Nyahahameha

Pokémon: The Next Hunt

For the sake of everyone's eyes, no, I won't be colouring her dialogue. XD Welp, here goes.

Pokémon: The Next Hunt

Nyaha has questions!

1. Does the "Starter" slot in the CS have to be a region's starter Pokemon? Or is it just for whatever Pokemon the character first met?

2. Can we include a section for each Pokemon's currently memorized moves on the CS? It'd just make it easier for me to remember.

3. Are we meant to change the brown colour of the segment headers to our own character's colour?

The Next Hunt: A Pokémon Scarlet/Violet Rp

I'm still interested in this. I don't plan on going with a specialization, but a lot of my character's team will probably be Fighting type anyway to fit the theme I want to go for so I'll take it unless someone else wants it. :)

Rift Warriors X: An Isekai RP

Marie O'Hare
Queen Morag

---

"We'll just have to do what we do best."

"And that's kicking copious amounts of butt!" Marie chimed in, punctuating her statement with a "clack!" created by pounding the butt of her vertically-held halberd on the marble floor. "Which I'm guessing is where our, uh, "avatars" come in? I'm gonna' go out on a limb and assume these getups aren't just for show. So, if I wanna' open a portal like Morag does, do I just need to think about it...?"

The natural order of operations for a gamer to follow when starting a game they aren't familiar with is to practice controlling their character; test all the buttons, memorize what they do, make sure the camera controls aren't reversed, stuff like that. Thus, when a vertical portal opened in the air next to the closed-eyed Marie, it looked almost natural as Marie opened her eyes, reached through with the hand holding her halberd and placed it upon an empty weapon rack that looked to be located in the armory of Queen Morag's castle. She pulled her arm out of the portal, and just as effortlessly as the circular doorway in space had appeared, it was gone.

"...Cool. Anyway, I'm with Ellen; not super jazzed at the prospect of continuing to force living people to be characters in a video game under other peoples' control, though the fact that their values are severely outdated and shaped by time periods whence violent conflict was rampant--" Marie paused to inhale. "--does kind of necessitate some kind of rehabilitation program, I think. Masada should probably get started on that next after we rescue him instead of immediately diving into Rift Warriors XI."

Although, the biggest question she wanted answered was about this supposed "virus". A computer virus creating an entire separate universe from a video game, bringing everything in it to life while keeping it connected to the universe it originated from and giving control of the people now living in the separate universe to the people in the universe of origin seems...unlikely. Clearly this "virus" was as supernatural in origin as everything else that was just explained to them.

Rift Warriors X: An Isekai RP

Marie O'Hare
Queen Morag

---

"Sorry to interrupt, but if you both have a moment, I was wondering if you guys happened to open a copy of Rift Warriors X only to be greeted by a blank character portrait?"

Marie pulled her eyes away from the unclear reflection in her armor and looked forward as two figures that had previously escaped her notice approached. She blinked once as astonishment washed over her. Sitra and...HellfireRider in Jesse cosplay? Wait...

"ClawsOfTheLioness? And--"

"I'm sorry, I guess I should have introduced myself first. I'm Thomas or you may know my screen name HellfireRider. Based on your outfits, I can only assume you are ForTheRedQueen, and you...You must be that rookie player who came out of nowhere in the last few months? Sorry if I can't remember your screen name. Rather impressive feat regardless."

Marie nodded her head at Thomas. She'd met him and ClawsOfTheLioness a few times at tournaments. Thomas in particular seemed personable enough for the handful of time she'd met him, and had helped her with a few of her hurdles. It was reassuring to have him along for whatever kind of ride this was going to be.

“Ohmigosh, hi! I’ve heard of you! Yeah, uh… that’s me… I’m a filthy casual as they say… Um… I never expected to make it this far, I’m shocked as everyone else… Uh, my username is TwinkleStar. Um… I-I-I know it doesn’t go with the whole Spartan thing. It’s a username I made up when I was younger and I kind of use it for everything… Um… you know what… just… just… call me Danny…”

"Filthy casual," he says after giving me so many problems. The Spartan was a particularly annoying character to fight against, what with all the special effects and ailments his kit could inflict, and this Danny had proven to be enough of an expert at exploiting that annoyance to almost take the fourth spot from her, and the player who'd ended up in the sixth spot had been no pushover, either. To think it'd turn out to be a kid even worse at personing than me. Huh.

"So if four of us are here, that can only mean we're waiting on one last player to arrive."

"...And the devil shall appear. I'm Ren."

Now this was a guy who was even more of a mystery than Marie tried to be. He was fairly personable to interact with, and he'd been a good enough sport to give her advice during the couple times she'd met him at tournaments, but their interactions never really went beyond that. She'd be tempted to call Thomas a friend, but this guy was definitely still in "acquaintance" territory.

“Hello to you too. I think Aster Wilde is really cute! Oh gosh, I’m sorry if that made you uncomfortable… Um… You know what I’m just going to stop talking now…”

"Good, that means I can start," Marie announced, stepping between Ren and Danny halberd-first. "ANYWAY, that's right, I'm RedQueen, though Lioness and Heckrider know me as Marie. And yeah, I saw the blank character portrait on the select screen of ten, too. Soooooo, we all put in our copy, saw a character select screen with only our main on it, and now we're in Rift Warriors itself and dressed as our character? Why? Did Masada agree to sacrifice us to the elder god he made a pact with in exchange for his game dev skills?"

Rift Warriors X: An Isekai RP

Marie O'Hare
Queen Morag

---

Marie couldn't have been the only one stuck with a blank, dumbstruck look on her face as the surprisingly well-spoken English words of Rift Warriors series director Ryuichi Masada bore their way into her mind. Not only would X be the final entry, but it would only have five copies distributed to the top five ranked players online. She thought about her own rank, which was a decent number, but not even in the double digits as of then. And yet...mystery called to her. She had to know what was so special about X that only five copies were being made. Despite the ease with which she could fall into a competitive mindset during friendly activities or gym class, she'd never actually entered into a competition with an actual prize on offer. She'd been content just living at home, doing well in school, getting a work-from-home customer service job, and supporting her parents.

She looked at the poster of her favourite character tacked onto the wall over her bed. Queen Morag, the kind of woman who took every opportunity available to grasp victory. Perhaps, this was an opportunity for Marie to do the same...

---

Marie couldn't help the wide grin that forced the corners of her mouth apart. She'd never really given the fact that people she didn't know knew of her much thought until that moment, as she looked at the phone screen displaying the tweet she'd made just a few hours ago. The E3 livestream that had announced Rift Warriors X had only been a month ago. She'd managed to attend her first handful of tournaments between that time and now, and it was her first tweet using the screen name she used in Rift Warriors IX (a name she had thankfully made an account with back when she first started meeting people at tournaments, worried that being social at streamed events and becoming friends with well-known creators would eventually lead to someone trying to impersonate her online given she used a completely different screen name outside Rift Warriors). Even so, it had done quite good numbers.

"One of those copies of #RiftWarriorsX is @ForTheRedQueen."

Naturally, the replies had plenty of other well known players of RWIX accepting the challenge, including the likes of HellfireRider and ClawsOfTheLioness, as well as plenty of fans rooting for her. Apparently, being famous felt pretty good. With the supercharge of energy she'd received from both the friendly competition and overwhelming support brewing in her notifications, she immediately took to Rift Warriors IX's online mode on her gamepad-supporting PC to continue sharpening up her skills and raise her leaderboard placement as high as she could that night. She had already almost made it into the double digits.

---

It was a struggle to both obtain and hold onto the fifth top spot, especially considering her main, Queen Morag, was a slow, armored, heavy hitter, where most of the higher tier characters were faster rushdown types or zoners, and she herself had only been playing truly competitively since the announcement of Rift Warriors X, but she only had a few more days to go until the anniversary of the first entry. That was the deadline Masada had set during the livestream several months ago. She just had to make sure nobody stole that spot from her in her sleep. To that end, she unloaded the several cans of energy drinks she'd bought from the shopping bag onto the floor next to the desk her gaming PC sat atop.

---

Marie's hand trembled in excitement, the jewel case containing what she'd been working her ass off for the last several months nearly slipping from her fingers. It was right there. In her hands.

Rift Warriors X.

"Yeeeeeheeeeheaaaaa!!! YEEAAAH!!! Fourth best player in the world, you sons of bitches! Eat it! Haha, yeah! Eeeeeeeeheeheehee!"

Marie's parents weren't startled by the sudden shouts of excitement coming from Marie's room; she'd warned them they might hear her. Instead they smiled and shared a laugh, happy for their hardworking daughter. Queen Morag might have been somewhat taken aback by the item being shoved in her face, had she been a living person and not a poster on a young woman's wall. Once she was finished showing off to Morag, Marie dropped rear-first onto her bed and bounced to standing on the floor, turned around and fell into her computer chair, which rolled backward until it collided with the computer desk. Marie turned it 180^o with her feet, then spent the next minute trying to claw her way through the corner of the plastic wrapping with her fingernail, having failed to foresee the need for scissors and too embarrassed to look her parents in the eye after her earlier squeals of elation. Finally, after that minute, she succeeded in opening the case, removing the disc, and inserting it within her PC's disc drive.

What greeted her, after the installation, opening cinematic, dialogue box asking if she had Rift Warriors IX save data to import, and the title screen, was the character select screen which was...strangely barren. Rather than the two or three dozen characters most entries in Rift Warriors had, there was only one available to her: her main, Queen Morag, according to the text. And even stranger, her portrait was missing, leaving an empty box. She hadn't even been given the main menu yet.

A quiet "...Whoa..." was the only sound Marie could make, overwhelmed by the further mysteries presented by the game she thought would answer all the questions and speculation she and many other members of the community had discussed online in the recent months. Before she could explore further, the screen began shooting up in brightness, quickly forcing her to cover her eyes to avoid being blinded. The light engulfed not only her, but her entire bedroom, before the screen went black, leaving her bedroom devoid of its previous occupant.

Marie gasped loudly as she came to. She wasn't sure how long she'd been out, but it mustn't have been that long; she felt as though she hadn't taken a breath since her computer monitor shone that wicked light. Taking panting breaths, Marie looked around, and immediately realized she recognized the location: The Hall of the Messenger, the place most introductory cutscenes in the Rift Warriors series took place, usually at the start of the story mode/each newly introduced characters' arcade mode.

"Diiiiiiiid I just get killed by a videogame?" Marie asked aloud, motioning to take a step as her natural curiosity took over and compelled her to begin wandering and looking around. Upon hearing the clunk of her plate armor boot on the floor, she looked down, and realized she was wearing the outfit of her main, Queen Morag herself. She could somewhat see herself in the shine of the grey chestplate, and realized it wasn't just her outfit that changed: the bright orange mess she called her hair was gone, replaced by an equally frizzy and untamed mess of stark black. She still had her glasses and freckles, though. She could also somewhat make out the scar across her lip, helped by the lipstick making it stand out.

"Duuuuuuuude..."

Rift Warriors X: An Isekai RP

Queen Morag

Player Name: Marie O'Hare

Appearance: Standing at 5'1" and typically covering herself with sweaters and slacks, Marie would have an easy time fading into the background if not for her long, frizzy, bright orange-red hair. Black, rectangular-framed glasses and a smattering of freckles add more defining features to her otherwise plain face, which her round, dark brown eyes don't stand out much from.

Nationality: Canadian

Age: 25

Personality: A shy wallflower, the kind of girl who hid her developing body with sweaters and stayed home during "Kick a Ginger Day" during high school. But with the anonymity of the internet, through which she can connect with people she became friends with through games, she is able to express her inner fire and be the excitable, outspoken woman she wishes she had the confidence to be around people in person.

Backstory: The daughter of two very supportive parents, she was introduced to video games through her father, who enjoyed them as one of his primary hobbies. In her teens, she was attracted to the Rift Warriors series, during the later end of the eighth entry's lifetime in particular, after being exposed to its community online, which seemed full of fun and supportive people. She found herself drawn to the character Queen Morag, since playing as her gave her a great rush of power and confidence. She would go on to get a pretty high online ranking through Rift Warriors IX's lifetime, putting her fast learning skills to use in exploring the ins and outs of the game's mechanics and data, but it wasn't until the announcement of Rift Warriors X's strange release schedule that she decided to take after Morag and begin attending tournaments, albeit with her face fully hidden and always going by her console handle ForTheRedQueen. Applying that learning ability to picking the brains of better players whenever possible and getting as much feedback on her play style as she could, the result was framed by commentators as a rookie's phenomenal shoot up the rest of the rankings, edging in at being the fifth highest ranked player at the last opportunity.

Rift Warrior Character: Queen Morag

Rift Warrior Appearance: Standing at 5'11" and adorned with long, raven hair often seen blowing in the wind, Morag cuts a stunning figure when posing dynamically during rallying speeches. Her grey plate armor hides a toned, muscular body, while the rod-supported skirt of black fabric hiding her greaves helps reinforce her femininity. The leer of her narrow black eyes strikes fear into the hearts of her enemies, while a scar running from her right cheek to the edge of the left side of her jaw reminds them why that fear is justified. She even makes a point of not putting her black lipstick over the scarred sections of her lips to make it clear she isn't ashamed of any wound sustained in battle.

Debut: Rift Warriors VI, in which she had the role of the two phase final boss of the arcade mode. She was also playable in the same title, with her super armor naturally less powerful despite her attacks being just as slow, and without access to the second phase form.

Rift Warrior Backstory: The queen of a kingdom of little renown that existed in 8th Century England, the tail end of what is often known as the Dark Ages. Have grown in a time of constant strife and unmet needs, Morag grew into a stern, charismatic, and ferocious woman and warrior, wresting rulership of her kingdom by force in a bloody coup in which she herself claimed the previous king's head, and went on to provide for her subjects by taking from other kingdoms. It was fresh after one such conquest that not only herself, but her army and her castle were pulled into the Rift. After being bestowed power by The Messenger, she vowed to conquer the world of the Rift, with the ultimate goal of uniting as many warriors as would fight by her side to defeat not only The Messenger, but also whoever it was that the so-called "Messenger" was meant to be relaying the messages of.

Rift Warrior Powers: Morag was granted the ability to open portals between her own location and any she'd previously been to. She utilizes this power to summon soldiers and knights from her army to herself, as well as teleport herself around her opponents. She also retains the martial abilities she obtained through her own life, possessing the strength and skill to wield a heavy halberd for close quarters combat. This halberd has a banner wrapped around the shaft, which conceals a war horn also strapped to the shaft.

Playstyle: Morag is defined by slow, high damage normals that do not combo into one another, her summonable soldiers, her teleport, and her status as one of the handful of characters on the roster to make use of Rift Warriors' unique super armor mechanics. The super armor in Rift Warriors works on a hit point system that gives each character that uses it a specific amount of points of damage that this armor is good for, which slowly recovers while not receiving or blocking attacks, and after being broken, refills immediately once the character returns to neutral. Morag is among the few that has more super armor points than the most high damage single hit in the game, meaning at full armor she can always tank through at least one hit before being staggered. However, most of her attacks are slow enough that most of the roster are plus on trade, and though the super armor prevents her animations from being interrupted, she still suffers a moment of hitstop which can give even some slower attacks enough time to block after. She does have one quick normal, a forward toe kick, but it does abysmal damage and, like the rest of her normals, does not combo into anything.

In order to land attacks and avoid just being a punching bag that tries to hit back every so often, Morag players need to make use of her stellar mix-up game to keep opposing players guessing, which is where her summons and teleport come into play. In addition to summoning soldiers next to herself, she can also set up a lingering portal with a down->up+button or up->down+button charge input and use it as an anchor to summon soldiers from or teleport to, which disappears after it is used. Only one summon can be present on screen at a time. The same one can't be summoned until after it retreats back through its portal, while a different one will interrupt the one currently present and force the current summon to retreat. Her summons include:

• A shortsword wielding soldier who does quick attacks once summoned, up to three times for a total of five hits if his attacks land or are blocked, then retreats. If struck by Morag, will tuck into a somersault with sword extended and fly forward across the screen, retreating once leaving the screen. If summoned from an aerial lingering portal, will perform an overhead aerial while dropping down, then follow up with an upward launch as it jumps retreats. Spending meter will allow the soldier to perform his full combo regardless of if it whiffs, and will make the full combo true since there's no delay to confirm the hit.
• A bow wielding soldier who will lob three arrows which hit overhead at close, mid, and long range, then retreats. The arrows take a moment to travel, allowing Morag to reposition and attempt to capitalize on the opponent's option. The arrows can also hit aerial opponents during their arc, and cover a decent horizontal range as they spread out. If struck by Morag, will fire off three more arrows simultaneously that travel straight and fan out upward. If summoned from an aerial lingering portal, will perform three successive shots aimed below back, below center, and below front, then retreat. Spending meter will call a crossbow wielding soldier who fires a bolt that travels straight forward and hits low, and will fire a second low hitting bolt if struck by Morag, or will fire a bolt directly at the opposing character if summoned from an aerial lingering portal.
• A spear and tower shield wielding soldier who stands where he is summoned with shield raised, blocking attacks from the front and preventing characters who aren't Morag from moving past. If shield is struck, will thrust once with spear. If struck from behind, will charge forward with spear, then retreat once offscreen. If summoned from an aerial lingering portal, will fall to the ground and assume normal behavior, facing whichever direction the opponent is in. Spending meter will call two soldiers, one standing on the shoulders of the other, making the formation able to reach jumping opponents. This soldier will only retreat when a different summon is used.
• A lance wielding cavalry knight who charges forward across the screen as a constant hitbox, then retreats once offscreen. If struck by Morag, the horse will kick backward and strike Morag back, doing damage and sending her flying backward to the edge of her side of the screen if it breaks her super armor, then retreat. If summoned from an aerial lingering portal, will drop down with a knockdown hitbox under the horse. If this lands, the horse will trample the opponent for a few extra hits before retreating. If it misses, the lance wielder will perform a circular swing of his lance while the horse turns around before retreating. Spending meter will cause the charge's hitbox to be multi-hit, allowing it to corner carry the opponent, or If summoned from an aerial lingering portal, will cause the horse to perform the trample regardless of if the drop hitbox whiffs, and follow up with the circular lance swing.
• A sword and shield wielding knight. This can only be summoned using a super, and is exempt from the normal summon limitations: it can be used in conjunction with the other summons, stays out until either its time limit is reached or its hp runs out, and will always be summoned where Morag is standing. It has its own, fairly limited moveset, ai, and super armor points and moves independently of Morag, and can't be struck by her. Its attacks are slightly faster, but do less damage than Morag's.

By using her various summons in addition to her teleport, which is set to the backward->forward+button and forward->backward+button charge inputs, a skilled Morag player can catch enemies in pincer attacks or capitalize off forcing them to block specific attacks, while dancing in and out of the opponent's effective range. Her teleport behavior changes based on her distance from her opponent, as well as the presence of a lingering portal. Back->forward will teleport Morag to close range in front of the opponent at mid-long range, close range behind the opponent at close range, and if a lingering portal exists anywhere in front of her, she'll teleport to it. Forward->back will teleport her half a screen away from the opponent at close range, mid range behind the opponent at mid-long range, and if a lingering portal exists behind her, she'll teleport to it.

One of her forward normals can be held. Normally it's a forward thrust with the tip of her halberd, but if the button is held, she'll instead thrust it through a portal, causing it to hit behind the opponent. It can also be made to hit in front, above, or below the opponent by holding a different direction after pressing the button. An existing lingering portal will supersede all these options, but this normal has the unique property of not closing the lingering portal when used like this.

Other:

• Queen Morag's taunt in the game allows the player to play the war horn on her halberd like a regular instrument a la Big Band in Skullgirls.
• The second phase of Morag's boss fight in Rift Warriors VI consists of her summoning a large platoon of soldiers, which stack up and combine to form the torso, arms, and head of a giant warrior wielding dual swords. The player would be tasked with avoiding the unblockable but slow sword swings, and using the shields of off-balance soldiers after each attack to jump to the head where Morag stood to cause damage. This form then became playable from Rift Warriors VII and onward as a secret secondary ultimate activated by using her taunt to sound the war horn in a specific way. It's treated more as an Easter Egg by most players because of how hard it is to actually land hits while it's active, though some clever players can still make good use of it since each attack can be delayed and aimed at a different spot for a maximum of three seconds.

Rift Warriors X: An Isekai RP

So, I guess that means Marie and Morag are approved? May I paste their CS in the Characters tab?

Rift Warriors X: An Isekai RP

Lol if Marie shows up, looks around, realizes who she's dressed as, goes full cosplayer mode and declares her intent to kick the ass of everyone there, PVP immediately. XD

Rift Warriors X: An Isekai RP

Yeeah, probably a good decision, actually. I figured since NoCo hadn't mentioned it, it wasn't an issue. I hope the idea for the hammer is still useful, though.