Board Thread:Off-Topic/@comment-25270243-20150203005815/@comment-24108228-20150208225432

Name: Banana Age: 25 Description: Banana is an apprentice blacksmith for the Red Sun, an organisation of elite swordsmen at Rockma. He specialises in what he calls "Animated Weaponry", swords with unique traits such as rotary blade edges. He has yet to get his hands on any metal stronger than steel, however. Normal Version= Banana woke from his slumber, the wooden house he slept in hazy, the lantern by his bed flickering. He made a mental note to refuel it later, and slowly got up. His house was not two-story, but it at least had multiple rooms, which was better than what he had heard of some islands. Apparently the rebels at desert were all living in mansions, the thought of which only further irritated Banana. Why the Thornhus Order hadn't already ordered an attack on them was beyond Banana, but he had more important matters to attend to, namely the fact that he was almost out of food. He ate what he had left, which was half a pie and a small portion of apple juice, picked up his sword (which he kept in a metal sheath to preserve it's sharp edge), and left to buy some food before he went to work. As he walked down the familiar road to Rockma island's food store, he was greeted by Richard, the store owner, who was carrying a large crate and looking particularly happy. "What's the good news Richard?" asked Banana. "Why, paradise have finally decided to get me my food shipment! I've been waiting for a week now, but they just turned up this morning." Richard explained. "They claim they got set back by some storm or something, but I wasn't really listening. I've got to get this all back to my store before I get people wondering where I went." "Funny you mention that, I was actually heading to your store to get something." said Banana. "Oh really? Well, you could take this crate off my hands. That'll last you a couple weeks." replied Richard, his pink arms clearly tiring from the strain of the box. "3 gold'll do."

Banana nodded in approval, and handed over three coins in exchange for the crate. It was indeed heavy, but Banana's stronger arms were able to bring it back to his house with relative ease. Opening the crate revealed around fortnight's worth of bread, pie, and mixed berry juice. Living next to paradise island certainly cut down on food costs.

After sorting his food, Banana headed down towards the staircase up to the Red Sun Fortress, passing Insignia and a patrolling guard force as he passed. It had always made Banana wonder why one of the most well equipped islands in the Archipelago needed such a strong guard force, but Banana didn't question it. More protection couldn't hurt. Climbing the stairs, he turned left and entered the heated forge, where a couple smiths worked on new swords for sale to the other islands, or use by the Red Sun swordsmen. A large burning smeltery was present at the other end of the room, although nobody was using it at the time. Most smiths were enjoying a mid-morning break by at the balcony, cooling off in the outside wind. Banana went to his anvil, where he was greeted by his current project, "The Dragon Tail", which was a scaled sword that (hopefully) could be turned into a whip when the handle was rotated. It was an ambitious project, and one shunned by most as a "waste of time" and "impossible task", but it was nearing completion and only needed a couple more hinges before it was finished.

After an hour of welding together raw iron, Banana managed to complete the hinges, and added them to the sword. He lifted it, the inner mechanics making it extremely light for a steel greatsword of that size. What banana was most interested in however, was the whip function. He held the sword in both hands, and twisted the handle. The sword made a metallic ringing noise, extended an extra foot, and the individual scales became loose, but still attached to one another. It had worked. The dragon's tail was a success. (Overly) Detailed Version= Banana slowly came into consciousness, his head spinning and eyes blurred. His room was a brown-beige mess, to his left there was a repelling bright light. As his brain organised itself and his vision became focused, he found himself in the bedroom of his small house, with a flickering lantern rested on the table nearby. On closer inspection, banana realised he had forgotten to put it out when he went to sleep, and the oil was almost all gone. "No matter." Banana thought to himself, "Oil prices are low nowadays, thanks to the Order." The Thornhus Order had been slowly conquering islands since it's beginnings, but now it was gathering steam and had taken three islands in the last five years. This drastically reduced the prices of everything, because all island's exports were governed by a specially chosen Ambassador, who met every couple weeks to discuss the welfare of the Thornhus Economy, what items were in high demand, and what wasn't so needed. Oil, being easy to make, had a much lower price than it previously did, as all the islands who had it used to monopolise it. Thanks to the Order, this was no longer the case.

Banana got up from his bed, got ready to go to work, and headed to his kitchen. It was a mixture of stone and wood, the walls near his stove were made of stone to prevent them from burning down, but most the house was wooden to save on building costs. Banana, being a forgetful man, had forgotten to get food for the last few days, and so he only had enough for one more meal before he had to get more. He collected what was left of his food supply, half of an apple pie and a quarter pint of mixed berry juice, and he ate it quickly, because he needed to buy some food before he went to work. As he left through the front door, he saw Richard, who owned the food store on Rockma, carrying a wooden crate, presumably full of food, down the road towards his shop. Banana approached him, noticing his particularly good mood. "What's the good news Richard?" asked Banana, slowing down to match Richard's pace. "Why, paradise have finally decided to get me my food shipment! I've been waiting for a week now, but they just showed up this morning." Richard explained eagerly, "They claim they got set back by a storm or something, but I wasn't really listening. I have to get this back to my store before people start wondering where I went." "Funny you mention that, I was actually headed to your store to buy something." said Banana. "Oh really? Well, you could take this crate off my hands. That'll last you a couple weeks." replied Richard, his arms now visibly straining to hold the weight of the food. "Three gold coins." "Sounds good." said Banana, going through his coin pouch and producing three coins. They exchanged items, and headed off to their respective destinations. Banana was stronger than Richard, being a blacksmith instead of a shopkeeper, and was therefore able to carry the crate to his house with little difficulty. As Banana entered his small house, he was reminded of the tales told about the desert rebels, who were living in mansions with enough food to go around and still have enough to feed a small island. Those people sickened him, pretending to be the good guys when really they had killed just as many as the Order had, and were fighting against a unified earth where everyone was happy and everything was plentiful.

Banana pushed those thoughts out of his mind as he opened the crate, and indeed there was enough food to last Banana a fortnight. He organised the food into piles of their type, and headed off to work. Banana worked at the Red Sun forge, a large place where master smiths made weapons for sale and use by the Red Sun, Rockma's elite fighting force. They had yet to be utilised, but it was said they could take down the entire desert rebel force singlehandedly. Banana, although impressed by their expert swordplay and stealth, doubted they could actually manage that kind of feat, but it was a reassuring thought that the ultimate threat to the Thornhus Empire could be defeated by about 8 men wielding swords.

As Banana walked towards the imposing tall staircase that lead up to his workplace, he passed Insignia and his men, all equipped with high end ranged weaponry and swords, a couple of which Banana had smithed himself. He passed them without saying anything, Insignia was certainly the kind of man you wanted to stay out the way of; and after what seemed like a full minute of waiting for them to pass, Banana reached the stairs. Feeling pleased that he hadn't been stopped by Insignia for a "Routine Search", Banana looked up at the huge fortress he worked at. Only a small amount was actually dedicated to the forge, but nonetheless, it was very impressive. The entire building looked like a red dome, with golden support beams (which were actually iron painted yellow, gold was too expensive and also ineffective). From a distance, it looked somewhat like a rising sun, hence the odd architecture. The forge chimney had been cleverly integrated into the design, and to anyone looking at it from the outside you wouldn't even know there was a forge in there. Above the entrance was a golden plaque, and it read: "Here, Perfection is Only the Beginning"

Which quite elegantly described the goings on inside the building. As Banana entered, he saw the familiar sight of two Red Sun fighters duelling for practice, their blood red robes adding to the spectacle of two men simultaneously executing advanced swordplay tactics, the swords merely a blur. Banana took a right turn, and followed the path towards the forge, with all but two of the blacksmiths taking a break from the heat of the forge and sitting in one of the stone chairs on the balcony, which was expertly designed to face desert island, where the sun rose. Banana wasn't paying much attention, but could hear that they were discussing whether Banana's new sword would actually work. The Dragon's Tail had been an ongoing project of Banana's for a long time, and as it was very close to completion, the smiths were all very curious to see if it was actually going to function as Banana had promised.

Banana was working on a new type of sword, which he called "Animated Weaponry", weapons that have a particular gimmick to them. This particular one was intended to split into it's five segments, all of which looked like scales (hence the name "The Dragon's Tail), and function as a whip when swung. You could then join all the segments back up again, and use it like a greatsword. It was a very ambitious project, nothing quite of the sort had been attempted, but Banana was confident it would work. He consulted his plan, and found he only needed to make two more hinges for his sword to be complete. As he took some refined iron and bashed it into the correct shape, his confidence began to waiver. If his sword didn't work, many months would have gone to waste, and so would a lot of steel and iron. He certainly didn't want that. He pushed the thoughts to the back of his head and attached the hinges to his sword, doing one last check before he tested it. It was all to plan, everything was in place.

Banana took a deep breath, and twisted the handle. The segments became loose, and the sword bent towards the ground. He twisted it again, and the tail became rigid, all the scales slotted into place. In slight disbelief, Banana tried again. It worked a second time. He swung the sword as hard as he could, and it didn't fall apart. The sword had worked. The Dragon's Tail was complete.

As far as my posting goes, I will use the RPStatus template in all my posts, and I encourage you to do likewise, but other than that I'm probably not going to consistently create both a normal and overly detailed version of my post. ''I just wanted to join for nearly a week, and since little was happening to Rockma I decided to make my post early, and move it when I could join. I ended up making it twice because it took so long for me to get in the Roleplay.