Both the "unused vessel or tool" idea and "source of phlebontium" sound like potential solutions, and if we combine the two, we could have both Umbra and Lina be the "rejects" or something from a cosmic conspiracy or something like that. I just would need to figure out WHO is responsible. Maybe it can be tied into Tagg's Keystone arc?
About your concern: I only made Lina another immortal with "spechul powars" because I wanted to avoid the "EVERYONE I LOVE IS GOING TO DIE BEFORE ME WAAAAAH" stuff that's been beaten like a dead horse with nearly every other immortal character, like, ever, which is more a concern for me than having more "spechulness". I do think it's importnat we find a way to prevent others from abusing it, though.
edited 25th Jan '12 6:44:17 AM by Umbramatic
Contact Me!OK, after talking with Silent about it quite a bit in the chat, I may have an explanation for both Umbra and Lina's immortality and power. However, it requires the approval and feedback of others first. As for the proposal itself:
Long ago, Giratina was banished to the Distortion World for violence. However, some entity or entities (possibly an apocalypse-surviving Giratina-worshiping sect of the precursor mons) knew that the world still needed Gira. So, they "gifted" Umbra with his powers at a very young age, so he could serve as a beacon of sorts to guide Giratina "home" if necessary. (Whether or not it IS necessary, or was necessary but isn't anymore, is currently ambiguous. ) As for Lina, she was created as both a backup "beacon" and as a source of emotional support to prevent Umbra from undergoing too much emotional turmoil to do his job.
As for Lina herself: I've talked a lot about her, but I haven't really given any insight into her actual character. I'll do so now.
The best way I could describe her is that someone put a puppy's personality (but not its naivete or anything like that) into a human woman's body. She's very excitable, fun-loving, and just likes having a good time. She's lived her (long) life with others instead of in isolation like Umbra did, so she'll teach him about the things in modern society he's still struggling with (which I want to place more emphasis on in future posts). She's even into video games!
However, despite fears that may be brought by the above description, I AM taking measures to A. prevent her from being a Sue, and B. prevent her from existing SOLELY to be a love interest. For A, she'll have personality flaws that work to her detriment (she acts like a jerk when she gets angry, for example) and make her seem less idealized but still a "good person." As for B, she'll have her own wants, needs, and interests, and will bond with Umbra for reasons other than "Oh, we're both immortals? Let's make out!"
Suggestions for both are GREATLY appreciated.
Contact Me!The only thing I would mention is that, based on the personality of our version of Giratina, the stated reason is probably not the actual reason it lives in the Distortion World. I would tend to say that the legends aren't quite right, and that the sect that granted you your powers was probably mistaken about some key stuff, and has been spreading said misinformed legends all these years.
This was based partially off of Silent's headcanon which puts more emphasis on those legends, but that could work, too.
Actually, Umbra, having thought about it, you said the original explanation was an experimental mutation, right? Would it be too much of a stretch to say that Lina was part of the same experiment, and the Obscurant powers came afterwards, due to being a priest of Giratina?
Victory! Honor! Destiny! Mutton!![]()
![]()
Hmm... maybe the exact purpose can be tweaked?
![]()
I've already established he got the position BECAUSE of his powers, but Lina is kind of part of the same "conspiracy."
Thanks.
Besides Giratina the First's tendency to do Ultimate Showdowns, I don't remember him being particularly silly. You sure you're not thinking of Giratina the Second?
Hugging a Vanillite will give you frostbite.No, it was Giratina the Second. No one even met the original (besides DS in her backstory) until after we put down Missingno for good.
edited 25th Jan '12 4:53:12 PM by rmctagg09
Hugging a Vanillite will give you frostbite.OK, I'll be playing the backstory straight EDIT: except to note that Giratina was less aggressive than they thought, and so Umbra is merely a tool to summon him somehow. Unless there are any more objections...
I'm assuming everyone's OK with my plans for Lina?
edited 25th Jan '12 4:57:11 PM by Umbramatic
Contact Me!I'm not totally comfortable with the idea of Giratina as a savage beast that needed to be sealed away, since we've had some pretty reasonable conversations with him, but I suppose that can be written off as mellowing out over the years.
And you edited while I was posting, so we're good.
edited 25th Jan '12 5:01:16 PM by BadWolf21
Mellowing out over the years is a potential explanation too, (and what my HC tells me, but that doesn't matter as much).
I might be mistaken, but the myths both in Japanese and English only say he was banished because of violence, note the lack of "its", "his" or other pronoun. He was called renegade (and grew lonely in that dimension) only afterwards. Also that goes well with my HC. I mean, the same myths also say that it was apparently Giratina who put a stop to the Man of Sword. Which I think we can safely say it is a Good Thing™.
EDIT: Oh well, Platinum mentions "its violence". Then again we know who wrote those silly entries, right people? (/me points at Raticate's 'dex entries)
edited 25th Jan '12 6:02:58 PM by SilentReverence
Fanfic Recs orwellianretcon'd: cutlocked for committee or for Google?
"It was banished for ITS violence. It silently gazed upon the old world from the Distortion World."
Still, the mellowing out over they years could work.
EDIT: and you already mentioned it, derp.
edited 25th Jan '12 6:04:44 PM by Umbramatic
Contact Me!Due to some chat talking, I figured that I should ask who's willing to assist me in GMing for the keystone arc, since obviously I can't be around all the time during the semester (Especially with the kinds of subjects I have to take.) and I'd rather not have the plot grind to a halt because of that.
An addendum: And no, being part of the other plot doesn't disbar you from GMing for this.
edited 25th Jan '12 10:35:41 PM by rmctagg09
Hugging a Vanillite will give you frostbite.
I'd volunteer, but I can't really pull anything substantial on weekdays not named "Tuesday" or "Friday." And even then, the future appears to be cloudy with regard to how consistently I will be able to be there for the former. Friday evenings and Saturdays appear to be a lock (though I doubt you would need that much help with those days
).
In other news, the primary reason why I was making this post because I'm just a little concerned about one thing:
Hoenn Timetable
Seriously, we need one pronto. I understand the merits of an arc at a leisurely pace as much of the next guy, especially during the school year, but we're over 800 pages into Hoenn, and the main portion of the plot seems to have been barely making baby steps to getting rolling. I was a little distressed earlier today when I asked what was coming in the imminent future for the RP, and my sole responses were that we'd be going to Flygon-con (which appears to have started IRP) and that there would be hijinks involving Swanna!Odette. At this point, I'd like to kindly, but strongly suggest that we pick some dates on the calendar and map out what we want to accomplish plot-wise IRP before then. These dates don't have to be immediate, but the firmer the deadline is, the better we can work towards accomplishing it and avoid missing them.
So yeah... Thoughts and suggestions would be nice.
edited 25th Jan '12 10:40:01 PM by TracerBullet
Well, I have (finally) started to get the Vyvquaza ball rolling. With him starting to grow claws and all. I think during the next week I could cram him into showing more Ray traits before he finally gets snatched by Team Ozone.
As for Perfect Aqua storming Lilycove, that should be happening now really. Frankly, we've been loitering around Lilycove for far to long now and we seriously need that event taking place.
As for future events. I'm not to sure when or how they should be plotted, but a structured format for the events should be there. Remember how nearly every major event of the AU Arc was on a calender?
So yeah, my thoughts on Hoenn's pacing.
Sorry if I don't sound so cohesive ATM, I'm rather peppered out from a day of work.
I'm having to learn to pay the price

About RP!Umbra
Any way we can pull off a "unused beneficiary, repository or vessel"? It has the advantage that, because of timespans, can be tackled on from pretty much any time distance and by not being hindered by the amount of wackyness we add in, plot-wise.
Also of note, unless Umbra and his GF were to be prophetized or something, it is very unlikely that they happened to share this immortality trait and get to know each other just because. An example of a solution is to have their immortality be a phlebotinum that feeds something more important (besides the endless customers I mean).
About the actual powers issue, if this has not been stated before (don't feel like wading through logs, I'm supposed to be resting from that; and, in any case, "assume nothing") there is the issue that having the same player bring up two people with speshul powars, well, detriments from what was posted in Every's essay. These traits not only have been not adequately justified yet in terms of their value to the players EDIT for completeness: the request and discussion above would, precisely, help close that gap, but also not in a way that prevents future players from jumping in with "lol I'm immortal, it's the trend" (or, as it was better put IMHO, not have another Ori, no offense).
This teoretically leads to another issue we talked about with Tagg about how to accept and be acceptable as players, but I really don't feel like posing it now. If Tagg beats me to it, be welcome.
About How to Battle
On the suggestons way above on alternatives to conduct battles:
YES to the Buddy System. We seriously need this, and we need to actually get to use it. Not to mention it would also help palliate some of the problems resulting from our bæn and hæt, friggin' timezones. Also it makes for more orderly battles or competitions when the numbers are more or less evened, or when we are not using any sort of strict bracket system.
As per PO, I'm definitively not keen on it, for reasons I've explained in chat and that can be essentially resumed as "oversimplificate the mons as characters or the environment in a destructive manner". I see the advantage for other people to use it in some contexts where battles will require quick solutions, like, say, skirmishes or the casual 1-on-1. Still, please don't count on me using it, or on taking the ensuing results as a given. As Luke's quote explains, we're trying to give Pokémon what the games don't; falling back to the games's model in the one situation defining of the setting where our mons ought to demonstrate their part of "not being a game" is, in the least, counterintuitive.
In the end, there's simply no way Maekrite can be properly represented with nowaday's limited engines.
edited 24th Jan '12 11:15:45 PM by SilentReverence
Fanfic Recs orwellianretcon'd: cutlocked for committee or for Google?