#verse updates.

' a city razed / to bury you beneath it ( post veilguard ) - based on the atonement ending, or an alternate au ending

the veil must succeed. he's the last of the evanuris that can sustain it, and with the damage and suffering the blight has caused, the veil is thinner than ever. for a time, solas enters the fade prison once again and confronts his own regrets, just as rook was forced to, before he is strong enough to confront the greater Fade. maybe there is a figment of the titans' dreaming that is uncorrupted, somewhere, somehow - but it's a far leap. when - not if - he manages to get out of the Fade, he is still committed to solving the Blight.

rooks can help guide him out of the fade through their blood magic connection, or with the lyrium dagger if it's returned to them.

if solas is tricked and the dagger follows him into the fade, he will use it to get out...eventually.

Hello, hello! I’m sure y’all are sick of all my ooc at this point but I’m hoping this will be my last one for a while, because I think I’ve finally figured out what’s been making me feel unenthusiastic about rp.

I’ve been treating roleplaying as though I’m writing a novel. I’ve tried to plan out Lyra’s story so rigidly that it’s been hard to roleplay with her. Though I never really talked about the second two in any great detail on this blog, for a while I’ve been working on three verses behind the scenes that would essentially act as Lyra’s mainverses. The first was obviously her ‘Champ In-training’ verse which is the one I’ve been paying the most attention to. But the second was a kind of ‘Runaway’ verse that took placed during the events of SuMo where she left Japan both to escape and pursue a group of Rockets. The third was the verse where she became an adult and truth be told I didn’t really get any farther than that.

But it was just too much work to try and coordinate all of these at once. I was trying to shove threads all over Lyra’s timeline which made it difficult to rp as her because I wasn’t sure how much she would have changed between verses. And it was just limiting the types of plots I could write and numbers of partners I could interact with. Right now I don’t need to focus on anything further than her ‘Champ In-training’ verse.

Right now, I just want to focus on developing Lyra in said verse. I think the way I’m writing her is currently a bit one-dimensional and I want her to become a more complex, nuanced character. I want to start showing more of her fears and flaws and insecurities. I love her positive energy but I don’t want that to be all there is to her. And I hope that showing the different faucets of her character and that opening her up to a more diverse range of threads and characters will mean she’s a better character when the time comes that I decide that I want to move beyond her current main verse. And I’ll have a much better idea of what that next verse might focus on.

VERSE. HGSS:  they’ll be telling your tale in the history books.

     After years of arguing with her parents about her future, Kotone “Lyra” Kuno finally convinces them to allow her to begin a Pokemon journey on her eleventh birthday. They were anxious that Lyra continue her education so that she may one day take over her father’s veterinary practise. And her mother in particular, who had run away from home to train Pokemon at ten years old and struggled to find employment as an adult because of this, was strongly against it. But with a little help from Professor Elm who vouched for her skill in handling Pokemon, Lyra set off with her Marill, “Mari”, and a Totodile she nicknames “Chomp”.

     After arriving in Azalea Town, Lyra is told by Kurt that a commotion is occurring in the Slowpoke Well. Curious and eager to help resolve the situation, Lyra enters the well and comes face to face with a group of Team Rocket members, the most notable being Executive “Proton” and a particularly cruel grunt codenamed “Whetstone”. During this first encounter she swears to take responsibility for defeating Team Rocket so that they can never rise to power again.

     During her travels, Lyra achieves media notoriety, with many Pokemon Battling focused magazines, radio and TV shows reporting on her skill and flexibility as a trainer. She earns her first seven gym-badges with few complications, but before she travels to Blackthorn City to earn her eighth, she receives a call from the Kimono Girls.

     Lyra and the five girls then travel to the Whirl Islands, where Lyra uses the Tide Bell and Silver Wing to summon Lugia. Although Lyra does not capture Lugia at their own request, she earns their respect after defeating them in a fierce battle.

     Shorty after, Lyra receives word that Team Rocket has taken over the Goldenrod Radio Tower and Lugia agrees to aid her in stopping their plans to summon their previous leader back to them. The two have no trouble defeating the acting head of the organisation “Archer”, although something about his resolute acceptance of defeat leaves her feeling uncertain of her victory. Team Rocket may not have been stamped out forever. Especially not when Marcos Silva, a scientist involved in the creation of Mewtwo, was present during the assault. He has long been terrified by the power of so-called legendary Pokemon, and cannot stand to see a creature as powerful as Lugia at the beck and call of such a naive young girl.

     This verse ends with Lyra’s defeat of the Elite 4 and Lance. As the previous Champion and Lyra’s childhood rival, Kris Quartz, has gone missing under mysterious circumstances, Lyra was unable to battle her and thus cannot take the title of Indigo Champion. Privately frustrated but still overjoyed that she has achieved her dream of beating the Indigo League, Lyra agrees to wait patiently whilst the League comes to a decision as to whether or not she takes on the position of Champion. In the meantime, she sets out to explore Kanto and the rest of Japan—she’s not ready to stop adventuring just yet!

𝐂𝐀𝐍𝐎𝐍 𝐕𝐄𝐑𝐒𝐄 𝐒𝐏𝐀𝐑𝐊𝐍𝐎𝐓𝐄𝐒 . I wanted to share here some general, easy-to-read information about Aldrik's canon world. Not everyone has to write in it, as I plan to share more information about other verses, but it certainly helps to understand who I'm going to generally be trying to build upon for his other universes.

𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐁𝐀𝐒𝐈𝐂𝐒 . → 24 years old, 6'2", lean build, black hair, black eyes, pale gray-toned skin → Crown Prince of the Solaris Empire — firstborn son of Emperor Tiberus Solaris → A Firebearer, meaning he controls fire as his elemental affinity; secondary attunement is foresight → Known by the battlefield title "Fire Lord" — earned at 22 during his first campaign with the Emperor → His favorite food is candied lemon peels

𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐀𝐈𝐑 𝐀𝐖𝐀𝐊𝐄𝐍𝐒 𝐖𝐎𝐑𝐋𝐃 . → The Solaris Empire is a continent-spanning autocracy (similar to the size of Europe) — medieval setting, rigid class hierarchy, the Emperor holds near-absolute power Additional Notes: The South: Mediterranean-ish, seat of power (can be thought of as the continent's capitol), The West (Mhashan): Middle Eastern or Central Asian-inspired, though it's difficult to put an exact finger on it, The East (Cyven): Slavic/Balkan/Eastern European, The North as the unconquered frontier the Empire is actively warring against: the cold edge of the known world. The North is known for warmer tones and darker skin complexion. → Magic is organized under the Tower of Sorcerers, a military institution as much as a school — four elemental affinities exist: fire, water, earth, and wind → Sorcerers are prized as weapons but regarded with public unease; in the East especially, a historical purge called the Burning Times left deep cultural scars around magic → The Empire is actively at war with the North during Book One — a conquest engineered by the Emperor, carried out in large part by Aldrik → The Imperial Senate exists but functions more as a political tool of the Emperor than a genuine check on his power

𝐀𝐋𝐃𝐑𝐈𝐊'𝐒 𝐁𝐀𝐂𝐊𝐆𝐑𝐎𝐔𝐍𝐃 .

→ His mother, Empress Fiera Ci'Dan, was the last princess of Mhashan — the Western kingdom his father conquered through marriage → She died in childbirth, and the speed of her pregnancy before the wedding seeded decades of whispered rumors about whether Aldrik is truly the Emperor's son → He grew up under that shadow — a prince whose legitimacy was always a quiet political question → His half-brother Baldair (different mother) is younger, more charming, more publicly beloved — the court's favorite in ways Aldrik never was → His closest childhood friend was Larel Neiress, a fellow Firebearer from the West; one of the very few people who has ever seen past Aldrik's stoic performance

𝐀𝐋𝐃𝐑𝐈𝐊'𝐒 𝐏𝐄𝐑𝐒𝐎𝐍𝐀𝐋𝐈𝐓𝐘 .

→ Withdrawn, intellectual, witty, stubborn, short-tempered, intensely private → The coldness is not the whole truth: it is a self-defense mechanism, built young and worn so long it has become habit to protect himself → His humor is dry and surfaces rarely; when it does, it tends to catch people off guard → He is intensely observant: notices everything, says much less than he knows → Deeply loyal, but loyalty with him is not freely given; it is earned slowly and then held completely → He is a man of contradictions: a weapon of his father's war who privately understands its cost; a believer in imperial structure who doubts the Emperor's use of it. In this regard, although he has done bad things, he is deeply concerned with justice

VERSE. POST GAME:  keep your heart on your sleeve; you’re shaking hands with the stars.

    With the eight Johto gym-badges under her belt and the possibility of becoming Champion on her mind, Lyra heads off to Kanto to see how she fares against it’s Gym Leaders. She hopes that proving she’s the best trainer across both regions and befriending all members of The Indigo League will help her chances in being named Champion.

    In between gym-battles, Lyra catches and trains a wide variety of new Pokemon. Upset by the prospect of her new companions remaining in storage, Lyra begins to regularly change out the Pokemon that she carries on-hand. Her ever-changing team soon becomes a pivotal aspect of her battling strategy. Many famous trainers prefer to use the same team of Pokemon for all battles which makes it easier to predict how they will react in battle, but Lyra’s pechance for changing her roster and their moves makes this almost impossible. And that uncertainty is enough to knock many experienced trainers off-kilter.

    Although Kanto’s Gym Leaders give her more trouble than Johto’s, Lyra still defeats them with impressive speed. After tracking down Viridian City’s wandering Gym-leader, Green, and defeating him in one of the hardest battles she has fought yet, he asks her to do him a favour.     He tells her he knows where Red, who has been missing for three years, is currently hiding, and asks Lyra to climb Mt. Silver. Nothing he’s tried has made his rival come down the mountain, and he hopes that meeting someone who is just as passionate about Pokemon as he once was might finally convince him to come back to society.

    Honoured and delighted to be trusted with such an important task—to help bring her idol out of isolation—Lyra rushes to climb to the peak of Mt. Silver. But when she reaches the top, she does not meet the bright-eyed, passionate young trainer she used to see on TV. Instead, Red seems cold, distant, almost hostile towards her. When Lyra tries to explain why she has come to find him, he interrupts her by sending out his Venusaur then tells her to prove to him that she really did defeat the Elite Four.

   An utterly gruelling battle commences, lasting for almost an hour, ending with Red as the victor. He turns away without a word and Lyra trudges back to the PokeCentre at the bottom of the mountain in silent tears. She never tells another person about what happened on Mt. Silver. From that point on, she refuses to even talk about Red, other than to decry him for never coming to Johto’s aid when Team Rocket attacked.

    However she doesn’t stay disheartened for long. A few days after her crushing defeat, she receives a call from Lance. The Director of The Indigo League, Satoshi Abe, was impressed by her defeat of Green and wants to propose a deal. Lyra will be awarded the title of Co-champion, under the condition that she takes on additional responsibility as a promoter. Lyra instantly agrees, and by the end of that same day she is awarded her title.