AU Workshopping Post

[nashiramods]

au workshopping post
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This post is for players who have an approved invite to Stars of the Nashira to brainstorm AU concepts for a character (or characters, if you're trying to decide between more than one) you're thinking of apping. Post a comment using the form below with your thoughts and plans for your character's present and past lives, and reply to other people to help them decide on things they're not sure about yet or to suggest ways your character might already know theirs! If there’s a specific role that someone could fill for your character or vice versa, this is a great place to discuss those details.

Remember: you don't need to have all of this figured out before you app! The details of your characters' past lives, powers, and relationships will develop over time in game; this is just a handy opportunity to coordinate some stuff in advance.

Note: this post is intended for players with approved invites. Please wait until your invite has been approved to post.

<b>Player Name:</b> <b>Contact:</b> <b>Invite:</b> please link to the comment with your approved invite! <b>Character Name:</b> <b>Canon:</b> <b>Character Blurb:</b> <b>Code Name:</b> <b>Domain:</b> <b>Combat Type:</b> <b>Awakening:</b> How will your character awaken to their powers? If you want this to coincide with another character’s awakening, here’s a great place to plan it out! <b>Present Life:</b> <b>Past Life:</b> <b>In-Game Plans:</b> Put plans you already have in mind for your character here, if any. <b>Pre-Established CR Hooks:</b> Existing connections your characters could have before the start of the game — roles in your character's life such as family, childhood friends, colleagues, etc. <b>Desired CR/Hooks:</b> Relationships with other characters you'd like to develop in game. Friendship, romance, weird one-way rivalry, and everything else in between! <b>Other:</b>

Comments

Kalvin Brnine 🐟 Friends at the Table

[swaglessfish]

Player Name: Max
Contact: PM rigormorphis
Invite: link :)

Character Name: Kalvin Brnine (goes by Brnine, pronounced "brine")
Canon: Friends at the Table
Character Blurb: In their home canon, Brnine is an acerbic fish alien arms manufacturer turned mercenary turned revolutionary + swagless team (nonbinary) dad. They're drawn into a revolution against their will by Valence, a character they were pretty clearly falling in love with (shh, don't tell anyone), and after Valence's sudden death, they become committed to Valence's revolution heart and soul. Over time, they work on their social skills such that they stop being an outright asshole and become "only" unspeakably awkward to talk to or be around. They captain a spaceship with a team of revolutionaries that includes multiple earnest young adults, for whom they have a huge soft spot. (Don't worry, they love their older crew members too.) They have big divorcé energy and are also oozing grief, for Valence and for other people they've lost along the way, that they absolutely refuse to talk about or even acknowledge. To say they have emotional problems would be a massive understatement.

Code Name: Nova Coral
Domain: Coral Reef

(I'm wide open to suggestions, prompts, ideas, etc. on literally everything past this point!)

Combat Type: Support or defense. I'm not totally sure about their starting move yet, but I think it would be fun for their powers to be themed around protection for the other Nova Knights, especially the teens (see "present life" below), kind of like how a coral reef is a safe home for all the little fishies.

Awakening: I...am not sure how they awakened to their powers yet! Would love to hear ideas if anyone has any! I do know that when they heard their past self saying their dying wish, the wish was "avenge them," and they misinterpreted that as "avenge the teens" (it was actually "avenge Valence").

Present Life: Brnine is the shop teacher at the Everwave Academy for Distinguished Youths. After they awaken to their powers, they fight as a Nova Knight not out of some grand belief in the justice of what they're doing but because they're an adult, a lot of the other Nova Knights are their students, and someone needs to watch the kids' backs. In their personal life, they're a loner with a lot of hobbies and, uh, not a lot of friends.

Past Life: I am so, so vague on this except that I know Valence existed in their past life and died on the Nashira before the rest of the Nova Knights did, probably at an earlier point during the final confrontation. Ideas welcome! I need to brainstorm!

In-Game Plans: I don't have a ton of in-game plans yet! The main one is that I want them to regain their memories of their past life gradually over time, such that when they start to remember Valence, they're gut-punched with fresh grief that they have no idea what to do with.

Desired CR/Hooks: I would LOVE for Brnine to develop an awkward but earnest mentor-mentee relationship with one or more of their students. They're also desperately in need of friends, of any age! And I would be super open to romance tbh; in canon, Brnine has several bizarre flirting-but-then-friendzoning-but-also-they're-already-divorced relationships with other revolutionaries after Valence dies, including one where the other character is kind of awful and they don't even really get along, so the weirder the vibes, the better!

Other:

an important meme by the unstoppable fanartist ahcoffeebeans

Re: Kalvin Brnine 🐟 Friends at the Table

[nashiramods]

MAX I LOVE THIS. Some food for thought to help you flesh out Brnine's past life:

- If you haven't figured out where Brnine was in the social hierarchy, would it make sense for them and Valence to be of the same class, or would there have been a class divide between them? Based on Brnine's canon details, it seems like the best bet would be Aster for both of them.
- Would Valence have also been a revolutionary in some capacity on Hassaleh? One potentially interesting option is having Valence's faction be really opposed to the Abyss's previous Harbingers, the alien envoys who came to Hassaleh.
- If you want Brnine's past life to mirror their present life more closely, they could have been some kind of artisan on Hassaleh. And I know that the "avenge them" wish that Brnine takes to mean protecting the teens is REALLY about Valence, but considering their Coral Reef domain, do you think Brnine could have had some kind of relationship (or a conspicuous lack of one) with local kids in their past life? Or maybe there was another group of people they felt protective and supportive towards besides Valence? It could provide a little fun contrast if Brnine wasn't able to fully realize that in their past life.

Re: their awakening, I think it'd be great for their awakening to happen jointly with one of their students to reinforce the initial misconception about their dying wish. I currently don't have anything planned for Mutsumi's awakening so I'd be happy to volunteer her, but it definitely doesn't have to be her if someone else wants their character to have a joint awakening with Brnine!

Re: Kalvin Brnine 🐟 Friends at the Table

[swaglessfish]

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- I think it would make sense for them to be the same class! I just took another gander at the past lives page and I think you're right, Aster sounds like a good fit.

- Ooh, I love the idea of Valence having been an anti-Harbinger revolutionary on Hassaleh. Not that you need all the FATT canon details, but this dovetails nicely with Valence's canon backstory; they were from a star system that had been besieged by a space empire, so resisting the external threat of the Harbingers makes perfect sense.

- I also really like the idea of the protection angle of Brnine's domain being reflected (or glaringly not reflected) in their past life too, tysm for that suggestion! I'm going to ponder that that one.

- Joint awakening with one of the students is perfect omg. And I'd love for it to be Mutsumi if nobody else feels like it would be a good fit for their character!

Re: Kalvin Brnine 🐟 Friends at the Table

[nashiramods]

- Oh that's really good to know re: Valence's canon backstory! The previous Harbingers first presented themselves as cultural ambassadors (not TECHNICALLY untrue); I think Valence and Brnine being part of a very early political movement being against these guys getting involved with the Hassalean nobility/royalty would be great, esp because I think it would come off initially as a very isolationist movement whose reputation and standing then changes when Shit starts to go down.

- yesss fuck w that protection angle!! I'm excited for whatever you come up with.

- since no one else has chimed in, let's do Mutsumi and Brnine's awakenings together! Mutsumi was two people in her past life so she's going to be hella disoriented by hearing two people. And also she needs a hug

Re: Kalvin Brnine 🐟 Friends at the Table

[swaglessfish]

- perfectttt Mutsumi-Brnine joint awakening it is!!!!!

Re: Kalvin Brnine 🐟 Friends at the Table

[wood_sorrel]

i'm genuinely trying to imagine what kind of student maomao is in shop class. she kind of doesn't care about anything outside of her special interest BUT she also needs to not flunk out of getting a free ride to this school. how does brnine do with freaks like maomao

Re: Kalvin Brnine 🐟 Friends at the Table

[swaglessfish]

brnine LOVES freaks like maomao. brnine doesn't know what to do with people who are normal and have good social skills, but freaks are their people. i think if they saw maomao struggling to focus/care about the class they'd probably try to figure out some other stuff for her to work on that might be related enough to her special interest to be, yk, interesting. (my first thought was "mortar and pestle" which is not it because those are famously not made of wood. uh. maybe she could make a little rack for all her poison bottles/vials???)

not that maomao has to struggle in the class, obviously. but whatever kind of student she is, i imagine her freak nature will shine through, so brnine's gonna be fond of her whether they like it or not

Re: Kalvin Brnine 🐟 Friends at the Table

[avemortis]

ok so we decided that mutsumi & brnine will have a joint awakening but the question is: what kind of student is mutsumi in brnine's class. mutsumi is generally a really good student but i have NO idea how she would be in a shop class or in fact why she would opt to take one. mortis WOULD enjoy it though maybe she only signs up for the class after mortis has decided to start fronting outside of going supernova

Re: Kalvin Brnine 🐟 Friends at the Table

[swaglessfish]

oh GREAT question. tbh i love the idea of mortis deciding for both of them to sign up for the class, excellent opportunity for shenanigans to occur depending on who's fronting. how do you think mutsumi would handle being in a shop class against her will?

Re: Kalvin Brnine 🐟 Friends at the Table

[avemortis]

LMAO. YEAH. WOW. some incredible disaster opportunities. what kind of contact do you think they'd have had prior? or will it be just kinda some random student when they have their joint awakening?

also like. tbf mutsumi floats around like a silent sad little ghost. even if she wasn't in brnine's class at any point, brnine could have noticed that at some point last year Something Happened and she's been Sad ever since if that would be fun