Scout

Under the Light of a Crimson Moon

"Of course I mean Lady Maria," Josephine snapped a little more venomously than she had admittedly meant to. She shook her head; honestly, sometimes Kael's density was utterly shocking, even after the past few years. He was so hard-headed... Of course, so was Josephine, but at least she wasn't rash. Being able to fight from a distance had made Kael spoiled, in her opinion, and if he had more experience up close, he might not be so quick to engage a beast. Be that as it may, there wasn't anything she could do about it anymore. He was right: maybe Maria would turn them away... Perhaps she would put an end to their miserable lives, if she knew that it had been their fault that their master had perished. But what else could they do? A Huntress, and a Master Huntress with access to the Hunter's Dream no less, had told them to seek her out. The pair didn't stand a chance out here alone for the rest of their lives, they had no home to return to, and if they were likely to split up for fear of killing each other were they sent out with no guidance.

The woman snatched her father's journal up and reattached his Chikage to her sack before throwing it over her shoulder. The pair put out their fire, fanning the smoke for a moment to make sure it wouldn't reignite and to disperse the possibility of a signal. She looked at Kael as he spoke... She wondered if he knew he was barely talking above a whisper, as though the very strength of his former voice was sure to break her bones. For only the most fleeting of moments, one could see a flash of sympathy flash in her eyes... Or rather, it was more likely that one would see pity.

"You know, Kael, just because I hate you, doesn't mean you have to be afraid of yourself. If we're going to make it to the clocktower, I need you to be the cocky asshole you always are. Once we get there, you can have the luxury of a breakdown," She stated coldly, draining the previous moment's empathy from her voice without a second thought. Josephine would never admit it, but her advice was exactly what she was planning to do, even if nobody saw it. She drew her Rakuyo from her hip and held it loosely at her side, drawing her pistol from the other hip and twirling it once.

"Rest? I'm not likely to be able to sleep until I am literally on the verge of passing out. The luxury of controlling the time that we sleep is hardly ours anymore, don't you think?" She asked, eyes peeling through the streets of Yharnam. The streets were surprisingly empty, come to think of it... The fire was a bad idea - it could have attracted something. And yet... there weren't any beasts here.

The pair of apprentices walked along, stepping around wrecked carriages and carcasses picked apart by crows. The city was so saturated with their stench that it wasn't even overwhelming at this point. This was the smell everybody lived with, all throughout Yharnam and the surrounding towns - just death and poison all the time. It was then that Josephine heard the third set of footsteps, another pair of boots tapping the ground with hers and Kael's. The hair on the back of her neck stood on end and she spun on her heel without breaking stride, firing a quicksilver bullet as soon as she saw the figure. It was quite a way down the road and she didn't have a chance to hit it with her pistol, but at least it stopped. Oh god, it was a human. A real person... And they hadn't even had to fight anything yet. Maybe they could help!

She was about to apologize for brazenly firing her weapon when the figure let out a guttural laugh from deep in its throat. Josephine froze and readied her weapon, realizing that he must have been following them for at least a little while.

"Heheh... Sure did take you two a while to turn around, didn't it..?" He, for the pair could certainly tell by his voice that it was a he, asked, practically cooing at them. "Oh such young... naive hunters... Walking my city... trying to kill my brothers and sisters!" Josephine furrowed her brow... brothers and sisters..? "I've been following you, you know... and... I gotta say... I don't like it one bit how your friend wasted... wasted!" He repeated the word, though it was clear that it was more out of anger than anything, "All of that... precious blood, just to kill some beast. Wouldn't it be better to have just died? Or to have slit his wrists..?"

He couldn't possibly be talking about Edmund... Josephine prayed he wasn't, but knew better already. Before she could speak, he continued, taking a few staggered steps toward them... "Waste, waste, waste, waste...." He repeated the word over and over, quieter each time until he was mumbling it to himself. "It could have been refined and used... for health, to make us better. I can feel it already... These beasts aren't monsters to be hunted... They're the next step. They are what we must become to grow stronger. The blood speaks to me... It tells me things... like how it feels to sink your teeth into fresher flesh. To drink it as it flows, rather than from a phial..."

Josephine glanced and Kael and her lip curled back in contempt. Was this what Lydia had talked about when she warned of the dangers of the blood phials? She wasn't ready to find out as she slowly began to approach, wanting to give Kael time to make his own move or prepare one. This guy wasn't moving fast, but he clearly needed to be killed - or stopped in some way. However, he wasn't violently charging yet, so that was at least one upside. Josephine had little hope that it would last as she holstered her pistol and split her sword into a singular curved blade and a dagger. Kael couldn't afford to hesitate... She took a breath and looked back just one more time, giving him a firm nod; please, she begged in her mind, don't fuck this up, we don't have a safety net anymore.

I'm new. Help me.

@Cannon011 I'm personally a little bit confused on the question. :)

So if you're looking to reply to an RP or thread to show interest, you need to click on the link to that thread on the page, then make sure you're in the "OOC" tab (located at the top of the first post on any page of that thread) to say so or post a character sheet. If you're looking to discuss something in an RP you're a part of in the OOC tab, then yeah, usually we use the "@Mention" or "Quote" buttons to specifically reply to statements/posts from others, so that we don't get lost in the clutter because it will give that person a notification to say that you specifically were looking to reply to them.

If you're posting in the "In-Character" tab, then you shouldn't need to mention or quote the post you're replying to unless that's common custom for that specific group, because everybody is contributing to the same story, so everybody is... essentially replying to everybody. Again, of course, if the RP in particular mentions the folks involved in the reply to any post on the IC tab, then sure, follow custom.

EDIT: And the "post Reply" button is in reference to the thread on the whole. It means reply to the thread, so your message pops up last on the page and is added to the discussion/RP. It's only replying to a specific person if you're mentioning that person. Otherwise, it's a broad use of the term "reply."

Yearning for some good, indepth, morbid, heart wrenching, interest-catching, dark fantasy, unique beasts, truely unique RP...

down to the knitty-gritty

@Creeper

I just want to say that your avatar made me read this "Right down to the KITTY-gritty" and now I'm dead.

Otherwise, welcome to the guild, I hope you find something you're looking for here! You're certain to get a really supportive community of interesting people. :)

Writing character accents better

@Didgeridont Slavic languages in general tend to be like that - it's an incredibly confusing grammatical function for them because they've learned that it's implied all their lives. It's a real pain, because it's *so* important for the Germanic folks like English speakers. That's a great point though :O

Writing character accents better

I love this topic and in my short chance to get on the internet I wanted to be a part of it. So, to me, there are two routes and a middle ground to pursue that are entirely up to the writer - because the reader will interpret them very differently.

The first route is to do exactly as you have - state that the character speaks that way, establish it early, and mention it now and then to keep the reader immersed and sounding it out in their head. The pros to this are that you can still write fluidly without having to sit and think overly long about how to spell it out. However, using this method you should still try to throw in the vernacular and slang of whichever dialect you're planning on using. The cons here are that it can seem, to the reader, as a lazy way to circumvent the challenge facing the writer, no matter how many dialects or accents are out there. And that's unfortunate, but in some ways it's true. Especially if we're not just talking about an American from the Deep South, but rather a Scot - where they actually spell words in social media with their accent (it baffles me and is almost unintelligible; one of the most amazing things linguistically I've seen - I love it).

That brings me to the second option, which is to spell and write as though you're speaking it - using phonetics in dialogue because that beautiful little margin of space between two quotation marks is permitted to be a veritable wasteland of grammatical anarchy and character reflection. Pros to this method are that, in my opinion, it's more immersive to an extent. If you can do it right, though far more difficult, it helps to really feel a character out just right. The downside is the difficulty, the time it can take to think and write it out and research it, and the fact that whether done right or not can make a conversation seem jagged and tedious to the reader.

So, when I'm reading at least (I struggle with how I write the characters myself, to this day, but try to lean on the second option moreso), I prefer that perfect middle spot. The place where a writer and speak through the character without sacrificing the message and comprehensibility of the words just for a gimmick. Especially when the world is primarily one accent - if everybody has a drawl, then perhaps stick to the vernacular and keep the phonetics to a minimum. However, if you're in... say, England, and all of the characters have a posh, well-educated, measured speech until some Southerner from America shows up and starts spouting with a twang - even if educated - you'll want to use that chance to show the dichotomy of cultures.

Just food for thought - these might be ramblings, I just got off a really long shift and have had only sporadic days off lately, but I really wanted to weasel in on this discussion.

Valour & Vale: A RWBY Roleplay

Well that's a bummer :( keep me posted, Nutter. I was looking forward to playing a game with you after seeing how fun you were in Cara's thread.

Attack on Titan: Reclamation

Samara watched the sergeant walk away, brow furrowed. Who did she think she was? Walking off like that, not showing them around or introducing them to anybody. It was cold, but the girl could tell that Ekkehardt was genuine. The woman wanted to be here, she was strong and exuded a presence of pride and experience. All of this considered, the mountain girl had no intentions to stay here, whether or not she became the battalion's prey. Fine, if sarge was going to walk away from them, then Samara could take charge and be here for her childhood friends. Gesturing to the tent, she nodded.

"C'mon, guys... we'll take care of this ourselves, I guess. I'm sure that the others are just as lost anyway, even if they weren't graced with personal threats from their own beloved sergeants." The attitude from Samara was sharpened keenly over three years of disdain and contempt for these wretched people and she wasn't afraid to let it fly when she wasn't being ordered around.

Koto shrugged and trudged along behind his younger friend, hands in his pockets as they walked. He didn't like the idea of getting too involved or being too noticeable out here. It was bad enough that he wasn't an amazing soldier, he didn't need to look like an insubordinate cur too. The trio stepped into the logistics tent and walked through the line, turning in their jackets and each receiving a pair of new ones in their respective sizes with new insignias. Samara and Koto put theirs on quickly and Samara shimmied a little bit to adjust the fit over her shoulders. She glanced down at her side and extended her arm to look at the symbol.

"Well... It does look a lot cooler, I'll give it that," She admitted, gripping the other by its collar and looking at the ones handing out uniforms, "Hey, where're the barracks at for new folks? We didn't really receive a lot of direction..."

One of the corporals looked up with hollow eyes. He had just returned from his first assignment and was obviously just going through the motions of handing out items to the new arrivals. "Huh..? O-oh, yeah... If you go out and turn right, it's two tents down, diagonal away from us. Can't miss it, it's the long one," he answered monotonously. Samara thanked him and led the others out and to their temporary living quarters. The beds were arranged in rows of two-level bunks, most had jackets or bags hanging from the posts. They found a group of three empty beds with folded sheets and blankets on them that new people hadn't taken yet and she hung up her coat and dropped a bag on the top rack, deciding to make it later.

Koto took the bottom rack of the bed beside it and quickly stretched the sheets and blanket out over it, casing the pillow and leaning it against the headboard. Military things and sparring had come naturally to him, even if anti-Titan and 3ODM combat didn't, so making his bed took him little more than forty-five seconds to a minute. He placed his bag underneath the bed and looked back at his two companions, taking a seat on the edge. "So... Uh... I guess... this is our life now, huh..? Didn't they tell us that these Recon folks did missions outside the walls? Do you think we're going to have to go and find people like us and bring them back..? I won't do it." He asked, clearly rather worried. Samara didn't even want to think about it.

Meanwhile, Sergeant Ekkehardt was storming through the tents, barking orders. "Where are Reacher and Fletcher?!" She bellowed, slamming a table before throwing open the tent flap and stepping outside. Two privates came running to her, panting.

"What is it, sergeant?" The first one asked, finally catching his breath. "What can we do for you?"

Ava's voice was slow and measured, seething with anger, "You can tell me why I just had four different new recruits at four different times come up to me asking where they're supposed to be and what they should be doing and where they're sleeping?"

The second piped up first, "We told them to get their uniforms, ma'a-"

"If you even think of calling me ma'am again, Fletcher, I'll remove your tongue so fast that the wound will be cauterized immediately by the mere friction of my blade!" Her voice gradually rose to a shout, light spittle flying into their faces. Both boys were several inches taller than her, but it didn't keep her from striking fear directly into their hearts from down here. "And did you show them? Did you follow them? You know how FNGs are, they get lost at the drop of a fuckin' hat! And where were you, huh? Playing dice in the barracks? Cards at the mess?!"

Reacher looked away and to the ground, "Dice..." He muttered, accidentally answering a rhetorical question.

Ava blinked, stepping back and crossing her arms with a scoff. "Oh... Okay, well, good. I'm glad that we all trust the two of you to not get any of us killed out in the field! Fuckin' hell..." The woman muttered, stepping off while continuing under her breath, "The incompetence of privates..."

A few minutes later, as she was still bustling around - doing the work of a Master Sergeant and still retaining her duties as a simple Sergeant as well. When her captain's voice came from behind, the woman swiftly about-faced and saluted, "Yes, ma'am, I was. They should already have their uniforms, if they don't... I'll be sure they do," She stated with a calm demeanor, keeping her chin high as she remembered Reacher and Fletcher's mistake. "I'll make sure personally that they're ready before you are." As she was dismissed, Ava started off toward the temporary barracks, letting out another ear-splitting whistle to gather people up, "I need all the new recruits, front and center. If any aren't here, I need them gathered up, uniformed, and on the grinder now!!" The tent exploded into a bustle of people trying to gather up the new folks and direct them to the right place. Ava's eyes locked on the trio from the mountains - those were hers. She didn't trust that blonde one, and if she could glean anything from the other two they would follow her to the end of the earth if she could promise they were going home.

Valour & Vale: A RWBY Roleplay

I'm not trying to be pushy, just wondering how things are going for everybody :D Hoping we don't lose this so quickly...

Attack on Titan: Reclamation

Samara stared at the floor of their new holding cell, her fist clenched at her side while Ki'te blubbered on in a panic. Her lip curled back in contempt - she knew what this was. Since the first day they showed up, most of the people in the group were singled out for being former criminals or mountain natives. It didn't matter how much leadership she'd shown in training, how much skill... It didn't even matter that she was elevated early to Corporal for all of these things. No, it was so naive that they thought they'd be treated as regular soldiers once they graduated. Whether she was planning on leaving and taking Ki'te and Koto away from here didn't matter, but this was adding to the funeral pyre that was her horribly diminished view of this wretched civilization. She slammed her fit into the wall and pushed out of her lean.

"God dammit. They can't keep treating us like this. They round us up like dogs... They treat us like garbage... They take away the one thing we were promised - a choice if we worked hard enough. They all deserve to die, I don't care anymore. The first chance I get, I'm outta here." Her eyes moved to Ki'te and Koto, "I promise, I'll get us away from these... monsters," The young woman sneered, beginning to pace.

Meanwhile, Koto stared at the other end of the room, leaning on the wall with his arms crossed. His brow was furrowed tightly... How had he failed so miserably? Ki'te was supposed to look up to him and he didn't even make the top ten with them. Not that it mattered - technically, none of them were top ten, they were removed from the pecking order. Samara was giving another one of her 'fuck the man' speeches and he mostly blocked it out. They were stuck like this, with these people. They wouldn't last long either, from what rumours he'd heard of this assignment, they were all Titan food.

"Yeah, Sama, I'm sure we'll be home in the year," He said, trying to conceal his patronizing tone. He just held his glare out across the room. He was more concerned with his sister as he realized she'd been panicking. Taking a knee, Koto looked her over and met her gaze. "Hey, Ki'te, of course you didn't fail. You two did amazing... Sama's right, they're just... this is the way they treat us. We were childish to think they'd be fair after three years of training and hard work... They're just awful people..."

They sat in silence for a while longer. It's hard to tell how long, could've been minutes or days or weeks, who knew? The door opened and a loud whistle split the room and caught everybody's attention. "Listen up!" A voice, which undoubtedly belonged to a female, called out. "My name's Sergeant Ekkehardt, I'm your new supervisor, c'mon. I'll take you guys to your new assignment." She turned on her heel and expected them all to follow. The guards posted at the door would be taking up the tail end - they were a pair of privates from the 72nd as well. They'd keep the uniformed group of cadets together.

Samara's eyes fell on the woman, Sergeant Ekkehardt, and she sucked the inside of her cheek. Interesting woman, she had a way of commanding, a dignity about her. She was powerful, Samara even thought for a moment that the woman would be scary if she weren't from the cowards' kingdom inside these walls. Then, the woman shifted gears, shouting back, "Private Reacher, up front, you lead the way. C'mon, let's go!" She ordered as the boy scurried to the front and took the helm. Then, she fell back into the ranks, seeking out the small handful of recruits who she was told came from the mountains - the non-criminals. Finally, she settled on them, tapped each on the shoulder, "Come with me, I'm gonna walk you separately from them," She instructed, leading them down a different route to the battalion.

As they walked together, she gave them the same speech she had every conscript from the outer villages. "Look, I know where you're all coming from and how confusing all of this is. It sucks, I know. You might want to desert or leave, can't say it's hard to do with us either. I do warn you though, most of the runaways, no matter how big their group, we always end up finding their bodies, or what remains of them, within the week. I'm not going to lie to you, this is among the most dangerous assignments you can get, but sticking with the group means you'll survive. You'll find others like you. You'll find brothers and sisters here, I promise you that. No matter where we came from, none of us feel like we work for the king or the government once we leave the walls. We put on a happy face here and then leave behind all of these cowards and bureaucrats. Alright? So... I know this isn't going to do much to quell your determination to leave, but... I just think it's only fair to warn you. And if you desert and somehow survive, and I find you? I'll remove your heads myself," She finished venomously, glancing back and meeting each of their respective eyes. It didn't look one bit like they were kidding.

They just took a different route from the other group of recruits and arrived roughly at the same time. Ava gestured out to the temporary barracks that were more or less large tents with quickly constructed bedframes and mattresses inside. It wasn't much, but of course, they were never here for long, were they? "Alright, you guys actually got assigned to me, so... If you have questions or anything, let me know, okay? I don't like my soldiers dying, so that's rule number one: don't die. If you get to the logistics tent over there," She started, pointing, "You'll be able to get your new jackets, trade in your cadet ones because they'll wanna re-use them for the next classes. You'll get the survey corps symbol and you'll be issued two coats and your 3ODM equipment. I've got some business to tend to, so... I'll be around. Find me if you need something." With that, Ava began to walk away, already barking out orders to anybody who wasn't working on something they should be or who was wasting the air of their fellow soldiers.

Attack on Titan: Reclamation

Samara

Name: Samara Lehmann

Appearance

Age: 16/19

Rank: Corporal

Background: Samara was born in the mountain village of Solei. Her father, Ghiri (JHI-rih), was the chieftain of their town and would be passing the reins to his daughter when she was finally ready. She was raised learning all sorts of skills for her people like how to hunt, speak publicly, and even dance. By no means did the girl master any of the things she was learning, but she certainly acquired a background in them all. It wasn’t until a group of professionally uniformed monsters appeared at her village and took her and a few of her best friends away did she find her true calling. The village of Solei had outdated techniques for hunting and defending against titans.

Samara took to 3ODM gear like a fish to water. She felt like she ruled the skies, the streets, and the forests with it. The equipment was heavy at first, but she learned quickly how to control it and how useful it was. Apart from that, what really clicked or her was one of the most important facts of her young life: her very own captors were teaching her all the skills she needed to lead her people into an even better life and the skills she needed to escape the kingdom’s control over her and her friends. They were promised the orders of their choice when they first arrived to the training company, contingent on graduating in the top ten of the trainees.

But no, of course the betrayal and pain did not end at their capture, did it? Samara would have, based on her scores for the final tests, achieved third overall in the graduating class. Unfortunately, the Solei natives found that there was yet another insult added to the list: they weren’t even given the privilege of graduation or recognition. Their names had been stricken from the rankings and their entire existence expunged from the records of the company. The day before the ceremony, all of the cadets from Solei were whisked away to be assigned to the Survey Corps. They weren’t just conscripted to any battalion either, they were being sent a classified division of the corps called the 72nd Expansion Battalion, which was supposedly full of other conscripts, criminals looking to get out of jailtime, and what could only be considered crazy patriots who thought they could actually make a difference by killing themselves.

Fine. If that was the way they wanted to play it, Samara would take her people and escape this place easily. Nothing could hold them back anymore, maybe they would even end up being escorted all the way back to Solei.

Koto

Name: Koto Roth

Appearance

Age: 19/22

Rank: Private

Background: Having grown up under Solei’s strongest, most talented hunter, it came as no surprise when Koto turned out to be as good a Titan hunter as he was a beast hunter. At least, by the standards of the clan. He could set traps faster than anybody else and rarely showed fear when it came to removing the chunk of flesh from the necks of the abominations. His younger sister didn’t take to it quite so easily, but she certainly had the potential to be a great huntress.

Koto loved hunting, though admittedly he preferred hunting game rather than Titans. They didn’t just chase human flesh by some supernatural ability to feel it. No, prey needed to be chased rather than confronted, it required a steady hand and a quiet foot. Patience. Titans, on the other hand, cared not whether they were hunting or being hunted. They had hollow eyes and uncontrolled bodies with no coordination. And yet, they could swallow men by the handful.

When strangers from a distant land showed up, armed to the teeth, to their village… The simple folk had no choice but to give up some of their most prominent youth and future leaders. Koto was at least relieved that, if they were taking his sister Ki’te, they were taking him too. He could keep Samara and Ki’te safe and help them learn to hunt. At least, that’s what he thought, except… The strange equipment was so hard to handle and the way these people hunted was macabre. They chased the Titans? They didn’t trap or trick the monsters, they just… launched themselves up to the necks and carved the flesh away.

To be honest? Koto never got a true handle on the gear, at least not the way that Ki’te or Samara did. It made no sense how they controlled it so fluidly. It was frustrating beyond belief, he was certain that they would both end up wherever they wanted and he’d be stuck getting slapped into the ground or bitten in half alone in the field. But then all three of them got snagged away from their graduation and thrown to the 72nd Expansion Battalion. Secretly, he was pretty relieved, but he didn’t feel any better about his odds at survival, considering it was supposedly the most dangerous assignment.

Ava

Name: Ava Ekkehardt

Appearance

Age: 23

Rank: Sergeant

Background: Having been born and raised inside of the heavily protected Wall Sina, it comes as no surprise that Ava received very little support in her youthful desires. Every day as a child, she thought about what life without the titans would be like… Sprawling cities with no boundaries, free travel between them all, an endless world with seas and rivers and mountains. Perhaps she was just a romantic and she was idealizing the potential of such a world. There wasn’t a babysitter, family member, teacher, or noble who didn’t try to quell her adventurous spirit. They all failed and at thirteen years old, the girl ran off and enlisted in the military, hoping to join the Survey Corps after she finished.

Her parents absolutely abhorred her decision, but by the time they knew what she had done, there was nothing they could do. She was gone. And in the cadet corps, she met four of the people who would mean more to her than any friend she had ever made inside of Wall Sina. And after graduating in the top three of her class with one of them, she would lose all four within just a few years. Two died on their first assignment, with all of their potential squandered. Jonah, another top ten graduate from her squad, lost an arm after making sergeant and was confined to the military police, back to desk work inside of Wall Sina. Alois, a guy who tied with her for second in their graduating class, disappeared one day… Just out of the blue, in the middle of a fight. Nobody saw him die… One minute, he was rallying for battle and the next he was gone. There was no scream of pain or horror and not a single pair of eyes watched him get eaten. But regardless, they were all gone.

Now, it’s been seven years since she joined the 72nd Expansion Battalion. It was her first assignment and she voluntarily renewed it every round. Working with outsiders and criminals trying to earn their freedom meant that nobody out here felt above anybody else, regardless of rank, citizenship, and liberty. Despite her youth, Ava made sergeant rather quickly both due to the mortality rate of her regiment, her hard-charging attitude, and her undeniable skill. Unfortunately, she has yet to decide if she wants to take on a commission or secure a post as a master sergeant in a couple of years. Recently, the master sergeant for the battalion was killed on an assignment and so, as the senior sergeant, Ava has temporarily taken his place until the higher ups decide who to assign or promote to the newly opened rank.

One thing was for sure, she had no plans to leave the 72nd until her military career was over. There was still so much world to see.