Slight spoiler warning. You don't need to have read "Enter RAF" in order to participate in this thread, but,
if you wish to read that story without knowing in advance how it may end, then I would advise you to go read it first. If spoilers don't bother you, or if you've already read it (and you want to be featured in a RAFfic!) then read on.
Or, if you wish to skip straight to the most relevant part of the story, you can do that, too.[spoiler]Basically, the five questions I want to pose to all of you are these.
If you could envision a 'champion of RAF,' a defender/guardian of the forum, who by-the-way is not a pre-existing or former RAFian (no, not even Richard), what would this entity be like? In very basic terms, what would he/she/it/they look like, or what traits would they possess? What is their name? Where did they come from? Why would they be on our side?
Note that I only need bare-bones outlines, just the basic concepts. I am not looking for fully-fleshed-out descriptions. Those will come later, after we've voted on a core concept.
Step one is to brainstorm ideas. Step two will be to vote on a concept (or possibly multiple concepts, since you will be allowed to vote separately on traits/appearance/backstory/motivation/name). And step three will be to create fleshed-out versions of the winning concept.
In the meantime, a couple ground rules. First, I'm not looking for anything too similar to an existing RAFian. I'm looking for something that is (at least approximately) equally representative of every RAFian.
Second, try not to get attached to any one idea. Hopefully, whatever concept ends up winning, it will have enough 'wiggle room' to be able to be personalized how you like. After we vote on a concept, I will ask for everyone to flesh out their own detailed interpretation of said concept (whether by description or by drawing or however you feel like doing so), and the more interpretations we get, the
better. This phase will be the part that guarantees you a role in the fic if you participate.
P.S. I have a few chapters I can continue to write while all this is going on, but after that, I'm going to take a hiatus from writing for however long this process takes. I want to get plenty of ideas to vote on, and then get as many interpretations as possible. So if you like my story, and want me to get back to writing it quickly? Bug your friends to post here, and tell them to bug their friends. The more the merrier.
It is the anti pootang. It is...a rock type pokemon.
A combination of every RAFian persona, roleplay character, fanfiction hero, and on and on.
All the strengths. None of the weaknesses. Only an overwhelming desire to protect RAF and all its inhabitants.
When thinking of a "Champion of RAF", I envision a D&D Paladin with the signature "RAF" (the logo consisting of our usernames making the letters) on his breastplate. His armor the brightest sheen, glowing bright with power. He handles a great sword that has the "R" Symbol on its hilt.
The nature of RAF is one where many species exist so it makes sense to have a look at the "What is your species?" poll-topic. (Link to Latest update)
[1]
From the poll humans mostly make up the species list. Even a large majority of the non-human RAFians are humanoid in appearance such as Hork Bajir, SPARTAN-II, Time Lords, Vampires, Genies, Angels etc. The next largest group are Andalites then Yeerks (and controllers).
If people are interested in a hybrid of some sort perhaps this entity could take on common traits such as having a [insert descriptions] tail. At first glance, the appeal of Andalites is their gracefully cautious physical appearance so this might factor in somewhere in the appearance and/or personality.
[2]
Depending on how powerful you want this entity you can incorporate special abilities like Andalite thought-speak/telepathy. Abilities could be pretty extensive or overpowered so I'm not going into it.
If by traits you mean personality rather than abilities then apparently insanity! The vast volume of RAF posts reside in the Bored Board with Totally Random Thoughts, Last Person to Post and Continue Game. The last 2 topics representing a persistence to outlast and continue against adversity. Totally Random Thoughts obviously being a testament to the unique and unpredictable sharing of ideas and thoughts. From these most popular topics it would seem that we have an unpredictable and never-surrendering personality for our entity.
[3]
Actually this one I'm not sure about. I'd normally quite enjoy playing around with words, meanings and letters to create links but the name itself could be topic on it's own. Perhaps, this should be decided after the entity is better described?
[4]
Our thoughts! ^^ If we use the most popular topics and species to decide how it looks and it's personality then it must come from somewhere in RAF. A noble yet unknown fanfic? Maybe even from a different time. (They/it were/was always there influencing us!) As per RAFian insanity, it wouldn't be too surprising nor would it be unprecedented that a RAFian offspring made itself known...
[5]
We're the protagonists! Protecting friends/family? Self preservation (if from future)? Insanity? If the motivation is up for debate then you could rework all previous answers to the questions. Such as a penitent antagonist? Then they might not need to even be something RAFians look up to.
[5+1] Role afterwards?
Carrying on from the end of [5] they might not necessarily survive/stay active to stick around...
An Andalite with joint blades and fangs all clad in armor that could become insubstantial? That'd be sickness.
Chuck Norris
Hmm...well, I think it should primarily be human, yes. Because, even though our RAFsonas can be anything under the sun, it's this human emotion called friendship that binds us together.
A mix of KA Applegate and Chuck Norris with flame and acid resistant skin and a digestive system meant to handle a highly acidic diet.
A generalized 'humanoid' champion, allowing for enough variation to include several different human (or even Andalite-ish) versions.
[/spoiler]