Gacha Hell - Application

OOC

Name: Emily
Plurk: deerleisure
Age: mrgrgr
Current Roster: N/A

IC

Name: Ember Resuine
Canon: Original (Infinity Frontier)
Canon Point: After conquering Inferno Citadel and all the baggage that comes with that

Canon reference: N/A

Details: Ember Resuine was born Evan Mackenzie. This was a mistake on somebody's part, and life didn't improve much after that. Being raised in a conservative environment wasn't good for them, and attempts to come out did... not go so well. Around the time they were getting into college, though, VRMMORPGs (virtual reality massive multiplayer online role-playing games) were gaining a lot of popularity, especially since virutal reality equipment was becoming something akin to affordable. The biggest VRMMORPG was Infinity Frontier, and one of Evan's new college friends talked them into signing up.

It was in Infinity Frontier that Ember Resuine was born. Or was made, technically, as a character for Evan to play as. Ember really grew into herself there in that MMO. Evan was withdrawn, hiding from the world and from herself. Her defensive mechanism, built up from years of living with a conservative family, was to shut up and try to make herself invisible to others. In the game, Ember could just... be herself. Find out what "being herself" even meant. She enjoyed having friends, and she liked supporting them. She found herself a lot more vocal. She enjoyed dressing up in various costumes, and tried to coordinate her friends' outfits, when they would let her. She had some snark and dry humor, and a lot of genuine cheerfulness. These were all traits Ember didn't even know she had.

With the first content expansion, things changed. Everybody, at least on their server, became trapped in the game. It also came with some wierd mechanics changes, such as player-killing, and weirder-still changes like the ability to actual feel, taste, and smell inside the game. Players panicked, but eventually, they also adjusted. For Ember and her guild, there was also the nagging sense of... maybe it was for the better. Ember could not only have a girl's body, but really feel like it was her own instead of a fickle illusion of virtual reality. She didn't have to deal with her family. It was just... her and her friends, being who they really were.

Still, most players wanted out, and everyone wanted answers, and their only hope for that was in the final dungeon of the expansion, the Inferno Citadel. When they reach the top eventually, as they of course did, they got some answers in the form of the AI, OMOIKANE, telling them they were all AIs. And then another player named Lightbringer47 took that not-well, PKing them and killing OMOIKANE and just generally fucking everything up. Fuck.

Ember has a lot of issues thanks to her upbringing. Her conflict resolution is permanently set to "shut up and withdraw and pretend everything is okay until you die." She's lived most of her life without doing much actual living, eeking out an existence with little else. But she has been sorting through these issues thanks to a more supportive environment, which was ironically an MMO.

As she stands now, Ember is a girl who tries to remain in good spirits, but is constantly challenged in that. She wears her reactions on her sleeve, using snark and dry humor often in response. She has hobbies - besides gaming, which is unavoidable in her current situation - she spends a lot of time coordinating outfits, decorating the guild airship, and trying to find new combinations of items to craft with. She still prefers to stay out of the spotlight, but she will fully support her friends in any way she can.

Memory Loss Level: Partial
Allow Painful Memories? Yes

Regains:
70 Character Levels (Ability)
Attain the current maximum character level with all the stat boosts that comes with.

Free Item Use Skill Tree (Ability)
All the skills under the Free Item Use skill tree. An active skill to use an item without consuming it, passive abilities for a chance to not consume an item on use, etc.

Potency Skill Tree (Ability)
Focuses on the ability to draw more effect out of items, increasing their effectiveness or potency. A regular potion might heal 1000 HP, but when you use it, it heals 3000 HP. Also includes skills to draw new additional effects out of items.

Glamour (Ability)
The ability to make one set of clothing or amor look like another, but retain the same stats. Requires a copy of what you want the disguised clothing/armor to look like.

Item Crafting (Alchemy) (Ability)
The ability to throw random items into a cauldron and get other items! Item type, item potency, various stats, optional buffs, taste, texture, and more can all vary depending on items used, how the items were put in, and the whims of the universe.

Item Crafting (Smithing) (Ability)
The ability to take a hammer and tongs to various metals and monster parts to make functional weapons, armor, and accessories. Includes optimizing boosts from a crafting-based class and subclass.

RPG-Style Inventory System (Ability)
The ability to store up to ninety-nine of the same item and an infinite variety of items (up to a certain size) in your personal inventory, to be sorted through and retrieved at leisure.

Holographic User Menu (Ability)
The ability to call up a holographic menu with access to your personal inventory, skills, equipment, and character stats.

MMO-Style Health System (Ability)
Your health will now be displayed as a numeric value called Hit Points, with an observable current and maximum value. Pain will still be felt as you get hurt, but will not result in permanent injuries or lasting pain, only a subtraction of your HP.

MMO-Style Death System (Ability)
When you die, your body will disappear, leaving behind anything you earned or picked up since your last time in a "safe area." You will then respawn in that safe area. If you want to pick up what was lost, you have to venture back out to your death point to reclaim it.

Potion Item Set (Item)
A set of potions, healing for 1000 HP, 1500 HP, and 2500 HP. Comes with a variety of secondary effects (cures poison, freeze, paralysis, burn, etc.) and in a variety of flavors (most popular is cherry cola.)

Bomb Item Set (Item)
A set of bombs, useful for blowing up enemies and destructable terrain. Comes in a variety of strengths and elements.

Inferno Service Uniform Set (Item)
A level 70 equipment set. Good magic resistance with bonus resistance to fire. This set comes with an additional bonus to the creation of fire elemental items. Looks like either a maid or butler outfit (with red accents) depending on the gender of the wearer.

Shadow Royalty Set (Item)
A level 60 equipment set. Decent magic resistance and physical defense, but not great. Absorbs dark-elemental magic though. This set comes with additional bonuses to magical attack power. Looks like a dark gothic lolita outfit (either a dress or prince style, depending on the gender of the wearer.)

Summer Festival Set (Item)
A level 1 equipment set. It offers no stat bonuses. It's a pink floral yukata on girls, and a deep blue yukata on guys. It's not even from a Japanese MMO, so why was this included?

Summer Beachwear Set (Item)
A level 1 equipment set. It confers no stat bonuses. It's a swimsuit that can be dyed multiple colors - its default is blue. On girls, it appears as a two-piece, on guys, swim trunks. Every MMO-player has one.

The Shepard (Sling) (Item)
A level 70 sling. It can fling projectile items such as bombs a long distance, or stones. Very mighty for a sling, but not very mighty compared to other ranged weapons. Once said to bring down a giant.

Alchemical Pendant (Item)
A level 70 accessory. Confers bonuses when crafting with alchemy. Makes it easier to get better secondary effects, and sometimes crafts an item without using the ingredients!

Clockwork Automaton (Item)
A small robot about the size of a football made of various brass and steel clockwork mechanisms. It doesn't do much but follow you around and pick up small objects for you, but it can apparently be upgraded.

What's In A Dress (Memory)
A short memory from early childhood. Trying on a dress at a friend's house, being caught by their parents, and having a long talk about why it's wrong with your parents later.

Stepping Out Then Back In (Memory)
Coming out to your parents with a painful secret. Their immediate, vocal, violent objections. You quickly placate them that it was a bad joke, and things are awkward for a while after that, but nobody brings it up again.

I'm An Ally (Memory)
A memory from college. Joining a Gay/Straight Alliance. "Um, I'm just an ally though." Nobody questions it. It feels empowering, but also kind of lonely.

In A Guild (Memory)
A memory of forming a guild with some friends. You abstain from leadership, no thanks. Maybe you can be the guild crafter or something. Is that even officially a position?

My Other Car Is An Airship (Memory)
Saving up money, scrounging every single gold piece until your guild has enough. It has the funds. It can purchase.... AN AIRSHIP. Ten propellers, wooden hull, fully customizable. You may have cried a little.

That Is My Real Name (Memory)
A bunch of people are gathered around talking about the problems of being trapped in a game. A person chimes in with how they don't use their real name any more, and it becomes a session of people just giving out their real name. When it gets to you, you give out your handle. That's your name now, as far as you're concerned.

My First Death (Memory)
A memory of a realistic game. Before the content patch, player-killing just wasn't a thing. And dying in-game didn't hurt. Both of those things have changed. You meet another player outside of a dungeon, and they attack you. You lose. It hurts. And you die.

Artificial Memories (Memory)
The memory of conquering a citadel and OMOIKANE awaiting at the top. As OMOIKANE explains it, you're... not you. You're a digital personality modelled after the original. Congrats, you're an AI.


RP Sample: Here

INFINITY FRONTIER

REAL WORLD META

It is the very near future, year 2022. Virtual reality gear is now in the public market at an actually affordable price point. Virtual reality gaming is starting to boom - it's been on the market for a number of years, but it's only recently become viable for most normal people.

Infinity Frontier is the newest and hottest virtual reality MMO. Not the first, but among the first. It was released in December 2021, just before the holiday season. The first content patch was released six months later, in the middle of May - just around the start of summer break for the college-aged players.

Infinity Frontier is made and distributed by a startup company called Janus Games. Janus Games has no other games currently or previously on the market. No OCs should have any connection to Janus Games. It is supposedly headquartered in Los Angelas, CA.

There was a very long update period, so people were waiting to log on - and when it came back up, people who logged into the Draconis Server fell into a coma, having a digital AI take their place in the game world. Whoops.


RACES

There are five playable races and several more races reserved for NPCs in Infinity Frontier. All racial choices have no effect on gameplay, although NPCs might react different to different races.

PLAYABLE RACES
-HAMAL: Humans, boring, you don't need a description. Found all over the main continent. No players ever call them Hamal.
-MIRA: Elves by any other name. Adj: miran. By lore considered to be one with nature, but they have many members in the Sirius Empire as well.
-ELTAN: Tiny people race. Look more like children than dwarves. In lore, they were originally nomadic, and have settled all over the main continent, but in much smaller numbers than humans hamal.
-BEASTMEN: No proper name for the race because they identify by tribe. Basically human with cat ears and tails. Anime nerds play them, generally.
-FAFNIR: Think dragonborn. Humanoid in shape but draconic in features. Scales all over, tails, slitted eyes, faces ranging from mostly human to obviously dragon. Almost entirely hail from the Forgotten Continent.

NON-PLAYABLE RACES
-GOBLIN: Small, mostly gnobbly, with high-pitched annoying voices. Love disassembling technology but cannot put it together worth crap. Found all over the main continent as easy targets for exp.
-VEGA: Plant people, with skin ranging in shades of greens and browns and flowers and leaves in place of hair. Also carnivorous. They are primitive but live in expansive jungle-cities in the Forgotten Continent, and supposedly they would be the next playable race if, you know, an expansion ever came out.
-MERFOLK: Fish people. Fish tails like normal, but their "human" half is still pretty fishy. Generally exists to be expendable enemies in seaside locals.
-FAIRY: Very small winged humanoid race that keep to serene natural locales in small numbers. They usually barter rare items for large numbers of drops.


CLASSES

Generally speaking, there are THREE SETS and FOUR ROLES for job classes. A Set and Role determines the job class, so there are twelve classes.
SETS - Melee, Ranged, Magic
ROLES - Tank, DPS, Support, Specialist

Classes in the same Set are considered related, and the sub-class system lets you pick one other class from the same Set to sub-class into.

	MELEE	RANGED	MAGIC
TANK	Knight	Gunner	Warder
DPS	Duelist	Archer	Arcanist
SUPPORT	Paladin	Alchemist	Healer
SPECIALIST	Assassin	Mechanist	Chronomancer

MELEE - All melee classes use stamina as the basis for their skills. Stamina regenerates over time, but more when using their normal attacks. Some skills can boost stamina production.

KNIGHT: The melee Tank. Has the toughest defense and most HP in the game, and draws in aggro from large crowds around them with shouts and taunts. Wields most one-handed weapons, shields, and heavy armor. Very bread-and-butter pick for tanking.

DUELIST: The melee DPS. Specializes in one-on-one damage, and gains bonuses to fighting one enemy at a time. Also gains bonuses the longer a fight against one opponent goes on. Can specialize in dual-wielding or wielding two-handed weapons for either quicker or more damage-focused builds, and can use up to medium armor.

PALADIN: The melee Support. Has heavy armor and large swords or spears to go in on the front line. Their supports are AoE, so they can hit a lot of people, but also centered on themselves, so they need to be near the engagement to be most useful and can't handle supporting multiple fronts.

ASSASSIN: The melee Specialist. They use light armor and light weapons. They inflict all sorts of status ailments that hinder the enemy to support the group, but also deal more damage to enemies with status ailments to give them good solo game. They are aggro magnets but since they are kind of squishy, they manage that with numerous aggro-dampening skills.


RANGED All ranged classes use ammunition, with skills using up various amounts. When a ranged class runs out of ammunition, there's a general reload period, so managing when that reload period hits is crucial.

GUNNER: The ranged Tank. Wears tactical armor and uses all sorts of guns. Not quite as much traditional staying power as the Knight, but they excel in controlling the battlefield. They can inflict various status ailments depending on what type of gun they are using, and have a lot of skills with knockback or immobilization. Because they are ranged, they can draw aggro from very far away, but don't have as many ways to generate large group aggro. In game lore, Gunners hail from the Sirius Empire.

ARCHER: The ranged DPS. Excels at dealing high, focused damage. They use up to medium armor and either bows and arrows or crossbows and bolts. Their gimmick is that they can change arrow type on the fly to add various effects to any attack or skill. They also have a lot of self-boosts, so they tend to do best when given a little time to get all of their boosts up before unloading.

ALCHEMIST: The ranged Support. They specialize in crafting and using items in battle, able to use them more effectively than any other class and in much higher amounts. To this end, they have skills that let them use items without consuming them, draw out extra effects from items, and such. They use light armor and slings or slingshots, which can be loaded with items instead of regular ammunition to use items at long range.

MECHANIST: The ranged Specialist. They can craft and customize robot companions, with the effects of said companions changing via their loadout. In effect, the role those companions take will vary depending on how they were crafted and what parts were used in their construction. Tend to have a clockwork or steampunk aesthetic. They can use either light guns or crossbows and light armor.

MAGIC All magic classes use mana for their skills, which regenerates slowly over time. IT should be nothing new for MMO players.

WARDER: The magic Tank. Specializes in a large variety of self-buffs that they can either meticulously plan or change up on the fly, as well as wall/shield spells to keep enemies at bay and gravity spells to get enemies where they want them. Their walls and gravity magic draw enemy attention and aggro, but they are not as good at keeping aggro as a Knight or Gunner. Most of their spells are flavored as astral or dark.

ARCANIST: The magic DPS. Specializes in elemental magic. They fling all sorts of elements around and can deal good damage to both groups and single targets. Spell management is important, as they can either boost damage by sticking to one element, slowly growing in power the more that element is used, called elemental growth, or they can increase their mana regeneration by rotating elements, called an elemental cascade. Obviously they use elemental magic.

HEALER: The magic Support. Uses holy magic to heal and buff their allies and is probably the most typical healer class. It's hard to rate which class heals the best, but the Healer is without a doubt the easiest class to plan for and will do good consistently as they have much less variables to contend with.

CHRONOMANCER: The magic specialist. They use time magic to buff allies, debuff enemies, and do all sorts of Neat Tricks (TM). They can mess with auto-attack rates, undo attacks, and more, although in exchange they have a much less concentrated role in a party.