ooc An Arrow to the Wing OOC (1x1 with Catpone Cerberus)

[Lucid_Nightlight 923]

A former dragon slayer and dragom working together? That's crazy!

The dragonlands are in civil war. Many dragons didn't approve of Princess Ember's rule, so the formed a land called Fironia. They were composed by many of the larger dragons, their armies were quickly organized.

For years they were in a stalemate until Fironian forces ambushed major dragonland military leaders, leaving the dragonland's military in disarray. Equestrian forces did have some weapons meant for small dragon attacks, but weren't prepared to fight off a military composed of them. Their cannons and ballistas were just too slow and their magic was ineffective against them.

However, there was a former dragon slayer amoung the ranks in the royal guards they could send. They also knew about a dragon. Perhaps they'd turn the tides of the war and save their allies from annexation.

 

[Lucid_Nightlight 923]

@Catpone Cerberus

For the record, my interpretation is Somnus and Ruby won. (Of course the events from that story never happened in the one we're doing now)

Maybe they should've asked if they could swim BEFORE putting water in the well. 

Also, if Ruby stepped into an iHop how long would it take for her to get banned?

[Catpone Cerberus 23,426]

13 hours ago, Lucid_Nightlight said:

@Catpone Cerberus

For the record, my interpretation is Somnus and Ruby won. (Of course the events from that story never happened in the one we're doing now)

Maybe they should've asked if they could swim BEFORE putting water in the well. 

Also, if Ruby stepped into an iHop how long would it take for her to get banned?

Of course Ruby won, she's Ruby.
And no idea what IHop is, though that would probably be off-topic regardless. 

[Catpone Cerberus 23,426]

@Lucid_Nightlight
Since you're bringing guns into a dragon fight, you should probably know that Ruby is in fact, bulletproof. She, or more specifically, her kind is based on a dragons from a book series I once read, and in that dragons were not only more intelligent than humans, but also bulletproof. Explosions and anti-armor weaponry can damage her, but it will need to be used very tactically to actually stop her (and kill her). 

Edited August 24, 2020 by Catpone Cerberus

[Lucid_Nightlight 923]

The jackals are smart and have been a smaller force than the armies they face, they're use to being tactical. If they were a big military force, Equus would've been taken over a long time ago. The fact their small is why their plans take a long time.

They're an armed group with the idea that jackals are the dominant species and should rule over everyone.

[Lucid_Nightlight 923]

@Catpone Cerberus

Arrow should really break up the fight Quasi started, both could dragons could easly get hurt. Ruby is stronger and pretty fast and Quasi has an enchanted spear and armor and pretty fast and smart.

Edited August 28, 2020 by Lucid_Nightlight

[Catpone Cerberus 23,426]

1 minute ago, Lucid_Nightlight said:

@Catpone Cerberus

Arrow should really break up the fight Quasi started, both could dragons could easly get hurt. Ruby is stronger and pretty fast and Quasi has an enchanted spear and armor and pretty fast and smart.

Ruby is also intelligent, don't forget that.
Factually a fight would end into Ruby's advantage, because armor can be taken away, weapons can be broken, and quasi is not fire proof. (also Ruby isn't kidding when she says she needs to be killed for her to be taken out.)

But Ruby won't go on full on assault, as you will see in my reply when I get it written.

[Lucid_Nightlight 923]

@Catpone Cerberus

Have you read Wing of Fire, if not, do you plan to? I have some ideas, but it wouldn't be right to spoil too much.

[Catpone Cerberus 23,426]

18 hours ago, Lucid_Nightlight said:

@Catpone Cerberus

Have you read Wing of Fire, if not, do you plan to? I have some ideas, but it wouldn't be right to spoil too much.

No I haven't and probably won't for a while if ever considering it's not available anywhere in my country. 

[Lucid_Nightlight 923]

@Catpone Cerberus

The other Ruby introduced is a canon character in Wings of Fire and happens to have a similar name.

Think your Ruby would want to help make the dragon that captured them not be alive? Of course, we might want some arena action, yes?

[Catpone Cerberus 23,426]

6 hours ago, Lucid_Nightlight said:

@Catpone Cerberus

The other Ruby introduced is a canon character in Wings of Fire and happens to have a similar name.

Think your Ruby would want to help make the dragon that captured them not be alive? Of course, we might want some arena action, yes?

Though it will also be apparent in my coming post, yes. (though the part about helping probably won't be so much to her joy.) 

Regarding the arena though, let Ruby actually show what she can do few times (or in other word, let me describe the/a/few whole fight(s) where she can actually kill the opponent.) because with previous fights it has been clear you have made them as inconvenient to Ruby as possible without straight up killing her (the fact that literally everything happens to be enchanted and that everyone seems to be able to sneak on her regardless of not only her normal senses but her 'shiny-sense' and her over 100 year experience in a land where everyone tries to kill you...it's quite conveniently inconvenient don't you think?) 

This cannot even be explained by them knowing what to expect, because as will be mentioned in my next reply, there really isn't really that much to know about Ruby, and I don't believe "she's stronger than most dragons" tells enough for literally everyone get the best magical anti-Ruby enchantments available to their gear. I know she can be considered OP in some context, but that's because I focus on character-based RPs rather than combat based. (And it's hard for me to balance "too op" and "absolutely useless weak thing" in PvP and thus I don't like PvP)   

 

Also, what is your plan for relationships (friendship romance whatever)? Because while I know Ruby is and a-hole, if you are planning for her to actually warm up to anyone in the group, everyone treating her like the jerk she is isn't the way, since it only gives her more reason to act like that (and eventually leave because she doesn't deem it worth her time to tolerate it for bit of treasure, especially if things seem to always go wrong, because remember, she has plans for the future, jobs like these are just a side-thing.) 

(Just as side note, if you want romance, it will only work with another dragon (no matter on gender or size) but for close friendship it is possible to happen with other creatures too, assuming they earn her respect and don't constantly make her want to kill them.)

Lastly, I don't know if you were planning to, but you don't need to tell me what's from the books and what's not every time, this way you will also avoid spoiling me in case I will read them some day, because as long as it makes some sense for the story, I don't care where the idea comes from. (for example, red dragon named Ruby isn't most original and unheard of thing out there, so it's not unbelievable that she would meet someone with the same name.) 

[Lucid_Nightlight 923]

@Catpone Cerberus

I'll try to do better from now on.

As for relationships, it would be nice for Ruby to warm up to them. How old is Ruby is she young or an adult? I've not come up with an age for Quasi, so if you want a romance between the two we could work that out, though originally the plan was to have everyone get on good terms with each other if not friends.

Arrow isn't one to fall in love with someone with the character of Ruby (she kinda hurts his feelings D:) Quasi live in a world full of all kinds of dragons and would maybe even find Ruby's confidence attracting.

Maybe we could say Quasi was attempting to impress Ruby when he lashed out. (Not that it worked from the looks of it.)

If that's the route you want to go, how would Quasi have to act?

[Catpone Cerberus 23,426]

14 minutes ago, Lucid_Nightlight said:

romance between the two we could work that out, though originally the plan was to have everyone get on good terms with each other if not friends

Both can be the case at the same time, it will just take some warming up to both directions,

17 minutes ago, Lucid_Nightlight said:

How old is Ruby is she young or an adult?

She's somewhere between 150 and 200, almost 200 like she herself says, 50 years is their full maturity, so in human years it would be something like 25 - 30 maybe? she can live for several thousands of years so it's hard to translate to human years. She has lot of things figured out, but she also has things to learn, so young-ish adult?

22 minutes ago, Lucid_Nightlight said:

Arrow isn't one to fall in love with someone with the character of Ruby (she kinda hurts his feelings D:)

Arrow isn't her type either, and like said, romance would only work with dragons (but more greed based attachment works for other creatures).

24 minutes ago, Lucid_Nightlight said:

If that's the route you want to go, how would Quasi have to act?

There isn't necessarily a one specific thing but, here's few points.
Firstly, regarding this

26 minutes ago, Lucid_Nightlight said:

Maybe we could say Quasi was attempting to impress Ruby when he lashed out. (Not that it worked from the looks of it.)

You're right, it didn't work, because while Ruby appreciates bravery and confidence, she doesn't like cockiness, there's a fine difference. Using her for example, she has very high view on her abilities yes, and she does not fear a fight that could kill her, but she's not stupid, that's why for example she hasn't tried to take over Equestria, she doesn't fear the ponies, she thinks they are weak, but she realizes that she would be absolutely destroyed by the magic ponies control. This is also why she is in Equestria in the first place, she realized that needed to gather her strength to strike back. In fact, seeing someone fight around their weaknesses, use their head to solve their situation, that is more impressive to her than someone who's just physically strong and who blindly fight everyone and everything. 

Also, trying to prove that one is better than her, that won't work, because there's 2 outcomes, either they will show that they are not and she starts despising them more, or they actually are and she doesn't want to stay around them because that would mean admitting defeat.

 

 

 

The fact is, that Quasi probably won't impress her when it comes to strength, but if he shows that he can use his head, he could get some respect.

I'd say we should use his mind reading as help, he would through that learn more about Ruby (when in right situations (hint, spying her dreams tells a bit.)) and from that could figure out what strings to pull to get her emotional guard down (works only if they are alone and she doesn't hate him at the moment.)  because ultimately what Ruby is now is an act, a front, because while she is rather emotionless by nature, she is hiding great emotional pain, and if someone gets her truly believe that they care, that is a way for warming up.  

To give an example, in other RP Ruby is in, she has started to take a liking to a female dragon that's lot smaller (and several hundreds of years older), because she has managed just that. 

There's also the whole saving one's life trick, since even if Ruby would have hard time accepting and admitting that she needed help, she couldn't deny the feat, though it must be done in a way that it doesn't feel forced if it's done (for example the hole thing from the old one was kinda forced.) and it doesn't need to be literally life saving, just saving her from a helpless situation. 

 

and lastly, speaking of using one's head, to return to this a bit
 

5 hours ago, Catpone Cerberus said:

you have made them as inconvenient to Ruby as possible without straight up killing her (the fact that literally everything happens to be enchanted and that everyone seems to be able to sneak on her regardless of not only her normal senses but her 'shiny-sense' and her over 100 year experience in a land where everyone tries to kill you...it's quite conveniently inconvenient don't you think?) 

1 hour ago, Lucid_Nightlight said:

I'll try to do better from now on.

there obviously can and should be situations where Ruby can't win, but they can be done more smartly than by just adding magic, for example, let's take the capture scene, the original didn't have really anything wrong with it other than there wasn't really any chance for Ruby to tell something was wrong, but it's a one where I can quickly come up with different approach for.

Instead of having the darts enchanted with anti-Ruby's-scales magic, they could have realized that the darts don't stick, and then figured out a other way, like turning the thing causing the sleep into gas and making her inhale it, or sacrificing one of their own to get one of the darts to stick inside her mouth. The end result would have been the same, there just would have not been need for the enchantment.

Do you get what I'm trying to say? (It's late, my writing is probably pretty rambling-like) 

 

[Lucid_Nightlight 923]

@Catpone Cerberus

I gotcha, we could have Quasi physically at Ruby's age, though they do have different lifespans. Quasi's lifespan is a maximum of 150 years. First thing is, Quasi will drop the toughness act and be his smart self. He will neither win Ruby over or ever win against Ruby (not promising another fight) through raw physical strength that he clearly lacks. His actual character is a lot more kind and smart.

And with his mindreading ability, Quasi may find out more about Ruby eventually. Quasi has a (metaphorically obviously) silver tongue and is good at using his words to psychologically mess with those that threaten him. His mind reading does help. He is also good at getting out of trouble. Physically, Quasi is weaker than most dragons in his world and only was able to stand against Ruby due to his enchanted weapons, without those, he has no power over Ruby physically. Well, even with those, he doesn't but... he'd last a couple more seconds.

And yes, I can do better than just anti-Ruby plot armor.

[Lucid_Nightlight 923]

@Catpone Cerberus

Good speech from Quasi, but I doubt that's gonna seal the deal on Ruby. Perhaps Quasi can prove something in the arena. What if we had an opponent stronger than Ruby?

Of course, that also means stronger than Quasi since Quasi is nowhere near Ruby's strength, but what if Quasi used his mind. Of course, I'm pretty sure Ruby knows how to do that too, based on how she fought her mother in the other roleplay. I sure wouldn't want my own horn shoved down my throat... ouch.

 

There are two ideas.

One of Ruby's kind.

Or

An animus.

Wings of Fire has these dragons called Animus dragons, they're rare, but they have magical powers that when used, they lose some of themself and can go insane. Some can essentially make themselves immortal I think.

[Lucid_Nightlight 923]

@Catpone Cerberus

If I disappear, I might be spending a little time in a mental hospital and I'll be back. No guarantees this will happen, but I'm having trouble with a severe mental illness.

[Catpone Cerberus 23,426]

10 hours ago, Lucid_Nightlight said:

Perhaps Quasi can prove something in the arena. What if we had an opponent stronger than Ruby?

Of course, that also means stronger than Quasi since Quasi is nowhere near Ruby's strength, but what if Quasi used his mind. Of course, I'm pretty sure Ruby knows how to do that too, based on how she fought her mother in the other roleplay. I sure wouldn't want my own horn shoved down my throat... ouch.

 

There are two ideas.

One of Ruby's kind.

Or

An animus.

Wings of Fire has these dragons called Animus dragons, they're rare, but they have magical powers that when used, they lose some of themself and can go insane. Some can essentially make themselves immortal I think.

Doesn't need to be stronger necessarily, just bigger...it's easier to just explain what kind of situation I'm thinking of.

The opponent would be a bigger dragon from Ruby's species, how they were caught? no idea, maybe they're there willingly? anyway, the fight would start by it looking pretty good for Ruby, Quasi would be ignored by both because like Ruby, the other dragon wouldn't see him as much of a threat, since with even Ruby having bit trouble to get through the opponent's scales, a spear, even enchanted one would be like poking a bear with a long needle. 

But then Ruby would make a mistake, as even she isn't perfect, and with the opponent being not any less intelligent as her, they would use it to their advantage, and Ruby would end up being crushed between the ground and the opponent's leg/claws in a way that she can't free herself since even strongest of dragons can't lift several times their own weight that easily.(this would also have mental effect on her due to a certain memory but I'll mention about that bit later in this.)

This is where Quasi would finally come in, the bigger dragon would be focused on Ruby, insulting her and so on, so Quasi would have a change to do something, not to defeat the dragon necessarily, but at least free Ruby, they could then together finish the job.

Now, this wouldn't necessarily work as impressing Ruby, since acknowledging Quasi's effort would mean admitting that she needed help, but it would help a bit (there won't be anything that Quasi could do that would make Ruby immediately fall in love, it will be a process of slowly warming up regardless of what happens, since when she says she don't feel certain emotions, she truly believes it (for most of them)) and it could be the trigger for Quasi learning about Ruby because...

Like said, getting crushed and thus trapped would bring up a rather painful memory to Ruby's mind (it won't be revealed what exactly happened in any point, but the effects it had to her will come apparent.) and she would act bit different after the fight. Instead of celebrating or anything, she would just start walking back towards the chambers even before the guards would come, being lot less talkative, and even when she would speak, she would be lot less prideful and sound just lot more tame, she of course would deny this if asked about, but this is when Quasi could see bit deeper behind the barrier that is her act if he reads her mind.

 

If you want a situation where Quasi could truly prove himself, he would need to fight someone alone too, since there Ruby wouldn't really be able to come up with a excuse to dismiss his efforts with. 

 

11 hours ago, Lucid_Nightlight said:

Good speech from Quasi, but I doubt that's gonna seal the deal on Ruby.

The general "rule" with Ruby is "show don't tell", what I mean is, talking about friendship or emotions or such, it will only annoy her, but doing (or saying) things that show one cares about her without literally saying "I care about you", that makes her warm up slowly but surely, even if she doesn't really show it that clearly necessarily. 

[Lucid_Nightlight 923]

I'm thinking maybe we should try to make things less random and slow down the surprises, of course that's my doing, not controlling myself when I have an idea, but I can certainly fix that. We can have Ruby and Quasi meet up with the others, stay the night at the tavern, and then get to Equus to keep the actual story going.

Also, Ruby is now mother of the year.

[Catpone Cerberus 23,426]

12 hours ago, Lucid_Nightlight said:

I'm thinking maybe we should try to make things less random and slow down the surprises, of course that's my doing, not controlling myself when I have an idea, but I can certainly fix that. We can have Ruby and Quasi meet up with the others, stay the night at the tavern, and then get to Equus to keep the actual story going.

Also, Ruby is now mother of the year.

I agree on that, things are bit overly quick paced, I mean, they woke up in a arena, fought 3 times, escaped, got attacked again, in matter of like 2 or 3 hours? if considering the time that the battles and the escaping most likely took. 

Also, I have created 3 more dragon OCs that all in way or another is related to Ruby and/or her kind (haven't planned that much.) so I may at some point have a cameos from them so that I can  build up their personalities a bit, it's not certain, but if I see a moment where I think one of them may fit in, I may introduce them, though how much that really affects anything will be seen if I do so.

 

 

also also, if possible, could you describe more of your character's actions? What I mean is, for example, as can be seen from my post  I assume Queen Ruby has left the room, but you never stated she did. So in another word, please make it bit more obvious who is around and who is not.

Edited September 16, 2020 by Catpone Cerberus

[Catpone Cerberus 23,426]

@Lucid_Nightlight
I was thinking, since Arrow is(or at least was supposed to be) more your main character in this if I have understood right, and he isn't getting much "screen-time" due to his and Ruby's chemistry not really matching up, I could introduce a second character that would get better along with Arrow if you want. 

 

also, just fyi, I have been quite tired lately and am still tired, so if there's some weird grammar or other such things in my posts, that's why. 

[Lucid_Nightlight 923]

1 hour ago, Catpone Cerberus said:

@Lucid_Nightlight
I was thinking, since Arrow is(or at least was supposed to be) more your main character in this if I have understood right, and he isn't getting much "screen-time" due to his and Ruby's chemistry not really matching up, I could introduce a second character that would get better along with Arrow if you want. 

 

also, just fyi, I have been quite tired lately and am still tired, so if there's some weird grammar or other such things in my posts, that's why. 

Sure!

And I get it 

[Catpone Cerberus 23,426]

2 minutes ago, Lucid_Nightlight said:

Sure!

Okay, here's my pitch
Ember (not related to Dragonlord Ember.)
 

Spoiler

Pony-dragon hybrid with a pet crow who works as a bounty-hunter. Her armor and spear are made of the same metal that the Stormking's troops' shields used in the movie (the one capable of blocking magic.)

[Lucid_Nightlight 923]

@Catpone Cerberus

Sure, I'm cool with that

[Catpone Cerberus 23,426]

2 minutes ago, Lucid_Nightlight said:

@Catpone Cerberus

Sure, I'm cool with that

Aright, i'll be introducing her in my next post

[Lucid_Nightlight 923]

@Catpone Cerberus

Sorry if I'm sounding prideful in my posts, it isn't like Sky's superiority complex.

I just have a strategic mindset of "who would win if this happened"

I'll keep that down in the future. My apologies.