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What's the story?; Premier on the Type of Tales meant to be told here by character RPers.
Topic Started: Nov 30 2013, 11:29 PM (194 Views)
Warr
Administrator
((OOC; For the record as I write this I’m listening to this; and in my brain this is totally going on in the background, this here song. ))

His feet hit the ground like a drumline and with every verse he winced. It was nothing short of self-consciousness, this wincing grimace as his feet continued their storm across the tin and tile roofs of this town line so many others across the sweeping landscapes of the world. If to his ears, every step against the tile hit like a thundercrack in the clear sky, then he knew that any attempt at stealth was out of the question. There would be none- and it was something he should have realized before hand, he had always weighed more than other folks, even if doctors couldn’t explain it thanks to his build.

He heard the voices in the distance again, the sounds of footsteps even though he shouldn’t be able to hear them- and as his feet finally came to end of his apartment block’s roof and and saw the inky gulf of distance which if it wasn’t night he would know was just a small garden space between buildings. Muscle tensing as he worried and wondered and sweated so desperately- he felt that he smelled like a bag of unwashed gym socks, had he really sweat that desperately?- he stopped at the gulf.

Who or what was even chasing him? What had torn apart that food cart? Monster’s weren’t real! Vampires were mythological and so were Therianthropes, the people who ran around like them were just weird people who wanted to be like Uhonese “Anime” characters. The sounds of his stalkers picked up, there was no denying the sound of the wind as they cut through it, or the sound like rain drops against the tile & tin as they continued to run across it. They made him look like a toddler, and he felt like one, or more aptly a small dog in a cage match with a grizzly bear.

He could hear them getting closer, could feel it even if he couldn’t see them in the darkness of this moonless night; he swore he even heard the stupid weather vane, the metal chicken shaped ornament atop the roof- wobble and shift as the forces got closer. He gulped, the boy did- because even with hundreds of people in the building below he wasn’t so sure anyone could help him; after all he assumed what followed him had killed that police officer, too.

“If I’m going to die today… I’d rather it be falling to my death, then get the treatment that police officer got.”

With a turn into the darkness, he stepped back several paces before turning back forward and running with every bit of energy he could muster, leaping with the uncontrollable scream of someone doing such an idiotic thing, and to his disbelief? He landed. In a roll, and slamming into the adjacent apartment building’s air conditioner, but he landed all right.

He was safe, wasn’t he? Even if he was pretty sure his ribs had to be cracked after slamming into the thing- they certainly hurt, he had to be safe, right?

****

Illusions have a way of being shattered painfully, and as had happened so many times before- soon Tyrone’s personal illusion was shattered too; and by painfully, I mean with the force of a foot landing with sledge hammer swing pressure right into his shoulder, sending him spinning into the ground again.

The assailant loomed over him after that- spitting angry words and not only angry words- but words which made about as much sense to him as someone pissing on cooking pots; that is to say none at all. The only word he even picked out of it were ‘Firesean’, ‘Dog’, and ‘Ruined shoe’, though it was probably because those had definitely been said in his own tongue.

“Who? What? When? What are you? Who are you? Is that even a language?” he murmured, the pain of that kick having kept him on the ground for the moment as he tried to figure out exactly what was going on; and wheezing too much to be worried if a question would get him killed. Obviously anyone trying to kill him who had leapt a building and landed a kick right on his torso; would have just kicked him when he was still getting up from the air conditioner, or thrown something at him as he jumped.

That brought the sound of foot steps, the smell of well-oiled leather, and in one movement the sensation of having his head yanked up by the hair. As his eyes looked in the darkness, trying to make out the appearance of his assailant, he saw eyes which seemed to glow like golden orbs, cut right down the middle with symmetrical status which made those eyes seem far more menacing than the color did.

“That’s right. I in my anger forgot that the chance of an ignorant Firesean Pig like you would speak the enlightened tongue of the Land of the Heavens and the Earth; would be next to nothing.” The words came with cold venom that made the spit launched at him by the word’s originator seem positively boiling.

“You’re an alien?” and so Tyrone found his face smashed into the tiles of this roof with the force of a soft-ball thrown by a very angry high school athlete. The young man didn’t hear any other response, at least, given he was pretty sure he was seeing stars after it. Had he done something horrible? Was it shooting rubber bands at squirrels?

An eternity passed in this limbo of awkward pain and wondering if God had sent down an extraterrestrial monster to get vengeance for squirrels who kept pooping on his favorite bench, and then suddenly the lights on the roof trumpeted into existence with the force of a supernova- or at least to the new owner of a concussion, it felt like a super nova.

Time seemed to pass in high special effect budget time- as if he was watching some movie which felt the need to slow things down and speed them up in other cases. As the lights came on, what seemed to be several minutes passed before the door to the roof opened- and his assailant didn’t seem to breath very much from it, or at least he couldn’t hear much breathing over his own wheezing.
He could see that the person chasing him wasn’t a monster- or at least was one which looked to be normal enough- nondescript clothing, aside from the well polished leather boots and the moist looking leather jacket which fit more like armor than a proper jacket would. The kind Tyrone would’ve probably seen on a Crotch Rocket rider, except this young lady lacked any gloves, and was wearing a knee length skirt that went to the top of her thigh- no one riding a motorcycle would wear such a thing. But then his dazed mind picked up of all things, clapping. Not just clapping, but the over dramatic clapping that would would expect to see at a golf tournament, and just as quickly as it started, it ended.

The source of the exaggerated clapping soon revealed itself to be a man who either was made from the stock of giants- or who just happened to highlight how short the woman who had kicked the mundane shit out of him, really was. Given the fact he was almost laying on the ground, half prone on the now dented air conditioning unit, he couldn’t tell- but what he could tell about the man was that he was wearing a long coat as he walked out, but very quickly he was slipping it off and letting it drop on the ground. As he stepped forward soon after, buttons became unfastened with speed that made the movements seem even more delicate than the seemingly decisive gestures were.

In no time at all this newcomer was in a t-shirt and their belt hit the ground, too, all business but exactly what kind of business both confused and terrified Tyrone. Just as quickly as that was finished shoes were kicked off and in a rapid-dash movement the young man found himself seeing far too much of this stranger- and then even more. With painful cracks and spasms, the tall man began to become even taller, even more bulky. His body was practically vibrating like a motorcycle’s engine when in neutral. The sort’ve mean spasms that made Tyrone grimace in empathy even with his terror and confusion.

“Really? Right to battle? This is what lost you Remans the Great Amurgos War. Charging into battle with the headlong vigor of a Wereanarochs at the sight of red.” the small female who had pursued Tyrone spat at this new comer- but none the less the Tianese woman proceeded to unzip that jacket and strip in a way that mirrored the speed of the man- something Tyrone might have enjoyed if he wasn’t utterly fighting the urge to piss himself.

“There is a difference from rushing headlong into battle and making calculated moves. Something your people know well, even as your being here in Council of Remus territory shows.” The tall man replied- or perhaps more correctly growled, his voice practically beastial as he stood there, covered in fur and looking for the life of Tyrone like something between a man and a very very big dog. As this behemoth of fur, muscle, fangs, and menace stepped towards the woman- she herself did something similar to him, if less profound. As her body began to vibrate, spasm, and painfully expand, tail and ears which screamed that of a big cat, like… a tiger- her body soon mirrored his, aside from the fact that she was something between a woman and a very large tiger.

The dogman continued, “There was nothing but calculation here. I could have taken you down out of sight of our young friend here, while you were jumping after him- or perhaps even as your chase began. But simply finding him and telling him the truth would not have done a thing. He needed to see what awaits him in the shadows; the things which have existed just past the view of his eyes.”

“Uh… what? You guys aren’t aliens or something? You’re not going to kill me?” Tyrone blabbered out ten miles a minute, and before his sentence even finished the tiger lady was leaping over his head at the dog man, hissing.

“We’re Therianthropes, or as myth would call us, Werebeasts.” The mountain of a dogman said, ducking the slashing kick of the woman and rolling to his feet just outside of the door to the rooftop. For a second, Tyrone considered bolting for it, down the stairs and to find somewhere to hide- but something told him he couldn’t outrun the woman, perhaps not even this hellhound of a man.

Again, the weretiger hissed and leapt at the werehound, she did it directly from the clump she had landed in from the missed slashing kick. What followed was a barrage of punches, kicks, ducks, blocks, dodges, rolls, lunges and throws which were at a speed that Tyrone was surprised he could even follow. It wasn’t in tune with the kung fu movies he had favored, no, their speed made those things look like turtle racing; it made him think for a moment of Anime fight scenes he had tsked as ‘all talk and then moments of supposed constant barrages of attacks’, except there wasn’t any talking going on. It was shouts, growls, screams, and whimpers as the two bloodied each other quite considerably.

With a grunt, the werehound man threw the weretigeress into the air conditioner with force enough to warp the entire ten foot machine around her, and grunt. Soon, though, the woman was screeching laughter as the wires of the machine were thrown forward, like a whip, at the houndman. It caused pained growls from the man which rivaled that of the loudest squawking child after being spanked. As the tigeress continued her swinging assault, cuts appeared upon his arms and torso as she hit him with a metal useful in electronics, but certainly not in weaponry… bronze.

“The hell! Did someone drop some drugs in my soda or something?” Tyrone shouted as he saw this- but even as the assault continued, the houndman seemed to gather his strength, and reached out for the cords next swing, yanking hard on them and catapulting the weretigress towards him. In a moment which would have been hilarious to Tyrone given their fighting before- if not for the houndman’s terrifyingly serious tone of voice, the werehound man put the weretiger woman in a headlock, before putting her into a proper full nelson, and shouting at the boy. “You wouldn’t happen to have something Jade, would you? Necklace, ring, something?” And that made the boy blink. Was he going to get robbed, anyways? He dug into his pockets, looked at his hands, and then brought the only piece of jade he had seen anyone have; something he had gotten from of all things, the local police officer. An obnoxious little jade ‘sword’ keychain, which was a reference to one of his video games. As the were-tigress thrashed in the houndman’s hands like a fish in a net, Tyrone shouted, “Like this?”

“Yes. Stab her in the stomach with it. Watch out for her feet!”

Tyrone shivered, shaked, at the mere statement. It made no sense at all! Jade, as a weapon? Attacking someone, even someone who he had thought would kill him, not too long ago? Dodging those legs which seemed to be able to launch him into the next county? He gulped, not sure what to say or do just yet- but the houndman shouted it again, authoritatively. “If she gets out, she’s going to finish me and either kill you or cart you off to a fate worse than death, stupid kid!”

That brought Tyrone to his feet at least, but he kept just out of the range of her thrashing legs. He looked between her and the houndman, confused and still not so sure about doing this. Especially given the fact he would have to dodge, duck and sway past a hurricane of kicking claw-feet.

“Think of the absolute most angry you’ve ever been, kid. Angriest.” And as he growl-spoke it, the tigress thrashed once again in the houndman’s arms. “Think of the meanest thing ever said to you, Tyrone. Or think of the fact that she’ll do what she did to the police officer, or worse, to your family when she’s done here. Leave no witnesses, and take all resources you can. That is the motto of the Emerald Hedgemony’s Celestial Warriors, the Tianti da Qishi.”

“The what? Tianese Qishi?” Tyrone gulped, not understanding those words- and certainly never heard of any of them. But the remark certainly sent the woman thrashing, swerving, and throwing her full weight forward- yanking the werehound’s arms off of her as she lunged at the boy, rather than be attacked by such an inferior specimen. And as this terror of the jungles, forests, and tundras of Yanuto surged forward- so too did something instinctual in the boy. His body began to vibrate, to thrash, to twitch and spasm and as he claws were almost on him his arms were thrashing too, keeping her just far enough from him as his fingers grasped that jade keychain ornament for sheer hope. “Even your shifts aren’t contained, I will definitely kill your’s, even if your family wouldn’t create any better specimen for the Remans with such horrid genes as created you.”

And that made any fear wash away. Just as terror had caused the change, sent his clothes ripping and his body expanding, anger washed away any compassion or hesitance to harm. Without another word, he launched himself at her, being slashed and kicked and punched in the process, but keeping that jade trinket in his hand still, and inevitably stabbing and punching with it, growling at her as he did. Sooon, she lay in a pile of tigery fur and blood, the pain from the allergic reaction that the jade caused in the weretiger enough to send her unconscious- and with a tsking noise, soon the werehound who had saved Tyrone closed the distance between himself and the two combatants, with one big paw of a hand, knocking the young man out.


****

Tyrone found himself waking up in a comfortably bed- feeling normal enough aside from the tight feeling of bandages against his skin. He could tell just from the way the sheets in the bed moved against his hands, they weren’t any sheets his family owned, but even so he wasn’t ready to get up immediately. It took several minutes of sunshine pelting his skin before the young man finally got the urge to sit up, and as he did, seeing the clinical cleanness of the room he was in, he was soon out of bed too- grunting as his feet hit the ground and he could feel the bandages which littered parts of his body like roadworks tighten.

“Uh… who? What?” The young man spoke up, and soon after found himself face to face with the man who had saved him- except this time the man was back in his clothes, which in the bright lights of this sanitary environment, certainly seemed reminiscent of a military uniform- though exactly which one; Tyrone couldn’t tell, especially with the long coat and the sword like badge upon its shoulder.

“You certainly wore yourself out, Tyrone- and sorry about knocking you out, but it was the only way to do things safely and correctly. If I hadn’t done so and you ran back to your parents, there was a very good chance that any partners of your young tigress would certainly find your family and inevitably abduct them or take the entirety of your family.”

“What? Who? What? Tigress? People aren’t animals! Animals aren’t people!” The recently rescued lad spat at his rescuer, but the words didn’t cause any change of expression in the big man in the long coat.

“You’re absolutely right, but neither are Therianthropes animals, aliens, vampires, or anything popular fiction might call them. Once, we stood in open view of our kinsmen, humanity- but it isn’t exactly possible these days. We’re too few in number, and bigots can cause genocide on their neighbors just for the neighbors having a different nose structure, or hair color, or eye color- think exactly how they’d feel about people who have entirely different bodies than themselves.”

“Uh… what? So this is the illuminati? Conspiracy! Oh no… I’m never going to see mom or dad again. What did I do to deserve this?” ten-miles-a-minute Tyrone skipped and rushed.

“No one said that, kid. But you’ve got to be trained before you can. Therianthropes who don’t know what they’re doing have to be watched, because even if we respect freedom and independence, our enemies don’t have the same capacity. Infact, they work to bring more and more of the world into the hands of their hedgemon.”

“What? Therianthropes… Hedgemon? This still seems like something out of a manga or the like.”

“Therianthropes are what we call ourselves, we Werebeasts. People who happen to also be able to transform into animals, and things in between. We’ve been warriors and protectors since any time anyone can remember, living alongside humanity. We protected them from each other, from other Werebeasts, and from things like Vampires- or things even darker. We still do, really- but not exactly in the same way we did before. Being open isn’t as viable as it was before, and it also would make our enemies notice things too easily.” He spoke as a matter of fact, but didn’t seem to simply ignore the boy’s other questions. “And if you think it seems like a manga or something, it’s because we’re kind of an open secret. All of it is, including the Empire of Tiangai’s Emerald Hegemony, We Reman nations and our Council of Remus, even our own Project Fragarach and their Celestial Knights. It’s all an open secret because when you see it out in the open you might disbelieve that you saw it in the first place -- even if other people showed you pictures of it. Which is why it seems so much like an Uhonese Anime or Manga. A lot of them are based on adventures of real Therianthropes, or imagined ones by people in the know.”

“Remus? Like… from the story of The Victan Empire…? If this was all an open secret…” and so Tyrone gulped, before speaking more. “Then… why spoil the secret?”

“You are one of us, kid. That’s what caused the entire situation. Officer Ramirez was assigned to watch your neighborhood for possible recessive Therian births, and found you, among others- but also stumbled upon the Tianshi da Qishi cell which was hiding in Saint Anthony, doing the exact thing he was doing; but in an attempt to kidnap any possible Therian children in the area.”

“What…? Really? He… died because of me?”

“To defend you, kid. Like any Fragarachai would. If you want to make it up to him? Get some rest- and tomorrow get dressed, we’ll begin your schooling in the shadows hidden by our world’s sunlight and neon.”
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Warr
Administrator
So you don't particularly have interest in nation roleplay, what else can you do?

Even more than nation roleplay, Danu is meant to be a roleplay forum about the CHARACTERS that exist, and their wants, needs, abilities, actions, and crises. Ultimately it's the people that live in a world, not the world itself, that make it alive and worth exploring; and that is something a lot of roleplay sites, both in the character oriented side and the nation oriented side, don't tend to touch on.

What is the tone the forum's main roleplay? What's the main driving conflict outside of nation driven stories? What is the tone?

Danu's non-national character based roleplay is primarily meant to illustrate a world which is a setting that mixes elements of urban fantasy, science fiction, 'military fantasy', and some sprinkles or shonen and shoujo anime/manga. It is a world which is very much like our own, but where sentient species other than humans live among them, and humans which happen to have extraordinary powers also exist. It's a world where science is a few decades above our's in some fields, and perhaps a century ahead of our's in others. Ultimately, it's a world where the dark and unexplored places and souls of the world easily match the brightest and best of their counterparts. That said, the tone is best called 'grey-bright', in an attempt overall to explore a world with very dark places and practices, which hopes for the better with all its heart.

The primarily driving conflict in the modern day is a continued cold war between the two greatest 'powers' in the world, which happen to not officially be nation-states in any real sense. Rather, the Council of Remus, which has member states largely from the ancient Victus Empire and its Therianthrope vassals, in the west- and in the east, the Empire of Tiangai's Emerald Hegemony, which has ties to the bone with its human counterparts in Tiangai, even if its hold expands beyond Tiangai, and into neighboring states and third world countries hoping for allies to help them gain power in the world.

Additionally, the parahumans of the the Therianthrope focused 'Powers' are not the only threats or differences in the world of Danu. Non-human species such as 'Homo Nocturnes/Homo Sapiens Lamia' or as it is more commonly known, 'Vampires', other near human offshoots, and species even stranger; exist in the shadows of the world, even if some were only recently driven to the shadows, and others come from world entirely different from Danu.

Different from Danu? So there's some kind of silly multiverse system in the setting? Stargates? Etcera?

Not exactly, in any sense of the words given, nor in any national governments hands if they did exist. No, the multiversal (or extradimensional as more commonly they would be referred to) alien species, come from other worlds and in many cases only exist because small 'colonies' of them inevitably were dropped accidentally into the world. None of these species have been proven to be fundamentally as related to therianthropes as humans are, or to humans as the 'Parahuman' species are, but sentience is not unheard of.

So too, any of these 'rift colonies' that came to be, only began to exist in the past fifty to forty years, since the proper culmination of the Great Amurgos War, and the massive 'magic spell' which went off, powered in some theories by an atomic blast; these 'colonies' have begun to appear, largely [it is theorized] because of a rift in the mana veil of the world.

And if I want to play someone unaligned with either of the major powers or any of the minor powers?

Absolutely possible, if you want to do it. We'll work with you, though we reserve the right to deny players the ability to play species we find too 'outlandish' or which we don't think that the peoples of Danu would be able to 'turn a half-blind eye' towards, or which those with eyes wide open would tolerate.

So say I don't want to play a 'normal human' but don't want to play one of the major 'near human' races about? What other choices are there?

On Danu there is at least one other nearly 'major' species/subspecies of Modern Humans which exist alongside Therianthropes and Vampires; a species which is sometimes called as if it was more than one species, but by just as many theorists and scientists, viewed as unquestionably one species. This group has existed since time immemorial upon Danu, but never in large numbers in any particular region in any generation; though their numbers are and have greatly increased in the modern day thanks to the Council of Remus' fostering of these types, as well as the Emerald Hegemony doing so, and many minor organizations doing so. But beyond the search for the genetic key to the amazing powers of this other sub-species or genus of humanity; there is a larger reason on Danu that scientists assert for the rise in 'Psions' and 'Mages/Magii' and that is the astral and psychic aftermath of the Great Amurgos War, and the doomsday weapon used as the Remans and their allies moved to siege Noaptoras.

While scientists [in setting] have proved that it has caused dimensional rifts in places, some for years at a time and some for only seconds, it has also given rise to the belief that that has spurred the evolution and rise of more psions and mages/magii. The differences between these mostly human groups largely come from their attitudes about their talent/power/art.

Psions typically use their powers via emotion, and view their 'localized quantum warping (The scientific preferred term)' to create telekinetic, pryokinetic, cryokinetic, hydrokinetic, etcera, instances. While Psions are potentially capable of the wide variety of abilities that mages typically utilize, their powers tend to be narrower and share 'concepts', while tending to be much more powerful per use.

Mages/Magii view magic as a scientific or mystic tradition and school, and view magic and the world under those lines. They typically view their abilities as something anyone can learn, as a result- and most mages/magii are capable of a laundry list of mystical abilities and feats, though they typically are only capable of one ability, feat, or spell which would be viewed anywhere near as powerful as that of a psion's ability, though the strongest of magi's ability are still only on par with some of the weakest psions in that sense.
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