Private/Closed Cloaked in Myth

[Rex]

This is a private RP. The people in it know who they are.

Another Digimon RP from the old people crew. In a world not unlike our own, a new VR technology has swept the world. Known as HOMEROS, it allows people all over the world to come together, and with hundreds of servers dedicated to everything under the sun, there is something for everyone here. HOMEROS is overseen by twelve Administrative AIs, the Dii Consentes: APOLLO, BACCHUS, CERES, DIANA, JUNO, JUPITER, MARS, MERCURY, MINERVA, NEPTUNE, VENUS, and VULCAN. With these AIs watching over the day-to-day functions of HOMEROS, all seemed well.

Such was the case until VENUS went down. A hole appeared in the security, and through that hole a Trojan horse entered HOMEROS. A set of users - the protagonists, naturally - executed this mysterious new program, and the Malware infected their systems, and from them spread to all of HOMEROS. To most users, it appeared as if the VR system was targeted by a particularly nasty DDoS attack. Their connections were all severed, and HOMEROS would no longer respond to them. For those unfortunate few who executed the program, they found themselves unable to log out.

The Malware proved to be something of a mixed bag, however. Trapped though they were, all was not lost, for they began to perceive HOMEROS as it really was: a direct connection to another world. A Digital World. The Trojan was not the only thing to enter the system through the hole left by VENUS's failure, an untold number of Digimon flooded into the system, each their own unique creature with its own thoughts, hopes, and desires. And it's a good thing too, because those Administrative "AIs?" Those are Digimon too, and they're quite cross with our heroes for wrecking their perfect world.

But who sent the malware to begin with? Who dares challenge the Olympos XII? Who is using our heroes as pawns in their larger game? Of course, the answer is obvious. For when you have gods, you must also have demons. Our heroes must take this gift, the ability to meet, bond, and form partnerships with Digimon, and try not to look this horse in the mouth. For the Seven Great Demon Lords are always watching.

---

This plot synopsis is still heavily WIP so don't feel like you're forced into accepting it. Further discussion can happen here and in the usual place. But the current general idea is this: Stuck between the Olympos XII and the Seven Great Demon Lords, our heroes must take a third option. Defeat both parties, save HOMEROS, and restore their ability to exit this new Digital World. And maybe figure out how to do it all without having to say goodbye to their new Digimon friends at the end of it, too!

 

[Mr.RMA]

Alrighty, so, to reaffirm a couple things discussed earlier, and please, correct me if I'm wrong about any of this, it seems like we're in agreement that Digivices are likely all going to have the same function, generally as a sort of menu-navigation within the virtual/digital world, and therefore they aren't any concrete, physical device. They're just a sort of virtual construct for each of our characters, so each one could look distinctively different, since they'd be installed to our avatars.

Another thing seems to be that we don't really have one major antagonist. The villains seem to be more an ensemble, with none of them really standing out primarily... though I'd assume those considered the strongest of their particular sides might have a bit more prominence, so, for example, Lucemon Chaos Mode might have a little more distinction among the Demon Lords, perhaps?

All that being said, I'm gonna just go ahead and put down what I've got for a character bio. Depending on how certain details go I might change or add some things, but, with what we've got so far, this is what I've got in mind for my characters:

Name: Rupert Alinejad
Gender: Male
Hometown: Currently resides in a small rural town in Ibaraki, Japan
Age: 24
Height: 6’2”
Hair: Dark brown, crew cut
Eye Color: Hazel
Clothing: A suit consisting of a grey jacket and slacks, a white button-down shirt with a white t-shirt underneath, a red tie, and black business shoes.
Identifying Marks: A faint scar on his left eyebrow that makes it look perpetually unkempt.
Musculature: Though he’s heavyset, he’s still fairly physically capable, so, he’s not necessarily flabby.

Personality & Bio: A perennial yes-man, Rupert greatly fears getting on the bad-side of... just about anyone, but especially his higher-ups. As a particularly introverted sort who just wants to go in, get his job done, and get back to the comforting solitude of home, the idea of making waves is terrifying to him. That's not to say he doesn't care about his work performance, and as a teacher, the assurance he's effectively educating his students is a top priority, but he's far more likely to do what it takes to keep his job, rather than actually progress any further with it. This applies outside of the workplace as well. Rupert greatly dislikes confrontations and will generally stay as silent as possible to avoid saying something that might embarrass or offend, no matter how unlikely he is to do either. Prioritizing fewer enemies over more friends, just par for the course.
However, despite this diffident demeanor being his more predominant sort of personality, Rupert has his more energetic moments. Whilst teaching, he becomes far more active and lively, harkening back to his teenage years in theater, clearly able to put up a performance of a more dynamic persona, and this occasionally shows up elsewhere as well, whenever his timidity doesn't take charge, generally in more leisurely activities.

From as far back as he could remember, Rupert had been the shy type. First impressions would always leave him an anxious wreck, and though he steadily got better at hiding this, it never entirely went away. That fear that he'd come across as some incompetent moron at best, and a complete jerkass at worst, kept him shelled up to most people. Even his closest friends, who did nonetheless see a more outgoing side of him, rarely heard him state a strong opinion for fear of it being something that they'd disagree with to such an extent that they wouldn't want to see him again.
Confrontation, disappointment, punishment, hatred, these were the things he feared about as much as death itself. No matter how many years passed, no matter what activities he partook in, sports he played, or jobs he had, Rupert's self-confidence seemed to never improve. He'd always be too afraid of failure... apart from one exception. Theatre always seemed to be the one place where that fear seemed to temporarily vanish. Being on stage in front of an entire crowd of onlookers was something he took to like a fish to water. It all seemed to revolve around the fact that everything was scripted out. His lines, his blocking, his musical numbers, all of that was already done by other people. All he had to do was learn it and put it to practice. It was pretty much the philosophy of his whole life - All he had to do was what he was instructed. It was always so much easier to just do as he was told. It got him approval from people with authority, and it essentially became his default method of behavior, even as he reached adulthood.
Play it safe. Don't make waves. Be the nice guy. Sure, as he grew up, he liked to think he had the capacity to think for himself and that he was independent-minded... but deep down he knew he would always fall back to being a sycophantic subordinate to whoever directed him. It was really the only way he could perceive any kind of longstanding success.
Though he enjoyed theatre, Rupert never attempted to make a living off of it. Perhaps in the end even his passions couldn't escape that fear of failure, but it wasn't the only thing of interest to him. He enjoyed a number of things some would likely perceive as on the geekier side: science fiction movies and tv shows, video games, plenty of animation, and of course, much of these things came from outside of his home country... and a great deal of that came specifically from Japan. In wanting to learn more about the country beyond simply consuming the products they exported to western markets, he gained an increased interest in seeing Japan for himself, and the day came when he got that very opportunity by landing a job... as an English teacher.
Suddenly he was experiencing that rare position of being the authority... and as one might expect, it scared him half to death. Still, he'd already taken this leap, and he couldn't back away, so he simply did what he did best... He took what his employers instructed him to present, and he put it into practice, just like his prior theatrical performances, and really, that's how he decided to view it, as a performance. If he could entertain the students while teaching them, surely that would prove to not only assuage his own fears, but more importantly, motivate his classes to learn more. For the most part it worked, even as he was brought in to teach high school students, something he had not expected, as most in his company tended to be sent to the younger grades. That being said there were... troublesome kids, and with his non-confrontational mentality, it made it all the more difficult for Rupert to actually make the right attempts at reaching out to them, and it was even worse when some students were perceived as lost causes by the rest of the teachers. Still, he tried to press forward and do what he could with what he was given, and though work ended up consuming a great deal of his time, he also got a chance to explore his new country of residence while he was at it, and it was around this point of time when he first recalled learning about a certain sensational Virtual Reality system...


Skills: He’s a decent actor, and not very likely to cave under the pressure of addressing large groups of people. His time as a teacher has also helped him from an authoritative standpoint, as he’s not unwilling to take charge of a situation if required, and can generally think up ideas fairly well on the fly... but by and large he prefers having directions to follow.

Family: Mother – Lila; Father – Robin; Sister – Aurora

Digivice: In HOMEROS, Rupert’s digivice takes the form of a matte black smartphone. Engraved on the back of the phone in bright red lettering is the DigiCode translation for Digital Monster.

Digimon: Impmon -> Wizardmon -> Baalmon -> Beelzemon

Digimon Bio: Order, law, control, complacency… HOMEROS was the biggest deception imaginable, at least, as far as the Demon Lord of Gluttonly, Beelzemon, believed it. People were so eager to bow down to those uppity Digimon that comprised the Olympos XII, so unwilling to think for themselves, turning to blind idolizing and worship. They were being conned, controlled like little puppets, dancing to their masters… it was enough to make him sick, and the other Demon Lords seemed to be in agreement, or so he figured…

Frankly this was the first time Beelzemon would have any reason to care about what the other Demon Lords thought. Though he was a part of their little collective, the big dogs with unchallenged nobility over the Dark Area (provided you ignore that whole business with Plutomon being in charge of course, which they were prone to do), he wasn't exactly "chummy" with any of his cohorts. From the blustering, obnoxious Daemon, pompous, snobbish Lucemon, conniving, manipulative Barbamon, lazy, lethargic Belphemon, brutish, mindless Leviamon, and uppity, sadistic Lilithmon, there was not a single one of the bunch that he didn't look at with some degree of contempt. They all had their little ambitions, but they weren't usually anything he gave the least bit of a damn about, so what was the point in pretending otherwise? Thus he would usually spend any obligatory gatherings just looking for a way to piss off that self-appointed leader Daemon... and he certainly did his fair share of that this time, but once he found out a plan to mess with those twelve godly stiffs was in the works? Well, he was a little more willing to pay attention for a bit...

A virus was crafted, a form of malware that would exploit a weakness in HOMEROS, create a breach, send the whole system into a mass of chaos, ripe for a hostile takeover. Beelzemon figured it would be a glorious revelation… but things would soon go awry for him. The malware scheme worked, yes; a bunch of human patsies had triggered it, that went according to plan… but his part of the scheme came at a steep price…

In order to create the vulnerability for the malware to take effect, one of the Olympos XII had to be, quite literally, thrown off their pedestal. He’d been tasked with eliminating the Goddess of Compassion and Love, Venusmon, but as one would guess, this was no small feat to achieve. The ensuing fight was so evenly matched that the two ended up taking each other down simultaneously by the time the conflict reached its conclusion.

He couldn’t clearly recall much after death overtook him, beyond the sight of a certain humanoid canine with golden wings and oversized bracelets. All he knew was, when he surprisingly awoke once more, he had reverted to an Impmon, a form he hadn’t taken in what felt like ages. To make matters worse, he wasn’t going to be able to just wait things out and have his essence return… no, that was all stowed away, in a nefarious gate to the underworld in which each of the Seven Demon Lords’ essences were bound.

In this state of unexpected vulnerability, Impmon has been left to realize that, whatever his intentions had been in helping to stage this attack, things had gone well out of hand… and yet the other Demon Lords didn’t seem to care one iota of his condition. Suddenly he had no side to call his own… The Olympos XII were still corrupt autocrats in his eyes, and his own kind, who he'd hardly liked in the first place, essentially stabbed him in the back… Who else did that leave? Only one option remained… the hapless humans who had been deceived, now trapped in HOMEROS like a digital prison. The only redemption he could fathom undergoing lied in their fates, and he thus made a swift beeline in the direction of the nearest human in the vicinity.

Impmon is a bit of an unstable personality. He has plentiful experience as a Beelzemon, and therefore, as a rookie level, he feels like an adult trapped in a child’s body. He prefers to take the path of an opportunist, but instinctively he has a desire to be a trickster, which he consciously tries to resist acting upon. Ultimately this leaves him with a very short fuse, prone to outbursts, insults, and violent confrontations, but, all the same he is well-meaning, or at least, that is what he seems to want to believe.

 

[Rex]

Since I'm better able to organize my thoughts today, I want to put down some of my thoughts and some of what I've synthesized from what we've discussed in the Discord. RMA is correct that the intention for this is supposed to be an ensemble cast of villains, all of whom are important to the story. However, some are indeed going to be more important than others. So it's presently open season on Gods and Demons, pick your faves and work them into your plots. I trust that we're all adult enough to be able to hash out agreements if multiple people have their eyes set on the same character.

To recap what we know so far:
Lucemon: The mon behind the mon, the real power behind Daemon. Lucemon is the final original villain to fall, as the protagonists pierce the illusions of Lucemon Shadowlord Mode and kill the Lucemon Larva. His death opens the gate and unleashes Ogudomon, who serves as the True Final Boss. Potentially has a particularly fierce rivalry with Apollomon, who shares his Sun symbolism.
Leviamon: Potentially has a particularly fierce rivalry with Merukimon, who shares its Mercury symbolism.
Daemon: The "leader" of the Seven Great Demon Lords. Has a particularly fierce rivalry with Jupitermon, who not only leads the opposing faction but also shares his Jupiter symbolism.
Belphemon: Potentially has a particularly fierce rivalry with Marsmon, who shares his Mars symbolism.
Barbamon: The great corrupter, should we add Angels into the mix in the form of Seraphimon, Cherubimon, and Ophanimon, Barbamon might be the one to cause them all to fall into ShadowSeraphimon, Cherubimon Evil, and Ophanimon Falldown Mode.
Beelzemon: RMA's partner Digimon. Mutual killed with Venusmon in their fight shortly before the beginning of the RP, Anubismon sensed the goodness in his heart and allowed him to revive. Has a particular rivalry with Venusmon, who not only killed him but share his Venus symbolism.
Lilithmon: An expert corrupter in her own right, Stel has a plan to use Lilithmon in a plot to achieve the first Biomerge, and thus start the party on the road to Mega Evolutions. And also cause the rest of us to fight Arcadiamon, it's going to be wild. She might also have a particular rivalry with Dianamon, who shares her Moon symbolism.
---
Apollomon: Possibly has a particularly fierce rivalry with Lucemon, who shares his Sun symbolism.
Bacchusmon: Nothing.
Ceresmon: Reaching Ceresmon may require a trip to find both ElDoradimon and KingWhamon, both of whom have some piece of the puzzle pointing out Ceresmon's location.
Dianamon: Might have a particularly fierce rivalry with Lilithmon, who shares her Moon symbolism.
Junomon: Nothing.
Jupitermon: Leader of the Olypmos XII. Plutomon hates his guts. Also has a fierce rivalry with Daemon, who leads the Demon Lords and shares his Jupiter symbolism.
Marsmon: Might have a particularly fierce rivalry with Belphemon, who shares his Mars symbolism.
Merukimon: Might have a particularly fierce rivalry with Leviamon, who shares his Mercury symbolism.
Minervamon: Nothing.
Neptunemon: Nothing.
Venusmon: Kitty's partner Digimon. Mutual killed with Beelzemon in their fight shortly before the beginning of the RP, Anubismon sensed the goodness in her heart and allowed her to revive. Has a particular rivalry with Beelzemon, who not only killed him but shares her Venus symbolism.
Vulcanusmon: Nothing.
---
Plutomon: Fucking hates Jupitermon, man. Rules the Dark Area. Probably discovered the gate Ogudomon is stuck behind. Might secretly be behind something, or everything, or nothing.
Anubismon: Surprise cameo at the start of the RP, he judges Beelzemon and Venusmon as being worthy of rebirth, thus preventing them from being trapped as deleted data in the Dark Area.

 

[Rex]

Updating the thread with some early morning information that was planned out, and a few miscellaneous updates.

With @StellarWind Elsydeon's Santalamon coming out of the conceptual stages, we've been able to plot out further how it relates to the Gods and Demons on offer. Specifically, Santalamon is a creation of Ceresmon, who developed her from a Floramon base. Being a Rookie Digimon modified with Arcadiamon data, the goal of Santalamon was to be a panic button of sorts, an easily controllable reset that could set things back to the way they were supposed to be. It just so happened that that reset would come at the cost of the lives of everything human or Digimon left in HOMEROS aside from the Olympos XII themselves. However, before Santalamon could be finished and deployed, it was sprung from its cage by Plutomon. Plutomon will become something of a benefactor for the party - for as long as their goals of taking down the Demons and dealing with Jupitermon and the remaining Olympos XII align.

With Kitty having to drop out of the RP, Venusmon is returning to NPC control. Should she be able to rejoin the RP at a later date, the Digimon will be hers to control once again. If not, Venusmon will fall to the corrupting influence of Barbamon, and the pair will feature as obstacles on @Mr.RMA's Rupert and Impmon's path to Biomerging. And with Lilithmon and Ceresmon claimed by Stel, that leaves four demons - Lucemon, Daemon, Belphemon, and Leviamon - and ten gods - Jupitermon, Junomon, Merkurimon, Apollomon, Dianamon, Marsmon, Vulcanusmon, Minervamon, Neptunemon, and Bacchusmon - still available for claiming.

Should they remain unclaimed, the following ideas have been proposed for ways to make use of the remaining Digimon:
- Teaming up with CaptainHookmon and his pirate crew to hunt down Leviamon on the Net Ocean. This may also gain us the respect of Neptunemon, potentially flipping him to our side.
- Teaming up with Marsmon to take on Belphemon Rage Mode, possibly earning Marsmon's respect and flipping him to our side in the process.
- Apollomon and Dianamon doing the fusion dance and taking the party on in the form of GraceNovamon.
- While there's no specific idea involved, it's likely that Vulcanusmon and Bacchusmon could both fairly easily be won over to our sides as well. If Venusmon remains an NPC, she might also be able to be saved from Barbamon, rather than destroyed. Her status would likely greatly inform the feelings of Vulcanusmon and Marsmon towards the party.

Will also take this time to reconfirm the remaining players and their partner Digimon:
@Rex: Kudamon > Reppamon > Cyberdramon > Examon
@StellarWind Elsydeon: Santalamon > ??? (Original Line)
@Mr.RMA: Impmon > Wizardmon > Baalmon > Beelzemon
@Psycho Monkey: Gotsumon > Icemon > Meteormon > BanchoGolemon
@Tailon: Flamemon > Agnimon > Vritramon > KaiserGreymon
@Chadwyck: Ghostmon > Witchmon > LadyDevimon > Mastemon

If anything about these are incorrect, let me know in the usual place.

 

[Chadwyck]

Name: Cerridwen (Cerri) Frost
Gender: Female
Hometown: Bend, Oregon - currently resides in Portland
Age: 22
Height: 5'8"
Hair: Blonde (Black in HOMEROS)
Eye Color: Green (Violet in HOMEROS)
Clothing: A black half-tee, off the shoulder with 3/4 length sleeves that says “Inner Daemons” in neon green, over a black tank top, over a neon green fishnet long sleeve. Torn black denim “shorts” over neon pink fishnet leggings. One neon green Doc Marten boot on her left foot and one neon pink Doc Marten boot on her right. A silver choker with a jack-o-lantern pendant. Four silver stud piercings in her left ear, three in her right, connecting to an eyebrow piercing via a chain from her top most right ear piercing.
Identifying Marks: None
Musculature: Healthy, physically fit, though not muscular or toned.

Personality: Cerri is the epitome of a good kid, she is an only child and was her parents' pride and joy. With such high expectation placed on her, she never partook in any parties or other things that kids her age were getting into. It made her a pariah from her peers - the "goody goody" who never wanted to have any fun. She found solace in computers. Her mother was a software engineer for a company in Portland, it was the reason they had moved there in the first place, and Cerri would ask her to teach her anything and everything that her mother could. When she got to highschool, her parents got her a computer of her own to her heart's content. She knew what a big role computers played in the day-to-day life of everyone worldwide, and knew it would be a good investment for her future to learn software coding. Even when she began to think of herself as a skilled "hacker," she still couldn't bring herself to use those skills selfishly, afraid of the repercussions or her parents' disapproval. Afraid of facing backlash for any sort of prank or outburst she could think to commit with her newfound skills. So she suffered her loneliness in silence, going home from school every day and working on her coding. On her and her mother's daily runs, they would discuss her various projects, and she would give her feedback. It was the happiest time of her life, and did wonders for her confidence in her abilities when her mother would praise her work.

After high school, she got a job as a "white hat" hacker for the same company that employed her mother. She was essentially testing her mother's programs against her ability to hack them, seeing if there was anything she could exploit in the code, or access confidential information through holes in the security. She was good at it, but she still felt the stigma of being that straight-laced girl that the "popular" kids always bullied for being too good. When HOMEROS launched, Cerri saw it as an opportunity to escape the mundane; a chance to reinvent herself in a world where no one would knew who she was or what sort of reputation she had. She logged in and got to work changing her outward appearance, still taking care to abide by the ToS set forth for HOMEROS, she wouldn't change her physicality, or alter her appearance to look like "someone else", but she changed her hair, her eyes, her clothes. But most importantly, she changed her personality to match her new appearance. Here, in this world, she wasn't the goody two-shoes who would turn her nose up at the thought of breaking a few rules or partying a bit too hard. Here she could be whoever she wanted to be. So she used her skills to fall in with some hackers, eventually earning their respect with her ability, and gaining a bit of a following in some circles of HOMEROS. Secretly, she would take the techniques she learned from her "fellow" hackers and apply it to her job, learning new techniques to test the defenses she was paid to try and penetrate. For once in her life, she felt like she had friends, and while she felt the occasional pang of guilt over lying to them about her true identity, and her true intentions, she was having far too much fun to care.

Skills: She is a skilled hacker, good with general knowledge about the digital space of HOMEROS from her exploits into it's code with her fellow hackers.

Family: Mother – Brenyn; Father – Hunter

Digivice: In HOMEROS, Cerridwen's Digivice takes the form of a smartwatch with a metal studded band on her left arm.

Digimon: Ghostmon > Witchmon > LadyDevimon > Mastemon

Digimon Bio: Ghostmon often visits the graveyards of the digital world, where old data had been thrown away. She visits these areas looking for someone who might need help - though shy and timid, Ghostmon has a good heart that lends to the Digimon helping those in distress, albeit invisibly most of the time to avoid being noticed. Because of this, she has been a subject of rumor and speculation, resulting in fear. Wrongly being attributed the role of a bad omen, most want to avoid crossing Ghostmon's path, leading the Digimon to deal with loneliness as she continues to wander the digital world, looking for someone to help. After the events of the malware attack and her subsequent arrival in HOMEROS, Ghostmon saw someone that looked like they needed help and rushed to their aid.

Ghostmon is timid, preferring to be an unseen assistant to those in need. The Digimon's loneliness presents itself in her eagerness to please whoever is nearby, hoping that perhaps there will be someone who looks past the "spookiness" of her form and perhaps form an actual friendship with someone.

 

[StellarWind Elsydeon]

Name: Colin Hawthorne
Gender: Male
Hometown: Vancouver, Canada
Age: 25
Height: 1.75m
Hair: Dark brown, medium-length.
Eye Color: Amber naturally (in HOMEROS, he sometimes changes his eye colour to fit his mood and/or as part of his character costume).
Clothing: His favourite outfit involves dark blue jeans, a light, long-sleeved knit shirt with a full monochrome misty forest print worn over a dark green T-shirt, a dark green headband of the same shade as said t-shirt, dark grey hiking boots and a clear teardrop-shaped pendant containing an embedded "hologram" object that can be set to different appearances by loading model data into it. He normally uses it to project designs of his own creation, sometimes with a small animation.

Identifying Marks: None.

Musculature: He's not particularly active but not quite a potato either. Just kinda average.

Personality and History: If you asked him about it, he'd probably say something to the line of "Yeah, I've got one of those... in a jar somewhere... seriously, where the spheres did I put the blasted thing, it'd be an absolute nightmare if it got away and tried to assimilate the furniture again" or "I exist. Everything else is negotiable". Struggling with social anxiety and different interests than those of his peers since a young age, Colin never quite found his social niche until he discovered the Internet, where he found it much easier to communicate and let his true creative and humorous self shine out and discuss common interests, no matter how niche-seeming, with like-minded folks. Over the years he has forged some very close friendships over the web, often with people located continents away. Though he absolutely had his reservations about the sort of technology HOMEROS entailed when it first rose to prominence ("Haven't they seen enough bad anime to know where this is going?") - as it took the world by storm, the ability to hang out with his closest friends in person (or close enough to it anyway) eventually convinced him to try it out - and it wasn't long at all before he came to view the system as, if one may pardon the pun at the expense of its enigmatic administrators, as a complete godsend. HOMEROS not only became a place for him to spend his free time in, but also a source of livelihood. Having familiarized himself with the structure of models and textures in this virtual world, as well as some rudimentary aspects of its behaviour (mostly handled through event-scripting and a large library of pre-approved presets within the modelling software he came to use), he found himself working as a freelance virtual sculptor, handling the visual side of new item models (which is honestly the part he actually enjoyed) while his clients and collaborators handled the more technical and bureaucratic aspects of complex interaction code (as he never seemed to be able to wrap his mind properly around the deeper aspects of code, a thing he finds occasionally vexing) and administrative approval submissions (which could range from "a surface nuisance" to "they really should have named it SISYPHUS instead").

HOMEROS' virtual world aspects added some new dimensions to the activities he was already involved in with his friends in the before time - their tabletop RPG campaigns receiving an additional dimension of immersion through character costumes (the inability to deviate too far from their real appearances beyond the degree of "very good cosplay" often being a subject of much snark within the group - who understood why the measure was necessary, but that did not make the "It's a virtual world, just let me be a Dragonborn or something you COWARDS." feelings any less strong) and the Odyssey Engine, a software package that allowed visualization of some game abstractions, stat tracking and the like that only extended to a particular game being played, without having any effect on the rest of the world - another thing he found himself creating models for on occasion, sharing creations with his friends and other groups.
So it was that Colin found himself spending more time online than not - barring occasional "bio breaks" to maintain his actual real life body in working order and decent health ("Y'know, pesky stuff like sleep, food, personal hygiene... I really should dust myself off more often."). Life seemed good - but somewhere deep beneath the surface, buried under the feelings of "everything is working out so why change anything" inertia, a dark undercurrent started to bubble - a feeling that something he couldn't quite place was missing from his life coupled with his baseline anxiety about new situations and new people (which never quite resolved itself). As it turns out, life was about to throw him into a whole lot of that, and in a way he never imagined possible...

Skills: Aside from the sculptwork mentioned above, he dabbles in numerous other artistic endeavours including writing and playing an instrument or two.

Family: Only child of two parents with whom he has a good relationship, but they aren't particularly relevant to this story.

Digivice: Within HOMEROS, Colin's "digivice" (if one can call it that) takes the form of a pair of fingerless gloves with elaborate technological designs woven into their surface - but that's the surface end of it. When 'activated', the things sprout a holographic interface operated through a combination of touch controls and hand gestures, including additional "free-floating" screens and visualized navigation controls and tools within a limited radius around him - all of which only he can interact with. This particular choice, as opposed to the more standard smart-device models, is less so because he enjoys looking like a godsdamned wizard while checking his email or something this mundane and more for practical consideration of the device in question also holding his art software and it's simply FAR easier to work with approximations of clay, shaping/painting tools and his actual hands. When he loses himself in his work he can sometimes have a veritable solar system of smaller screens and tools quietly orbiting him - but for more standard applications he tends to invoke smaller, more discreet screens and keypads.

Digimon: Santalamon

Digimon Bio: In times immemorial, long before HOMEROS, there was Arkadimon.
It is unknown how Arkadimon came to be or where it came from - a different digital world altogether, if the more outlandish legends are to be believed - but the threat it represented to the digital world was indisputable. Arkadimon was said to have the potential to transcend all limits, and an overriding directive to do just that - by consuming other digital life-forms while rapidly reconfiguring itself to assimilate its prey's most powerful traits. It is said that it sought those driven by unfortunate circumstances to long for the way things "once were", before everything "went wrong", dreamers of utopian existence free of pain and strife, and offered them the power to make their dreams come true - bewitching and enthralling them until they were no longer of any use for its continued evolution, at which point it would turn on them and consume them as well.
When it became clear that if the being was left to its own devices, it would indeed return the world to how it once was - a primordial state of one and zero, a singularity within an empty void - the Olympos XII were stirred to action, and through concentrated efforts managed to subdue Arkadimon and regress its code into a seemingly-harmless, inert state. Debating what to do with the being, the XII eventually resolved to seal the code rather than delete it outright in order to use its power for their own benefit once they found a way to safely harness it - as examination of the code suggested that it would lend itself quite readily to integration with the code of other Digimon, perhaps endowing them with the same potential for transcendence its source carried. Unbeknownst to the XII, the being's insidious influence has subtly taken hold in the minds of those of them more receptive to its brand of whispers - and it had plans.

Some time after the creation of HOMEROS, a faction within the Olympos XII grew concerned that through the presence of human users and their software, their perfect little corner of cyberspace may change beyond even their ability to control. Certainly, the mortals posed no threat now, but already there was evidence of those among them who were putting together unauthorized software that may become a nuisance if allowed to develop - and they were getting better at evading detection and summary judgment. Seeking a way by which to implement a controllable "panic button" that would reset HOMEROS to its initial state, wiping the slate clean of any unauthorized changes, this group initialized Project Libera - a clandestine digital engineering project meant to use Arkadimon's rapidly-rewriting data as a vector for a backup image of HOMEROS' pristine, initial world-state. Should this become necessary, Libera was to be unleashed spread out and consume all around it, breaking down all but the XII themselves into basic data and using this data to fuel the rebirth of HOMEROS within itself - adding yet another wall of security for the Gods' walled garden.

Aware of Arkadimon's natural tendencies, however, and wishing to curb any potential for mischief, this faction decided that the core of any such creation must be the code of a Digimon already pre-disposed to tending and nurturing - a caretaker that would see the reborn HOMEROS nurtured rather than annihilated - but one that would not shy away from the manner of destruction that would be required to do so. Ceresmon, a prominent voice in this faction, contributed a copy of part of her very her own code for this purpose as these two traits were deeply in her nature. To ensure perfect integration of the code, the prototypical Libera was seeded as a Digi-Egg phase in a secure facility hidden somewhere within HOMEROS and was to be permitted to develop along a complete Digimon life-cycle until it was complete, to be kept contained and dormant until such time.

And so it may have been, had Plutomon not caught wind of the plan by means of his own, and saw fit to intervene. Using a back door of some fashion, Plutomon dispatched a subordinate, Velgrmon, into HOMEROS. Taking advantage of a shift in the Libera facility's operations, the Giant Bird Digimon raided the facility and made off with the growth pod which housed the genome Digimon (still dormant in an In-Training phase). Security drones were, of course, dispatched to pursue the intruder - and while Velgrmon managed to fight off the first wave, it was clearly only a matter of time before a second wave of far more powerful drones would be deployed to follow. Taking advantage of the lull between waves, Velgrmon concealed the pod somewhere, then flew off, leading the second wave of pursuing drones on a merry wild goose chase.

Then something happened that was not planned. In the absence of the systems regulating the pod and its contents, Libera has awakened, long before it was meant to, digivolving into a Rookie-level and bursting free.

Whatever Libera's creators expected their creation to become, this probably wasn't it - A disoriented mutant Digimon prone to wild and asymmetric growth and entirely unaware of her identity, nature or purpose. A chance encounter with a human - a victim of unexpected circumstances himself, and just as confused about how he ended up in this sort of situation as she was - kindled an unexpected partnership. Taking on the name of her own choosing - "Santalamon" - she took her first unsteady steps into a new world, as the two decided to find their answers together.

 

[Psycho Monkey]

Name: Ishiyama “Ishi-no-Ken” Kenji
Gender: Male
Hometown: Ibaraki, Japan
Age: 18
Height: 178cm
Hair: Bleached Blonde
Eye Color: Brown

Clothing: Ishiyama’s school uniform consists of black slacks and a black blazer but that is as far as he goes in properly wearing it. He wears his blazer open showing a red T-shirt underneath with the English words “FUCK YOU” written in yellow emblazoned on it. To get around the censors in HOMEROS, the shirt instead reads “FAQ” (pronounced as fa-kyu). In case his arms are otherwise occupied, Ishiyama also wears heavy steel-toed boots to make his kicks hurt that much more. He carries a pair of brass knuckles in his pocket to serve as a threat but so far hasn’t needed to use them.

Identifying Marks: Ishiyama has piercings in both ears and in his left eyebrow. In his ears he wears silver studs and in his eyebrow a short bar. After high school he plans on getting a tattoo but doesn’t yet know of what or where he would put it.

Musculature: In the world of delinquents, it’s survival of the fittest. The only way to earn any respect and not become someone else’s lapdog is to be the toughest strongest guy on the block. As such, Ishiyama regularly hits the gym to maintain a buff physique so that others know he isn’t one to be trifled with. His nickname, Ishi-no-Ken, or Stone Fist, was earned by how his punches feel like getting smacked in the face with a large heavy rock.

Personality: Despite his rough and intimidating demeanor, Ishiyama does have a soft side. Back in middle school, a close friend of his was getting bullied relentlessly and even though the other students and even the teachers knew about it no one lifted a finger to help. One day Ishiyama had enough of watching his friend suffer. He stepped in and beat the shit out of the bullies right there in the classroom. Of course this is when the teachers decided to step in. They broke up the fight and Ishiyama was given a one month suspension for starting it. The injustice was unreal! These people would turn a blind eye to months of hazing but as soon as someone decided to do something about it, they were the one reprimanded. What’s more, when Ishiyama returned to school all of his classmates, including the so-called “friend” he stood up for, treated him like a dangerous beast they had to stay away from. The teachers looked down on him as a lost cause; someone who only knew how to solve problems with violence. If Ishiyama just sat there and took the criticism, the abuse would escalate but the moment he tried to defend himself, he would just be “proving their point about him.” So be it. His respect for authority figures had already deteriorated and he no longer cared what his peers thought about him. If this was the role people wanted to assign him, he would play his part willingly. He’d cuss out anyone who so much as looked at him wrong and if they wanted a fight he’d give ‘em one. His punches soon became legendary earning him the nickname Ishi-no-Ken, or Stone Fist.

By high school, Stone Fist Ishiyama had built up a reputation as one not to be messed with if you liked how your face looked. If he told you to do something, you fucking listened. This of course didn’t stop other delinquents from trying to assert their dominance over him to bolster their own reputations but it didn’t always end well for them. In his own way, this was Ishiyama’s answer to bullying. People were too scared to harass others out of fear of the Stone Fist coming after them.

Skills: Fighting and fighting dirty. If it involves his fists, Ishiyama is good at it. He is also a surprisingly intelligent young man, he just no longer has a reason to apply himself in school due to feeling like doing so won’t get him anywhere in life. Plus what kind of delinquent cares about his grades anyway?

Family: Disappointed in the ruffian Kenji has become

Digivice: Has the appearance of an ordinary smartphone with its functions listed on the main menu as apps.

Digimon: Gotsumon-->Icemon-->Meteormon-->BanchoGolemon

Digimon Bio: A band of Rookie Digimon known as Da Bois had a bit of a reputation for being trouble makers. Five friends, Dracumon, Goblimon, Chuumon, Gazimon, and Gotsumon, travelled around their small corner of the Digital World partying it up and having fun by causing mischief where ever they went. It was mostly just harmless pranks and annoyances that only rarely resulted in injuries more severe than the recipient’s pride. One day a strange portal opened up and, feeling adventurous and thinking there could be something fun on the other side, Da Bois rushed through without hesitation. But things didn’t quite go as they expected. Whether it was portal instability or the stampede of other Digimon rushing the gate as well, Gotsumon got separated from the rest of Da Bois with no way of knowing where they ended up or if they even made it at all. The only thing Gotsumon knew was that he was now alone in a strange place and feeling pretty scared. He put on a brave face and decided to venture forth hoping to find his friends. Or at least a friend.


I also have plans for Marsmon and Belphemon to feature in their story arc.

Spoiler: In the case of Marsmon

He’s the God of War so he likes fighting strong foes. Ishiyama is a delinquent who isn’t one to pick fights outright, but he has a problem with authority figures and so is more likely to get up in their faces if they get on his case about things. Since the Olympos XII take issue with these humans showing up and mucking around their paradise, they’re likely to start trouble with the Tamers. Marsmon doesn’t like fighting weak opponents so he probably won’t factor in until Ishiyama and Gotsumon Biomerge into BanchoGolemon at which point they’d have his interest. By that point also, the duo have already put up with enough nonsense from the gods that they’re ready to start kicking some ass. More likely than not Marsmon and BanchoGolemon earn each other’s respect in battle winning Marsmon to our cause. Possibly.

Spoiler: In the case of Belphemon

He’s the personification of sloth and so would be having others do its dirty work for it so it can continue sleeping. At some point in the RP, Gotsumon reunites with Dracumon, now digivolved to Devimon. He asks Devimon if he’s seen the others only to find out the reason Dracumon was able to digivolve in the first place was because he killed and absorbed the others. Upon arriving in HOMEROS, Dracumon, being a Nightmare Soldier type Digimon, threw in with Belphemon and agreed to gather data from other Digimon for him in exchange for power. Obviously Belphemon is going to betray and absorb him once Devimon is no longer useful, especially since Devimon’s Ultimate level is DarkKnightmon which in canon has delusions about being fit to become one of the Great Demon Lords himself one day. Thus Gotsumon will have a personal grudge against Belphemon for turning his friend.

 

[Rex]

Name: Raymond “Ray” Ortiz
Gender: Male
Hometown: St. Augustine, Florida, USA
Age: 23
Height: 6’0”
Hair: Sandy blond, short and somewhat messy.
Eye Color: Blue
Clothing: Raymond’s HOMEROS avatar is dressed in a long sleeved white sweater, with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows. Over top it, he wears a brown sleeveless vest. His pants are similarly colored, and his shoes are black. For accessories, he wears a pair of brown fingerless gloves and a pair of dark lensed goggles around his neck.
Identifying Marks: None.
Musculature: Thin, but without any sort of muscle to speak of.
Personality: Naturally curious, Raymond is a tinkerer by nature. He loves to find out what makes things tick – both people and machines – and can come across as a little insensitive with his tendency towards probing questions and seeming indifference to others’ levels of comfort. What’s more, he’s a bit of a showoff, who enjoys being the center of attention. He can be vindictive when he doesn’t get his way. He doesn’t go out of his way to be cruel, but he is a bit haughty. When he works with others, he likes to take the lead and be in charge, and while he accepts being questioned as chances for him to prove he’s right, he doesn’t like being disobeyed.
Skills: As mentioned, Raymond is a tinkerer. He loves to take apart and put together machines. He likes to think there’s no problem he can’t invent his way out of.
Family: Raymond spent his childhood bouncing through the foster care system. He does not remember his birth parents, was never properly adopted, and never really came to see any of his foster guardians as proper parental figures.
Digivice: His goggles! Though, rather than being worn like a normal person, he usually projects the Digivice functions out of the lens as a holographic control interface. This is done absolutely because he thinks it looks cool, though the range is fairly limited – the lens can only project in the directions they face after all! If he needs to be more discrete, he can just put the goggles on and the menus will be displayed in the lens normally. Even when he does that, though, he still has to gesture like he’s selecting the controls on the holo-display.
Digimon: Kudamon > Reppamon > Cyberdramon > Examon
Digimon Bio: Kudamon is… A Kudamon! Unlike other members of his species, who may be more content to sit around gathering up holy power all day, Kudamon is an adventurous little Digimon who often gets himself into trouble. Prior to getting thrown into the portal leading to HOMEROS, he was actually something of a hanger on for a group of Dragon Digimon, who he respected and hoped to emulate one day. Unbeknownst to him, this has resulted in quite a bit of loose dragon data being stored in his earring, and, as we all know, the power stored in said earring has an influence on Kudamon’s evolution, so that little dream of his might just become a lot more true than he thought!

Kudamon really wants to be a hero. For now, though, he’s lost and confused, and feels generally out of place. He doesn’t know how he’s fallen in with such a crazy group, and worries that he won’t be able to pull his weight and really contribute to the team. Still, he’s going to try his best, and hopefully he’ll be able to make something of himself! Those Gods and Demons are really scary, though.

 

[Pro765]

Name: Timothy Corben
Gender: M
Hometown: Canada, Vancouver, Surrey.
Age: 23
Height: 5'11
Hair: Short- black
Eye Color: jet black
Clothing: black and white runners, black wash jeans and black belt, gray teashirt with grey,white,black plaid light unbuttoned collared short sleave shirt over top.
Identifying Marks: nothing of note
Musculature: Thin, healthy but would not be picked out for any physical sport.

Personality & Bio: Timothy was a strait A. student with honors, of course, but clearly not enough for his father, he didn't know what he wanted to do with his life, and taking over the family business would not be a dream of his to say the least. He didn't have a lot of friends, he tended to just read and work on his programing skills, building small security jams to make a small buck or two outside of his fathers allowance which is far more then he need but he didn't like to spend any of that on something other then what his father would accept, as his father would routinely check on all his purchases. Timothy would try to avoid spending as much time as he could from his family so, staying around campus was really great for him. Whenever he got the chance he would always write to his brother, they got along very well, Timothy's brother was a big reason why he did not feel overwhelming responsibility to take over the family business.

Timothy was not shy by any means, he just didn't agree or see eye-to-eye with a lot of other people so they don't really have anything to talk about or shared interest. This was how he got into playing chess, it allowed him to meet people and spend time talking about something they both are interested in even if it was just for an few minutes.

Timothy felt others are more trapped in their life then himself, others said it was because his parents were so rich, but he liked think it was more because they want more from life then himself. Maybe those are the same thing?

Skills: Computer programing at college level, and Master chess player, though he has never competed professionally for titles his chess playing skills would easily put him above the regular fare.

Family: Having lived with his father and mother, both respected marketing business CEO's, Timothy was not his fathers favored son, that was suppose to be his older brother Thomas, but Timothy's brother took to a life of adventure and travel, taking such jobs as cartography and mission help with poverty stricken zones or disaster recovery. Due to his life choices the pair had to think of the future of their empire thus young Timothy was born, their new prodigy, pushed to achieve highest grades in school by his father left them on poor terms but his mother fondness of him was much more direct, leaving Timothy with a feeling of uncomfortable cherished attention from his mother or disappointment and regret from his father.

Digivice: A smart watch that has been designed to be water resistant up to fifteen feet of depth.

Digimon: PawnChessmon (Black) -> KnightChessmon (Black) -> RookChessmon (Black) -> QueenChessmon

Digimon Bio: PawnChessmon is a Puppet Digimon. It was born from data leaking out of a chess game supercomputer. Its power is considered weak, but the pawns are strong in any chess game-everyone knows that. It will be promoted when it strives for prominence, and it is has a secret that conceals the mystery, possessing even a Mega-class power. It's common catchphrase is, "I only advance!" which is like Timothy himself, its best not to look back in chess and have your goals in focus, only making progress towards them, only moving forward in life. It considers fellows who are striving for prominence ahead of their rivals to be strength and worthy of respect. Timothy saw him as his most loyal friend and he would trust him with his own life.

Unknown to Timothy PawnChessmon was really following a secret mission to promote itself to QueenChessmon, the KingChessmon taking advantage of the breach into the Homeros had recently lost his Queen and needed to get her back for his master plan to succeed. Having the training and skill, Timothy was a chance element into the KingChessmon's plans and ordered one of his Pawns to befriend Timothy, he could not risk lower data on this mission for it was far too important to the greater plan. KingChessmon had discovered these data users who were trapped inside the digital world due to the actions of the Seven Great Demon Lords, Timothy was observed for a time and deemed a worthy escort and sacrifice for his Queen's rebirth.

Attacks

Pawn Spear: Stabs with its spear.
Pawn Buckler: Charges with its buckler held up.
Pawn Lightning: Fires a shockwave with a lightning fast strike.
Pawn Charge: Holds a spear and charges the enemy.
Pawn Penetrate: Attacks with a furious charge that can penetrate anything.

Pyramid Formation: Uses a special formation after procuring rear support from its comrades,
allowing it to halt the attacks of even an Ultimate-class Digimon.

 

[Rex]

Just a quick post to let mods know the above post is from an accepted RPer for an RP that I still intend to start. Pro765 will be stepping in for Chad and potentially Tailon since both seem pretty busy with real life stuff.

 

[StellarWind Elsydeon]

I'm reviving this slightly because we've been talking about this thing a lot lately and I figured I may as well also post these in this thread.



So here's most of Santalamon's evolution line, missing only the Mega forms which I have sketched out but haven't colored yet.

Their names are Nebamon (Baby), Viscumon (In-Training/Baby II), Santalamon (Rookie/Child), Strigamon (Champion/Adult) and Azdajamon (Ultimate/Perfect), and they are a Virus-attribute. Attack names are pending.