Pyon Pyon Kyuu!~

"I know of Lady Aisha, she has made dealings with my father and certain... Advances." Lua'Magi clearly choosing her words careful on that matter. "I also know of King Brandon, but I have heard that the current King is named Roswell is he not?" "Yes, Roswell is Brandon's brother. Roswell took over the throne after Brandon stepped down for murdering his own wife." "Oh so she is the daughter of a murderer and the niece of the man who wants to destroy our Kingdom. How pleasant to meet you." Cold words struck like cold knives against Saffron. Her expression twitched ever so sightly, and her grip around her spear tightened but otherwise she did not speak. Lua'Magi's glare saw all like a hawk looking for any sign of weakness. She turned this glare back on to Hoshiko. "We haven't heard of your lineage, oh true friend from Yukihana. What clan do you come from?"

28th of First Heat At around midday, the party arrives at well... The party! It's held at a mansion about four stories tall and Goddess knows how wide. At the entrance several finely dressed men and women linger talking and gossiping. Anna goes in first, showing her and Ian's invitation. The guards look over the guests, asking each one to leave any weapons they are carrying at the entrance but otherwise calmly let them pass. A long red carpet leads the party through the mansion. It ends at a set of double doors that is opened by a servant. They entered the ballroom of the mansion full with guests music, and food! "Welcome everyone, make yourselves at home. Grab a drink, grab some food, everything is on the house! We all deserve a little party after what we've been through." --- "Thank you, both of you. You don't know how much it means to me that you chose to accompany me on this meeting." Saffron told Hoshiko and Terrin as they walked down the heavily decorated hallways of the palace. She was armed with her usual spear buckler and armor. She sighed heavily as they stood in front of two incredibly large doors, going up almost two stories high. The guards slowly opened the doors. "I'm counting on both of you."

"Other advice? Well yes plenty! Never combine high level thunder magic with weaker wind magic, thunder spirits do not like to be subdued you see and instead of being tamed they will instead lash out and ruin your day." He gave a quick magical advice and chuckled, the diversion was definitely intentional. "If I want you two to take any advice from here today, is that regardless of all our traditions, all of our silly politics and banter: the senators and royalty of Caelum are people like anyone else. The people put a lot of responsibility on our shoulders and we have to bear with it for them. I am sure Ignis'Efari wants nothing more than to protect her people, but she is also young. If all else fails, appeal to her as a human being. There are very few real monsters in this world, most have just taken the wrong path." "I don' really like i' here much either. Too much sand." She sighed. "Wha's the nices' place you been too? Why don' we jus' go there?"

Move to F20 and heal Selia

"Ow..." The blow left Emilee reeling back eyes closed clutching her wound. But when she looked again, her attacker was dead! "Thanks Karik, you are a life saver!" She closed her eyes for a second, whispering a prayer for the departed soul and then reposition to join the others. Move to H22

Yuki in a rare moment of embarrassment Yuki got dressed behind a curtain and came out only when she was ready in her Rhythm Next Coord. Cheerfully she walked up behind her sister, and placed both her hands on her shoulders. "You're gonna do great." Yuki reassured her twin. "All of us are going to be there to back you up, we'll make this show a success!"

"I'm plenty resourceful, I be' I could survive longer up there than you could. If I liked the cold that is..." "... Of course not! It was simply a joke! Terrin understood it was a joke! I would never suggest stealing a priceless tome that would advance my studies of magic beyond measure! I'm a respectable senator yes." He crossed his arms and nodded as he said this. Then he took another sip of his tea, and thought for a few moments. "Well, if you are intent on meeting with the Ignis and her spouses. Oh! The current Ignis is a woman by the way, a young girl named Ignis'Efari. Her husband is Sol'Fael and her wife is Lua'Magi. I don't know much about them, as I wasn't part of the committee that originally chose them. But dealing with the Ignis might as well be dealing with dark magic, one wrong move and they will have your heads." The senator paused again, considering how his words were coming across. "Not to say that they are cruel, in fact everything I've heard about them indicates otherwise. But like all people of Caelum they are proud. And pride will dictate their actions. As a show of pride the Ignis will never directly speak to you, instead letting her spouses do the talking. You must do the same, whoever is the center piece in your meeting cannot speak either. If you get the Ignis to speak, it will show that she is truly interested in what you have to say, and from there you will be able to negotiate on your own terms. Next, go in armed. The guards won't try to stop you, these royals have been taught to fight from the moment they could hold weapons and they won't be scared of anyone who comes in. They will have their royal weapons with them, so you should show pride in your ability as well." He took a long sip from his cup emptying it and putting it down. "Finally, be challenging. In Caelum meetings are battles of will. I have no doubt in my mind that you two must have fought you ways into Natarjah considering how it looks outside these walls. Treat this like any other battle, you go in there to survive and get what you want. I think this is the best advice I can give you."

Move to N22 and heal

"How abou' Yukihawootsits. I hear' it's always snowin' is i' true?" "Oh I see the Ignis the Sol and the Lua." He calmly took a sip out of his tea and put the cup down. Then much more loudly and surprised he exclaimed. "The Ignis the Sol and Lua!? I doubt even I could get an audience with them. And I've tried! Numerous times, listen Terrin my boy you hold love for your dear old teacher don't you? I must ask something of you, the Lua she holds something of great value an ancient treasure, a tome older than this country. A weapon wielded by the great prophet, it's of incredible value. The powers that tome wields, the secrets within them: I MUST KNOW THEM. So in your meeting, could you possibly steal... Ahem I mean... Borrow this tome and return it to me? Obviously if you get caught I will do everything in my power to get you out safely."

Recruitment actually finished a bit ago, I'll announce the next time we get a free slot.

1. PMs. Should have mentioned that in the main post. Example: We start round 1, I open individual pms with both players, each one mails in their move. I announce in the IC "Player 1 Slashes Player 2 Counters: Player 2 is the winner." Then RP wise, Player 2 would write exactly how they counter attack write their blurb how they kick ass blah blah blah, player 2 responds with their characters reaction to the damage or none at all, and then once the situation is back in neutral the whole thing repeats. 2. Not strictly at all. I want the "themes" to be there, but since I am ultra inspired by Senran Kagura right now I can point to a lot of ninjas that aren't actually very ninja. However the general themes of these schools will be to built around the original tenants of Samurais/Ninjas: The samurai school will preach to protect the weak and fight the honor, the ninjas will preach to be quick efficient and merciless. So in terms of exactly how the character acts, looks or even fights they can be far from ninjas samurais. However something probably drew them to that specific school and not the other one. 3. In terms of technology the setting is in modern days. However, in terms of how far people can go I want this to be really anime. REALLY ANIME. I'll allow pretty much anything and we'll simply call it a Ninja Art/Samurai Technique. Even incredibly feats of technology are allowed, assuming this was built by your character and they are some sort of maniac genius ahead of their time. Obviously the limit will be set in stone, and mechanically your character being able to open a black hole in space and time will be just as effectives as a really strong punch (Let's even say.... One Punch). 4. I am still thinking on the specifics in terms of how to deal with this. For now, yes. There will be a "speed" tag and that will be the way to make sure that you win throw/slash trades. However I'm still thinking about this, and right now am considering having a player choose a "strong" aspect to their character and that will affect their speed in a specific move. 5. There will be a fair amount of stats, I didn't go into more examples as not to overwhelm the IC, but all of them will be attatched to other selectable tags. An example would be an "Armored" tag. This would allow a slower move to absorb the damage of an attack without flinching and still go on with the attack leading to the victory of the armored move. And in direct counter to the armored tag would be the "Multihit" tag that would give a slash move enough hits to beat out an Armored attack. Tags can also be specific to either Slash Counter or Throw, and don't necessarily apply to all three. 6. I'm still not sure. I'd like combat to not be too drawn out, but I'd also like it to be exciting and I have a lot of things planned to be able to counter momentum. For now let's put it at 5 one sided RPS victories to defeat the other person, but also assuming you used up resources during battle as you get them. 7. Again to make sure combat doesn't get dull, it will be more like a 65% social 35% combat. It will be more exciting if it happens less. 8. Yes, both schools will be put in the same dorm for roleplaying reasons exactly to force interaction between players of opposing factions. Another thing I'd like to allow is for spontaneous combat, if two rivals suddenly feel like duking it out I think that would be extremely fun!

"Alright well, who are you meeting with? Traditions can be complicated here in Caelum, as you know, and it's not always clear cut exactly what you should do." "Eeeeh? So ya traveled? Any funny stories?" Cherry asked enthusiastically, completely brushing off Ecquis' kind comment too.

"Oh a larger group? So you take after your mother Terrin? I can't say I blame you, the married life in Caelum is very attractive. And you have chosen a beautiful main wife, yes indeed!" He pours some tea on to three cups, and takes a sip out of one of them. "But well if you aren't getting married to your larger group of wives and husbands what are you here for? Did you come to hear about my wonderful discoveries?" "Ya know, I never left Nohr lands, just wen' from city ta city and merchan's are all the same. So are criminals, dey are all scared and whimps." She hesitated to say the next part biting her lip for a second. "Thank you for worrying abou' me... Ya don' need to, I've taken care of myself for a long long time, bu' it's still nice I guess."

Ayyyyy back at it again with an interest check that might not even come to fruition but I'm making it anyways because I'm curious about it right now. You know what I've been addicted to recently? Senran Kagura. DUmb game about cute ninja girls (with large breasts) fighting each other. Anyways, part of the plot is different high schools fighting each other and this is a concept I've wanted to make an RP for for quite a while. And today I had an idea for a system go along with it, to combine another thing I've always put into an RP! Fighting game mechanics! Mechanics So what about plot? Well the basics of what I have in mind will be two high schools specialised in training fighters competing in a tournament that happens every 100 years. It would be very Japanesed styled, one school training samurais and the other training ninjas. Players would choose which school to go to and compete against each other in the tournament, but also interact on a day to day. So both a happy slice of life-y game and a combat game. Thoughts?

Move to H13 and perform for Viola

"Didn' find out much, jus' makin' sure they know I'm in town." She smirked, equal parts innocent and mischievous. "Lesson one of survivin' people can' hur' you if they are too scared to figh'. Warnin' them you are dangerous is a good place to star'." "Oh... OH! Lucky man, lucky man!" He elbowed Terrin lightly, teasing him. "Of course your girlfriend... I mean your friend girl is more than welcome in my house! Any girlfriend... I mean friend girl of Terrin's is a friend of mine! Please enter!" He leads them inside the manor, which is still very much smoking and fuming. He enters the kitchen which is in the worst state of all, but in the middle of one of the counters is a kettle, with perfectly boiling water. He pours it in a tea set, putting it on a tray and bringing it to the living room. It's clear that it was messy and scattered with books and papers before, and now with this explosion it looks even worse! He opens all the windows, and then sits on a couch gesturing his guests to do the same. "So what brings you two to Caelum? Terrin are you here to uhm... Tie the knot so to speak? Oh and where are my manners, what's your name lass?"

The senator looked in Terrin's direction and rubbed his eyes just to make sure his eyes didn't deceive him. "By blazes, is that? Terrin?" He ran up to him, and spread his arms around Terrin mustering all the strength to show his love for the mage in a warm hug. "Terrin my boy, it's been a while! Too long! Come, come! Let me show you my latest experiment, you see I was getting annoyed at how long it takes to boil water to make tea. So I had the brilliant idea to use fire magic, however fire spirits alone are far too dangerous so I thought I could calm them down and focus their energy with other types of spirits. It seems that in this heat and humidity the fire spirits are still far too strong and overpower other magics, which created the explosion you see here." He waved his hand in the direction of his smoking manor. "On the other hand I'm sure the kettle is at the perfect temperature, would you like some tea?"

As Terrin and Hoshiko come closer to their destination, people seem to be going in the opposite direction running away from the senator's house. They see the house, a large manor two stories high and build with a rather large space from other buildings. However from every window, chimney and door large pillar of black smoke gushed out escaping the house. The main door burst open, and a familiar face came out coughing his lungs out. "That was, the wrong approach for sure... Perhaps I recited the wrong verse? No, no no it must have been the humidity. This blasted heat will always mess up my every attempt at mastering the magical arts, if the spirits can't come together and unite how will I ever-" You have a feeling that if you do not interrupt him, he will be rambling to himself for ages.

"Well then you aren't doing anything special than keep dusting! Dust until we are free!" Move to G12 and perform for Chance

"Well before ya interrupted me, I was gettin' ta know the locals." She complained, following Ecquis. "Bu' I'm pretty much done anyways."

"Oooooooooh! I getcha. Tha's smar'!" She grinned. "You're like a genius sometimes!"

"Ecquis two thousan' five hundre' gold is like.... Five thousand loafsa bread! More than tha' are you sure you are gonna turn this down?"

"Of course, I am not sure how much you know about Caelum history so let me give you the basics of it." He flipped back a few pages on the tome to show the picture of a purple haired man, with red eyes and wearing a crown. "Long ago, when the whole continent was still ruled by the Kingdom of Dragao, surged a great prophet. Wise, beautiful and strong he rose up in what is today Natarjah speaking of his vision: the Goddess had told him the truth. That it was okay for a man to lay with a man, and for a woman to lay with a woman. That it was okay for marriage to be between more than one person, that politics should be decided by elected people, and not by lineage and family alone. This did not sit well with the Queen of Dragao at the time, and she declared him a traitor. But the Prophet had many followers and soon they wanted independence. She rode to Natarjah herself, on wyvern back with thousands of troops. But they never go through the city, and died to a desert plague. Not a single arrow had to be shot from a Caelum bow. The Queen's heir met with the Prophet and together they declared Caelum and independent nation, even if many other of Dragao's Kings would later on come to contest this." "Ya know mister you aren' a very good storytelle'. I'm fallin' asleep over here." The store clerk held back a cough and cleared his throat. "What was I saying. Well, the original prophet had a man as a husband and a woman as a wife. This is how we go our model for Sol and Lua, based on his original marriage. However, it is widely known that he had several lovers. The most famous of which was Hania, one of his sworn knights. One day Natarjah was attacked by a great demon, destroying walls that hadn't fallen even to Dragao weaponry. The Prophet prayed to the Goddess for an answer and she bestowed upon him three golden weapons. With these weapons he went out to fight the demon, alone. He sealed the demon deep under the city where it supposedly is still chained. After the fight, Hania left her post to find her lover. She'd spend days, weeks, months out in the desert. People would go out to try and bring her back but she would refuse. Neither the Prophet nor Hania came back from the desert. The discovery of her gauntlet belongs in a museum." The man thought for a second, counting numbers on his fingers. "I'll give you 2000. No, 2,500 golden pieces for this."

"She went to her sister's mansion, won't be back until later tonight but I'll be sure to pass her the message." Gently, the man takes the gauntlet from Ecquis and places it on the table. He shuffled through his drawer until he finds what he is looking for: a tiny little telescopic piece that he holds to his eye. "Let's see here." He inspects the gauntlet thoroughly, every once in a while giving a soft hmmm. As he passes over from the individual fingers and on to back of the gauntlet itself his face changes to one of surprise. "It... It couldn't be... Give me a second." He leaves for a moment and comes back with a large tome. He flips quickly through the pages, each one with portraits of different people. He finally arrives at one and he gasps. The page at which he stops has a picture of a dark skinned woman violet eyes and black hair, clad in golden armor, all too familiar to Ecquis. After all this is the perfect image of the ghost he saw in the desert. "It is. IT IS! This is a historical find, this gauntlet belong to Hania, Royal Guard of the Prophet! Where did you find this?"

"Well, she isn't around but if you want I can take a look at it. She trusts me with the store, so I'm sure she would trust me with this!"