#she's very very polite and traditional despite being a cruise ship

[lejendarydreams]

The Muse - Episode One - Lockheed Streetstar

In a far away land past the Devil's Sea...

There is an island unknown to the rest of humanity.

Saikan.

A beautiful land that sprouted a nation.

It is a myth and no invaders ever attempted to come to Saikan for nobody knew outside that they exist.

A thousand year ago,

Sunken ships, wrecked and lost, washed ashore to the mysterious land. The people that survived a thousand year ago began a new civilization. Years after years, not only shipwrecks but planes crashing landed to their history.

But in their legends, it is believed that a giant sea creature saved them, placed them in Saikan for a purpose, and protected the land.

In Saikan, thunderbolts paint the sky day and night. Sometimes it is cloudy, sometimes it would rain. It is the norm and it is their friend. The humans adapted to Saikan's cruel weather and took it to their advantage. As the civilization grew, they developed high end technology and system, a little more advanced than what we have.

The four cities, places to remember are named KM#05, Earheart, Xi, Lockheed. Each has stories to tell that are yet to unveil.

And I will unlock these as you read along.

Now before the real story begins, I shall brief you more about Saikan.

In Saikan, the citizens are classified as:

Maruns - people who work for MARU (government)

Theurgists - people who believe and worship mysterious beings, believers of supernatural and divinity

Teknikiin - people who develop and work on technologies

Ediin - agriculturists, economists, businessmen

Undergrounders (UGs) - rebels, and underground independent orgs

J.O.P - Just Ordinary People

Currency:

Points. All citizens are monitored and microchipped at their pulse. The installed permanent device is called SRAM.

With the help of SRAM, the citizens were monitored by Maru (government). The SRAM holds a person's entire biodata, entire web, entertainment, currency, entire life.

Technology:

They are able to turn a 3D holographic form to a physical object.

Economy:

Between the cities, there is a river connected to a lake, and the lake connected to the sea. Its water was mysterious, and it was the main source of power, oil, and minerals of Saikan. The economy was greatly dependent on it. But underneath the blessing was an equivalent price. The lake is called "The Cursed Lake" and river was called "The Dark River", for the water coming from there brought a plague. Anyone who touches it will be cursed. So the river and the lake were glass-sealed. Only selected personnel and machines were allowed to harvest from it.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Episode One: Lockheed Streetstar

Let us begin with a prophecy.

All gathered, the cult in white hooded robes, recited the eminent future through a song. They sang:

"Time... when the moon

turns blazing blue;

Time... when thunders no longer roar

and land thirsts dry;

Time devours the dead,

And the dead devours the living;

Time of destruction and of revolution;

Time... is power... and power is born

in the hands of the Clairvoyant."

These white clothed men are Theurgists. They devote their lives unveiling the mysteries of their land. Their faith is grounded and built on solid foundation, influencing the culture and tradition of Saikan.

The central city, Lockheed, is the place of the core believers. The theurgists here are influential. They are storytellers, magicians, actors, musicians, and media. They are the attraction and trendsetters.

The cult is lead by Kingsbirth.

Kingsbirth is a powerful man in the country. He lives in the biggest cruise-mansion called The Royal Voyager at Lockheed bay. He is greatly pleasured by art, performances, and divine powers. He is one of the richest people in Saikan, and one of the councilors of the governor.

Meanwhile, on a street in Lockheed, there was a young girl who captivated the attention of the crowd by performing. She was playing ERHI -- a musical instrument device interface that can record, playback, and loop beats and melodies -- projected in holographic form. She was busking for points.

The parks were lovely. The town was as sparkling as New York city. Tall buildings in peculiar architecture, flying vehicles, holograms everywhere. The girl, though in the lowest ranks of the J.O.P., stood out amidst the crowd... for no one was as good as her in their generation.

The girl is a streetkid, 13 years of age, one in the smallest percentage of the population who lives in poverty. Most of them are abandoned children. But among them, she was oddly blessed in maneuvering the SRAM.

It was a dim orange day as the sun's neon light rays peek in tiny holes of the clouds. After earning quite an amount of points through busking, the girl returned home -- a ruined infrastructure filled with street children. She distributed points to each of them, in which after, they ran, with gratitude and excitement, they ran to purchase their needs.

She smiled as they run away. And the smile faded when she heard a noise.

A child crying. She went to the little kid.

"Cicilli? Cicilli, what's wrong?"

The little kid continued to cry.

"I feel... I feel sad." The little kid said before she fainted. She was burning sick.

She carried her to the hospital nearby. The doctor checked her up, tied her, and told her that Cicilli might have caught the dark plague. It was very alarming.

"If anyone is infected by the dark river, the dark plague causes the following symptoms; at first, sadness, depressive thoughts, fear, and then insanity, and extreme hatred. Physicalizing, upon the next few hours, the skin will start to rot. They will bleed, drool excessively, and they will feel hunger, extreme hunger. They will eat food and not be satisfied. Until they eat flesh, their own and of others. The virus will then spread." Explained the doctor.

"We have to cut the parts that were infected. We have to cut her hand. If not, we'll go with euthanasia." The doctor added.

"How much... for her to live?" The girl asked as if she can afford.

"The operation costs 10000 points. That's already discounted." The doctor answered worrying.

"Do it. I'll come back with points." The girl said.

Believing the impossible, she agreed to pay for the operation and decided to go out and busk again.

After several plays she haven’t reached even close 10000...

“You need that much of points? Try to go to the Royal Voyager, maybe you’ll loot enough from the upper ranks.” A stranger suggested. And she went her way to the big mansion ship. She sneaked in to the lobby of the luxurious venue. She walked to the huge dining hall were higher ranks gathered. She opened her ERHI and began to play. The people laughed at her at first but then... something about the music changed the way they feel. They became so drawn to it that they started seeing images and memories.

And right there, Kingsbirth was watching.

After the song, Kingsbirth, as if heard an angel, walked towards her astonished and gave her the points she needs.

"My darling, little sweet darling, would you like to live in royalty? You are divine! You are a goddess!" Kingsbirth exclaimed.

"My friend is in a hospital right now and I need to go. Thank you, Kingsbirth. You have a good heart." She responded politely.

Then she hurriedly ran to the hospital. After an exhausting race, she got to Cicilli's bed and saw the kid lying pale, her skin rotted.

"She has ascended to the sky.” said the doctor. And the girl cried non-stop on the floor. She cried for two things; she cried for being low ranked; and she cried because despite having the points now, she is powerless to change the situation.

The doctor, crushed in sympathy, embraced her, like a mother.

"My name is Doctor Mishuno. Do you have anyone coming?" She asked.

"None." She answered.

"It's okay. You can stay with us. We will keep you." The doctor said.

At the height of the moment, a young boy, her son, called to her and saw the young girl.

"She's... she's that girl at the park! I saw her, Mishuno, she's the singer!" The boy claimed.

"Ah... this boy, he's my son, Clio." Said the doctor.

"Clio." The girl repeated. "I'm going home".

And the girl walked her way out. She returned to the ruined infrastructure, but nobody’s there anymore.

It rained. She sat on the sidewalk waiting for everybody, soaking. Then an umbrella appeared above her, preventing the water to soak her anymore. There was Clio.

"Hey, sorry I followed you here! Mishuno said your friend ascended.... and you don't have to pay anymore." In quite a long silence, the young girl didn't say anything, instead, she sang.

“Your voice resonates like thunder." The young boy said.

"They're gone... all of them. I think they're not coming back." Said the girl.

Then a luxurious vehicle stopped by them. Kingsbirth goes out.

“Come with me.” Kingsbirth invites the young girl, whom he knew was homeless.

"Hey, is that Kingsbirth, the theurgist oldman?!" Clio asked.

"Hold on, little boy. Let me talk to my little lady." Kingsbirth excused the girl to an isolated talk. He persuaded her by claiming that she has a divine purpose and that purpose is to go with him and start a new life. Clio wondered what was happening.

“Go home.” The girl said to Clio. Then she went inside the vehicle without looking back.

She left with Kingsbirth, seeking a better life.

Clio walks home alone. He encountered a strange man begging for food. When he couldn't give him any, the man bit him.

NEXT EPISODE: 

https://lejendarydreams.tumblr.com/post/622974112746422272/the-muse-episode-two-clairaudient

[eurekq]

so here they are.... my revamped darlings. naohiko, rika, amane, and maya are new! im going to put all their bios under the cut, they’re mostly copypasted from the old ref though except for the new kids :P i really like naohiko, he’s basically an amalgamation of every percussionist i’ve ever known lmfao

basic premise: 16 fresh-out-of-highschool prodigies are invited to star in well-respected and widely-watched big brother-esque reality tv show, which takes place on a cruise ship. what they weren't expecting was for the show's 25th season to be a killing game! the students: CHOUMI YUKIYAMA: exceptional among even her fellow shsls, choumi made her historic mark on ballet by becoming the world's youngest ever prima ballerina at the age of 13 and japan's first ever prima ballerina assoluta at 18. fans flock to her ethereal, angelic grace on stage as well as to the percieved sense of otherworldlyness surrounding her albinism. on the darker side of her popularity, repeated sexual harassment from fans and male dance partners alike has hardened her world view to make her not quite cold, but definitely reserved in her emotions. she adapts fairly easy to stressful situations and pushes through pain with almost no visible outward struggle due to her all too common experience with dancing through foot and ankle injuries. because of this she usually ends up taking initiative in difficult scenarios if no one else steps forward. she is also a quite talented hobbyist figure skater and is fluent in both english and russian. REN KIKUHARA: a fairly odd florist in that instead of ordering flowers to arrange into bouquets, every flower he sells is grown himself. although this means that his selection is seasonally and fairly regionally limited, he has an incredible talent for working with plants and can even sometimes coax out-of-zone flowers to grow. he's fluent in hanakotoba and is surprisingly good at flirting through flowers without it seeming cheesy, although he doesn't do it very often. people often remark that his bouquets often seem to have more love and life in them than store-bought ones. ren is a calm and kind soul and prefers listening to talking, with what he does say always seeming to be just the right words for the situation. MARIKO MIKAMI: mariko was a sickly child, and spent a large part of her elementary school years in hospitals. around the age of seven, she began folding paper cranes as something to do, and wished to live normally after she folded her 1000th. she soon recovered, and feels that she owes her life to origami. she is precise and calculating in everything she does, which shines through in her art: every delicate, artful piece of origami that she makes is creased and folded perfectly. she also dabbles in wet-fold origami. she's most famous for her dry-fold though, and her pieces are well known for their complex, precise, mathematical beauty. she refuses to fold paper cranes anymore, feeling that they are too sacred for her to touch after they saved her life as a child. a calm, slightly disconcerting smile is always on her face, no matter the circumstance; her manner is polite for the most part, if i a little aggressive. MOMOTAROU KOBARA: momotarou, born into a rich family that fufilled his near-every want, made a name for himself in the world of collecting at the age of just eleven by, through luck and love for the series, collecting every pokemon card. from then on he set onto collecting just about anything non-perishable: pins, collectors set bandaids, vinyls, etc. he has exceptional luck in finding deals on ebay and other sites. he cant really be called a hoarder, since he likes to have just one of everything; he resells, gifts, or uses any duplicates. his mood swings between a dreamy, chilled out, flirtatious persona and periods of numb depression when it hits him that his whole life revolves around material possesions and that he has no real human connections. SARA KUROKAWA: a talented young woman from a long line of popular backalley tattoo artists. she combines traditional symbolism and youthful influence in her designs to make something new and more appealing for the younger generation, and is a huge proponent for tattoos being shown off for fashion rather than hidden away in the traditional style. sara does have (illegal) tattoos done by her older siblings on her arms despite the minimum age being 20, although her being homeschooled, looking older than her actual age, and having a tendency to wear long sleeves year round has led her to encounter few problems. she and her family are among the many who simply choose to ignore the statute requiring a medical license to tattoo. sara is a fairly rude person in a backhanded way, acts stereotypically catty and even a little deranged sometimes, and enjoys making herself the center of attention, whether through her appearance (dyed pink hair and white contacts) or the things she says. the only two things that can break her shell and make her excited and genuine are tattooing and piano, which she has played from a young age and loves. NAOHIKO KINZUMI: the son of a concert pianist and a professional jazz drummer, naohiko shortcutted the usual pots-and-pans percussion stage most children go through and spent most of his childhood hitting actual drums. blessed with perfect pitch and a natural feel for rhythm, his parents enrolled him in private music lessons at age five, and he joined onto his first indoor percussion ensemble at age 13. a fast learner, naohiko can play most all percussion instruments at a professional level, including both tuned and auxiliary. he is especially known for his drumset skill, specifically being able to match the speed and complexity of most double kick pedal rhythms with just one foot, and his delicate grace at bowed vibraphone. naohiko is loud, brash, and fun, with an infectious smile and sense of humor that draws people in. despite the flashiness of his drumset playing, his favourite instruments are actually the weird obscure ones, like the waterphone, mahler hammer, and "bucket of loud objects to be dumped on the floor". HARUMI HAMANAKA: harumi is a sweet and bubbly girl, if almost cloyingly so. her good luck is a fairly stable force (nowhere near as chaotic as komaeda, for example), generally acting in the favor of wishes of people around her. her mother intensly wanted for her to be on the show because of the exposure it provides, and this is what harumi attributes to her being selected. despite the way her luck operates, shes no doormat and in fact has an overwhelming force of personality, and her sweet demeanor can become rather passive aggressive if challenged on pretty much anything. SHOU KATSUKI (PROTAG): pushed to succeed in the game from a very young age, shou is japan's reigning chess champion, a FIDE-certified grandmaster, and went to international competition the year before the killing game. he played through to the finals with influenza, which worsened through the matches due to lack of treatment and culminated in debilitating pneumonia that left him in the hospital and unable to play for first. because of this, he's cultivated a sort of inferiority complex that he tries to cover for with self-confidence, which actually comes off as condescending rudeness. he has a natural talent for cause and effect analyzation and is good at planning ahead. he gets flustered easily over trivial things and is a sore loser, but tends not to crack under actual pressure. shou doesn't like to be associated with his family due to the intense pressure they put him under only to steal his winnings the second he began to succeed and thus prefers to be referred to by his given name, even by near-strangers. he does genuinely love chess, but his favourite board game is actually risk. (no one ever wants to play with him, though.) RIKA FUJIMIYA: originally scouted as a young child for her unique eyes and birthmarks, rika's first minor film role at the age of nine left the director stunned at her acting capability. as someone who grew up with a very murky self image and a difficulty interpreting social situations, rika lived most of her early life essentially "acting" the way she believed others would respond well to, which resulted in her easily adapting to doing the same for the cameras. she went on to have a very prolific child acting career without really settling into a niche. As a teenager she took her first steps into stage acting, playing juliet capulet at 16 in a moving and extremely impressive performance, and later at 18 performing a striking and memorable female hamlet. her deep and rich voice has also landed her several voice acting roles. her personality offstage has solidified a lot more since her younger years, although she doesn't go out of her way to talk to anyone, fan or otherwise. when approached, she is polite, gentle, and humble, although she has trouble separating her image as a celebrity from that of her as a person and thus it is extremely difficult to get to know her. KENJI MINAMOTO: an eccentric and a bit airheaded olympic fencer whose strange insistence on not wearing protective gear during practice (he believes it makes him better by giving him a stronger motivation to not get hit) has earned him many a scar over the years, and has left at least half of his joints in braces at any given time. he follows his own bushido-esque moral code (the details of which he will not tell anyone), although he will not put himself above whapping the occasional really annoying person in the ankles. his épée is his best friend and he carries it most everywhere. most of the scars on his face and hands are actually from trying to put in his very sharp industrial piercings while drunk. despite his oddities, his light-footed and elegant ambidextrous fencing has been compared by many to a graceful dance, and although in many respects he comes across as dumb, on the court his mind is laser-focused and unbelievably quick and analytic. AMANE BECKE: a more lowkey type of talented than her fellow contestants, amane hasn't won any major competitions, been on tv, set any records, or anything of that sort. she does, however, run what is widely considered the best bakery in japan. based out of nagano and the daughter of a swiss pastry chef, amane has a natural talent for baking nurtured through over a decade of dedication and love for the craft. she excels at interesting flavor combinations, but her true genius is in her classic, feel-good baked goods. many say that the things she bakes just taste like home and warmth. amane is as warm and sweet as her creations, but with a spark of wit and mad-scientist-y genius that make her an entertaining joy to watch work, if a little overbearing to talk to. EISUKE ITOU: eisuke grew up sewing clothes for his younger sisters barbie dolls, and he particularly loved dressmaking. he gained exposure in his first year of highschool by handmaking gorgeous outfits for his class's booth at the school festival, and, through application to various junior fashion competitions, he was eventually noticed by a big-name designer in paris. however, he found learning french next to impossible and has spent the year prior to the game in relative isolation, unable to have any real human conversation. his psychological state was fairly severely impacted by his long hours spent sewing and designing on internship with no company to get him by, and he is now debilitatingly socially anxious and finds conversation difficult and awkward. MAYA HANABAYASHI: maya spent her early teens with only a passing interest in survival-based media, having enjoyed hunger games and similar media, but not to the point of obsession. however, when traveling on a plane with her father back from visiting family in las vegas, she found herself in a similar situation when their plane went down in a heavily forested area of california, leaving a seventeen year old maya as the only survivor. with only a swiss army knife and a lipstick-shaped stun gun gifted to her by her father to feel safer during their stay in vegas, she survived alone in the woods hatchet-style for six months until late fall, when the fallen leaves made her campfire coincidentally visible to a very observant park ranger on firewatch. after being rescued and returned home to japan, maya found it extremely difficult to readjust to normal life. her thick and warm camo jacket, more a fashion statement when she was wearing it originally, was lifesaver to her during the cold spring, and she she can't bring herself to separate from it even with multiple rips and burns in the fabric. she has refused multiple book deals due to still being heavily traumatized, but after a long period of deliberation decided to go on the show as a way of finally moving forward and acknowledging it. maya isn't exactly socially anxious, but rather closed off and disconnected. JUN TENSEI: born jun harada, many believe that his spiritual connection is the real deal, but a few critics hold that he is most likely just an incredibly talented bluffer. the real truth about him is unknown, but many say that his seances do accurately reflect the personalities of their deceased loved ones and help them feel at peace. he is deeply religious, but not to any one traditional faith (although he does use traditional christian symbols such as crucifixes and items such as holy water on occasion). he believes strongly in the power of the soul and its ability to exist beyond death. his voice is soft and almost hypnotic, and he has a penchant for gentle teasing and riddles. he comes off as pretty shady to most, but he's fairly harmless. TOMOKO KAITA: a peppy and outgoing astrology guru who can read your deepest flaws and strengths with just your date and time of birth. known worldwide for her extremely accurate personal horoscopes. despite this, she strongly believes in the ability of an individual to defy their fate through hard work and self improvement. she dislikes giving negative horoscopes, and does her best to focus on the positives that the stars hold in store. her smile brightens the whole room! she is intensely loyal to her friends, to the point of self-sacrificing emotional labor. YUU IROIKE: yuu iroike isn't even his real name, and it's a mystery as to how show staff even tracked down his mailing address to get him on the show. he's a well-known public figure for painting huge, sprawling, colorful murals in tokyo, yet who he really is remains unknown. he paints faster than his murals can be scrubbed away, and has somehow never been prosecuted for vandalism because his graffiti is generally considered an improvment. he's sly, mysterious, and teasing in person, and gets a bit of an itchy trigger finger when he hasn't painted in a while. His skill with spray paint is so great that it seems as if the paint bends to his very will.

[seasonallydepressed]

My two newest characters.

WISTERIA "ICARUS" WATSON

She stands tall in presence, despite her fairly diminutive stature. She stands at 5'3, her mane of curly strawberry blonde hair oft left wild in her fights. When styled, she may braid a single side close to her head, but she loves the wildness of her hair. Her skin is fair by nature, but tanned by work. She is covered in scratches, bumps, bruises, and old scars. Freckles dot her face, shoulders, chest, and forearms. Her body itself is slender, and fairly rectangular, having less curve than many women of her age. She thanks the Gods for this blessing, as it makes armor fitting easy. She wears layered armors when she is fit for battle, wearing many colors and no clear standard. Out of battle, her clothes are simple and open. Loose pants, an open shirt, and a simple leather belt to match her simple folded leather boots.

It isn't common for a woman to become a squire in the city she was raised. Even less likely for a human to be one. She spent her early days working the land outside of the royal city of Jul'Pei, home of the High Elves. She would ascend to to her position as a squire from there after a dark day. From there she spent years in training, her love of fighting having started on the farm, now refined and practiced, turning her into a capable soldier. She found her mind growing very quickly and that she had a knack for tactics. This quick-wit of hers led to the natural track of focusing more on maneuvers that brute force or magic that some of her peers did. She would never finish her Squireship, however, as her knight died before she could be knighted, and the city was not keen on knighting a human woman.

The story of her becoming a squire is mostly one of luck, good and bad. She was in the fields, tending to the crops at the young age of 12. The Army was occupying their home currently, and she had had enough of them for the time being, pushing her into the fields very early that morning. Due to this, she saw them first. From the horizon, an army seemed to march upon the farm. A warband came crashing through her soft summer morning, razing her crops to the ground. The army was there that day and met the warband with force, but she was caught in the middle armed with only the tools she had brought out this morn. When the warband retreated, she stood there, covered in soot and blood. War had grasped her by the throat and she had broken it's fingers. Now she was hungry for more. A knight in the army, Sir Alderran, and the commander of the company that had been living on her farm had seen her feats. Through his power, he commandeered her for service, employing her as his squire.

Though she remembers fondly her life on the farm, she feels as though when she began her training that her life really started. She threw herself into her studies. She trained hard and fast. She grew strong, swift, and tough. Sir Alderran had ensured she would be caught up in her studies, teaching her not only writing but calligraphy. He taught her courtly behaviour, but it stuck fairly poorly. She would often state she never felt more alive than when she was being fought in the field. Her stature and late start put her at a severe disadvantage in the combats she faced, so her brain had to work to make the difference. She fought with new tactics and surprise moves, often to the disdain of her Knight. Still, she succeeded in combat and rose quickly under the pressure, earning the trust and comradiere of her fellow squires.

When she followed her knight to war, she expected to come back and be knighted herself. They met a warband in a classically stereotypical field. The same warband the Army had allowed to go free back when she had first encountered war. War had once again placed its hand around her throat, but this time she would not be satisfied with simply breaking it's hand, she would crush it's skull. She was flush with anger, and her rage fueled her to stop thinking and start acting. She over-extended during the battle, facing down an enemy much larger, stronger, and more experienced. She was horribly injured, a large gash opened in her shoulder, arcing down across her chest. The wound was given in torture, to ensure scarring, if she were to survive. Due to her weakness, Sir Alderran was to her side, saving her life but leaving his company without command. The entire company fell that day, and as herself and Sir Alderran retreated and arrow found itself married with his skull. She returned broken, bloody, and empty. She had quickly become Icarus, drowning in her sea of grief.

The elves of the city had quickly stripped her of service and rank, despite nobody knowing the truth of what happened that day. She would spend a year and a half in silence, focusing her mind on a fight she had never faced before. Her body, however, went on without her. She joined a fledgling mercenary band that insisted upon calling itself an adventuring guild. The Copper Dragon was her family now, and she pushed out to earn the money to survive. She never reached any high ranks, but she was unbothered. Her silence ended when she found a friend in Juu'Nstas, a quirky Triton far from home. He told unbelieveable stories about a faraway land where people sailed boats to live. The first noise she made in her nineteenth year of life was a laugh. With her voice restored, she tempered her confidence with wisdom, and took to the life of an 'Adventurer' much more seriously. Juu'Nstas at her side and the symbol of a low ranking Copper Dragon on her belt, the two pushed out to seek gold and glory. Icarus had found wings once more.

JUU'NSTAS "JUNE" PLIPATH

He is tall for his people, standing at 5 foot exactly. His personality matches it, bringing a larger than life style of joy into a room. His skin is a pale blue, at times seemingly translucent, and his hair is long, straight, and a soft sea foam green. Being a triton he has webbed hands and feet, and enjoys frequent dips into water. Being a person who hates clothes, he often has to be reminded to remain at least halfway dressed, lest folks find him less than decent. When armored, his mail seems to shine like sunlight filtering through water, and his glaive has an intricate wave pattern across the spine. Though a more reckless fighter, he is suspiciously unscarred. Regardless, his hands carry callouses from all his ropework.

A Triton hailing from Samyasa, who grew up off the coast of the tiny city Plip, Juu'Nstas was put naturally into the role of a deep-sea fisherman. He had greater ambitions though, driven by his desire to explore and see brand new things. People called him crazy, for talking of wanting to sail the rough, stormy, waters and try and see what lies beyond the horizon of his land of birth, but still yet he was able to assemble a group of others with similar minds. They put together a small group, had a ship built sturdy and enclosed, and said their goodbyes. The crew was small, only six folks total. They would be the first to travel across the seas and make contact with another nation-- though they have no real desire for political business, so they would not report this. Though they still tell stories of their homelands to those in a bar. Juu'Nstas took to the travel particularly well, finding his love and religion in the storm, deciding to dedicate himself to that natural world once he arrived.

He knew how to sail before he could talk. He spent his earliest days tying knots and unfurling sails. His childhood was spent submerged more than not, and his middling teens were spent hauling and fishing. In between it all, he learned how to fight and all about the principles of honor, as is traditional for Tritons, however restrictive it was for him. He felt a call to something deeper though. The ocean called him like a sultry lover. In time, he responded, and the cobalt mistress stole him from his life, his love, and his career.

He spent the better part of his early adulthood sailing around the Dellina Delta to find others crazy enough to sail with him, much to the disapproval of his partner Zaajaas. Surprisingly he found five others willing to hit the stormy waves with him, and even more surprisingly they were able to cobble together the money to fund the creation of their own ship: The Fairmaiden's Voyage. The ship was built heavier and sturdier than most, with a closed cabin and windowed helm. It was a unique vessel, slow but perfect to weather the storms that lay ahead of them. He was the last to board the ship, as his partner tried to stop him one final time before he left. Juu'nsta promised him that he would return soon.

On the sea itself, they faced many challenges. Food drained faster than expected, they were sent adrift for a short time, and they didn't expect to grow so irritated with each other. The storms themselves did not help in any regard. During a particularly bad storm, Juu'nstas found himself tied to the mast and praying to whoever would listen. In the storms he heard Melora, who came down in the form of a woman made of lightning and rain. She said nothing, and he thought he may have been hallucinating, but shortly after she vanished again the storm faded with her. From that day, he swore his oath to her, to defend the things she found sacred, and the free anybody from the tyranny she would hate. In return, he was blessed with his divine power.

They were very surprised after the week they spent lost, starving, and maddened, when they came across an unfamilar shoreline. When they touched down on the land and were met peaceably by civilization they were overjoyed. They quickly found themselves telling the story of their travels, though nobody appeared to believe them: calling them maddened by seawater. Still, they were well received and assisted. They took up their boat once more, cruising around to another port town, where they were met by a halfling who was very interested in their story. The halfling man, named Tim, promised them funding for their sailing if they promised to join his new guild, The Copper Dragon. They signed on, and set off to get the lay of the land. Upon reaching the Homestead of The Copper Dragon, they were given their ranks and shown how they could make much more money for a newer, larger ship. They took up adventuring. While drinking one night, after a successful quest and good reward, Juu'Nstas found himself faced with a silent woman, broken by grief and shadowed with doubt. For the first time in months, he chose to tell his story- with added humor- and she laughed. From that moment. They were close friends. He would consider her as close as his shipmates, and she would consider him a brother. After a time of rest, the two decided to travel together, and took to the land for gold and glory.

[businessweekme]

For These Billionaires, It’s All About Cruise Fleets

It was a cold and cloudy July day in Reykjavik, and French arts patron Maryvonne Pinault was at a pier fulfilling her godmother duties for Le Laperouse, the first of six 184-passenger, upscale expedition yachts from her husband’s Marseilles-based cruise line Compagnie du Ponant. French billionaire and Kering SA chairman Francois Pinault wasn’t there to watch his wife smash a bottle of Champagne against the ship’s hull in the time-honored nautical tradition. But it was always going to be her ship more than his; buying the cruise company was Madame Pinault’s idea, after all.

In 2015, Pinault’s holding company, Groupe Artemis, acquired Ponant from Bridgepoint Capital for an undisclosed sum. Now the cruise line, which reports annual revenues of about $182 million, is part of a luxury portfolio that also includes Gucci, Christie’s auction house, and famed vineyard Château Latour. The Pinaults, by extension, are joining a tight-knit community of billionaires in the cruise industry, ranging from newcomer Richard Branson to industry forefather Micky Arison and the self-made Norwegian upstart, Torstein Hagen.

In an industry very much dominated by top players—Carnival Corp. and Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. control 70 percent of the market—it is mostly niche segments such as Ponant’s that are attracting wealthy entrepreneurs, says Brian Egger of Bloomberg Intelligence. Despite barriers to entry such as the cost and time it takes to build new ships, he says the industry can be a “good bet,” especially if you’re going after an underserved demographic.

The potential market is expansive. According to the Cruise Lines International Association trade group, cruising is a $126 billion industry with plenty of room to grow. Egger says that only about 20 percent of Americans have taken cruises, and the number is smaller for Europeans and smaller still for Asians. “It’s still a relatively under-penetrated sub-segment of the leisure and vacation market,” he says.

Get new cruisers on a ship, though, and they’re very likely to become return clients. So perhaps it’s no surprise that billionaires like Pinault are feeling the call of the seven seas.

New Investors at Sea

Branson identified one such niche before announcing his intention to start a cruise line in 2014: Virgin Voyages. With significant funding from Bain Capital, he’s spending $2.55 billion to build three adults-only ships for so-called “rebels with a cause,” starting with the 2,700-passenger Scarlet Lady, slated for completion in 2020. It’ll have a naked mermaid on its hull, mostly serving the Caribbean and employing a “Scarlet Squad” that promotes female leadership within the crew.

In an email from Genoa, Italy, where he was attending a shipyard event, Branson said he’d been thinking about the cruise industry for more than 40 years.

“At the age of 27, I was already dreaming of starting a cruise line despite never having been on a cruise,” Branson told Bloomberg. “What I had seen and heard about cruises sounded quite dull, so I figured I’d start my own.”

Meanwhile, Malaysian Chinese billionaire Lim Kok Thay, chairman of resorts and casinos company Genting Group, has been reshaping the luxury cruise market since he acquired Crystal Cruises from Japan’s Nippon Yusen Kabushiki Kaisha in 2015 for $550 million in cash. Lim isn’t as new to the cruise industry as Branson: His company also owns Asia’s Star Cruises and Dream Cruises and maintains a small stake in Norwegian Cruise Line. But with Crystal, he’s delving into the global industry’s top-end sector and making it even  friendlier for the world’s richest cruisers.

Under Lim’s stewardship, Crystal has undergone a lightning-fast expansion. The company, which had just two ships at the time of acquisition, has bought and renovated an existing river ship, built four new, all-suite river vessels to sail the Danube and Rhine, added a charter jet service, purchased three shipyards, and ordered an additional ocean-and-expedition ship. It’s also renovated its two original products, Crystal Symphony and Crystal Serenity, reworking their overall footprints to add butler-serviced penthouse suites and offer additional space per passenger.

And there’s Madame Pinault, who fell in love with Ponant and its environmental bonafides on a cruise to Antarctica. She and her husband are leaning into the niche. In addition to the six expedition yachts, the Pinaults have also commissioned the world’s first electric-hybrid icebreaker powered by liquified natural gas. It’s costing the company about $323 million and will carry 270 passengers when it’s complete in 2021.

“Shipbuilding is a capital-intensive undertaking,” reminds Bloomberg Intelligence’s Egger. While the romance and favorable economics of the cruise industry are likely to continue to attract wealthy entrepreneurs, even those with ocean-deep pockets still face risks in the seafaring trade.

“Cruise sales are affected by swings in consumer discretionary demand and the price of fuel, the expense for which amounted to between 6 percent and 8 percent of Carnival’s sales in the past three years,” says Egger. Also, he notes, hurricanes, shipboard incidents, and geopolitical events can disrupt itineraries. “Fortunately for cruise operators, ships, unlike their land-based hospitality rivals, are mobile assets that can be redeployed to avoid stormy weather—both political and meteorological.”

Cruise-Made Billionaires

If anyone understands why cruising makes it’s all worth it, it’s Torstein Hagen.

A Norwegian-born cruise industry executive, Hagen took a big bet when he emptied his bank account in 1997 to purchase four river ships. The company he created to take North American tourists through Russia—Viking River Cruises—has since grown to 64 river ships, with an additional seven due next year. So large is the reach that nearly half of the North Americans who take a river cruise in Europe do so on one of his ships.

Today, Hagen is a cruise billionaire (after selling minority stakes in the business). His secret has been an all-inclusive fare that eliminates such standard upcharges as shore excursions and booze.

Just as important, he designs ships to his own persnickety tastes: They serve Norwegian salmon, his favorite food; have streamlined contemporary furnishings, because that’s what he likes; and have only square wastebaskets in guestrooms, because they’re better for catching wadded-up paper. The ensuing formula is endlessly replicable, with an appeal beyond rivers. Currently, Hagen is doubling the size of his five-ship ocean line that debuted in 2015, to rave reviews.

A newly minted cruise billionaire, Manfredi Lefebvre d’Ovidio, is one of Hagen’s best friends. In July, d’Ovidio sold a 66.7 percent stake of his ultra-luxury, expedition-focused Silversea Cruises to Royal Caribbean for about $1 billion.

For the Love of Seafaring

Some industry bold-facers, such as MSC Cruises’s Gianluigi and Rafaela Aponte, find that owning ships is as much about passion than profits. The couple, who made their fortune in the cargo-shipping business, launched MSC in 2003 as a way to further build on a family-held seafaring history that dates to the 17th century.

Now the world’s fourth-largest line, MSC benefits from Gianluigi’s technical shipbuilding knowledge—he is a former sea captain from Sorrento, Italy—as well as Rafaela’s design intuition. Daughter Alexa is chief financial officer of the MSC Group, which includes all the family’s holdings, while her husband, Pierfrancesco Vago, runs the cruise line as executive chairman. Gianluigi’s net worth is valued at $8.1 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

The family has been busy. After launching a dozen mega-ships in the last 15 years, the company is in the midst of a second-wave, multibillion-dollar expansion. By 2026 it will have tripled its passenger capacity to more than 5 million guests (growing to 25 mega-ships) and risen from being Europe’s leading line to the industry’s third-largest player (outranking Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd.).

Nobody thinks of cruising as a family business more than Micky Arison does, though. His late father, Ted, founded Carnival Cruise Line in 1972. To this day, Micky has a significant stake in the publicly traded company, which has grown to be the industry’s largest player, with 10 brands and more than 100 ships around the world.

“I would say that we have been living my dad’s dream for many years now,” he tells Bloomberg. “I have loved cruising for as long as I can remember—I have a special passion for shipbuilding, of course, but I enjoy every part of this industry.”

Even though Arison stepped down from his 34-year-long tenure as chief executive officer in 2013, he remains involved as Carnival Corp.’s chairman. He still attends inaugurals and other shipboard events, and while he defers to his staff for the vast majority of decisions, he still voices suggestions about such things as detailed as onboard amenities.

For all the newcomers, Arison remains the guy to emulate. No matter how humble he is about his industry contributions, he’s the one that made cruising a popular vacation option for travelers at all ends of the budget spectrum—and he’ll always be the original cruise billionaire.

The post For These Billionaires, It’s All About Cruise Fleets appeared first on Bloomberg Businessweek Middle East.

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[eurekq]

got my full fanganronpa designed with names and backstories and personalities and everything... character info is under the cut! all the bios took about a week to put together so i hope you give them a look <3

basic premise: 16 fresh-out-of-highschool prodigies are invited to star in well-respected and widely-watched reality tv show, which takes place on a cruise ship. what they weren't expecting was for the show's 25th season to be a killing game! the students: TOMOKO KAITA: a peppy and outgoing astrology guru who can read your deepest flaws and strengths with just your date and time of birth. known worldwide for her extremely accurate personal horoscopes. despite this, she strongly believes in the ability of an individual to defy their fate through hard work and self improvement. she dislikes giving negative horoscopes, and does her best to focus on the positives that the stars hold in store. her smile brightens the whole room! she is intensly loyal to her friends, to the point of self-sacficing emotional labor. KENJI MINAMOTO: a formal and eccentric olympic fencer whose strange insistance on not wearing protective gear during practice (he believes it makes him better by giving him a stronger motivation to not get hit) has earned him many a scar over the years, and has left at least half of his joints in braces at any given time. he follows his own bushido-esque moral code, although he will not put himself above whapping the occasional really annoying person in the ankles. his épée is his best friend and he carries it most everywhere. most of the scars on his face and hands are actually from trying to put in his very sharp industrial piercings while drunk. despite his oddities, his lightfooted and elegant fencing has been compared by many to a graceful dance. HAZUKO KAGENO: a secretly sweet and polite orphan who took up puppetry as a child in an orphanage to amuse the younger kids. years of retreating into her puppets' personas has left her unable to communicate normally, and she prefers to talk through her puppets, her favourite being lady ravensdale, a proper lady in victorian fashion. she doesn't take very good care of her actual appearance, with long, tangled, split-ended hair and rips in her clothes. the only exception is her hands, which she keeps meticulously maintained and manicured, since they're the only part of her body visible during shows. her creepy smile and wide, glazed-over eyes are offputting to most she meets, but she is a truly kind and passionate person whose animated and lively puppet shows can bring a smile to any childs face. EISUKE ITOU: eisuke grew up sewing clothes for his younger sisters barbie dolls, and he particularly loved dressmaking. he gained exposure in his first year of highschool by handmaking gorgeous outfits for his class's booth at the school festival, and, through application to various junior fashion competitions, he was eventually noticed by a big-name designer in paris. however, he found learning french next to impossible and has spent the year prior to the game in relative isolation, unable to have any real human conversation. his pyschological state was fairly severely impacted by his long hours spent sewing and designing on internship with no company to get him by, and he is now debilitatingly socially anxious and finds conversation difficult and awkward. SHIN TOKUGEN: a silver-tongued and charistmatic human interest and general news reporter who specializes in getting personal accounts from those affected by newsworthy events. growing up billingual in english and japanese due to his american mother, language comes as easy as breathing to him. in addition to his mother tongues, he fluently speaks chinese, korean, arabic, spanish, and russian. news outlets pay hefty prices for his emotionally provacative and insightful interview stories, which covers all his travel expenses. he has a unique talent for getting complete strangers to reveal to him things that they might not even tell close friends. actual casual conversation with can be a little offputting, since it always feels like an interview, even when he's trying his best to not. MARIKO MIKAMI: mariko was a sickly child, and spent a large part of her elementary school years in hospitals. around the age of seven, she began folding paper cranes as something to do, and wished to live normally after she folded her 1000th. she soon recovered, and feels that she owes her life to origami. she is precise and calculating in everything she does, which shines through in her art: every delicate, artful piece of origami that she makes is creased and folded perfectly. she also dabbles in wet-fold origami. she's most famous for her dry-fold though, and her pieces are well known for their complex, precise, mathematical beauty. she refuses to fold paper cranes anymore, feeling that they are too sacred for her to touch after they saved her life as a child. a calm, slightly disconcerting smile is always on her face, no matter the circumstance; her manner is consistantly cool and polite. YUU IROIKE: yuu iroike isn't even his real name, and it's a mystery as to how show staff even tracked down his mailing address to get him on the show. he's a well-known public figure for painting huge, sprawling, colorful murals in tokyo, yet who he really is remains unknown. he paints faster than his murals can be scrubbed away, and has somehow never been prosecuted for vandalism because his graffiti is generally considered an improvment. he's sly, mysterious, and teasing in person, and gets a bit of an itchy trigger finger when he hasn't painted in a while. His skill with spray paint is so great that it seems as if the paint bends to his very will. MARIYA HAN: born and raised in rio de janeiro, mariya moved to her father's home country of japan at the age of eleven. inspired by the more vibrant trends in brazil as opposed to japan, mariya broke out of her mold at the age of 13 by experimenting with dramatic makeup and dying her hair blonde. she has adopted a delinquent-ish persona over the years due to general disapproval from teachers because of the looks she presents. her impeccable sense of all-around style has made her one of the very few half-japanese models to appear on the covers of magazines like kera and zipper. she has an uncanny sense of color and structure and is able to create attractive and stylish looks for almost any face. HARUMI HAMANAKA: harumi is a sweet and bubbly girl, if almost cloyingly so. her good luck is a fairly stable force (nowhere near as chaotic as komaeda, for example), generally acting in the favor of wishes of people around her. her mother intensly wanted for her to be on the show because of the exposure it provides, and this is what harumi attributes to her being selected. despite the way her luck operates, shes no doormat and in fact has an overwhelming force of personality, and her sweet demeanor can become rather passive aggressive if challenged on pretty much anything. MOMOTAROU KOBARA: momotarou, born into a rich family that fufilled his near-every want, made a name for himself in the world of collecting at the age of just eleven by, through luck and love for the series, collecting every pokemon card. from then on he set onto collecting just about anything non-perishable: pins, collectors set bandaids, vinyls, etc. he has exceptional luck in finding deals on ebay and other sites. he cant really be called a hoarder, since he likes to have just one of everything; he resells, gifts, or uses any duplicates. his mood swings between a dreamy, chilled out, flirtatious persona and periods of numb depression when it hits him that his whole life revolves around material possesions and that he has no real human connections. CHOUMI YUKIYAMA: exceptional among even her fellow shsls, choumi made her historic mark on ballet by becoming the world's youngest ever prima ballerina at the age of 13 and japan's first ever prima ballerina assoluta at 18. fans flock to her ethereal, angelic grace on stage as well as to the percieved sense of otherworldlyness surrounding her albinism. on the darker side of her popularity, repeated sexual harassment from fans and male dance partners alike has hardened her world view to make her not quite cold, but definitely reserved in her emotions. she adapts fairly easy to stressful situations and pushes through pain with almost no visible outward struggle due to her all too common experience with dancing through foot and ankle injuries. because of this she usually ends up taking initiative in difficult scenarios if no one else steps forward. she is also a quite talented hobbyist figure skater and is fluent in both english and russian. REN KIKUHARA: a fairly odd florist in that instead of ordering flowers to arrange into bouquets, every flower he sells is grown himself. although this means that his selection is seasonally and fairly regionally limited, he has an incredible talent for working with plants and can even sometimes coax out-of-zone flowers to grow. he's fluent in hanakotoba and is surprisingly good at flirting through flowers without it seeming cheesy, although he doesn't do it very often. people often remark that his bouquets often seem to have more love and life in them than store-bought ones. ren is a calm and kind soul and prefers listening to talking, with what he does say always seeming to be just the right words for the situation. JUN TENSEI: born jun harada, many believe that his spiritual connection is the real deal, but a few critics hold that he is most likely just an incredibly talented bluffer. the real truth about him is unknown, but many say that his seances do accurately reflect the personalities of their deceased loved ones and help them feel at peace. he is deeply religious, but not to any one traditional faith (although he does use traditional christian symbols such as crucifixes and items such as holy water on occasion). he believes strongly in the power of the soul and its ability to exist beyond death. his voice is soft and low, and he has a penchent for gentle teasing and riddles. he comes off as pretty shady to most, but he's fairly harmless. SARA KUROKAWA: a talented young woman from a long line of popular backalley tattoo artists. she combines traditional symbolism and youthful influence in her designs to make something new and more appealing for the younger generation, and is a huge proponent for tattoos being shown off for fashion rather than hidden away in the traditional style. sara does have (illegal) tattoos done by her older siblings on her arms despite the minimum age being 20, although her being homeschooled, looking older than her actual age, and having a tendency to wear long sleeves year round has led her to encounter few problems. she and her family are among the many who simply choose to ignore the statute requiring a medical license to tattoo. sara is a fairly rude person in a backhanded way, acts stereotypically catty, and enjoys making herself the center of attention, whether through her appearance (dyed pink hair and white contacts) or the things she says. the only two things that can break her shell and make her excited and genuine are tattooing and piano, which she has played from a young age and loves. SHOU KATSUKI (PROTAG): pushed to succeed in the game from a very young age, shou is japan's reigning chess champion, a FIDE-certified grandmaster, and went to international competition the year before the killing game. he played through to the finals with influenza, which worsened through the matches due to lack of treatment and culminated in debilitating pneumonia that left him in the hospital and unable to play for first. because of this, he's cultivated a sort of inferiority complex that he tries to cover for with self-confidence, which actually comes off as condescending rudeness. he has a natural talent for cause and effect analyzation and is good at planning ahead. he gets flustered easily over trivial things and is a sore loser, but tends not to crack under actual pressure. shou doesn't like to be associated with his family due to the intense pressure they put him under only to steal his winnings the second he began to succeed and thus prefers to be referred to by his given name, even by near-strangers. he does genuinely love chess, but his favourite board game is actually risk. (no one ever wants to play with him, though.) MIKI SHIMAZAKI: a child prodigy from a family of cheerleaders, miki learned to love the sport over years of family pressure. famous for winning back to back nationals from age 13 to present, she's well aware of the image of unintelligence and sexualisation that comes along with being a young girl in cheerleading, and these two topics are sort of trigger points for her. after a while she grew tired of people telling her that they were suprised she was nice and were expecting her to be a bitch, so she adopted a fake-nice, popular girl type persona to basically give people what they were expecting. miki trusts very few people due to the many creeps shes encountered, but her few friends are the most important thing in her life and she would stop at nothing to protect them.