Roleplay / The Cauldron

"God damn it, Bonesy."

"Welcome To The Cauldron! Because I couldn't come up with a better name."

— Velvien, Forum Admin and Supposed First Post.

"Goddamn it Bonesy"

— Velvien's Actual First Post and Forum Catchphrase

A roleplay forum made by fans of the BlazBlue series.

What happens when you take a crack pairing for a fairly well-known video game series and post a Fanfic of it on the web? Normally, you get laughed out of the internet with reviews saying "That Would Never Happen." Velvien thought differently. Taking two characters from BlazBlue, he decided he liked them both so much, he was going to pair them up. Normally, this kind of thing leads to disaster, especially between Ragna, the main protagonist, and Tsubaki, a justice obsessed girl working for the opposite side. In canon, they would hate each other on sight. However, Velvien somehow made this work in his fanfic, On Strange Wings. It garnered so much praise, that he made a sequel and somehow, the Ragbaki pairing was born and embraced.

After noticing the amount of people interested, Velvien decided to try something new. A roleplay forum that was a separate universe from his On Strange Wings canon but also had an overall plot, a goal and enough freedom so that people didn't feel like they were being railroaded. It took a while to get going, but now, The Cauldron is up and running. And it's only growing faster.

Velvien's two Ragbaki Fanfics can be found here for On Strange Wings and here for its sequel, At Fate's Hands.

The forum can be found here.

Tropes For The Cauldron Include:

Sad Wings Of Destiny

• A Storm Is Coming: Pretty much said by any character who is in the know of what's going on. Everyone knows something big is coming. No one has any idea what.
• Attackofthe Killer Whatever: The first Azure spike in Akitsu creates demon ostriches.
• Bee-Bee Gun: Arakune, as always. The RP allows him to use all sorts on insects now though, including giant rhino beetles to gore anything in it's way, spiders to web people up and even a praying mantis!
• City of Adventure: Subverted. The action can take place outside of Kagutsuchi for once. Which makes sense, since the canon cast of Blazblue are heading out of the city anyway.
• Disproportionate Retribution: The reason Arakune wanted to murder and eat Rust? He didn't like his rock out session
• Drunken Master: Ragna and the gang find Jubei and Jin after their training session. Jubei has had a bit too much to drink.
  • He fixes it with Jin's patented hangover cure.
• Eldritch Location: As always, the Azure. Spikes of it are appearing everywhere at random due to Relius and Terumi planning something. And something wants to come through...
• Evil Tower of Ominousness: Whilst the Spire is normally a military building, we can't imagine it looking too friendly, even without Terumi and Relius holing up inside.
• Goddamned Bats: Azure Spawn. Nowhere near tough enough to prove a threat one on one, but too many of them and even two of the Six Heroes start to have a bit of trouble.
• Healing Factor: Nu-13, just like in canon. She recovers from a solo fight with an AIRSHIP!
• Heel–Face Turn: Tsubaki. It's not even a spoiler, it was established before the RP started!
  • Although to be fair, at this point her loyalty is to the Librarium, despite her misgivings about it.
• Hellgate: What are the Azure Spikes? What's wanting to come through?
• Heroic BSoD: Ragna has two, back to back. First he realizes he's no better than Terumi by torturing Tsubaki. Then he finds out he's the Black Beast. Within the space of a few hours.
• Let's Fight Like Gentlemen: An early part in the story had Valkenhayn and Hakumen have a practice duel. The courtesy involved would make Dudley blush.
• Massive Multiplayer Crossover: Every single member is expected to take part in this plotline. After much hype and many months of waiting, it's finally here.
• Motive Rant: Relius to Tsubaki, when explaining what Perfection means to him. Even while working for him, Tsubaki can't help but be creeped out.
• Training from Hell: Jubei, to Jin.
• What the Hell, Hero??: So determined for information, Ragna at one point basically tortures poor Tsubaki to tears. Nu gave him the appropriate reaction.

Freelance RP

• Accidental Pervert: Carl in "Sunflowers and Lollipops", multiple times towards Kokonoe, often under influence. She often forgives him because of his young age and general innocence.
• Ascended Meme: In "There For You", Ada mentions the word... lewd in response to the information Sena reveals.
• And Now for Someone Completely Different: The entire point of the Freelance section. Its main use is to come up with anys plot using any character from BlazBlue, not just who you picked for the main roleplay in Sad Wings Of Destiny. It's often played for laughs, but sometimes, good drama and even grimdark roleplays take place there.
• Broken Bird: Tsubaki at the start of "Ahriman". And then things get worse for a bit.
• The Cameo: Balalaika is Actorverse! Terumi's agent. Naturally, everyone craps their pants when she appears
  • In "A Squirrel and her Boy", there is a delusional, pink-haired, exaggeratedly lecherous patient named "Dr. Hikepants", who pretends to be the doctor. Works as a Suspiciously Similar Substitute of Dr. Hotti.
• Crapsack World: The Pointverse Ragna, Nu, Noel, Hakumen and Tsubaki are dead. Many of the big hitters are missing. Rust got cybernetiscized and was working for the N.O.L. He KILLED Desmond and Noel!
• Crossover: BlazCraft.
  • GyppyGirl2021's Azoriaverse was originally devised for Crossover Fan Fic.
  • The Intergalactic Spaceship Interim, also a Gyppy creation, is a spaceship that travels The Multiverse, capturing people and bringing them together for an as-yet-unknown purpose.
• Crossover Ship: "Crossed Justice" centers around the admittedly quite logical Ky x Tsubaki.
• Curbstomp Battle: Azrael is sorely disappointed by Rust in Alteramentum, to say the least
• Enraged by Idiocy: Cyber Rust has this bad in Interim, to the point where he nearly blows Tezca Tlipoca's head off.
• Flat "What": Ragna in Azure Warrior.
  Bonesy: "Welcome to the kingdom of Lomaria! Ragna needs 30 EXP to get to the next level! Do you wish to save your game?"
  Velvien:" ...What."
• Halloween Episode: Rust's repair shop was modified into a Halloween party where people of all ages would be encouraged to visit. Most of the characters thus far are in costumes, often in the form of Shout Outs.
  • Canon characters
    • Ragna-Dante
    • Noel-A Zombie Panda
    • Nu-A pirate
    • Tsubaki-Hakumen
    • Carl-Harry Potter
    • Makoto-Nirvana
  • OC's
    • Rust-Jack Skellington
    • Orpheus-Tingle
• High School AU: A surprisingly successful... well... college AU called Azure Days was created by GyppyGirl2021. Of note: Rachel is an actual young girl, Nu actually has only one eye and Ragna... still has heterochromia and white hair, for whatever reason.
• Irony: The fact that Relius Clover runs a Psychology Clinic in one topic.
• Jerkass: Velvien has made it clear that Actorverse!Azrael is going to be this.
• Just in Time: Rachel saving Ragna (and by extension) Lambda just before Tsubaki can slit his throat in "Lucid".
• Knight of Cerebus: Communist Mario from Azure Warrior is perhaps the only serious character in an otherwise parody RP. Then again, knowing who he is, he could also qualify for...
  • The Comically Serious
• Launcher of a Thousand Ships: Ragna, Nu, Noel and Tsubaki. Usually with each other. Also, Tsubaki with Platinum in one thread.
  • Carl also qualifies, but to a slightly lesser extent than the above four. As of now, he's been paired with Platinum, Makoto, Tsubaki, Rachel, Kokonoe, Noel, and Nirvana in different RPs. He's also a popular male to pair up in the shipping topics, second only to Ragna himself.
• Machine Empathy: Carl in most RPs he's in is written to take advantage of the offhanded canon fact that his glasses allow him to talk to machines. In "Sunflowers and Lollipops", this is especially evident as he pours coffee on the TV, due to the latter asking for it as a drink.
• Mind Screw: GWA's OC in Interim, Shisuru, talks in a very odd manner and classifies everything with seemingly random class names. Just trying to have a conversation with the guy can be grating, and when he tries to explain why he called Ilyana Class Cow, she and Micah are unable to comprehend what he said. Ilyana even passes out at one point.
• Moe: Several. Noel, Nu, Carl, Actorverse Mu, and Azure Days Rachel all stand out.
• Not Distracted by the Sexy: Ky in "No Distractions"
• Not Good with Rejection: Nu in Shards of Ire. Cue Ax-Crazy Nu.
• Obsessively Organized: Actorverse Relius loses it if his bookshelf is unorganized. Something that Ignis takes advantage of.
• Oh, Crap!:
  • The beginning of "Widowmaker".
  • From "Somewhat Dysfunctional": "Hey there, Rags. Jayoku Hotenjin."
• Only Sane Man: Arguably Vic's Original Character Michealsson in Interim.
• Puppy Love: Carl x Platinum, courtesy of 3To3dSl0th and Shuji Nonohana.
• Rescue Romance: What the Vive Memor Mortis/Alea Jacta Est RP line turns into after Ragna saves Tsubaki from Relius
• Troll: Relius in "The Clover's Clinic". His role as a psychologist allows him to do this.
  • And although it should go without mentioning, Hazama in pretty much every RP he shows up in.
• Tsundere: Rachel in "Like a Dream".
• Unstoppable Rage: Black Beast Ragna in "Atrocity".
  • For a more comedic example, talking koi Codswallop in "Cape Lilies".

• What If?: While naturally the entire forum is this, Alteramentum takes it up to eleven. Ragna and Jin swap plot position and weapons, Azrael is the leader of Sector Seven, Rust doesn't drop out of the Academy and falls for Tsubaki, Makoto's attire is incredibly conservative, and that's just the start.

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