Gabiluzbad
Monster Riders let's plot out a CHARACTER
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Who was commenting on the other plurk
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Now:
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The Industrialists live in like big ol' arcologies
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Self contained cities cut off from the outside world which, according to the propaganda, is a barely inhabitable wasteland
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Full of monsters and savages who live in caves or mud huts and are cannibals
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The only beacons of civilization are the Industrialist cities
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So this guy
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girl
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person
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undecided
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This person is a soldier from an Arcology who has basically never even breathed outside world air
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They've gone on missions but they went with their own air supplies in big bulky armor
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hmm nah I don't like that
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They do wear gasmasks outside though because the air inside the arco is cleanish? but the environment AROUND the arco is choked with smog
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and fumes
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it's ugly
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And they just kind of assume that the whole world is like this
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This is just the lower classes. The rulers are much better educated they just don't care
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Plus most expeditions out of the arcologies get raided by dragons before they get too far
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So this guy
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Is a soldier with a promising career ahead of them
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Who was sent as a member of a strike force to take out a feral dragon
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Might not be a dragon, if I can think of something more interesting
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But dragon for now
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This dragon is one of the older monsters alive
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It's never bonded with anyone
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It's just been this force of rage and destruction, burning all humans
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the ones who despoiled the Earth must die
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the monster riders keep on trying to tame it. The industrialists keep on trying to kill it
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This time, however, they have a new weapon
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I think it's like a special poison
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tailor made to kill it
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Administered by fucking harpoon cannons
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So they find it and there's a pitched battle that wipes out MOST of the strike force
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But
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they actually do it
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They kill the thing
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It retreats to it's lair, dying, with the industrialists in hot pursuit
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but it's lair is a fucking maze of caverns and deadfalls
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Our hero gets separated from their unit in a cave in and finds themselves, somehow, in the creatures innermost sanctum
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Where it is breathing it's last breaths
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But guess what else is in there
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fuckin' eggs
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Let's rework this a bit
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The guy shows up late to the final battle in the monster's nest
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where there's a bunch of dead guys, a dead dragon
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and one intact egg
ArtIsArt
I did too.
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right sorry
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here you is though
ArtIsArt
Yepyep! And I dig it.
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So anyways to plot this out to it's inevitable conclusion
ArtIsArt
So are some of the people the naturalists who came to protecc?
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Probably
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but they suddenly see the dragon not as a rampaging beast but as a desperate mother
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And they can't get themself to break the egg
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Something something
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Then the egg hatches and babby dragon bonds with industrialist soldier
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Who's like "fuck I can't take this back they'll kill it and that would make me sad."
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"I guess I better try to survive in this horrible plague choked wilderness"
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"Oh hey. It's....it's actually pretty nice out here."
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At some point he meets up with the preservationists
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or naturalists
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or whatever we're calling them
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And has to deal with various levels of culture shock while learning about monsters because this one won't leave him alone
Gabiluzbad
kinda Adora-esque
ArtIsArt
Aww.
ArtIsArt
I'm making a young woman, that much is for sure. Acid burns on her arm, scales on the other, and partnered with a giant komodo dragon-like monster, maybe.
RobotApocalypse
i like naturalists as the general term and preservationists as the one subset of that society that's trying to preserve their history
Gabiluzbad
sounds good
Gabiluzbad
naturalists is a good counter to industrialists
RobotApocalypse
hm. do we want to have a name for people who go out seeking that history that the preservationists are preserving? like archeologists, kinda, going out into the ruins of old cities to recover artifacts of the old civilization
RobotApocalypse
cuz i think i wanna make my character one of those people
Gabiluzbad
I don't know Guindo
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/leans forwards
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do we?
RobotApocalypse
HMM
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seekers was the first thing that came to my mind but that's unfortunately harry potter tainted
RobotApocalypse
the Salvagers?
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could be could be
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I'm imagining guys who's job is to go into areas that got nuked in the worst days before the current order was established
RobotApocalypse
Salvagers or Reclaimers are the two names that come to mind
Gabiluzbad
In like bulky radiation suits
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Reclaimers sounds better, I think, but was also a thing in The Adventure Zone
RobotApocalypse
oh i'm totally unfamiliar with that canon
RobotApocalypse
we could do Reclaimists instead. it sounds a little weird but i kinda like it
Gabiluzbad
We have a lot of ists
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I kinda dig it
RobotApocalypse
yeah it matches the ongoing naming scheme haha
Gabiluzbad
Probably have jobs of going into fallout zones to search for old artifacts
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And salvaging weapons from battlefields that aren't horrifying sins against nature
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Since I mentioned the main weapon the industrialist troops are armed with are smoke belching flamethrowers
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but they probably have sidearms
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of just regular guns
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Which the naturalists have no problem with
RobotApocalypse
yeah makes sense
RobotApocalypse
...hm. would being fireproof also protect you from radiation???
Gabiluzbad
The naturalists DO have factories and shit
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they're just
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few in number
RobotApocalypse
or maybe her monster just has both traits and thus so does she
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and carefully designed to be low emmission
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So stealing gear from the industralists is sometimes necessary
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She COULD have natural radiation resistance
RobotApocalypse
yeah i'm gonna go with that
Gabiluzbad
She could also have a bulky radiation suit for such excursions
RobotApocalypse
the natural radiation resistance
RobotApocalypse
so she goes on missions into fallout zones a lot
Gabiluzbad
My guy being recently bonded means he probably doesn't have any adaptations yet
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Those take TIME to start showing up
RobotApocalypse
how long, do you think? couple years?
Gabiluzbad
yeah like
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4-5
RobotApocalypse
that sounds like a good timeline
Gabiluzbad
Maybe sooner if you bond while super young
ArtIsArt
... The komodo dragon's bites cause atrophy in a matter of seconds, maybe.
RobotApocalypse
i'm trying to decide if i want her to have been raised with the naturalists or the industrialists
RobotApocalypse
maybe she was a snobby rich kid who slowly started to realize that her parents were actually the Bad Guys
RobotApocalypse
someone brought back a captured lava lizard to dissect and study and she decided to free it and escape with it instead
Gabiluzbad
I feel like
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I want at least MOST of the characters to be native naturalists
RobotApocalypse
yeah i'm torn between that and having her be a native naturalist who's just totally unfamiliar with industrialist society
RobotApocalypse
so i think i'll go for the latter then to fit what you're looking for
Gabiluzbad
I was going with the general assumption that my guy would be the viewpoint character
RobotApocalypse
she knows nothing about industrialist society and the more she learns the more horrifying it sounds to her
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exploring the naturalist society with an outsider's eye
RobotApocalypse
yeah that makes sense
RobotApocalypse
i'm leaning toward Molly as a name
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I'm getting the impression that Molly is a nerd
RobotApocalypse
she named her lizard Vesuvius to be cool and keeps trying to nickname herself Pompeii but it never sticks
Gabiluzbad
I love her already
RobotApocalypse
haha she's a huge nerd for historical artifacts & trivia but she's also a hothead berserker type about battle
RobotApocalypse
she's that one person who will always just charge right in without a second thought
RobotApocalypse
being fireproof with the ability to make lava-armor for so long has made her pretty reckless as a fighter. she's too used to being mostly impervious to industrialist weapons
Lightning Bolt
I was also in the last plurk
Gabiluzbad
Sorry I scanned it real fast
Lightning Bolt
As I mentioned, I was thinking my character is bonded to a manticore, probably with a more lionish than humanoid face
Lightning Bolt
They've got extra rows of teeth and the foremost row has a lot of sharp ones
Lightning Bolt
Plus bat wings and a short little scorpion tail
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plus the usual claws and fur
Gabiluzbad
I imagine them just
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chowing down on raw meat with every sign of enjoyment
Lightning Bolt
ooh yeah, they probably have a different digestive system
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or at least really rare steaks
Lightning Bolt
they do still add spices though, when they can get them
Lightning Bolt
actually, i'm thinking they're probably a gardener?
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meat's probably pretty expensive in naturalist cities
Lightning Bolt
when they're not out fighting from their giant lion buddy's back they're just crouched on rooftops carefully tending the plants
Lightning Bolt
They're probably really fascinated by whatever plants have adapted to the harsher conditions, though I feel they don't have much natural pollution/radiation resistance, so they can't go investigate themselves as often
Gabiluzbad
chowing down on raw meat is a strong aesthetic, but so is having horrible fangs and being a vegetarian
Lightning Bolt
soldier dude meets them with red flesh hanging from their jaws and red juice splattered everywhere-
Lightning Bolt
"sorry i was eating a tomato and it got messy"
RobotApocalypse
hahaha i love it
ArtIsArt
Emma (name pending) just glares.
Gabiluzbad
An instinct to hunt and pounce
ArtIsArt
Getting sprayed with defoliant is hard to forgive!
Gabiluzbad
I suspect soldier dude isn't going to be SUPER popular at first
RobotApocalypse
i feel like naturalists would probably get most of their meat from fish? since they are very easy to farm sustainably in small fisheries
Gabiluzbad
fish and like
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chicken
RobotApocalypse
yeah
ArtIsArt
Yeah, eggs are easy.
ArtIsArt
And so are chickens.
RobotApocalypse
maybe certain villages raise sheep or goats but they're mostly for wool and milk, not meat
Gabiluzbad
beef is a luxury
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also probably MOST people have gardens
RobotApocalypse
https://images.plurk.com/9lJNc4856BGozaqhbmKlZ.png Vesuvius i think
Gabiluzbad
sick
RobotApocalypse
old concept art for the monster i based it on which is this one
ғᴏxʏᴍᴏʀᴏɴ
jun is probably wary at first but like
ғᴏxʏᴍᴏʀᴏɴ
she will defer to the baby dragon's opinion of the soldier
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I was struggling to come up with a name
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And I thought
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"What if in his arcology people don't have names they get numbered"
ArtIsArt
Would honestly not be surprised if they were grown in vitro to minimize downtime.
RobotApocalypse
oh man that's a good concept
RobotApocalypse
that's rough but it's the right kind of dystopian for this i think
Gabiluzbad
Clone Troopers
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Hmmm I don't think he's a clone
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But perhaps children are taken from their parents to be raised together by The State
ArtIsArt
Not clones, but not grown in utero. Artificial fertilization without a uterus.
Gabiluzbad
ahhhh
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I think that any given batch of kids is like
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half grown in pods and half "extras"
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grown the normal way
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Or maybe mostly pod babies but with the edges filled in by extras
ArtIsArt
/nods
ғᴏxʏᴍᴏʀᴏɴ
I'm imagining he keeps his gun when he defects and then way later when everyone finally trusts him, jun melts the gun down and reforges it into a very nice sword
Gabiluzbad
He has no training with a sword why would he want a sword
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Melting down his flamethrower would hold more emotional significance, though
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Maybe into a shield
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I think his main fighting style is just, like
Gabiluzbad
https://images.plurk.com/2NZO8qQyIqcod1jWnAG4bf.png
ғᴏxʏᴍᴏʀᴏɴ
IT'S SYMBOLIC but flamethrower works too
RobotApocalypse
the flamethrower holds more symbolic weight i think, since that's a weapon that only industrialists use
RobotApocalypse
symbolizing a final break from any industrialist connections he had and being fully embraced by the naturalists
Echo
This is all excellent.
Echo
Also, question: hypothetically, could one of the things acquired by bonding with a monster be unusually long lifespan/staying young for longer?
Echo
Because I'm imagining the pirate queen bonded to the kraken as like... she actually was from the old days, when the monsters first started attacking, but she looks like she's in her forties even though it's been a little over a century.
Echo
I like the mental image of her being like
"Yes... I too once labored under their control, at their command, in times long gone."
"What was the name of this terrible bondage?"
"We called it the 7-11. And they always made me work clopens! Assholes."
Echo
She was just a normal retail worker, living paycheck to paycheck, no insurance. And then a monster attack seriously injured her as passing collateral damage, probably damaging an eye to give her the classic piratical eyepatch... and her work said they wouldn't give her any financial accommodation for losing a fucking eye.
Echo
Unless there was evidence she'd tried to pursue some kind of legal action against the person responsible. It was a form letter that really didn't take the actual circumstances into account, or whether it made any sense to tell her that at all.
Echo
But at this point she'd well and truly hit the end of her rope, so she was like "fuck it", grabbed some paperwork, and went down to the coast to dive into the ocean and try to sue a squid.
Echo
Somehow they both got caught up in an attempted attack on the kraken itself and she helped it out of habit. Their bonding was basically a slow burn enemies-to-friends-and-partners-in-the-fight-against-capitalism kind of deal.
ғᴏxʏᴍᴏʀᴏɴ
... does pirate queen have kids at any point, you think
Lightning Bolt
pirate queen talking about "the before times" that's just our modern day is a very good aesthetic
Echo
ғᴏxʏᴍᴏʀᴏɴ : It's not too implausible.
Echo
I think she's trans, so it's possible that she could have had an relationship prior to her whole squid-related self-actualization that resulted in a kid she never found out about.
Echo
Just like "huh, you sure do look a lot like my ex-girlfriend... wait. Wait a minute."
Echo
"Uh, what are you doing?"
"Math!"
ғᴏxʏᴍᴏʀᴏɴ
I'm imagining jun being pirate queen's like great granddaughter and pirate queen is just like "FUCK, MY RESPONSIBILITIES CAUGHT UP WITH ME"
Echo
Amazing, I love it.
Gabiluzbad
Longer lifespan is within the realm of possibility because I love this
Echo
She's just like "okay, in my defense, no one actually told me about this possibility... but fuck it, gonna do this shit right. Time to be the best damn grandma."
Echo
Her name is Captain Penemue de Aquinas. She picked it herself and is not accepting criticism.
ғᴏxʏᴍᴏʀᴏɴ
[jun voice] this is my grandma, a pirate queen. and this is my dad, a magic dinosaur.
Echo
Vague idea of what she looks like:
https://images.plurk.com/754Zumx00UfFVPnbLI5WrD.png
RobotApocalypse
i love everything about her
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