ooc Rise of the Stars (1x1 with CatponeCerberus)

[Lucid_Nightlight 926]

After the Fironian Civil War, Quasi and Ruby would form a new nation, yet an old one, The Nightwing Kingdom of Starlania. Will this nation fall apart, or will it stand for many years?

How will Quasi and Ruby rule?

@Catpone Cerberus

OOC is set! We can discuss the plans here.

 

[Catpone Cerberus 23,667]

@Lucid_Nightlight
I'll get right into the "side"characters I mentioned 

Spoiler

In summary, Enduur was captured at around Ruby's age by unknown bunch, for few centuries she was experimented with, magic related stuff, mainly dark Equestrian magic, Danthe and Charis hatched in captivity, Danthe was also experimented with, Charis was born after the experimenters were dead/gone, so she wasn't. Some years after Charis hatched, Vix, a kobold from civilization from deep underground was making his way to surface when he stumbled upon where the three dragonesses were being kept and helped them out.

The dragons are Ruby's species, Enduur speaks both English and Their native language, Danthe too speaks both, but her English is limited, and Charis speaks only their native language, though she understand few words of English. Enduur is somewhere between 500 and 600, though she herself doesn't know her age as she didn't have a way to keep time in captivity, she's about half bigger than Ruby. Danthe is bit younger than Ruby, and slightly smaller.

Basically how I though it, they would bring more character to Ruby as Enduur would be kinda like the mother figure she never had, Danthe is very similar to her, and Charis is a hatchling. Lore wise, while Enduur is not as educated about their kinds history like Ruby is, she knows things that Ruby doesn't, because as it turns out, Ruby's childhood was bad even by their kind's standards, and there's things she was never told about. 

For how they would get involved, simple, they were living in a cave somewhere in Equestria, but the war made them flee and they ended up in Quasi's world and happened to end up in the territory of to be Starlania, and at some point (not necessarily immediately in the start) Ruby and Quasi learn about them either through reports (and go to investigate) or Vix comes to them after he learns a nation has formed.

(also the names Danthe and Charis translate to Dear and Hope in that order)

[Lucid_Nightlight 926]

@Catpone Cerberus

We could bring in a white coyote named Strings to go with them, maybe she's visiting to pay respect to the new nation when she comes across them.

[Catpone Cerberus 23,667]

21 hours ago, Lucid_Nightlight said:

@Catpone Cerberus

We could bring in a white coyote named Strings to go with them, maybe she's visiting to pay respect to the new nation when she comes across them.

I have nothing against it, though she would most likely come across Vix rather than any of the dragons(at first), as the dragons stay hidden most of the time, while Vix is kinda like their representative, as he does pretty much everything necessary in the outside world. The dragons really only leave the cave for hunting at nights. 

Only things that really are "requirements"  for them is what I just mentioned and the fact that for them to have any point to exist in the RP, Ruby will have to interact with them eventually.

 

What about that Ember Arrow thing, will we include them in this? (it doesn't necessarily need to be Arrow if you don't want, that just wouldn't require the first meeting again) 

 

And in general, what exactly were you planning with this? like you mentioned lore and the challenges of leading a nation, what exactly would that involve? we don't need to have every bit of detail planned, but some kind of set of limits of sorts that's followed would be nice, like what should be expected. It makes easier for me to also come up with ideas if I know what you're looking for. 

[Lucid_Nightlight 926]

@Catpone Cerberus

We could say Arrow and Ember get invited by Quasi to the wedding, via invitation.

Some challenges would be forming jobs, organizing their army, diplomacy with other nations, that sorta thing. There could also be calming the Sandwings that didn't leave but, also don't approve of a new nation being formed in a place their nation once claimed.

[Catpone Cerberus 23,667]

On 2021-07-01 at 8:07 PM, Lucid_Nightlight said:

We could say Arrow and Ember get invited by Quasi to the wedding, via invitation.

That could work if we want them to be in the nation too, Ember is curious enough that while she doesn't really have personal interest in Quasi's and Ruby's relationship (since she barely knows them due to the Ruby she knows being her pony-act) she would be interested to see how Ruby has changed if at all. It's also not a stretch that Ember's sister would follow them there (since introducing her is big part why I want Ember to stay on) which reminds me, here's her sister

Spoiler

Like Ember, she has animals following her, though while for Ember it's crows, to her it's snakes. Physically she's kinda like the opposite of Ember, while Ember is pony shaped dragon, Cinder is dragon shaped pony.

 

On 2021-07-01 at 8:07 PM, Lucid_Nightlight said:

Some challenges would be forming jobs, organizing their army, diplomacy with other nations, that sorta thing. There could also be calming the Sandwings that didn't leave but, also don't approve of a new nation being formed in a place their nation once claimed.

Lot of politics it seems, not a problem by itself, but remember to keep it separate from real life, my statement about real-world politics in the Arrow to the wing still holds true. Also, Ruby doesn't understand much for politics, so remember to also have things that Ruby can actually partake in, something where her more direct way of doing things actually helps instead of turning it to "no Ruby you can't do that"-simulation. a good rule of thumb is: This is not the real world, these are not humans, not every creature thinks like humans do, There's colorful ponies with weaponized friendship.

[Lucid_Nightlight 926]

@Catpone Cerberus

Sure, I'd be interested in seeing Ember's sister in this, and as far as human politics go, anything related to humans, we could make it mostly about having concerns about defending themselves against a human nation. Quasi probably wouldn't concern himself with United Nations and NATO or whatever, not worth the trouble.

Most non-dragon diplomacy would be towards Equestria for reasons of trade and alliance. He'd trade whatever his land has to offer for Equestrian magic to use for his military.

[Catpone Cerberus 23,667]

2 hours ago, Lucid_Nightlight said:

Sure, I'd be interested in seeing Ember's sister in this,

She'll appear at some point when Ember is alone (or with Arrow) somewhere where it makes sense for her to be able to be unnoticed for a moment (behind a corner, on top of a wall, something like that).

2 hours ago, Lucid_Nightlight said:

Quasi probably wouldn't concern himself with United Nations and NATO or whatever, not worth the trouble.

Ruby also would simply not allow it, the whole point (to her) of a nation is that they decide about things themselves without others controlling them, so any international (interstellar? interworldly?) agreement is hard to get through her, as she will make absolutely certain it can't be used to control her, and UN and Nato simply don't pass that requirement. 

 

I'd say those are good limits to start with, if later there is any ideas for something that may go past these "limits" it shall be discussed here, as plans can be changed as long as both sides agree. i'd like to mention that I am not against there being some kind of physical conflict at some point, it just needs to stay in logical limits, to use and example, humans, I can't really see any reason why any nation on Earth would start a war with this random small country in other world, it simply is not worth the effort and money, of course Quasi may have concerns about this, not saying that, but speaking from OOC point of view, it is very unlikely to happen.

 

Now I think we just need to figure out where (and from when) to start, and of course what happened just before the start, events that our characters would know but didn't happen in the last RP and so on. 

 

[Lucid_Nightlight 926]

@Catpone Cerberus

For Ruby and Quasi, maybe a few days before the wedding at the nightwing castle?

For Ember and Arrow they're at the coffee shop when Arrow let's Ember know that they got a wedding invitation from Quasi.

Strings could take shelter in a cave when he sees the kobold?

[Catpone Cerberus 23,667]

1 hour ago, Lucid_Nightlight said:

For Ruby and Quasi, maybe a few days before the wedding at the nightwing castle?

That works, though is there something specific they would be doing at the moment when it starts? Having a conversation? doing preparations? 

1 hour ago, Lucid_Nightlight said:

For Ember and Arrow they're at the coffee shop when Arrow let's Ember know that they got a wedding invitation from Quasi.

That works too, though I'd say maybe it would be better if they are just generally discussing getting invitations like it happened some days prior, for two reasons: 1. few days is quite a short notice considering they are in not only different nation, but different world. 2. there isn't really a reason why Ember wouldn't have gotten her own invite, since they are at the time good friends at best.

1 hour ago, Lucid_Nightlight said:

Strings could take shelter in a cave when he sees the kobold?

This depends on the terrain of the land, since Strings wouldn't get even close to the cave with the dragons before  Vix would make himself known, so until there's lot of caves, it doesn't really work. If there is many caves, Strings could take shelter in a cave and then from there see Vix around a different cave some distance away. 

 

Also, just to add, how I have thought of it, kobolds are not very well known by the surface creatures due to their isolation, not in Equestria, or anywhere else, and thus most creatures would first assume they are small wingless dragons. 

[Lucid_Nightlight 926]

@Catpone Cerberus

Perhaps they're preparing the wedding.

And yeah, we could say they got the preparations prior to the coffee thing.

Maybe Strings is in a cave and sees Vix from a distance. Seeing the small wingless dragon, Strings might mistake it for a young lost dragon and go to help.

[Catpone Cerberus 23,667]

21 hours ago, Lucid_Nightlight said:

@Catpone Cerberus

Perhaps they're preparing the wedding.

And yeah, we could say they got the preparations prior to the coffee thing.

Maybe Strings is in a cave and sees Vix from a distance. Seeing the small wingless dragon, Strings might mistake it for a young lost dragon and go to help.

That works, though for the preparation, depending on how far you're planning they would already be into it (since again, few days is quite a short time.) keep in mind that while Ruby would unsurprisingly leave most things for Quasi to handle, she would insist not doing things by traditions of others, basically she would want a wedding fitting to someone called Deathbringer. She would also insist on making her apparel/clothing herself. 

Arrow Ember also works.

And that works, though Vix will have his shield, scythe and staff with him most of the time, if that changes anything depends on your character, would Strings mistake an armed individual to be lost? That's up to you really.

 

I'd say we have all the necessary for now, you can feel free to point out if we are missing something, I'm bit tired so i may not realize something. As far as I'm concerned, we could start up the RP.

So you can make the introduction post whenever you wish, some kind of summary on what the situation is and then start the interactions from there. I don't really have a preference on how exactly the interactions should start, but some way such that I can "join in" smoothly/naturally.

if you agree that we are ready to start, go ahead like I said, i'll respond when I have time and energy, I'm behind on my RPs due to today's workday going on overtime, so it might not be right away  .

[Catpone Cerberus 23,667]

@Lucid_Nightlight
One more thing, since there will be two languages spoken in this RP, and I can't be bothered going to the translator all the time, I'll write all in English but make the dialogue bit different to separate the two (when there is someone who can understand (Quasi) around, if not, I'll just write along the lines of 'said something to X that sounded like Y' like I did before anyone understood Ruby in the previous RP.) 

 

"This is normal English/common dialogue"
"*This is in Ruby's kind's native language*"

 

 

(also, you could probably change 'Planning' to 'OOC' since we have started)

[Catpone Cerberus 23,667]

@Lucid_Nightlight
Would you be okay with a slightly darker/more serious detour in the RP. The relationship between Ruby and Quasi has kinda caught into a loop because there hasn't been anything forcing Ruby to really think about it and the amount of personal time it would take for her to realize from just spending time with him doesn't seem plausible due to constant happening or someone coming to interrupt them. On the same note, Ruby is kinda in this power loop with every attack being stronger thus making her stronger due to all threats being lethal otherwise.

So, while working I got a idea for potential where her story could go, not going to detail yet since I'm asking for interest at this point, but the basic summary. 

Darkstalker 2.0 would actually manage to capture her (I have idea for that) and actually find a way to "tab into" her fear (Which is being totally helpless) and basically torment her until the rest manage to deal with Darkstalker. Quasi would also have a change to show his true colors to her (or more like prove them to Ruby) as there would be some partial mind control involved and for reasons Quasi would have control over her actions for month or two.

It will take some stretching of imagination, because at this point with where the RPs have led Ruby, the only real way to "unlock" her fear is with help of forced immortality (only a temporary one though, not gonna make Ruby into a literal god  ) but I already have an idea how to explain it, and considering we already have had Animus magic (which is basically wish magic) and now what? third reincarnation of almost indestructible evil dragon, that explanation is actually pretty grounded.

[Lucid_Nightlight 926]

@Catpone Cerberus

That definitely adds plot into the mix. Seems like a fair idea. Maybe that dragon that attacked wad a distraction take some animus paper specifically to torment Ruby. It would make sense that Darkstalker would want to reach for at least a little animus power. He probably doesn't exactly like that he's slightly less powerful.

We could also say that Darkstalker doesn't feel satisfied with the fear he originally gave Ruby because that was a clone and not truly him.

[Catpone Cerberus 23,667]

16 minutes ago, Lucid_Nightlight said:

@Catpone Cerberus

That definitely adds plot into the mix. Seems like a fair idea. Maybe that dragon that attacked wad a distraction take some animus paper specifically to torment Ruby. It would make sense that Darkstalker would want to reach for at least a little animus power. He probably doesn't exactly like that he's slightly less powerful.

We could also say that Darkstalker doesn't feel satisfied with the fear he originally gave Ruby because that was a clone and not truly him.

The reason for him to not feel satisfied could also simply be because he didn't really succeed tormenting Ruby, the reliving of the past broke Ruby's mind, practically killing the Ruby part of Ruby, making her a mindless wild animal, in a way, it was too effective.

There wasn't actually any animus magic involved in my rough plan, but that could be used to explain the temporary immortality for example,  I'll now write the whole thing I thought about,  keep in mind, this was equivalent of day dreaming, so I'm open for changes.

For the capture, I thought about having at some point later (later as in the RP timeline) let's say, after the wedding is over and most quests are starting to leave, new assassin or several appear, they fail, as to be expected, but there's marking on their body (runes of some kind) which start to glow after all of them are dead, Quasi is the closest to them/it, but Ruby is the first one to notice it, and charges to push Quasi out of the way, ending up getting hit by the spell in the rune, which happens to be some kind of transportation spell, thus disappearing. 

What exactly happens to her is not mentioned, as the events happening to her happen off-screen so to speak, and as Quasi tries to figure out what happened to her, at some point some hours later, (maybe even the next day), they get a message, it's either a audio recorder of some kind, or magical audio message, and from it Ruby speaks, sounding unusually defeated, saying some message she's clearly forced to say, while also speaking in her native language what basically is plead for help, with added cries of pain to make clear the situation is not great for her. This ultimately confirms that it was Darkstalker behind the disappearance and Quasi and rest react accordingly. 

Next time Ruby is heard from is after Darkstalker's defeat, when she's found in a room chained, badly bleeding and generally just in awful state, and depending on how long the rescue takes, starving and dehydrated, basically in a state that she should not be alive, wearing a metal collar with runes on it.

That collar is enchanted slave collar with two main purposes, it keeps the wearer alive regardless of their physical state (and keeps them sane), and makes the wearer's body to follow any and all commands from the "owner", regardless of if the wearer wants it or not. (While the wearer is fully aware of their body doing things against their will) (This kind of control would also explain how it gets through Ruby's mental protections, since it does nothing to the mind, just the body) (It also does allow free movement if there isn't any active orders or orders are dismissed, so she doesn't need orders to do basic things, it's just that she can't resist doing things ordered.)

Cinder from all people knows what the collar is, and knows how to "reset"  it, but it needs to have a set "owner" so the control is given to Quasi until Ruby has healed enough for it to be safely removed (since it keeps her alive) 

 

 

As I see it, this situation would make sense, firstly, Darkstalker is just simply evil, so he would probably enjoy causing suffering, but it would also be practical, since he wants to bring down the nation, and probably hopes torturing his freshly wed wife would make Quasi just surrender, since Ruby for sure wouldn't surrender if it was other way around (thus the message)

in the original thought everything mentioned was already in the collar, though it could be made so that the not dying and staying sane parts are added by Darkstalker through Animus to what used to be just an obedience collar. 

 

[Lucid_Nightlight 926]

Seems good to me. Though Darkstalker will be making the biggest mistake of his life. Darkstalker is evil and good at manipulating others. And torture is certainly not out the question for him. He's the kind of evil where he thinks he's right and is also self centered. If he befriends someone he'll care for them but also might kill them if he absolutely needs to to reach whatever goal he has.

You could say he has a sense of morality that is very twisted. At one point he could've seen reason but has fallen far into his own evil ways because of his choices.

[Catpone Cerberus 23,667]

@Lucid_Nightlight
Would you be aright if I did a small time/event skip to the point where the previously discussed plot takes off?

Basically i would have Ruby respond to Quasi and just have them go to Ruby's room, time skip, they leave the room, stuff hits the fan. I kinda like the idea of this being the last thing to happen just before the storm so to speak 

The main reason I'm asking is because I would need to slightly control Quasi by assuming things until the point Ruby disappears (the assumptions being: he follows her, the time he takes to recover from being slammed sideways.)

[Lucid_Nightlight 926]

1 hour ago, Catpone Cerberus said:

@Lucid_Nightlight
Would you be aright if I did a small time/event skip to the point where the previously discussed plot takes off?

Basically i would have Ruby respond to Quasi and just have them go to Ruby's room, time skip, they leave the room, stuff hits the fan. I kinda like the idea of this being the last thing to happen just before the storm so to speak 

The main reason I'm asking is because I would need to slightly control Quasi by assuming things until the point Ruby disappears (the assumptions being: he follows her, the time he takes to recover from being slammed sideways.)

Sure  sounds good to me.

[Catpone Cerberus 23,667]

@Lucid_Nightlight

I think you accidentally posted a repeat of your previous response.