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[Tsuchigumo550]

Spoiler: SUPERFAST JELLYFISH VERSION (click to show/hide)

I suddenly want to take equal parts Strike Witches, X-COM, Armored Core, and Kill la Kill, put them neatly on a set of fine china, pour a nice glass of Madoka Magica, then garnish with BODYSLAM.

1. All The Lights in the Sky are Stars
Witches are less plane and more warship. A Witch is ranked with 1-3 stars (normally). 1-star Witches have some magical talent but generally serve as infantry, they generally look like a regular Strike Witches cast member. 1-Stars have small reserves of magic and can't use larger or more complicated Strike Gears. 2-Star witches often lead a group of 1-Stars or deploy to dangerous environments, and have moderate mana reserves. They can use more complicated and encompassing Strike Gears, or retain light armor to have more magic at their disposal. Three-Star witches are rare on a battlefield unless a major battle is underway or the mission requires only the best. Capable of using nearly any Strike Gear and casting potent magic, Three-Star witches are not to be trifled with.

2. We were all having a nice war until the aliens showed up
The world is not in a good state right now. Multiple factions vie for control. The war is still young when an Australia-sized object lands in the Pacific Ocean and starts spewing aliens all over the place.
List O' Factions:
UCS/Project Evergreen: North America, South America, Canada, Europe (Western)
OCU/Interior Union:Australia, New Zealand, Indonesia, Pacific Islands, India, Southeastern Asia
PRM/Imperial Guard:China, Thailand
RSU/Sun Sisterhood:Middle East, India, Africa
RA/Degyatrev Unit:Russia, some of Eastern Europe.
Independent: Japan
Other: The Aliens.

United Continental States
The USA has become a supercontinent, although little has changed. The UCS's populace ranges from doing well to dirt poor, and dissent groups exist. Europe is still a separate country."Project Evergreen" is the UCS Witch project.
Oceania Community Union
Under a similar economic alliance to the UCS's formation, the OCU is a bitter rival to the UCS and Pacific Islands often find themselves caught in the conflict. The OCU Witch project is known as the Interior Union.
People's Republic Military
Rivals with the UCS, although they also hate the OCU. Begrudgingly at peace with the OCU, although internal fighting happens, especially since the two are secretive to one another. The Imperial Guard serves as the PRM's Witch project.
Red Sun Union
Middle Eastern union that actively hates the UCS and dislikes nearly everyone else. There is intense rebellion constantly stirring in portions of it's populace, but it still presents an ironclad army. The Sun Sisterhood is the Witch Program for the RSU.
Russian Army
Russia hasn't pledged to any faction, but actively supports the UCS while acting as a mediator to prevent major damage to Asia and Europe as a whole. Disliked by many, but not actively attacked that frequently. Once the aliens came in, they became a much hotter zone for conflict. The Witch project is known as the Degyatrev Unit, officially.
Independent
Japan has ties to both the UCS and OCU in equal measure and refuses to actively take arms, though aspiring Witches are sent to the split factions in equal numbers. Japan is a demilitarized zone between the OCU and UCS, although it is actively developing Strike Gears.
Aliens
Yes, Aliens. No one knows anything and only satellites can take images of their strange base. They attack humans in general, and communication efforts have failed. Cryptologists work on their written language, but little progress is made, and what is made is kept secret. What's even worse is that the aliens seem to be very adaptable, even if they aren't stronger than the Witches and possibly equal in number...

3.Strike Gear?
Yes. Strike Gear. What happens when you take the leg units of a Strike Witch, and add Armored Core 5+ mecha designs and base how much magical device you can have around how much magic you can wield?

Strike Gears. A three-star witch is capable of having the leg units, a back+arm mounted weapons system, and a helmet/neckguard. All of these enhance ability, but reduce casting ability, so that the very same witch can't use magic aside from the most basic shielding/weapons enhancement.

4.So what are the Witches lives like?
Depends on the nation they belong to, and believe me, they all have their horrors. There's no "this is the best to live in" due to that.

So now that you know the setting, pick a character below and get to suggestin'.

I'm trying to build an RtD based around an amalgamation of Strike Witches, Armored Core, X-Com, Kill-la-Kill, and various other influences.

But before any of that, it's time to shape the world through a nice suggestion game! No rolls! Longer lifespan! CHOICES!

In fact, I need everyone to choose what character they'd like to experience first! Just like I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream, there are five characters in need of mental torment telling their story!

Celise Scott, UCS (United Continental States) stationed at Fort Pallas, one-star witch under the command of 3-Star Major Iori Kurou
Derya Levni, OCU (Oceania Community Union) aboard the OCU Supercarrier, two-star witch of the HORNET Group
Satomi Aoryu, PRM (People's Republic Military)  stationed at the Emperor Palace, South Wing, one-star witch under the command of Callsign PHOENIX
Saya Alderan, RSU (Rising Sun Union) stationed at Hidden Base, Desert, one-star witch under the command of Callsign Honey Queen
Tamara Degyatrev, RSF (Russian Special Forces) stationed in Moscow, three-star witch known as Callsign Black Sky

Also. I will accidentally call the UCS "USN" multiple times. You've been fairly warned.

Each story offers something different. I'll railroad a bit (no "strip off clothes and embrace enemy" wackiness, no "completely ignore what's going on and derail super hard") but I'll allow other/free choice in most scenarios. In general:

Spoiler: If you'd rather be clueless as to what each story is supposed to contain, don't click me (click to show/hide)

Quick synopsis on the details of each story-
Celise works at the most luxurious base on the planet, has huge latent talent, works directly with her major in large skirmishes when
not enjoying the base. She's most often deployed in large-scale confrontations and accompanies Iori. In this story, general background knowledge is made, and relations between forces are expanded upon.
Derya fights from the OCU Supercarrier and is part of an anti-alien strike group. She'll wind up involved in clandestine operations and spend a week in hell. This story expands on the OCU and what happens when missions go wrong.
Satomi guards VIPs and other political figures. She'll get involved in KEIKAKU. All of the KEIKAKU. This story gives some insight to what goes on when witches aren't too busy shooting each other, or the aliens.
Saya destroys some enemy convoys and uncovers the atrocities of war. Repeatedly. This story shows that being a Witch isn't all that great.
Tamara shoots some aliens, convinces other Witches to shoot the aliens, and gets shot at by aliens. This story explains the aliens in great detail.

Each one will be a different chapter, I think. Order dosen't matter too much, and they'll all probably go in the same thread. There's no Japanese soldier because all it would do would be explaining how magic and Strike Gears work, but provide no real story. I'll do that later. maybe.

Details that won't potentially give away story arcs:
Clerise: She's working at the most luxurious base imaginable, but there's reasons for it. Her magic potential is extremely high, and she uses a recon setup. She prefers not to fight, and believes the war is a defensive one.
Derya: Quiet and shy, but surprisingly rugged. She's a special operative.
Satomi: Working as a bodyguard. A bit oblivious and ditzy, but she genuinely cares about people.
Saya: Unhappy with life in general, just going through the motions. Works for the military not out of any personal choice.
Tamara: I... I don't know yet, a ha ha.

[Draxis]

That "(not)" is scary.

Satomi Aoryu

[Reelya]

PTW:

Clerise: she was Celise a minute ago! Does she have multiple personalities, or multiple secret identities?

Also, recommend work more on the names and nations. They seem very incongruent. e.g. why is the "People's Republic" one Japanese-sounding and not Chinese, whilst "Saya Alderan" doesn't sound like she should be from the "Rising Sun Union" (Japan). Plus, that "Oceania" name isn't like anything from my region of the world. Your American and Russian ones are the only ones that sound anything like the nations they represent.

My suggestion would be to research astronauts from various nations and feminize those names similar to what Strike Witches did with air force pilots. e.g. base the UCS one offf Aldrin. Hell, Strike Witches used real people for the basis, which is going to be a stronger theme than making them up.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_space_travelers_by_nationality

[Tsuchigumo550]

Typos happen. Superfast Jellyfish version contains the truest details but has no names.

Japan isn't actually participating in the war at all, but it's citizens wind up in every army. Reasons for this, though 80% of the people who leave Japan to fight go to the OCU/UCS... I don't think we'll cover it in the story, but Japan is cranking out weapons of war like crazy, and pretending to douse all the hot-blooded diplomats in cold water when they're really fanning the flames, and hard.

Rising Sun Union... DAMNIT. Supposed to be "Red Sun Union". I knew I'd call it "Rising" at one point, like an idiot.

Oceania is what we call "all the islands in the Pacific around Japan and Australia" from my understanding.

I could do the astronaut bit, but I'd rather recycle-blend-lacerate names from the source ideas. Which is worse. Trust me.

especially if RSU becomes Shamir, because of the leftover trauma from dealing with that shotgun-toting bloodthirsty arachnophiliac psycho with two lines of dialogue total

[IronyOwl]

Saya Alderan of the Sun Sisterhood of the Rising Sun Union under the command (or designation?) of operative Honey Queen seems to win in the cool names department.

Spoiler: Story Details (click to show/hide)

Though based on story details, I'd lazily and somewhat apathetically suggest just going down the list in order.

My preferences in order of interest are something like Tamara (alien details) -> Derya (FUCK) -> Satomi (KEIKAKU) -> Celise (general info/relations) -> Saya (oh no this is sad)

But, I'm not sure what relation my interest in the subject matter has to when we should do the story. I guess probably the more interesting ones first in case it doesn't actually cover all of them (which seems likely), but my feelings aren't too strong on the matter.

[Tsuchigumo550]

Most interesting then...

Clerise isn't super interesting, there's only one fight and the whole thing is "my superior is so cool, this base is so cool, life on this side of the war is great~ until the fight itself)
Derya is going to be pretty interesting- especially since it was meant to be right after Clerise and utterly destroy the opinions pressed on you. So don't do that one yet. I may still have to work on the implications as they get pretty dark and eww.
Satomi has some action, and some political intrigue. It's a good starting point, as good as Clerise would be, and she was intended to be the start.
Saya gets a somewhat different version of what Derya gets, in that it's passively given to her instead of actively.
Tamara is going to go toe-to-toe with the aliens, which is pretty cool. You learn that they mostly look the same but are do have "forms", and about the continent-sized ship in the Pacific Ocean. You can start here too.

I'll start with Tamara or Clerise tomorrow if not a coinflip, the others are in effect locked until two people come in and vote for Satomi, Derya and Saya aren't available as of yet.

Oh yeah, by the way, Saya gets hit with the sad stick, but Derya is beaten within an inch of "soul-crushing". Still, you need to do Derya's line first.

In Derya's line, you learn a lot about Witches, how they're different because of their training, how they can be broken despite superhuman healing and the like (note, superhuman isn't "24hr healing" nor is it "immortality". Witches can just survive more and for longer than the average human.), cons to becoming a witch, cons of being a witch that none of them can help anyway, and... various other things.

I suggest:
Clarise > Satomi > Derya > Saya > Tamara. Clarise's story plays off of Satomi's and Derya's, Saya's links to Derya's, Tamara is somewhat standalone.

HURRY AND VOTE, PEOPLE. TOMORROW, IT BEGINS

P.S.

Satomi and Clerise will have the more light-hearted stories and Tamara's isn't too dark. I'd save Satomi for when you've just went through Derya and maybe Saya if you're all hard-asses and need to remember the times that a Witch was having a good day.

[Draxis]

Alright, Clarise seems like a good starting point.

[Tsuchigumo550]

Uncertain future, may or may not be able to return to this. If there's a post here Friday, I'll see what I can do, if not, I'll allow this a quiet, painless death.