Zeroth

The Book Of Thoth (A Shin Megami Tensei Inspired Roleplay) (CLOSED)

@Eviledd1984 My post is up. I included Miyuki's dream sequence in a hider since I didn't want it to be too long, but if there's anything wrong with how I presented her interaction with the "mysterious figure" or the demons let me know!

The Book Of Thoth (A Shin Megami Tensei Inspired Roleplay) (CLOSED)

DREAM SEQUENCE

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The Sea of Unconsciousness

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Miyuki walked on water, her bare feet sending ripples through an endless black abyss. The white shift and black nightgown she'd worn to bed floated as if a soundless breeze surrounded her, and a dull, flickering light surrounded her body.

Is this...a dream?

Her dreams were normally happy things. Lush, green, sweeping countrysides dotted with homey little cottages and overlooked by grand castles with tall towers. Towers that she waited in, dressed in royal finery with gem-encrusted jewelry, until some dashing figure in blazing white armor would ride his thundering steed over the drawbridge, enchanted sword in hand...

But she stood now amidst choppy, churning waves. The dark water moved like an angry mass of worms, the waves splitting over themselves like mouths devouring each other time after time. An unnatural force held her as the whirlpool rose higher and higher...or maybe she was sinking?

Of course my dreams would be like this... She crossed her arms over her chest, hugging herself as she shivered, closing her eyes as her face twisted in sorrow and pain. After all, I've given up on my happily ever after, haven't I?

But the nightmare didn't end with her drowning, stranded and alone and blind beneath the water, abandoned in icy depths. Instead she was lowered, softly, gently, to land like a fluttering fairy with another quiet ripple of light.

She was in some kind of...office? Or a sitting room? Velvet carpets and furniture clashed in garish colors. A fire, burning spectral blue, crackled merrily in a hearth. But its pale light was obscured by the shadows creeping around a great, plush chair.

"It's a little too soon for that, isn't it?" The figure that spoke licked its white gloved finger, and turned a page in the enormous tome perched against their knee.

Wh-what? Miyuki held herself tighter, and took a trembling step backward. The figure, cloaked in shadows that hid its gender, its features, its face, and its intentions, looked towards her. Where eyes should have been in its face, two glowing lights peered out. Glasses, like her own, that reflected the firelight? Or two rays of power, revealing her thoughts and secrets?

"Your happy ending. It's too soon to give up on it, don't you think? The story's only just begun." They looked back to their book. "You've been chosen, dear girl. Great changes are coming to this world, yes indeed, and you shall be one destined to witness them!" Excitement creeped into the thing's voice, and Miyuki swallowed her fear as she wrung her hands in front of her. "But, it shall be no...blurgh...knight that comes to your aid," they stuck out their tongue several times and smacked their lips as if trying to get a bad taste out of their mouth, "but a demon! Oho!" Their lips twisted, and they cackled with a seemingly malicious laugh.

"...What are you talking about? A...demon? You're saying a monster is coming after me?" Somehow she found her voice. Her fist clenched harder against her chest.

"Yes! And no!" The figure laughed again, throwing their head back like a vulture ripping a strip of fetid meat from a carcass. "If you wish to bring forth your protector, then you have only to call them by name! As one marked, those who wish to form contracts shall hear your voice above all others! Of course, if you scream too loudly, they won't be the only ones..."

"Marked? What does that mean? And you said I was...chosen?" If this is a dream, it's...a very strange one. Why do I feel...almost hopeful? This sounds terrible, as if something horrible is going to happen...

"It is! And you are!" The mystery speaker suddenly closed their book with a sound like clapping hands. "Here, let me show you!" They snapped their fingers, and a spark leaped from the blue flames. Like a snake it coiled through the air--and struck so fast, Miyuki could only throw her hand up as a shield!

The back of her hand burned. Searing light at the edges of her vision started to erase the room, and she felt as if she were falling--

"Fare thee well, princess! Oho, ohohoho!"

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Tokyo Streets

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"...multiple diagnoses of stress-induced hallucinations. But some experts don't believe this accounts for the shared details between many of the claims, such as those who have reported seeing fictitious creatures such as Youkai..."

Miyuki watched the news on her phone as she sat at the tiny table in her diminutive apartment, and ate her small bowl of rice with a little cup of miso and a few cucumber slices. Her glasses magnified the bags under her eyes as she slowly chewed, and tried to force the fog clouding her brain to clear. She still hadn't been able to sleep well, presumably because of stress, even though she didn't have classes or work today.

Maybe it was because she was dreading getting that call soon.

Her hand itched. It had been like that all morning, for some reason. But, as she rubbed it against the front of her jacket, she was grateful for a little distraction.

Today was shopping day. Miyuki's boots clomped along the bustling streets as she walked, unconsciously favoring the side of her irritated hand. She only had to make one real stop, a department store with floors for groceries, electronics and gaming, and books, the only things Miyuki ever really cared about buying unless circumstances forced her hand. It was close enough that she didn't need to take a train, although it was a long walk. Especially if she ended up buying a lot. Obviously she would visit all of the latter before the former, but she needed to watch her budget otherwise her bag would be too full by the time she got her foodstuffs and cleaning supplies...

Something tickled the back of her mind. A feeling like when she sparred in the dojo with other kendoka--like an opponent sizing her up, trying to read her techniques. Gulping, she turned, and for the first time noticed that she'd come to a part of the sidewalk that seemed eeriely empty, as if everyone else had instinctively avoided it. There was a small business of some kind here, but it wasn't open yet and no lights were on inside. Between this building and the next was a narrow alley, half-filled with vending machines for juice and snacks, and further back the aroma of garbage bins wafted up over the street.

Miyuki breathed in through her nose, and tugged her scarf tighter as she stepped past the alleyway. Something knocked over the plastics bin, scattering bottles and packages down the walkway.

Maybe it was...a stray animal?

The sudden thought of a cute puppy or stray kitten rummaging through the recyclables caused the stray hair atop Miyuki's head to shoot straight up like an antennae, as her cheeks flushed and her eyes filled with stars. She stepped into the alley, past the vending machines--

And immediately felt as if she'd stepped into the training hall, and even heard in her mind the sound of the doors slamming shut.

Before her, standing at only three, perhaps three and a half feet tall at the most, was a pudgy yet muscular creature with a disproportionately bulbous head. The beast had horns, fangs, and pointed ears, and carried a club that looked like it'd been carved from a tree.

"Gyagyagya!" the creature howled, its eyes locking onto Miyuki with clear rapacious intent, and it charged! The girl screamed as she stepped back, putting out both hands defensively--

And the back of her palm suddenly blazed with blue fire. The goblin drew up short, cowering behind its club as if it feared the light.

The haze in her mind cleared. Everything--the dark ocean, the strange room, a mysterious figure with an enormous book and an ominous message. Everything rushed back to her with crystal clear focus. But the flames seared into her palm and then died, leaving behind only a branded mark as if it had been tattooed there.

"Wha--are you? Is this...What they meant?" Miyuki gasped, sweat beading on her brow. The goblin, seeing that the girl's magic had faded, snarled again and leaped with its club at the ready!

"Ah!" Despite years of training, in this moment with no weapon, all Miyuki could think to do was scream for her life. "SOMEONE--!" Papa! "SAVE ME!" Please!

Amidst the dark, a maiden's voice rang out. A ripple of light passed through shadows. The mark was recognized. Many dark tongues began to utter. But, first of them all...

A blood-red hand raised in recognition.

"Ah shall hulp thee, wee lassie. Ca' oot mah name."

As an unheard voice whispered in her ear, Miyuki's eye's snapped wide open. She fell back, tripping over herself, but in the process dodged the goblin's swinging club. Her rear end hit the concrete, and so did the weapon, sending up a scattering of dust.

Sitting up one one knee, the girl held up her hand, turning its symbol towards the beast. She took a deep breath.

"LHAM! DEARG!"

"Gyagaaaaah!" The goblin brought its club down once more. It would break open this human's skull and drink her blood! Even as dark tendrils of writhing power opened up beneath her feet, its fanged smile leered--

Then steel rang against wood, knocking the malodious creature backwards.

"Pugyiii!?"

Miyuki's glasses threatened to droop down the bridge of her nose as she looked up. A tall, broad shouldered, muscular man stood before her draped in a kilt, leather armor, and cloaked by furs. Yet his arms dripped with thick streams of dark blood, and all manner of blades, daggers, and bent arrows had pierced his torso from every angle. His face was gaunt, cheeks pale and sunken, but his eyes glowed with a horrible wrath. His hair was dry and matted.

But he held weapons of his own, a battered shield and a chipped, double edged sword.

"Gyagar!" The goblin spat what might've been a curse, before it charged yet again to try and strike the much bigger opponent. Miyuki's protector took the blow against his shield without budging, then raised his own weapon high. The glow in his eyes suddenly intensified--and a crackling surge of crimson power was conducted into his sword. It was as if the blood coating his arm had become electrified!

"Gram!" The undead warrior brought his weapon down as veins bulged in his arm. "Slice!"

The very wind seemed to part under the stroke, whipping up a harsh draft in the alleyway. The goblin's body split in half, spewing black viscera. The glowing sword left a trail of light as it passed through the air, and once again the various bottles and other recyclables were scattered down the pathway as the force dissipated.

Slowly, the being turned around. Miyuki gulped as she adjusted her glasses, but her shoulders heaved as she panted, panic and adrenaline rushing through her body. She could still see the blood dripping from the man's sword as he raised it up...

Then he stuck it into the ground at his side, as if the concrete offered no more resistance than sand. He held his bloodied hand out to her.

"Ah ask o' ye..." he said, his voice carrying an unearthly echo, "Art thou mah master?"

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Children of the Otherworld - An Isekai Story

Did any of you guys or gals do anythin' fun for Halloween? (Not like I celebrate it myself, but hey, some folks apparently enjoy it!)

@Xaltwind

I told the kids in my Karate class they could wear their costumes, and got myself a cheapo green checkered kimono to wear over my black dougi with one of my katana to cosplay a dollar store Tanjiro. Then I taught them "breathing styles" and beat them with foam swords while handing out candy. It was a fun time. XD

The Book Of Thoth (A Shin Megami Tensei Inspired Roleplay) (CLOSED)

What do you guys think about having alignment-only demons? For example, if your character is Law then they can only get law demons?

@Eviledd1984

Since that's typically not how the games play out, I'd be against it at least until there's some kind of turning point down the road. If our characters get to the point where their alignments have changed or they're specifically picking sides, like in SMT IV's different endings, maybe that could reflect in the type of demons available to them, but otherwise I think it should just be a matter of negotiating with your summons even if they're diametrically opposed.

The Book Of Thoth (A Shin Megami Tensei Inspired Roleplay) (CLOSED)

Miyuki

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Info

• Akamine "Myu-tan" Miyuki
• Female
• 20 yrs
• 5-ft 3-in; 110 lbs
• College Student/Part-Time Bookstore Clerk
• Law (Good)

Personality

Miyuki is quite restrained with anyone she's meeting for the first time. Even after you've known her for a while, it can be hard to get her to open up very much and she doesn't tend to make smalltalk. If she's become familiar enough to be comfortable, and if she's not afraid of being judged, and IF you've indicated any interest whatsoever in the things she finds "cool," then she can be quite conversational. But if there's ever any indication that she's said something "awkward," she'll shut right back up.

She can be very pleasant and sweet-natured, but there's always a tension tugging at the edge of her soft smiles. She becomes flustered and anxious if she thinks she's offended someone or if she feels she's disliked by a group, but rather than ask anyone what's wrong she's more likely to try and make some kind of sudden change to her behaviors, or bring a lavish peace offering. If that doesn't work or, God forbid, makes things more awkward, she'll run away entirely and may ignore any attempts at communication for at least a week out of sheer shame.

The small girl has a tendency to throw people off in other ways, too. You'd think such a shy, timid, neurotic personality would be coupled with a sort of cute clumsiness, right? She trips over her words, so she'd trip over her own two feet as well? Not Myu-tan! The girl's athletic talent is somewhat uncanny in weird ways--she can't exactly dribble or shoot, but she's an excellent catch; even small, fast moving objects will be snagged out of the air on reflex. If she misses a step or is bumped into, she somehow never loses her balance and always seems to land gracefully. Her footsteps are fast, yet light--she often accidentally scares the daylights out of people when she taps them on the shoulder to ask an innocent question, because they never heard her coming. In a somewhat endearing, air-headed way, she doesn't see anything out of the ordinary about these qualities and is flabbergasted and embarrassed if anyone ever takes notice of them.

Backstory

As a little girl, Miyuki's father doted extensively on her and her mother. The toddler's nightly routine always included a bedtime story from an old collection of tales; she was particularly fond of both the traditional Japanese tales like Momotaro and Kintoki, but also the Arthurian mythos about knights in shining armor who saved princesses and slew dragons. Her father was a professor of literary history, and had a particular fondness of his own for these tales of chivalry that he shared with his daughter. When she got a little older, she also inherited her mother's love of whimsical romance stories. Little Myu-tan wanted nothing more than to be just like one of her favorite princesses, and to one day be swept off her feet by a brave, gallant gentleman.

Then her mother tried to live out one of those cliché romantic fantasies, and tore their family apart. Miyuki was too young to fully understand everything that happened with the affair, or why her mother always seemed angry at her father no matter how the man tried to appease her and save the marriage.

Miyuki's mother took the house, half the family's savings, and Miyuki. For some reason, she told the court that Miyuki was "too traumatized" to testify during the custody proceedings--probably because she had asked her mother how long she could live with her father during the school year. So the girl couldn't speak out against all the lies her mother told, or speak up on behalf of her brow-beaten father who cried bitter tears when they hugged before he had to pack his things and leave.

For the next few years, Miyuki's mother told lie after lie and tried to manipulate her daughter into hating her father. That plan never fully took root, but it did deeply confuse and hurt Miyuki, as did the difficulties in ever finding time to spend with her dad. The man her mother started bringing into their home, "to be Myu-tan's new daddy," wasn't nice to begin with...and he only got worse.

Despite her mother trying to intercept phone calls, social media, and even old-fashioned letters, and screaming at Miyuki for daring to "go behind her back," she was still able to have a relationship with her father. But the man never fully recovered. And it seemed like everything else in his life started falling apart too.

When Miyuki had just started high school, she woke up on a weekend and took an early train. She showed up to her father's smaller apartment, in a worse part of town, to surprise him. She was a day late for his birthday, but that was her mother's fault so she knew he would understand. She had brought a little cake and a rare edition of old medieval literature as a present...

But her father was already gone. All he'd left behind was a note, apologizing profusely to her...and even to her mother, forgiving her for everything she'd done. And nothing Miyuki did could bring him back, even when she cut the rope and called the ambulance, sobbing...

After that, she gave up on ever meeting some knight in shining armor to take her away from it all. No one would ever rescue her from her wicked witch of a mother, or her cruel stepfather. And even if someone ever came along, how could they ever compare to her real hero?

Life went on. She graduated as one of the top students in her class and got a scholarship to help pay her way to college--she picked one far away from her mother, just so that she could move out. The memories in her heart were starting to feel more and more like the storybooks she'd read as a child. Perhaps it was because she feared overwriting those memories, that she closed herself off from making new ones. Miyuki had always been shy, but now she was downright reclusive. Only her books, and her computer, and her dreams kept her company now...

Then, one of those dreams turned out to be a little too real...

Theme Song

Flowers ~ Hana Hope

Other

• Obviously loves books, games, anime, etc about anything even tangentially related to medieval history, fairy tales, sword-and-sorcery fantasy, and so forth.
• Despite how shy she is around "normies," Miyuki is part of a small but dedicated otaku group and visits a few different fan conventions every year. She even put together her own cosplay for a certain popular sci-fi fandom!
• The reason for her strange physical prowess is because she's been doing Kendo ever since middle school--one thing she learned about manipulation from her mother, is that in order to keep Miyuki on "her side" she was willing to spend a LOT of money on lessons, gear, etc... Now that she's in college, though, she's actually found a small group with ties to "Castle Tintagel," Tokyo's own HEMA organization! She loves her new club's official hoodie and often wears it while practicing for hours.
• Has a folder over 2 gigabytes filled entirely with memes.

CONTRACTED DEMON COMPENDIUM

LHAM DEARG

Lham Dearg

This demon of Scottish lore is said to be a soldier who died while still thirsting for battle, and his spirit became one of the Faerie Folk. Dressed in armor and bearing weapons, he raises his blood stained hands to challenge passerby. He is said to linger on the roads near water. Those who challenge him, even if they win, are said to perish within a fortnight.

STATS

• Jaki Race
• Dark Law
• RESIST: Phys/Gun
• WEAK: Ice/Poison/Magic
• SKILLS:
  • Gram Slice - Weak Phys Slash dmg to 1 foe
  • Power Punch - Medium Phys Blunt dmg to 1 foe, chance to Daze
  • Critical Wave - Weak Phys dmg to all foes. High Crit, Low accuracy.
  • Light Life Aid - Auto-skill. Recovers HP lightly after victory.

The Book Of Thoth (A Shin Megami Tensei Inspired Roleplay) (CLOSED)

@Eviledd1984 Okay, I'll change it to Law (Good). Want me to wait for your characters/NPCs/etc to be posted before I move her to CHAR tab?

The Book Of Thoth (A Shin Megami Tensei Inspired Roleplay) (CLOSED)

Or if you like she could be visiting or living in Japan when the RP happens?

@Eviledd1984

I already finished the edits lol, it's cool! Let me know if anything else needs to be fixed!

"College as far away as possible"
Ah yes, Japan. As far away as possible.

@The World

XD That might've worked if attending somewhere like Toudai sounded remotely feasible for a non-fluent, non-native speaker.

The Book Of Thoth (A Shin Megami Tensei Inspired Roleplay) (CLOSED)

@Zeroth

The sheet looks good, but I just to let you know that this RP is set in Japan. So would it be possible to include in her backstory what she is doing there? I also changed the alignment to make it more simple, so please make those changes as well.

@Eviledd1984

Oh shoot sorry I somehow either missed that paragraph or completely forgot it, lol. Yeah, I can easily tweak her to be Japanese, gimme a bit!

The Book Of Thoth (A Shin Megami Tensei Inspired Roleplay) (CLOSED)

@Zeroth
From Apocalypse, it seems like Light is friendly and Dark is antisocial. The other games don't really expand on a player being able to choose one or the other directly, it's more complex, so IV:A seems like the best example.

@The World

Huh, I'm wondering if an introvert like Rhia should be Dark instead of Light then? She's driven away from people more out of fear and trauma than dislike, but if it weren't for that she'd be pretty amicable I'd think...

Children of the Otherworld - An Isekai Story

Staying long-term at the spoopy castle doesn't seem like a very healthy option for Minami... Unless she somehow manages to defeat a Vampire Lord who is, y'know, probably strong enough to obliterate her with one spell or something... xD

@Xaltwind

She just has to wait until he's at his weakest, right after climax---

...

Because when the sun reaches its climax in the sky, you know, that'd be when a strong vampire is most affected! The more powerful their strengths, the more they're weakened! XD