Fighting like an Animal (Literate RP)

purrclan • 24 December 2013 at 5:55 PM

Dear __________

Congratulations! You have been accepted into the _____________ Army! Good job!
Enclosed in this letter is your plane ticket to War Base.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
We will meet you when you arrive. Remember, from now on you're representing your country!
Signed,
General A. Taylor

~~~

Allie stared at the piece of paper on her desk. She couldn't remember the name, country, or anything about the plane details for whoever this was. She could actually look for it, or...
She signed her name at the bottom and struggled to her feet, looking for someone to hand the now-totally-not-her-responsibility acceptance letter to.
Why?
Why had the U.N. come up with this plan? Why had the media jumped on it? Why had teens been allowed to join? Before all this, the age limit for the military had been much higher. Then again, it wasn't exactly the military anymore...at least, not what it had once been. Why had this led to so many more wars - even deathless ones? Why had it seemed so reasonable at the time?
Most importantly...why her?
Why had she been accepted in the first place?
Why had she *come* here?
*Why* had she let them make her General when she herself couldn't and wouldn't fight anymore?
Her brain seemed to always be teeming with 'whys' and 'if onlys'...
She stumbled into a subordinate, who immediately saluted. "How many times have I told you not to do that?" He relaxed. "Thank you. Now could you please fill out this form and the other ones, and let me know when all I have to do is sign them?"
"Ma'am, yes, ma'am!"
"You really don't need to be so formal, you know," she sighed. "I'm not much older than you." She limped off to her room to do...something.
She would train the new recruits this time, just like she always did. She would let these people fight, like always. She would watch them ruin whatever life they could have had for the sake of their country, like always.
This was a better system than before, and it was working. She shouldn’t complain. And yet…

~~~
~~~
~~~

Twenty years ago, people all over the world began to manifest powers. They could transform into any animal, which many took instant advantage of. However, this power came with a price: when you became human again, a part of you remained un-transformed. It didn't change size, either. Some of the first to go were usually the ears and tailbone, but facial features were also common. In addition, you wouldn't be able to turn into that animal again.
As soon as the original media attention died down, another uproar began: the U.N. had unanimously agreed on a drastic change in military. War would never be the same. Soldiers were shapeshifter-only. Battles were one-on-one, hand-to-hand combat. Or claw-to-fin. Or tooth-to-wing. Or whatever.
No more invasions. No more threats of nuclear strike. It was simple now: issue a formal declaration of war, describe a specific concern. Send one soldier to the Arena; the enemy would send one of theirs. Whoever won the battle, won the nations' conflict. Larger conflicts required more battles. It was easy; it was fair. It was far safer than before. That’s what they said.

Then the 'war' with China started, and all those nice, neat plans went down in flames.

~~~

Form
Name:
Age:
Gender:
Original appearance: (what you looked like as a human before any transformations)
Animal parts: (at least one required)
Country:
Position:
Personality: (optional)
History: (optional again)
Other: (still optional lol)

~~~

General rule of thumb for order of changes (not exact or strict, do what you want; just guidelines)
Exterior->Interior

Exterior
Order: Ear-ear-tailbone-eye-eye-nose-individual teeth-tongue-other facial features-individual fingernails/toenails/fingers/toes/limbs-patches of skin

Interior
Info: There's a lot of internal organs and blood and bones and muscles and stuff inside people. Some may change as a byproduct of an exterior change; otherwise, this begins when you are externally a total mishmash of random things. You probably won't live long after this begins if you keep transforming, for obvious reasons. Order: whatevs.

~~~

Name: Allison "Allie" Taylor
Age: 23
Gender: F
Original appearance: Long, tawny golden-brown hair; soft brown eyes
Animal parts: Goat eye, fly eye, horse ear, Komodo dragon ear, eagle tailfeathers, bear nose, anteater tongue, owl neck, shark gill, bat finger, falcon wing, rattlesnake (lack of) arm/scaly patch, whale fin, hornet leg (she uses a prosthetic limb), tiger leg; various teeth, various patches of fur/scales/chitin/feathers/skin/etc covering entire body
Country: Originally the U.S., now neutral
Position: General
Personality: ~
History: From the moment she signed up at 14, Allie was the star of the United States' Army. She was so effective and so often called on to fight, in fact, that by the time she was sixteen she wouldn't and couldn't fight anymore because of her great risks of death or injury. Unwilling to let her leave, they promoted her to General of the entire system. Since then, she has begrudgingly trained soldiers and recruits.
Other: ~

cqpkytty • 24 December 2013 at 7:09 PM

Pingehs:
@glazzie
@jemmie
@crumbledtower
@leafpoolz
@jupiter_hollow

jemmie • 24 December 2013 at 8:00 PM

@cqpkytty @purrclan Just in case you're on your main. 😊

Name: Kennedy
Age: 18 (As in like, her first day is her 18 birthday)
Gender: Female
Original appearance: (what you looked like as a human before any transformations) Long, silky black hair that reached her lower back. Well, silky when she actually bothered to brush it. Fair-tan, yellow undertoned skin, and piercing (in a good way) emerald/jade eyes. They, however turned more hazel when annoyed or angry.
Animal parts: (at least one required) Kennedy enjoys her...human life. She's seen others around her since she was a baby, and has only received two animal parts: Fangs and swan wings. (Sorry, didn't understand the order part.)
Country: Lived in U.S. until age 10, then moved to China for 8 years, before coming back to study in the U.S. She didn't know what would be coming for her. Now neutral.
Position: ? Um, soldier?
Personality: (optional) You'll find out.
History: (optional again) As her first year in the army, Kennedy has no experience. However, she has taken karate for a year at age 8, and enjoys kicking and biting more than punching.
Other: (still optional lol) Fluent in both Chinese and English.

cqpkytty • 24 December 2013 at 9:08 PM

@jemmie
1) Too lazy to switch over. 😋
2) Normally, there's a certain order to what parts remain changed before other parts do. However, it rarely follows that exact pattern, and sometimes strays wildly off it, so you're good, don't worry.
3) About having two swan wings...
a. Wings on a bird are arms on a human, so in this case she wouldn't have arms anymore. (And the wings would come from the shoulder, not the back.)
b. Only one arm/wing would change at a time, but then again there might be multiple species of swan so that's OK.
4) How many teeth are fangs? What animals are they from?
5) Country means what country you're fighting for. You can't really be a 'neutral' soldier...
6) (Allie is neutral because she's in charge of the whole facility. She doesn't work for any country in particular.)
7) Accepted 😊

jemmie • 24 December 2013 at 9:15 PM

@cqpkytty
Dangit. xD

1.) One of them is a black swan. I think they are gorgeous!
2.) Bat fangs, I got interested in fantasy creatures (wizards, vampire, werewolves, etc) for a while. Oh, and 2 on top.
3.) Ah, I see. Hm...U.S. I guess. (Hey, that rhymed!) Despite the fact that she's Chinese, America is where she was born, and will always stay a big part in her life.
4.) Thank god.
5.) Should I add these in?

cqpkytty • 24 December 2013 at 10:04 PM

@jemmie
1) ❤️
2) How many, though? (aka how many kinds of bats has she turned into?)
3) KK
4) 😋
5) Sure.
😋😸😋

jupiter_hollow • 25 December 2013 at 6:05 AM

@cqpkytty @purrclan
Can I make my character kind of a non-shapeshifter? In short -- he'd lack any visible animal qualities. I'll make up some story to cover that up, but he won't have the advantage of claws or fangs on his side. He'd compensate, however.
He has claw-like weapons strapped to his arms. He could've had his claws ripped out during war and made a metal pair to replace them in order to stay in the troops? I'm thinking up excuses to make him more human. xD
He's older (25), experienced in warfare, practically a genious, although he rarely uses it to others' benefit, and is a star aviator. =P
He wouldn't shapeshift at all since his animals form, albeit being larger and stronger, lacks claws and has a weaker mind. And just the fact that his pivotal advantage in that form (claws) is gone, is enough to make him abscond from even thinking about shapeshifting again.

So... idk, he's complicated. xD

jemmie • 25 December 2013 at 8:04 AM

@cqpkytty

One?


Name: Kennedy
Age: 18 (As in like, her first day is her 18 birthday)
Gender: Female
Original appearance: (what you looked like as a human before any transformations) Long, silky black hair that reached her lower back. Well, silky when she actually bothered to brush it. Fair-tan, yellow undertoned skin, and piercing (in a good way) emerald/jade eyes. They, however turned more hazel when annoyed or angry.
Animal parts: (at least one required) Kennedy enjoys her...human life. She's seen others around her since she was a baby, and has only turned into three animals: A bat and got 2 fangs on her upper teeth, and swan wings - one from a normal swan, one from a black swan.
Country: Lived in U.S. until age 10, then moved to China for 8 years, before coming back to study in the U.S. She didn't know what would be coming for her. Fighting for the United States.
Position: ? Um, soldier?
Personality: (optional) You'll find out.
History: (optional again) As her first year in the army, Kennedy has no experience. However, she has taken karate for a year at age 8, and enjoys kicking and biting more than punching.
Other: (still optional lol) Fluent in both Chinese and English.

Better?

cqpkytty • 25 December 2013 at 10:38 PM

@jupiter_hollow
Um...
You can shapeshift into any animal at all, not just one. Quite the opposite - if you've turned into something before, you can't turn into it again.
And you aren't fighting as a human.
And if you have an injury or something when human, that doesn't transfer to animal form.
Suggestion: If you want him to be human, he doesn't *have* to be a soldier. (Sorry for not clarifying that in my first post.) There are lots of non-combat roles in the military, even this version. 😋
He could be a trainer or something...
IDK.

@jemmie
I was saying the black/white swan wings were cute. 😋
And yes, that's good 😊

jupiter_hollow • 26 December 2013 at 7:00 AM

@cqpkytty
Well that all sucks for me... No offense. xD
Yeah, that's the problem. I want him to be a human and fighting in the troops. He can be an aviator, it's not a role shapeshifters can play, right? ^^ And yes, I suppose he can be a trainer, but then he'd have no access to the actual military movement, which is what I was aiming towards.
Also ah... is it obligatory to fight as animals? Because while I can see the resolve, all weapons (which are major advantages, let me tell ya) would probably be more efficient. I was kind of imagining a war between humans, who sometimes shapesihft as animals and sometimes they don't. Kind of like a momentary thing. The person aims to pounce on ya and you turn into a tiger, duck low, then jump and scratch their face off...
I don't know. I guess the preparation before battle would be fairly fun. ^^ But Sean won't participate in battle if it's obligatory to shapeshift.

cqpkytty • 26 December 2013 at 2:00 PM

@jupiter_hollow
There aren't aviators. Not anymore. 😋
Weapons would certainly be more efficient, but if you follow that to its logical conclusion you're right back where you started. After all, this started as an attempt to *end* the sort of wars that use superdeadly weapons and kill thousands or even millions.
It's not technically obligatory to shapeshift for battle, but it certainly makes it a lot more fair. Bear vs. tiger is more fair than human vs. tiger.
😋

jupiter_hollow • 26 December 2013 at 2:38 PM

@cqpkytty
All in all, it turned out that the roleplay is not my cup of tea. xD Sorry for the trouble. ^^

Bye =)

purrclan • 26 December 2013 at 2:50 PM

@jupiter_hollow
Aww ☹️
OK.

jazzyleia • 26 December 2013 at 9:41 PM

@purrclan
Name: Jasmine Jordan Smutny

Age: 18 years old

Gender: female

Original appearance: blond hair with blue eyes, hair went down to about the middle of her back, about 5 foot 6

Animal parts: has tiger tail and ears along with claws but she learned she could control them like a cat can

Country: USA, Nebraska

Position: solider, but wants to be more

Personality: takes orders and trys to go above and beyond, cares for all in her unit

History: might make some as i go, maybe not

Other: none

purrclan • 26 December 2013 at 9:55 PM

@jazzyleia
Accepted 😊