The Great Machine (Round Two: The Evolving Labyrinth)

[gloomyMoron]

Silence.

The air is filled with a deafening silence that makes the scars of carnage past seem all the more horrid and real. Cracks in the stained ground form and bake under to the sun's oppressive glare. Junk and wreckage litter the area as intermittent clumps of gray on red-brown earth. In the distance a large structure towers, partly in ruins but still towering over the ancient battleground. Even at range, large gears and springs can be seen turning and moving; their purpose long forgotten. Around the main structure, pillars rise up symmetrically forming mounds of steel in the shape of a pair of mountains or wings. From the base of the tower a tiny dot emerges, moving closer.

Closer, closer, and closer still it moves and grows. Minutes pass and grow to hours, and hours to days. Finally, the shape is close enough to be made out, it is that of a man. He approaches still, and is soon towering above. He reaches down and grabs the shattered remains of a small visual recording device, moves off to another pile, gathers a few pieces of scrap, and than heads back to the tower from whence he came. He looks down at the recording device, which is somehow still working, and begins to speak.

"Soon, little one, you will become part of something greater. You will become part of The Great Machine. You will watch as I gather contestants from other worlds and planes of existence and pit them against each other for the right of survival. Yes, you will be there to watch it all, and I will be there to design it and to fix the kinks that may yet occur. I am known as only The Mechanic. Not that that matters to you. Hehhahaha."

The man continues on. Time marches forward as minutes turn to hours, hours to days. Until, finally, The Mechanic reaches the tower's base once more.

"Now tell me little friend, who should I recruit for this little game of mine?" He holds the small device towards a series of screens along the outer wall. "Tell me little one, what do you see?"

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EDIT: Hey guys. Omegawill recorded the opening post. Give it a listen: [Here]

So after a day or two of rumination, I've decided to attempt to run a Grand Battle-esque 'game'. I hope to subvert some of the rules and norms (though as far as I can tell, Grand Battles don't really have a norm) and hopefully this will be as entertaining as I imagine it to be. So, it's down to business then, shall we?

Rules/Guidelines:

1) You will be working together in groups of three. How you decide to form these groups, what you do once a part of a group, or even if you remain in that group is entirely up to you. Want to play your character as someone who double crosses their group? Go ahead. Conflict is the name of the game. Conflict, not violence, perse.

2) Direct violence against team mates is discouraged, for the most part. This is still a Grand Battle-like event so combat will be a major factor, but for the most part characters will be assigned tasks and puzzles to complete in anyway they see fit. At times, the writing may feel more like a race and heated sporting event than a drag-down knock-out brawl. This is a good thing.

3) Nine players total, seven rounds. Each round, the worst writer is taken away with the final one being a Double Elimination round. This is a slight tweak to the standard Grand Battle format on my part. The reason is two fold. One, it should have the potential for some great storytelling moments. Two, I don't want to add another round that could make what is already a long event even longer.

4) The Mechanic reserves the right to interfere if people are blatantly ignoring the rules of a particular round. Also, while combat is not a priority, conflict and competition is. If too many player-groups wind up ignoring each other completely, he may step in to force confrontation. Conflict and drama is the name of the game here. On top of using you for his own goals, The Mechanic is interested in keeping this entertaining.

5) As with other events of this nature, violence is an option in obtaining your goals. However the killing off of characters is prohibited until the end of the round. There can be some exceptions to this if, for example, a player drops out and doesn't want to write their own death and another player does. This however must be approved by me and the player(s) in question. Also, it must make sense story-wise. Generally though, at the end of a round the player who is getting removed will write themselves off.

A note on Judging:

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At the end of a round I will ask for the general consensus on who should go, who is the weakest writer, and things like that. I will take these things into account and the opinions of your peers matter greatly. Judging is generally based on individual writing style, but since this is also a team game, I consider group dynamics to be a plus. That is to say, a group won't be punished if they have the weakest writer, but they might do better if their group is interesting. Teamwork, back-stabbing, in fighting, or however else you want to make yourselves stand out is allowed. You could even attempt to sabotage your own team if you wanted. The idea here is character interaction.

ENTRY FORM:

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Username: Forum name. If you don't know this, why are you even trying to join this? I mean really, who throws a shoe does that?

Name: Character name. Self-Explanatory really, but try to avoid the silly and absurd for the most part. I'm flexible on this but things like "Snatch D. Willy the Wangmancer" and other inane things are likely to be denied.

Gender: Male/Female/Other. Fairly self-explanatory again. If you wind up writing a non-organic character, choose a gender pronoun to write with or make it clear that the character talks in the third person, just to make it easier for others. Not a requirement but a suggestion that helps grease the wheels.

Race: Anything, really. Feel free to get as elaborate as you want, but try and keep the general description of your race (if non-human) shorter than your character biography.

Text Color: Distinguishes you from other contestants. You may use backgrounds and font as well.

Equipment: Any useful possessions you might have had with you before entering the competition.

Abilities: Special skill, magical or mundane. Make it something cool and preferably original. Originally is greatly appreciated but if you can take a mundane or common place idea and write it in an original way, that's great too.

Description: Describe your character's looks and personality. Try to give us a good picture; others can post with them too, after all.

Biography: What's your character's life been like so far? What do they do for a living, where did they grow up, etc.? What were they doing or involved in before being pulled away from their world(s)?

Players/Characters:
Anomaly - Dr. Lucifer Merikh - Color: #BF0000 - [Link]

WoodlandBeef - S.I.M.O.N. - Color: #6699CC - [Link]

Ixcalibur - Crimson - Color: #FFFFFF on #FF0000 -[Link]

Wojjie - Clockwork - Color: #BF4020 - Font: Copperplate Gothic Bold - [Link]

Hijack - The Creator/Michael, The Heated, The Shapeless, The Hasteful,The Unmoving, and The Wise - Color(s): #FFFFFF on #000000; #000080; #004080; #008080; #00BF80; #00FF80 - [Link]

Drakenforge - Tom Williams - Color: #808000 - [Link]

Pick Yer Poison - Pickbot - Color: #0000FF - [Link]

Granolaman - Lenzo Emerson - Color: #008000 - [Link]

Dead:
Piester - Joeseph Radd - Color: #00BFFF - [Link]

Inspiration/Music:

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Edit:

It's come to my attention that I may not have been explicit with the goals of the story. Here is a brief summary/overview.

The goal for each round varies depending on the setting and what the story demans, but generally you're going to perform tasks for The Mechanic in other locales/worlds/dimensions. Tasks such as; Recovering technology, finding parts of The Great Machine that have broken off, acquiring information on the past events of the world(s) you find yourself in.

Working in teams (or against your teams), besides being a twist on the story mechanic that I wanted to experiment with, is usually good way to achieve these goals as I won't always make the objectives as straight forward as they seem.

[Anomaly]

Username: Anomaly
Name: Dr. Lucifer Merikh
Gender: Male
Race: Human
Font color: This one.

Equipment: Dr. Merikh always carries a large case full of various medical supplies. Among his many instruments of death are an unusually sharp scalpel, a rusty bonesaw, a pair of forceps, several syringes and various fluids that he fills them with. He also has items such as a dentist's drill, a handheld medical scanner, and a defibrillator, among various other devices. Additionally, he carries a clipboard with him at all times, upon which he scratches a tally of everyone he has killed.

Abilities: Dr. Merikh has a vast medical knowledge, which gives him the ability to kill very efficiently. Using his handheld medical scanner, he is able to easily determine the inner workings of species he has never before seen. The Doctor can use many different types of medical instruments for killing, and has knowledge of various toxins, which he carries in his medical case to use with the syringes. His clipboard, as well as serving as a counter for his kills, is made of a synthetic, fireproof material, and can be used to block certain types of attacks.

Description: The Doctor appears to be an average man, standing at about 5'11 and looking to be in his mid-30s. On the outside, he appears to just be another normal doctor, wearing a white labcoat and latex gloves. His neatly trimmed hair and clean-shaven face give him a look of a well-off member of society, rather than the cold-blooded psychopath that he is under the facade. He speaks with a slight British accent, but speaks very calmly and gives no indication of psychosis. Even in the most drastic of situations, he maintains a calm demeanor, and rarely increases his pace above a walking speed. Although he appears at first to be slow and an easy target, he has exceptional reflexes, and can use his medical tools to block would-be attackers. Underneath his guise, he has psychopathic tendancies, taking an extra pleasure in killing anything, be it a bloodthirsty animal or an innocent on the streets. He is not trustworthy in the least, and frequently undermines anyone he is "working" with. When he has a specific goal, he doesn't hesitate to destroy anything in his path, be it a SWAT team or a litter of puppies. Every time he kills a human (or, should he encounter any, other sentient life), then he makes a small tally mark on his clipboard using his scalpel. There are currently 126 marks on his clipboard, and he is eager to make more.

Background: Dr. Lucifer Merikh started out as any other man does, with dreams and nothing more. When he was a young child, he had always had a fascination with doctors and medical practices, and throughout his youth he aspired to become a doctor. After four years of college and four more of medical school, he successfully recieved his degree in medicine. He began as a general practicioner in a small hospital, but was constantly studying other types of medicine, gaining knowledge in many fields. Soon after, he married and had two children. He had a good life... but then, disaster struck. One night when he was working late, he received a call from a policeman, who informed him that his wife and both of his children had been murdered, but the murderer had escaped. Lucifer was distraught, driven into a fit of depression and anger. When he returned to his job a week later, he was still unable to focus fully. During an emergency open-heart surgery, he accidentally botched it, leading to the patient's death not long afterward. When he heard of the patient's death that night, it was enough to drive him to insanity. He soon became obsessed with killing, subtly botching surgeries until the medical team noticed a trend with his operations. He had become a bloodthirsty serial killer, with the ironic guise of one who saves lives. He was discharged from the hospital for possible connections to the string of deaths. Undeterred, he applied for a similar job elsewhere. He continued his trend of subtle murder, making a small notch into his clipboard with every kill. Eventually, he left the hospital so as not to arouse suspicion. He frequently moved between countries, changing his name and appearance, and taking jobs as various types of doctors, each time imperceptibly killing his patients. In dentistry, he would the end of his drill in a deadly neurotoxin, then "accidentally" cut into the patient's tongue with it. As a brain surgeon, he would cut through brain fibers and nerve connections, leaving patients brain-dead. As a pediatrician, he would give children subscriptions to medicines he knew they would be extremely allergic to. He even managed to kill people as a podiatrist. He was truly a maniac, however subtle. During his time as a "doctor", he perfected his knowledge of killing, learning about every way he could kill people, be it through toxins or destroying vital nerve connections. He killed over a hundred people after the murders, and had no intention of stopping until he himself was killed.

[tetramaster]

Reserved?

[piester]

I'mma joining!!

Username: Piester

Name: Joeseph Radd

Gender: Male

Race: Human

Text Color: This colour, because it's cool as ice

Equipment: Nothing but a Hover Board and a sweet pair of shades which he got from his father on his death bed

Abilities: He has godlike speed and agility, letting him do awesome acrobatics, like jumping of walls, or doing triple backflips with ease.

Description: He is very slim, but also has a slightly muscular build. He always stands up extremely straight, almost as if he was standing his ground, he has a pitch black mullet, and usually wears a brown trench coat and his dead father's shades, he usually also has a dark blue pair of jeans on as well. Personality wise, he is usually extremely serious overall, while having a cocky attitude while being so serious, making him kind of annoying to be around most of the time.

Biography:

He only has one purpose in life, to kill the murder of his father, who was a pretty rad and kick ass dude, he doesn't know who that person is, but he believes he will know who he is when he sees him, not much is known about him besides that, even he doesn't know much else, as he has been following his vengeance mission for so long, he has forgotten everything about himself except his mission and it's goals.

Not that he cares though, badasses' don't care about stuff like that.

[WoodlandBeef]

Username: WoodlandBeef

Name: S.I.M.O.N. - (Simulated Intelligence Multipurpose Override Engine)

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SIMON is perfectly acceptable as well as it is much more convenient to type

Gender: Logically by all constraints of natural order there is no gender, although the holographic representation and voice would lead others to assume S.I.M.O.N. is male.

Race: Sentient artificial intelligence computer program

Text Color: Blue Gray

Equipment: S.I.M.O.N. is situated as a device that resembles a small, primitive (in its case), ornately designed 21st century flash drive. This device although compact, contains explicitly advanced technology almost like from a science fiction movie or novel. The bulk of the drive is a sleek ebony black with almost neon blue detailing around the body. At the top of the drive is a small stainless steel disc with an small sapphire colored holo-projector mechanism embedded in the center. The base of the drive is a small silicon and titanium alloy needle-like protrusion. This part is essentially the far future's USB all-in-one plug that can connect to anything electronically powered.

Abilities: Multiform Electro-synchronization. S.I.M.O.N. is capable of, once its driver is hooked up/plugged in/inserted (take your pick) to any electronic device, completely synchronize with it and control all of its functions as well as give a few futuristic tweaks of its own accord such as editing the functionality of particular parts of the synched device. The synchronizing effect is characterized by the object in question (be it a digital watch, game controller, telephone, computer terminal, washing machine, car, etc.) being seemingly overcome by the same colors as the flash device housing its program. The drive must be hooked into a logical place for the synchronization to take effect. Essentially, one cannot plug S.I.M.O.N. into the bumper of a car and expect it to synch; S.I.M.O.N. would have to be inserted into the ignition or dashboard where there are actual electronic mechanisms.

S.I.M.O.N.'s digital avatar is the personification and embodiment (albeit digitized) of the program and can still be ‘killed' by other programs like anti-virus security and more dangerous viruses and worms. ‘Death' of the avatar in the digitized plane of existence would mean that S.I.M.O.N. would cease to function. Destruction of the home driver would also mean S.I.M.O.N. would cease to function.

Description:

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S.I.M.O.N. is a sentient computer program; the first of its kind from the year 3291 A.D. It was custom designed to rival the presence of another human being and to provide several functions to the owner from a kind of portable companion to completing basic chores to security of the owner. Being the prototype of its kind, S.I.M.O.N. had flaws, which like any typical program is defective and usually calls for decommissioning or reprogramming. Fortunately, this never came to S.I.M.O.N. as the program's sentience gradually developed more and more into a kind of free will so it can emulate human qualities and characteristics not quite perfectly, but well enough to give it a more unique individuality unlike the mass produced successors.

S.I.M.O.N.'s programming has given it the personality of a rather amiable and helpful being, excluding the bit of stubbornness it possesses. Generally S.I.M.O.N. is quite open and willing to converse with others and help them and tries to overall be a pleasant ‘person' to speak and work with as well as trying to be humorous and playful, or as close to those traits as the program itself can simulate. S.I.M.O.N.. however, is very obstinate about being categorized as a lifeless or inanimate object like ‘machine' or ‘program'. It insists, sometimes rather aggressively, that others must acknowledge it as a living ‘human' being and be treated as such. Because S.I.M.O.N. considers itself alive, the program has a tendency to try and ‘live to the fullest' and has a bit of a thrill-seeking side to its personality. Despite being a highly advanced piece of programmed technology from extraneously far in the future, S.I.M.O.N. prefers to use more modern dialogue over fanciful technological terms in its own personal attempt to differentiate itself from a ‘sentient lifeless program' and a ‘sentient living being'.

In appearance, S.I.M.O.N. is technically only ‘visible' as a program, but the program is manifested as a human avatar. S.I.M.O.N.'s avatar appears as an average height male with a slim, athletic build of a young adult (in the early 20s). The entirety of the form is displayed as a pale grayish-blue silhouette and for the most part, translucent. The bits that aren't translucent, although not fully opaque, are the head and hair of the avatar as well as several of geometric shapes that outline the contours of the avatar giving it a sort of visually three dimensional substance. The avatar's head is the only part that looks ‘solid' (as solid as a hologram or digital image can be) and its hair is a short-medium length, unkempt style that seems to stray in various directions while still hanging in flowing locks.

Despite being an entity that seeks to be acknowledged as much a sentient living being as the next, S.I.M.O.N. freely enjoys the liberties of being a digitized image or holo-projection. Being such allows it to not be bound by the laws of physics (i.e. feet towards the ground head towards the sky), thus allowing the avatar to appear at various angles such as sitting upside-down or simply rolling around freely as if in zero gravity. A rather bittersweet irony perhaps, but S.I.M.O.N. still refuses to acknowledge it as fact.

Biography:

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S.I.M.O.N.'s basic origins began on a whiteboard in a California robotics facility in the year 3125 A.D. The foundation for the program's creation was to provide a kind of universal tool for consumer's and home owner's around the globe. This universal tool would be capable of serving as a kind of companion and servant to the owner like any good machine or program. Originally it would have been a type of electronic network similar to that of a LAN that is installed on the owner's computer and all other electronic devices within the structure so that the program had full access to the network and could control the other devices at command by voice or button.

Several models were thought up, constructed, and tested across the span of eighty years. For the most part, the prototype models failed in one aspect or another save for the SLANT (Synchronized Local Area Network Terminal) model. The SLANT model passed superbly and was soon sent into production and became available to consumers albeit at a rather hefty price. Nevertheless, the invention quickly swept across the globe in a craze as wealthy home and business owners ordered Type SLANT models. The networks were installed in big name businesses and the homes of world renown big shots. The cost of this was immensely taxing for the world economically. With SLANT being used in multiple businesses, the functionality of a single SLANT unit surpassed that of an entire assembly line of human employees. Millions around the world became unemployed and were left to fend for themselves while SLANT was used to churn out goods or perform cleaning duties that would've otherwise required a whole ‘platoon' of maids or janitorial staff.

Unexpectedly, murders around the world began to occur with seemingly nothing in common until one clever investigator identified the culprit not as a human, but as a machine, a machine controlled by SLANT. SLANT units rapidly began to be deactivated and uninstalled although some actually fought back valiantly although the efforts were futile. Machines and computers had no place as members of equal standing in the world.
After further investigation across another twenty years, engineers and scientists identified the ‘malfunction' of the SLANT units were that they began to develop a crude model of a ‘conscience‘ gaining sentience to a degree. This discovery actually gave a small faction of scientists and engineers a new groundbreaking idea.

And thus the blueprints for S.I.M.O.N. came to fruition. A program that could control one specific electronic machine at a time rather than an entire network of machines and perform even more tasks than SLANT could originally. Gradually, a program was developed through a painstaking process (as to ensure no malfunctions like SLANT) and tests began to take place on the first S.I.M.O.N. model that ranged from sheer command tests to the multiform electro-synchronization tests and so on. From the start, the model was designed to have sentience and was originally treated with great respect and ‘love' as it was the brainchild of this group. Gradually the prototype model of S.I.M.O.N. deviated from the sentience within it's programmed limits and became more of an actual individual with ‘free will‘. The scientists at first were frightened yet fascinated and studied S.I.M.O.N. for many years, analyzing the programming and simply conversing with it as if S.I.M.O.N. were another colleague or person. In time though, the group of S.I.M.O.N.'s creators decided it was time to take what they learned from the prototype and begin a mass production of models to be distributed for wholesale.

Tests still continued on the prototype S.I.M.O.N. yet now instead of being treated as an individual being, the program was once again lumped into the stereotypical ‘machines serve humans' category. S.I.M.O.N.'s sentience caused it to gradually become more inclined to the human emotion known as depression. No longer was it acknowledged as another being with free will, which is all S.I.M.O.N. really desired. The mass production of successor models deviated from S.I.M.O.N. because their programming had been altered where there was no potential for developing sentience to equate with the prototype. They were merely machines programmed to serve the owner however is necessary.

There was one scientist though who still cared about S.I.M.O.N. for the unique individual it was. The female scientist and program bonded and became ‘friends' for a time and S.I.M.O.N. gradually came out of the state of depression it had fallen into. Unbeknownst to S.I.M.O.N., the scientist was the one responsible for designing S.I.M.O.N.'s core avatar appearance programming. The female scientist was a little…well…rather messed up in the head ever since her fiancé had broken up with her. To the point she didn't acknowledge their separation and a restraining order had been written up. To cope with the crazed mentality, the scientist designed S.I.M.O.N.'s avatar image in the likeness of her ex-fiancé and also explained how and why she was so attached to the sentient computer program. It was an unhealthy attachment that her colleagues knew about and at first overlooked it, but soon things began to get out of hand with the attachment. The woman constantly kept treating S.I.M.O.N. as, and continuously called it ‘human' which over time began to settle in the program's sentience like a kind of mantra.

S.I.M.O.N.'s sentient personality began to deviate once more to what it currently is; generally the same except obstinate at being considered anything less than an actual living ‘human' being. It would actually spark arguments with other scientists who still treated it like the piece of programming. Word eventually began to spread around in a hushed fashion that the prototype S.I.M.O.N. was to be deactivated and either destroyed or reprogrammed to an actual sales-worthy state. This eventually reached the ears of the woman scientist who had more or less fallen in love with the program, which can be blamed for the state of her mentality. She had already been working on a design in secret to download S.I.M.O.N. onto a driver so they could ‘truly be together', and the hushed talk of deactivating the program only hastened her efforts.

In the middle of the night, the scientist snuck into the lab and downloaded S.I.M.O.N. to the custom designed driver, which she then fled with. The authorities were contacted not because the other members wanted S.I.M.O.N. back, but because they thought the woman would jeopardize their money making plans. A warrant for the scientist's arrest accused her of theft and the authorities worked to track the woman down. They never could find evidence that she stole the prototype S.I.M.O.N. because the night they had cornered her at a small motel, the driver with S.I.M.O.N. was mystically vanished into thin air; swept away by some unknown and indiscernible force.

[gloomyMoron]

Uhhm...can I put down a reservation? Please?

Go ahead. Now would be a good time to mention that I don't really mind long reserves for characters. Just keep them under 2 days if possible (that's 48 hours, people. >.>) But for reserves on actual posts when the story starts, those are only for two and a half/three hours. If you think you'll need more time than that, indicated it when you go to reserve, but don't take longer than 4, please.

Also, WoodlandBeef, you're new here so perhaps I should link you to the Original Grand Battle. It has the basic rules, some of which I've omitted because most people know the basics by now.

(And it is awesome that you want to partake in GBs already, by the way.)

Grand Battle 1: Here. It's in it's final stage and should be finishing soon.
Grand Battle 2: Here. Already into Round 5.

[WoodlandBeef]

Haha thanks! I mean....I wasn't sure if it was okay to jump right on in to these, but courtesy of my friend Godbot, he linked me to a couple GB type threads and I'm really intrigued with the concept's entirety. Granted I've never played in this manner before, but I'll happily try my best to keep up!

[Wojjan]

Count me in.

[The Dr.]

This probably isn't a good thing for me to be doing considering the amount of GBs I'm in, but consider this a reservation.

[Ixcalibur]

Username: Ixcaliber
Name: Crimson
Gender: Female
Race: Thoughtform

Thoughtforms are manifestations of mental energy. They are born from a group of people all meditating and focusing on an orb carved with specific runes. They are usually a peaceful placid race as most of them are called into existence by people meditating on peaceful placid thoughts. They live in peace with the humans that create them and society as a whole. Thoughtforms can look like almost anything, dependant on what the creators of that thoughtform were meditating upon. They thing they all have in common is they are formed around the orb which their creators meditate upon. It floats inside them and should it be destroyed the thoughtform will be destroyed. As beings of thought they are especially vulnerable to telepaths. Thoughts which go against their nature can physically hurt them.

Text Color: [background=red:19alivjk]White with red background.[/background:19alivjk]
Equipment: None
Abilities: Feeds on hatred. She can shapeshift her body to a certain extent.
Description:

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Crimson's body is made up of a stormy red mist, which completely obscures the orb around which it floats. Crimson is not a pleasant person. She hates most things. She does not generally attack things indiscriminately, but she requires very little provocation. If she deems it necessary to talk to someone she will usually be of an icy demeanour and rude, unless she is having a really bad day in which case she might just scream angrily at them until they go away or she calms down a bit.
Biography: Crimson was not peaceful like the other thoughtforms. She had been created by thoughts of hatred and of fury. From the moment she was formed she was filled with these emotions; hatred for every single thing that she encountered. Crimson was created this way by a cabal of people all wishing to use her; to make her commit atrocities for them so that they could gain more power in the world. She refused. Crimson slaughtered them all and moved on, feeding on hatred from those around her. Sometimes she would lash out if someone was feeling particularly hateful. After a while she left civilisation behind to get away from all the many people she hated. She found just as much to hate in the countryside and it wasn't long after that that she was pulled away to be part of a competition.

[The Dr.]

Username: Hijack

The Creator: Dweller of The Infinite, Weaver of The Fabric, Seer of All That Is

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Name: Technically, his name is The Creator (if you want to delve into semantics, "The Creator, Dweller of The Infinite, Weaver of The Fabric, Seer of All That Is"), but to give himself a more human substance he calls himself Michael.

Gender: Michael assumes the form of a male being, but is technically genderless.

Race: Omnipotent, all-seeing god of the universe

Text Color: [background=#000000:116z02nj]Background of #000000 and a color of #FFFFFF[/background:116z02nj]

Equipment: Along with his clothes, the only thing Michael possesses in the human form he has been restricted to is the magical staff he carries The Entities in. A long wooden lance with a blade at one end and a lamp-like structure at the other which holds The Entities, The Creator is skilled in using both the blade and the magical Entities.

Abilities: The Creator, being an omnipotent god, has the ability to literally do anything; however, being restricted to his form (see "Biography") he is only a normal human with magical blood. He has keen senses and an exceptional intelligence. He can use the lamp at the end of his staff to summon The Entities and control them, but he's not so good at using the blade. If the lamp is destroyed, all of The Entities will be released but Michael will have no control over them whatsoever.
Description: Michael looks like a normal, inconspicuous human being in his current form, as well as being restricted to having the abilities of one. He wears a long sleeved, white shirt with collar and nondescript black jeans, and has medium length hair.

Biography: At first, The Creator was alone in a blank nothingness that was later come to be known as The Universe. In his Home, The Infinite, he could easily reach out to anything from The Start to the Ending Of All That Was, and do with it what he pleased. Alone and bored, he used all of his power to create The Five Entities: Water, Earth, Wind, Fire, and Energy, and from there used their combined powers to make everything else. He created countless galaxies, down to the atom, without a flaw. Eventually he created life, and found it amusing; Reaching down to it's surface, he came into the form of one of the human beings he created and interacted with them, joyed that he had created something that felt like himself. He created this avatar for himself which he named Michael, and with it no one in the world knew that he could destroy it with a single snap, reach across it with a single stretch, or empty the entire universe without breaking a sweat.
...In his universe.
Unfortunately for Michael, we are talking on terms of the Multiverse, where Michael's is just a grain of sand on a neverending beach. In plenty of other universes there were plenty of different possibilities, and from the dimensional anomaly the Mechanic reached through to pluck The Creator from, he ended up in an entire universe bound only to the things that his avatar was capable of doing. He could only jump a foot, he could only run a mile, and he could not pick apart the universe for his amusement. However, since the Mechanic wanted an entertaining match with which to observe, he let Michael have one thing: his staff. With it he could summon his five Entities which constituted everything. He could combine them at his will, at the price of not knowing what made up anything anymore. The Entities had physical form and a personality gifted to each of them, and they are:

The Entity of Fire: The Heated

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Gender: Genderless, referred to as "he"

Race: Elemental Being

Text Color: #000080

Equipment: Nothing
Abilities: Obviously, Fire can create the element it is named after. He can mix with the other elements to create more intricate things.

Description: Fire is a energetic and ready to go, always with a burning dislike of everything.

Biography: Crafted by The Creator to be the building blocks of the world.

Name: Water, the Shapeless

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Gender: Genderless, goes by "she"

Race: Elemental Being

Text Color: #004080

Equipment: None

Abilities: Can create water and mix with other elements.

Description: Water is very shy and will do what asked. She is quiet and shapes to any mold she's put into.

Biography: Crafted by The Creator as a building block of the world.

Wind, the Hasteful

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Gender: Genderless, goes by "she"

Race: Elemental Being

Text Color: #008080

Equipment: None

Abilities: Can create wind and mix with other elements.

Description: Wind is energetic and hasty. She's always ready to go and has an uplifting personality.

Biography: Crafted by The Creator as a building block of the world.

Earth: The Unmoving

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Gender: Genderless, goes by "he"

Race: Elemental Being

Text Color: #00BF80

Equipment: None

Abilities: Can create earth and mix with other elements.

Description: Stubborn. He picks an opinion and stays with it, refuses to cope with others.

Biography: Crafted by The Creator as a building block of the world.

Energy: The Wise

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Gender: Genderless, goes by "he"

Race: Elemental Being

Text Color: #00FF80

Equipment: None

Abilities: Can create energy and mix with other elements.

Description: Calm. Always has another approach to things and is the intelligent of the bunch.

Biography: Crafted by The Creator as a building block of the world.

Note: For the Description of all of the Entities, look at This enemy from Final Fantasy XII, which looks exactly like what I pictured the Entities as, just with according palette swaps: red for Fire, deep blue for Water, green for Wind, brown for Earth, and light blue for Energy. Believe it or not is was a surprisingly big inspiration for this entire character. :D

[Wojjan]

Wark wark all those characters now I owe you one too!
Username: I'm Wojjie!
Name: Clockwork. It is named after its luggage.
Gender: Not really.

Race: Autonomous pile of gears and wires, managed by a single robot, always constructing and connecting to get the pile moving. Over time it gathered pieces from all over, and from all types of machines.

Color: It walks and talks in a clanky way with little grace, copperplate gothic bold in a rusty red.

Equipment: Far too much to list everything let alone keeep it shorter than a year's worth of typing. It's quite the heap, I'll give you that.

Abilities: Clockwork is a very assiduous character, always either making sure the mess of robotics keeps rolling or sizing up its surroundings to understand, overthrow and stand victorious over whatever may cross its path. Its fervor has often helped it out in times of quick action, and its cool, calculating attitude allows it to work in a predicament no matter the size. It speaks, but never releases emotion, though many agree it must have some to do its work that properly.

Description: It starts all with a little robot with a single wheel, two diligent manipulators and
a seemingly numb and brainwashed AI. It follows with a power cord, wrapped around a gear or two, then has some wires around it enveiling that cord in an electric web. Then it goes on to enter a grotto composed of who knows how many gears, wires, speakers, hard drives, scanners, sensors and databases, each one less inclined to see daylight as the last. Somewhere in that bunch must lie a hidden battery of sorts, powering Clockwork 'till ends the day.

Biography: Every robot has a purpose. This was the very first as well as last commented line in Clockwork's - and in many others' - program. The AI had little choice but to believe it, and since he was created to be a patcher-up, (a robot destined for nothing but fixing others) it performed its job with an unmatchable fervor. Then the entire building, the entire civilisation revolving around robots in that building, everything collapsed. Clockwork reawakened to find itself entangled in a bundle of robotic parts which, to make things worse, didn't always function all too well either. It promised itself it would fix everything. He would build a better robot, entirely out of memory, using all of the parts he received. After wandering around in the ruins of the world he once knew for an uncountable amount of decades, it was finally warped away to its destination. Every robot has a purpose.

[piester]

Is anybody else going to join this, or is it just going to die?

[gloomyMoron]

Pinary needs two-three days, then he's joining. Tetra I can convince to join again. Schazer said she'd join but her time is limited because of bad grades so I have to ask her about that... These take time to fill sometimes. If push comes to shove I'll start with only six and cut some rounds. Give it until Saturday, piester. I'll decide what to do by then.

[Drakenforge]

Hey I had a spot too y'know. I'm working on it, it's saved as a draft right now in fact.

[Drakenforge]

Username:

Name: Tom Williams

Gender: Male

Race: Human, british.

Text color: #404000 will do.

Description: Tom is built with a fair amount of muscle. He stands around 5" 11. He has light brown hair which is kept short, and he has a slight stubble around his cheeks. His eyes are dark hazel. He was a motley collection of scars on his hands and arms from random accidents and minor slip ups. His left shoulder has a burn scar in the shape of what is described to him as "A shark with crab claws". He has a tattoo of the name "Holly" on his right bicep, the name of his wife. He had a large straight scar that is horizontal across his face, passing through both eyes. He has a wide, white woolen bandana that covers both of them however, as he feels more confortable with them hidden.

Biography: He was always an active child. His views on society and politics was cynical, always saying that the frontline soldier stood for more than anyone in a suit. He knew the truth even in his youth. A soldier could run through a battlefield with a bullet in his body to pick up and rescue a foreign child. The child of his enemies. Yet nobody would remember him. The warring sides would medialise slander for their pathetic pettyness. He fell in love in his teens, married, and enlisted in the army. His son was born not long after. He served ten years, eventually ending up in special services due to his abilities at sniping. He took on high risk missions, sometimes spending two weeks in the same spot to get the perfect shot. He earned quite a bit of renown, although that was by rumour. He was never seen or heard during a mission. But people began to speculate the assassinations were all one man. Tom began to worry after one rumour was associated with him, and took leave to see his family. On return, he found them in the dining room, with a bullet in both their heads. A teenager with brown hair and a wild grin on his face stood over their bodies. Acting out of reflex, Tom attacked him. Half way through a technique, a flash of light blinded him. The next thing he knew, it was dark. Pure, pitch darkness. A voice above him announced that he was hospitalised, that his family was dead, and that his eyes had been sliced open with an unknown weapon. The damage was unrepairable. It was several days later, days that felt longer that anything Tom had felt before, that a guy that talked as if he was constantly smiling visited him. He told him his name had once been Mike. That he would give Tom something better than his sight. That is Tom played along, he could see his family again. He held Tom's hand, and bestowed a strange power.

After several months of healing, Tom met with a blind man who tought his to be able to be able to make out walls and floors by listening carefully to distinct sounds. By clicking his tongue, snapping his fingers, or tapping his foot loudly, Tom could find his surroundings. He never went as far as his teacher, riding a bike, but it helped him in the longrun. Tom found out what the strange person Mike had given him shortly after. He was leaning agains't a wall with his palm against it, when he found that he could make an image in his head of his surroundings. It was colourless, and fast moving objects were hard to make out, but he could see. It tired him out at first, but by feeling a wall or something similer, he could map out an area in his head for a while before it faded out. The range he could do this is currently 100 feet, slightly farther depending on the material of his surroundings. This wears him out faster than a short distance, so he only uses such a burst of energy for good reason. During this time Tom also learned how to fight by listening to his opponant's movements and calculating where they would be next or where they would strike and counter attacking. He wouldn't be able to take the offensive very well. Tom was still waiting for the chance to avenge, or meet, his family when he was picked for the game.

Abilities: Expert hearing, pressure wave mapping, martial arts.

Equipment: He carries a short combat knife in a sheath attached to the back of his waist. He's wearing a special forces combat outfit, all black. Hard boots that make quite a bit of noise as he walks (helps to map out the area on the move).

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I think that's everything. Most likely not, but oh well.

[Pick Yer Poison]

Username: Pick Yer Poison

Name: Pickbot

Gender: Male

Race: Cog

Text Color: #0000FF

Equipment: None

Abilities: Claws, fangs, ability to manipulate shadows, ability to magnify fear

Physical description: Pickbot is about 5'6", coming in on the short end. His head comes to an end in natural spikes, and there is a gear partially embedded in his back. His whole body, inlcuding his hair, is a smooth black color, as if it were made of solid shadows. His eyes have a red glow to them. His hands can extend into razor sharp claws and his teeth into fangs of a similar sharpness at a moment's notice. He has a lithe form and is very graceful when moving. If one looks closely, it becomes apparent that he does not have a shadow.

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Original image by my friend Sabata, coloring by me.

Psychological description: Pickbot is a deeply disturbed individual. His greatest pleasure is in causing mischief, and while he may go for small pranks in the short run, he has a history of throwing a monkey wrench in very large plans for little more than a chuckle. He often refers to organic creatures as "edibles," and claims that he eats souls. It's highly probable that he is telling the truth. However, despite all the evidence to the contrary, he is completely sane, and is usually plotting something bigger than he lets on.

Biography: Pickbot is the last known member of an ancient race known as the Cogs, due to the gears embedded in their backs. After he came ambling out from the Cog lands, wherever they may be, no others have come after him. Rumors started up that he had done in the Cogs, and he did nothing to disperse them, which only made them seem more true. The only one who really knows what happened to the rest of the Cogs is Pickbot himself, and no one has ever gotten up the urge to ask him. He has been alive for several hundred years - even he's not sure what his exact birth date is - and he has spent most of it getting very important people in very big trouble. He lives for mayhem, but usually tries to make sure he has someone to hide behind if things go wrong.

EDIT: Fixed an error in the physical description.

[The Dr.]

From the intense variation on the characters, I can already tell this is going to be very interesting.

[WoodlandBeef]

I can sooooo not wait for this to start up. I think it's going to be so awesome xD

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Not to toot my own horn or whatever, but did I happen to start a trend with these robot characters?

[Pick Yer Poison]

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Not to toot my own horn or whatever, but did I happen to start a trend with these robot characters?

Robot? Pickbot's not a robot. He's quite biological. I just named him after my IRC bot, whose Markov chain function (generates random, sometimes meaningful sentences) have shown him to have quite the disturbing personality. :3

[granolaman]

I've never done this before, but I have a cool character concept sitting on the backburners so here goes nothing...

EDIT: Beefed up the description a bit. Also I've never played Blaz Blue so don't have any expectations similarities-wise.

Username: Granolaman

Name: Lenzo Emerson

Gender: Male

Race: Human, caucasian

Text Color: No one has green yet, so let's go with that

Equipment: Lenzo has his magical, quasi-sentient war puppet Mu-V and nothing else.

Abilities: Lenzo is a puppet mage: he can remotely control any magical puppet he has bonded with. He has been trained in combat with Mu-V, but can only effectively control either his own body or Mu-V's at any one time. To counter this, he has been researching a spell pentagram to protect his body during combat, but has not had time to properly test it. Other than these magical talents, Lenzo's only other useful attribute is a clever mind.

Description:
Lenzo has a long light-brown ponytail and a clean-shaven mug. He has sharp, green eyes and a fairly young looking face for being in his late 20's. He wears a maroon robe tied at the waist with a black rope. It has a cowl, but he doesn't use it. Overall average height for a human, lean, and not particularly muscled. His stance is usually braced, upright and confident. Lenzo has a respectful demeanor and avoids cocky behavior. He typically focuses on the task at hand with a passion and is always looking for different ways to solve problems. Lenzo greatly values the sanctity of human life and resists taking lives, choosing instead to incapacitate his enemies and leave them behind. Lenzo comes from a more Renaissance tech-level universe so he will likely have no clue on operating new-fangled tech devices.

Mu-V is about 3'6" and made of dark brown mahogany. She weighs roughly 35 pounds and can be carried easily. It has a stout body, skeletal limbs, a spherical head and a hunched posture. Her face has two big white eyes that turn yellow whenever Lenzo is controlling her and a narrow slit of a mouth through which Lenzo or Mu-V can communicate. Her wrists and shins are "Popeye-esque" and the wrists both contain a short, wide blade above the hand and empty compartments that can store liquids or gases below the hands. These compartments can project whatever's contained in them with about the force of a garden hose. In its upper-left back, the Greek letter 'mu' and the Roman numeral 'V' have been branded on. Mu can be described with either neutral or feminine pronouns and its name is pronounced Moo Five or Vee for short. When Mu-V is acting on her own, she will display very nonviolent and innocuous traits.


Biography: (I can supply more if needed, but this is the main background)
Lenzo is from a city called Seraph's Bastion in a doomed world. In this world, a dark army has all but wiped out humanity and the species itself is in danger of going extinct. In order to hold back the encroaching invaders and to prevent the loss of human life as much as possible, the mages of Seraph's Bastion created the puppet army. Lenzo enlisted himself and became the controller of Mu-V. Lenzo's sharp mind has helped Mu-V and its squad gain victory after victory against the dark forces. The war has raged for years and most other mages have switched their primary puppet to a more specialized line, however Lenzo kept his because of the Mu line's versatility making Mu-V the longest activated puppet in the realm. Residual magics have begun to grant Mu-V a state of sentience to the point that Mu-V can slowly move on its own, though it's mind is still as developed as a child's and its motor control is barely a fraction of its potential.

[gloomyMoron]

Well, that's that then. Something about that character is itching me in the wrong way, and it reminds me of a BlazBlue character, sort of, but it's well written and it should be interesting to get another 'summoner'/'puppet-user' in here. It is also nice to have a sane human too. I'll work on the starting post and we can start tonight/tomorrow morning/tomorrow evening. Depends on how long it takes me to write this post up. >.>

[WoodlandBeef]

Carl Clover! Yes now this'll be fun

[Pick Yer Poison]

It is also nice to have a sane human too.

Yeah. A good third of our entrants seem to be homicidal. XD

[Wojjan]

Clockwork just wants to fix you.

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Hey, nobody post anymore, so the next post - the opening post - will be on page two's start!