Alt Academia: To Be a Hero [Sign-Up]

RP is a go! Sign-ups will still be open for a small while, but will close after a point, so apply while you still can!

Yeah... trying to find the line between "Weird bird" and "Copyright infringement" to design my own horsebird is proving annoying since it sounds like I shouldn't use the my previous reference pictures either. So it ended up being easier just to give him a different form and not worry about the "silly/cute mascot character who still has hero potential" angle I was originally going for.

Edit's up now, sorry it took so long! Holiday week plus figuring out new job has been bleh.

Alright! Bo is Accepted. Make sure you read at least from my latest post forward before you post!

• Name: Sherry Auburn

• Hero Name: Music Hero, Artisan

• Age: 16

• Personality: Thrillseeker to the core. In an exaggerated way, it could be said her good and evil might be considered "more fun" and "less fun". While it cannot be said that she does not have standards (if she did not, she would have joined the villains), but in her pursuit of happiness and thrill, Sherry can be selfish. Still, in an unorthodox way, it is this philosophy of hers that motivates her to fight villains, ones who take away "fun" and "happiness" from people. She is delightful of insulting villains or people she dislikes. Depending on the mood or the situation, Sherry can either be snarky or tiresomely excitable.

• Appearance: Pretty much this.
  • Costume: Above black spandex with crimson stripes Sherry wears a white jacket. One notable feature about her overall costume is the mouth attachment which have many little holes akin to the top of a microphone. This enables her songs be louder, thus increasing its potency.

• Quirk: Musician (Emitter)
  • Effect: Sherry's whole shtick is music, obviously. Her music has two functions: Sirenical Influence and Sound Force. Sirenical Influence AKA Influence is the ability that enables Sherry to buff or debuff living beings, for lack of better words. Depending on how she plays her music, she can alter physical, mental or even Quirk capabilities to a certain degree. To give an example, her music can make a punch stronger or weaker. It can also make determination increase or decrease. If a target possesses Ice as their Quirk, then Sherry can either make this Ice triumph against fire or make it unable to freeze even water (although, for this to happen, Sherry has to risk getting mentally and physically strained, especially her throat. Another thing this Quirk can do is emit a sound wave strong enough to make an impact. This ability is physical in nature, enabling Sherry to hit her enemies or move objects from afar.

  • Drawback: For this Quirk to use effectively, she needs to have a mastery over the instrument she plays her music with. While she can use this power with her voice and her guitar, Sherry's Quirk would be nigh useless when using saxophone, an instrument she has not learned. Along with that, the harder the music, more mentally and physically strained she gets. Once her fingers bleed or her throat gets sore, she is not able to use her Quirk.

• Abilities/Skills: As expected, an excellent singer and guitarist. Sherry is also capable of writing lyrics for her song (but, since I cannot, I am not able to show that). Also, adept sword wielder.
  • Equipment: Sherry always carries what could be essentially called guitar-sword she calls Samael.

• Backstory:
  • Sherry was born from a quirkless parents, the fact that delighted them. Due to the nature of her Quirk, she was expected by pretty much everyone to become a musician. Her parents pretty much laid out a path for her to become one. However, Sherry always felt dissatisfied with this. As such, she spent a life that was not entirely happy.

  • However, at one point in her life, while watching how heroes operated, Sherry had an idea: what if she became a hero and lived an exciting life? From that point in her life, she began to experiment with her Quirks in a different way, eventually able to reach the state she is in now. Defeat of All Might propelled this path, as, to her view, this event took away joy from many. Her goal in life was set: "Be the greatest provider of happiness while having so much fun herself." And these two goals may prove to be at odds with each other.

• Tidbit:
  • Another one of her wishes is to experience a life event dynamic and exciting enough to make a good material for an album.

  • Besides music, her interests lie in fighting games, especially of competitive kinds. She is an avid watcher of various fighting game tournaments.

  • Regarding money, Sherry is surprisingly not so frivolous. Her reasoning essentially boils down to the fact that she needs to save them for more important occasions.

  • She is not so keen on catching other people's romantic interest on her unless it’s very on nose. In short, she can be like a harem protagonist that everyone hates.

  • Sherry wishes she could have a dog.

Sherry is Accepted. Be sure to join the Discord if you like, and have her end up wherever you wish!.

•Name: Weiss Di Kabegis

•Age: 15

•Hero Name: The Hurricane Hero: Quilstrike

•Personality: Weiss is very easygoing. He won’t do anything right away and does nothing with passion or ferocity. Unless that thing is cooking. He cooks with a fire in his eyes completely unseen by anyone else ever. When someone says they might be a better cook he takes it as an insult and a challenge and will definitely have a cook-of with anyone who wants to.

•Appearance: Weiss has pale skin and hair in three different shades of green. His eyes are an extremely light green and always are half shut. His usual outfit is grey or black dress shirts and black jeans. He looks all around more feminine than most guys, constantly being bullied and ridiculed for it.

•Costume: He wears a dark green cotton outfit with streaks of lighter green and smaller streaks of red. He wears white gloves with red cuffs on the end of his sleeves. His shoes are cleated so he can stay in one place in the later stages of his Gale. He also wears a portable parachute in the back of his outfit.

•Quirk: Red Gale (Emitter)

•Effect: Weiss can make bursts of wind for up to 60 seconds at a time.

•Drawbacks: using the burst for the full minute can cause Weiss to be swept up in his own wind. It has a cool down that is however long he used the burst of wind times two. So if he used it for thirty seconds he has to wait for a minute before using it again.

•Abilities/skills: Weiss is able to cook well and is useful as a strategist. He’s also extremely adept at reading people, not easily fooled. Given certain circumstances he’s also a natural leader, able to rally his friends from near hopeless situations.

•Equipment: he carries a cookbook with him wherever he goes. Just in case.

•Backstory: Being born in Los Niras, Weiss has always felt as if his parents hated him, solely because he didn’t want to be a hero like his parents used to be. His passion was in cooking and he wanted to be a professional cook, but his parents had already set up a long term plan for him to put his quirk to use as a hero, and they wouldn’t hear his protests. He was locked in an eternal argument with his parents about what he was going to do with his life...until a (subtitled) broadcast of a Japanese hero, All Might, was seen by the family. This seemed to motivate Weiss’s parents more than Weiss himself, and the result was them basically forcing Weiss to go to Alt Academy, much to his dismay. This only caused him to resent his parents rather than going without question as they thought he would. This causes a lot of tension in the house which culminated in his mother telling Weiss he should do whatever he wants because he’d be a useless hero. Weiss goes to attend Alt Academy with a drive to spite his parents and a newfound determination to become a hero better than his mother and father combined. (Yes it’s extremely different, but I think this version of the backstory fits Weiss as a character more.)

•Tidbit: He’s a reaaally good cook and can make dishes from all around the world.

His parents never let Weiss have a phone, causing him to take a cookbook with him wherever he goes, so he can find a good recipe on a moments notice.

Edited by Yayakuza on Jul 28th 2019 at 4:19:04 AM

I'm planning to retire Carmilla to a NPC status. Meanwhile, here be a new person.

• Name: Jessica Brimstone
  • Hero Name: N/A. "Jessica Brimstone" is already a taken name, and Jess sees no problem with not having a hero name. Time will tell if she will settle on something else.
• Age: 16
• Personality: Not a hero. Long version: motivated almost entirely by self-interest. By her own admission, the only reason she's not a villain is because she became a hero. Her education in heroics is not preparation for a great mission, but a job like any other. With a pleasant, unnervingly enduring smile she steps forward to reach satisfaction of self, marred by low-key misanthropy and sheer inability to emphasize with others, stunted from childhood. Has a self-esteem so low it loops right back to the picture of confidence, dismissing herself without pause and without a care. Absolutely zero hero ethos; she'll play dirty, strike unannounced, and cripple enemies with no moral hiccup whatsoever.
• Quirk: Wire (Emitter) - Jess can produce steel wires from the valleys between her fingers, up to about 20 meters of it in one go. These are... well, steel wires, and so have a number of applications; they can be used to trip someone up, to hold something from a distance, make a passage over a height etc. They're blunt, but could theoretically cut through things. Jess can make these wires vibrate ever so slightly, to increase their potency. She can also turn them into terrifying razor wires under enough stress and duress, but this comes with hefty disadvantages. (see below) These wires can be discarded at will, and retain their abilities for a few hours before withering away and turning into metallic ash.
  • Drawbacks:
    • Can't use it with hands balled into fists or fingers otherwise put together at pain of shredding her hands
    • The razor wires do a lot of internal damage to her limbs. Jess's hands are already slightly number than the usual. Prolonged exposure can very well turn them into mincemeat. She heals well, but there's a line that not even good fortune and natural aptitude can fix.
    • The wires aren't magical or otherwise enhanced, and therefore are subject to limitations an ordinary length of steel wire would have. She can't bend them into strange, physics-defying shapes or make them tougher/softer. (yet)
    • The wires are a "physical" extension of Jess; someone quick or strong enough can grab them and swing her around with them as long as she's firing them.
• Appearance: "Life's like a lemon: sour and yet it still makes you laugh." 5'5. Body's covered with signs of old physical abuse, including a scar across her whole abdomen. If she binds up enough, she can pass for a boy too.
  • Costume: Pictured. The gloves have minuscule cutouts, just big enough to let the wires out.
• Abilities/Skills:
  • An avid street runner who uses a clever application of her Quirk and her own flexibility to move in city jungle with childish ease.
  • A sleight of hand specialist with pickpocketing experience
  • Stealthy
  • A mean throwing arm
  • A trained voice that can turn from a girly shrill to a boyish light bass in a flash
• Equipment:
  • Hand gel. Lots of it. Moisturizing seems to grant Jess slightly more leeway in using her Quirk.
  • An assortment of street smart gadgets, including a couple of lockpicks, a bunch of small objects to throw for distraction or disruption, and a pen with sympathetic ink.
  • A number of flechettes and throwing knives for more succinct throwing material.
  • First aid kit
• Backstory: Whoever "Jessica Brimstone" was before she was picked up by The Unbreakable Hero Bastion doesn't seem to be that important in the grand scheme of things. She's been fending for herself in the urban jungle of California big cities for quite a while now. Moving from place to place - slight accent indicates she might have been a daughter of Polish immigrants - and making use of her Quirk to get what she needed. Things were comfortable enough for this homeless child with nowhere to belong - until she got too cocksure and tried picking the pocket of a pro-hero.
  • The police put things simple: the girl was identified in a number of states as a culprit of pickpocketing, theft, body damage, and a number of assorted crimes, up to and including taking the pants off a prominent politician in the middle of a speech (according to her, mostly out of complete boredom). Normally this would mean landing in a correctional facility for an undetermined amount of time, but, in a stroke of luck, the pro-hero who apprehended her offered to vouch for her. Thus, the choice was twofold: throw away the old life and admit to the Hero School, or reflect on your actions in prison. It was hardly a contest.
  • Bastion had a reputation for being a bit too trusting in the youngsters (which was how he died a month prior to her admission), and so the government did not stop monitoring "Jessica Brimstone" even after she made a beeline for Alt Academy. While she's left to fend for herself, making use of a state-provided apartment, her handlers constantly watch out for any ill-advised behavior. She's well-aware it doesn't take much for a spiteful white-collar to cut her hero adventure short, but frankly she enjoys having a warm place to stay with running water, a monthly allowance, and people saying thanks for her work. And, much as she can't help but think of late Bastion as a fool who literally picked trash off the street, she's still grateful for this chance and would like not to tarnish his reputation anymore.
• Tidbit: Poker face for days. Playing any card game with her is asking to get plucked clean. She also spends her spare time in entertaining kids by showing off neat little tricks. Seems like she can stand younglings better than adults or her peers.

Just my luck that I get a strong character concept in my head and the RP's closed...

Jessica Brimstone is Accepted.

The only issue I have is that the backstory seems a bit lacking. Not to say he needs more to him, just...well, actually, I think he does. At least enough to fluff out the backstory beyond "He really wants to be in the academy". And, not an issue so much as a nitpick, but why does he carry a cookbook around and not have recipes on his phone? (If he has a phone, that is.)

Could I cook up a sign up?

Sorry, I was rushing as I tend to do a lot, so i’ll Add more.

Weiss’s parents don’t let him have a phone, i’ll That to the tidbits.

Alright, Weiss is Accepted. Sorry for the wait!

Now I don't have much of a history with you, but a lot of the current players do, enough to make me worried about including you. I'm not trying to be mean, just honest - while a few of them say you've improved since said history, just as many are wary about your inclusion, for different reasons. But I know what it's like to be shunned out of something because of stuff you regret doing years ago, so I'll give ya a chance, if you still want to join. Just be aware of who you'll be joining alongside, and to keep things civil and nice, okay?

Umm...I hate to ask but should I wait to post? Everyone’s gotten into a grove already and i’m not sure where to jump in.

Yeah, I'll make sure and keep things civil and nice.

• Name: Brandon Pieck
  • Hero Name: Outburst, the Strength Hero
• Age: 16
• Personality: Brandon is best described as a nervous, social wreck. He has few if any social graces, he's withdrawn, shy and while he wants to make friends he's nervous about actually making the first move and potentially upsetting those around him. He is nice if a bit of a doormat, he's polite if self effacing, and is the sort of guy to apologize...for apologizing too much. He desperately wants for something to be proud of - feeling he lacks very much in that regard. This all changes when he gets angry. Once he gets angry, he becomes a reckless berserker, aiming at removing whatever caused his rage by any means. He can get nigh on incoherent, and returning to normal can result in mental exhaustion to the point of forgetting anything he did in his angry state.
• Quirk: Berserk-Ion (Transformation)
• Effect: Berserk-Ion has had a lot of effort put into its "engineering" so to speak, and it results in a lot of powerful energy being charged into Brandon's body, transforming his form and drastically strengthening it as his emotions escalate, while also letting him release this dangerous energy in bursts. His transformation is immediately recognizable, muscling him up and leaving him sparking with energy. His Quirk can even let him shape these bursts - though this is usually not something done with finesse. Notably, his power and what happens when it activates depends on the exact nature of the overflowing emotion that triggered it.
• Drawbacks: Brandon's Quirk is powerful, but due to how it works and Brandon's own nature, the stronger he gets the less control he has over it and himself. This is only exacerbated by the fact his transformation is heinously painful, and the process of muscling up is agonizing - the energy just by itself hurts when it starts being formed. Changing back also mostly leaves him completely and totally exhausted mentally and physically.
• Appearance: Brandon for all that he's actually a tall and muscular figure already doesn't really look like it due to his shy and withdrawn personage, his tendency to slouch forward, and pronounced wallflower tendency. He has a somewhat tan countenance, dirty blond hair, and blue-green eyes - his eyes tend to emit sparks when his powers start activating. He wears a sleeved vest zipped up, jeans and sneakers. His one item from his "Father" and "Mother" is a golden necklace with a sapphire in the middle, and a bird design to the center piece.
• Costume: His hero outfit is a blue and white set of armor made to accommodate his changing form - the head piece however also emits a certain frequency to keep him focused, though its effectiveness decreases past a certain point.
• Abilities/Skills: Brandon is rather good at camping, and is an avid swimmer. He claims that swimming keeps him calm.
• Equipment:—-
• Backstory: His story begins with a man named Percival Pieck, and his decision to try and match or even exceed the rumoured power of One For All in the name of science. Percival studied his entire life on Quirks, how they worked, and what caused certain Quirks to be activated in children. His colleagues however deemed him obsessed and derided him - claiming he was somehow jealous given he was Quirkless. While that might've played a role, Percival began to work purely to uncover the limits of what humans can achieve. His work also grew to become more amoral in nature as his colleagues began to desert him fully. Eventually, his experiments bore fruit - namely, Brandon. Taking the boy up as his own son while Percival's mistress became his "mother", Brandon was put through a volley of tests to ascertain his power's nature and output potential. Percival felt validated by the results, even as they resulted in physical scarring for him. Brandon was deemed "ready" for formal training at about 16, and sent off to the Academy - the only thing from his parents he had was his necklace.
• Tidbit: "I...I...uh, hi...I-I-I'm B-Brandon uh...Pieck...yeah. Yeah. Uhh, I think you're my dormmate...I'msorryifI'mnotI'mnotaweirdo!"

Edited by NickTheSwing on Jul 28th 2019 at 9:38:35 AM

The biggest questions I have is the specifics of his Quirk. To start, what do you mean by it being "engineered" a certain way, like how was it engineered? Mechanically, I think this would be closer to an Emitter quirk (not that much of a deal I know, more just a nitpick on my part), but that depends on how he 'transforms'. Is it a simple buffing up, or is the transformation tailored to his emotional state? How exactly does his Quirk change depending on what his emotion is?

Lastly, I just sorta wanted some clarification on his backstory; is Brandon Percival's son, or adopted, and is the "mistress" Brandon's actual mother?

Basically, Percival had people selectively breed so as to create a Quirk like the one he got. The eugenics vibe to this was what made his colleagues finally have enough and fully leave him - by the conclusion it was obvious Percival had abandoned common decency in favor of his own personal goals.

And yeah, it basically is just buffing him up - and the higher the emotional intensity the more it effects him.

His exact emotional state changes the end result, with some emotional states reducing him to an animalistic state, whereas him feeling an overwhelming amount of determination let him have a lot more control over the exact end state. Though he isn't at a point where he can use his Determination Form.

And no, Brandon isn't actually Percival's son. Brandon thinks he is, and they act like he is, but the truth is, he is not Percival's son.

Edited by NickTheSwing on Jul 29th 2019 at 7:56:47 AM

Mhmm. Well, aside from an iffyness over the idea (which is the point of it), I don't see anything wrong here. Brandon is Accepted.