overbringer: (Default)
Eric ([personal profile] overbringer) wrote in [community profile] overbox2018-03-04 04:05 pm

Spark in the Gloom

The Spark in the Gloom
A panfandom Smut Adventure RP Sandbox


Somewhere in the twisting paths between universes is The Archipelago. A world made of the flotsam and jetsam of a thousand different realities. An endless chain of islands, each one made from the seed of a different world. Local culture, weather, and even laws of physics can vary wildly from island to island. Without any kind of guiding will behind its creation, the Archipelago had always been a place of live and let live for the various people who found themselves there.

Until the Gloom arrived. This unnatural force of darkness coveted apathy and depression. Passion, pleasure, and happiness are its anathema. The islands over which it holds its grip aren't necessarily PHYSICALLY dark, but they always have a darkness of the spirit about them. The people it leaves behind are little more than mindless drones, performing the bare minimum to survive but lacking the energy to do anything else.

The Spark is an order of people from this world that have taken a stand, and they have chosen their primary weapon well. It is a weapon that most sentient beings know of. It is a force of passion, of creation, and pleasure.

The Order's weapon is sex. The very act of physical intimacy of any kind repels the Gloom and merely being NEAR anyone who is having sex or who has recently had sex causes the Gloom's agents physical discomfort. As some kinds of undead are to holy ground, the Gloom is to orgasms.

You poor lost souls were somehow lost between the cracks between realities. Maybe a sciece experiment or spell gone wrong. Maybe just a freak fracture in time and space. One minute you were home going about your life, the next you were in the Archipelago, and an agent of The Spark was pulling you out of the ocean. The Spark has the ability to send you home, but the Gloom is currently too strong and would surely block any such attempt. So if you want to get out of here, your best bet is to help The Spark in their fight.

Firebrand Island
The Spark's HQ is set up on a beautiful island deep in the nigh infinit expanse of the Archipelago. On the surface, it appears to be an enormous luxury resort surrounded by a thriving tourist town. A huge sprawling hotel/casino/shopping center forms the main body of resort, but with various smaller beach cabins villas, and other sattelite structures dotting the coast for miles in either direction. If you take the cable car tram going inland, you will find yourself going up the side of a mountain to a secondary resort, which instead of swimming pools and snorkeling tours, offers skiing and hotsprings.

Regardless of where you go on the island, you'll find the locals have very little in the way of a nudity taboo. Public bathing, sometimes of mixed gender, is the norm (In some neighborhoods, the houses don't even have their own showers, with everyone sharing one centrally located bathhouse.). You might get some weird looks if you started going at it in the middle of the street, but in general the people here aren't very judgey and will let you get away with whatever.

Image references: 1 2 3 4 5

The Order of the Spark
The Order is well known on Firebrand Island. It's something of an open secret that beneath their fabulous resorts are elaborate underground facilities devoted to tracking the spread of The Gloom, training their field agents, supplying them with state of the art equipment, housing planes and ships for traveling across the Archipelago, and other such things. The Order might use non standard weapons, but they are still fighting a war. They have to be READY.

Image references: 1 2 3 4 5

The Gloom

This supernatural force of darkness and depression has been slowly spreading across the Archipelago for decades. It isn't a physical THING you can fight with conventional weapons. It is, at the most basic level, an psychic aura of depression that drains the joie de vivre from wherever it spreads. Acts of supreme happiness, pleasure, and satisfaction will cause the Gloom to retreat.

The Gloom DOES have physical agents, though. People who live with The Gloom for too long will start to change. Most people end up as like blank faced shuffling zombies, but every once in a while, someone will become an Avatar of the Gloom. They mutate in monstrous ways and become devoted spreading the Gloom. It is unknown if the Gloom itself is sapient, or if it merely uses the sapience of its avatars. Either way, the MOST effective way to free and island of the Gloom is to find and either kill or chase off the avatar upon it.

The other thing the Gloom does is drain the power of others. While in Gloom enshrouded territory, you will rapidly grow weaker and lose and supernatural abilities you might have had. The only thing that can protect you from this effect is Mojo.

Image References: 1 2 3

Mojo

Mojo is the name for a kind of power that exists in this world that is the opposite of Gloom, though it is much rarer. You can generate small amounts of Mojo from masturbation, or from acts of creation (art of all kinds, hard but rewarding work, etc), but the best way to get Mojo is through sex with another person. Trying out new kinks has also been shown to produce some bonus Mojo, so it's always worthwhile to experiment with something new. Simply put, the more sex you have, the better protected you'll be from the effects of The Gloom. You can feel it as a sort of pleasant, metaphorical warmth in your stomach. It is the Order's greatest weapon in this war.

You don't HAVE to have sex, of course. The Order of the Spark idolizes freedom and personal expression. There are, as mentioned, other ways to build it up. They just are so much less effective, and sex can be so much fun. And let's be real, if you aren't interested in smut, why are you even looking at this post?

Image References: 1? 2?

SOME PROMPTS
1: Relaxation - It's a hard life, fighting a world devouring supernatural malaise. Fortunately, when you're not doing that, your accomodations are Top Notch. Go to a fancy restaurant. Hang out on the beach. Go skiing. Relax in the hot-springs. Get a job. Paint a picture. Go to the library. Watch a movie.
2: Mojo - To fight the Gloom you need Mojo, and to get Mojo you need SEX. Firebrand island has a million places to slip away for a steamy encounter, if you're away from the privacy of your room. And they say that if you try something you've never done before, you can generate even more.
3: Mission Prep - You've got some Mojo, you've got your mission. You're safe for the moment. As your speedboat/helicopter speeds you towards the next Island determined to house The Gloom, you've got some time to chat with your allies. Any last minute things you want to get off your chest? Want to strategize how you're going to take on the next Avatar? Just want to chat? Now's your chance.
4: Hunting - An island is a big place, and the Avatar isn't always somewhere obvious. The locals are usually too depressed to do much more than stare at you, so you have more or less free reign of the island, but good God is this place a dump. There's a dirtiness of the soul here, that your Mojo is holding at bay for the now, but is still omnipresent and overbearing.
5: Battle - Avatars are strange and terrifying creatures. They could have tentacle arms (not THAT kind of tentacle arms. The Gloom hates that stuff), ripping claws, jaws that can chew through steel, acid spitting glands, or worse. But you're a badass too. Protected from the Gloom by a shield of Mojo, with your friends and lovers at your sides, you are as ready as you're going to get. So go kick some ass!
6: Emergency Recharge - Something went wrong, and one of your friends has run out of Mojo. They're getting weaker by the minute, and it won't take long for them to be reduced to one of the shuffling mindless drones that the Gloom turns most people into. Fortunately, you found them, and there's one sure fire way to restore them to normal.
7: Victory - The Avatar has been defeated, and without it to anchor the Gloom here, the thrill of victory has started to erase the malaise covering the island. As people wake up from their long depression, they start to realize what happened, and BOY are they happy to do so. A grand party is held in your honor. The agents of the Order of the Spark are off on the side, making deals with the island's govnerment, but in the meantime, everyone is celebrating YOU. Enjoy your victory. Go dance. Sign autographs. Pose for selfies. Get drunk. Hook up with an attractive stranger. Tomorrow, it's back to HQ to get ready for the next fight. For now, you have NO responsibilities.
8: Training - Swing that sword, lift those weights, get in that sparring ring. You gotta be ready for the next island. And if your clothes starts to get pulled off or ripped during a sparring match, well, that would just be AWFUL, wouldn't it?
9: Recon report - Before all the cool sword havers can run in and fight the Avatar, you have to know what it looks like and what it can do. That means infiltration and recon, which is a risky business on it's own, but also uses up a lot of Mojo. By the time your extraction came, you were basically a drone. Upon getting home, you have two tasks. 1: Get Mojo'd back up and 2: Tell everyone what you learned about the new Island and its Avatar.
10: A Dirty Job - Fighting the Avatar is all very dramatic and important, but there's a lot else that needs to get done. There's a base camp on the engloomed Island's edge to maintain. There's maintenance to be done on the boat that carried you here. There's locals who can't really take care of themselves right now. Plus, if you end up with some spare time, slipping off somewhere quiet with a friend and generating some Mojo is always helpful to the mission.
11: Wildcard - Between the Slice of Life of living on Firebrand Island, the action/adventure of fighting the Gloom, and the Endless Smut of building up enough Mojo to SURVIVE fighting the Gloom, you have a lot of options. Make something up!

I'm testing the setting concept out. If people seem interested then who knows, maybe this will grow into something bigger!
windgod: (Actually...)

[personal profile] windgod 2018-03-06 09:46 pm (UTC)(link)
While it was fair to say Ippo was a pretty easy person to impress, this was leagues above anything he'd ever seen. When he stopped, even for that brief moment, to think about the benefits this kind of technology would bring to his world just by existing, he couldn't help but be blown away.

"No way...this is normal where you're from? If my world had technology like this...I can't even think of all the ways life would improve! This is amazing! Were you the one who built it? How was it made? What materials went into it? What makes the magic interact with the machinery, I have so many questions!"

Considering Samata had literally incinerated a giant beast with a thought and some words as far as he'd seen it, it wouldn't be surprising to him at all if she had the skill to make it. Right now, he wanted to know literally everything about this, if the child-like look of wonder on his face wasn't enough of a hint.
im_gonna_heal_u: (adorable)

[personal profile] im_gonna_heal_u 2018-03-06 10:52 pm (UTC)(link)
"I see! That sounds good," Konoka might have very well considered moving on at some point, given her renewed vigor of discovering more about the place, but... something about Patchouli told her that it would be more fun to stick around, even if they didn't do much talking.

"Yeah, I could," Konoka admitted, but now she wanted to get to know Patchouli more. "Have you found good company yet?" Because at this point, getting to know Patchouli in the biblical sense was far from a bad idea.
heptagram: (011 |)

[personal profile] heptagram 2018-03-06 11:51 pm (UTC)(link)
"Not for any extended period of time, no," Patchouli explained with a shake of her head. "It sounds like the thought is crossing your mind, but you haven't been around here very long, either...

"I don't see why we couldn't spend more time together if you'd like, though, miss.

"Oh, right, what is your name?" They'd kind of gotten caught up in talking about other things, hadn't they?
tomatowizard: (Let me explain you a thing)

[personal profile] tomatowizard 2018-03-06 11:55 pm (UTC)(link)
She was fully aware that he was impressed, and she loved it. Having a big ego was honestly almost a requirement for being a wizard. It helped hide the huge amount of work that went into researching, learning, and memorizing spells. "It's my own invention! Well, mine and a very helpful medical grad student who did a lot of work on the connection plate. It mostly works because of the way silver interact with-"

And then she went on into a long rambling speech about the inner workings of her invention, full of technical and magical jargon, that would go on for as long as Ippo didn't interrupt her.
windgod: (Bashful)

[personal profile] windgod 2018-03-07 12:04 am (UTC)(link)
Ippo didn't even interrupt to ask the growing amount of questions that was coming from this...though to be fair, a lot of what he would have asked ended up being answered throughout the lecture. He could definitely say that at the end of it, he *felt* smarter than he had going into it and while there were still a lot of things he wanted to know, Ippo felt it was probably smart to let his brain digest what he'd already learned instead of trying to cram more into it.

"Wow...there's nothing like that where I come from. I can't even wrap my head around it, but you've got it all down to a science...you're amazing! I hope I can contribute even half of something that great to the world in my life!"

Well, you've definitely got a fan of your work here Samata, hook, line, and sinker.
fistsofchange: (I don't know what that means)

[personal profile] fistsofchange 2018-03-07 12:07 am (UTC)(link)
"Man, after I got kicked out, I didn't think I'd ever be in a position to be a teacher again."

She rubbed the back of her head, slightly nervously. She'd never had a student before. She was almost positive she was going to fuck this up somehow. "Alright, I guess I'll do my best!"
Edited 2018-03-07 00:07 (UTC)
tomatowizard: art by <user name=rukafais site=plurk.com> (You have nothing to lose but your chains)

[personal profile] tomatowizard 2018-03-07 12:22 am (UTC)(link)
Look at her preen. She drank some more of the punch. "This is nothing. Just a proof of concept. I'm not going to stop until I change the entire world. People will remember my name for a thousand years!"
windgod: (Default)

[personal profile] windgod 2018-03-07 12:30 am (UTC)(link)
Well that just turned the good mood up to eleven, Ippo held his glass up high with a wide smile, his aches and pains seeming a thousand miles away right now.

"Here's to you then! I might not be able to see it myself, but I have a feeling the world is only going to get better from how you change it."
windgod: (Huh?)

[personal profile] windgod 2018-03-07 12:32 am (UTC)(link)
"So...where do we start? Exercise? Sparring?"

It was here that his limited views were becoming more apparent, his brief look into the world of martial arts had only given him a base idea of what it was like to practice them and boxing, for all its subtleties, was still fairly straightforward. This was likely going to be a lot more intensive than anything he'd ever done before...but it was a challenge he was dead set on rising to meet. If his new sensei was going to do her best, then he had to do double his best!
fistsofchange: (Talkin')

[personal profile] fistsofchange 2018-03-07 12:36 am (UTC)(link)
"Breathing."

She was going to start with the VERY basics. Call it a hunch, but Lin kind of felt like Ippo wasn't the type of guy who had a lot of patience. The cool stuff required a strong foundation of meditation and calm.
windgod: (Bashful)

[personal profile] windgod 2018-03-07 12:51 am (UTC)(link)
"Breathing?"

The basics were a very good place to start and as a person who had won fights blind because they had a solid foundation of the basics to stand on, he could appreciate that. He was excitable and eager to learn, but this was a clear enough message that this was a good time to set his understanding meter back to zero.

"Alright, show me how to breath!"

A sentence that...he never thought he'd say in his life and one that sounded...way weirder once he'd actually said it. This was going to be a long, strange road.
tomatowizard: (Cheers!)

[personal profile] tomatowizard 2018-03-07 01:02 am (UTC)(link)
"To me!"

Samata finished off her drink. It was definitely sweeter than she normally went for, but not bad. Plus it had a real kick to it. She could already start to feel a bit of an alcoholic glow coming on.

Heaping praise on Samata had some side effects on her that Ippo probably hadn't intended, though. She looked at Ippo in a slightly different way than she had been before. He looked tough as nails, yes, but also...rather attractive. In a muscly sort of way. She filled her cup back up.

"Say, do you think this party is getting kind of loud?"
fistsofchange: I'm going to get us involved again (I promise I won't get us involved again)

[personal profile] fistsofchange 2018-03-07 01:10 am (UTC)(link)
And so began Ippo's adventures in learning to meditate. I won't write out all the details, but suffice to say if he hadn't ever done anything like it before, it was probably Very Boring.
windgod: (Actually...)

[personal profile] windgod 2018-03-07 01:12 am (UTC)(link)
Ippo had never been particularly good at parties, so a chance presenting itself to go do something else was like getting a life line for him. It seemed that even after all his time in the ring, crowds just weren't his thing.

"I mean...it's fun but I wouldn't mind a break. Do you have something in mind?"

For however much Samata thought him attractive, he was definitely thinking the same of her, so much so that on a normal day, he might be too scared to step away with her anywhere. Be it the alcohol, the thrill of winning, or maybe just having been here long enough, he wasn't finding himself that reserved at the moment.
tomatowizard: (We don't need to worry about that)

[personal profile] tomatowizard 2018-03-07 01:18 am (UTC)(link)
She had several things in mind, none of which involved wearing a shirt, but she didn't say that out loud yet.

"I was thinking we could just slip off somewhere a little private. Just...talk about our lives without having to yell to be heard."
windgod: (Default)

[personal profile] windgod 2018-03-07 01:22 am (UTC)(link)
There were breathing exercises that he had to do in boxing, but nothing quite like actual meditation. It was likely fairly boring, but in a way, it was fairly grounding and gave him a new way to calm his nerves outside of his usual methods.

Which was why today, after a particularly grueling mission, he could be found in the gym meditating peacefully after a nice workout, sporting three fresh looking scars across his upper right arm where he'd taken a blow for a teammate. He was making progress in his new studies...but at his core, he was still Ippo after all.
windgod: (Bashful)

[personal profile] windgod 2018-03-07 01:27 am (UTC)(link)
Ippo finished his drink with a satisfied sigh and set his cup down in the nearest trash can before giving a nod and starting to walk with Samata away from the party.

"Good idea! I could ask you questions all night at this point, it would be awful if I lost my voice because my curiosity got the better of me."

He'd be lying if he said he wouldn't mind getting out of his own shirt either, but there was a little bit of that attributed to the fact that his own had gotten wrecked in the fight and this one he was wearing now was a little too small for him. Just a little bit though.
fistsofchange: (Today is going to be a good day)

[personal profile] fistsofchange 2018-03-07 01:41 am (UTC)(link)
It was okay if Ippo wasn't the best student, since Bai Lin wasn't the best teacher. No one could deny that they were both trying their best, though. To learn the Soaring Fist style required a certain amount of willing detachment, which had come hard to Lin.

The meditating was a good start, though. He was actually USING it now, rather than just practicing it. She was pleased. She entered the room very quietly, as she didn't want to disturb him, and sat down next to him to also meditate for a while, after looking at the new scars with some vague concern.
tomatowizard: (There's a perfectly good explanation)

[personal profile] tomatowizard 2018-03-07 01:53 am (UTC)(link)
"If you lost your voice, I guess we'd just have to figure out something to do that didn't involve talking."

Samata had just refilled her cup, so she took it with her as they wandered off, chatting about this and that. As they walked, she slipped her arm (the non metal one) around his, discretely feeling up those rather impressive muscles.
windgod: (Actually...)

[personal profile] windgod 2018-03-07 01:56 am (UTC)(link)
The wound itself hadn't been too deep, superficial almost...if it weren't for the acidic secretions that came out of the claws. To be fair, he had leveled a right cross into the side of its head in retaliation so hard it had flipped onto its back from a neutral standing position...so fair was fair.

Ippo was so absorbed in the meditation that he almost didn't even noticed Bai Lin enter and sit next to him, but he eventually got the mental memo and opened an eye.

"Oh, hello Sensei. Sorry I haven't been around lately for training, that last mission lasted a lot longer than we were expecting."
im_gonna_heal_u: (because sex appeal!)

[personal profile] im_gonna_heal_u 2018-03-07 01:58 am (UTC)(link)
"Konoka!"

The long-haired brunette gave another smile, and this took far less effort than what had come earlier. "Nice to meet you! I hope I can get to know you better miss..." Well apparently, it was her turn to come up dry with a name. Fortunately, given the pattern they established it felt far less awkward.
windgod: (Seriously?)

[personal profile] windgod 2018-03-07 02:03 am (UTC)(link)
There was a lot to feel up to be fair, his intensive training at the Kamogawa Gym had left him with very little else but muscle at this point. Even though he was considering retiring before coming here, his body was still a finely honed weapon fit for the ring and being here had only improved upon what was already there.

In spite of all that however, he was still a very shy individual, so having someone get close to him like that was a little nerve wracking...but he felt like he could handle it right now.

"G-good call, it is starting to get a little chilly out now that the sun's going down!"

Which was probably the world's lamest excuse to reciprocate the gesture ever conceived, but at the very least he was actually trying rather than getting embarrassed and running away.

"Y-you're really warm, actually! And nice to be around!"

...Smooth as ice, Ippo.
tomatowizard: (We did it!)

[personal profile] tomatowizard 2018-03-07 02:32 am (UTC)(link)
"'Nice to be around'?" Samata laughed. "Well, I should certainly hope so!

Okay, so he was a bit awkward. But when you got right down to it, who wasn't awkward sometimes? Samata stepped a bit closer, so one of her breasts was pressing against his arm, but kept talking as if nothing unusual was going on.

"You're nice to be around too, Ippo. And pretty warm. Maybe not quite as warm as a fireball, but..."
fistsofchange: (Talkin')

[personal profile] fistsofchange 2018-03-07 02:41 am (UTC)(link)
"Quite all right. Our job here is important."

She'd seen how drones lived, and it broke her heart. She wanted to help them all! The fact that she got to try out so many things she never had before (Including the sex. So Much Sex.) was a nice bonus, but she was mainly here to help people.

"You're doing better than I expected at the meditations, honestly."
heptagram: (092 |)

[personal profile] heptagram 2018-03-07 03:01 am (UTC)(link)
"My name is Patchouli," she responded, smiling as well. "It's a pleasure to meet you.

"So, should we stay around here? Is there somewhere you'd like to go?" The idea of just standing around talking where they almost ran into each other seemed weird. They were probably holding other people up at this point, if they were even paying any notice to them.

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