38th ♫ | No time like the present! Let's set out on a quest!

[mytarget]

THE FANTASY SLICE OF LIFE AU MEME

"Okay, you know how every RPG has the grand heroes chosen by fate to become wonderful friends and stand up to the evil sorcerer/empire/corporation/monster and keep it from destroying the world? This game is not about them."

It's not always about saving the day. For every fate-changing hero running around and saving the world, there's a hundred perfectly ordinary people living out perfectly ordinary lives.

Well, for a given definition of "ordinary" anyway.

This meme is basically just an excuse to play out characters living their lives in a nice, relaxed JRPG setting along the lines of the Atelier or Etrian Odyssey series. There's no hard setting details other than "low fantasy JRPG aesthetic" so feel free to go nuts with the details!

Just drop a toplevel below with some AU details for your character (you can even pick out a character class if you're really into that), tag around and LET'S DO THIS

Comments

Prompto Argentum | Final Fantasy XV

[photoshooter]

[Look, this is, like, barely an AU for him.

Prompto Argentum, 20, is a perfectly average young townsperson who vastly prefers the trappings of civilization to any dangerous adventuring available to him. While, when necessary, he proves himself a capable gunman, he'd much rather run around doing odd jobs for people who need a quick pair of legs and a helpful disposition.

In lieu of photography, he keeps a meticulous and enthusiastic journal of everything going on in his life, his friends' lives, and the town's. He's also something of an amateur illustrator. Very early some mornings, when there's enough light to see but not too may people out and about, Prompto may actually be found near the edges of town or even outside the city limits, sketching the plants, ruins, and wildlife he sees out there. The one thing out there in the wilds that always gets his attention is talk of animals he's never seen before.

He doesn't talk much about his parents, and they don't seem to have much of a presence around town, either.]

[missleadingquestions]

[speaking of doing odd jobs for people, there's a little section of town that's a bit spookier than others-- a bit of a witch's domain. The girls that live there have a bit of a reputation, but they still need help sometimes! And luckily for Prompto, it would seem that the little witch that has bwen giving him errands lately has been given some sort of allowance to pay him with, or else she might just try to get him to do it for a smile.

Today she's not asking him to go *run* an errand, however, so much as escort. When she catches up to him on the streets of town today she immediately grabs his arm to get his attention and joins him in whatever direction he's been going.]

Hey! I've been looking for you!

[photoshooter]

Huh? You have? [He slows down, aware that not everyone's got his penchant for jogging everywhere.] I mean, why wouldn't you?

[He clears his throat, trying to find his metaphorical footing again. A girl is touching him. Whoa.

At first, Prompto was a little leery of Maya and her friends--not because Maya's scary, but because everyone knows the stories about that corner of town. But Maya's not scary, and she's really fun and sweet and not very witchlike at all.]

Doooo you have a job for me?

[missleadingquestions]

I-do!

[As she speaks, she taps him with her wristlet purse (which mostly just looks like a little velvet bag) in tandem with their footsteps for a second.]

Buuuut this time I have a super special request. Are you up for the challenge, mister Argentum?

[ > Accept vague and suspicious quest? ]

[photoshooter]

Uhh, well, that probably depends on what the challenge is.

[Nice try, Miss Fey.]

It's not something like letting you practice turning me into a frog, is it?

[impurifies]

[ Ever since she was a child, all Yuri has wanted to be is an adventurer.

It's a fool's dream, of course. She's timid and quiet and self-conscious and not at all very good at standing up for herself. Even when she was a louder, more boisterous child the most she got from adults were smiles and indulgent headpats and isn't that nice, it's good to dream big! And she'd known all along that a merchant's daughter doesn't have a hope in hell of breaking away from the confines of her tiny town and going out and seeing the world. She doesn't have the stamina or the constitution or, to be really frank, the passion for it. She doesn't want dungeons and adventures and questing and all the other nonsense adventurers get up to. Yuri wants to see new things. Study them. She's heard so much about the animals and monsters out there and she desperately wants to see them for herself.

So maybe she's a little envious of Prompto. That he gets to do what he pleases. Can go out wherever he likes, explore as far as he dares, doesn't have Mother and Father nip-nip-nipping at his heels every waking moment of the day. But the envy is tempered by something else -- admiration and a little curiosity. And a desire, tucked away at the back of her mind, to try and take a step in that direction too.

It takes her a while to pluck up the courage to approach him. She knows she has a bit of a reputation -- a girl her age, just turning nineteen, so quiet and withdrawn with no suitors or any other prospects on the horizon. Must be something wrong with her. Something strange. But Prompto, for all she's seen of him around town, seems like a ray of sunshine breaking through the clouds, bright and warm. Approachable, even. So even though she's nervous, butterflies fluttering in her stomach, and fidgeting with a lock of her hair as she approaches him in the town square one day, she manages to keep her voice from wavering. Well. Not too much. ]

Um... excuse me. You're Prompto... right?

[photoshooter]

Huh? Me?

[He blinks, distracted from the advertisement he was pinning up on the town messageboard. Quicksilver Delivery! it says, with a fairly good stylized sketch of a running man beside it and contact information and details. Prompto glances back at the flyer, like he needs to check his answer, then smiles brightly and suddenly.]

Uh, yeah! That's me. Prompto Argentum, at your service. And you're... uhhh.

[He taps his mouth with his knuckle and holds his elbow, trying to place her.]

Didn't I use to see you around school? But you weren't in any of my classes, so. Ah, what's your name?

[impurifies]

[ Oh, he recognizes her. She's not entirely sure if that makes things worse or better really but she can't exactly back off now. And besides, he doesn't make it sound like it's a bad thing! So she's sure it's fine. ]

Oh, yes, I think so! I think we were in the same grade even if we weren't in the same classes. I'm Yuri Ichimichi.

[ Okay. Introductions Established. That's like, the first round of combat completed, right? The rest of this should be easy. ]

You do a lot of work like that, don't you? Heading out from town and delivering things, I mean. Do you travel very far?

[photoshooter]

[Wow, she, like. Really has heard of him? Prompto rubs the back of his head, surprised--and not unpleasantly so--and makes kind of a noncommittal "ehhh" hum.]

Well, I mean, not usually. I try not to, because it's, uh, pretty dangerous out there and I'm only one guy? [And if he gets hurt, he's fucked. There's no one to take care of him out there or here in town.] But I do end up spending a lot of time not too far off the roads, I guess, looking for wild plants and pond animals and stuff.

[He tilts his head curiously.]

Why? You got a job for me?

Dave Strider | Homestuck

[callbacks]

[Rumor has it that the strange boy that appears in the window of the long-abandoned clocktower in the Old City in that pale hour before dawn is a ghost or a witch's familiar. He's the stuff of schoolyard dares and campfire stories.

Rumor also has it he guards a cursed treasure, but far fewer people believe that one.

What is true, though, is that if you approach the clocktower from the right angle at the right time--just shy of a quarter after four in the morning--you might see a slender shape in the window below the clock's face. Or hear a low murmur like distant speech.]

Is it dusty in here or is it just me

[untilavalon]

[Just before sunrise, the heavy clack of horse hooves begins a slow and curious rhythm, growing louder as the travelling knight and her mare approach the old city. It's so quiet otherwise, she notes, her only accompaniment the intermittent rattling of branches and leaves. In the morning everything seems so empty, and she ought to be alone-- but Arturia can feel some one or some thing around her.

She stops her horse with a gentle 'whoa' and, giving the mare's mane a loving stroke, turns her own eyes up to the tower. A pat on the horse's neck and the blue-closked knight dismounts, gloved hand resting on the door to the clock tower's stairs, tattered and broken. Poking her head in, Arturia muses--]

I don't suppose you're up there, are you?

Greases the creaky wagon wheels

[callbacks]

[At first, nothing.

Then, a perhaps surprisingly young voice answers,]

I guess that depends on who this 'you' is you're currently addressing. I mean, that's pretty general, you know. There's a lot of people in this world who respond to 'you.' At the outside, I'd guess--and I'm just gonna lowball this here--maybe roughly all. All the people. In the world.

[Nothing moves there at the bottom of the clocktower, but the presence seems closer all the same.]

[untilavalon]

Ah-!

[Grasping the wood panels, Arturia nearly falls forward. She wasn't expecting an answer. A pause and then, after she's managed her way through the decaying wood, Arturtia lowers the hood of her cape and looks toward the stairs.]

I was told a crow resides here.

[callbacks]

That's a pretty much bizarre thing to tell someone.

[Whoever's speaking, he's staying out of sight. He might be above.]

'And over here, in this thing that maybe used to serve a logical function but now we just keep for atmosphere, there's some brainless feathery asshole.' The locals've got to get some better attractions in town if that's worth noting.

Diora di'Marano | The Sun Sword Saga

[enleonne]

[Diora di'Marano--soon to be Diora en'Leonne, given her rapidly approaching wedding date--should hardly be worthy of note. She's the daughter of the second son of a lesser noble family. They hold some land and do some trade, but they're no great shakes.

But her father, that second son, happens also to be a studied mage. And Diora? She's widely known as one of the most beautiful women around, famed for her looks, poise, and voice.

She's only sixteen.

Still, that's old enough in some bad circles to wed, and her engagement to a much wealthier house--someone in line for the throne, no less, if not directly--is the talk of the town. Apart from a few public appearances for, well, appearances, Diora's largely been kept inside, away from prying eyes and gossip, so as to keep her image pristine. The courts are fickle, after all, and Diora's family can't afford even the possibility of a rumor that could cast a shadow over her marriage.

Tonight, however, is a festival, and the whole town is in costume, reveling. There, sitting on the edge of a fountain, is a young woman in cloak and mask. There's a small harp in her lap and an upturned hat on the ground, and she is singing a song of loss and love as she plays.

It's the most beautiful voice you've ever heard. Magical, even.]

[asongfromthesixties]

[A child in a white and gold dress slowly peeks out from behind a tree. Shyly, she hums along with the music.]

Wow...

[enleonne]

[The masked woman inclines her head when she hears the child humming, but doesn't otherwise acknowledge her until she finishes her verse. Then, without stopping, she moves into a simpler song. A lullaby.]

Hush-a-bye, don't you cry. Go to sleep, my little baby. When you wake, you shall have all the pretty little horses...

[Perhaps that's a tune the child will know better?]

[asongfromthesixties]

[Melody isn't that young, and she blushes and steps back.]

I'm sorry. I didn't mean to bother you.

[withfriendlycare]

[It's a familiar story, to someone as timeless and unending as Death — the beautiful girl, the wedding politics, the apprehensions and fears of any hint of scandal that might tarnish the impending nuptials before they arrive. Oh, he remembers how this story goes. He remembers it all too well.

(He remembers it because his first kiss was the same way — beautiful, learned, graceful and poised, and they sold her hand for wealth and advancement, traded her to a man three times her age, and she'd smiled and she'd swayed and she'd never let on, until the night before her wedding when she'd made herself Rappaccini's daughter instead of her father's, and kissed Death instead of her intended.)

So maybe he's just sensitive to stories like this, then. In an eternity of millions and billions of deaths, it's only natural that a few should stand out, like the brightest stars shining in the firmament.

Maybe that's why he comes to pay a visit to the most beautiful woman in the world, just sixteen years old, set to marry a man who might someday be a king — because sometimes history repeats itself, and it'd be a bitter draft to bear, to watch Francesca's tragedy play out on the stage of history all over again.

It's nice that it's a carnival. Everyone is wearing masks; everyone expects the supernatural, subscribes to the merriment of the intrigue and the unknown. It means that he can join the crowd in his black cloak and feathered raven's mask, and so long as he avoids touching anyone carelessly, it shouldn't be a problem.]

A sad song, for such a beautiful voice. Is your heart already so full of sorrow even at your tender years, milady?

[enleonne]

[She tilts her head slightly, fingers still playing over the harp strings as if a stranger's conversation is simply another part of the song. In a way, he doesn't seem a stranger; it's a festival night, and no one is themselves, someone named and distinct. Masked, people become desires: joy, longing, fear.

Everything she fears waits for her on the other side of the night, when the masks come off again and she must once again be perfect. Be Diora. Be caught by her name.]

'Tender years?' [She plucks another string of notes from the harp, a gently falling arpeggio followed by her voice..] To assume anything of a stranger on a night of masks, one must be perceptive. Or hopeful.

[If she might be honest with herself, song is all she wants to hear tonight: note, and note, and note. If she could, she'd play until her fingers bled. Music is simple. Music doesn't change. The harp does nothing until given voice, and the voice she gives it is her own.

Little enough will be, soon.]

I might be as old as the song I play, might I not? I could say as much, tonight of all nights.

[withfriendlycare]

Few things in the world are as old as songs. The melodies change, sometimes. The reasons for singing them often don't.

[He's hovering, he knows, but he has no option to sit and wouldn't accept an invitation to even if it were offered. It's interesting, besides; there's clearly a power in her voice, and he can taste the flavor of its magic. It makes for a curious experience. If she asked him to return a lost love to her with that voice, he'd find himself tempted to agree, even while knowing all the while that her wish would be beyond even his power to grant.

He bends, idly depositing a pair of coins in her hat, then rises up again to face her.]

If I offer you a boon, will you sing a different song for me?

Yuuri Wakasa | School-Live!

[serrata]

[ There's a cute little workshop just on the outskirts of town -- or if we're shooting for accuracy, there's a cute little workshop sat in the middle of the huge herb garden just on the outskirts of town. It's hard to miss, especially since if you're in need of any kind of potions, medicines or magical items you'll get pointed to the alchemist who lives here.

She runs the atelier by herself, though she has her little sister running around to lend an extra pair of hands when needed. For the most part, she takes on requests for the townsfolk and supplies some of the stores in town with balms and potions.

She's a fairly well-known face around town even outside of her alchemy work, especially for any aspiring adventurers. She'll occasionally stop off at the guild and leave requests for people to accompany her when she goes out gathering alchemy materials. It's not like she can hold a sword and a basket, come on guys. ]

[stuckinreverse]

[Ah, this must be the place! Marion had heard from some other girl recently that her big sister runs the local atelier. Marion's own research as a self-professed 'great witch' has turned up absolutely zero, so she's getting a bit desperate. It's not as if alchemy is really pure magic, anyway! She can see if this clearly inferior brand of magical study maybe might... have an easier solution to her problem than her own obviously superior spellcraft.

She also knows saying that is likely to get her nowhere. Since she looks around the same age as this Yuuri's little sister, she figures she'll have a better chance if she acts sweet and polite.]

Ah, good afternoon, Miss Yuuri!

[She has a bright, cheerful smile and is doing her very best sweet and innocent voice. Even the slight stumble over her words as she approaches the young woman and exchanges pleasant greetings is calculated.]

I don't know if you'll have what I'm looking for right now, but I need a potion. [She lets her smile falter just a little, hoping that showing a little uncertainty will garner more sympathy.] I have money...

[Specifying that both sounds like something an innocent child would say, and hopefully assures Yuuri that she doesn't expect her to work for free.]

707 - Mystic Messenger excuse my rust please

[loves_hack]

[Luciel isn't your average witch. He's a really weird one. Some say they're sure they've seen him in the form of a toyger-like cat hopping around the streets and taking far too much interest in people's stands at the bazaar. He lives in a bustling and sunny low-mountain town, but despite his charming demeanor, this little red witch who some call an alchemist is a bit more secretive than expected. His own workshop is tucked just out of town in the surrounding forest, a treehouse on the side of a cliff.

It's easy to catch Luciel around town as a human, though, peddling problem-solving physical spells (charms for finding your lost items, tags for your dog or cat's collar so they always find their way home, spells that let you know when your food is running low) to those who may be interested.]

Red | Pokémon

[yochamp]

[Enter the beastmaster. Sort of. Maybe he's just JRPG's young, male version of a cat lady. Red's that weird guy who sort of half lives in town, half disappears enigmatically for long stretches of time and comes back dirty and hauling in plenty of exotic natural treasures and a new animal friend or two. His mother doesn't question his comings nor goings and keeps house as best she can when it's completely overrun by small, strangely docile wild monsters.

No one knows the surrounding wilderness like Red, but he refuses to join any kind of guild or hunting party. At least, it seems like he refuses? The guy never says anything, just stares silently whenever someone asks. Sometimes he turns up at school, but he stares out the window the whole time, and sometimes leaves early just to disappear into the wilds once again.

But he's a great resource on the surrounding environment if you know how to talk to him. And when he wants to say something, he has a way of making his thoughts known.]