Posts by blackbird - Page 3 (2024)

It wasn't often for anyone to just part with their rupees when someone just asked. But there Togoro was, holding out a big red rupee to her. A red one. She raised a brow, and almost instinctively reached her hand out to take the offering, like every other Hylian would. But she smiled and raised her hand in protest. "No thank you! You look like your hungry..."

And then she turned back to the hylian, shrugging her shoulder at his suggestions. "Probably, but I don't think you have enough rupees in your purse to buy it."

Olena watched the little skirmish between the Goron and the Stalchild. Those skeletal things were always a puzzle to her. A small assortment of bones ... child sized. It was even in their name and one had to wonder how they came to being.

But her attention soon returned to the hylian. Where was she from? She wasn't about to say she was from the Eastern Snow Plains. She had just met this boy and had little reason to trust him with that kind of information. She just shrugged her shoulders and kept walking along behind the Goron. "Information costs money," she said with a smile. "What can you offer me in return for answering your question?"

Olena watched as the Goron marched on ahead, toward the ranch... with all those cuccoos. She licked her lips as her mouth watered at the prospect of a fresh meal. Lon Lon Ranch cuccoos tastes the best, but they were some of the toughest to hunt. Partly because it was difficult to do so while also keeping her facade up, and partly because the farm hands usually did somewhat of a reasonable job securing their livestock.

But that was part of the fun -- the thrill of the outcome.

So, she skipped along beside her new Goron companion. "It has been quite a while since I last had cuccoo..." she said, thinking out loud.

Olena shrugged her shoulders, then turned to face the Hylian with a literal arm as a weapon. She shrugged her shoulders. "No." He was definitely not familiar to her. But, she didn't find him particularly remarkable either. He just seemed like a typical adolescent Hylian boy. One of the many she had seen before.

"I don't know him."

She took a step away from the boy, closer to the Goron, despite having nearly been crushed by the giant moments earlier. "I'm not sure if I like his look, though..."

"What about you? Are you a mean trickster, or do you actually have something to do with Ganondorf?"

Olena yawned, watching as the Goron filled his kettle with milk that the younger boy had given him.

A mean trickster, huh? Well, that wasn't too far off the mark, she supposed. But, at least things had settled after the Goron went mad. She wasn't about to say she was one of Ganondorf's crew again. For, as spritely as she was, even she knew if that Goron landed just one hit, she'd be out for a long time.

"I was just playing," she said again, a little exasperated. "I don't know Ganondorf or have anything to do with him. You just seemed very ... jumpy."

He really had over-reacted as far as she was concerned. "Most people are frightened of Ganondorf, but I've never seen anyone react in the way you did..."

(OoC: Ok, so, I'm in a different timezone -- which means I'm not always going to be available to reply immediately.)

This was the perfect example of a joke gone bad. Olena knew how to press just the right buttons to get someone going but maybe doing so to a Goron was ... unwise. She caught her breath when the assault slowed, her gaze sticking to the stone giant, light on her feet just in case the Goron got a second wind. But ... slowly, she stepped back, increasing the distance between them.

"It ..." she shook her head as she panted. "It was a joke."

Her hand rose, gingerly resting at her forehead. "Just a little ... harmless fun..."

Olena could honestly say, she hadn't expected for the fist to fly the way it did at such a simple and juvenile jape. And yet, before she had even finished her sentence, a rock hard fist was hurtling closer and closer to her face. eyes widened and instinct took over every impulse of her body. Her feet moved, leaping aside and narrowly evading the harrowing punch, which still managed to tear off a few strand of her hair.

Her heart thumped, and feet kept moving, as another mighty fist pushed toward her. "N-n!!" She tried to sputter out a protest, but instead she gasped for air.

What was happening??

Gorons were big and scary-looking, but usually they were harmless and docile. This, however, was a rampaging beast and Olena could all but flee like a frightened kitten.

I think going separate ways could work for a short amount of time, or making smaller groups.

For example, I could see Olena taking a liking to Togoro and following him to Lon Lon to pester him some more.

But at the same time, Octo, if you want some separate time with Togo, Olena can give him some space.

She looked into his eyes as he placed his hand on her shoulder, noting something in his eyes. A fear that she hadn't seen in a Goron's eyes before, they were usually so calm and languid and focused on their food.

Everyone was a little scared these days, though. Things were happening all across Hyrule and not everyone understood. Enough people chalked out down to Ganondorf's work. Some of her clan had even said he was the reason they were going hungry... and the snows had become as harsh as they were.

"I'm one of Ganondorf's monsters," she said with a grimace, batting away the giant's mighty hand. Whatever elicited the best response, right. "I've come to swallow you whole and pluck the meat ... er, rocks off your bones."

Olena's hylian ears twitched. She turned her head, catching the sudden movements of the hylian behind the tree. Her posture straightened out, and her lips pursed as she watched him walk over in an almost hurried pace toward her. Her brows furrowed, and her hand reached for her knife.

"Yo break it up I don't like fighting," he said.

Hm? Fighting? What fighting? She hadn't done anything ... yet. She was just playing with the big Goron. It wasn't like her claws or teeth would have an easy just cutting through that stone hide anyway. Plus, she didn't particularly like the taste of rocks.

It didn't take long, however, for her eyes to catch the numerous weapons the man armed himself with: a sword, bow, shield ... and most notably an arm that looked to be metal. So he was a hunter as well then ... a hylian hunter.

"We're just playin'," Olena said, lazily stretching out her arms and rubbing the back of her neck as she rocked on her heels. "No fighting here."

She turned back to the Goron and smiled again, the questions he asked registering.

"I'm Olly," she said, grinning wildly. "A dangerous Goron? I don't believe it." She tittered. "Unless, of course, they're hungry."

Quote from Foreigner55

Jens got nervous the Hylian girl was coming closer. the weird thing about her was the way she walked. All predator like. Almost like a Kitsune. Now that he thought of it there werent many hylians with white hair.

One thing I wanted to point out is the bit in bold.

There's a little bit of meta-gaming going on here. What meta-gaming is (in case you don't know) is when a writer uses knowledge they have about a character in their characters thoughts or dialogue, when they shouldn't know that fact about them without good reason.

In this case, Jens' thoughts are oddly specific that he sees her as a kitsune. While her movements might be predatory, that wouldn't automatically mark her as kitsune, especially to someone that might not be all that familiar with kitsune. Is Jens familiar with kitsune?

The thing with meta-gaming is that it can disrupt immersion when information isn't really dispensed/ revealed in a reasonable manner. And when a character clues into that sort of stuff kind of cheaply, it can rob the whole the character of an interesting reveal later.

Here's the thing ... I think we need to figure out the problem. Usually when Ganondorf takes control of a place, it gets over-run by monsters and the places become significantly less habitable.

They need a goal as well. I mean obviously Ganondorf needs to be killed, or dealt with, or whatever.

Maybe for now we should share immediate goals and reasons why our characters are in Hyrule Town:

Olena just likes to be around people, but I guess she's also curious about what's inside Hyrule Castle

Ruki's character was with Saria iirc and was looking for a Princess (presumably Zelda)

Togoro was trying to avoid conscription

Jens lives there

and I'm not so sure about epic's character or aria's

EDIT: Nevermind, y'all got this.

Olena quickly pulled her body back, out of the swinging path of the Goron's mighty fist and almost stumbled again when the earth shook beneath her feet. But with a balancing of her arms and her natural sure-footedness, she regathered herself.

Looking up at the Goron, she tilted her head, brows furrowed, before she grinned. The big Goron flinched. Compared to her, he was like a giant, and yet he was as meek as a mouse. A flinchey little mouse that she was almost tempted to bat around in her paw.

"Castle Town." Of course, he hadn't seen her. He'd been too busy absently bull-dozing everyone in his path.

"You don't see many Gorons in Castle Town..." She folded her hands behind her back, smirked a little half smiled and began to pace about the giant in a measured step that had her quarter circling around him, in an almost predatory way.

(OoC: Oh, my bad, well I guess that Olena is wherever Togoro is.

EDIT: Also I didn't notice this was the RP thread, but we should probably have our OoC talk in the discussion thread...especially when the post is just an OoC post.)

The facade held up just fine. The citizens of Hyrule Castle Town never even spared a passing glance to the "hylian" girl with the white hair and that one blue-grey eye. Some whispered, however, curious as to the possibility of a sheikah in their midst. But the notion was quickly brushed aside, when the only likeness she shared with the secretive folk aligned with the royal family, was the stark white of her hair.

So Olena proceeded undeterred, bored by the relative peace of the city. Nothing had caught her eye ... nothing moistened her lips to the possibility of an entertaining evening in the heart of Hyrule.

Maybe she would take a look at Hyrule Castle again ... It had been some time since she had visited the place. The alleged seat of the king. Or, those were some of the whispers she had heard. There were other rumours that said his seat was in the Gerudo Desert. Olena didn't entirely know, but for a certainty, the Castle was heavily guarded and secured. General consensus indicated that was his most likely seat of governance.

She looked over to the distant silhouette, observing the tall peaks and crenelations of the palace.

And she might have kept looking had her ears not twitched to a strange sound, like that of gravel rubbing against stone, coming closer and closer.

"Wha...?" Her eyes widened.

Within an instant, she'd almost been toppled over and flattened by boulder surging towards her. Quick reflexes saved her from the wayward stone, however, leaping aside without a moment to spare and losing her footing, falling back onto her rump in the process. The brownish-yellow rock left a trail of dirt in its path.

It took a moment for Olena to realise that the thing that had nearly flattened had been a Goron. She frowned, picking herself up and dusting off her clothing. Those rock heads had always been dumb as far as Olena was concerned, easily tricked and fooled. Often enough the merchants took advantage of them as well. But, she dusted off her hands finally, and started in the direction of the Goron.

Surprisingly, it didn't take long to reach him, sitting in a rather conspicuous place, stuffing rocks into his mouth. She came up from behind him, with a quiet step, standing within arms reach. A smile curled onto her lips as she waited ... and waited ...

How long would it take for the Goron to realise, she wondered.

Thank ya!

I had a question about Ganondorf before I make my post. Where is he usually ruling from? I'm assuming it's Hyrule Castle, but just to be sure because I don't think it was mentioned in the OP.

I decided to do a kitsune, because why not.
---------

Name: Olena
Nickname: Olly
Race: Arctic Kitsune
Age: 30
Apparent Age: 16
Gender: Female
Hometown: Eastern Snow Plains

Eye color: Heterochromatic (the left is blue, grey) (the right is honey brown).
Hair color: Shoulder-length white hair, tousled (little messy). She has a side-swept fringe that covers her right eye.
Skin color: Pallid white, the sort of complexion that might blend well with the artic snows as an adapted camouflage.
Height (optional): 5’1”
Weight (optional): 49 kg

Weapons: Olena usually prefers to fight with the weapons she has been naturally gifted with, her sharp claws and powerful canines. But, she has been known to use knives when concealing her fox attributes.

Claws: Retractable claws, these extend to 1.5cm (about half an inch) and have the hardness and durability of steel. These are her most natural form of attack/ defence when the need for combat arises.

Teeth: Her canines are pronounced like that of a predator, allowing her to easily shred through meat with her teeth. Her jaw is powerful enough to crush through animal bone and often enough it is her jaw that delivers the killing blow when hunting.

Hunting Knife: A knife made of an ivory-like substance. The blade itself is roughly one foot long and two inches wide, with a sharp, tapering point and a serrated edge. The handle is comprised of oak, with a bulb-shaped pommel.

Her skill with the knife is very rudimentary, however, and usually functions as a last resort. The knife is kept in a tan leather holster.

Carried items: A sheep’ bladder water-skin with a volume of up to 1 litre. Attached to her belt.

Armor: Olena has no typical forms of armour, however, she possesses a natural defence against snow and cold climates due to her arctic kitsune physiology.

Powers: Olena’s powers and abilities are derived from her Kitsune attributes. Physical attributes offer her bolstered strength and agility. Additionally, the secretive Kitsune of her family have adapted a number of illusionary abilities that help them remain concealed.

Strength: Kitsune are a clan of hunters, often preying on animals such as deer and hares. Kitsune are naturally inclined toward peak physical conditioning as a result of their lifestyles and are capable of feats of strength beyond that of humans and hylians. She is capable of lifting and carrying twice her own weight (a total of 100kg roughly) over a distance of up to half a kilometre before requiring rest.

Agility and speed: Olena is extremely agile, and her body is conditioned for swift movements. Kitsune are foxes, hunters and in that way, they are constantly engaging in running and physical activity. Her reactionary speed is up to a fraction of a second, making it easy for her to avoid projectiles launched at her from a distance, or to counter attacks directed at her. It takes roughly 0.1 seconds for her to react to visual stimuli, 0.08 for audio stimuli and 0.05 for touch stimuli – less than half that of human reactionary times (0.25, 0.17 and 0.15 respectively).

Olena can easily outrun and outpace any human and/or hylian. She can reach a speed of up to 60km/h in 10 second bursts. In terms of endurance running, Olena could keep up a 30km/h pace for 10 minutes at a time before tiring and requiring a ten minute rest (walking pace or stopping).

Heightened senses: Olena has an acute sense of hearing and smell. Her hearing is subject to a doglike sensitivity, wherein it can detect a number of different audio frequencies and hear over longer distances, Her sense of smell typically allows her to differentiate people by their scent.

Illusionary Façade: Kitsune have adapted an ability to form an alternate image of themselves, usually conforming to either a human or hylian image. In this instance, Olena assumes a hylian form, wherein her kitsune ears become hylian and her tail vanishes. Her canines appear to be notably less pronounced than usual.

This Façade isn’t particularly taxing to maintain and it only requires the will to form the façade, in which the process will be near instant. However, it does mean that while she has it up, her usual defences (her claws and canines) are unavailable to her. The Façade can also be dispelled with artefacts such as the lens of truth, or other such magic that allows the wielder to see through illusions. Other kitsune can also see through the façade.

The façade will last until Olena no longer requires it, or until she sustains a significant amount of physical damage (a crippling blow such as a severe cut or broken limb).

Illusionary Clones: When moving at speeds (30km/h or more), Olena can summon up to three nearly identical clones of herself during battle. These clones function more as a distraction and cannot administer any physical damage. She cannot form these clones during a façade however. And again, truth or anti-illusionary spells can see through these clones.

This can only be done once a day.

Battle strengths: Olena’s strengths centre on her Kitsune physiology. She’s stronger than most other races and agile, quick and conditioned quite well. Close ranged combat is her forte. Her illusionary magic also allow her another dimension in combat.

She also has a natural defence toward the cold and ice based magic.

Battle Weaknesses: Olena is something of a glass tank. She can hit pretty hard, but she has no physical defences in place. Additionally, she is a close ranged combatant and has no means of attacking opponents from a distance.

Truth and illusion dispelling magic can also cut through her illusionary abilities, making it difficult to maintain her façade.

Additionally fire and heat can cause her problems, especially if her fur catches fire. Olena does not like fire.

Appearance:
Head
Olena has a heart-shaped face, with high cheek bones. Her snub nose is petite, giving her a cute doe-like imagine in tandem with her large eyes framed by long lashes. Her brows are thin, as are her lips – which are salmon in colour and pop vividly against her pallid skin. Pronounced canines define her teeth and her smile, giving her something of a cute – if a little intimidating – look.

Her hair frames her face in messy layers, the bangs of which conceal her right eye. And her fluffy, white ears top her head.

Body
Olena has a leanly cut form, with the slight curvature of a girl half way into puberty, despite her age. Tight packed muscles define her hunter’s build, though she isn’t a particularly toned or bulky girl.

Cuts and scratched mark her arms and torso, undoubtedly from little skirmishes with bigger prey.

Clothing
Olena typically opts for a long-sleeved, hooded tunic, brown in colour and comprised of cotton. Over the tunic, she wears a grey, fleece vest. At the waist, a leather belt is fastened, keeping in place her knife’s holster and a water-skin. The sleeves of her tunic are tightened up with grey ribbon wound from the elbow to the wrist.

Loose, brown leggings tuck into knee-high tan-leather boots, with fleece on the inside.

Personality:
Olena, above all else, indulges in a little play. What constitutes as play, however can vary. Sometimes she likes to hunt, and sometimes, her idea of play comes in a more mischievous form. Playing pranks on hylians in castle town has become something of an enjoying past time for her in recent years.

Despite being warned to keep away from the Hylian settlements by her Kitsune elders, Olena has rather brashly and thoughtlessly ignored their advice. Olena isn’t much for heeding authority and has adopted something of a rebellious attitude. She doesn’t like being told what to do, and sometimes will do the opposite just in spite. That doesn’t mean, however, that she is easily manipulated, because if she senses even a hint of someone trying to play with her head, she’ll just end up doing whatever it is that she feels like.

Additionally, Olena has some animalistic traits that come out in her desire to hunt. Often enough back in her home, she would wrestle with her brother for the sake of play. Hints of this innocent (if a little socially unacceptable in non-Kitsune clans) form of conduct often come up in Olena’s general interactions.

History:
Olena was born of a litter of three, one of which perished in a fire shortly after their birth along with their mother. Some suspect it was the work of Ganondorf, during the early years of his conquest.

They, at the time, had been traveling from castle town. Olena’s merchant father had taken the opportunity to trade rare and valuable arctic herbs and crops to the village, in order to procure more resources, such as meat and fish to last the coming violent Winter.

The fear of famine was a palpable one … but the attempt to escape one tragedy, had led to another. Olena’s father could not save his wife, nor the son that perished with her as the flames consumed them, but he shielded his remaining children from the flames and managed to escape back to the Plains, carrying with her the scars of burns that disfigured his back and arms.

Multi-quotes -- haven't done those in ages.

Quote from Ruki

But I think overall trying to overcome the problems the RPG has been going through has taken a lot out of me. We were able to get through Black Valentine's fine enough, but since the forum move and #daysnotweeks when we lost the huge influx of newbies who I FINALLY got to the section as well as a lot of forum mainstays, it's been very taxing. And I'm not sure what to do to reinvigorate this place. Like DnD has worked wonders for the ToW, but right now ToC is slow.

Yeah ... it's really not much in your hands, especially with stuff like this. Keeping a board active and going is a collective effort, so really, if people want to see the place still going, it's up to them to contribute. But I guess it also comes down to interest and time.

Quote from Silver

I like RPing for stuff like DND and such, where I have an established character and I have an investment in the story, but other stuff still kind of seems a bit scary to me, haha.

People are always welcome to try different things, but I've heard that a lot of people prefer RPing with DnD characters. Personally, I prefer a mix of fandom and original characters. But I guess it comes down to your taste for writing. Do you like to write? You don't necessarily have to be a pro or anything, none of us are. But as long as you have the interest and some ideas, there's always a place for you to RP.

Quote from Haagar

I enjoy jumping in to stories and being a player, and kinda just writing with the flow, adding my own perspective to an overall story. Maybe I went about it in the wrong way, an open RP format rather than approaching people to ask if they wanted to write. But I'm anti-social, okay! XD

I'm like that as well. It can be very difficult to maintain a cohesive and engaging story. The main thing about RP though, is the interaction between characters.

Quote from Malia

BA never put me off in any way, but it was difficult to find rps that suited the chars i made (i mean i made a superhero char who is powered by wifi and gets all her alerts to danger from like twitter and reddit??? and then my failed alcoholic wizard whose magic is fueled by different kinds of liquior??? lmao xD). nowadays i just rp for d&d since i live and breathe for d&d. if i could find an rp that catered to my chars, i'd prob rp more here.

Yeah, that's one of the tricky things about RP, finding an RPer/ character that fits in with your style. Those are very unique characters and I know I would be hard pressed to match anything with that. Maybe an old man that's really out of touch with technology (to the point where he literally breaks every form of modern tech he touches) and a straight-laced businessman, probably in the middle of a mid-life crisis. Respectively. The idea making is always the fun part.

Quote from Kurai

I personally am an advocate of bringing the Dome back in all its glory. Before I first joined the BA I loved to go through and read all of the training threads (my favorites were Wisp's and UZ's); the Dome, I felt, gave me an easy way to get started writing here. Of course, that brings in the problem of needing teachers who would be able to stay active enough to respond quickly enough to all of their students. Workload could be reduced on teachers by specifying that the teaching system was specifically for new people wanting a way to get into writing here. (Of course, if oldies wanted to put their characters through teaching threads I suppose they could work a ToC RP out with a teacher, separate from the true teaching boards).

There's been talk about this. And people are open to use the Dome if they so wish. But with activity the way that it is, it's not really practical to implement Dome training. Who would you get to do the training? It'd need to be someone with the time and commitment to do so. None of the current BA veterans really fit that bill. Just not enough people, although the idea seems great.

Quote from Mordred

It's kind of.... I've never really been good at dedicating attention to RPing, and now I'm incredibly busy these days so it's even more difficult for me. There's also that I don't have any characters and the creation process is pretty taxing for me, and despite having a lot of ideas I want to put into action I just haven't been able to get them together.

So, I'm interested, and I think it'd be a lot of fun, it's just sort of difficult for me. And I'm not exactly the best at holding my ground

This is why something really casual would be nice. But I guess we've tried casual before with the IC thread ... but even those turned into giant mammoth posts...

That's basically been standard fare for the last year or two ...

On that note, I have a question. Are people here still interested in RP?

If not, why is that?

And if you are, also why?

I still am in a casual sense. I'll be honest and say my interest wanes. I'm not as hyped for it as I was at the start, but I still like it, building bonds with characters and having little interactions. And I still really enjoy writing, but I've diverged a bit from forum RP.