Night Hunters [Open]

[Gardsorm]

I've been in this game for a while, but I've been feeling like adopting a new char. :3

Name: Stoier Ilias
Type: Wolf Stoier
Years in service: 10
Sexual orientation: Heterosexual

Aura: Bloodletters 
Bloodletters are a pair of cruel dual glaives that Ilias wields in both hands. Designed for visceral slashing attacks, the Bloodletters are designed for easily carving through Sin flesh, although armor resists them more.

Zero trait: Intimidate - With a howl, Ilias can unleash a fearful wave of force that can frighten low level Sins and weak-minded humans. Medium Sins and up, and strong-willed humans will resist. Effect range of 30 feet, and does not discriminate targets.

Night Hunter Skill Package - Every Night hunter has the Zero power. By using the power the hunter can enhance their speed, strength and mobility, use Zero abilities, regenerate their wounds and manifest their Auras. With the Zero come the negative side of the power too, which means that using the power will cause strain or corruption. In addition the zerons have some inhuman physical traits. As every hunter has had to graduate from a Military academy, they are all at least sufficient in driving a land vehicle, marksmanship and hand to hand combat.

Abilities:

Hunting Blade - Aura type Zero ability. Ilias can throw the Bloodletters to whirl through the air and strike foes at a distance before coming back, like chakrams. This ability has a medium strain.

Corrosion - Ilias can use Zero Energy to charge the Aura with power, allowing each strike to slowly corrode enemies, with more effectiveness versus armor or inanimate objects. This ability has a medium strain. Important to note this ability is not almighty and the effect will wear off if not maintained by constant attack.

Appearance: Ilias stands at a height of 6'3, with green eyes, red hair/fur, and a healthy weight of 201 lbs. With a noticeably chiseled, muscular build, Ilias prides himself on a strong close combat physique, and relishes in being one of the first Hunters to be out on the field, and one of the last to leave it. He has a couple of scars on his body from mild use of Zero to heal wounds, but never enough to fully close them, giving him the appearance of someone who has survived many encounters.

Personality: Ilias is, first and foremost, a moderately friendly individual even by Stoier standards. He has moments of being grumpy and grouchy, especially when he doesn't sleep enough or gets hungry. Despite this, he's unbelievably loyal to his allies at SRU-3 and values their trust more than that of SRU-3's leaders. Thankfully, he knows better than to be disobedient to Fairchild, and thankfully does his best to keep out of her line of sight if she ever asks her underlings to do some sort of dirty work she doesn't want to bother herself with.

However, like some Stoiers, he has the occasional personality defect, and for him, some of his more wolfish aspects come out, such as snarling, snapping at the air, pacing, and mild rebelliousness. He's been punished a few times for this, but ever since leaving Hope, he has done a much better job of hiding these defects. Despite this, he keeps it relatively under control, and thus it only happens some nights rarely. On such nights, he usually comes off as more battle-seeking than downright manic.

Biography: Ilias' life started at the Hope branch of Zeron Genetics. Raised on horror stories of how things at Valor, he doubted his blessings he was never brought up at Valor. However, being a Stoier, he was aware he was already at a disadvantage compared to Charites because he had behavioral defects that couldn't be completely wiped out from his being. Nevertheless, the scientists did their best to train and prepare him to be released into military service without being a hindrance.

Following his creation at Hope, he went through his two years at the academy, considered one of the more exciting times of his life. He found he loved the company of others, Zeron or Human, and found himself making friends quite easily... And enemies other times. Though he got into a few altercations, he quickly understood to behave himself and stay out of trouble if he not only wanted a chance to graduate, but also not be sent back to Hope to be decommissioned. After this, he was more behaved and dutiful in his studies, only allowing himself leisurely delights when he did well enough to earn praise from his instructors... And ultimately, he graduated!

His first posting turned out to be SRU-3, where he dreaded working under the feared name of Fairchild... However, the presence of the other Hunters of SRU-3 helped to quickly change his opinion, and the wary wolf soon became a loyal puppy to his allies at the Squad House. Though he doesn't often take the same missions as his allies, he contributes what he can to earn his place in SRU-3. Most of the time anyone ever manages to see him is wandering around the Squad House, or down in the gym.

Advantages:
Protective - Like a guard dog, Ilias is intensely protective of allies, Charon or Zeron. He's always the first to volunteer for frontline duty, and will always try to cover for allies when battle grows thick.

Keen Eyes - Ilias possessed very sharp eyes, able to cause great harm with a standard human High-Precision Rifle or Designated Marksman Rifle. However, this level of accuracy serves him best when casting his Dual Bloodletters at a distance to strike enemies with near-unerring accuracy.

Iron Stomach - Ilias is a powerful eater, and will often eat big portions of food, good or bad. In extreme cases, he can also eat Sins as emergency food.

Weaknesses:
Possessive - One of Ilias' poor, uncontrollable habits. As a wolf, he can occasionally feel bouts of possessiveness, be it toward people, food, or possessions.

Weak to Strong Scents - As a Canid-type Stoier, exceptionally powerful scents can leave him stunned and debilitated.

Battle-Hungry - As a part of his defects, one may not immediately recognize his weakness until he's already in the thick of it. He fights like a mad berserker and will often relish in spilling Sin blood, to the point where he'll need to be reminded to fall back if he gets too into a fight.

O&Os
Roleplay ONs: OFFs: N/A
Sexy ONs: OFFs: N/A

[Kissa]

Ilias is accepted. You can post him in char thread.

[Relikai]

Name: Scarlet Everglade
Rank: Corporal
Age: 26           Years in service: 7 Years
Sexual orientation: Bi-sexual

Aura: Soul of the Fallen

Spoiler: Click to Show/Hide

Spoiler: Click to Show/Hide

A weapon with the impression of cold, dark steel, the original name of the weapon is known as a curse to Scarlet herself.

Zero trait:

Tactical Sense - Sight, Smell, Taste, Touch and Hearing. This sense allows Scarlet to seek out weak spots and vulnerabilities of a target she has been observing or fighting with for over a minute. The mental image she sees is like a 3D hologram of the target, allowing her to locate and point out weaknesses she can find. Stronger monsters or 'Unique' monsters can be immune to this ability. This causes a medium strain to the user.

Night hunter skill package - Every Night hunter has the Zero power. By using the power the hunter can enhance their speed, strength and mobility, use Zero abilities, regenerate their wounds and manifest their Auras. With the Zero come the negative side of the power too, which means that using the power will cause strain or corruption. In addition the zerons have some inhuman physical traits. As every hunter has had to graduate from a Military academy, they are all at least sufficient in driving a land vehicle, marksmanship and hand to hand combat.

Abilities:

Shiroikaze 'White Wind' - A self-buffing ability, Shiroikaze enhances Scarlet's overall movement and flexibility to the limit of the human body in short bursts. Medium strain per burst.

Hissatsu: Kaiten, 'Deadly Sword Revolves the Heavens' - The true name of her Aura, and an ability only ever used once by Scarlet due to it's strain, and would cause instant bleeding from the nose and in serious cases, the eyes due to the consumption of Zero. It requires no training, but is the combination of emotional need, physical strain, and mental stress manifested through the usage of Zero. A move that incapacitates both user and target, Hissatsu Kaiten draws the damage taken by the user and converts it with all the Zero in her body into a single kinetic attack with the Aura. Extremely heavy strain upon usage.

Appearance: Scarlet stands at 170cm, or 5'7", with her hair mostly tucked to the side in a single tail. Her body is toned and athletic with visible muscle lines, paired with the slightly curvy shape of a slightly larger than average bust and hip ratio. There is a single 2-inch long scar on the middle of her back near her chip implants, just left of her spine. It has since healed and is purely cosmetic.

Personality: Although an introvert by nature, some would describe the white-haired woman as someone who's often looking out for her teammates or friends be it on duty or not. Before the chip was implanted, Scarlet was an easygoing and almost rebellious person, someone who took 'You only live once' to the extreme. These days, she carries a much more reserved demeanor, but is not too withdrawn that she would turn down an invitation for a social event.

She does not see herself as greater, or stronger than her peers be they Charon or Zeron. Instead she sees her own survival as a form of undeserving privilege, and believes strongly in 'servant leadership' that she has to serve those under her in order to lead them better.

Biography: A former Corporal of the Defence Corp, Scarlet grew up as a street rat, using whatever resources she has in her arsenal to always gain the advantage. Born in Dogtown, she knew the status that being a Charon would bring, and that the benefits would give her a way our of her dog-eat-dog world. Naturally she grew up tough, her body more accustomed to hard physical work and stress than the delicate work that ladies of the inner city were known to excel in. That being said, she was not all brawn as the stupid get used and exploited out here, the young woman developing her cunning in order to outwit the clever schemes one would face anytime.

Her first year in the Academy was a revelation, as she was beaten down in almost every physical fight she got into. Not illegal fights but duels and tests, Scarlet nearly found herself at the bottom of the class due to her overestimating the abilities her past has given her. This invoked both a humbling and a new spirit of learning within her, something she resolved to work on as she received the chips for the one and only time in her life.

Scarlet continued to serve in the Survey Corp, sometimes lamenting the fact that they were unable to reach a sin problem on time. The desire for combat was always on her mind, for not only was it a chance to help humanity, but it was also an outlet for her to unleash her abilities upon these monsters.

It would be a mundane five years in the Survey Corp, until her final patrol before joining SRU-3 as a Hunter. She knew it was coming, and she looked forward to it and so did her comrades until the Sin they were tasked to eliminate turned out to be an ambush. The Sin reported to be a group of B-class was actually an S-class baiting her team of capable hunters in, and they took the bait.

She would not be able to recall much of what happened, but only three survivors made it back. She was carried in with a broken body of bleeding muscles, her face caked with dried blood which flowed from her nose and eyes. One survivor would recount...

Spoiler: Click to Show/Hide

"There were six of us, but after we fought, fought, fought... she was the only one left standing. We were all down and defeated, three of us dead and only a couple of us still in one piece. We told her to run but she stood her ground, her Aura brighter than we've ever seen. No, I never saw her so focused, so concentrated, that even when the monster stuck a claw through her she never moved. Then before it could finish her I saw a bright blue light, a single flash. It doesn't seem like a slash, the monster wasn't cut. It was simply... smashed... as if someone punched it, or a train struck it full on... She fell, her body was broken and she was bleeding all over... Nose, eyes, mouth... but she was alive."

.

Even as a Charon, her depleted Zero meant it would take Scarlet several days to recover her Zero, and a week more for her body to return back to peak physical conditioning. Even so her transfer was delayed until she could finally pass her fitness tests, and that is when she finally managed to join SRU-3.

Advantages:

Sword Master - After years of experience and training with her weapon, Scarlet has full control over both her body and her Aura as a weapon of Sin-destruction.

Brewmaster - Combining years of distilling moonshine in the streets and now being able to work with proper tools and ingredients, she could brew or press a good mix, not exactly vintage quality, but better than most pubs.

Emotional Sense - Scarlet's experience and past allows her to sense the faint feelings of the people or environment around her. She cannot sense specifics, but has the ability tell the 'feel' of an environment's vibe or a specific person she has been interacting with for more than a minute.

Weaknesses:

Casualty Averse - Being on the brink of defeat, or seeing her teammates fall or wounded could cause her to lose hold of herself, leading to a state of panic or incapacitation.

Fight or Fight - Scarlet grew up on the losing end, entered the Academy on the losing end, and fought her biggest fight on the losing end. She has won in all situations, even when despair took over. She will fight till the last, even if it nearly killed her like her last fight. Only by direct orders from a trusted superior will she consider Flight, and only if her teammates were safely away and she is the last to leave.

Light Alcoholic - Make your own drink, and drink it. Whenever she's down or bored, a bottle was always ready for her to get into the mood. While she won't be caught drunk, she might be a little tipsy or lightheaded for fully informed decisions.

O&Os
Roleplay ONs: Ask me anything if you'd like to start a scene or even confirm my O/Os! OFFs: Lack of comms. Message box and Discord PMs always open!
Sexy ONs: OFFs: My own O/O thread! -> https://elliquiy.com/forums/index.php?topic=301005.msg14711378#msg14711378

[Kissa]

@Relikai

Yay! New blood : p

Scarlet looks good and I think she would be a good addition to our little team. The sheet is in general well done, but there are some small edits needed.

-Her age should be 27 or her service years 7. The one year that goes in completing the Charon program isn’t counted in service years.
-Emotional sense should be moved to advantages and then Scarlet is going to need one more weakness to balance things.
-Tactical sense goes to Zero trait because Abilities enhance Hunter’s Aura or body.

I think Hissatsu is fine as it is if it functions like described in the background spoiler. If it’s something like ‘I slam down a whole house’ then it’s not good. It’s too powerful then and we gonna run out of houses if people keep demolishing them.

The background doesn’t need editing, but just in case as clarification I will tell that it takes 3-4 days to recover from severe strain, meaning it takes that long to be able to use Zero again normally. However, if a Hunter won’t heal themselves within an hour from receiving an injury, their body will grow accustomed to it and healing it with Zero will become impossible. Then a Hunter has to rely on traditional medical help and natural help. This is also the reason why Hunters can have scars, or even lose limbs and such permanently. In other words, in 3-4 days Scarlet could use Zero again but she couldn’t heal herself anymore then, which is why the long recovery time from her injuries. So it all checks with the background you wrote.

All in all, good job. It would have taken me weeks to go through all the text you had to read to make a sheet.

[Relikai]

@Kissa

Thank you!

I have adjusted things where they should be, and -1 from her years of service.

Also adjusted the background closer to your description, shortened the recovery time and all.

Yes Hissatsu is meant to be a short-ranged single-target strike meant to destroy either the target or the user. Her Ace card, it's something Scarlet would choose never to use again unless it's a legitimately life-or-death situation. Count it as her last hurrah, ICly she wasn't sure if she'd survive using it, as it would put her close to the stage of comatose per the description. However it's not strong enough to take down an entire house, more like it'll disintegrate the entire kitchen, and she'll run out of lives before the world runs out of kitchens heh!

[Kissa]

@Kissa

Thank you!

I have adjusted things where they should be, and -1 from her years of service.

Also adjusted the background closer to your description, shortened the recovery time and all.

Yes Hissatsu is meant to be a short-ranged single-target strike meant to destroy either the target or the user. Her Ace card, it's something Scarlet would choose never to use again unless it's a legitimately life-or-death situation. Count it as her last hurrah, ICly she wasn't sure if she'd survive using it, as it would put her close to the stage of comatose per the description. However it's not strong enough to take down an entire house, more like it'll disintegrate the entire kitchen, and she'll run out of lives before the world runs out of kitchens heh!

Everything else is in order, but Shiroikaze should be either burst or prolonged use. I'm assuming you mean speed more than what a olympic level sprinter can achieve, so the ability is probably closer to Flash (in examble abities) which makes its burst strain medium and prolonged high.

[Relikai]

Okay, have adjusted accordingly!

[Kissa]

Okay, have adjusted accordingly!

I'm sorry. I explained badly. Abilities don't scale, so Scarlet can have either burst or prolonged Shiroikaze but not both. That's the only edit needed.

[Relikai]

I'm sorry. I explained badly. Abilities don't scale, so Scarlet can have either burst or prolonged Shiroikaze but not both. That's the only edit needed.

All good, is done!

[Kissa]

Cool cool : ) Scarlet is accepted. I will PM you Discord link and you can post her sheet here . Welcome : )

[Cherry Ronde]

Hello!!  I'd like to give this game a try as well.

Name: Xing Shiwu
Rank: Private First Class
Age: 20           
Years in service: None
Sexual orientation: Romantically attracted to women

Aura: Asterism Drive

Spoiler: Click to Show/Hide

A heavy, one- or two-handed weapon with an exaggerated messer-type blade with a revolver attached.  Despite the revolver-style design, the Asterism Drive is not a gun, and has no ranged capabilities.

Zero trait:

Mapping the Stars  Xing's mind, upon receiving the Zero chips, was enhanced to be able to grasp large amounts of data and process it at once; an ability akin to eidetic memory, this power also allows her to understand quickly the relationship between various datapoints, such as when breaking into an enemy database.  This ability has a limit, and larger and larger datasets still require time to process.

Night hunter skill package - Every Night hunter has the Zero power. By using the power the hunter can enhance their speed, strength and mobility, use Zero abilities, regenerate their wounds and manifest their Auras. With the Zero come the negative side of the power too, which means that using the power will cause strain or corruption. In addition the zerons have some inhuman physical traits. As every hunter has had to graduate from a Military academy, they are all at least sufficient in driving a land vehicle, marksmanship and hand to hand combat.

Abilities:

Stella Weave - Phasing.  Xing is able to cause her body to become as elusive as the starry night sky, which lets her pass through inanimate objects and also avoid some attacks ahead of time if she has the ability on.  This requires heavy strain.

Asterism Trigger - Similar to explosion, this is Xing's signature offensive ability, which requires her to strike and plunge her Aura weapon into an enemy before pulling the trigger, discharging Zero energy in a large blast that knocks the enemy back several feet.  The explosion is localised enough that it doesn't endanger Xing.  This requires a very heavy strain.



Appearance: Xing stands at about 156cm, or just below 5'2", and has a slight but wiry build that speaks a lot of her past in the streets.  Her pinkish-white hair is tied into a loose side-tail and clipped with a small black accessory that belongs to her former friends in Dogtown, a reminder of them.  Her blue eyes are usually wavering, and she often avoids direct eye contact, but in a fight or flight situation, they can be full of resolve.  She typically likes wearing dark-coloured suits.

Personality: Xing initially appears a closed-off and taciturn individual, not given to a lot of words and appears very professional and curt in her dealings.  Just underneath it, though, is an anxious exterior of someone who isn't really comfortable with herself.  The projection she puts out is her own image of what a professional looks like, from her time as an urchin down in Dogtown. 

Biography: Xing Shiwu is one of Berkton's many, many orphans, one of the forgotten whose parents died with bullets behind their back in some deal that those involved have already forgotten about come Tuesday.  She wandered the streets at a very early age, until she fell in with a group of other orphans that had decided to run their own little gang: the Nebula.

The Nebula were composed of other children that had nowhere to go, led by a slightly older child, Lin Shao.  They were little more than pickpockets, beggars, and sometimes, lookouts or spies for shady businessses that operated out of laundromats and other hitherto unassuming places, but it was enough for them to buy some food, huddle under various shelters, and look after each other.

One thing was clear to the kids, though: they wanted to become Charon.  To them, it was the only method of social mobility upwards that they could see; they wanted to escape the squalor that they were trapped in.  The Nebula kids started training and practicing in any way they could, whether it was larceny, or theft.  For Xing, she eventually found herself in charge of their funds, since she took to a laptop the quickest; she was unexpectedly smart at learning through doing. 

What was once just innocuous usage of computers became more illicit, however; she soon figured out how to break into systems she shouldn't, and how to steal digital assets and information.  Eventually, she started selling them to the right people and accumulated a fair sum of money for the Nebula.

In the end, though, they were still kids -- and they drew the ire of those that they'd stolen funds and information from.  One day, armed men broke into their makeshift little warehouse, and opened fire; Xing saw a lot of her friends die, and others yet get pulled into unmarked vans.  She still doesn't know where they are.  Only a scant few of them survived the ambush, six of them. 

Worse, Xing learnt later through reviewing security camera footage and other logs that the ambush was actually set up by Lin Shao, and that he'd betrayed them for a big payout.  Horrified to learn of this truth, Xing decided to ghost her prior gang leader, descending into the streets and emptying the bank accounts that she'd managed for them into her own personal funds, with the guilt of knowing she'd screwed over other innocent kids in the process.

With survival on her mind, Xing decided to pursue the Nebula dream in the first place: becoming a Charon.  She was first looked on with some suspicion because of her background, but her tenacity and skills eventually convinced those in charge to let her undergo chipping.  Two years of harsh military training, and Xing finally begins her first assignment at SRU-3.

Advantages:

Hacker - Xing is highly trained in various modern security protocols and how to bypass them, as well as social engineering such as phishing and other methods of finding the weaknesses of a given computer system to find her way into it.

Physical Conditioning - Extensive military training has tempered Xing's body to be resistant to various mundane-level threats, such as poisons and lesser military ordinance.  She can still be poisoned, she can still be shot and bleed, but she can go on for longer before she falls over.

Street Rat - Xing's background as one of the street orphans of Dogtown make her familiar with the local channels, the fixers, and those that can pass messages from one to another discreetly.  She's also familiar with those that run Dogtown's Circle servers.

Weaknesses:

Social Anxiety - Xing is socially anxious and hides it underneath a mask of aloofness and distance.  Past trauma means she has a lot of trouble really opening up to people, and often is afraid of being betrayed, paying a lot of attention to how people behave to avoid angering them.

Bad Actress - Xing is awful at missions that require extensive means of deception and playing a role.  She lacks the ability to really convince anyone she's anything but a lower-class orphan and lacks the mannerism, discipline and nuance to portray herself as something she isn't.

Dependents - Xing frequently sends money back to the slums, so she has very, very little in her pocket at any time.  This also loops back into the anxiety and a rather awful inability to enjoy herself because she doesn't have many hobbies, and little access to them because of a lack of said money.

O&Os
O/O thread:  https://elliquiy.com/forums/index.php?topic=347901.0

[Kissa]

@Cherry Ronde

Hi. We would be happy to have you : )

Xing looks like a interesting concept. Her background gives good ground for a possible side scene even. There are some edits needed though, so let’s get to them.

-Xing’s years in service are 2. Academy is counted in service year. I can understand the confusion because charon training isn’t counted, but Academy time is. It’s mostly because during the Academy time the students can be used for real missions, but in charon training they are still just normal humans.

-Asterism Drive. The Auras themselves have no abilities, they are just tools for utilizing abilities a Hunter has. So Asterism Drive itself can have no abilities, but it can be used for abilities. In short this means Aura doesn’t give a free ability.

For example Rayner’s Keraunos, Three-sectioned staff. He had to use one of two abilities for this: Active Guidance - Not a damage-dealing ability on its own, but Rayner controls the chain system located in his Aura to extend and retract while attacking, greatly extending his normal melee reach. Strain is mild at all times.

If Keraunos he had manually screwed/attached the pieces together, it wouldn’t need a separate ability, just like a fan or scissors won’t need ability for opening and closing.   

So if the ability explained in Zero Trait is same as Asterism Trigger, then it’s fine and needs no edit. If Zero Trait is a separate ability then it becomes an ability.

-Stella wave. This ability is otherwise good, but unfortunately the visual effect of starry cloak has to be dropped.

-Asterism Trigger. This is basically like releasing Zero energy blast from the tip of the Aura? Does it just knock back or damage the enemy too? I think it’s okay as it is, but just want to know in more detail : )

That’s probs all edits needed… I might be going ahead of things, but the people who graduated from the Academy in standard time arrived in the SRU-3 earlier (8th august, first squadhouse post), but we have accepted players after that too. We got Gavin who graduated this year too not long time ago. So Xing could have arrived with earlier if she graduated in expected time and she knows people in the house already or for whatever reason she graduated later and arrives now. We actually have one new character at the door of the house right now, so you can come in with the same door opening if you want : p  Let me know which one you would prefer. Of course you can get your own entrance too if you want.

[Cherry Ronde]

The Aura description was basically part of Asterism Trigger, yeah; I've updated the Aura description, and removed the description in Stella Weave.  Asterism Trigger releases Zero energy from the tip of the aura, yes, does damage and some knockback if that's fine, or it could just do damage. 

I think it'd be easiest if Xing just graduated later for some reason, since I'm a new player, so that I get to meet everyone for the first time?

[Kissa]

The Aura description was basically part of Asterism Trigger, yeah; I've updated the Aura description, and removed the description in Stella Weave.  Asterism Trigger releases Zero energy from the tip of the aura, yes, does damage and some knockback if that's fine, or it could just do damage. 

I think it'd be easiest if Xing just graduated later for some reason, since I'm a new player, so that I get to meet everyone for the first time?

Yea, Asterism Trigger is good as it is. And yep, she can have graduated later : )

Just edit the service years to 2 years and Xing is accepted and you can post the sheet here. I will send you invite to Discord.

[scribus1000]

Boy oh boy, I remember following this well over a year ago. Good to come full circle and rethink options for dipping in. I have two concepts getting juggled in my head for now. Consider a tentative interest flag planted.

[Kissa]

Oo, someone has been following us! Kissa is flattered now : ) I'm gonna consider the tentative flag as planted : p I'm aiming to begin a new GM scene next weekend.

Boy oh boy, I remember following this well over a year ago. Good to come full circle and rethink options for dipping in. I have two concepts getting juggled in my head for now. Consider a tentative interest flag planted.

[scribus1000]

Still cooking on it over here. First concept: I usually play female characters, but I feel this may be the time for a change of pace where I can run with a big dude. A six-foot-five walking tank of a man, very terse* but somewhat gentle** giant, basically.

*He's fully capable of speaking fluently and has no speech impediments whatsoever or he'd get the ol' factory reset; it's just more of a personal choice to relay his thoughts and information as efficiently as possible, which would lead to some short, curt replies that might be seen as too blunt or possibly, unintentionally rude, depending on context.

**still able and very willing, if not borderline-eager, to fight and/or kill Sin as ordered. It's the job.

Second concept: Still being worked on. Most likely female and a recycled character from another roleplay, reworked to fit in this setting. Much more of an elaborate speaker and a bit cocky. Maybe she'll just be on standby after whatever happens, happens, to the first character.

I have questions revolving around number 1 because my initial plans have him interested in books on the side. What kind of access to literature does a charon/zeron have? I figure at best it's "whatever isn't destroyed and is still preserved in the city" but my suspicion leans towards night hunters being barred from certain places in the setting.

2nd question: What kind of injuries are hunters able to sustain (and fail to regenerate away)and still be in service? He may or may not be missing a ring finger and may have some scars elsewhere as well. Undecided. He would have been transferred out of the Survey Corps. If that's a thing.

3rd: As for the chosen Aura, that picture in the info thread with the hammer on the far right. I want it.  ;D

[Kissa]

I always recommend playing the kind of char you enjoy playing more yourself and I’m going to do that here too : )

To the questions

1. There are still libraries, both public and private. The private ones are mostly university libraries. The books weren’t high priority when the war began and sins came, but during the years the cities have salvaged books from the ruins and they even have their own publishers and printing companies. In short books exist and although there might not be as great variety as what we have now irl, it’s good considering the circumstances in the game. The Hunters (both charons and zerons) have access to all public libraries and they can request access to university libraries too, which is often granted.

2. A Hunter can possess injuries that won’t hinder his combat abilities. So for example cosmetic injuries (scars, losing part of earlobe/lips/not that important finger or toe) are fine. Injuries that affect mobility (losing many fingers, a limb, partial paralysis for example) and important senses like seeing, hearing and speaking are going to be a reason to send a Zeron back to factory for termination and a charon will be assigned to other duties that don’t include combat.

3. Yea, you can have the hammer : )

If you have any more questions, don’t hesitate to ask : )

[scribus1000]

Updated!

Found a guy, too.

Oscar B. Sanderson

Name: Oscar "Oz" Bradley Sanderson
Rank: First class private
Age: 29           Years in service: 8
Sexual orientation: Heterosexual

Aura: A two-sided hammer, coined Nightfall, with a head the size of a ripe watermelon, the kind you have to hold and carry in both hands. The shaft reaches about three feet, which is reasonably enough to grip it with one hand or both. Oz would tell you it's light as a feather and hits like a truck. Up to you to decide what you believe. (Weapon is also seen in Night Hunters Info, under Reply 4)

Zero trait (Bear):

Enhanced olfactory senses: Oz has inherited a strong sense of smell, making him able to detect scents most people cannot, as well as materials with distinct odors. He must already be familiar with a person's scent in the first place to recognize it. Oz isn't going to be tracking down leads halfway across town by his nose, but the sense can help pick up latent signs of approaching friends, dangers or strangers before they reach him.

Night hunter skill package - Every Night hunter has the Zero power. By using the power the hunter can enhance their speed, strength and mobility, use Zero abilities, regenerate their wounds and manifest their Auras. With the Zero come the negative side of the power too, which means that using the power will cause strain or corruption. In addition the zerons have some inhuman physical traits. As every hunter has had to graduate from a Military academy, they are all at least sufficient in driving a land vehicle, marksmanship and hand to hand combat.

Abilities: 

Momentum Surge: This is a twist on the mechanics of counter-strike. Oz is able to wield his hammer and, with the stored kinetic energy of previous swings, use his Zero to prompt an abrupt burst of momentum through his hammer in a direction of his choosing. This can be executed from a resting position or while mid-swing, for devastating, hard-to-predict attacks in situations that would normally be too improbable or unwieldy to work. With this ability used wisely, no windup is required. Oz can, in theory, hold his hammer an inch from your chest, trigger the power, and let the hammer hit you full-force as if he'd gone for a home-run smash.

This also applies to potentially throwing the hammer as well, however, once the hammer leaves his hand, he has no further influence over it apart from dismissing it at will.

It's crucial to note that this property only affects the Aura and not the hunter himself; Oz cannot directly apply the surge to himself, and the hammer must be summoned and charged up with kinetic energy for this move to be usable. He has no fine control over the output either--it's all or nothing, full force or no power. Also, the rules of inertia still fully apply. If he were to try sending his Aura forward carelessly with this ability while still gripping it, he must either let go or risk dislocating his own arm. He has massive potential for feints and other crafty tactics in battle, but regardless, he's only got one shot before he has to charge it up again.

Momentum Surge inflicts heavy strain.

Hardening: With the use of Zero, Oz can harden part of his body to function as natural armor, making himself able to withstand weapons fire and most physical attacks from opponents whether they're human or Sin. Bullets ping off his chest, clubs bounce off his head, and blades might not even draw blood on his already-rough skin. Heavy strain cost is incurred here, and Oz understandably prefers not getting hit at all, but the safety net is there to use.

Appearance: Oz is, upon first impression, typically described as a brute of a man; clean-shaven face with a neat crew cut that helps emphasize the striking features of his jaw and draws attention to the start of a widow's peak across his hairline. There's a big, barrel chest bolted on top of meaty thighs and firm calves that's impossible to miss, with arms not too different in terms of physically imposing shape and size. He's a 6'4" 200+ pound trooper, and nearly everything about him has a "blocky" feel to it, where he is less like a man and more like cubes of meat hastily packed into a soldier shaped Ziploc container, with broad shoulders, strong arms and fingers like sausage links that could grip the average man by his face. This is the guy you ask to twist that stubborn pickle jar open, the guy you bring over to help with putting up a new shed in your backyard, the guy your kids imagine in their stories about feats of superhuman strength like felling a tree in one swing of an axe. And with Zero, it may very well be true.

His eyes are a chilly blue, devoid of mirth, and almost any smile the man forms doesn't quite reach them, as if a wall of inarticulate rage acts as an around-the-clock gatekeeper. A scar runs the entire length of his skull on the right side of his head at about eye height, seemingly from some sharp object grazing him long ago.



Personality: Trauma is nothing new to the Night Hunters, and he's no exception with his own fair share of hard knocks and harder choices. Where some let their issues gnaw away at them or bury them so deep that the scent of rot can't follow them around, it seems like Oz chose to get over it in perhaps some measure of confrontation. It shows in his hunger for knowledge, "playing against type" as some would call it. He fulfills the visual stereotype of a big, room-temperature IQ burly brawler, is self-aware of this image and possesses the guile to let the assumption go unchallenged if it serves his goals well enough. Regardless of which way he's perceived, Oz is polite, brief, and as much to-the-point in his interactions as he can manage.

Innocent people, Zerons, Charons. Someone dies every day. His first interest is making the Sin population pay their fair taxes in casualties, and every day where the focus is drowning in human politics, being taken to one place or another as a chess piece in someone's parasitic vortex of a game instead of protecting what little scraps remain of the free world, is a day where he feels like he's lost a fight and let the debt pile on higher. If, somehow, he gets through all that and lives to see retirement...what's next? A desk job? Training newer generations? He would only feel truly free by somehow creating circumstances that lead to Zerons, Charons, and the rest of the Zero-infused populace no longer needed. But he's cynical enough to believe that their presence wouldn't stop at a lack of need.

Regardless of these emotions, the academy took his crumpled scrap of wandering potential and honed it into something sharp, handy, useful and obedient to a tee. A higher-ranking soldier can confidently tell him to jump and be rewarded with a faint "How high?" while Oz is on his way up. He can't fully guarantee success, but he can promise a solid attempt at the least, with the only conflict arising from orders that seem completely self-destructive.

Though it is most likely just an echo of his practical nature in order to keep team cohesion, the man is prone to acts of kindness or consideration for his teammates. Looking after those who crack under stress or seem weakened by the current circumstances, he tries getting them either back in the fight, or out of it altogether. Outside of "work", he's the guy that remembers a minute detail you mentioned two or three days ago and returns with some favor or item that respects that information.

Regarding his peers, Oz holds both Zerons and Charons with mild indifference; if you can hold a weapon and possess common sense, he cares little for who you are or where you're from unless it somehow impedes the team's progress (which is, in a roundabout way, why stoiers around him are watched more closely). If you've put yourself on The Shitlist™, you will know how and why you got there.



Biography:
Trigger warning for mention of death.
Like most Dogtown stories start (and end, usually early), Oscar's was in a nondescript, unimportant shithole of a shoddily-made apartment in the midst of Berkton's hustle-and-bustle. A "welcoming" community in its own way laid out a narrow fork of choices to take: While the family head was out there working to the bone to make ends meet, Oz took to the streets, and was not always on his best behavior. Stealing a thing here and there so his little sister's stomach wasn't growling at bedtime on the harder days, when Pop didn't quite have enough for a full meal, was commonplace. It was just what he normally did to help the family survive.

After quite a lot of time doing this, teenage Oz did what every young fella his age in his desperate circumstances would do: He stole from the wrong people, someone in organized crime with a few deep roots, with pockets a little too deep for grimy little hands to dig around in. Not a big player in the grand scheme of things, but certainly not someone a lone, inexperienced thief could swindle without consequences. Swiftly apprehended and beaten down, even at the peak of his growth spurt, the gang he'd fucked with had seen some sort of potential in that young'un, and instead of taking a hammer to his hands, gave him a way to repay his newly-earned debts: as an errand boy, some way to earn a little steady income in a world where all pickings were slim either by design or by willful neglect.

Of course he accepted, because why would he not? Morality wasn't edible. His new line of work helped just that much more.

Until a Sin invasion tore what little he had left apart. An infiltration of Dogtown, middle of the night. Wicked walking bastards with thin, narrow blades as long as his leg, glinting in the moonlit dark like pale beams of light. He panicked, abandoned his errand and made it home amidst the chaos. Hid with the sister in the shoddily-made apartment's little closet. Made silent prayers to any God that would listen as one of the Sins crept in after carving through the door like it was cardboard--must have been tracking him, saw him enter. Stupid, stupid. Clamped a hand over the little sister's mouth to keep her quiet, beads of tears smudging his fingers...

Oz didn't know how the Sin knew what it knew, or if he could have done something different in those last moments to avoid the nightmare that was his life after. Maybe it heard a whimper. What he did see was unmistakable--the monster casually plunging a half-dozen blades straight through that closet door, a blind and casual dead-check for prey.

Blade one went between them, missed them both. Number two found Oscar's side in a graze, without touching his intestines in a stroke of luck that would be repaid, but we'll get to that later. Number three punched through the door at his eye-height, carving a gash on one side of Oscar's head that would be a mainstay scar for the rest of his life. Another stroke of luck. Every debt has to be repaid, though... and blades four through six saw to that with two going through his sister's ribcage, and the last one through the center of one eye and out through the back of her skull, pinning her to the back wall like paper on a cork pinboard.

Snap of a finger, just like that. Thoughts, hopes, dreams, a future he was hoping to support alongside his, no matter what she chose to do with her time on earth. Stolen from him in the blink of an eye. Life, fragile as it was, broken and leaving a speechless, thoughtless body of a hundred pounds and change in its wake. Was it fate's idea of mercy? Sparing her from hardship she'd no doubt have to endure? Or punishment against him, for all the dirty things he'd done to survive? No way to know for sure. The Night Hunters came for cleanup and the Sin was drawn away by sounds of fresh combat, its curiosity about this little dwelling satisfied. It was only after the commotion died down that Oz emerged from that closet, his own wounds completely forgotten, ready to beg for someone to help while, in the same breath, knowing he was beyond it. He was brushed off by the reporting squad, although some members did show sympathy and EMTs tended to his wounds.

He waited, bandaged and hurting, for his father to come home. Pop did not. Never did. Only learned later on that he'd been claimed by the same attack.

Life went on the next day, this time with an empty house. Oscar plunged into "work" like he'd never done before, and being a naturally big boy growing into a man certainly helped him. Weeks bled into months bled into years, every minute of it spent with hollow insides every time he looked at that closet, at the bloodstains he couldn't tell were still real or imagined, at the spot where she died. It got easier over time, but never "easy". He found a pastime on a whim by visiting a local library, getting a taste of a higher calling but not quite forming an idea of progress with it. It helped keep away the darker thoughts, at least.

Fast forward to adult years. Oscar towered over most people other than the hardiest, leathernecked individuals he'd had the pleasure of doing business with... or to. As an enforcer, his tasks were a little more demanding, but also more lucrative, and he approached these missions with almost-giddy enthusiasm. The tragedies of his younger years were faded memories...and on some days he'd recall vividly where those six blades stabbed, while his sister's face in happier times was an unintelligible blur.

At some point, he knew he couldn't keep on the gangster's path. It was just a matter of time...a bloody gang war, a poorly judged heist against the upper crust, or some other clusterfuck waiting to happen. Oz knew he was big, but to a Night Hunter he'd just be the equivalent of an oversized toddler to dribble like a basketball on concrete. And he could only avoid bullets for so long until a lucky shot hit something he'd rather not get hit. Using his accrued, meager funds, he enlisted for the Charon program. Had to get away, to get out while he still could...to cobble something meaningful together with the years he had left.

Revenge? Not exactly. It was hard to wage a war with an entire species, and he was past that pain. Duty? This city didn't do shit for him, he owed these people nothing beyond his nine-to-nine work ethic. Money? What he really wanted couldn't be bought. Hmm. It took a while to flesh his wants out, but he did reach an answer: Peace in his own head. Freedom. Something that could take him away from the stink of this city, literal and figurative, where the gravitational pull of all these people and their lives had a little less force. If not for this scrapheap hidden behind walls that were only slightly useful, then certainly just for himself. And if he had to crack skulls or even die to get it, all the better.

Which was why he made the absurd, insane choice of taking up the Survey Corps. Far be it from a vacation--he saw a great deal more death out there than he ever had within the walls--but even then, somehow, on that razor's edge of frontline work...he enjoyed, on some level, what he was doing. When a job went right. When a Sin picked a fight with his unit and ate shit for its trouble. He especially liked the gigs with scientists testing one new thing or another and needing a crew of Hunters to get it done. Things were simple. Direct. Not bogged down in an endless spew of political balancing acts and dick-measuring. Almost no media circuses or ridiculous fetch quests. Certainly no front-row tickets to watching entire families torn apart in what felt like a mere minute. It was just his guys versus the bad guys, and his guys usually won.

Usually.

A fateful Hell Day hits. New guy, obviously important and bringing those shackles of political chessboard games with him, comes in, and Oz's commander gives him the reins on attacking a certain Sin nest far beyond the walls. The op is something risky, overreaching and smells bad from every angle, and every veteran on the team knows it. Something is in play at the high tables and none of them are clued in. But it's fine...orders are orders, and by now Oscar doesn't give a shit since he's not paid to give a shit. Just ticking boxes off someone's list so they can fuck off back to giving their bosses handjobs and he can go back to doing things he's good at.

That someone ends up disappointed as the badly-planned op, as most expect, goes badly. As they deal with lower-class Sin, an ambush swarms Oz's unit. Casualties ensue, men and women Oz knew well perish in various gruesome ways, and he's pretty sure a few are eaten if he remembers things correctly. Guns click dry and empty, barrels and chambers smoking. Auras crack, shatter, reform again in futile desperation. The S-class Sin doesn't let up and neither does the A-class cluster. Retreat is called, the mission is a fail. Oz blacks out and the next thing he wakes up to is a hospital bed, with a fresh roadmap of scars applied to his body and the tip of his right ring finger missing. There are new marks on his face, his head.

He's debriefed. Told that apparently, he personally dragged out/carried two and a half allies to safety while a few other Hunters stayed behind to buy time. The third one(the "half")'s upper body was missing and it seemed Oz hadn't been aware at the time--or perhaps an attack claimed them while he'd been moving them away. He's given some mild looks of contempt--why did you save a Zeron, too? Where were the other Charons with you? But it's understood that the heat of battle made finer details elude him. It's probably best for him to be transferred, or so the official says. You're coming up close to being able to train towards another profession, anyway, so the time off the frontline could do you some good while you prepare for that.

It, of course, wouldn't do Oz much good. At least not on paper. He had nothing against a new squad, but being penned up in this city again--with all its troubles that he already knew well--wasn't an exciting prospect for him. It was both a mild vacation and a subtle, aggravating jab of punishment for failure on a big job that counted, in his eyes.

And it was off the tail end of this, it seemed, that he found himself among SRU-3.


Advantages:

Brainy Brawns: Rolling well with the genetic lottery rewarded Oz with a physically imposing, delightfully strong body, as well as a determined physical regimen to keep in shape since his life depends on it. You're likely to find him in the gym, every morning, like clockwork. Sometime after that with grub in him, he's looking up pertinent information to his duties or finding entertainment of some kind in libraries and their relevant material.

Pragmatic and Emotionally Hardened: It is extremely hard to crack Oz's composure, even in life-or-death situations. He's been in more fights than the average Dogtown resident has had hot meals. The honest, unfair, and chaotic brutality of life, both within the walls and outside it, has taught him a few things, chief among them being a golden rule towering above all others: The only fair fight is the one you win. He can start off a battle at the drop of a hat, but often chooses not to if there is no objective, beneficial merit to be gained. That aside, if he sees a weak point, he'll go for it. If the path to victory is a dirty, underhanded trick, count on him to use it. He is not prideful, perhaps not even brave...just calculating, endlessly working the nine-to-five like any other slog of a Monday even as someone dies right next to him.

Co-operative: Despite his standoffish nature and "man of few words" manners, Oz is the furthest you could get from a lone wolf. Eager to clock in, get the work done, and clock out, he'll encourage every trick in the book if he finds synergy among his teammates, carefully observing their powers and hypothesizing how they can work together.

Weaknesses:

Blunt: Oz's standard conversational method in the middle of Night Hunter work is short, terse sentences, daring to not even waste words like he's following some kind of character budget. If asked questions for material things, he'll answer you, straight to the point; this concise nature tends to come off as machine-like and indifferent to life-and-death struggle, which can cause some aggravation. Though if you're also not a conversational type, then picking him as a battle buddy will satisfy the need for peace and quiet.

Even outside of work, he's often unwilling to make small white lies that might spare someone's feelings. If you want his opinion, you'll get the honest one, whether you want it or not.

Heart of stone: He may or may not strongly disagree with certain orders, depending on if they seem cruel, impossible or quite frankly absurd. But he'll carry it out, even if it seems like a bad or terrible call. A sense of justice and humanity undeniably lingers beneath the surface, but it's just that: Beneath. For all you know, that lake might be frozen over year-round.

Cold equations: Life is cheap. Attachments made with allies over time can be severed at an alarming speed, a tendency he's had since his early days about survival and making his own luck. If you're horribly maimed and it looks like your fate is sealed, Oz might be the one to offer a nine-millimeter ticket to end your suffering while pulling spare mags from your pockets, since he might need the ammunition later. Actions taken--or decided against--come down to the odds of success rather than any humanizing notion like hope or compassion.

He hates doing things like this, but it's the way of the world now. Fresh faces come by so often that they bleed into each other like images in a flipbook, and they either end up in gutters, shallow graves, distant imaginary crematoriums, or lost to the wild beyond the walls. Oz is too reluctant to make any emotional anchors, and the lack of connection--the detached nature with which Oz may determine a comrade beyond help or survival--may unnerve his remaining teammates or even cause some grudges.

Backfiring trait: Oz will find overwhelming smells uncomfortable. The most offensive ones can outright disorient him if they're bad enough, sometimes requiring coverage like a gas mask to tolerate.



O&Os
Roleplay ONs: Generally outlines what most people here already say: Talk about the roleplay if and when you need to! It's a core topic since it's why we're here, in these threads in particular.
OFFs: Radio silence concerning comforts/discomforts, any issues arising from said silence, etc.

Sexy ONs and OFFs: All that is visible in my signature link. Also linking it here for convenience.

[scribus1000]

I always recommend playing the kind of char you enjoy playing more yourself and I’m going to do that here too : )

To the questions

1. There are still libraries, both public and private. The private ones are mostly university libraries. The books weren’t high priority when the war began and sins came, but during the years the cities have salvaged books from the ruins and they even have their own publishers and printing companies. In short books exist and although there might not be as great variety as what we have now irl, it’s good considering the circumstances in the game. The Hunters (both charons and zerons) have access to all public libraries and they can request access to university libraries too, which is often granted.

2. A Hunter can possess injuries that won’t hinder his combat abilities. So for example cosmetic injuries (scars, losing part of earlobe/lips/not that important finger or toe) are fine. Injuries that affect mobility (losing many fingers, a limb, partial paralysis for example) and important senses like seeing, hearing and speaking are going to be a reason to send a Zeron back to factory for termination and a charon will be assigned to other duties that don’t include combat.

3. Yea, you can have the hammer : )

If you have any more questions, don’t hesitate to ask : )

Duly noted!

What's the cutoff age for enlisting, by the way?

[Kissa]

Duly noted!

What's the cutoff age for enlisting, by the way?

Looks good so far! So far the only thing that comes to mind from the sheet is that the chipping won't affect one's size in any way. So Oz is naturally a very big boy : ) Also here is link to the picture with the hammer only.

The last chance to join the Charon program is at age of 24. I should add it somewhere in the info at some point.

I tried finding some pics, but big guys are difficult to come up with when using anime art. I'm quite sure some western game concept art has big guys, but they are usually in shooter games I can't play, so I don't know about them. I found some pics. None of them exactly is what you are looking, but will put them here anyway in case you can't find better ones : )

Male 1
Male 2
Male 3
Male 4

[scribus1000]

Looks good so far! So far the only thing that comes to mind from the sheet is that the chipping won't affect one's size in any way. So Oz is naturally a very big boy : ) Also here is link to the picture with the hammer only.

The last chance to join the Charon program is at age of 24. I should add it somewhere in the info at some point.

I tried finding some pics, but big guys are difficult to come up with when using anime art. I'm quite sure some western game concept art has big guys, but they are usually in shooter games I can't play, so I don't know about them. I found some pics. None of them exactly is what you are looking, but will put them here anyway in case you can't find better ones : )

Male 1
Male 2
Male 3
Male 4

Yeah, they don't exactly fit what I sought, and neither does the guy i settled on, but I will save em for later refs as future characters. Number 1 and 2 are especially good and I'll find use of them somewhere!

Got the abilities and bio updated in full. It's pretty late right now so I may have flopped on coherence here and there and there may be edits later, on top of what you'll have me do, but the gist of what I fleshed out should be live now. Thank you for your help and patience  ;D

[Kissa]

Yeah, they don't exactly fit what I sought, and neither does the guy i settled on, but I will save em for later refs as future characters. Number 1 and 2 are especially good and I'll find use of them somewhere!

Got the abilities and bio updated in full. It's pretty late right now so I may have flopped on coherence here and there and there may be edits later, on top of what you'll have me do, but the gist of what I fleshed out should be live now. Thank you for your help and patience  ;D

Happy you found FC : ) Oz's sheet looks good. Unless I missed something there is just one thing that needs a little edit.

Momentum Surge. The ability bases on that it stores energy in the Aura and then releases it all at once, so if I understood the abort move right it wouldn't work as once the stored energy is released there won't be energy left to do another Momentum surge before the Aura has gathered enough energy for it again. The abilities don't scale. Also the energy will be stored only 'one use', meaning if there Aura breaks, is dematerialized it loses the stored energy because otherwise he could charge it before battle with hitting nails or something : p

[scribus1000]

Happy you found FC : ) Oz's sheet looks good. Unless I missed something there is just one thing that needs a little edit.

Momentum Surge. The ability bases on that it stores energy in the Aura and then releases it all at once, so if I understood the abort move right it wouldn't work as once the stored energy is released there won't be energy left to do another Momentum surge before the Aura has gathered enough energy for it again. The abilities don't scale.

Oh uh. I wrote it poorly and I blame the 4am fog, but yes, I intended it in the way you wrote counter strike, in that he can never do it more than once at a time because he would have had to store energy beforehand. So when I wrote the abort part, I meant that the swing he'd start with would be completely normal, and the abort would be expending the stored charge he'd built up before that point by taking it in the opposite direction. Most of the moves he'd make would be about starting off with the ability charged up in reserve, and then using it to change direction or timing, in order to trick an opponent. Nothing scales or stacks and it's all gone in one shot.

Also the energy will be stored only 'one use', meaning if there Aura breaks, is dematerialized it loses the stored energy because otherwise he could charge it before battle with hitting nails or something.

Absolutely, not looking to do something cheesy like that. Oz might play unfairly, but I don't.  O:)

Updated! More will follow after work if needed. Probably still a little foggy too, but I'll get it right sometime today.

[Kissa]

Oz is accepted : ) You can post the sheet here and I will PM you discord link.