02-03-2010, 03:52 AM
Originally posted on MSPA by Baphomet.
Awwwright, guess what, this is happening. I just got done having a little chat with The Director himself, and it's time to begin The Grand Battle, Round Seven of Nine, EPIC CLASH. You know the drill. Get your nigh-omnipotent self out there and find yourself a champion from any universe, any time, any place. Pluck them out of whatever business they're getting into right now and take them here for my inspection. If they pass muster, they get thrown in a battle to the death in interesting and exotic locales! And I know you all know better than to tell them what's up or help them out; the more dazed, confused, and disoriented they are when they get here, the more hilarious it is.
I need eight champions up here quick. I've only got a few eternities. Get searching!
Welcome to the Epic Clash, the seventh in the series of eight preliminary Grand Battles. For those of you who somehow find yourselves in the metas/collabs section without knowing what this is, it's a writing contest between eight people, and I suggest you at least skim the first one. There are some minor variations in rules between each, but the gist of it is this:
1) Each player posts a character. I'll leave a form to fill out later in the post. That player controls that character throughout the duration of their participation in the contest, writing about their actions, the environment, and, to a more limited extent, the actions of the other characters.
2) There are seven "rounds" during which characters interact. At the beginning of each round, I will give you a brief outline about that round's setting. You are expected to fill in the details as your character interacts with and discovers more of the environment.
3) Whoever is judged to have written worst in each round will have their character eliminated and will no longer be able to participate actively. The remaining characters will be transported to another setting and the next round will begin. Again, it has nothing to do with how powerful the character is, it has to do with how well you write. If you make an indestructible character and don't back it up with indestructible writing, they are going to have some horrible luck befall them at the end of the round.
Those are the common elements. There are some minor variations between each Grand Battle. Here's the ground rules for this one.
Posts tend to get very lengthy, and it sucks to sit there writing a 154 page annotated post with references only to hit submit and see someone else just said something that invalidated everything your character just did. To prevent this, we have a reservation system. Just post saying you're reserving a spot, and for the next three hours, no one else can post anything in character until you've posted. After you post, or after your three hour reservation is up, the next post is fair game.
Remember that it is a WRITING contest, not a straight roleplay battle. You are permitted to control other characters once you think you have a sufficient understanding of how that character would act. So, if you make someone else's character act, well, out of character, it's your contestant that gets the axe that round, not theirs. However, if you make their character do something awesome and in line with their normal behavior, bonus points for you. The majority of your posts should be about the character you enter, though.
You, the searcher for these contestants, are not supposed to tell the character that they're going to be in a battle to the death, nor are you supposed to help them after the game starts. Typically they just disappear from wherever they were and wind up in line for battle with no idea what just happened. Helping them before the game starts, assuming they don't know what they're being helped for, is discouraged but permissible if it's interesting enough.
Contestants should not actually leave the battle arena. They can try (in fact I encourage it) as long as it doesn't actually work.
Ideally, the end of the round will come when events in that round have seemed to come to a climactic sort of head. When I have made my decision about who would be eliminated, I'll PM it to everyone, and those of you who would be interested in dealing the death blow have a short period to set your characters up to do so. The person who controls the character being eliminated then gives me tips about how they want their death scene to play out, and I write it for them. If they are eliminated due to inactivity, I'll just write it outright.
That about covers it. If you're interested in participating, you first have to submit a character, which is done by filling out the form below. If you want to write a little blurb about what they were doing before they were selected, that's cool too.
Your character's name: Tell us their name. If it's unpronounceable using the sounds represented by letters on the english keyboard, give us something to call them.
Gender: Male, female, robot, sentient shade of the color blue, whatever. If they don't fit in the typical gender roles, at least tell us what pronoun to use.
Race: What do we call things like what your character is? Human? Lizardfolk? Busty elfen temptress?
Color: You have to pick a color to post in. White text on a red background, Dark blue on pale orange, and plain black are reserved. If you're writing for another character, you can post what they say and do in their color if you want, but it's not required. Distinct colors are preferred, so the people reading can mentally associate the colors with the characters.
Physical description: What does the character look like? Pretty self-explanatory. You can draw a picture if you'd like, but it's not required.
Personality overview: Give us the basics about how we can expect your character to behave. You don't need to be too specific, a lot of it comes out of the interaction with the other players.
Abilities: What makes the character a dangerous opponent? Are they masters of swordplay? Can they conjure armies of shadow people on a whim? Are they just super street smart? Again, you don't have to be super specific. Give us an outline, a theme.
Equipment: What does your character have with them? If your character's primary form of attack or defense falls into this category, go nuts about it. Otherwise, don't worry too much. No one's going to call you out on failing to mention that your toolbox has a wrench in it. They will, however, call you out on failing to mention the bazooka hidden in your picnic basket. Use discretion.
Backstory: While this doesn't have to be massively extensive, it doesn't hurt if it is. What happened in your character's past to make them what they are now?
Rounds:
1) Bluestone Cave (AKA Dungeon of the Crimson Fish): A thawing cave with tricky rock people and gravity shenanigans based on a setting from Awakelemon's MSPAFA, The Deadly Dance of the Scarecrow King. Death: James Raven.
2) The Wax Colosseum: A game of tag with animated wax statues. Deaths: Emilio Nahaz and Mr. Nothing.
3) The Ascended City: An alien steampunk flying city populated by robots. Death: Michelle Davis.
4) The Unholy Fortress: Malevolent and insanity-inducing tunnels beneath a fortress and the colonists who were compelled to build them. Deaths: Coy Spender and Asteira.
5) Mnemonocyst Bearers: Two giant spherical psychic beings that recreate entities from the contestants' pasts. They are joined by two contestants from an underground, unofficial battle. Death: Glere.
Fin
Contestants (click a name to see their profile, character or author)
Winner:
Thomas Packston by Pinary. One man, four minds. Each controls one classical element. From the future. Winner.
Not-winners:
James Raven by Lighing. Black knight, troubled past, shadow magic, lightning for an arm. Rocks fell, he died.
Emilio Nahaz by Babel. Legendary heroic knight. Songs are sung about his travels. Nothing is above his abilities, except a game of tag.
Mr. Nothing by Odinod. Part-time grim reaper. Two modes: angel and skeleton. Killed while trying to escape.
Michelle Davis by Alice. Zombie apocalypse survivor. Carries a large rifle. Runs fast. Death by inability to fly.
Special Agent Coy Spender by suomynonAyletamitlU. Special agent from a multiversal defense force. Had a device that produced coins that can be used to cast magic spells. Suicide by explosion to destroy a demon.
Asteira by Wojjan. Manipulative ghost-lady, standard manipulative ghost-lady powers. Also, a magic chisel. Hung out in people's minds. Was doing so when said mind exploded.
Glere by McBatman. Fishbowl for a head, summoning cloak full of old clutter, possibly insane or possibly super-sane. Died killing The Overseer.
SpoilerShow
If you had to describe this setting, the only word that would be appropriate would be "black". In every direction but one, black was the only thing visible. But in that one direction, there was a speck of brightness. A speck occupied by two beings, a table, a checker-patterned piece of wood, and thirty-two carved wooden figures.
The being on one side of the table looked right at home in this place. A shadow with a suit. Somehow, his particular style of black clashed with the blackness behind him and was entirely visible. Everyone who was anyone this side of the multiverse knew that lack-of-face as The Director, orchestrator of the original Grand Battle, a dimension-spanning battle to the death between eight hand-picked contestants.
The being on the other side did not seem to belong, though the appearance of the setting was his responsibility. Perhaps he wanted his companion to feel comfortable, or perhaps he was just lazy. Judging from his appearance, it was likely the latter. He seemed to be an ordinary human man in his early twenties. He wore a red t-shirt adorned with an image of a white pirate ship, a pair of blue jeans scuffed and torn at the knees, dirty sneakers, and a perfectly-white-toothed smirk that was increasingly annoying the longer you looked at it. His hair looked like he'd spent a while trying to emulate the way hair looks when one has just gotten out of bed, but hadn't gotten it quite right. He had a pair of aviator sunglasses obscuring his eyes.
The shadow moved his knight and captured the other man's rook. "So. Mr. Photema. I understand the, ah, selection you've made for this battle you're participating in hasn't whisked himself out of your grasp yet."
The other man hadn't moved. He remained slouched against the back of the askew chair, with his arm draped over it. "Man, c'mon. Just call me Bryce. And what, that was like, a little mistake. I totally forgot that one chick had the whole magic breaker power thing. Whatever." He snapped his fingers and the knight neatly removed itself from the table and a bishop took its place. "Check."
The Director moved a pawn between the bishop and his king. "I don't understand how. You orchestrated that whole event that gave her the power in the first place. But, as you said, 'whatever.' I doubt that's what you wanted to talk to me about."
"Yeah, man. I want to run the next one." Bryce snapped his fingers again, moving his queen.
"I beg your pardon?"
"The next grand battle thing. You said there were gonna be nine, right? I wanna run the next one. Number seven."
The Director made his move and paused before replying. "There are quite a few people who have asked me the same thing. And you've only successfully entered into one. Why should I-"
As The Director spoke, Bryce shifted forward in his chair, leaning against the table on his elbows. He removed his sunglasses, revealing a pair of entirely-black orbs in place of his eyes. His smirk disappeared in an instant.
"You know perfectly well I am capable of handling this," he interrupted, his voice taking a more serious and less earthly tone. He snapped angrily, not moving his gaze from the Director's face area, as far as the direction of his gaze was discernable, at least. His knight took a pawn.
Neither party moved for quite a while. After an appropriate period of deliberation, The Director let out a small sigh. "I suppose you are." Bryce grinned an unnervingly, almost unnaturally wide grin. His remarkably white teeth contrasted starkly with his completely dark eyes for the moment it took to return his sunglasses and his body to their prior positions. "What are you planning on calling it?"
"Check it," he replied, his voice returning to its original tone, "Mega Throwdown!"
The Director paused again. "Really? That's not quite as, shall we say, distinguished as the others."
"Yeah, yeah. How about, like, Epic Clash?"
The Director sighed once more. "I suppose that will have to do." He moved his queen from one side of the board to the other, taking a pawn directly next to Bryce's king. "Checkmate."
Bryce frowned and looked back and forth over the board, before smirking again. "Y'know dude, if I hadn't been letting you win, I'm not sure I woulda won."
A chuckle was audible from The Director's direction. "Charming, as always. Good luck with your battle." The blackness behind him seemed to intrude on the edges of his body until nothing remained visible.
Bryce adopted a completely neutral expression and sat up in his seat. He stayed that way for almost a full minute, before audibly drawing breath. He stood and snapped his fingers on both hands. The chess board and its pieces neatly rearranged themselves into their starting positions, then they, the table, and the chairs disappeared. He walked with obvious deliberation in a direction which would have seemed completely arbitrary if this man did not stride with such purpose. He disappeared into the blackness beyond the limit of whatever was illuminating the space he had been standing in, whose likewise immersion in darkness was accompanied by a quiet click.
The being on one side of the table looked right at home in this place. A shadow with a suit. Somehow, his particular style of black clashed with the blackness behind him and was entirely visible. Everyone who was anyone this side of the multiverse knew that lack-of-face as The Director, orchestrator of the original Grand Battle, a dimension-spanning battle to the death between eight hand-picked contestants.
The being on the other side did not seem to belong, though the appearance of the setting was his responsibility. Perhaps he wanted his companion to feel comfortable, or perhaps he was just lazy. Judging from his appearance, it was likely the latter. He seemed to be an ordinary human man in his early twenties. He wore a red t-shirt adorned with an image of a white pirate ship, a pair of blue jeans scuffed and torn at the knees, dirty sneakers, and a perfectly-white-toothed smirk that was increasingly annoying the longer you looked at it. His hair looked like he'd spent a while trying to emulate the way hair looks when one has just gotten out of bed, but hadn't gotten it quite right. He had a pair of aviator sunglasses obscuring his eyes.
The shadow moved his knight and captured the other man's rook. "So. Mr. Photema. I understand the, ah, selection you've made for this battle you're participating in hasn't whisked himself out of your grasp yet."
The other man hadn't moved. He remained slouched against the back of the askew chair, with his arm draped over it. "Man, c'mon. Just call me Bryce. And what, that was like, a little mistake. I totally forgot that one chick had the whole magic breaker power thing. Whatever." He snapped his fingers and the knight neatly removed itself from the table and a bishop took its place. "Check."
The Director moved a pawn between the bishop and his king. "I don't understand how. You orchestrated that whole event that gave her the power in the first place. But, as you said, 'whatever.' I doubt that's what you wanted to talk to me about."
"Yeah, man. I want to run the next one." Bryce snapped his fingers again, moving his queen.
"I beg your pardon?"
"The next grand battle thing. You said there were gonna be nine, right? I wanna run the next one. Number seven."
The Director made his move and paused before replying. "There are quite a few people who have asked me the same thing. And you've only successfully entered into one. Why should I-"
As The Director spoke, Bryce shifted forward in his chair, leaning against the table on his elbows. He removed his sunglasses, revealing a pair of entirely-black orbs in place of his eyes. His smirk disappeared in an instant.
"You know perfectly well I am capable of handling this," he interrupted, his voice taking a more serious and less earthly tone. He snapped angrily, not moving his gaze from the Director's face area, as far as the direction of his gaze was discernable, at least. His knight took a pawn.
Neither party moved for quite a while. After an appropriate period of deliberation, The Director let out a small sigh. "I suppose you are." Bryce grinned an unnervingly, almost unnaturally wide grin. His remarkably white teeth contrasted starkly with his completely dark eyes for the moment it took to return his sunglasses and his body to their prior positions. "What are you planning on calling it?"
"Check it," he replied, his voice returning to its original tone, "Mega Throwdown!"
The Director paused again. "Really? That's not quite as, shall we say, distinguished as the others."
"Yeah, yeah. How about, like, Epic Clash?"
The Director sighed once more. "I suppose that will have to do." He moved his queen from one side of the board to the other, taking a pawn directly next to Bryce's king. "Checkmate."
Bryce frowned and looked back and forth over the board, before smirking again. "Y'know dude, if I hadn't been letting you win, I'm not sure I woulda won."
A chuckle was audible from The Director's direction. "Charming, as always. Good luck with your battle." The blackness behind him seemed to intrude on the edges of his body until nothing remained visible.
Bryce adopted a completely neutral expression and sat up in his seat. He stayed that way for almost a full minute, before audibly drawing breath. He stood and snapped his fingers on both hands. The chess board and its pieces neatly rearranged themselves into their starting positions, then they, the table, and the chairs disappeared. He walked with obvious deliberation in a direction which would have seemed completely arbitrary if this man did not stride with such purpose. He disappeared into the blackness beyond the limit of whatever was illuminating the space he had been standing in, whose likewise immersion in darkness was accompanied by a quiet click.
I need eight champions up here quick. I've only got a few eternities. Get searching!
Welcome to the Epic Clash, the seventh in the series of eight preliminary Grand Battles. For those of you who somehow find yourselves in the metas/collabs section without knowing what this is, it's a writing contest between eight people, and I suggest you at least skim the first one. There are some minor variations in rules between each, but the gist of it is this:
1) Each player posts a character. I'll leave a form to fill out later in the post. That player controls that character throughout the duration of their participation in the contest, writing about their actions, the environment, and, to a more limited extent, the actions of the other characters.
2) There are seven "rounds" during which characters interact. At the beginning of each round, I will give you a brief outline about that round's setting. You are expected to fill in the details as your character interacts with and discovers more of the environment.
3) Whoever is judged to have written worst in each round will have their character eliminated and will no longer be able to participate actively. The remaining characters will be transported to another setting and the next round will begin. Again, it has nothing to do with how powerful the character is, it has to do with how well you write. If you make an indestructible character and don't back it up with indestructible writing, they are going to have some horrible luck befall them at the end of the round.
Those are the common elements. There are some minor variations between each Grand Battle. Here's the ground rules for this one.
Posts tend to get very lengthy, and it sucks to sit there writing a 154 page annotated post with references only to hit submit and see someone else just said something that invalidated everything your character just did. To prevent this, we have a reservation system. Just post saying you're reserving a spot, and for the next three hours, no one else can post anything in character until you've posted. After you post, or after your three hour reservation is up, the next post is fair game.
Remember that it is a WRITING contest, not a straight roleplay battle. You are permitted to control other characters once you think you have a sufficient understanding of how that character would act. So, if you make someone else's character act, well, out of character, it's your contestant that gets the axe that round, not theirs. However, if you make their character do something awesome and in line with their normal behavior, bonus points for you. The majority of your posts should be about the character you enter, though.
You, the searcher for these contestants, are not supposed to tell the character that they're going to be in a battle to the death, nor are you supposed to help them after the game starts. Typically they just disappear from wherever they were and wind up in line for battle with no idea what just happened. Helping them before the game starts, assuming they don't know what they're being helped for, is discouraged but permissible if it's interesting enough.
Contestants should not actually leave the battle arena. They can try (in fact I encourage it) as long as it doesn't actually work.
Ideally, the end of the round will come when events in that round have seemed to come to a climactic sort of head. When I have made my decision about who would be eliminated, I'll PM it to everyone, and those of you who would be interested in dealing the death blow have a short period to set your characters up to do so. The person who controls the character being eliminated then gives me tips about how they want their death scene to play out, and I write it for them. If they are eliminated due to inactivity, I'll just write it outright.
That about covers it. If you're interested in participating, you first have to submit a character, which is done by filling out the form below. If you want to write a little blurb about what they were doing before they were selected, that's cool too.
Your character's name: Tell us their name. If it's unpronounceable using the sounds represented by letters on the english keyboard, give us something to call them.
Gender: Male, female, robot, sentient shade of the color blue, whatever. If they don't fit in the typical gender roles, at least tell us what pronoun to use.
Race: What do we call things like what your character is? Human? Lizardfolk? Busty elfen temptress?
Color: You have to pick a color to post in. White text on a red background, Dark blue on pale orange, and plain black are reserved. If you're writing for another character, you can post what they say and do in their color if you want, but it's not required. Distinct colors are preferred, so the people reading can mentally associate the colors with the characters.
Physical description: What does the character look like? Pretty self-explanatory. You can draw a picture if you'd like, but it's not required.
Personality overview: Give us the basics about how we can expect your character to behave. You don't need to be too specific, a lot of it comes out of the interaction with the other players.
Abilities: What makes the character a dangerous opponent? Are they masters of swordplay? Can they conjure armies of shadow people on a whim? Are they just super street smart? Again, you don't have to be super specific. Give us an outline, a theme.
Equipment: What does your character have with them? If your character's primary form of attack or defense falls into this category, go nuts about it. Otherwise, don't worry too much. No one's going to call you out on failing to mention that your toolbox has a wrench in it. They will, however, call you out on failing to mention the bazooka hidden in your picnic basket. Use discretion.
Backstory: While this doesn't have to be massively extensive, it doesn't hurt if it is. What happened in your character's past to make them what they are now?
Rounds:
1) Bluestone Cave (AKA Dungeon of the Crimson Fish): A thawing cave with tricky rock people and gravity shenanigans based on a setting from Awakelemon's MSPAFA, The Deadly Dance of the Scarecrow King. Death: James Raven.
2) The Wax Colosseum: A game of tag with animated wax statues. Deaths: Emilio Nahaz and Mr. Nothing.
3) The Ascended City: An alien steampunk flying city populated by robots. Death: Michelle Davis.
4) The Unholy Fortress: Malevolent and insanity-inducing tunnels beneath a fortress and the colonists who were compelled to build them. Deaths: Coy Spender and Asteira.
5) Mnemonocyst Bearers: Two giant spherical psychic beings that recreate entities from the contestants' pasts. They are joined by two contestants from an underground, unofficial battle. Death: Glere.
Fin
Contestants (click a name to see their profile, character or author)
Winner:
Thomas Packston by Pinary. One man, four minds. Each controls one classical element. From the future. Winner.
Not-winners:
James Raven by Lighing. Black knight, troubled past, shadow magic, lightning for an arm. Rocks fell, he died.
Emilio Nahaz by Babel. Legendary heroic knight. Songs are sung about his travels. Nothing is above his abilities, except a game of tag.
Mr. Nothing by Odinod. Part-time grim reaper. Two modes: angel and skeleton. Killed while trying to escape.
Michelle Davis by Alice. Zombie apocalypse survivor. Carries a large rifle. Runs fast. Death by inability to fly.
Special Agent Coy Spender by suomynonAyletamitlU. Special agent from a multiversal defense force. Had a device that produced coins that can be used to cast magic spells. Suicide by explosion to destroy a demon.
Asteira by Wojjan. Manipulative ghost-lady, standard manipulative ghost-lady powers. Also, a magic chisel. Hung out in people's minds. Was doing so when said mind exploded.
Glere by McBatman. Fishbowl for a head, summoning cloak full of old clutter, possibly insane or possibly super-sane. Died killing The Overseer.