Shin Megami Tensei: The Beckoning Sign Ups

It started one early morning at North Heights High School, Year 202X, nestled quietly into Californian Suburbia.

"You were all there, weren't you?"

The day that all of a sudden, all of the cellphones across the classroom went off at once. Even the teacher's! Everyone across the school got a new notification on their phone - that the Demon Summoning Program had finished downloading, and was ready to initialize.

Even when the teachers tried to keep order in the classrooms, there wasn't much that could be done when one bored punk paid out fifty Macca and all of a sudden had an Oni at his beck and call.

"The media circus that ensued had everyone. "Concerned Citizens", religious fanatics, calls to investigate the phones, conspiracy theories, the works."

Of course, hand something like that to teenagers, especially several hundred teenagers, and you'll get some downright auspicious results. It wasn't long before "Demon Battles" began to rise - and with them, the appearance of the so called "Four Wise Men", who set out to establish rules for this contest.

The Program seemed to rupture some long established barrier between the human world and the spiritual one, because many, many more Demons began to roam openly. Hidden no longer - and up for recruitment via the Program. "Angels, Demons, Monsters of all stripes...which ones will you summon? And will you pursue it? That grand chalice the Four Wise Men promise to the winner of the coming "Summoner's Tournament"?"

"Or...will you reject the structure altogether, and embrace something that deviates entirely from what they desire? Do you imagine they'll happily accept that...? And does it excite you to fight them every inch of the way?"

"Well, whatever you choose...battle is the word of the day. Exult, Summoner, in the thrill of the occasion."

---

Thus we have Shin Megami Tensei: The Beckoning.

Each player chooses 1 Demon to be their designated "Ace Demon". I won't require naming your faction as you start, because I want people to choose based on what they see.

There WILL be many ways this story can go, and multiple answers to different scenarios. For example, in a street battle between the police and some punks wielding their Demons, you could well choose to fight the punks raising hell...or you could join in and slaughter the cops with your Demons.

Each choice will have an effect on the world and the way your character is perceived - as well as some opportunities down the line.

Demon Whisper: Now, this line of text in the sign up. In the RP, sometimes if you help out a Demon, it will offer to teach you a power it has. This gives you permanent access to that - with some added side effects. It is usually given as a reward.

---

Sign Up Sheet

• Name:
• Age: (you'll be playing as one of the teens so...)
• Gender:
• Appearance:
• Personality:
• Background:
• Demon Whisper: (fill in here when your character learns any skill from a Demon)
• Ace Demon: (you can find a list on the Megami Tensei wiki. Generally at the start, stick to a relatively low level Demon).
• Etc:

Edited by NickTheSwing on Jul 2nd 2021 at 12:55:22 PM

You had me at Shin Megami Tensei, Super Interest!!!

Edited by Skyzerk on Jul 2nd 2021 at 6:04:59 AM

Glad to hear it.

Looking forward to seeing what kinds of characters show up.

Though I suppose on the topic of starting demons, is there a specific level range you’re looking for as “low-level”?

Generally from the single digits if you want to go for more Magikarp Power toward 20 - 25.

Definitely interested! SMT is generally darker than I write/RP for, so not sure what kind of character I should go with yet.. Hopefully I'll get some ideas for that soon. And thanks for the clarification, I would have guessed "low level" meant up to level 10-15!

• Name: Setsuna Kagura
• Age: 17
• Gender: Female
• Appearance: Japanese/American schoolgirl.◊
• Personality: Setsuna is bubbly, sweet, and somewhat demure. She adores cute things and has a developed sense of fashion, but can be overly nervous and ridiculously apologetic. She often catches herself saying ‘sorry’ or asking others for approval, even if she doesn’t need to. But buried underneath everything else, she has a ferocious temper. She’s tried her best to bottle it up and everything that comes with it, but it only goes so far. With that temper comes a love of fighting, brawling, and other aggressive tendencies, her father's influence coming to the fore.
• Her years of abuse have also led to her being easily persuaded. She has little confidence or self-worth, agreeing to others demands and suggestions if it pleases them. She has her limits, but if you treat her nicely, she'll do almost anything you say.
• But despite all that, Setsuna has stayed in one piece, nor has she given into those vivid urges that have long sat in the back of her skull. Of making her father pay. And all those who have mistreated her and others like her. But she keeps telling herself, "that's not right." "That's not what society wants." "That's evil." Thanks to that, she's remained a normal school girl, if somewhat timid and terribly repressed. But sooner or later, something has to give.
• Background: Setsuna wasn't born in the best neighbourhood. Her mother came from the better part of town, but her father was raised in the slums, and his parents often gave him the short end of the stick. Even so, Setsuna's father and mother loved each other very much, but while her mother was kind and caring, her father was a brute. But around her, he was able to cover it up, and had a sort of raw magnetism that attracted her in spite of his flaws. When his daughter was born, he couldn't help but love her, but as the years passed, that love aded Her mother saw a sweet, bubbly girl, but her father saw a weakling infant that wouldn't last a second out of the crib. Or that's what he told himself.
  • Either way, she became an easy target. One he would use and abuse no matter how much she begged him to stop. Every time she did something he saw as weak, he’d slap her or bash her head in before telling her it was for her own good. Her mother soon got wind, but she quickly disappeared under 'mysterious circumstances.'
  • Despite having to endure her father's abuse without anyone else to help, Setsuna kept herself together, but the sudden appearance of demons didn't help matters. Before she knew it, she wound up with a summoning program and a demon of her own. She isn't sure why she bothered. She told herself it was out of necessity. That sooner or later, she'd need to defend herself from the other demon users that kept cropping up. But in the back of her mind, she couldn't stop thinking about what she could do with that sort of power. With a demon at her back and call, he'd never hurt her again. And the same with everyone else.
  • It wasn't long after that she got wind of the tournament. She told herself she didn't want part of it, but her demon persuaded her otherwise. If she participated, she could prove that she was strong. That no-one could push her around. Even her father would have to respect her if she won. She wouldn't admit it, but she liked the idea. Hell, maybe it'd be fun. But one way or another, she'd make sure he or anyone else never hurt her again.
• Demon Whisper: (fill in here when your character learns any skill from a Demon)
• Ace Demon: Oni. Lacks any direct magic, but makes up for it with raw strength, endurance, some solid buffs, and few if any weaknesses. In contrast to Setsuna's timid demeanour, Oni is much more impulsive and rough, but possess an instinctual cunning beneath the surface. While it certainly helps him in combat, it's enough to get in Setsuna's good graces and appeal towards her worst instincts. If he plays his cards right, his master may become someone he'll revel in serving.

Edited by kkhohoho on Jul 17th 2021 at 8:30:07 AM

Accepted! Welcome to the game, Santa!

• Name: Jason “Akira” Maxwell
• Age: 17, going on 18
• Gender: Male
• Appearance: Befitting his nature of being a bit extra, usually wears an unbuttoned red blazer, black pants, and is almost never seen without a long crimson, well-loved scarf.
• Personality: Adores playing up a hot blooded persona for anyone watching him fight, but is in reality a rather average sort of person. With a strong sense of justice, he’ll carve a path through this world’s new rules
• Background: Growing up in middle America is, to be Frank, a rather boring existence. Wake up, hit school, go home, do homework, play video games, sleep, repeat. And with so few friends, he usually ended up bouncing around with his parents from place to place based on their work locations. At first, California was just another one of those places. Wake, school, homework, demons…wait a minute.
  • When Jason first met these demons, well it was a shock! He was scared out of his mind, thinking he’d be eaten or something! Lucky for him, this sorta began to normalize after a few days when he found out that he could make use of them as well. To quote him, “I mean…I guess I went into strategy mode or some such. Like an RPG sort of deal?”
  • It was then that he, wrapping his neck in the crimson scarf of his ancestors (his words, not mine), he set out to take to the world of Demon Battling…and hey, maybe he’ll make a demonic friend or two.

Demon Whisper: (fill in here when your character learns any skill from a Demon)

• Ace Demon: Sylph, the small faery-like wind elemental. She’s all around friendly, if a bit prone to teasing. She can match Jason’s current mood and personality to fit the situation, but also isn’t afraid to put the young man in his place if she needs to. While not physically strong, her skill in offensive and support type magic more than makes up for it.
• Etc: Jason uses “Akira” as his “battle persona”, since he’s fluent in Japanese and used the name in classes he took during middle school.

Accepted.

• Name: Raphael Middleton
• Age: 16
• Gender: M
• Appearance: image◊
• Personality: "Why should I bother applying effort if I'm already perfect?" Vain, egotistical, and beyond self centered Raphael believes in a world where only the most beautiful things should exist, but his definition of beauty lies only within his own mind and is impossible to explain to others.
• Background: Born to a household of little means and constantly caught in the mire of society nobody in the entire world expected anything of Raphael, not his parents and certainly not the bored pencil pushers who ran the joke of a school he was shuffled into. What no one could expect was that despite his origins Raphael excelled at almost anything he put his hands on. Even as a kid he was easily leagues ahead of others in his class, put into an advanced course that he thrived in, even getting an exclusive scholarship to school above his families paygrade. But what he loved most in the world was painting, his specialty being abstract art. That being said his focus shifted once he learned that he could call forth beings from beyond the mortal coil.

Within these creatures he found beauty to the point of obsession, seeking to use them to create a masterpiece. The Summoner's Tournament' is simply a canvas for him, acting as a way for him to further his desires. Victory means nothing to one who already knows what is owed to him, and no matter what trials he might face there isn't a doubt in his mind that the Chalice will be his.

• Demon Whisper: (fill in here when your character learns any skill from a Demon)
• Ace Demon: Leanan Sidhe- A fairy like demon who grants inspiration to her chosen, so long as they can avoid inevitable madness. She trades away physical abilities for the power to heal her summoner and those allied with him.
• Etc: While vain and selfish Raphael isn't impossible to partner with, feeding his ego is a quick way to get him on ones good side, but said ego also can dig an insult out of any misspoken word.

Accepted!

• Name: Gemma Voynich

• Age: 17

• Gender: Female

• Appearance: Dyed blue hair kept pulled back into a long, straight ponytail. A lot of ear piercings. Glasses. Usually a choker.

• Personality: Gemma is...a bit of an acquired taste. She thrives off finding peoples' buttons and pushing them, repeatedly and with abandon. She's cool and collected, and not outright mean, but can come across as condescending and dismissive at times. It always seems like Gemma is laughing at you on the inside, and that's usually because she is. At the same time, she is immensely curious and distasteful of moral orthodoxy in all its forms, and she loves people who are receptive to her prodding.

• Background:
  • Gemma comes from a large, religious family, the second of five siblings. She was low maintenance as a child, and thus received little attention from her parents once her younger siblings were born. She took to instigating her siblings into various mischiefs just to keep entertained (and to make her presence in the family known); while she was never the direct perpetrator of any wrongdoing, her "innocent" questions and comments caused a delightful kind of chaos within the household, pitting the siblings against each other in one moment and unifying them in troublemaking efforts against their parents in the next.

  • Soon, not even strangers were safe from her prodding. When she was 13, local church leadership asked her parents to keep her at home on Sundays. Her constant, outwardly innocuous questioning of church teachings was negatively impacting church attendance. Though her family never admitted it, this event caused a major rift between Gemma and her parents (and her siblings, to a lesser extent).

  • In high school, Gemma delighted in cultivating a reputation for saying things people did not want to hear. What had begun as well-intentioned questioning had become a game to her; at every moment, part of Gemma was testing those around her, like a mad scientist playing with lab rats. While she had few if any friends, she attracted some admirers among the quiet and ignored, who appreciated her willingness to take the biggest egos of the student body down a peg or three.

  • One day, one of these admirers, a particularly brave member of the school A/V club, approached Gemma with a proposal; to fill an open time slot on the school radio station. Gemma, surprisingly, agreed, and thus her new show began to air between 6 and 8 pm on Monday evenings: Devil's Advocate. Devil's Advocate was a call-in show where, each week, viewers shared their opinions on a new topic, from the petty to the controversial, while Gemma picked apart their words and subjected them to light mockery. The show shouldn't have worked, but a lucky mix of audience schadenfreude, some strategic advertising by the A/V club, and the student body's desire to see Gemma herself proven wrong for once made it a modest local hit.

  • The Demon Summoning Program, and the events that followed its appearance, were a gold mine for Gemma. For her, it was a personality test at a global scale, a chance to really know what people were made of. For her show, it was an excellent branding opportunity. She began holding interviews with actual Demons - and, when she couldn't get an actual Demon, enlisting her new fae companion to impersonate one.

  • When she announced her intent to broadcast her own brand of commentary during the Summoner's Tournament, many of her listeners challenged her credentials. What authority did she have to pick apart the competitors if she had no experience in Demon Battles herself? To this, Gemma had to concede, so she revised her announcement:

  • Not only would she be commentating the Summoner's Tournament, she would fight in it personally, and she would win.

• Demon Whisper: (fill in here when your character learns any skill from a Demon)

• Ace Demon: Bogle - Bogle (or Bo, as Gemma often calls him) is a faerie trickster with the ability to shapeshift and mimic voices. He usually takes the form of a ghostly Victorian child with an incongruously deep voice. He's a willing partner in crime to Gemma's provocations, and is happy to do the dirty work in their games so Gemma can keep up her blithe persona. Gemma chose Bo for his mischievous proclivities rather than his combat skills, which are fairly weak - though he makes up some lost ground with his talent for playing dirty.

Accepted!

Name: Maria Iekami

Age: 15

Gender: Female

Appearance: Tall and wiry. Has a nose stud. Very tan from hours in the sun and reasonably fit. Has very dark brown eyes and short dark hair. Her leg is somewhat scarred and twisted, but she’s usually wearing leggings or jeans so very few people have noticed. Commonly seen with a slight frown of concentration, but not an unfriendly face. Also wears gloves and sunglasses to conceal other scars. Rarely seen without her favorite gray/lavender hoodie that still bears faint marks from her “accident”.

Personality: Maria is a reserved person, unlikely to rush in or behave erratically or on impulse-though those who know her well can tell this restraint irks her. She also speaks somewhat laconically unless she’s feeling confident or among friends. Deep inside, Maria is somewhat bitter and cynical. She carries a fair amount of anger over her disabilities, though she works hard to not let it show except verbally. Has no time for bullies, but at the same time, if you let yourself get pushed around, she’ll have little respect for you. The prospect of the app and what it could do for her has cheered her up somewhat but it’s not a pleasant joy. Always polite and rarely swears unless things are serious. She’ll get irrationally, coldly angry if people speak in a language she doesn’t understand (it's been suggested she has a learning disability in regards to languages, an idea she hasn't discounted).

Background: Growing up in a normal house, the second child of a locksmith and a schoolteacher. Maria was a pretty average kid-she liked books, running, and horses. When she went into high school, the young lady had a healthy competitive streak thanks to growing up Japanese/Mexican and being terrible at languages. Since she was determined to beat her siblings at SOMETHING, the girl enrolled in Drama club and the student newspaper, as well as trying out for the soccer team.

A year later, Maria was much quieter and snarkier. She’d moved from Drama to handling the backstage side of the plays. The track was only a happy memory, and while she joined the team for weight room workouts and assisted the coach, Maria wasn’t nearly as close with them as she had once been. Dark circles swam beneath her eyes, and her clothes were more subdued.

The car had come out of nowhere and hadn’t stopped after she bounced across the hood. The doctors said Maria had miraculously avoided any damage from the impact. It was hitting the fire hydrant that had ended her Olympic dreams. Golf and a little pitch-hitting for the team were still possible and kept her focused, but usually, Maria was too irritated and exhausted by physical therapy to practice as hard as she knew she should, which only fed her negative emotions. No real evidence was ever found for the crime, but Maria had her own dark suspicions and theories (why did Paula Lazarescu, the star player on the team, buy a new car the day after her accident? Hadn’t she seen a strange vehicle following her home a few times? And what about that needle she’d found in the locker room?) Taking pictures for the school paper kept her moving and social, though. Her friends mostly stuck with her through the hard times, and Maria couldn’t say her life was as bad as it could easily have been in other circumstances.

The app was a whim. She’d been getting restless with the patterns set out for her life, and perhaps a Demon was just what she needed to regain some of her old self..and if she could even some scores along the way, why not?

Demon Whisper: (fill in here when your character learns any skill from a Demon)

Ace Demon: Inugami. An unsettlingly pale demon, it likes to curl itself across around her body in a snakelike fashion or float along languidly, occasionally revealing razor-sharp teeth in a snarling grin. Capable of using poison, minor healing and even possessing humans (for a short time, and they cannot be induced to harm themselves or others-yet).

Etc: Carries a walking stick to help her when she gets tired.

Edited by Booky on Jul 13th 2021 at 4:54:53 AM

• Name: Hunter "Thompson" Gardener
• Age: 17
• Gender: Male
• Appearance: Tall for his age with wavy brown hair cut short and bright hazel eyes. Has a toned but slight figure and a light tan. Tends to wear jeans, sneakers and an array of popular property t-shirts in most situations.
• Personality: Hunter's a big, happy guy. Most of the time he's this upbeat and enthusiastic softie who loves hanging out with friends or taking care of his Demon. While he loves physical activity and the occasional rough spar he's adverse to solving problems with violence, at least beyond trying to physically separate the aggrieving parties. He's not the quickest of wits, sometimes outright missing subtle social cues.
• Background: Born in rural West Virginia, Hunter grew up in proximity to nature and he reveled in it. His summers were filled with running through the fields and delving the forests and catching insects just as twilight was giving way to night. At least, it was this way until his mother was severely injured in a logging accident when Hunter was 14; with his father deciding that things were too dangerous in the West Virginia countryside, he pulled up stakes and moved the family to California to pursue a safer, more urban existence.
• Demon Whisper: None yet!
• Ace Demon: Mothman, a big friend-shaped mass of fuzz and patterned wings that mostly just lurks about next to Hunter occasionally spreading its wings and doing something that seems to be a smile. And yes while it does drink blood it's not the only thing it eats and is fine with it coming from a local butcher's shop rather than a living source.
• Etc: Before he moved to California, Hunter was into collecting insects and creating habitats in old jars for them. Unfortunately jar terrariums don't travel well cross-country so he ended up giving away some of them and releasing the rest. He has assembled one jar since arriving in California, but it's full of glass pebbles that make a pleasing clacking noise when jostled and is not intended to have an insect occupant.

It's clearly a case of backroom political albumizing.

Accepted

@Booky: Accepted.

We will be starting this RP this weekend by the by.

Sorry, had some internet troubles going on so this signup took way longer than expected.

• Name: Derek Thorne
• Age: 17
• Gender: Male
• Appearance: Short black hair, brown eyes, slightly tall. Tends to wear an unzipped hoody bearing a 1up mushroom, a grey tshirt and jeans.
• Personality: Kind and friendly, as he believes that is just basic human decency, but a belief that there's little point making friends when they're just going to disappear from your life makes it difficult to open up to others, making him act quiet and shy on first impressions.
• Background: Derek moved about the the country following his father's employment and never had a chance to settle down anywhere until last year, his parents decided to buy a house in california and attempt to settle down. Unfortunately after an accident at work Derek's father passed away, and now his mother struggles to pay the rent and provide on her own. When the Demon Summoning Program appeared Derek was skeptical of the intentions behind it and the Summoner's Tournament, but the promised opportunity to solve his family's financial problems was too good to pass up.
• Demon Whisper: (fill in here when your character learns any skill from a Demon)
• Ace Demon: Jack Frost, An ice fairy that looks somewhat like a snowman in an iconic blue hat. Childlike and mischievous, Jack wants to enter the tournament to prove his strength to his 'siblings'. Has a habit of littering his speech with "Hee-ho".

Accepted!

Discord Link Here! Joining the Discord is a must.

The RP thread is coming right up soon.

And here's the RP thread.