Interest Check: Académie de Soleil et de Danse

[lesyay]

Do you wish to cast off your fate?

Do you believe that a new path can be opened?

Attend the Moonlight Waltz in the Académie de Soleil et de Danse courtyard at midnight.

As the planet turns, the moon and sun watch overhead. Do not neglect this chance, lest you be eclipsed.

Académie de Soleil et de Danse is the premier dance school of Paris, France, hosting students from around the world. Graduates become ballerinas, choreographers, and dancers that lead the world through their movements.

CASTOR.
But all is not as it seems. You're all students of the Moon Class, right? Tough break.

POLLUX.
The Moon Class has to compete with each other. Every student is a rival. To fail is to be expelled.

CASTOR.
But hey! Maybe this whole Moonlight Waltz thing is just what you need. If you cast off your fate, maybe you can move on up to the Sun Class, right?

POLLUX.
You will have to compete for this chance as well. A series of duels... that is what the Moonlight Waltz is.

CASTOR.
Nothing in life is ever free, huh? Still, it has to be better than the life you live now... right?





CASTOR + POLLUX.
Come. Let us open the doors to defy fate together.




Académie de Soleil et de Danse is an original setting based on anime series like Revolutionary Girl Utena, Revue Starlight, and Princess Tutu. The game will be run in the tabletop system Valor, and be run over text using the online system/website roll20.

This is an interest and vague planning post, as we're looking at a start date in 2020 (barring one of my current games ending prematurely.) I'll ask for availability and finalize a player list once we approach that time.

Go ahead and comment if you're interested, and start workshopping a character concept if you'd like.

QUESTIONS

Q. Is the school co-ed?
A. Académie de Soleil et de Danse accepts students of any gender. Some traditional dances specify routines for men or women, but modern teachers will allow students of any gender to perform even those.

Q. How will duels be conducted?
A. Under the open night sky in the school courtyard. The duelists will be divided into pairs, each pair representing one of the eight planets. Students will also get a full transformation sequence, spiffy outfit, and cool weapons - whether these actually exist or is some sort of metaphor is uncertain.

Q. What about powers?
A. Characters, normally, have no powers. In the context of a duel, students may gain abilities that are outside the realm of normal physics, brought forth by their movements and hearts.

Q. Who are Castor and Pollux?
A. They are the judges, referees, and observers.

Q. Can I ask more questions?
A. Go right ahead and ask in ur comment.

Comments

[nor_iron_bars]

I am definitely interested, and would like to tentatively offer as my character a mute girl called Reason.

She's shy, she's silent, she's an incredibly hard worker... and that's all anyone seems to know about her. What secrets does she have?

Well. Maybe we'll find out.

[kajarainbow]

I'm keenly interested in this. As for concept, I want to play an amnesiac girl. For maximum immersion, get someone else to design her backstory like Eric did for his amnesiac in Tower of Valor.

[playitagain]

Tagging with a character journal because I never made a personal one, haha.

I am definitely interested! I am debating a girl with a very expensive classical education who, uh, wants to do something more modern and is frustrating the hell out of her parents.

I am not sure on all the details yet!

[playitagain]

I have more!! I am putting it as a reply here because sometimes my memory is a little shoddy, and having it written down where I can refer to it helps me out (and finding old Plurks is hard). Lemme know if this should go elsewhere!

Maria von Kreutzer is from Austria and was expected to go into ballroom dance by her parents, who were old school Austrian artists (and former nobles, 'til the whole World War I thing happened). Von Kreutzers were always supposed to go into some traditional art, and had since the 1600's. Maria wants, however, to go into modern dance and even singing, to their horror.

Which they are not so down with. This complicated by the fact that she's the second eldest, and her sister disappeared when Maria was 12. Before that, her family let Maria do what she wanted -- her sister Theresa was going to be this generation's famous starlet. After she vanished, Maria had all that dumped on. Her parents literally threw away her magazines about modern dance.

So she's into the Moonlight Waltz as a way to make this happen for herself and have the future she wants, instead of the one she's been assigned.

Some quick blurbs!

PERSONALITY: Animated, brash, and confident; Maria is loud and proud, and she's friendly, but she can end up imposing on others because she's a force of personality. She needs to learn to chill out. She is, however, pretty refined in her mannerisms. Under that, she's a softie that just wants friends who appreciate her for who she is. And under that, she's got a lot of self-loathing and wants to scream "I AM NOT MY SISTER, I AM MY OWN PERSON."

NOTABLE NPCs: I... I want her to have a butler named Oskar. Who is a nice old man but is also kind of keeping tabs on her for the parents' sake.

I was also thinking she may have a best friend who is mostly her friend because she's genuinely into waltzes, ballroom dances, and the stuff that Maria is like "uuuugh must we" over.

COMBAT ROLE STUFF: I'd like to give Maria a fencing sword and a wheel lock pistol, like a dual-wielding thing, because it's stylish. I am pretty new to Valor as a system and will need some help, but I'd be fine with any number of roles that can incorporate that?

DISAPPEARING SISTER: I don't have a specific plan but if you can use it, Emily, please do!!

[prof]

Quinn here! I've talked about my concept before and am deeply interested, here's the pitch:

Emeryn ("Em") is a cheerful nonbinary idiot with a huge heart overflowing with kindness and compassion. They have some kind of health condition that will eventually spell the end of their dance career (details TBD), but rather than giving up dance as a result, they work even harder to appreciate ever moment of it they still have. Hopes to befriend the entire school before graduation.

[winterkick]

Luci here and if I don’t comment now, I’ll forget later. I’m interested but no solid character ideas yet. Maybe someone who is living in a sibling’s shadow or something like that?

SCHEDULING

[blackestwitch]

Please comment here with vague ideas for timeslots you'd be available for in early 2020.

[abenoshutup]

<- Prof.

Monday: Probably unavailable, because Gundam Valor.
Tuesday: Wide open.
Wednesday: FFAV will *probably* be done by then, so tentatively open.
Thursday: Probably available.
Friday: Kingdom Valor.
Saturday: Probably available.
Sunday: I'd prefer it not be here but I could probably figure something out.

[nor_iron_bars]

Availability currently uncertain pending life developments. Mondays and Saturdays are likely to be taken up by Gundam Valor and University Excalibur, respectively.

[familiaridol]

My availability is expected to be as follows: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday ending by 11 pm EST and Sunday ending before 8 pm EST, preferably at least a hour before. The Sunday timeslot wouldn't be ideal (you've already experienced that with OPV), but it'd be workable.

Edit: This is Kaja.

[playitagain]

I anticipate:

Monday and Wednesday: evenings til about 11 PM EST
Friday: evenings til Whenever
Sunday: afternoons til 11 PM EST

Tuesday, Thursdays, and enough Saturdays for me to be iffy are not great.

Re: SCHEDULING

[winterkick]

Well, assuming my availability stays the same-

Monday or Tuesday would probably be best, assuming we can end Tuesdays before 12 AM EST.
Wednesday and Friday is a hard maybe depending on the state of current games.
Thursday, Saturday, Sunday are definitely out.

Re: SCHEDULING

[biichan]

As I am currently working retail, I can shift my availability to please given enough notice ahead of time. That said, taking over JJBT's timeslot would be convenient to me.

HELLO THIS IS HOLLY

[steel_over_blood]

We'll probably be on Jojo pt2 by then? Ideally that would be in the same Sunday afternoon slot, though, since we'll probably have most of the same crew.

I don't want to be up past 11 EST weeknights, and Saturdays are wide open.

[biichan]

AM I TOO LATE TO COMMENT HERE?!?!?!

Because I'm interested. I love Utena bullshit.

[biichan]

Okay, but as far as character concepts go, I want to steal equally from two ballet fictions near to my heart, neither of which I got to finish reading, sadly, and have my character be a young woman who came to dance later than most students but has a lot of natural talent that could be turned into something special if she's willing to put the work in! But she's definitely going to need to work at it, because you can't be a brilliant dancer without pain. Also, her dead mom was secretly a famous dancer under a stage name.... but she won't know that at the start of the game.

[steel_over_blood]

I want to be mysterious and classy on the internet for once in my god dam life.

Princess Rivière is probably not an actual princess, but you'd never guess it from the way she acts or the way most of the class fawns over her. Bossy (confident), prissy (it's called having standards), demanding (affectionate according to the situation!), lazy (it's not her fault she's naturally bad at chores. yes, all of the chores. last time she had to clean the blackboards she broke one, you'd better do it. she will watch and reward you with her time and company). There aren't many people with a neutral opinion on her.

She has a particular role she wants to dance onstage, and will do just about anything to get it.

Inspired incredibly loosely by Suspiria (2018), and even more loosely by the original trilogy.