Shamitako

~NPCs~ WIP Black Death, Incubator of the Plague Audrey Peak, Incubator of Cancer

reserved

A young woman in black kneels before a grave. She hasn't brought flowers or memories, yet she still holds sorrow in her heart. She never knew the man beneath the dirt, but she knows how he died. He was one of many, one of many who had died because of her weakness. Cautious footsteps approached her from behind. "Hello." A woman's soft voice called to her. The woman in black rose to her feet and turned to face the visitor. "Hello." She said curtly. "Did you know Mike?" The visitor inquired. The woman in black cursed inwardly, she hadn't wanted to hear his name. "No, I didn't." She said, "He just felt a little lonely. Since he has a visitor I'll take my leave." "Oh." Was all the confused visitor could manage. "Life is fleeting." The woman in black said, touching her hand to the visitor's shoulder as she passed, "I'm sure he would want you to cherish what you have left." A wisp of pink momentarily tethered her fingers to the visitor's shoulder as she strode away. She rushed towards her car, staring at those fingers as she broke into a run. Tears formed in her eyes as she mourned another victim of her weakness. ~General Info~ Hidden from the public eye are a group of people who possess great and costly powers. Capable of extending their own lives in return for leeching the lives of others. Known to the few who discover their existence as Incubators, they gain their power from those who suffer and die from disease and sickness. Each Incubator wields the power of a sickness, gaining supernatural abilities for each person currently suffering of that sickness. When someone dies as a result of that sickness, the Incubator attached to it gains some of this power permanently as well as having their life extended by a fair bit. The more infamous a disease is, the more power and life its Incubator will gain. There are several ways of Contracting with a disease and becoming an Incubator. One may be born into it, simply having an innate attachment to a sickness. An Incubator can transfer all of their power to a new host, dying in the process. And in very rare cases one may become an Incubator by being a sufferer of an Uncontracted illness, this is most likely to occur in the case of the Incubator being the first human to be afflicted. In the cases where an Incubator Contracts their illness unknowingly, as most cases are, it can often be some time before they learn what they are. Some longer-lived Incubators have taken to searching out new Incubators to help them learn to understand what they are and guide them into Incubator society. Historically, Incubators often clashed with humans and one another. But in modern times there exists a tenuous peace between loosely allied Incubators and world powers. So long as Incubators don't cause massive outbreaks of their diseases or try to hinder research into cures, they are largely left to their own devices. In a few cases Incubators have even been known to assist in research to cure their attached sickness (they were, of course, very closely monitored to ensure they weren't secretly interfering). A joint effort between cooperative Incubators and world powers is being made to maintain a list of known Incubators and contain those with malicious intent. ~Factions~ It should come as no surprise that Incubators are not a totally unified front. They often disagree on what relationship humans and Incubators should have. Three factions have formed around the three major opinions about this relation. Curists: Believe that Incubators should avoid killing humans whenever possible and try to help humans find ways to fight illness. They assist in research and help hunt down harmful Incubators. Generally neutral towards the Coexistence Coalition, actively at war with Freedom Fighters, and known to confine or kill Loners that they perceive as possible threats. The Curists have no proper leader and are instead directed by a human representative from the UN. Coexistence Coalition: Believe that Incubators should avoid causing undue harm to humans, but also believe that Incubators should be allowed to exist and use their powers as it suits them. Generally avoid interacting with world powers unless absolutely necessary. Generally leave the other factions alone and only fight in self-defense. Led by the Incubator of the Plague, an extremely old and powerful Incubator. Freedom Fighters: Believe that Incubators should be allowed to do whatever they wish, whether this be killing or helping humans. Largely composed of Incubators who wish to be allowed to kill freely, as most of those who wish to help humanity are Curists. Known to actively seek to recruit or cull members of the other factions with a "with us or against us" attitude. A small group with few enough members to make decisions based on group vote. Loners: Incubators who have yet to encounter other Incubators or otherwise refuse to choose a faction for one reason or another. ~A Couple Notes~ Discord: https://discord.gg/nzBhsNE The power of a sickness is attached more closely to the name and emotions of it than the actual cause. So, for example, the common cold would be one sickness. However, if two sicknesses have the same cause (E.G. the Spanish flu and Swine flu) then they would share an incubator. Mental illnesses may be used (sparingly and with discussion), but genetic disorders may not. Mental disorders cannot kill directly, so an Incubator will not be able to extend their life using them and will only gain power from those alive and suffering. Since it's never directly stated, yes, the setting is indeed modern day Planet Earth. All alliteration is accidental ~Rules~ My word is final. If you really have an issue with a decision I make, please bring it up privately and we can discuss it Be respectful to one another Uphold standard RP etiquette. No metagaming, powerplaying, etc Expect your actions to have consequences This RP is very sandboxy, so trying out new things is encouraged To the above end, you can have two characters if you want ~Character sheet~ ~Inspirations~ A lot of the stuff in this RP pulls ideas from the following, feel free to check them out if you're interested (someone remind me to add links here later)

Nah, JK, I actually remember you Welcome back. We interacted like never, but hey you exist now which always cool regardless of whether I actually know you or not

(OOC: Okay, so, I have literally like negative three weeks left on this, and I really, really wanna do the bossfight. So, uh, poorly paced shenanigans) Suddenly, there was a convenient flash of deus ex machina. "Ah, my mistake, this has taken far too long, you need to be getting back." The fight was interrupted by a voice that seemed to come from everywhere at once, "Sorry for the delays, I tend to forget my own strength, so this all seemed rather easy to me." Tesla recognized the voice, it was someone she'd met a long time back. That fickle man in white who only ever interfered in the worst of ways. She didn't see him, but of course he was there, meddling as always. The world flashed white momentarily and the ground faded away. The group now found themselves in another strange place. It still seemed to be Wrath, at least if the scorching sun in the distance was any indication. But the air was cooler and the ground was no longer ash and fire, in fact it had turned into what appeared to be a cloud, but was solid enough to be stood upon. From the puffy folds of this cloudy space, a large eye appeared. It floated up into the air, trailing several wisps of cloud. It flew up far above the group's heads and began to shake violently. Four white spheres of the cloudy substance popped into existence around it, circling slowly. "This is the rift that these creatures have been entering through, defeat Kracko here and I can seal it." The voice said again, "Once it's shut then Chronos can use the Access Dispel to clear those that have already entered. Good luck." Initiative: Party Status: Enemy Status:

Those Guys Gypsy was still worn out, so Charity helped him limp along with the group. Bear's bees joined Bartek in taking point, but the group strangely found themselves met with no further resistance as they slunk through the halls. No more rooms opened up to lasers, nothing. After a while the group stopped to make plans and contact Merlin, as Gypsy was finally rested enough to communicate full messages again. They ducked into a particularly empty room, leaving Bear to guard the door. "This doesn't make sense." Gypsy said, stating what was probably obvious, "That grand opening and nothing after. I don't exactly know Ansuz like Merlin does, but he doesn't seem like he'd just give up after one failure. I'm gonna ask her what's up, I'm still pretty worn down so I can't go for long, anyone have anything for me to ask besides, 'What now?'" MSC "It's not a trap." Merlin said, her confidence wavering slightly, "This is specifically built so that even the most basic conjuring magic would break it, and I'm not basic. I don't think Ansuz was expecting me to bring backup. And I don't think he brought any either." She understood what was happening here, she'd probably understood the entire time. Ansuz had always been unwilling to accept the world, he wanted it to conform to him and refused to accept that sometimes he needed to change if he wanted to be accepted. When things wouldn't bend for him, he broke them, and Merlin wasn't one for bending. "He's challenging me. He thinks that all this science gibberish makes him better than me. He's trying to beat me." She sighed, "And here I am letting him have his challenge." Her face lit up, a proper smile replacing her previously serious expression. "Well I've been taking this far too seriously." She said cheerfully, "He can't beat me if I don't play the game. Let's go fish." She resumed making her way into the facility, but this time far less grumpy about it.

Leon Readies himself to guard from an attack Tesla blasts Waddle Dee4 for 18 damage Flamer1 rolls along the ground, colliding with Tesla for 2 damage Waddle Dee2 bonks its face on Dimitri's arm, dealing 0 damage Waddle Dee3 slaps 5 damage onto Atton Dimitri jumps up and Assists Eon Eon calls down 8 damage on the Waddle Dees and 10 on the Flamers Flamer2 floats 1 damage over to Atton Waddle Dee6 jumps up towards Leon, but Leon is prepared and only takes 1 damage -Leon slashes the Waddle Dee in return, dealing 5 damage- -Waddle Dee6 winks out in a starry flash- Waddle Dee1 pokes Hiroki's heavy armor for 3 damage Flamer3 spins gently around Victoria, dizzying her for 6 damage Prei casts her fiery spears -She also heals herself for 4 HP- Waddle Dee8 follishly rubs up against Prei for 1 damage -Prei counterattacks for 3 damage and 11 fire damage- -Waddle Dee8 winks out of existence- Waddle Dee4 jumps onto Eon's tail for 2 damage Laser Ball1 bumps into Hiroki, dealing 1 damage Meta Knight slashes at Waddle Dee3 rapidly, finishing with an energized flourish. He deals 6, 7, 5, and 3 damage -Waddle Dee3, still reeling, blips into nothingness- Atton buffs Eon's INT by 8 Waddle Dee5 smacks Dimitri with its tiny arm, dealing 1 damage Victoria shoots 8 damage into Laser Ball1 Sword Knight1 angrily walks up to Eon and bumps into him for 4 damage Laser Ball2 floats over to Meta Knight, but is too intimated to attack, dealing 0 damage Waddle Dee7: X_X Hiroki fires a powerful blast of heated plasma at Bomber, dealing 14 pure damage Bomber trips over its own foot, falling on its nose. There's a moment of pause, and then the world around the party goes white in a massive explosion. Everyone except Dimitri takes 16 pure damage from the blast. Dimitri's AoE resistance affords him some safety and he only takes 12 damage -In the aftermath of the explosion, Bomber is nowhere to be seen- -Victoria and Eon both take fatal damage. Their eyes are wide with shock and their bodies appear comically charred, as though they were in a cartoon. They both gain Crashed!- Party Status Enemy status Initiative

So basically you're one of those people whose convinced that since they know and trust their dog everyone should trust their dog. Great. Please keep your tiny adorable fluffball away from me I will learn to trust them on my own terms TYVM I have never met you or your dog. What reason have I to assume that I can trust either of you? At least you give off body language that I can read, and even that's far from perfect. And now on top of this you're expecting me to trust a foreign creature that I have no method of communicating with just because you, a stranger whom I can hardly trust either, are telling me that you trust it? No thanks You're the one that decided to care for that dog, so you're the one who needs to be doing your best to prevent it from causing trouble Our dog gets a leash when she leaves our property. Because regardless of how much I may trust her, there's no reason I should be assuming everyone around me has any reason at all to trust her

Artemis Breathing exercises. Ugh. Artemis hated wasting time like this, she wanted to be out searching and finding her friends. Or at least she hoped they were her friends, she wasn't really sure. Everyone had seemed so angry during the fighting, she wasn't even sure that they were looking for Vicky and Wally because they wanted to save them or because they wanted to hurt them. She was frustrated and frightened and they weren't doing anything. "Yeah, we should get started already." She chimed in with the others. She stole a glance at Fowl, who was sitting calmly and following instructions. She was half hoping her sister would scold her for being impatient, but nothing happened, Fowl remained silent both verbally and mentally. Tobias "Impatience will solve nothing." Tobias said calmly, "And chasing blindly will not show us the right path. We need to think. And to think we need clear heads. This place causes discomfort and anxiety, to be entirely calm here is almost impossible, but you will try or we will all fail." He gestured to the three who had spoken up rather than following the exercise to its end, "You three, practice your silence. The others may ask questions once I have laid out our course of action." Tobias finally opened his eyes, their dull gaze slowly scanning the room. "There's no chance we're catching them if we try to follow their path." He explained finally, "So we have to try to anticipate them. That's why I requested that Victoria's friends come along, you have a better chance at guessing where she would go than anyone else. I need those of you who know Victoria to help me figure out the different places she's going to go so we can get there first and intercept her. And I need to warn you all, the other Planes... They're not friendly places. The way things are here isn't perfect, but at least there's some sense of honor. You won't find that anywhere else, it's dangerous, and we're all just children. We won't be alone, of course, I'll be asking a few adults I trust to help us. But if it comes to life or death, you all need to be ready to fight for your lives." Tobias went quiet, leaving room for this information to sink in, particularly for the two who had willingly chosen to involve themselves. He closed his eyes again, steadying his breathing. "Now then, the three that maintained their composure, you may ask questions if you have them."