Workshop #1: October 2018

[keeperoftales]

Workshop #1: October 2018—

§ about.
Greetings, everyone! This is Forgotten Tales first ever workshop! Here players can come together and discuss what storybook characters they are considering for their character's essence, their new potential abilities, and even ask for help if you can't think of anything on your own. This is also doubling as an official interest check, so don't be shy!

Here are some reminders about how essences work in-game:

1. All characters will inherit characteristics and themes from a particular storybook character.
   
   
2. Storybook characters can be from any work of literary fiction such as fairy tales, folklore, fables, nursery rhymes, classics, plays, mythos, legends, etc. They can be well-known or obscure, and origins must pre-date the 1950s.
   
   
3. The essence doesn't necessarily have to match the character, just make sure you pick one that you can work with.
   
   
4. Refer to the Abilities section to see how abilities work.
   
   
5. Because the game currently doesn't allow duplicate essences, list your top preference and any others you're considering, but also be open for other suggestions. And if you see someone else list one you are considering, list it, anyway! Anyone could change their mind. Just don't be salty or badger anyone about their choice, otherwise it's an automatic boot out the door. The goal is to try to not only match the best essence to the character, but also one that people can have fun with.
   
   
6. For a complete refresher, refer to the Character section of the Game Info.
   
   
7. Feel free to hop into the Discord server.

If you have any further questions about this or anything in general, comment to the Mod Thread.

TDM will be up October 12th. Registration opens October 19th.
Game starts October 21st.


§ the form.
If you're ready, just fill out the following form and discuss away! One character per comment.

Player:
Character:
Canon: (and canon point)
Age: (of the character)
Bio Blurb: Just a quick blurb about the character so everyone can get a basic idea. Feel free to link a wiki and mention canon abilities in here.

Preferred Essence(s): Have one already in mind? List it here!
Looking For: What kind of storybook character would you be interested in? Things you're not interested in should also be mentioned.

Appearance: Any notable features both for the character in general and any appearance or style changes you may be considering for their essence.

Abilities: Whether you have an essence in mind or not, talk about what kind of abilities you're hoping to recreate or gain while in game. Any weapons that are going to be regained or explored?

Quirks: Are you interested in gaining any quirks of the storybook character? Or do you already have one already in mind? Need suggestions from your list?

Extra: Anything else you'd like to ask or talk about. Can be about the essences or just general ideas of what you'd like to hopefully play out.

Questions: Any other questions you might have.

SUBJECT LINE: CHARACTER | CANON <b>Player:</b> <b>Character:</b> <b>Canon:</b> (and canon point) <b>Age:</b> <b>Bio Blurb:</b> (optional: <a href="WIKIURL">Wiki</a>.) <b>Preferred Essence(s):</b> <b>Looking For:</b> <b>Appearance:</b> <b>Abilities:</b> <b>Quirks:</b> <b>Extra:</b> <b>Questions:</b> Any other questions you might have.

Post away and go buzz about everyone else!

Comments

QUESTIONS

[keeperoftales]

Comment here for any questions you might have!

Rokurou Rangetsu | Tales of Berseria

[rokubro]

Player: Laena
Character: Rokurou Rangetsu
Canon: Tales of Berseria; post game (epilogue)
Age: 22 (closer to 23 by canon point)
Bio Blurb: Wiki. A swordsman who once had a major grudge against his oldest brother and always fought him in attempts to beat him. This hatred is what turned him into the daemon he is today, but in doing so he lost a lot of his other emotions. So aside from that deep-seated anger and hatred towards his brother, he's otherwise really chill (and even despite that anger he still respects him). Most of that will be resolved from his canon point so it's a little less so.

The sword is his life—both the weapon and the way of it, and as a war daemon he is even more fight crazy. Enjoys drinking; comes from a long line of swordsmen; loyal and dutiful; will always repay his debts; will do whatever he wants as he sees fit; fairly positive, friendly and fun; definitely the older brother type; and is pretty neutral and easy-going about everything. A true "wandering swordsman," he doesn't really fit the usual image of a "daemon" until he's in battle. Then you really don't want to get in his way.

Preferred Essence(s): A TOSS UP between the Huntsman (either Red Riding Hood version or more general) or the Knight of Hearts. Also considered the Black Knight.
Looking For: I'm open to other ideas! Really anything that could help fit with his love of swords and fighting. Good or evil, doesn't really matter too much. Anything daemon or samurai related would be cool. But as of right now I'm kind of leaning towards the Huntsman.

Appearance: He'll be keeping his daemon markings, so the whole "black tattoo" thing on his face and his daemon eye will still be there. Although normally in more traditional samurai garb, his attire will change to match the essence, and I have a couple of ideas. As the Huntsman he'd be wearing more traditional leathers, browns, greens, cape or cloak—that kind of thing. Definitely the simplest of the three. Knight of Hearts would be more loose, light leather armor with some chainmail. Maybe some armored armguards and greaves, but nothing heavy. Colors would be black and red with some stylized heart symbols or designs. Oooh and a cape. Definitely cape. Black Knight would be light black chainmail but with the ability to create heavier armor and shields for defense if needed.

Abilities: In general my thoughts that no matter what his essence, he will be able to "reform" his swords. Alas he won't have his originals, but he can probably make something in their likeness. So he'd have two short swords and one greatsword. Going in he'll be able to keep his standard sword skills, but his artes will need to adapt to the essence—which shouldn't be too hard I think.

For more specifics, this is just a few things I thought so far with the ones I've considered:

• Huntsman. Nothing too extraordinary. Aside from his attack skills, he'd be able to better track down strong enemies. Might could utilize his daemon eye to spot weaknesses or follow faint trails. Since I'm considering the RRH version, he'd have a particular distaste for wolves as his inherited "quirk" and tend to go after them a lot (apologies to anyone who picks up any "wolf" type essence if I choose this one /cough). Probably have something with more affinity to nature/woods. Also, I did consider firearms as another set of weapons that he could try to use and learn, but what if gunblades.
  
  
• Knight of Hearts. I'd consider the more "executioner" type theme that's usually associated with this particular character. So he'd be a little more "beheading" happy...but that's really not too different from how he usually is so not sure if that would be quirk or not. Other extra skills may be more card or heart themed.
  
  
• Black Knight. I'd be mixing a few motifs for this since there is both Black Knight the character from the Arthurian Legends as well as the Black Knight used as various motifs. I think this essence would be more attack oriented and would just help amp up his abilities. ...But otherwise can't really think of anything cool or unique just yet.

His malevolence is a part of his daemon soul, but it'll just stay contained in there. None of it will ever come out (even on a normal day). Might try to work it in in his abilities, but otherwise I might not really do much with it.

Quirks: Huntsman: dislike for/seek out wolf-types; Knight of Hearts: more likely to try and behead someone; Black Knight: idk

Extra: Not much else since I think I rambled enough in the other sections hah. Play wise, he's just in for the action so as long as he can fight things he'll be happy.

Questions: Why can't I ever write short things.

[ricebird]

(Lays more ideas at Lae's feet /BOOT!)

But nah, honestly I think Huntsman or Knight of Hearts are the strongest picks right now. Huntsman suits his enhanced senses and wild nature more (plus, come on, he'd squee a bit over the gunblades after getting over the "not a pure sword" part), while the Knight of Hearts fits his bloodlust and his loyalty to Velvet. Not to mention their roles are more defined so you have more to work with.

There, I've weeded out the dark horse option /BOOT!

Shizuo Heiwajima | Durarara!!

[hatesviolence]

Player: Laena
Character: Shizuo Heiwajima
Canon: Durarara!!; in the year gap between vol 13 and start of SH
Age: 26
Bio Blurb: Wiki. A quiet guy who has superhuman strength and major anger management issues, but he's gotten better about it at his canon point. Seriously, he can rip up street signs and throw them like spears, kick cars like they're rocks, throw motorcycles, and stop a construction with his shoulder and suffer only a badly damaged arm. He drank a lot of milk to strengthen his bones since he was a kid—clearly it paid off. Other notable thing to know is he has a major hate grudge against Izaya Orihara so massive he has no issues actually trying to kill the guy if he ever even gets a whiff of his flea ridden scent. They have a history.

Otherwise, Shizuo actually just wants a peaceful quiet life, but is denied this because of how his rage and strength can be so destructive (and Izaya). He acts as a bodyguard for his friend in a debt collecting business; smokes a lot; likes sweets; quiet and unassuming; actually very kind; but also doesn't take much bullshit; did we mention the short temper; very protective and loyal of his friends because he considers them very precious since it's hard for him to actually make any (again because of his uh issues); and seriously he just wants a peaceful life and people to stop picking fights with him is this really so hard to ask??

Preferred Essence(s): Iiii actually do not have one in mind /flails I GOT IT! Frankenstein's monster. It's a perfect fit since they both are seen as monsters and really just want to belong with everyone else.
Looking For: Anything that could complement Shizuo's rage and strength issues, but also allowing him to work on utilizing that side of him in a more productive way. Something like Hercules maybe or even something like the Beast, but I'm not really aiming for a big name character.

Appearance: In general he will have sunglasses, possibly in a similar style to the ones he usually wears. He normally wears a bartender's outfit in canon, and that will be retained here. However, it will be covered in stitches and stained with mud to fit more of Frankenstein's monster's theme. Shizuo himself will also have the sutures on various parts of his body, but they are actually just inked on like a tattoo instead of real ones. And of course, will always have a cigarette.

Abilities: Without the essence his ability to rip up and throw signs will be reduced to something more like being able to punch and bend them over, or maybe kick one down if he hits it right. With his essence, he'll have most of that monstrous strength back, but he doesn't reach full power unless he's struck by lightning or some kind of electrical charge. Doesn't have to be a huge amount, but the more he gets, the more powerful he'll be for a short period of time (like a berserk mode). He'll even give off a bit of a discharge if he's starting to get enraged. Fire and ice will be his weaknesses. As for a weapon, by default he'll be able to "conjure" up a giant shovel, but he can also create various assortments of giant nails and screws to either use as melee weapons or throwing. More likely throwing.

Quirks: N/A

Extra: Mostly hoping to help him develop so that he can actually use his strength for good and boost his confidence. And eventually maybe throw something huge at someone or chuck an Eraser because that would be fun. And make friends. Lots of friends.

Questions: Why have I failed.

Reaper | Overwatch

[gr1m]

Player: Leo
Character: Gabriel "Reaper" Reyes
Canon: Overwatch, post Masquerade
Age: 58
Bio Blurb:Wiki. A super soldier who was also once a war hero and commander of a black ops division turned mercenary working with a terrorist organization. Now he seems wholly fueled by revenge against those he once trusted and fought beside for a deeply felt betrayal. Reaper is merciless, calm, and calculating, or at least appears that way when on a mission. There appears to be very little of the man he was once before, but there may be more to it than simply that.

Before he was Reaper, he was Gabriel Reyes, a man extremely loyal to his friends and those he fought beside. Believing in the cause and getting what needed to be done no matter what. A man who enjoyed Halloween and any celebration that involved masks and costumes, and even a fan of sports. Worked hard and gave his all, even if it meant making the hard decisions when he felt no one else could, or should. Joking with his agents and friends, even if his humor was a little dry or punny.

He has the ability to turn into some shadowy smoke and even teleport, absorbing the life force of those he deals damage to in order to heal himself. Even without the wraith-like abilities he's an extremely competent fighter, trained military, knowing his way around weapons and hand to hand. A superior strength due to the Super Solider program, genetically altered to take more and hit harder, amongst some other things.

Preferred Essence(s): La Lechuza, but I'm very open to suggestions and not really set on it.
Looking For: Whatever might let him at least keep some sense of himself, even if it's closer to who he was before he became Reaper. Maybe even show there's still something more in him than what he's made himself become, aka unearth the dead man, maybe.

Appearance: If I do go with La Lechuza, something similar to how Reaper appears save far more obviously barn owl themed. Black feathers and all that; less grim reaper more barn owl shape shifting witch. Otherwise if I go with something else it would depend on that.

Abilities: The ability to shape-shift in to a great giant black barn owl, some supernatural strength at least close to that of is super solider ability, and the ability to cast spells that may dip heavily in to shadows since witchyness. Maybe able to shift in to a large black cat as well since some tales also have that along with the turning in to a large black bird of some sort.

Quirks: La Lechuza - taste for raw bloody meat, fresher the better.

Extra: Honestly just looking forward to chucking him at this setting and meaning e has to work with others and etc. Maybe make some friends/people he knows he can trust, things like that.

Questions: Why am I this predictable.

[rokubro]

...I am very tired right now so I cannot offer anything productive YET, however, I just wanted to say that the first thing that popped up when I googled la lechuza was this. So now all I can imagine is a cute owl and it's making me laugh a lot.

Cyrus Albright | Octopath Traveler

[scrutinies]

Player: Christine
Character: Cyrus Albright
Canon: Octopath Traveler; either after all Chapter Threes have been completed or post-game, undecided.
Age: 30
Bio Blurb: (Wiki.) A brilliant and celebrated scholar, Cyrus is one of Atlasdam Academy's premiere professors— or he was, until his recent and decidedly forced sabbatical. Prior to his leaving Atlasdam, he was tutor to the kingdom's own Princess Mary, but was forced to leave his post after some particularly nasty (and very untrue) rumors were spread concerning inappropriate relations with his students. Rather than allow himself to be broken-hearted, he decided to look at his leaving Atlasdam as an opportunity not only for adventure, but to learn new things about the world beyond, as he felt he had run out of room to grow at the academy.

For as brilliant as Cyrus technically is, he's very lacking in social awareness. His manners are nice enough, but he's no good at reading other people (he hasn't the slightest clue that one of his students is very obviously in love with him) and rarely thinks about the way what he says might be received. He can be very over-the-top without meaning to be, and invasive in his intense thirst to learn absolutely everything about the world around him. He doesn't have a whole lot of respect for personal boundaries, despite the fact that he's kind and well-meaning overall. His intentions are always good, but his execution isn't always the greatest.

Preferred Essence(s): Right now, Sherlock Holmes seems like the best fit due to Cyrus' love of discovering knowledge and solving whatever can be even remotely framed as a mystery— he prides himself on his intellect and reasoning and considers himself to be quite the detective when the situation calls for it.
Looking For: I am definitely open to other ideas of essences that might fit him! A passion for learning and the sharing of knowledge are pretty critical for him, but I would also be down to have that passion be a detriment to play on how oblivious and out of touch he can be.

Appearance: I'm not sure he would have any noticeable appearance changes with the particular essence I have in mind, other than the addition of some items/special accessories that Laena suggested, which are addressed in the next part!

Abilities: Cyrus will be losing his ability to cast magic upon arriving, but I would really like for him to be able to regain it eventually— possibly using a book as a conduit or potentially a pipe that produces smoke with varying magic effects. He's worked hard to study and master his spells, so he'll feel a bit lost without them, but he has other talents to rely on that the essence can also build on! In canon, his primary ability beyond magic is that of observation— he can "scrutinize" a person to discern certain details about them, or analyze an enemy to find a weakness to exploit. Rather than have this simply be observation, it would be fun if he gained a sort of supernatural insight that let him find a person's Achilles' heel. Perhaps eventually the ability to know whether or not someone is telling the truth? We also may have discussed X-ray glasses that let him find hidden objects/things someone might be trying to hide on their person, because you know, he's not invasive enough already. Ideas are also welcome!

Quirks: Open to suggestions! I might also be planning on rereading some Sherlock stories if I do go with that essence to see what he might pick up, since it's been awhile.

Extra: Not much else! Cyrus is the kind of person who will 100% throw himself into the story, whole-heartedly. There's a problem to be solved, and come hell or high water, he's going to do his very best to ensure that it gets solved.

Questions: Why is this my primary character type.

[rokubro]

magic pipe magic pipe

Actually if I really do go with the Huntsman for Rokurou and I do put an ability for him to be able to find/sense different types of trails, these two would make for very interesting tracking partners.

Capell | Infinite Undiscovery

[slovenlyserenade]

Player: Orphen
Character: Capell
Canon: Infinite Undiscovery; epilogue (still debating)
Age: ~19 (if epilogue)
Bio Blurb: Wiki Formerly a cowardly and lazy musician/flute player known as Capell the Soother, he ends up getting dragged into a series of events to save the world. And all because he bears a striking resemblance to the actual hero of the story, Sigmund, known as the Liberator, who has taken up the task of severing the chains, and the Order behind them, that have currently ensnared the moon to their world. And he's the only one capable of destroying these chains.

Just about everything goes wrong for Capell, starting with being tossed into prison because he's mistaken for Sigmund. Upon being (reluctantly) rescued, things only go downhill for him as certain situations, and a new persistent ally, force him to work together with the Liberation Force despite his best efforts to run away and stay out of trouble. Things eventually start to change for him though, and he learns more about himself on this journey than he ever thought he would. He grows to be dependable, brave, and determined to do whatever is necessary to save others and the world they live in. And he's willing to sacrifice himself to accomplish it.

Preferred Essence(s): I'm not sure yet!
Looking For: I'm open to suggestions, and am okay with essences being similar, or opposite since his development throughout the game shows both ends.

Appearance: He has no distinguishing features or marks, but he always carries his flute. And will likely be dressed how he is in the wiki link, adopting a bit from whatever essence he has.

Abilities: Since he will retain his skill with a sword, I'd like for him to regain the special abilities/notations he has with his flute. In the game, Capell obtains notations that can be played in battle, and some outside of battle, that grant certain effects. Some make enemies weaker, another song makes objects visible that are otherwise hidden, some make his allies stronger, etc. The flute, and the notations themselves, are special.

Capell lacks magic abilities, in fact, that's a characteristic of his in the game that makes him unusual. When people are born in their world, they are typically blessed by the moon god, and the phase determines that person's power. Unless they are born under a new moon, in which they receive no 'lunaglyph' (it's essentially a marking on the body that draws lunar power to perform magic-- whether that be healing, using fire, or seeing in the dark by summoning light) and are outcast from society, some are even killed.

That being said, it might be interesting for an essence of his to allow him to use magic.

Quirks: N/A

Extra: I would like to see him develop in other areas outside of fighting.

Questions: Why am I always so attracted to the most obscure shit no one's ever heard of.

[rokubro]

I might be reaching here, but I saw "flute" and "musician" and immediately thought, "What about the Pied Piper?"

Also, he could definitely use magic with pretty much any essence, just a matter of how creative you can get with O:

Kotori Iida | Sweetness & Lightning

[ricebird]

Player: LoneWolfPrincess (LWP)
Character: Kotori Iida
Canon: Sweetness & Lightning, either the first chapter of the manga or chapter 54, after graduating high school, haven’t decided yet.
Age: 16 or 18, depending on the two canon points.
Bio Blurb: (optional: The super scant wiki page.) Kotori is a normal high school girl in modern Japan, and the daughter of a fairly prominent chef and restaurateur. Unfortunately, despite her passion for food and voracious appetite, Kotori starts the series unable to cook much herself; an accident cutting her finger when she was younger left her with a strong phobia of kitchen knives. At the start of the series, Kotori’s mother Megumi has started doing appearances on TV to repay a favor to a friend, leaving the restaurant closed and Kotori alone most of the time. One day, she runs into her recently widowed teacher Kouhei Inuzuka and his preschool daughter Tsumugi. After explaining that her mother skipped out on Flower Viewing with her, she gives them a business card for the restaurant. They come in that night and she (awkwardly but successfully) makes them clay pot rice. She then asks Sensei and Tsumugi if they’d like to come to the restaurant for dinner more often; the place is empty nowadays, and she can help teach them to cook with her practical knowledge (since the two had been living on frozen dinners since Kouhei’s wife died) and he can handle the cutting. Over the next few years, the two of them cooks lots of delicious food, improve their skills, and Kotori even manages to overcome her phobia and begins aspiring and working to take over the restaurant.

While Kotori is usually reserved and quiet at first glance, she lights up when talking about food and cooking. She’s nigh-constantly snacking during school, always wanting to investigate new ingredients, and once she gains enough confidence extremely excited at the prospect of tackling a new recipe. She’s also kind and extremely earnest (to the point of bluntness or being a ridiculously transparent liar at times), quickly taking Tsumugi under her wing as a little sister. She can also be very easy to fluster, though, sometimes to the point of comically serious dramatics, and anything romantic either goes right over her head or makes her turn red and stammer and squawk for a subject change.

Preferred Essence(s): Looking at either the little girl in The Sweet Porridge or one of the many protagonists of Stone Soup, maybe even blending the two together somehow if it’s allowed. If not, I’d probably flipflop between try to choose one or the other.
Looking For: Anything involving food. No, really, the girl doesn’t even need the essences to be obsessed with it. Preferably good aligned, though.

Appearance: Probably dressed as a normal peasant girl with a dress and apron, clothes maybe a bit on the raggedy side since the main characters of both stories start out poor and hungry. And she’ll always be carrying her cooking pot.

Abilities: Kotori’s most prominent power would be wielding a magical cooking pot. It would look like an ordinary cauldron or clay pot, small enough to carry (probably 2-4 gallons), but able to magically produce food. For a Sweet Porridge pot, Kotori would say magic words to create an infinite amount of rice porridge. The trick here is that Kotori would also need to use an incantation to make the pot STOP cooking, and if she’s unable to do so the area will be flooded with porridge… and sometimes the pot might glitch and she’d be unable to stop it anyway.

A Stone Soup pot would instantly boil once a stone is placed inside, and if at least one other person contributes an ingredient the water will transform into a matching kind of soup (carrots for carrot soup, bonito flakes for dashi, veggies and beans for minestrone, etc.), with soups becoming more complex and delicious as more ingredients are added. The soup will stay warm and bottomless until the stone is fished out. A drawback here might be that the ingredients need to complement each other, or the soup becomes disgusting. There might be some magical elements to the soup once consumed too, like making the eater more peaceful and generous for a short time, or being so magically delicious people start to go cuckoo for it.

Depending on whether I can blend the two stories or not, the pot might become multi-purpose since the activation methods are unique. (And the pot might glitch during soup making too.) The pot would also likely be bonded to Kotori somehow; the pot needs her to say the words/drop the stone in, and any attempts by someone to make the pot stop would fail, maybe even make it cook MORE food out of spite.

A good secondary power might be that Kotori becomes a bottomless stomach herself. Does the hero the players are helping need to eat a literal mountain of food for an impossible task? Kotori’s your girl. It’d also come in handy in case the pot glitches and she needs to eat away the flood of porridge or soup.

Quirks: I WOULD say either an increased appetite or waxing poetic about food, but… she already has those quirks in canon. XD Suggestions here might be helpful.

Extra: Mostly just workshopping for fun, but if I do bring her in she might be good for a low-key support role.

Questions: Why are you so darn cute and hungry, Kotori?

Finn "the Human" Mertens | Adventure Time with Finn and Jake (some spoilers within!)

[helpshomies]

Player: Gore
Character: Finn "the Human" Mertens
Canon: Adventure Time with Finn and Jake (tentatively post-finale)
Age: 17
Bio Blurb: (Wiki.) Finn's a young boy living in the world of Ooo, a land full of adventure and whimsical kingdoms which is actually part of a post-apocalyptic Earth. He goes on various adventures, from the silly to the disturbing, with his adoptive brother, Jake the Dog! He originally thought he was the only human, but he slowly discovered others throughout the series including his birth parents: a dad who's always trying to abandon him and a mom who became a computer. He also lost half of one arm and dealt with being infected with the curse of a grass sword for a while. Then the grass sword merged with another version of him to become a grass clone of him named Fern, with tragic results. Over the course of the series, Finn has gained a more peaceful nature and is less violence-happy than he used to be.

Preferred Essence(s): I don't have one definitely set, but I think I'm leaning towards Jack the Beanstalk, mostly because it could be interesting for him to have beanstalk-based powers that could be evocative of his grass sword and Fern. It would also double as a nod to a canon AU of Finn, who has some nods to the story. I'm also tempted to go with Rapunzel, because Finn is also known for having long golden hair! And other remote possibilities are Peter Pan and Pinocchio.
Looking For: I'm not sure! I'm kinda conflicted between picking characters that match his role as a hero/adventurer or having him deal with a role shift such as becoming an antagonist. And I'm just generally trying to think of themes and abilities that would be interesting to play with for him, such as abilities evoking the grass sword or his hair or some other element related to him.

Appearance: As linked above, he has long blonde hair that's usually (somehow) kept under that bear hat that he wears. Also, Finn is notably missing half of his right arm. I'll probably change up his clothing style to match whatever Essence he gets, and I am contemplating whether or not to attach some prosthetic or some type of power to his half-arm.

Abilities: Well Finn usually fights with a sword, so maybe some kind of sword to fight with would be good. The main other ability he had in canon was when he had a cursed grass sword, which could change shape to help Finn but also was kinda bloodthirsty. I'm also open to attaching powers to his half-arm (for a chunk of canon, the grass sword formed a duplicate of Finn's missing arm, and at other points he's had a robotic prosthetic) or his hair (definitely if I go the Rapunzel route).

Quirks: I'm interested in gaining quirks, though nothing specific's come to mind yet.

Extra: Finn will see this as another adventure, so he will jump to the call! Beyond that, I'm mostly going with the flow for him.

Questions: No questions!

[rokubro]

Aww, I think Jack would be cute! Could even have even more special, magical beans that could do a lot of different things.

Including be bombs.

.../cough.

Rapunzel is pretty hysterical, though, haha.

BUT HIS ARM ;_; THAT'S SO SAD! Whatever Essence he gets could definitely be used to give him something to use as a pseudo-prosthetic of some kind. .../ponder. Going back with Jack, what if he had a kind of "grassy arm" that had a kind of "green thumb" effect? Or maybe that's too plant-y.

Lacie Baskerville | Pandora Hearts

[bittybratty]

Player: Callie
Character: Lacie Baskerville
Canon: Pandora Hearts, some while after being adopted by the Baskervilles
Age: Like. 8, or something. Smol.
Bio Blurb: In PH canon, every generation or so a Child of Misfortune is born -- that is to say, a child with red eyes. On the surface this individual is just an oddity who is said to bring bad luck, and is thus often subjected to things like stones thrown in the marketplace or getting kidnapped and sold to aristocrats. The truth of the matter is that the Child of Misfortune has the ability to move in and out of the Abyss as they please and even reach down to the Core of it, where they could conceivably warp reality as they like, something which only Glen Baskerville -- the guardian of the Abyss -- is permitted to do.

After she and her brother are taken in at Baskerville, Lacie, at a young and tender age, is informed that someday her brother will become the next Glen, and at that time she will be chucked into the Abyss as a sacrifice and erased from the world entirely. This is because her power is dangerous. Rules are rules! However, the current Glen is bored and an asshole and offers her a chance to help him shake things up on her way out. In a way that I'm not going to describe here because it's a massive icky content warning and quite frankly I don't feel like having her bring it up in game anyway. Suffice it to say that Lacie is going to die when she grows up and she knows and has accepted this even as a child.

So, one would think she'd become bitter and cynical and all that, aware that her life is so easily thrown away by others. Nope. The young woman Lacie grows up to be will be capricious and gleefully violent when provoked, yes, unflinching from the harsh realities of the world and switching from cheerful and friendly to whacking people with scissors in seconds flat. But despite that, she loves the world dearly, makes friends with the Core of the Abyss itself despite being frequently told to quit freaking going there, talks to whoever she pleases without hesitation, and so on. Her acknowledgement of the cruelty in the world, and its cruelty towards herself, only deepens her love for it, and as an adult she'll go to her death believing she's changing the system for the better. Any world that seems in need of help would earn her attention, too.

Preferred Essence(s): Baba Yaga. No, look, hear me out --
Looking For: I want something that fits both extremes of Lacie's nature and a witch like Baba Yaga fits the bill. If you get tossed into her house and she tells you to do the chores while she's out and you are a kind person who makes friends with the local mice and they help you and you get it all done, she'll give you riches and food. If you march into her house and she tells you to do the chores and you go EW ICK CHORES FUCK OFF, she'll eat you and then send your bones home to your mom in a basket.

Appearance: You'd think that a kid who gets into things as unrepentantly as Lacie does would scream about trousers, but no, she loves her giant ruffle dresses, thanks. Probably she'd be entertained about giant ruffle dresses with skulls on them, especially if they freaked out all the adults.

Abilities: Again, Lacie is a reactive character. If you are friendly to her, you will become Her Person. If you try to hurt her or someone she loves, she might just. Straight up kill you. I like the idea of her developing some sort of magic in game that works that way, only when provoked by other characters. Those who prove themselves good and helpful, she'll find some way to help. Those who are jackasses, well. Not sure exactly how to go about this without making her overpowered. Perhaps it should manifest as some sort of guardian, to mirror her Chain in canon and Baba Yaga's various helpers.

Quirks: I'm going to give her iron shark teeth because that shit is hilarious.

Extra: One of the first things I did when I picked this character up years ago was have her scold Glen Baskerville for literally rotting away and tell him in absolute seriouness that if his toes started falling off she wasn't going to be the one to pick up after him, so that's what we're dealing with here.

Questions: Why do I have no impulse control.

[ricebird]

Oooh Baba Yaga! Hm, Hecate might be another good fit for her too, unless you think it's too on the nose. Goddess of witchcraft, psychopomp so she travels freely to and from a place of death, fearsome but actually kind, especially to anyone cursed with transformation. That last bit could be especially helpful for connecting any baleful polymorphs like the Beast or the Frog Prince.

goro akechi | persona 5

[skews]

Player: Bayley
Character: Goro Akechi
Canon: Persona 5 — from 12/16 after his last appearance...you know what I mean.
Age: 18
Bio Blurb: (Wiki.) Japanese high school student, orphan, and ace detective, Goro Akechi is a sharp-minded, likable young man who takes a keen interest in the case of the Phantom Thieves as they change the hearts of criminals through their mysterious means. Akechi is polite and well-spoken, praised by adults and the general public for his deductive reasoning skills and his charismatic energy. A vocal critic of the Phantom Thieves' vigilante justice, Akechi comes under heat as their popularity rises, facing ridicule as public opinion turns in their favor. However, after the Phantom Thieves become public enemy number one, Akechi ascertains their true identities and reveals to them that he possesses the same abilities to enter the Metaverse and use personas as they do. Akechi strikes a deal with the Phantom Thieves: in exchange for helping them clear their name, they will disband after one final heist.

...Except Akechi's true intentions were never to help the Phantom Thieves clear their name, but rather to pin the blame for a series of mental shutdown cases he caused on them and subsequently attempt to murder their leader. Akechi doesn't seek the altruistic justice he so often espouses on television, but rather his own ends, weaving a complex web of lies for his self-interested motives, deceiving literally everyone around him. Akechi has no accomplices, no real friends, and struggles to see the worth of attachments to other people. He is manipulative and scheming, and not above getting his hands dirty to achieve his ends. He has cultivated a perfect outward appearance and mannerisms so other people would want him around, but his emotional damage make him pretty damn terrible at assigning value to people beyond himself. Anyway, you get the idea! They call him the Trash Man for a reason...

Preferred Essence(s): My first choice for Akechi is Robin Hood! For the obvious persona-related reasons, and tying Akechi to a character known for their notoriously outside-the-law behavior and moral uprightness would be interesting to explore. Alternatively, I've also considered Mordred from Arthurian legend, but have less concrete ideas to go off of there.
Looking For: Mostly help deciding on abilities! I'm also open to other ideas for essences if anyone has one that strikes some deliciously ironic parallels to Akechi.

Appearance: For the Robin Hood vibe, I'm torn between dressing Akechi up in the typical green garb so he looks like an awkward fairy child, or sticking closer to his usual Metaverse garb. Whatever happens, he'll definitely have a silly, jaunty hat with a feather in it and he'll hate it.

Abilities: Typically in battle, Akechi wields laser swords and ray guns, but for Robin Hood I'd rather him be tethered to the typical outlaw weapon: the bow and arrow. I debating weather or not his arrows will have special properties or not and if so, what kind of properties — will they be the typical zelda-esque elemental effects or something more helpful with stealth and infiltration? Also with continuing Robin Hood's thief motif, it'd be fun to give Akechi some next-level thievery abilities, like shadow clones or short-range illusions. Or maybe he'll just turn into a fox. Because.

Quirks: Going with the whole "take from the rich, give to the poor" motif, Akechi with feel compelled to share his "bounty" will people around him...regardless of what that means, whether it be money or food or information. He'll find it difficult to hold onto things for long! He's gonna be so charitable...

Extra: is Akechi's middle name.

Questions: what is the airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow

[rokubro]

Robin Hood would definitely fit Akechi well. So for abilities, hm hm. You've already listed a few good ones... What about giving him a cloak of some kind, maybe that could help him camouflage? OR maybe something with a mask if you really want to make some more P5 connections.

If you want some thief-y ideas for the bow and arrow.../points you to Guild Wars 2 Thief profession. They actually use the shortbow for various things, including creating smoke fields, poison fields, teleporting, and crippling. But you could also mix in some other elemental stuff in there, too, if you wanted!

/throws out random ideas

(i also laugh at the fox)

Aya | Infinite Undiscovery

[sparrowrain]

Player: Farmel
Character: Aya
Canon: Infinite Undiscovery (post-ending, pre-epilogue, probably)
Age: 17-18
Bio Blurb: (optional: Wiki.) Aya is a princess who, against the wishes of her parents, left home to follow Sigmund, the Liberator, a man intent on breaking the chains tying their world to the moon and defeating the Order of Chains once and for all. She has something of a pushy personality, especially when it comes to getting other people (Capell) involved in things, but she herself cares a lot about people, and always wants to help if she can. She's very perceptive, one of the few people in the party able to see the qualities hidden behind Capell's somewhat reluctant exterior, something that complicates her feelings for and about him. Aya also doesn't want to lose who she is, the compassion and feelings she has for people, which might happen if/when she becomes the ruler of her country.

She also get jealous easily, is an archer and has a pet bear. yep.

Preferred Essence(s): Not sure! I was partly thinking of bear-related fairy tales like The Bear?
Looking For: Suggestions for essences... I don't know if I should go the bear route, or the princess route, or something that totally flips things on its head.

Appearance: I don't imagine her looking too much different than she already looks except with a slight change of clothes depending on her essence?

Abilities: She'll keep her archery abilities, generally speaking! She has the ability to use magic in canon, but I'm pretty lukewarm on whether or not she gets that ability in game. If I go with bear she may have some shapeshifting going on there though.

Quirks: Depends on what I go with!

Extra: Nothing I can think of...

Questions: CAN SHE BRING HER bear? yes it has a horn what do you want from me.

[keeperoftales]

Yes she can bring her bear! ...What a truly, uh. Magnificent beast.

Kazuma Asougi | Dai Gyakuten Saiban

[dualjustice]

DGS2 Spoiler Warning

Player: Taisa
Character: Kazuma Asougi
Canon: DGS2-3, before the second day of the trial.
Age: 24
Bio Blurb: (optional: Wiki.) A college student and also a qualified attorney. He has a strong sense of justice and duty, but also can be a bit of a perfectionist and a hot head. He's in that category where people admire and respect his achievements and is even called the pride of the Japanese Empire. So he's cool stuff, the ideal student everyone should strive to be, but under the surface, he has some skeletons hiding in his closet.

When he qualified for the exchange program to study in Great Britain, there was a second part to that deal. Though he tells everyone he wants to change Japan's legal system, his true mission is to find the truth behind his father's death and he's willing to do anything find it, even accept an assassination exchange. Though he says he had no intention of going through with the assassination, he still brought Naruhodou along as a failsafe, but not tell him why. So basically, he's a man of many secrets and wants to do everything himself.

The point I'm pulling him will be when he still has amnesia. I want to see where he ends up developing without all of his memories. Oh, and he is proficient in using a sword.

Preferred Essence(s): I honestly do not have any ideas at the moment. There's too many stories....
Looking For: Stories that involves people becoming demons, curses, memory loss and/or weapons of myth that have special properties. On the opposite spectrum, something that will force him to be sociable.

Appearance: Depends on the essence, but considering I'm going for something darker, this may end up being a suitable appearance.

Abilities: Asougi always had this figurative demon inside him, so it would be neat to have it take on a physical appearance. His family also has a dark secret and been cursed, so it goes well with Asougi becoming a demon when he does a certain thing (In canon, when he felt strongly towards killing someone). His katana, Karuma is also known as the demonslayer, and something that slices through the darkness and reveals the truth.

Since he has trust issues, maybe the demon side triggers less when he starts moving towards depending on others?

Something kind of minor and doesn't happen as often in his current point, but there's a saying that a warm breeze always follows him back in Japan.

Quirks: Bigger appetite, light bothers him, or being somewhere where it's rich in...holiness? This will be expanded once the essence part is worked out.

Extra: End goal is being able to overcome the demon inside, control it, and getting his memories back. Although it would also be interesting to see if he believes the essence of the person is actually who he is...Also learning how to trust others again.

Questions: Do I play anything else besides from DGS? We'll just never know.

[rokubro]

Hmmmm one idea is maybe Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde? Kind of has that dual persona type deal. Would also work really well with the "dark side" being triggered and you can do a lot of stuff with both sides.

Roxas || Kingdom Hearts

[twilightskey]

Player: CS
Character: Roxas
Canon: Kingdom Hearts, post Dream Drop Distance
Age: 15 (Technically he's only, like, a year old, but I'm going with Sora's Age/appearance age for simplicity's sake)
Bio Blurb: Roxas's page on KHWiki. The Nobody of the series' main character, Sora. When a strong-willed person loses their heart to darkness and becomed a Heartless, the empty body left behind grows an awareness of its own and becomes a Nobody. When Sora used a Keyblade of darkness to unlock his heart to help his friend Kairi, he unknowingly created Roxas as a result. Roxas was recruited into Organization XIII due to his ability to wield the Keyblade, and was told he was the key to the Organization's goal of acquiring hearts of their own. Unlike the other members, Roxas had no memory of his original self and took their word for it that he was doing the right thing. However, when Roxas began to have flashback to memories of Sora and began questioning who he was, he eventually defected from Organization XIII in an attempt to find answers.

His independence was short-lived, however, as he was quickly captured by Riku and DiZ, who were trying to help Sora after he'd gone into a coma to recover his memories that had been scrambled during his time in Castle Oblivion. The two placed Roxas in a simulated version of Twilight Town for safekeeping against the Organization, altering his memories and making Roxas believe he was a normal kid. However, Axel, a member of the Organization and Roxas's former friend ended up finding him and began to interfere with the simulation, which set off a series of events that allowed Roxas to remember who he was, reawaken his abilities, and eventually lead Roxas to find and re-merge with Sora.

Preferred Essence(s): I honestly have no idea, could use some help with this!
Looking For: Suggestions for his essence would be greatly appreciated! I was thinking of perhaps going with either an essence that could match his personality, or reflect his personal growth in game. When it comes to what I'm looking for in-game, anything goes, be it good, bad, or shaky CR with this kid!

Appearance: His standard appearance is as listed in the wiki link, though he'll probably arrive donning his black coat attire at first. Once he's settled he'll probably change into some regular peasant clothes or something a bit more comfortable. Also, his appearance will definitely change to reflect whatever story I end up going for with him.

Abilities: As Sora's Nobody, he inherited the ability to use a Keyblade, and most notably has the ability to dual-wield two of them. This is due to the fact that Sora has the heart of another Keyblade wielder currently resting inside his own, and so Roxas was able to wield two Keyblades as a result. When only using one Keyblade his fighting style is very similar to Sora's, but while dual-wielding his fighting style becomes much more aggressive than Sora's. He also has the ability to manipulate light when at his fullest capacity, creating laser arrays and shooting spheres of light, and can glide fast enough to leave a lens flair behind him.

I haven't decided any sort of abilities for in-game since I haven't figured out a fairy tale yet, but I'll work on something as soon as I sort that out!

Quirks: Open to discussion!

Extra: Not much, just more reiteration of the fact that I am open to suggestions for essences and other workshop stuffs!

Questions:

[heartofalioness]

Hm.... looking at Roxas, I’m instantly drawn to “created being, possibly seeking humanity.” If you want to go along those lines, you could pair Roxas with Pinocchio, Galatea, Gingerbread Man, the Golem of Prague, Mr. Semolina, or even Anderson’s version of the Little Meramid since the original version of her is seeking a human soul even more than the prince’s love.

Maybe even something like Issun-bōshi, Tom Thumb, or Hans-My-Hedgehog since they’re all strangely born boys looking to make an identity for themselves despite not being “normal” humans. (Only being an inch tall, looking like an animal, etc.)

... Writing this, there’s another tale that might fit Roxas too: Iron Hans. I think the golden hair fits Roxan pretty well, and the mentor ship from Iron Hans kind of mirrors Roxas’s friendship with Axel. Let me know if you want links for the other stories too, know some of them are a bit obscure.

Himawari Kunogi | xxxHolic

[alittlebadluck]

Player: Gann
Character: Himawari Kunogi
Canon: xxxHolic | Chapter 175
Age: 17
Bio Blurb: (optional: Wiki.)

Preferred Essence(s): I'm not sure yet. Some ideas I had were to find a character with bad luck and play off that, but also I was thinking a "bad" character would be a lot of fun too. Like Big Bad Wolf because lets face it he had some bad luck there. Or maybe the Evil Queen of Snow White. I need some other thoughts please.
Looking For: I suppose I answered that in the question above. I want something that I could play off the bad luck, or maybe something in the 'bad guy' category just to be off and strange compared to dear sweet Himawari. I'm leaning towards big bad wolf because he's not only a bad character but also had a lot of bad luck. And I think it'd be fun for her to hair ears and a tail xD

Appearance: She's a tall asian girl with long black hair, generally curly. She has massive amounts of scars down her back. If I go with the big bad wolf, I am thinking ears that tell her actual mood (since she's able to hide how she's really feeling, if she had wolf ears maybe they'd give her away). If I go with the Evil Queen I'm not sure yet.

Abilities: So, leaning towards the big bad wolf, I was thinking of upping her senses because of it. Make her a good tracking character. Something she could do with ease and not in a fight. I'm considering shapeshifting though, either like a werewolf, or at least claws and teeth as needed. I'd also like to play off her bad luck with this one.

Quirks: I need thoughts on this one. Though if I went with the big bad wolf, I was thinking the ears and tail as a 'telling' source for her thoughts and emotions could be one thing.

Extra:I'd love to end up doing something where she can control luck. Be it the bad luck of the wolf or a witches power. I'm not sure yet. But I want to play off her natural bad luck abilities in game here as well. Cause bad luck for others, maybe cause good luck once controlled. I want to work that into her Essence some how. Ideas would be great.

Questions: Help. I need better idea. hahaha.

[rokubro]

...Well this guy is going to be the Huntsman and have a thing against wolves so. Biased towards the Wolf, and it would also play into her bad luck?? Not that he would actually just randomly attack her... ...After the first time...../coughs.

But on a more serious note, I do enjoy the idea of Himawari being in the "villain" category. She's so cute and definitely not what someone would expect. So far I think the ideas for the abilities are cool! Either complete shapeshift or partial could work. Ooh, maybe even turn into a black wolf. And when she is one, she could run faster, have increased strength, etc. You could play with whether or not she would keep her entire sense of self or take on more of a "wolf" mentality. So mostly herself, but kind of a more out of body experience if that makes sense.

You could also use the tail to help indicate her mood (droop if sad, twitch if agitated, etc.). Although the ear/tail thing might now really count so much of a quirk and more just part of the general package. So you could have that and then something else that's a little sillier. Like being attracted to all things pigs or protagonists in general.

And you could definitely have her bad luck come into play, no problem. Make the wrong choices, situations get worse before getting better, probably things like that. Spreading her bad luck is possible, too, though would probably want to make it optional for folks.

I HOPE THAT WAS HELPFUL...

Edit: Forgot to give Evil Queen thoughts (mostly since you seemed more keen on the Wolf).

If you went with the Evil Queen, one thing you could play with is the concept of mirrors. She wouldn't have the Magic Mirror per se since that could be used as a character essence, but she could have compact mirrors. And broken/cracked mirrors are a sign of bad luck, so if one breaks something bad could happen, like a curse. There are also apples, and that could also be used with her luck. Maybe certain colored apples could be indicative of whether it's good or bad, and biting into one could just be a random luck of the draw?

Appearance wise, oooh you could do a lot. You could go all out in formal queen dress, or could go for a more youthful sort of princess look. Or royal goth loli. And a tiara or crown, definitely have to have one of those! OOH! Could have mirror aspects to it, too. If you wanted her to be more of a "sorceress" type, she could also have a scepter (again I think mirror shards) and could be used to help cast spells. Thinking both traditional elemental spells and general curses like a witch.

For quirks...uh... Obsessed with beauty? But maybe not as bad as the actual Evil Queen ah ha.

Okay, now I think I've exhausted my ideas on this. Hopefully someone else will chime in with some different characters.

Toshiro Hitsugaya | Bleach

[freezetheheavens]

Player: Lin
Character: Toshiro Hitsugaya
Canon:
Age: ??? Looks 13-14
Bio Blurb: Wiki

Preferred Essence(s): It’s a tie between being Yuki-Onna and the Big Bad Wolf (either featured in the Red Riding Hood story or in the Three Little Pigs)
Looking For: I’m open to ideas. I’m happy to throw Toshiro in any kind of setting, though I’m not particularly leaning towards him to being a princess in particular.

Appearance: Two important features on Toshiro if he’s the Big Bad Wolf would be the ears and the tail—both white in color. He’d have fangs as well along with claws, but nothing too long. As Yuki-Onna, he would look the same aside from his eyes becoming an even icier pale blue that borders on white and his own skin would turn pale to resemble snow.

Abilities: As the wolf, Toshiro would have the ability to turn into a wolf himself. He’d also have a knack for disguises and silver-tongue, and capable of “huffing and puffing” down houses. As the Yuki-Onna, he can create blizzards and turn anyone into ice with a touch. Ice manipulation would be a thing in which he would be at least able to “reform” his sword.

Quirks: Wolf: occasional lies and wary of hunters. Possibly drawn to craving more meat. Yuki-Onna: idk

Extra: UHHH.

Questions: Any other questions you might have.

[rokubro]

The fun thing about the Wolf is that it's one of the many characters who can escape the "duplicate" rule. ...And that's because there's like a million different stories so if we have one from one story, we can still have one from the other. Also, more wolves for Rokurou to stalk and attack—I mean uh. More wolves to make a pack and have fun...? SO LET'S SEE.

Hmm... This is honestly an interesting toss-up. If you went with Wolf, it would be cool if it could be a white wolf that could also do ice. But I will not lie, Hitsugaya as Yuki-Onna amuses me a little more, and you may be able to do more ability wise since there's a lot of powerful ice stuff readily available right there.

For a quirk for Yuki-Onna, how about LET IT GO LET IT GO—no wait wrong one /cough. Hmm what if he's always cold to the touch? Or leaves a trail of ice/snow in his wake? CONSTANT SNOW FLURRY.

I think either one could work, though!

Hat Kid | A Hat in Time

[hattersgonnahat]

Player: Grif
Character: Hat Kid
Canon: A Hat in Time, Post Game
Age: ~10, she sounds like she could be even younger judging by voice actor, but it's somewhere in that area.
Bio Blurb: Wiki. TL;DR: Small mysterious girl who has a spaceship powered by hourglasses that can manipulate time. She was on her way back home until passing too close to one particular planet, and having to pay a toll to the mafia that resided on it. Shenanigans happen, and the Time Pieces ended up spilling onto the world below and Hat Kid had to get them all back in a collectathon fashion. Otherwise the spaceship can't power back on, or have enough fuel to get home.

She's bright and cheery but still acts like a child in every sense of the word, while also being able to adapt to new things quickly and get out of tight situations. There's very little that we know about where she came from but she is definitely smarter than she lets on. After all she had been traveling through space on her own and obtained the Time Pieces through some means. Which are tremendously powerful and shouldn't be messed with.

I have a much longer winded, in depth personality thing here, if that helps.

Preferred Essence(s): Don't really have any idea yet.
Looking For: Something a bit more on the eccentric side. I realize that Mad Hatter would probably be an easy choice for obvious reasons but I don't think she really fits for that level of insanity too much. I would like an Essence that was tied to time, since other than hats that is her other biggest running theme. Or some kind of trickster, given her playful nature and "innocent, but also proficient in sass". But I am open to ideas.

Appearance: Open to slight appearance changes, depending on the Essence.

Abilities: Canonly, she fights with an umbrella, and all the hats have different abilities attached to them too. I would like to give her something that involves controlling time, just in a non-game breaking kind of way. But really so long as it's something it fits to whatever Essence she gets.

Quirks: I'm up for quirks!

Extra: Hat Kid does not actually have an official name (in fact, very few characters in aHiT have legit names). Which kind of works well with the whole fairy tale motif, but people are out of luck if they wanted to know what her real name is. idk, I didn't know what else to put here.

Questions: ...Why do I only play smols now?


EDIT: I started plot bunnying a bit with Peter Pan being a possible Essence.

- What very little there is known about Hat Kid's world, through scrapped concepts and time rift implications, it has a very European/London-y aesthetic to it. With sort of Big Ben styled clocktowers.
- Never growing up could have something to with stopping time, and making it even more literal. Although, she doesn't particularly take any issue with growing up.
- ...But she is kind of a little shit to adults though. At least the ones that get in the way.
- Having a finicky, independent shadow would make things...interesting, to say the least.
- A flight/float ability would also just be a lot of fun.

[rokubro]

Peter Pan was actually one I thought of first! I think it could work, especially for the trickster part. Otherwise the first things that popped to mind regarding "time" was Father Time and the greek god Chronos lol. White Rabbit from Alice could technically work since he was all about time and a little eccentric, too.

Therion | Octopath Traveler

[trustfallen]

Player: Snarky
Character: Therion
Canon: Octopath Traveler, probably post chapter 3s but maybe during or after his ch 4? Gotta mull it over!
Age: 22
Bio Blurb: (Wiki.) A master thief known for pulling off seemingly impossible heists, Therion is actually a human cactus. Metaphorically. He prefers to work alone and not let others close, and he protects himself with a thick armor of sarcasm and pretending like he doesn't care. This is all a pretense to hide and protect his soft heart, because he has a lot of trust issues. Six years ago, he was betrayed and nearly murdered by the one person he was close to. Somehow, he survived and since then has drifted around the land, making a name for himself as a thief.

That is, until he slips up, falling into a trap set specifically by Cordelia Ravus to catch a master thief and recruit him. Reluctantly, he agrees to retrieve her stolen heirlooms, and along the way he makes friends and confronts his past and learns how to trust again. Yes, he, too, is another victim of the power of friendship~! ... he never quite stops being an itinerant introvert with a quick, dry wit, however.

Preferred Essence(s): Snow White - no listen. Listen. It's perfect. Therion freakin' loves apples, ok, first off. And it'd be hilarious to me b/c Snow White is a kind, warm person while Therion is super tsun and sarcastic. But second, Snow White was the victim of attempted murder by a sort of family member out of jealousy, and Therion is *also* the victim of an attempted murder by a sort of found family member out of jealousy. And third, he found seven friends to form a new family with. So see? see? It's perfect.

Looking For: But uh, if Snow White isn't up for grabs, then I dunno. I was kicking around the idea of some sort of trickster thief character at first, but I'm not too wild about that. I'm open to suggestions! I want something that'll challenge Therion to get involved and not withdraw.

Appearance: The most notable change in Therion's appearance would be that - since it's just his soul transfering over - he'll be lacking in scars. It'll be like starting fresh for him, with both his eyes working and no old badly healed injuries from, you know, getting pushed off a cliff. From Snow White, I'm not sure he'd have much of an appearance change, though. Maybe he'd become prettier.

Abilities: Therion is a thief and most of his skills are relatively mundane and related to that. He's a very good thief, very good with sleight of hand and sneaking his way into places through a mix of stealth, acting, and quick thinking. None of that's really magical and comes down more to reflexes and know-how, so he won't be losing that. However, he will be losing his ability to cast magic; fire magic was his speciality, but alas he'll have to use matches or flint and tinder now I guess.

BUT YOU KNOW WHAT it doesn't matter what he lost, because I really just want him to wind up able to accidentally befriend cute animals. He's just out and about, trying to eat his apples in peace, and he's surrounded by like five deer and four rabbits and six song birds trying to nest in his hair and he didn't ask for this!

Quirks: snow white: apples are gonna make him sleepy, but he will eat them anyway because you can't tell him what to do!!!

Extra: uh... he doesn't steal from children's lockboxes, but otherwise anything's fair game. I'm sorry for his lack of respect for personal property.

Questions: why am i incapable of not tl;dring

[rokubro]

Do Snow White do it do it do it.

Luigi | Super Mario

[greenstache]

Player: Greta
Character: Luigi Mario
Canon: Super Mario Bros. Post Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon... probably. (This is a series that plays fast and loose with canon, so what even is a canonpoint, honestly?)
Age: About 24-26
Bio Blurb: (Wiki.) TL;DR: Mario's younger twin brother. Timid, shy, cowardly and with plenty of issues and insecurities about not really living up to his brother. Regardless of all that, he's just as heroic as his brother.

Preferred Essence(s): I'm not sure about specifics yet, but I have ideas, but I need help finding something specific.
Looking For: Ghost Stories Eastern or Western. I feel like I should go full on dramatic irony and make poor Luigi a ghost, or something very strongly related to them. We can expand this into stories about monsters, or the paranormal. Alternately, if that doesn't work, we could look for stories about Siblings instead.

Appearance: He probably wouldn't have any major appearance changes, depending on the Essence. Though that might change, given suggestions.

Abilities: Luigi's canon abilities are superhuman strength, agility and jumping really good! If I can figured out a good ghost story, I'd be up for giving him ghost related abilities.

Quirks: Up for suggestions!

Extra: I'm mostly just seeing what ideas end up being bounced around!

Questions: ...

[heartofalioness]

Actually... if you wanna go with an ironic Grimm essence, there’s The Boy Who Learned to Shudder, someone who’s completely incapable of fear. Not quite sure how the personalities would blend and clash, but you could do something like giving Luigi super strength, maybe growing like he ate a mushroom, but only when he acts bravely or he’s completely unafraid.

April Ryan | Dreamfall: The Longest Journey

[nolongerneeded]

Player: Melonbread
Character: April Ryan
Canon: Post death at the end of Dreamfall: TLJ
Age: 38
Bio Blurb: Her Wiki page. April was an art student before she fell into what would become the longest journey of her life. She grew to learn about two worlds that sit side by side - the scientific Stark, the world she had come from, and the magical and more fantastic Arcadia. She was told she was one who would bring Balance and in the end while she did help with that, she was left bereft afterwards. Unable to return home the way she had come, April grew into a bitter and jaded woman who felt she had been left behind, once important and now cast away.

Overall April has a sort of dry sarcasm and wit that's grown with age. She's grow to be a competent fighter with her staff and has plenty of magic if she knew how to use it.

Preferred Essence(s): I'm not very sure honestly. I don't have a particular character in mind just yet.

Looking For: April's story is one of someone who was told she was important and then when her mission was done was left with nothing. She is very kind to those she protects in Mercuria, the outcasts of the Azadi regime now in power who fight to have their lands returned but she's also not someone who is warm, kind or grows close to anyone easily. The anti-hero types would work well with her, anyone burdened with a great prophecy that might bring them more harm than good.

Appearance: No real changes, though that depends on her essence.

Abilities: April's abilities include Shifting which I'd probably not even touch in game. Shifting allows her to travel between Stark and Arcadia. Otherwise she just has a lot of untapped magic she's never bothered to learn how to really use. Depending on her essence, I'll likely add things.

Quirks: April's own IC quirks just include a penchant for gas-guzzling cars - in her younger years anyhow - and a love of art that she hasn't touched in ten years now. I'll be happy to add on to that or such.

Extra: I'm really drawn by characters being drawn here after their death. Considering April was drawn into Arcadia first when her journey began, I'd find her being drawn here in death somewhat fitting. Another task to complete, another "story" to be an actor in. She would be bitter at first but I think, given time and seeing real good in the world being done by her hands, she might change. She had already begun changing by the end of Dreamfall so it's possible.

Questions: Not at present. I'm probably going to throw in one more muse for spitballing and tossing around ideas though.

[heartofalioness]

“Anyone burdened with a great prophecy that might bring them more harm than good.” (Immediately thinks of half the protagonists of the Trojan War). Seriously, though, Achilles with his prophecy for a glorious death and temper at being treated poorly by Agamemnon; Odysseus and having to go home after the aftermath of the war; Iphigenia being tricked into being sacrificed just to get some boats moving; Cassandra given the gift of prophecy but then cursed and then dragged off by Agamemnon as war booty and killed with him by Clytemnestra; Orestes being told to go kill his mother because she killed his father for sacrificing his sister but then GETTING PUNISHED for the matricide he was told to do. (Seriously, half the problems surrounding the Trojan War are Agamemnon’s fault, the guy was a dirtbag.)

In all seriousness... Odysseus might fit well with April, since her story focuses a lot on traveling and the aftermath of her glorious quest. She could be gifted with super strength and archery to go with his bowmanship, a heightened sense of direction, especially on water, maybe some enhanced craftsmanship and cunning now that she’s part trickster hero. Maybe some sort of random object appears to her once a campaign and she has to figure out how it’s supposed to help her. (Can you tell I’m a Miraculous watcher?) OH! And after returning to Ithaca, Odysseus had to carry an oar to a place where the people didn’t know the sea as part of his penance to Poseidon, so maybe she wields something like an eku as a weapon instead of her staff.

Koala | One Piece

[call_me_maybe]

Player: Ket
Character: Koala
Canon: One Piece
Age: 23
Bio Blurb: (optional: Wiki.)
The wiki is pretty extensive, but the short version is that Koala was kidnapped as a young girl, sold into slavery, and later rescued by pirates. Those same pirates were sold out by her family and hometown and she left to join a group of militant political malcontents called the Revolutionary army. She's well trusted by her superiors, often reporting directly to their leader and working closely with his second in command.

Preferred Essence(s):

The Little Mermaid- The pirates that saved her were fishmen, and she's an expert in fishman karate (a type of martial art in the One Piece universe) so it seems appropriate.

Cinderella- A lot of her childhood was spent cleaning. And under pretty harsh circumstances. And then she was whisked away to a better life. No prince was involved, but there are still parallels.

Looking For: Suggestions are definitely welcome.

Koala's a tough girl who goes on a lot of dangerous assignments for the revolutionaries, but most of her work is clandestine. Spying, information gathering, etc. So something that plays on that would be neat. But so would a role that puts her more in the spotlight, forcing her onto the front lines.

Appearance: I would absolutely be open to appearance changes based on her essence, but I haven't thought of any yet.

Abilities: If the little mermaid I might go with breathing under water or something like that. Maybe even allow her a mermaid's tail while in the water.

For Cinderella I'm not sure, so if anyone has ideas that would be great.

Quirks: For the little mermaid I might give her a better singing voice?

I could be a lot meaner for Cinderella, since one of her childhood quirks was to clean obsessively whenever she was nervous or uncertain. She's since shed that and would not be happy to have it come back.

Extra: Still in the brainstorming stage, so none of this is set in stone. I also might toss up another workshop depending on what ideas percolate.

Questions: None right now.

[heartofalioness]

Little Mermaid might be interesting, and I’ll see if I can scrounge up some other sea-related tales that might fit Koala too.

As for Cinderella... if you want, there’s a Chinese version of the tale called Ye Xianwhere instead of a fairy godmother the girl is aided by a magical fish and later its bones. And there are a few stories about hard-working lasses that are saved without needing a prince. There’s Diamonds and Toads, Mother Holle, or if you want to go for a bit of a darker spin there’s Vasilisa the Beautiful (which might also work especially well considering we have a potential Baba Yaga coming in). Sara Crewe from A Little Princess is also fair game since the story is from the 1880s/1900s.

Ib | Ib

[her_rose_is_red]

Player: Ket
Character: Ib
Canon: Ib
Age: 9
Bio Blurb: (optional: Wiki.)
Basically a clever but shy little girl who gets stuck in an evil art gallery and has to find her way out with the help of a young man she meets. It's a horror game so the atmosphere is pretty dark.

Preferred Essence(s):

Little Red Riding Hood- Little girl enters a scary forest where a menacing wolf attacks someone she cares about and tries to take their place. And then maybe eats her. There are a lot of awful parallels here.

Alice in Wonderland- Not as dark, but still involves a little girl being trapped in a confusing and scary world.

Looking For: Suggestions are great. I'm looking mostly for dark stories with a young protagonist.

Appearance: Obviously Red Riding Hood would have a red cloak, but not too sure otherwise.

Abilities: No idea. Red's not known for much except carrying a basket and being able to tell the difference between a wolf and her grandmother. And I guess surviving an unrealistic amount of time in a wolf's stomach.

Quirks: For Red, A fear of dogs/wolves? Or maybe a tendency to wander off the proverbial path.

For Alice maybe a stronger curious streak?

Extra: nothing comes to mind

Questions: None right now.

[heartofalioness]

Ooooh Alice in Wonderland would be an interesting one, and there’s even a rose connection with painting the roses red. Not to mention Alice is a clever problem solver and great at riddles, so enhanced skills there would be good abilities to have, maybe even something like growing and shrinking.

If you want to do something art related too, there are a few Eastern tales including The Magic Paintbrush from China and The Boy Who Drew Cats from Japan. Both of them involve art coming to life to help the artist defeat an antagonist, with The Boy Who Drew Cats having a bit of a ghost story tint to it even though it ends well.

Snatcher | A Hat in Time

[subconmodo]

starting with him because I can't think of anything for Vyers yet...

Player: Hayley
Character: Snatcher
Canon: A Hat in Time -- Post Game
Age: Unknown -- early to mid 20s at death
Bio Blurb: Wiki. Ghost of a prince who went to law school, was in love with a yandere, and froze to death chained up in a basement due to a misunderstanding involving the purchase of flowers. Now haunts Subcon Forest and steals people's souls. Also a real dick.

Preferred Essence(s): The Beast (from Beauty and the Beast), or Kai from The Snow Queen
Looking For: Suggestions for the latter or for any others that might fit. I've only had deep thoughts about the former.

Appearance: So... bear with me here, because I'm thinking of taking Beauty and the Beast and putting it in... sort of reverse. After all, in canon, it wasn't love that saved him, it was love that doomed him. So what better than to take the spooky, scary ghost and turn him back into a prince? Not just for the reverse aspect, but because I can see it being the worst possible thing in his eyes. His old appearance is a reminder of his failure to read the signs around him and of a history he'd rather just pretend never happened. He's fine with being the Snatcher. The Prince might as well be the beast.

That said, I have no idea if this would be allowed, since while technically A canon appearance, it's a bit of a departure. So lemme know if it's too much.

Abilities: More roses than a florist you're paying to get a bouquet for your girl.

In other words, summoning of brambles, thorns, and rose bushes as traps. Also up for other suggestions.

Quirks: Up for suggestions!

Extra: now to figure out something for Vyers.

Questions: How do I always come back to roses?

[hattersgonnahat]

A certain hat says he should get appointed to something nice and friendly. Might help his social skills. I am so sorry

Vyers | Disgaea

[beautifulrondo]

Player: Hayley
Character: Mid-Boss Vyers
Canon: Disgaea -- Post 1st game
Age: Unknown and he's unlikely to tell anyway -- Looks to be in mid to late thirties.
Bio Blurb: (optional: Wiki.) tl;dr: Main character's dead father pseudo-reincarnated to be his mentor. Also a giant narcissistic doofus.

Preferred Essence(s): HELP ME
Looking For: Any help at all. I miss playing this guy but I don't know what would fit him best.

Appearance: Depending on what is chosen, I can't see him changing that much from canon--outfit change aside.

Abilities: In canon he has some super strength and speed. Also very good at fighting.

Quirks: Up for suggestions.

Extra: Man loves himself some roses. And himself. And his son. And himself.

Questions: Dead people too. What is it with me and dead people.

[thornrobin]

I really feel like I need to see Vyers as the wicked stepmother from some fairy tale or other. Maybe Maleficent from Sleeping Beauty. Just someone with a massive ego and a little flouncy.

Chise Hatori | The Ancient Magus' Bride

[thornrobin]

Player: Melonbread
Character: Chise Hatori
Canon: Volume 10, Chapter 50: The cowl does not make the monk I
Age: 16
Bio Blurb: Wiki.

Chise began her canon as an extremely depressed young woman but has now found purpose and meaning in her life. Chise has been able to see fae and spirits since she was a child and the series refers to her as a Slay Vega (or a sleigh beggy at times). Slay Vega are said to be more fae than human, both capable of producing their own magic and absorbing that from the environment. I made this entry for a previous game that explains it a little better.

She relishes small things still, like being called normal, making friends and having a family. She takes to unusual circumstances easily for the most part, though she does get tired easily after confronting a lot of new things.

Preferred Essence(s): In some ways I've always sort of associated Chise with the story of Mr. Fox, or the Robber Bridegroom. Not that Elias is quite the character Mr. Fox is but like it or not, Elias is a fae. His actions with Stella in the series more than show he's capable of ill intent and as he tells Chise, that is his nature because like it or not, the morals of a fae are not the morals of a human. I could also see Chise with Beauty and the Beast, though in some ways she or Elias could be both Beauty or Beast interchangeably (she is technically still cursed by a dragon after all).

Looking For: I'm not really in for anything that delves deeper into depression but anything involving cursed protagonists would probably work well!

Appearance: I don't believe I would change her much. Maybe if I went with Mr. Fox I would give her fox ears, just because.

Abilities: Increased sneakiness and an insatiable curiosity. She already has both of those though.

Quirks: I haven't really thought about this part yet.

Extra: Nothing at the moment, I don't think. Chise has worked through a lot of her initial issues in canon and so this would be more of an... exploration and helping others thing. And enjoying life, in a way.

Questions: Not at the moment.

[heartofalioness]

Ooooh Mr. Fox’s Lady Mary of Beauty would be interesting. If you go with the Bluebeard version of Mr. Fox, you could have Chise either produce keys for any door or just magically unlock them at a touch, plus or minus a drop of her blood as the price.

For some reason I thought of Sleeping Beauty too (admittedly mostly Disney’s version), with the forest cottage protected by fairies (even Elias is associated with briars), her connections with sleep and sleeping magic, and Maleficent turning into a dragon. Either Briar Rose/Aurora or Beauty could have rose powers too. Her Robin nickname also makes me think a lot of Puck too, although other than generic trickster magic not sure what specific powers she’d have with Puck’s essence.

Emizel | Disgaea 4

[trademark_skull]

Player: Grif
Character: Emizel
Canon: Disgaea 4, Post Game
Age: 1324, 13-ish physically/mentally
Bio Blurb: Wiki. Son of the former President of the Netherworld and spoiled until he became black mail in a coup d'etat-esque scheme. Between that and all his other failures, the Corrupternment wanted nothing to do with him and his father thought it was better to abandon him than give into demands. Word soon spread that Emizel had died unexpectedly, and when he had gone to the information bureau prove that he was still alive, tl;dr he was going to be executed. From that point on, he joined Valvatorez's team and been trying his damndest to be a better person...er, demon ever since. And that eventually he will be recognized/remembered and accepted somewhere.

Also side story of working towards becoming the next President, now that Axel is the one running the place and is incompetent and Emizel doesn't want to see his whole lineage get run into the ground. And it is something to stride for.

Preferred Essence(s): I don't know why, but one of my first thoughts was something Prince and the Pauper related. Although, Emizel never switched roles with anybody so it doesn't really tie to his character arc.
Looking For: Any story that has to do with learning humility would work I think. I know there's also like, at least a dozen stories relating to secret royal family members, with or without aspiring to the throne because they may or may not be the next rightful heir. I am just brain farting hard to come up with any good ones.

Appearance: Open to any animal features, or clothing changes if it's significant in some way.

Abilities: Canon reaper and spellcaster. Not sure how these would translate over to an essence, but some kind of blend would be amazing.

Quirks: Yes. 8D

Extra: ...Is absolutely not a kitton. Whoever told you such lies is....lying B|

Questions: I still have mostly a brigade of smols and I don't know how I feel about it.

[heartofalioness]

Humble royalty, hm? There are a few good stories like that. I’ll put links down below because hyperlinking on mobile is a paaaaiiin, but a few that come to mind from the start would be the Beast from Beauty and the Beast or either the frog or the princess from The Frog Prince, or any similarly cursed prince or king, either the prince or the wild man from Iron Hans, the princess from King Thrushbeard, Cap o’ Rushes (and it has a LOT of sister stories so you can play with Emi’s changed appearance a lot), the prince from the Frog Princess (different story from The Frog Prince).

There also quite a few non-royal stories involving lessons in hard work, humility, and politeness, like Mother Holle and Diamonds and Toads, often with one kind and hardworking sibling and one rude and lazy sibling so Emi could go into either role. There’s also Bearskin, where a soldier is cursed by the devil for being cocky and has to survive seven years by being kind and virtuous. And if you wanna play with his Reaper side more, there’s Godfather Death, where a baby is given Death as a godfather and grows up to be a doctor with Death’s help and... also features a humbling lesson of a sort~


http://surlalunefairytales.com/beautybeast/index.html
http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/frogking/index.html
https://www.pitt.edu/~dash/grimm136.html
http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/kingthrushbeard/index.html
http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/donkeyskin/stories/caporushes.html and http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/donkeyskin/other.html for the sister stories, but Cap o’ Rushes has the less squicky reason she ran away from home
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Frog_Princess
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diamonds_and_Toads
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frau_Holle
http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/bearskin/index.html
http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/godfatherdeath/index.html