The Cauldron

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.
"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 used in The Cauldron include:

Sad Wings Of Destiny


Freelance RP

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.
  • 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.
  • 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...
  • Launcher of a Thousand Ships: Ragna, Nu, Noel and Tsubaki. Usually with each other.
    • 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 and Kokonoe 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.
  • Moral Event Horizon: Rust killing Noel in Breaking Point. Only time an OC killed a canon character. Topic deleted now due to both authors feeling uncomfortable with the whole idea, though the universe lived on as the Pointverse and is now fairly successful.
  • Moe: Several. Noel, Nu, Carl, Actorverse Mu, and Azure Days Rachel all stand out.
  • Not Good with Rejection: Nu in Shards of Ire. Cue Ax Crazy Nu.
  • 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
  • Sex Is Interesting: Average roleplay? 8 pages. Average NSFW roleplay? 20 or more pages
  • 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".


Members

  • Adorkable: Velvien, especially according to Gyppy. Musashi and several other members may also qualify.
  • Angrish: Musashi's very guilty of this.
  • Apologises a Lot: Both Litchi and Smitejr speak like this.
  • Berserk Button: Velvien hates netplay lag.
    • Mentioning any of the Murakumo units in an even slightly negative light around GyppyGirl2021 will result in Unstoppable Rage. Most notably, misinterpretations of their character.
    • Jin_K for pretty much the same reason, except about Litchi instead.
  • Big Eater: For whatever reason, Velvien is almost always hungry.
    • Though Smitejr has been known to eat more, calling Velvien a "lightweight."
  • Black Comedy: Lorn, who adores this form of comedy, often to the point of provoking repugnance in others.
  • Butt Monkey: Musashi is often picked on by other members of the forum for being slow at posting and a general goofy fanboy. They all still love him, though.
  • Cloudcuckoolander: Bonesy. Ironically, he and Velvien are good friends.
    • Queenofdissent, Velvien's sister, who sticks entirely to the Miscellaneous boards and knows very little of BlazBlue
  • Catch Phrase: "Goddamn it Bonesy" is the forum classic.
    • "Posted" - Everyone
  • Cover Identity Anomaly: When Maes Lawliet and Gleam took each others identities, Maes not only consistently forgot to properly punctuate his sentences the way Gleam normally does but also changed his display name to one that Gleam hadn't been using before the switch.
  • Dysfunction Junction
  • Five-Man Band: The main group of the forum.
  • Heroic Self-Deprecation: Smitejr descends into this when depressed
  • Hidden Depths: GyppyGirl2021 first heard about BlazBlue by means of being a troper - she stumbled upon the page for it long before she actually got into the series. And yes, she shipped Ragna x Noel back then, too.
  • Incoming Ham: JoshuaVv's introduction
  • Ink Suit Actor: The Litchi Faye-Ling user looks like her character, but with shorter hair, and without the Gag Boobs.
    • 3To3dSl0th has been told that he looks much like an older, real life Carl.
  • Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Gleam is often... not the nicest of people, but he can be genuinely helpful and will attempt to correct himself if he knows he's screwed up.
  • Large Ham: Nearly everyone has their moments, but Blue Paladin and Musashi are the most evident.
  • The Leader: Velvien, type II
  • Les Yay: GyppyGirl2021 is a self-proclaimed lesbian for Nu and Noel.
    • Bi the Way: However, she also likes Ragna and Hakumen.
  • Lovable Sex Maniac: GyppyGirl2021, Gleam, even Velvien himself. There's a reason the NSFW forum exists and it's linked to the reason why those three posters have almost triple the amount of posts than anyone else on the entire forum.
  • The Mean Brit: Completely averted by Maes Lawliet, as well as Takoto and WhiteKeaton. Ironic, since the latter two often RP the Big Bad Duumvirate of Blazblue.
  • Mean Character, Nice Actor: As explained above, the people who RP Hazama and Relius are very nice people IRL.
  • Moe: The user Litchi Faye-Ling/Abby. Also, Hazama (Takoto), and Relius (WhiteKeaton).
  • Mondegreen: Abby has a way of mishearing most character quotes in battle. For example, "Fuoco!"="Waffles!", "Aequum!"="Acorn!", etc.
  • Obfuscating Stupidity: Arguably Bonesy.
  • Old Shame: Gyppy was once known as an extremely obsessive Tales (series) fangirl, especially about yaoi and Tales of Destiny 2, especially Judas. However, right now she's past that and is very ashamed of that one 'self'.
  • Only Sane Man: Velvien, occasionally. MaesLawliet and Smitejr can qualify as well.
  • OTP: A few cases, most notably Velvien's Ragna x Tsubaki.
  • Pet the Dog: Literal example. Gyppy is often seen doting on, talking to, petting or annoying her dog Cocoa.
    • Mostly annoying, according to Gyppy herself.
  • Red Oni, Blue Oni: Many examples. Velvien and Bonesy...hell, pretty much the entire forum can be divided as such.
  • Ten-Minute Retirement: Blue Paladin vowed to leave the forum forever...until the Tuesday after.
  • The Sleepless: Most members of the forum
  • The Voiceless: MaesLawliet is the voice of them apparently.
  • Trademark Favorite Food: Velvien sure loves his salmon. And Drumsticks.
    • He'd argue that it's Starburst jellybeans, actually.
  • Troll: GLEAM.
    • Hi Gleam~!
    • To a lesser extent, Lorn, but only when he feels like it.
  • Vitriolic Best Buds: Gleam and Gyppy, who communicate mainly by verbal stabs and tortured confessions. Admittedly, they tend to go only one way.