Roleplay / There And Back Again RP

At least, with any luck.

Forget the world you know.

Forget everything you have come to understand.

Let your mind follow the breath of the world...let it skim the surface of the endless seas...follow it to a land filled with endless wonders...then dive into the beating depths below...

Now open your eyes...and tell me what you see.

— Lizard of Aus, first post of the RP

Welcome to Foteinigi.

A world of magic, wonder, and especially adventure, There And Back Again takes place in a world where very nearly All Myths Are True—and some of those myths just happen to include media from our world, reimagined and recreated in a fantasy setting. What dark perils await our heroes? What grand quests lay in their future? And how many innocent taverns will they destroy in the process? Only time will tell, but wherever our heroes are going, one only hopes that they'll be able to make it back again...

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There and Back Again contains examples of:

• Adaptation Distillation: With shades of Compressed Adaptation and Pragmatic Adaptation, since events that originally occurred in space or on other planets were changed to happen planetside. The events of the Saiyan genocide mostly follow the story of Bardock: The Father of Goku, though Frieza’s suspicions, Kakarot’s Age Lift and the presence of Gine are retained from Dragon Ball Super: Broly. As such, Bardock has his psychic powers from the former anime special while having also intentionally sent Kakarot away like in the latter film.
• Adaptational Gender Identity: NiGHTS in their origin franchise has either a gender up to the player to decide, or masculine in English locations. Here, they are a demigirl, using both she/her and they/them.
• Adaptation Species Change: In My Hero Academia, Shoto Todoroki is a superpowered human. Here, he's a half-elf.
• Adorably Precocious Child: Matilda, as expected.
• Affably Evil: Akane is polite, nice, and makes an attempt at being cultured in most company, even willing to make a fool of herself if it allows her to more easily accomplish her goals. However, see Faux Affably Evil.
• An Arm and a Leg: Damar is forced to amputate one of Kirito's legs to save his life, after Kled's bear trap-on-a-rope completely mangles it. See Curb-Stomp Battle below.
• The Atoner: Caitlin Snow, who is trying to make up for her past crimes as Killer Frost. Ahzek Ahriman, too, who seeks to undo the curse he unwittingly placed on his brothers-in-arms.
• Batman Gambit: Damar combines this with We Need a Distraction - by convincing Kled to harass some guards that were uncomfortably close to the stables, via telling him that the guards were plotting a coup to take Gdonya from him.
• BFS: Kirito's sword counts as this, as its blade alone is nearly the length of an average person.
• Big Damn Heroes: Shoto and several others serve as this to Caitlin when Moonbow corners her.
• Cloudcuckoolander: Kled, as he demonstrates by declaring the starting town his territory and insisting everyone should respect him as their leader.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: Kirito is on the receiving end of one of these, courtesy of Damar, Kled, Usalia, and Matilda, when he tries to attack Caitlin and Shoto. How bad, you ask? Well, he runs head-first into a psychic wall projected by Matilda, gets shot by a thermal blast from Damar's pistol, has Kled's bear trap-on-a-rope clamp around his left leg, and is pelted with spoons by Usalia. And then, just to make things even worse, Damar is forced to amputate his left leg just below the knee in order to save his life.
• Distracted by the Sexy: Both Hinata and Tavros find it hard to concentrate when Shoto's Wardrobe Malfunction leaves him with only half a shirt. Hinata in particular suffers when Shoto's concern leads him to offer to carry her to the next location.
• Epic Fail: Doesn't even BEGIN to describe Kirito's attempt to aprehend Caitlin.
• Evil Sorcerer: Ahzek Ahriman, natch.
• Fantastic Racism:
  • Akane does not seem to think to highly of Mollymauk, or other demonspawn, for that matter.
  • At one point in the story, Team B ends up in the city of Sawwar, which several members are prohibited from entering on basis of their race; Amy has to wear a disguise in order to get in.
• Faux Affably Evil: Whenever Akane gets sufficiently annoyed or otherwise incensed (usually because of Molly,) she stops taking a stab at being kind and courteous and starts taking more normal stabs instead, either through her trusty clay-carving knife or any of her Kaiju minions.
• The Gunslinger: Both Damar and Tetra qualify.
• Horror Hunger: Caitlin has to steal body heat to survive, which has led to her killing people in the past.
• An Ice Person: Several, including Caitlin Snow and Shoto Todoroki.
• Inspector Javert: Moonbow, and later Kirito, both serve as this to Caitlin.
• I Surrender, Suckers: Caitlin uses this tactic when she's cornered by Moonbow in the starting town.
• La Résistance: Corat Damar leads one such group.
• Leaning on the Fourth Wall: An almost accidental version. According to TABA's lore, Chief has been fighting the Covenant for over 20 years. Coincidentally, Chief's player joined the group in the same year Halo would celebrate its 20th Anniversary.
• Leeroy Jenkins: Kirito somehow combines this with Inspector Javert. The results are predictably catasrophic for him.
• Magical Clown: NiGHTS. Specifically, she/they is/are a magic flying jester born to rob dreamers of their emotions and destroy their dreams that rebelled against that purpose.
• MacGuffin: The Star Rod, an artifact responsible for bringing dreams and warding off nightmares for the inhabitants of Dream Land. Someone way out of Dream Land and neighborhood's range stole it, which is why Meta Knight is adventuring out of what he considers his home and is especially determined in getting either a clue as to where it could be or help in the form of allies to get it back.
• Master Swordsman: Meta Knight, who uses his fabled Galaxia sword in battle with fierce skill.
• Mystical White Hair: Caitlin has it. Half of Shoto's head also has it.
• Mythology Gag: Caitlin uses the name "Louise" as an alias. The previous Killer Frost in the comics was named Louise Lincoln. Damar also mentions an island named "AR-558", this being the name of a planetoid in Deep Space Nine.
  • Additionally, when Bardock attempts to hide his new acquaintances’ names from Percy, the names he gives are all Dragon Ball references.
    • Selypa: The Japanese name of Bardock’s deceased teammate, Fasha.
    • Kale: A Saiyan from Universe 6, introduced in Dragon Ball Super.
    • Toolo: The Kanassan who “cursed” Bardock with his psychic powers, both in TABA and in Bardock: The Father of Goku.
    • Nion: The name of a Saiyan scientist in Dragon Ball Super: Broly.
    • “Big Green”: The name given to Piccolo in one of Z’s more infamously bad dubs.
  • NiGHTS celebrates the victory against the Screamers of Tzeentch by calling themselves "NiGHTS the Invincible", a reference to how NiGHTS called themselves invincible in the Japanese storybook NiGHTS: Flying Through the Sky Without Wings.
  • Leo's introduction to Team B is taken from the first episode of Rise, where he and his brothers claimed they were wearing alien turtle costumes for a science fiction convention.
• One-Steve Limit: Averted. While he hasn't shown up in person yet, Jacob Black is a significant part of Leah's backstory; so when Jake Long joins the group, she becomes so annoyed to run into another Jake that she almost breaks the cart they're riding in.
• Ragtag Bunch of Misfits: Both teams, to varying degrees. Team A, the more stable of the two teams, being composed of Corat Damar, Caitlin Snow, Shoto Todoroki, C.C., Atreus, Usalia, Hinata Hyuga, Bardock, Gandalf the Grey, Master Chief, Cortana, Banjo, Kazooie, Nia, Pyra, Koushiro Izumi, Tetomon, Remilia Scarlet, and Shaggy Rogers and Scooby-Doo. Team B, if anything, is even worse. That team's membership consists of Tetra, Ilulu, Ahzek Ahriman, June Moone/Enchantress, Jake Long, Alabama, Jibril, Zagreus, Amy Rose, Casseiopeia, Marie Antoinette, NiGHTS, Razputin, Ogrim, and Leonardo.
• Reformed, but Rejected: Caitlin is making a genuine effort to be a better person, but so far, people haven't exactly been overly trusting of her, often refusing to believe that she really doesn't mean any harm.
• Rage Breaking Point: During the confrontation with Kaldor Draigo, NiGHTS is initially just annoyed the grey knight with a Shakespearean accent is blocking the way of the group and is willing to just be a dignity-ruining prankster... until he mentions the word that goes against the jester's very own nature: order. Then NiGHTS goes on a rant showing indignation for anyone following order (...which turns out to be Kaldor's own last straw against the group).
• Shout-Out: Quite a few. For example, Damar mentions both Duke Leto Atreides and the Kingdoms of Nohr and Hoshido.
• Super-Soldier: The Master Chief of the Spartan Order of Yuen-Ensi, John 117, is one of the best Spartans to ever serve Yuen-Ensi, and it is said that the Spartans were augmented with superhuman abilities to become the best fighters against the Covenant of the Forerunners. This is not counting his use of the enchanted Mjolnir armor.
• Talking to Themself: June's introductory post has her quietly tell her Superpowered Evil Side, The Enchantress, to shut up.
• Team Mom: Caitlin, for sure. Shoto even has trouble reminding himself that Caitlin ISN'T his mom, both due to these tendencies and the physical resemblance between the two.
• Tailor-Made Prison: A rare heroic example: NiGHTS was trapped in a green-and-blue bubble prison for a long time in the Realm of Chaos' Formless Wastelands before being rescued, and it's shown in her/their introductory post one of her/their many attempts of escaping it. Although it never moved with her/their strongest tackles, Jake was able to destroy it with a claw swipe.
• The Power of Blood: Eileen, and any species who has the Old Blood, not only heal wounds that would take a long time to heal and remove uncureable diseases, but also gain superhuman traits superior to the average member of their species. It's too bad it can eventually transform them into beasts or drive them insane if not controlled..
• Villain Protagonist: Both Akane and Ahriman qualify. To say nothing of Alastor and Jibril...
• Wardrobe Malfunction: After being goaded by insults towards his mom, Shoto lets loose with a huge fireball. This leaves him with only half a shirt left, and no replacement.
• White Hair, Black Heart: Subverted with Caitlin; while she's killed in the past, is frequently thought to still be a murderer, and can be dangerous when provoked, she is a good person nonetheless.
• With Catlike Tread: Despite knowing that he's being hunted, Shoto's attempts at keeping a low profile include introducing himself with his real name and signing a paper with it, getting involved in a very obvious fight in the middle of town, and doing nothing to hide his very easily-identified scar and hair.