getting rid of the alien feeling of piloting this stubby limbed, underdeveloped body and increasing her own chances of survival at the same time was going to be a priority for her.

She stayed at the edge of the trees for long enough to catch her breath, then turned her attention back her task. Or her quest, she supposed. The forest was still mostly quiet, at least in the sense that there wasn’t much visible wildlife, but from her elevated position she did manage to spot a creature in the branches above her that she probably would have missed had she been standing at the base of those trees. Some kind of snake-like creature was curled around one of the tree’s limbs, eyes closed and facing away from her. The front of its body looked vaguely cattish, and despite the serpentine lower half it had forearms and claws.

Akeno considered it for a few moments, wondering how or even if she should try and fight something like that. The chickens were one thing, those at least had been stood upright and a posture she could imagine fighting against, but how was she going to use her karate against something that looked like it was going to try and coil around her like a python before clawing her face off like a mountain lion? More to the point, how was she going to get it down from the branch without inviting it to pounce down on her?

Maybe she could grab a rock and just throw it at it? Piss it off enough to come down? One of the other Orcs had been carrying a spear but she had no idea how to make one of those or even throw it accurately if she had one. So how could she…?

Oh, right. Magic.

The ball of fire appeared in Akeno’s upturned palm with a thought, drawing forth the skill she had gotten from the KFC earlier now feeling more familiar. She’d thrown it like a baseball when trying to hit the slime and that had worked well enough, so Akeno did it again now, pulling her arm back and pitch the fireball up into the tree above her to try and hit the cat-snake-thing on the part of its body wrapped around the underside of the branch.

@Zeroth