[PKMN FULL] Into the Great Open Blue [OOC]

Ray Maverick · Feb 8, 2017

As of now the spot for the Navigator of our crew is open

Junier · Feb 8, 2017

I'll express my interest. Love pirates. But I've got a lot of reading up to do...

Ray Maverick said:
As of now the spot for the Navigator of our crew is open

Aside from meeting the job description, are there any other expectations you have for the ship navigator that might be important to note?

Ray Maverick · Feb 8, 2017

Disclosed said:
I'll express my interest. Love pirates. But I've got a lot of reading up to do...

Aside from meeting the job description, are there any other expectations you have for the ship navigator that might be important to note?

It's only logical that navigators have tools to do their job. Basic knowledge of how they get their job done would be nice. I think navigators should have formal education as well, but it's not an absolute requirement - your character may be self taught. Up to you. It would help with their hiring right now if they had a formal education.

Junier · Feb 8, 2017

I think navigators should have formal education as well, but it's not an absolute requirement - your character may be self taught. It would help with their hiring right now if they had a formal education.

Of course; I'll keep that all in mind.

I'm starting to fit some pieces together already but the bulk of the brainstorming will have to wait until I have time to peruse all the context in the OP, which should actually be quite soon.

Cheers until then! I'll update again with a more solidified idea, possibly even a finished sign-up!

Ray Maverick · Feb 13, 2017

The Artwork section has been added to the OP!

Here's one of the newer characters, Kahuna Raphael. Fat and myopic, he's got a helper with him at all times!

Spoiler:

Plumbum · Feb 27, 2017

Good to see this finally got up and running. I genuinely hope it turns out fun for you guys.

Ray Maverick · Apr 3, 2017

Spoiler:

and here's the Charmeleon with the outlandish tattoos. I was looking at a reference pic of a Charmeleon who looked particularly evil so this one turned out to look evil as well (I didn't intend to do it that way, or did I?!). either way this guy is a savage and I hope it shows

Update about the RP: well we've all been a bit busy the past month with school and whatnot so post-production has been slow, hopefully we'll pick the pace back up, lots of exciting stuff to come!

Ray Maverick · Apr 8, 2017

AYYYYYyyyylmaowereachedkuai

Kuai, the Chinchou Island

Spoiler:

Notable locations:
* Lighthouse & Church
* Pelipper Mail Service
* Guns shop
* Flogistron Station
* Food Market
* Tavern, Captain's Ire, inside Fayn's Retreat (cave)

jombii · Apr 9, 2017

Hey Ray! It's good to see you're still continuing this RP!

If it's possible, do you still have a spot open? I'm trying to jump right in back to RPing lol but net connection usually sucks. I'll try to get a post once a week lol.

If it's not, I'm just saying good luck on the RPers on this. Ciao!

Afterglow Ampharos · Apr 9, 2017

Our RPs function in joint posts, multiple people contributing in lines of their own to total up to the large posts you see here. Here's a little snapshot to help you see what I mean: each typist has their own colour.
Screenshot 1

Or, when only two people are involved in a post:
Screenshot 2

It's a form of collaborative writing where you can make it feel more like a book and less like sequential post turns. Make sense now?

Anyway, I bring it up because if we were just posting large chunk posts in the forum once in a while, this would work:

Varys said:
I'll try to get a post once a week.

But since we actually contribute in many small lines, a few times per week, I thought you should get some kinda warning.

jombii · Apr 10, 2017

Afterglow Ampharos said:
Our RPs function in joint posts, multiple people contributing in lines of their own to total up to the large posts you see here. Here's a little snapshot to help you see what I mean: each typist has their own colour.
Screenshot 1

Or, when only two people are involved in a post:
Screenshot 2

It's a form of collaborative writing where you can make it feel more like a book and less like sequential post turns. Make sense now?

Anyway, I bring it up because if we were just posting large chunk posts in the forum once in a while, this would work:

But since we actually contribute in many small lines, a few times per week, I thought you should get some kinda warning.

Yep yep. I know how joint posts/roleplaying works lol. I've been here before and just trying to get back into the community.

Yeah, Ray already PMed me about stuff and I don't think my workload can accommodate open blue hahaha. Wishing you luck on this RP!

Jauntier · Apr 13, 2017

Huh.

Now this role-play looks spectacular! Novel and novella-esque, if I may. And a position is open. Well now, it certainly has my interest, though I've yet to decide if I want it for my own. I think I will read through a bit of the IC and skim the OOC for answers to questions I may have formed--and weigh a few personal items of mine--but I will surely pop in again with a post.

Ray Maverick · Apr 13, 2017

@Jauntier sounds great, you can also talk to me if you want additional info about anything

Jauntier · May 2, 2017

Here's my application for Sky Master:

[CSS-DIV=width: 720px; height: 720px; padding: 20px; overflow: auto; text-align: left]

"Anarchy" Anne
"All day long, I can hear their whispers in the sky.
Please, let me draw nearer."

AGE: 20
SPECIES: Banette
CREW POSITION: Sky Master

APPEARANCE:

Spoiler:

When I look at myself—over the edge, into the bright blue water—I see a ghost. My neck is like a sprout and not like the common stock of my folk, as the high ruff of my dress does not brush against my chops. I've been blessed with legs scarcely taller too, as they sport my leather lace-up boots comfortably. And these hands must have more stuffing, as they do not look like torn ribbons, but are still as thick as a Snorlax's cot.

I have worn this flowing dress for as long as I can remember. It is a thin white linen and tight like another skin. Both long ruffled sleeves keep in place with a large pearl push pin, driven clean through the side of my hands. They feel like they belong, piercing my cushion of a body. Three more pin across the front of my dress, perhaps fancifully, and pinch my chest. I remember collecting these pins, but I do not remember exactly this nail.

When I look, I look with one eye. The other is impaled by a giant metal nail, the pointed end of it pinning down part of the trailing ribbon from my head. Tightly-stitched tears like scars run out in four ways from that point, but they don't ache. I can grab the nail by the head, and as I pull it out, I feel nothing there. What's left is no eye. It's sunken so far in that it cannot be seen, like a button pushed deep into a downy pillow.

I can feel a part of myself in this enormous nail and I've wielded it time and again, like a rapier, like a club. With the otherworldly power of my will, it can fly at a target while my hands are free. Some part of me is stored in this bolt, but I can't find the words to describe what or how. It is made of the same metal that seals my mouth shut. The tag on the zipper has a strange emblem on it. It is an engraving for something I do not remember.

HISTORY:

I. Starting Over In Liverte

Spoiler:

I don't remember what it was like to be a child. I don't remember having small hands—or if I were a Shuppet first, no hands at all. I don't remember the comfort of a mother. Some bitter black feeling crops up every time I try to think that far. A grudge sits in the hole of my memory.

I can't jog my mind on my true start, but I remember where it got me. Washed up on shore one moonless night, I had just escaped something. Something big. Something like a fate worse than death, it felt like; I had fought and fought to go, and I was so tired that my body could barely move. I ended up on the southern beach of Liverte, like a throwaway ragdoll. I saw distant lights on the water, ships pulling in and out of docks the beach over. Alone, I was so anxious and worn, but gathered what bit of strength I had and went, an empty ghost. I felt lost, exhausted, forsaken—but I went, wandering toward the city nested in the low black cloud.

I don't remember much else, then. For a very, very long time—I hadn't counted the summers gone—I lived in a small space full of dusty books and tools. Only a window let in light. I heard two old voices under me, a male and a female, and they would holler and shout so often for so long into the night, until I noticed one day I just stopped hearing the lady's voice under me, just some shuffling and the male's whispers. Shame, all the shouting kept me comfort! I was so used to it! Still all the while, I'd read. All the books were on one thing: boats! I read about building boats, fixing boats, what different ones looked like split in half, what ones could fly! Some others talked about how to read the stars, and what kinds of weather there be. There were books on how to use tools for navigation, and lucky me, those books sat right next to a chest of those tools! I played with them at first, then I started learning from them. Hardly practiced them right but I did slip out the house at night and go down to the beach, standing in the water while I studied the stars. Then I'd come right back to that house before dawn.

Sometimes, if I wanted to go out during the day, I got frightfully nervous. Felt like I had some kind of spell over me not to leave while there was still sunlight, but I was so curious. One day I heard the man downstairs get so angry, he just screamed as loud as he could. That made me jump, so I screamed too! Tore my mouth right open. I felt myself bust out of my body and stream out the house—walls and them kept me none. I was flying. I had no weight. It was hard to control the very first time I did it, but while I blasted by houses through the air, I was connected to something. Something big, something great, something somewhere was calling me, and I could actually see and hear and sense so much sharper. I was in my true form, and something was begging me up in the clouds, I think. Yes! I went higher and higher, searching for this thing that I know kept luring me into the sky, but I could feel myself getting…. We'll call it tired-like. Further up I went, further away from my body, more tired I got. So I managed to steer back to my body. But I made it a habit to leave the house this way when I wanted to, and I was able to explore a good stretch of the city around me and get better with steering myself.

I remember the day I realized the old one's voice under me hadn't talked for a while. The house felt empty. I waited until night fell, before I finally went down below for the first time ever. Past the kitchen and in his quarters, sitting in a chair with a book in his lap, there was… Well, I don't remember what Pokemon he was. I'll remember when I see it—a small green one with gnarled and browning leaves on his back from age. He was utterly still with eyes open. I hadn't known at the time what death was, but I had sensed the presence of a spirit had gone. Foolish girl that I was, I sat next to his corpse and blathered about living in his attic! I apologized for not telling him sooner, and told him all the things I had learned from his books! Fancy: no reply. Figured then he was just the silent, stoic type.

I lived there awhile longer, paying no real mind to the corpse, thinking I'd let him get back to reading. One day I went downstairs and found a sheet of parchment had slipped in from under his front door. It was a posted request by some merchant group, looking to hire some Pokemon for positions on their ship, and one of them was Navigator. I did show the request to the deceased, thinking he could put his navigation knowledge to use, but I must have taken his refusal to reply as a sign I ought to do it. I ought to get some adventure. So I answered the call.

This group was at the docks, the ones not too far from where I went almost nightly on the beach. I was anxious going around high noon, as the docks were busy with 'mon I'd never seen before, and I hadn't had much practice talking to them. Didn't even know the first thing about the city's history, even. But meeting with the Persian captain of the crew—Captain Barbosa was his name, enlisted by the merchant group Wayfare & Co.—he was about to give me a little test to see if I knew any better about navigation.

But first he asked for my name. I hadn't thought about my name all the while I was living! Realising that, I let out a kind of dumbstruck sound trying to think it up quickly, but I couldn't pluck it out of my head. Barbosa mistook the sound I made as my actual answer! Sounded like I said "Anne"! Well, there it was, my name was Anne on that pier, and I didn't know what to call myself, so I took it. Asked me with an 'e' on the end, and I dumbly nodded!

He tested me on navigation things, nothing a good learner would find too hard. Did I impress! I suppose this is the time to mention that I looked pretty bonny at this time. No fat nail in my eye, none of these big scars. The accident came later. But I remember too, I showed them what really made me different from any other Navigator on this big, flat earth. I opened my mouth and let my spirit run free, and I saw everything happening on the docks in a distance no ordinary Pokemon could see. I came back and told him all of the commotion, where and how. Looked like the color came right out of his cheeks, it did! But it landed me the part!

II. Wayfare and The Admiral

Spoiler:

I was the best Navigator their little vessel ever had. Captain told me so! It was a little rocky at first since, I had to work my voice so whoever had to pilot the ship could hear, and remembering which direction the wind blew wasn't always the same as right for east and left for west. Why, I barely had a grasp of distance for the first bit—I think it was a month; time was almost lost to me back then—just throwing out numbers! But once I got my bearings, the crew was set to glide through waters safely. In fact, I never sleep. I was on guard every waking minute of the day, and that's saved us plenty of times.

Being a merchant ship, we were a prime target for pirates. We've been attacked plenty of times in our own waters near Liverte, and along our different routes. For a trade vessel, it looked like it was modified to defend itself, but just barely with a few extra cannons on board. Plenty of times we've had some two-bit pirates manage to board us. First time it happened I didn't know what to do, but as I watched crew on deck battling with their swords, I jumped out the bird's nest and tried to do the same with the rapier they gave me. I don't mind being poked, since I got poked a lot myself in some of the sword fights, but I don't like the blades that'll tear me to ribbons, so I learned real quick to call on some of my own power. Made it through alright every time. My attacks got better and better. I'd pull some stunts the crew never saw before, plenty of times too! So they called me "Anarchy Anne".

Wayfare & Co. got attention from a larger band of pirates. This band didn't want to attack us though, they instead made a deal with the guild owner, and word ran down to our captain. Their captain met with us at the docks, and an agreement was reached. Felt like Barbosa couldn't deny it if he could—the pirate said he was speaking on behalf of Admiral Charles Gallagher, one of the biggest names in the sea I later found out. Seemed like this ship of pirates was passing off their cargo duties onto us, but they heard Wayfare & Co. were one of the better merchant guilds in this part of the world, and more affordable. This Gallagher crony contracted us to make travel between a number of island ports and the pirate nation of Nautactus. We were getting handsome pay too for every successful trip, much better than the guild owner used to give us. We were given a much larger, sturdier ship to steer, equipped with what felt like luxury quarters for us, and decked with more artillery and a variety of munitions. We were even lent battle-ready pirates from Gallagher's fleet to help man this new ship, joining our crew. This great new contract was our lives through two summers.

III. Disaster

Spoiler:

Then it ended. One day changed everything. We weren't the only contracted merchant vessel under Gallagher, but because I was one of the best Navigators among them—extra thanks to my spirit scouting technique—it showed with how quickly we were able to deliver our goods. Well, that day we were entrusted with a big load. These weren't the typical munitions cargo to pick up in Nautactus, I know; the crates looked doubly-reinforced with steel as they were being loaded, and each side was engraved with an emblem. I remember that they looked different. Well, the trip we had to make wasn't particularly long once we loaded. We were at Nautactus, headed toward Kuai in the Novayas islands far northeast of the Carajol Sea, but something struck midway. It was so sudden, so damn sudden, it was a disaster that gave no way for me to tell in what was clear sunny skies that day. It didn't even creep on us in an hour's time, it was like a blink and it was upon us. Clouds a deep grey blew in on a wind I didn't feel, swollen with rain, rain that didn't stop, rain that pelted us on the head so heavy, so immediately, it nearly knocked some of us soft-heads out in hardly any time. The torrential downpour disrupted the tide around us so badly that the boat was losing speed. Thunder blasted so loud you couldn't hear your thoughts, and not even a second later followed great bright whips of lightning. It almost felt like something up in the clouds had its sights on us, Struck down the boat so quickly, just snapped it clear in two, then three, and the boat not too long after was pushed under the water from the force of the rain.

I can't remember much else about it. I was scrambling down from the crow's nest and trying to get below deck when the mast was struck by lightening and split in half, the sides came crashing down. I blacked out. It must've struck me. I had this big nail punctured through my eye when I came too, but it didn't hurt me, so I didn't even know it was there. Well, not until I couldn't see as far around me as I usually did. Every time I think about that storm, I feel so… so angry, so godforsaken mad… I don't know what happened or why. And it reminds me of something but I can't remember it, can't for the life of me.

I don't much want to talk about the rest of it. Long story short… The storm got us while we were not too far away from the tip of Antara. Washed up on shore, we wandered into the nearest town north of that point, fighting through thick jungle and wild Pokemon. We were down five men, we lost everything but the clothes on our backs, and some of them were suffering injuries worse than mine. We did what we could and when we were taken in by locals, they treated us well enough, got us some rudimentary medical attention. They were kind of wild-like—called their town Hera. I got my eye patched up. I told them to keep this nail right where it is since I no longer had my eye. I might as well have kept it like a big pin, as I had lost my rapier and used it instead during the trek up. When we were able to get the help we needed that was it for charity. We didn't have anything valuable to trade the townsfolk for proper boats and such, so we scavenged for materials with the help of our Striker, and we worked together with our Boatswain to fashion a sturdy raft for thirteen. Took us nearly a week, but we made our dodgy way back to Kuai, back to port looking pitiful, the others starved, some even dehydrated. We were supposed to meet with Gallager himself with our important shipment.

I don't want to go on much further. Ended up blaming me, he did, spat at me, saying I was a no good Navigator—to put it nicely—for not seeing a storm as great as we described approach, saying I must've steered them right into Flint's Wrath. He blamed me for losing priceless parcels, for… for deaths. It's obvious now I'm no longer bound to Gallagher or Wayfare & Co. At least he didn't value five 'mon's lives out of his enormous fleet, else if they were important, I wouldn't be here to tell my tale. We're just throwaway rag dolls.

I didn't have a home anymore, no money. I don't eat, I don't drink. I just need a purpose. Something is calling me to join their grand mass. It's up there, somewhere, in the sky. I'll only get there as an air pirate.

PERSONALITY:
Anne is a curious Banette with a saucy edge to her taunts, an impish manner to her sleuthing, and an excitable temperament. She carries herself with a demeanor halfway between a roguish urchin and a proper maiden, as she likes to fool about and take a mischievous lead, and yet seems to have a kind of patrician's air when she's resigned to her thoughts and a wandering eye. She's very sociable, and while new, foreign situations may give way to anxiousness, she more often than not channels it into a spritely energy.

Perhaps a trait of the species and remnant of a pre-evolution, Anne revels in others' negative emotions. She's not entirely aware of it, but being near a source of so-called bad aura invigorates her, although positivity will not invoke the inverse. The few times she's deeply upset, she's prone to wallowing in her emotions, as the power of her own greatly negative emotions seem to imbue the pins and nail in her body.

Anne is not well educated beyond water vessels, navigation tools, weather patterns, and a few cities and points of interest in the Known World. She retains her ability to speak articulately despite this, having known how to speak, read, and write in the time before the hole in her memory. She doesn't hold herself higher than another Pokemon based on lacking education or a more colloquial way of speaking. She may be self-absorbed at times, but she does not have a narcissistic nature.

GOAL:
Anne's reason in becoming an air pirate is because she feels it'll guide her ever closer to this amorphous spiritual entity that she calls "The Great Collective". It is her own personal belief she devised throughout her life that when she releases her spirit into the world, leaving her body behind, she feels attuned to something she thinks is in the sky. It's faint but titillating enough that she wants to explore it. Her makeshift philosophy is that when a sentient Pokemon dies, its spirit returns to this drifting mass that circles the world, both known and beyond. The mass is one homogeneous conscience that wields all knowledge of existence from the beginning of time, and should her spirit come into actual contact with the Collective, she would draw ancient power, life, and wisdom from it. She considers it her true home, and the only true escape from a grudge that she feels will consume her life, concerning the circumstances of an important event noticeably lost in her memory. If she can find out what's lost to her as well, maybe she can resolve the deep-seated rage she feels trying to recall anything beyond when she washed up on shore back in Liverte.

ABILITY: Insomnia
TYPE MASTERY / ARTIFACT: None
MOVESET: Screech, Night Shade, Shadow Sneak, Will-O-Wisp, Hex, Psychic

What is the Fifth Tenet of the Golden Code of Conduct? I don't know where that is. Sometime later, I think I'll just have to try and be alert.

RP SAMPLE: From Off The Menu, Bailey the Ralts, Post #2[/CSS-DIV]

Ray Maverick · May 2, 2017

Awesome! This is exactly what we're looking for :D Anarchy is the perfect name for a pirate. You're accepted, welcome aboard! I'll add your character to our crew list.

And with that, the spots are closed for now

Ray Maverick · Oct 11, 2017

Damn, it's been a long time since we did some work on this. Sorry for whoever's following the story, if there's anybody out there. We've been having some issues regarding inspiration, but hopefully we'll be able to get back on track and make some good progress.

cheers, everyone who's stuck.

Ray Maverick · Oct 14, 2017

Added Admiral Charles Gallagher and his Flaaffy's in the Artwork section!

quick summary of what's happened so far IC:

The Woodworker & The Adventurer
* Isaac the Adventurer and Daniel the Woodworker find the fabled Wyron Woodlands
* Young Jon and Nick met when Daniel invited Isaac over for dinner, and so the basis for the Blue Bands crew is formed
* Daniel's crafting business prospers enough for him to take a ship contract, so the Safe Journey is created with the legendary Wyron wood
* Because ship-making is a lucrative business, the Trade Prince demanded more taxes from the woodworkers through the Poison Viper Pirates, and when they couldn't pay, the pirates kidnapped Nick's brother

Modistra
* Nick is on the trail of his little brother; he meets with Jon again after so many years and the two end up in jail, where they form the Blue Bands crew and break out
* Out of sheer dumb luck, the ship that Nick's family crafted is ported in Modistra, so they decide to steal it, and then go on a roll through town and recruit one of every role but a psychic
* Meanwhile, as Adrian is off to sea fighting with Amadeus who lured him out of the island, the marines under Air Marshal Basil have raided the Governor's castle
* The crew votes to go to the castle, as Jon tells them that there they'll find a map with the path of the Trade Prince's galley that they could rob and get rich, plus the treasure they would find in Modistra's castle
* The Blue Bands raid the castle, steal the map and belongings of the Governor, who the marines wanted to arrest for corruption, and then kidnap him because he ate the map
* Frag and the disturbingly strong Charmeleon blow up the Air Marshal Basil's Riefmore, making it crash into the castle; so the marines were unable to chase the Blue Bands when they left the island

Antigua
* Jon chooses Antigua, one of the islands on the edge of the Known World, to make his hideout; the crew splits up, each group with a different mission
* While Sam & Frag go up in the mountains, and Nick & Kayri go in the upper jungle, Jon & Cook go into the lower jungle, where they find Raphael, the aged Toucannon who failed to protect his family from the Big Fearow
* Sam & Frag meet with a psychic, Quetzalli, who has been living in the mountains; she helps Jon take out the Fearow, and as a result, Raphael allows Jon to build his hideout on the island. Quetzalli joins the crew as the psychic

Kuai
* Jon goes to the Captain's Ire, the infamous pirate-infested tavern of the island, where he meets a Lombre that tells him a crazy tale about a castle in the clouds
* Nick sends letters back to home and Anarchy's crew ends up on the shores of Kuai after their ship was sunk
* Sam's taken an assassination contract that he really wants to see through, so he's looking for dirt on his target to convince his captain she's bad enough to get killed. It turns out that the journalist (his target) is conspiring with the priest of Kuai to dismantle pirate influence on the island, all in the name of the Party God, the rogue pirate ruler of Osenia, who seeks to undermine the power of the Pirate Alliance
* Jon & Cook meet with Admiral Charles Gallagher, after Jon heard he was on the island, and work out a deal with him when he warns them that the score they have set their eyes on isn't as easy to take as they thought
* Nim is replaced as the Navigator by Anarchy who joins the crew
* The ship's hull and guns are upgraded
* The crew leaves for the south, as the target of the Blue Bands, Apolucia, is two weeks away from showing up to the path detailed in the schedule map that Jon has

we here

Ray Maverick · Dec 17, 2017

I have to say I'm thankful for everyone who's stuck for the RP, through its highs and lows. We'll soon be entering the last roleplay chapter of the glorious quest of the Blue Bands. I didn't intend for this RP's story to be so short - there were many, many kinds of adventures and challenges that I wanted to put our crew through... I hope for those stories to be told in the form of fan fics sometime in the future, if possible.

To the people who enjoy reading the RP, and to the people who are part of this story, thank you from the bottom of my heart.

Ray Maverick · Mar 4, 2018

Since it's been a while, and some of us moved on, we've sadly decided to put a stop to Open Blue. It was fun while it lasted, but I was still hoping for it to be a better ride than it was - I had so many things in store for it that will never see the light of day... I apologize that there will be no proper ending to it. It breaks my heart to leave yet another one of my RPs unfinished and concluded inappropriately. Oh well. That's life I suppose! I'd like to leave this on a more positive note:

I hope everyone, players and readers, enjoyed this run as it is now, and as said before, a warm thanks to those who fought for the glory of our crew. The Blue Bands live on!

[PKMN FULL] Into the Great Open Blue [OOC]

More options

Ray Maverick

Junier

Fake Friends Forever (´･ω･`)

Ray Maverick

Junier

Fake Friends Forever (´･ω･`)

Ray Maverick

Plumbum

The Dandy Highwayman (That You're Too Scared to Me

Ray Maverick

Ray Maverick

jombii

[FONT=Franklin Gothic Medium][SIZE=4][COLOR=#00b05

Afterglow Ampharos

Ampharos are the ultimate kid's bed. They have a b

jombii

[FONT=Franklin Gothic Medium][SIZE=4][COLOR=#00b05

Jauntier

Where was your antennas again?

Ray Maverick

Jauntier

Where was your antennas again?

Ray Maverick

Ray Maverick

Ray Maverick

Ray Maverick

Ray Maverick