Concerning endgame: The invasion and beyond

[theearth]

CONCERNING ENDGAME

For the final CR/plot meme, please go here
For the returnee registration, please go here.

SCHEDULE OF THE INVASION

A lot of things are happening at once. This is intentionally so - people are supposed to split up, so pick and choose! That you have to limit the involvement of your character to a reasonable amount is a rule.

Day 1: A snake! OOC date: 29th of April
Day 2: An invasion! OOC date: May 5th
Day 3.1: The invasion spills and a counterinvasion! IC date: May 10th
Day 3.2 - For those people that are GOING TO SPACE IC date: May 16th
Day 4: Now the day is over, night is drawing nigh IC date: May 22th-24th

More information and a description of the invasion can be found here.


THE INVASION'S OUTCOME

You are still welcome to submit this form for your characters, if you haven't done so yet. As per the poll's results, this will be decided OOCly. For the purpose of tallying resources to determine how well the numbered will do in defending Earth and maybe even overcoming the Enemy's mastermind, but also to coordinate what goes down, please comment to this thread using the following format:
<b>Character:</b> Name | <user name=journalname> <b>Capabilities:</b> List not only combat powers but also other powers/abilities that may be of interest (sometimes things that can do something are rather surprising!) and resources, be they money or people that they know or areas that they're familiar with, etc. <b>What role(s) would/could they play:</b> Combat or evacuation efforts, mission control or talking to enemies, political coordination/diplomacy or transporting troops, whatever comes to mind. Please also include if you have any preferences/anything already plotted out. <b>Location:</b> Not everyone can defend Locke City, or the Enemy will just invade everywhere else. Characters can of course retreat to another location or travel between places to give more of an element of surprise to their attacks, but <i>take into consideration that the invasion is scheduled to only last three <i>IC</i> days</i>, so there are logical restrictions to how much characters can move around. <b>Options for others:</b> You have five gundams but only on pilot? Your character can fly but not fight so they could carry a fighter around?Please put that here and check around what others might be offering
Mods may comment to your comment with alteration requests or options for how your cahracter could get involved, but if we don't that doesn't mean that we haven't seen it/are mean, it just means that it is fine as it is. We will try to let everyone do what they want, but please understand that we might shuffle things around a bit if too many people are trying to do the same thing. Please also refer to the FAQ below and the General Questions thread if you need more information to fill in the form.


WHAT WILL HAPPEN AFTER?

The successor game will start the day after StE closes. LexiL has volunteered to look into running a post-StE game in the spirit of this discussion. Please go to her thread here to discuss the nature of such a game further, she definitely would like everyone's opinions and also help, if someone would give it.


ONE LAST POLL: CHANGE OF THE SCHEDULE?

The start of the invasion has been moved to the 29th. Here is a poll that will be open until the 9th. The thing that is up to voting is if the start of the invasion (currently scheduled for the 15th) should be pushed back to the 19th or 28th. Everything up to the 11th would stay exactly the same; the only change is that there would be a bit more time to wrap up plot relevant threads before the invasion and to explore Tokyo.

During the invasion, every IC day will last multiple OOC days.


RETURNING CHARACTERS

As per the poll's results, dropped characters will be allowed to return for the invasion. If you wish to bring back a character or know someone who wants to bring their character back, please make sure that the character gets registered here.


STATE OF THE GUARDIAN ANIMALS

The continued existence of the Animals is crucial to how well defended the echo areas, which are the only gateways to Earth that the aliens have, are. An area with an entirely unharmed Animal will be easy to defend, an area with a deceased Animal will be near impossible to defend.

Wise Snake (Locke City): Both Wise Snake and the smaller snakes are deceased.
Crablobster (Las Vegas): Deceased.
Silent Swan (Neuschwanstein Area): Please tell us if the swan itself is still alive here. Silent Swan is unharmed. Wolpertinger and Doppelgänger are still alive for the most part.
Santa Claus (Lapland): The main Santa is unharmed, but a number of the minor santas/grinches are deceased.
Mushroom (Christmas Island): Alive, but rendered unable to fight due to a glass roof covering it. The minor fungi are still mostly alive.
Deep Blue (Galapagos Islands): Alive.
Cousin Itt (Central London): Damaged, but alive.
The Swarm (Santarem, Amazonas): Please tell us if damage has occurred here. Slightly decimated but mostly intact. Core alive.
Kappa (Tokyo City): Will be added once we know.
Jörmungandr (space): Alive.


FAQ
How strong are the enemy soldiers? Strong. Think something like a boss fight on medium to hard mode, for every single one of them (think Darth Vader to your Luke or a Balrog to your Gandalf). The Enemy's intelligence will adjust the strength of their soldiers to their opponent's to a degree and send stronger soldiers the way of stronger characters. Their strength lies in: Speed, durability, strength and one special power - that can be superspeed or telekinesis or any other superpower.
Can the enemy soldiers combat my special power X? Yes and no. They come in groups of hundred, and every group has a different ability. If your character is lucky, they will not immediately run into a group whose abilities negates your character's special ability X, but they are coordinated well and will send a group who can to their place as soon as they figure it out. Example: Your character can summon ghosts that are invincible because they are intangible. After that registers with the Enemy's troops, they'll send an unit your character's way that can make intangible things tangible, so after the ghosts took out a number of soldiers they'll suddenly encounter opponents who can kill them.
My character can go to space!/Can I my character fight the spaceships? EXCELLENT. Once Jörmungandr has shown up, they will able to fly up in a straight line until they hit the outer parts of the atmosphere and then fly all the way around the planet at that altitude. They should however be careful to not leave the echo boundaries. And yes, they can fight the spaceships. The ships are armed! Their guns are strong enough to hurt the serpent in the sky (which has a similarly hard to pierce hide as Wise Snake and the Crablobster). On the flip side, the spaceships are as stable as an average Star Trek/Star Wars/etc ship with its shields down. Good metal, but nothing supernatural.
How will the Animals (and their smaller parts, like doppelgänger, santas and wolpertingers) react to my character? Not at all. They battle the Enemy's troops without paying attention to what they might wreck or kill in the way, but won't attack anyonething from Earth, either.
• What will doppelgängers do once the invasion starts? Once the invasion happens, the Silent Swan part will take over the doppelgänger's brains/actions insofar as they will see only one goal: Defend Earth, and specifically the Neuschwanstein echo boundary, at all cost. What the rest of their personality does with that goal is up to the players. This means that they should be found in the Neuschwanstein area as that is what their purpose is, but there is a bit wiggle room if there are other factors (mind control by a third source, being imprisoned, etc).
Can my character talk to the invaders? Yes! Some may even express regret about their wrecking havoc, but do it anyway, because staying true to their orders conquers all other considerations.
RETURNEES - Will my character receive any echoes upon having their echoes return? No! BUT they will witness Jörmungandr's pink light, so they can have a tier 2 right upon entering the game. They can also receive recurrence echoes throughout the invasion. Please request your character's echoes on the echo page just like you did while they were in the game!


Please direct questions regarding any of the above to the thread below and not the post in general. Please do not use this post for plotting among yourselves and go to the final CR/plot meme instead.

Comments

General Questions

[theearth]

How are the Animals?

[theearth]

Please leave all information regarding if/how much the Animals were harmed/killed here.

Poll: When should the invasion begin?

[theearth]

The invasion will last roughly 3 IC days but much longer OOCly.

15th

[theearth]

19th

[theearth]

28th

[theearth]

The invasion's outcome

[theearth]

[dragon_blossom]

Character: Marina Santana | dragon_blossom
Capabilities: On the ground, Marina has relatively (usual combatant magical girl levels of durability) magical armor, a magical sword, spells powerful enough to slay strong monsters of your usual JRPG/fantasy anime setting, and the skill to use it all effectively.

More importantly, Marina can turn Seles into his giant robot form and ride him. Depending on what echoes I manage to put in for, she should at least be able to cast much larger, stronger versions of her spells through him. He's extremely durable and fast; if I get flight, he'll have that too. Marina doesn't have much in the way of other resources or knowledge, just combat ability, and a decent knack for coordinating in a fight.
What role(s) would/could they play: Marina will likely be best suited to combat. As was discussed, the telekinetic brigades are the most effective enemies against her, so I'll plan for someone to bail her out if she gets pinned down. From there, she'll likely be using the fact that Seles can naturally enter and leave mech form at will to launch hit-and-run attacks on alien forces.
Location: Not sure yet. Likely Locke, but she's most likely to follow the Precure wherever they go, although she's quite willing to follow the fight to one other spot that needs more backup.
Options for others: Seles is a big ol' mech, and her control over its fine motor skills should be enough to carry one person in either hand safely.

[alilyinthemoonslight]

...nothing in particular has happened to the swan itself, has it? Since you mention saying if it's dead or alive but I haven't seen anything discussed about that beyond the statue smashing attempt?

[oncedevil]

As far as I am aware the doppelgangers were/will be successful in protecting Silent Swan from damage.

[theearth]

Edit: According to the comment below, Silent Swan is unharmed!

[theearth]

Thanks for the update!

[alilyinthemoonslight]

Character: Lily Tsukuyomi | alilyinthemoonslight
Capabilities: Lily has the ability to transform into Cure Moonlight, and subsequent super forms. Super strength, agility, durability, flight, beamspam, ability to summon a giant woman to punch the hell out of things, ability to TURN INTO a giant woman to punch the hell out of things once I do those echoes.

A Precure's power has a purifying effect, as well. Those with dark, violent, aggressive, or evil ambitions can be cleansed into a good and pure soul. This is the means of disposing of monsters most of the time in Heartcatch, but has shown to affect both normal people if they get caught in it, or outright villains in the course of the series. There's wiggle room for how that would work, precisely, if at all anywhere.

...oh, and yeah. She can - or will be able to - function fully in the vacuum of space.

What role(s) would/could they play: Whatever she can do - primarily suited for combat, if given the opportunity to try and talk down any of the aliens (as was discussed in the plotting post) she WILL take it. All of the Precure have shown interest in the things that were brought up there, pertaining to that and their ability to purify, so there's that too.

Location: Likely starting in Locke, but with the ability to spread out pretty liberally. Lily will stick with the Precure as much as humanly possible, as their powers are stronger in combination, and well. Fiancee, sister, friends. Through the Heartcatch Mirage, she has the ability to teleport between Echo Zones freely, so there is a large bit of "being able to cover wherever they need to/can."

Options for others: That whole... teleporting thing! People who are not Precure can make use of her portals! Beyond that, will be ready to do the standard superhero magical girl rescuing thing where needed!

As well, the Great Heart Tree and its ability to create Precure is a thing that exists - though I think we don't have many more "powerless pure hearted young girls" floating around here.

[alilyinthemoonslight]

Good, good.

My last week has prevented me from doing very much, much less keeping up outside trying to tie up player plot threads, sobs.

[alilyinthemoonslight]

This might be going out on a limb, but I'd go for this one. Simply put, there's a lot of game plot things flying around at the same time as there's a lot of people rushing to tie up their player plots. For everyone's benefit in that regard, this might be best?

Breathing room, basically :'D

Re: How are the Animals?

[ursoreckless]

Shou has some political sway thanks to his family being tied into the money/banking/government system in Japan. I don't know if it will help, but he is definitely going to use his family ties/influences and speak at the government to keep them from bombing Kappa, citing that yeah it did destroy a lot of property and people, but so do earthquakes and tsunamis, and bring up references to such national fictional heroes like Godzilla and the like as references to how sometimes some destruction now might mean less destruction later.

Also will bring up the whole Japanese samurai code of always Country first, Clan second, Self last and ask them exactly what are they trying to protect, their own reputations, or the world as a whole?

[oncedevil]

Character: Anthony Sparado | oncedevil
Capabilities: BATTLE READY, rapid healing and extreme durability make him very difficult to kill, and inhuman strength and speed. He has fully leveled Trickster Style which allows for a great amount of maneuverability and avoidance, as well as a short range teleport. He has Rebellion his sword and Ebony and Ivory, his specialty guns that can fire rapidly and survive the pressure he puts on them. Emergency Devil Trigger, if taken too close to death he'll hulk out and slaughter whatever threat happens to be nearby. Unfortunately it doesn't last long and tends to leave him pretty worn out after. Not to mention the battle-lust he's going to be allowed to let go full bore during this. Gonna be one happy devil.

He also has some pretty great hunter instincts for hunting down specific targets if necessary. Will update if any other helpful echoes happen along the way.
What role(s) would/could they play: Largely combat, though some evacuation whenever the chance arose. He'd also be trying and probably failing miserably at keeping the government from bombing Kappa, because he can't speak Japanese and can really only do the beach equivalent of tying himself to a tree and protesting. Still, he's a very difficult to kill heavy-hitter, so the invaders will be his main priority.
Location: Tokyo for the final invasion.
Options for others: Tony is pretty difficult to pin down, and could work well for picking off specific targets. He could also be pretty useful in evacuation or rescue needs. He's very capable for both close and ranged combat.

[oncedevil]

Also it looks like we're going with having cornered and fought the Swarm a little bit but ultimately failed to do much to it before getting distracted with invasion things. So, ultimately, possibly slightly injured but alive.

[oncedevil]

Seconding this, so much happening at once |D

[dragon_blossom]

With all the crazy we're cramming together, I think I'll vote for giving my lazy butt more time to work with it.

Re: 28th

[scarlet_devil]

Another for the 28th.

[scarlet_devil]

Character: Emilia Stacojiu | scarlet_devil
Capabilities: Very tough, regenerates quickly and has an array of abilities useful for combat, including superhuman strength, speed, hearing and the ability to fly. She can also take mist form and become a small flock of bats, and mesmerise people into obeying her. She's harmed by ultra-violet light (hence the parasol), silver, can be incapacitated by garlic and immobilized if her heart is impaled and kept impaled. While she can create more vampires, I don't know if she can pass on her powers or not. Maybe some NPC vampires with regen and superstrength?
What role(s) would/could they play: This girl? She's COMBAT READY. With Gungnir, her powers and a worrying lack of squeamishness, she'd fit this best. She's not likely to show the invaders mercy, and will shoot to kill, basically.
Location: She'll most likely start in Las Vegas, but her speed means she can get around quickly to Locke and elsewhere. She'll most certainly be helping out other Las Vegas based Numbered, though!
Options for others: She's fast, hard to pin down and can shift large bits of rubble aside where rescue from fallen buildings is needed. Oh, if anyone needs someone mesmerised, she can do that too.

[chalicejoker]

Character: Hajime Aikawa | chalicejoker
Capabilities: He's got his full range of canon horrible monster combat abilities, the most notable of whilch are his transformation to the Joker Undead and Kamen Rider Chalice: Wild Form. The latter is his canon ultimate fighting form, and he's well suited just to punching and kicking the hell out of things until they explode. Sometimes he uses fancy wind-based attacks or energy scythe attacks for this. He's got pretty much all of his combat abilities back now, and he is also immortal and does not need to sleep. He also heals quickly, and since his canon self was essentially a monster who existed only to fight, is very hard to slow down when he gets started.
What role(s) would/could they play: He's going to be best suited to combat, and he'll heavily favor that option. The one exception is that he's going to try to use his status as the mysterious "Lord of the Bugmen" in order to gain entrance to the discussion in Tokyo in an attempt to talk them out of killing the kappa. I'm planning on having this be the point at which his secret identity as the Lord of the Bugmen is blown out of the water. Once that's taken care of, he'll get right to fighting the aliens.
Location: He's going to be most heavily invested in protecting Locke and Tokyo. He's got family in and around both places.
Options for others: He'd be most effective in a group of fighters where everyone could watch everyone else's backs, and someone could call him back to Earth if he starts to lose himself in horrible monster fighting instincts. He can't really share his powers, but he can try to protect others who aren't as strong as he is.


Character: Arthur Curry/Aquaman | italktofish
Capabilities: He is basically unstoppable in the water, and he's got a jetpack and a magic trident that make him a force to be reckoned with on the land. He can breathe water, has super strength, and has a thick enough hide that he is somewhat damage-resistant. I just submitted some Echo requests that will also get him a little more combat skill as well as an immunity to natural toxins.
What role(s) would/could they play: I have nothing planned for him. He'll be drawn to combat for the OUTRAGEOUS ADVENTURE, but he'd also be really good at rescue efforts if there was any flooding involved. Gotta save people!
Location: Arthur isn't married to any location in particular but will be drawn towards places with a lot of water, for he can do the most damage there.
Options for others: If anything happens in the water, he can marshal whales and dolphins and things to assist in the offensive--if someone wants to go riding into glorious battle on a whale, he can make that happen.


Character: Torin | radiantchicken
Capabilities: Right now, he can fly, fire blasts of golden energy from his hands, fight with a sword (that can be summoned to his side from wherever), perform an anime-style finishing attack with said sword, induce infatuation in unwary bystanders (likely a one-shot that would need recharging), and induce dizziness in unwary bystanders (also likely a one-shot that would need recharging). He can also transform into a Power Ranger Kyoryu Silver, the Radiant Hero, and fight in that capacity.If the Echoes I just submitted go through, his robot dinosaur, Bragigas, will grow to canon size and regain his canon ability to change forms into Bragi-Oh, a humanoid fighting machine. Bragi-Oh is skyscraper-sized and capable of doing a lot of damage.
What role(s) would/could they play: He'd ideally want to engage in giant robot combat against any enemy big guns through using Bragigas against them. He's also open for diplomacy and ground-level combat as needed. I'm not really married to anything definite for him yet, though I'd really like a chance to use Bragigas in the last battle.
Location: Bragigas's range of movement means he will likely favor Locke City and the surrounding areas. On his own, he can cover a wider area.
Options for others: He doesn't need help piloting Bragigas, but anyone else on board who can provide a positive melody and reserve bravery would probably be a plus. For ground-level operations, he can fly and offer support with his Beast Batteries.

Re: 28th

[jasminebloominginshadow]

Putting my vote in here, as my thoughts mostly mirror everyone else's.

[lovesickkiller]

Voting here, would rather this plot kick off toward the end of final exams than toward the beginning.