Requests Information

Requests
Requests are the way that your character grows stronger in Bleach Sakura. Requests are the key component to every bit of growth your character has mechanically, and at a high level, it is done by pulling together the threads you’ve been writing into a cohesive story and then sharing that story with us. It is a chance for you to reflect on what you’ve been writing, and to figure out what exactly you’re trying to do with your characters.

There are, at the present day, three basic requests. You can always request things that don’t fit this mould but to be frank better to first talk to a staff member if there are things you’d like to request first before you go off on a path with no hope of success.

Requests are by their nature subjective. Writing and storytelling cannot as yet be fairly assessed by a machine or straight forward procedure. What is below is guidelines, things to help set the expectation for staff and players alike but at the end of the day, a human will read what you wrote and decide its quality. Thank you for being brave enough to let that happen, and for being understanding that you might not always be seen the way you see yourself. That likewise, we understand that this is an imperfect process that may not always get it right and that you are welcome to politely ask for reconsideration if our responses appear to miss details you think are important.

We’re all on the same side here, to write, and to tell cool stories in this very interesting and dynamic setting and are by no means an English class.

Below each is a suggested basic template for the request. Feel free to dress it up and do whatever you wish with the actual request, so long as it has the necessary information.

Release Requests
Whether first or second release, the release quest is the same thing. These represent the gates of power and can be seen as ascending your character into the next level of play. First release is stepping on to the stage, you’re establishing your character’s goals and ambitions and nature for everyone to see and become a person that narratively is worth keeping an eye on. The second release is climbing upward into the upper echelons of power, becoming a power capable of shaping the factions and conflicts with their actions and decisions.

Less wordy, these are what enable your racial powers, the refined spiritual weapon of the Quincy, the Shikai of the Shinigami, their Bankai’s, their Schrifts, the Hollow Powers that take shape as they evolve.

A release request is a capstone to a significant arc. These stories should be tackling the central aspects of the character, it should define and explore their struggles with the world, with the factions, with the people in it and most importantly with themselves. It is graded on four categories, with a pass-fail for each. Typically, the request must see a pass in all four categories. First release has less strict requirements than second. A first release is typically obtained in the first three threads. A second release has not yet been obtained.

Here are the categories and then I’ll explore what might qualify as a first or second release.

Writing
Writing is a bit of a nebulous and personal thing. This section refers to the mechanical aspects of the writing, how well you use language to convey your story. Typos and grammatically errors would hurt you here, but so would constant repetition and bland flat boring prose that is a lot of words without saying much. At it’s simplest, a well-written arc should be enjoyable to read outside of its overall plot and story.

For first release, make sure your writing isn’t punishing to read. It should be relatively free of mechanical errors.

For second release, make sure your character is a person that could be believed to exist in this world. Make sure there are moments where the writing pops and is interesting to read.

Release
This is the release that you are applying for. It must be appropriate for the level of power you are requesting and it should be thematically appropriate to not only your race but also your character. A Shinigami applying for first release should detail their Zanpakuto spirit and their release command and also what that ability does. A Quincy would define their spiritual weapon and what new power it would be capable of. A Hollow would detail their new evolution and form, along with the power it provides. What makes a good section here is that not only is the power suited to the level being applied for but it also makes sense for the character in some way. The most basic level of this connection can be obvious, or ironic, such as a hothead being given power over fire, or perhaps ice. If they were a Shinigami, a spirit who encourages them to go all out might suit, but also one who helps them temper their anger and channel it into more appropriate ways. There are a million right answers, but the more you show you’re looking for an interesting way to express the nature of your character through your release, the better.

First release’s power should be personal and reach out from the character. It should reflect their nature and show some kind of connection between the release and the character.

Second release’s power can be bigger, altering the landscape around them, or displaying significant potential power. It’s not rewriting reality, but merely the kind of power that is hard to ignore locally. It should have a clear and obvious tie to the nature of the wielder, or their struggles.


Moment
The moment is quite literally the moment of ascension. This is the ‘moment’ your character truly attains their release power, and it encompasses not only that literal moment but the build-up, the motivation, the need for the power and the narrative that surrounds it all. A moment can be literally in the moment where the character has some form of epiphany, where their resolve and will crystalize and they finally pull together all their training and effort into a new form of power. It can be the build-up of multiple failed efforts, of them showing some weaker pitiful form of the power and then they finally manage to grasp the essence of the real thing. It can be big, and bold, the confrontation of an enemy who stands in opposition to them, deadly and lethal. Even better then if their opponent is the antithesis of the growth they are in the process of earning.

Or, it can be quiet. It can come after the big win or the devastating loss. It can be a moment of reflection where everything pulls together and they finally get it. It can be in a moment of intense effort, alone, or with someone who really pushes them and helps them understand. It doesn’t have to be violent or big, it just has to be meaningful. It needs to be written.

The moment is mandatory, it is, perhaps aside from release, the most significant portion of the request. It is the culmination of narrative effort. A release is meant to reflect your character’s progress on their personal journey, and the moment is the pay off for all the hard work of both the writer and the character.

For first release, I expect to understand the character’s central struggle and I expect them to be making the first steps on that journey to engaging with that struggle.

For second release I expect a significant character beat and milestone to be reached. Whatever work you’ve been setting up your character against, I expect them to make a significant stride against it. They should be letting go of some central flaw or doubling down on it, they should be striking a blow against a hated enemy, or reexamining their allegiances. The character should have a significant moment here that alters them from the moment they started play in some way.


Impact
Impact is the same here as it is for your experience request. The impact is the measure of your story’s weight against the characters who are involved with it and the site you’re writing. It is the measure of positive impact, not from a narrative impact but as a writer. In a more measurable way, it is how much your threads appear to give your partners something to work with. An arc full of solos has no impact, an arc full of threads where you are clearly contradicting your partner’s posts and leaving them with a thread that they’d be unlikely to even use in an experience request, that is bad impact. But threads that grow your relationships, your character’s friendships and rivalries, and progresses a narrative across the site and the factions within it is would be an impressive level of impact.

For first release, show us you can give back to the people your threading with. For second, I expect more or less the same, but with an indication that you can put your plot within the existing conflicts of the setting, and ideally evolve them.

Code:

[b]Threads:[/b]

[b]Release Description:[/b]

[b]Release Ability:[/b]

[b]The Story:[/b]

Experience Requuest
An experience request is built on an arc. The simplest way to look at this story is to frame it like so, my character was A, then B happened and now they are C. A establishes who they were, B establishes the story and C establishes the growth. A good arc has a character who is different in some way at the end, this change can be through large emotional conflicts that shape a new perspective, or, a change of allegiances, or, new friendships and relationships. There are a ton of things that can both cause these changes and be the result of them.

The experience request format is meant to encourage you to give meaning to your threads by using them to progress your character.

This request is graded across four categories. You begin with five stars and gain/lose them based on proficiencies and deficiencies across those categories. After this, the number of threads within the request that qualify multiply the star rating’s experience reward.

1 Star - 20 XP
2 Star - 40 XP
3 Star - 60 XP
4 Star - 80 XP
5 Star - 100 XP
6 Star - 120 XP
7 Star - 150 XP
8 Star - 200 XP
9 Star - 250 XP
10 Star - 300 XP

The categories and what qualifies for a bonus or penalty are as follows:
Writing
Writing is the mechanical aspect of your storytelling. If the story is great but it is a chore to read, this is where you would get dinged. If it’s dry, if the posts are way longer than they need to be, or missing interesting details, if the character is bland or comes across as flat all of these traits can ding you. Writing is the section I am most leery about handing a star because quite simply, considering the circle I think everyone who makes a request is a solid writer. If you’ve got an app put up, if you’ve managed to get people to write with you, odds are you’re good and I don’t want people to expect points here.

0 means you are a good solid writer. +1 means you’ve done a special bit of writing that really popped, the kind of thing that I wouldn’t expect regularly from anyone. -1 means that your writing is hard to read or quite flat. Usually, I'd consider this kind of penalty reflective of effort, not ability.

Story
Story is the narrative execution of the arc. When you write a request, this is what you’re encouraged to write up, a summary of the story. Establishing, as I mentioned above, the A then B thus C format. The story is considered in three aspects, how Bleachy it is and how well-executed and interesting it is. A Bleachy story is one that couldn’t be told on another site/setting because it is intrinsic to the nature of our setting. A Bleachy story involves the Quincy struggle as a hunter of Hollow, of a Hollow’s struggle with their hunger, survival and evolution, of a Shinigami’s personal conflict with their spirit and their duties. This is broad, but we strongly encourage you to tell stories that relate to this site, the setting and the stories that other people are trying to tell here. Generally speaking, this is more of a requirement than a rewarded aspect.

A well-executed story comes together cleanly, it has threads that naturally dovetail into one another, it has a cohesive theme that each of the threads builds off, it has recurring characters showing up in natural ways and conflicts that build off of past events and ones established within the arc.

A story is interesting when it combines these elements together and tells a unique story-driven by realistic motivations of the people in it.

Some level of presence of each category is a zero, solid implementation of a few of these is worthy of an additional, solid execution of all three would net two. Likewise, a story disconnected from our site and setting, whose threads are randomly chosen and show no shared connection at all, and whose story comes across as flat and unbelievable could lose several.

Growth
Growth is the real motivation behind these requests. Telling a good well-written story is great, but what we really want to see is that you are pushing the concept of your character forward towards some kind of goal. Growth is broad, there are a hundred ways for someone to grow and countless reasons for them to do it.

First off, growth is not always positive. Growth can be regressive, it can be leading your character further down a darker path. We do not have to write good people but we do want to write believable journeys.

Second, growth is not always internal. It doesn’t have to be personal it can be situational. Growth can be the change of resources, of allegiances, of relationships. But, the strongest growth will always involve some kind of internal shift to the character's nature and the way they and interact with the world.

Growth is considered along two lines, the first is the degree of the change and the second is the believability of that change.

If your character changes the way they feel about something trivial or small, the degree of that growth is pretty small and uninteresting. If they shift allegiances, if they overcome their phobias, or tackle their misconceptions and come out with whole new perspectives this is what will begin to earn points. Some kind of growth is necessary but most important is, the believability of that change.

It isn’t enough to simply claim your character has changed, it has to be evident in the writing. If you have a sufficiently major change, there should be sufficiently believable build-up to that major change that explains it somewhere in the text itself. It isn’t enough to try to justify it in the request unless there is some subtle details that you can point to. Tread the line between believable, significant and interesting and that’s what score points in this section.

An arc that concludes without any such growth will likely lose a point.

Impact
The same as in the release request. The impact is the measure of your story’s weight against the characters who are involved with it and the site you’re writing. It is the measure of positive impact, not from a narrative impact but as a writer. In a more measurable way, it is how much your threads appear to give your partners something to work with. An arc full of solos has no impact, an arc full of threads where you are clearly contradicting your partner’s posts and leaving them with a thread that they’d be unlikely to even use in an experience request, that is bad impact. But threads that grow your relationships, your character’s friendships and rivalries, and progresses a narrative across the site and the factions within it is would be an impressive level of impact.

The expectation of 0 is that you have threaded with people and given them work. If you have empty threads that actively give nothing to the people you play with, you’ll take a loss of points here. If you give multiple people significant and obvious opportunities that really help their stories, you might win a point.

Code:

[b]Threads:[/b]

[b]Your Story:[/b]

Mastery Request
A mastery request is necessary to raise a skill to mastery. A mastery request is built upon a story of your character developing a skill from, at least, journeyman to mastery. It is about three things, the Baseline, the Work and the Triumph.

A master of the skill has learned almost all conventional knowledge there is to know about the skill and they can execute on par with almost anyone. A master is not the greatest in the known world, but they would certainly be on the shortlist. A master is not the one who has evolved and changed the understanding of the skill, though they might certainly be working to give something back through the experimentation. In short, a master is competent, and capable and demonstrates a natural and easy use of the skill at a very high level.

In most cases, this will unlock a technique similar to that of one’s first release. If you have some idea of what shape you’d like that to take make sure to include that in your request.

The three elements, the Baseline, the Work and the Triumph are all pass-fail, though each can build on one another. It is also worth noting that Mastery requests will be graded harder the more masteries you obtain, but a particularly great success early can be considered for leniency on future ones so don’t hold back if you think you have a great request because you want to get a weaker one out of the way first!

Also, bear in mind that each request should be specific to the skill you are claiming mastery in. If you wish to have your racial skill mastery it will be a tough sell if you don't write about that races specific flavour, and even less so if you don't have second release. If you're claiming mastery in your martial skill, you ought to be showing martial prowess, if you're claiming mastery in Kido under Hado, you should be demonstrating a journey of Hado, and not another skill.

The Baseline
The Baseline is the establishment of your skill when you first begin your journey, it can lead back all the way to before they knew it, but so long as it involves aspects of the skill at what you consider Journeyman then that is enough. A good Baseline shows where the user has room to improve, it establishes the conflict they’ll need to overcome to become a master. This can be a literal lack of knowledge they must work on obtaining or an emotional blockage that has to be overcome.

The Work
The Work is the effort of the user to overcome the conflict established in the Baseline. This is the sitting under the waterfall in contemplation, the pursuit of a master to teach them the missing piece, the confrontation of the emotional turmoil. There are a lot of directions to take the Work but what’s important is that you earn the mastery, you do the work, you establish that mastery is not an easy road, but your character walked it and they deserve the reward at the end.

An exemplary effort here is one that marries both the conflicts of the character’s internal struggle with the literal aspect of learning and growing skill. This makes the skill a personal part of the character’s identity.

The Triumph
The Triumph can be seen as a corollary to the moment of the release. It is the point at which the problems established in the Baseline have been overcome through the effort of the Work. This is where the character is now free of whatever stopped them from obtaining mastery and can now demonstrate what a masterful execution of the skill looks like. This can be bold, such as an epiphany in the heat of a life or death struggle pulling everything together, or quiet, a moment of reflection where all of the struggles are given some form of catharsis. It should be satisfying, it should neatly tie everything together.

Code:

[b]Threads:[/b]

[b]Skill:[/b]

[b]The Story:[/b]

Mechanics Request
This request is to have a staff member look over your release, your custom skill or your mastery and work with you to mechanize the techniques granted by it. You can make this request at any time, with the exception of releases. We ask you only request mechanization of a release that you have AT LEAST made the request for.

The more detail you provide the better we'll be able to hone in on what you would like the technique to do. There is a library of effects and you can draw on the other created techniques to help inspire the design. This request is a back and forth, ideas pitched and refined until both parties are happy.

The source is where these techniques derive from, ie Custom Skill, Basic Skill Mastery, Release. The details are what the source is, how it relates to the character, the flavour of it. The intended effect is what you'd like it to do mechanically.

Code:

[b]Source:[/b]
[b]Details:
Desired Effect:[/b]