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Snowblind Moderators ([personal profile] snowblindmods) wrote2015-04-06 10:43 pm

Application

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toushiro: (what's cooler than being cool)

toushiro hitsugaya | bleach | reserved

[personal profile] toushiro 2016-11-07 03:40 am (UTC)(link)
Player Information

Name: Coco
Age: 22
Contact Info: [plurk.com profile] amplitude
Other Characters: n/a

Character Information

Name: Toushiro Hitsugaya
Canon: Bleach
Age: Several centuries; physically appears to be in his early teens
Gender: Male
Canon Point: Immediately after the end of the Lost Substitute Shinigami arc
Background Link: This is really really long so....

tl;dr: Angry kid who acts older than he really is grew up with his grandmother and adoptive sister, wound up becoming the youngest Captain of All Time after his former Captain was exiled from the Soul Society, went through several bad episodes of seeing his sister/best friend almost die to the hands of his arch nemesis. Idk man he's just having a really bad time.
Inventory: Just his uniform. Without the sword.
toushiro: (over the shoulder)

[personal profile] toushiro 2016-11-07 03:40 am (UTC)(link)
Personality:

Toushiro Hitsugaya is a product of circumstance, having sacrificed a great deal of his childhood to learn how to grow up at a young age. Being the youngest Captain in Gotei 13 history, he's well-respected among his subordinates as well as his fellow soldiers. However, he is still a child, and thus works very hard to maintain his mature demeanor so people don't treat him as such.

He harbors low to no tolerance for being addressed as anything but "Captain Hitsugaya", and hates it when people think he's an elementary school student. In fact, he hates being acknowledged as a little kid as well as being called "Shorty" more than anything (he is, indeed, very short). Likewise, he detests anything that he considers to be childish, such as children's toys and school uniforms that appear to be fitting for young boys; and to add to his bitter attitude, he detests sweets and prefers food like fermented beans. Yeah. He is still young though, and his roots come from being a "child prodigy" for having an impressive level of intelligence and a lot of talent for someone so young. He is also incredibly disciplined, even more so than some of his older subordinates and fellow Captains.

Hitsugaya is always very diligent in getting his paperwork done, as well as being on time to and completing various missions in both the Soul Society and in the Human World. He doesn't like to beat around the bush and is always very direct, so as to not waste time or energy on unnecessary things. This attitude carries in his speech manerisms, too: Hitsugaya is extremely blunt and curt, only saying what he means and what he needs to. He's all about efficiency and making himself as clear as possible. Rarely ever does he allow himself to "have fun", and will often berate his lieutenant, Rangiku Matsumoto, for doing leisure activities while they should be working. While there have been attempts to try to get Hitsugaya to lighten up, they rarely ever work because he works himself down to the bone and just doesn't stop.

This is a testament to how he takes his duties incredible seriously, however, and you can't really blame him. He's a child in one of the highest, most honorable positions in all of Soul Society, standing beside and above others who are much older than him. He doesn't really have room to act like his age--though some people often think and treat him like he should--because he needs to be respected in his position. And Hitsugaya's definitely worthy of respect; while he is naturally talented, he does not get complacent, and continuously works on improving himself and his abilities.

However, his talent has also put him leagues above his peers, so he hasn't really gotten the chance to make many friends. Hitsugaya was never allowed to have a proper childhood, his spiritual energy being too strong for him to safely live at home with his adoptive grandmother. Furthermore, the other kids in the area were afraid of him, isolating him and leaving him with only his grandmother and Momo Hinamori to talk to. After she left to attend the Shinigami Academy, Hitsugaya followed her years later, but was just as isolated there probably due to a number of factors such as his age, his odd hair color, and his talent. Because of this, he's not the most friendly or the most open of people, used to being by himself and often times preferring it that way. He's not a complete loner, however, and has some rather valuable relationships he holds dear.

Hinamori is one of the most important people to Hitsugaya, and he is entirely devoted to protecting her for as long as he's around. She's his childhood friend--an older sister figure to him--and his desire to protect her and his grandmother drove him to becoming a Shinigami. She was the only child in the Rukongai District he grew up in to befriend him, being one of the only people able to break through his icy exterior. Hinamori gets special treatment in that she's the only one who is allowed to get away with addressing him by his given name, and doesn't get seriously upset with her when she uses nicknames with him. Hurt Hinamori, and Hitsugaya will make it his goal to make sure you never touch her again.

Another one of his notable relationships is the one he holds with Rangiku Matsumoto. has also earned Hitsugaya's respect in that context. Because she's his lieutenant, he recognizes Matsumoto's abilities, and believes that she's able to fight her own battles. In return, Matsumoto is usually always seen by her Captain's side, and is willing to protect him at all costs. It also turns out that they've become really close over the years they've worked together in the Tenth Division. It's become a routine for Hitsugaya to berate Matsumoto for not doing her paperwork, as she usually sneaks off to have a few drinks or go shopping--anything that isn't work, really. But while this is probably a punishable offense by Soul Society standards, Hitsugaya has never seriously punished her for this. Also, when Matsumoto was going through a difficult time, Hitsugaya let her sleep in their office without protest. Subtle little things like these are his way of showing he cares, and while they may not be visible to the average person, those who know him can recognize that he's not as cold as he tries to make himself seem.

Ironically, even though he reminds his subordinates to not mix personal motives with work, Hitsugaya's relationships are what hinder his ability to do as such. He's shown numerous times making irrational decisions that are fueled by his desire to protect and help the people he cares about. Hitsugaya had endangered himself during the two events in which Aizen had severely wounded Hinamori, by charging recklessly with only one thing in mind: to kill Aizen, despite the fact that Aizen's clearly much more powerful. He was also even classified as a traitor at one point after he abandoned a mission to chase after the enemy, Kusaka, who'd been Hitsugaya's friend in the academy. Soul Society had the impression that he had been meaning to join with the enemy; though this was not the case, Hitsugaya was aware of it and did not bother trying to clear his name, willingly abandoning his post as a Captain to presumably fight Kusaka as his equal--as his friend.

The word "friend" is not to be taken lightly in Hitsugaya's case; if he considers you to be a friend, he damn well means it. He rarely ever goes out of his way to help others with their problems, believing that they should deal with things themselves. He holds the same standard to himself and has a hard time asking others for help. He's pretty reserved with his feelings and his emotions, and even a glimpse of anything that isn't irritation or anger is hard to find with him. However, if he's willing to open up to you and show any sort of kindness towards you, consider it well-deserved.

If he had more time, maybe he would have learned to open up, make friends and enjoy childhood; but that isn't the case here, and Hitsugaya's a kid who's just had to grow up way too fast. It's a shame his height didn't grow as fast as his maturity.


Flavor Abilities: Hitsugaya is a Shinigami. As such, he normally has more durability, a much longer lifespan, and greater physical and spiritual capabilities than the average human. However, these will be nerfed significantly here, with only his basic combat capabilities in tact. Also, if he can get his hands on anything that's like a sword, he can use that as a weapon. His lifespan will be shortened to that of an average human.

On his durability: Hitsugaya can withstand freezing temperatures thanks to his Zanpakuto. Without it, however, he'll only have slightly higher than average cold tolerance. This does not make him immune to things like frostbite.

Suitability: Hitsugaya, being a trained soldier, has survival knowledge and capabilities. He's physically fit, excellent in hand-to-hand combat as well as swordsmanship, and intelligent to where he could probably help in solving a lot of the mysteries surrounding Norfinbury. He's also used to dealing with loss, so moving on past the deaths of those around him (probably) won't be much of a struggle for him, as cold as that sounds.

For Hitsugaya, the loss of his powers will probably be the hugest detriment as well as a great area of exploration for him. He's grown accustomed to the cold because of Hyourinmaru; without his powers, he will be just as prone as the average human being to conditions such as frostbite while exposed to extremely cold temperatures. And while he's used to being in a human body, which is normally required of Shinigami when they're on certain missions in the human world, he's always been able to switch into his Shinigami form when he needed to. Now, he's going to have to learn to survive as an ordinary human.

RP Samples: Network sample. Prose sample. A mix of both.

Re: ACCEPTED

[personal profile] toushiro - 2016-11-11 11:50 (UTC) - Expand
boneandclay: (the man)

Clara | Pathologic

[personal profile] boneandclay 2016-11-07 08:01 pm (UTC)(link)
Player Information

Name: Aave
Age: 25
Contact Info: [plurk.com profile] aaveolio
Other Characters: Leonard Church

Character Information

Name: Clara
Canon: Pathologic
Age: Appears to be late teens, actual age less than a week
Gender: Female
Canon Point: The end of day 6
Background Link: Lol this wiki has pathetically little information I guess I'll have to write this up myself

There's a town upon the river Gorkhon, somewhere deep in the steppes of Fantasy Russia. It was founded on the lands of the nomadic cattleherds of the steppe, and even around the early 20th century the traditions of those strange half-human people are still strong and present in everyday life. Most of the more upstanding citisens might not worship bulls anymore, but they're still what the town's wellbeing is built on. Thus, the town contains a strange mixture of the ancient and the modern in a way unseen anywhere else.

The town is ruled by three factions, each represented by a powerful family. The first are the Humble, led by the Saburovs; followers of the Earth and its Law, maintaining the ancient ways. The second are the Termites, led by the Olgimskys; builders and businessmen who bring prosperity to the town. Third are the Utopians, led by the Kains; artists and inventors who seek to overcome the natural limitations of humanity. For a long time the three factions lived in balance, each doing their part to maintain the order of things. This could not last, however: eventually the Humble grew stagnant and began shirking their duties in appeasing the Earth, and the town began to grow and advance beyond its former limits.

This upset of the balance, brought to a breaking point by the Kains breaking the laws of nature with their Polyhedron project, angers the Earth. It sends a terrifying pestilence, the Sand Plague, to either destroy the town or force it to repent and change its ways. As these things sometimes go in stories, the plague takes the form of a living thing - the shabnak-adyr, a shapeshifting maneater borne of clay and bone. However, something very strange happens. The plague chooses to go against its own nature, to create a new story for itself as a hero and a saint. This is where Clara comes from: she steals a fate not meant for her and makes herself anew as a saviour instead of a destroyer. Conflicted between who she wants to be and what she is meant to be, Clara splits into two - one is "the Changeling" that spreads the Sand Plague as she is meant to, while the "real" Clara, unaware of her own true nature, tries to stop it using her power to hurt or heal people.

Coincidentally, two other healers are working against the plague at the same time - the Bachelor and the Haruspex. While they attempt to create vaccines and cure, attempting to heal the body of the living organism that is the town, Clara sets out to heal its soul. She investigates the townsfolk, searching for the root causes of the plague and uncovering its mysteries. As part of the process, she interrogates many of the town's criminals and wrongdoers and absolves them of their sins. Eventually, all three of the healers begin to find their own solutions to the plague. The Bachelor and Haruspex's solutions both involve destruction in order to restore the balance and cure the plague. Clara, on the other hand seeks out and eventually finds a way to bring forth a miracle that allows everything to be preserved.

Inventory:
-A set of shabby, oversized clothes
-A small collection of hooks, needles, razors, and other sharp objects
-As many live rats as can be believably be stuffed in one's pockets
-A box of shmowder (powder created from a haphazard mixture of medicines - extremely detrimental to general health, but can cure the Sand Plague)

Personality:
If you ask her to describe herself, Clara will not hesitate to tell you that she is a good and selfless person and a messenger from a higher power, here to heal the sick and right wrongs. And, to be fair, to a certain degree that is true. It's certainly what she tries to be. Whether her attempts to do good stem from true selflessness or a desire to be seen as saintly is largely academic, since ultimately it amounts to the same result. She's definitely not all sweetness and light, though - she likes to sound mysterious and cool in all her interactions, and does not hesitate to lie through her teeth to achieve that. Especially if she can confuse and annoy people with pretending to know much more than she does because she is a trolling little shithead.

The misdirection isn't just for the sake of fun, though. It serves to cover up the fact that Clara knows very little about who or what she is and is more often than not extremely confused and frightened herself. Building an image of herself as a strange and mystical figure lets her turn that around on others. It might not give her what she truly wants more than anything - to be loved and protected - but she believes that as a criminal and a thief that is something she cannot receive anyway. The only way she can truly come to be accepted is by proving herself as a miracle worker.

The struggle to save the town for the sake of that goal has pushed her to develop a new, more pragmatic and assertive side to her personality. Not only does finding solutions require the capability to make difficult decisions that affect the lives of others, simply surviving everyday life in the midst of a plague is a hardening experience. She's had to learn to do whatever she has to, be it scavenging what little supplies can be found or hunting down those who turn to crime to feed their families.

While some of the moral decisions Clara has had to make have been difficult and worn on her, some remain extremely easy. For example, she has no compunctions against manipulating the Bachelor and the Haruspex to work against each other because she believes them to be evil. She sometimes makes assumptions like this on very little basis other than an initial impression, but she trusts her instincts to be guidance from above and sticks to them stubbornly. If she finds someone to be suspicious and frightening, they must be evil or even demonic and she's unlikely to ever fully trust them. She does believe that even they can be redeemed if they truly regret their sins, but her idea of sins might be very different from others'.

Flavor Abilities: Bad news (for Clara): She doesn't get to keep her amazing powers of killing or healing with a touch, nor the ability to hypnotise people into telling the truth.

Good news: She won't be spreading a horrific plague wherever she goes! Yay!

There's one feature I'd like to keep, though: people who are sensitive to the supernatural or spiritual may sometimes glimpse Clara's true nature for a moment, seeing a creepy jumbled collection of bones where her legs should be.

Suitability: Pathologic is described by its makers, entirely accurately, as a "survival simulation". The circumstances Clara and the other protagonists go through are fairly similar to those in Norfinbury - resources needed for survival are low, chances of death are very high, and just making it through every day is a struggle. The main difference would be that in comparison to Norfinbury, the plague presents more of a physical threat than a psychological one. Weird shit is going on all the time, but not nearly to the same degree. Thus, while Clara will be extremely well-prepared for some aspects of the game, others will be taking her off guard. If it were just a matter of survival, she'd likely get by just fine, but the isolation and stress will likely push her in fun new ways.

RP Samples: Log sample

Network sample:
[As Clara appears on the feed, it's instantly clear there's something wrong. There's no sign of her usual chipper demeanour, and she seems to be hesitating, uncertain what to say.]

...Hello, everyone. Some of you might have noticed my name on the obituaries that were posted recently, but... I didn't die. That obituary wasn't for me.

[She hesitates again, chewing on a nail. She hates letting everyone see her so out of sorts, but this is important. If it's what she thinks she is, everyone could be in terrible danger.]

This might sound a little strange, but has anyone recently run into me? Or rather, someone you might think is me? You see, I have a twin sister who looks just like me and even has the same name.

If you do run into someone who looks like me, but can't be sure that it is me, you should stay away. It could be very dangerous.

[Nervous as she is, she's still managing to conceal the worst of her fear. There's no need to cause too much alarm, after all! Or let people know just how scared she actually is!

Because oh boy, is she ever scared. She's seen just how much damage her sister causes just by existing. Who knows what she might do if she has now died and come back?
]

Re: REVISION REQUEST

[personal profile] boneandclay - 2016-11-13 15:08 (UTC) - Expand

(no subject)

[personal profile] boneandclay - 2016-11-14 16:50 (UTC) - Expand
deicidal: (this scarf is foreshadowing)

Sousuke Aizen | Bleach | Reserved

[personal profile] deicidal 2016-11-08 02:28 am (UTC)(link)
Player Information

Name: Jen
Age: 30
Contact Info: [plurk.com profile] redweth
Other Characters: None.
deicidal: (bleach; it gets the blood out)

[personal profile] deicidal 2016-11-08 02:30 am (UTC)(link)
Character Information

Name: Sousuke Aizen
Canon: Bleach
Age: Aizen is at least over 110 years old, though canon never specifies how much older. As Tite Kubo only gives approximate ages for the truly ancient shinigami, there's really no way to be sure. However, he appears to be in his late twenties.
Gender: Male
Canon Point: Chapter 423, after his defeat and subsequent imprisonment for treason against Soul Society.
Background Link: Succinct. Not succinct.
Inventory: 1 Hougyoku (see Flavor Abilities) embedded in his sternum, 1 dresscoat(?) with incorporated gloves, 1 pair of boots, 1 pair of socks, 1 pair of pants I hope, 1 weird headwrapping. Aizen's garb, for lack of a better term, is part of a system of seals that restrains and dampens his powers. However in Norfinbury they'll just be mundane cloth.

Personality: Aizen is perhaps best described as two-faced. Initially, he is presented as one of the most kind and well-respected captains of the Thirteen Court Guard Squads -- a military organization of spiritual beings (shinigami) that works to protect both the living and the dead from hollows (which are essentially hungry ghosts) and to preserve the balance between the living world and the spirit world. It is later revealed that his benevolence was a deception. Even after betraying the other shinigami, nevertheless, Aizen remains soft-spoken and largely polite in his discourse with enemies and allies alike. He seems to be an intellectual first and foremost, often pausing to explain to his lessers (read: opponents, subordinates, et all) precisely how his complicated plans and inventions will work, or how he has been subtly stripping away their ability to oppose him while they didn't realize it. Despite how unshakably polite he speaks, he tends to address people in a patronizing manner. Though this can be as mild as using their given names (whereas most shinigami have been shown to favor surnames) it can extend to referring to those he betrayed in a manner that was once a sign of respect for their equal or superior standing amongst the shinigami. That is, despite his defection, he would likely still address his formers 'peers' as Captain. He also tends to be rather casual, attempting to engage in small talk in most instances, or draw out conversation with others, even on the field of battle. It's extraordinarily rare for him to show any sign of distress, in fact, and Aizen most often holds himself aloof and perhaps bemused with his surroundings, or how his plan is going.

And everything will go according to plan, should Aizen have his way. Largely unaffected by compassion or concern for his subordinates, Aizen sees those he commands (and practically everyone else) as pawns in a convoluted game of chess he is playing against all others. Willing to stop at nothing in pursuit of ascending from a mere shinigami to take the place of the Soul King (to kill Soul Society's god and replace him, in fact), Aizen has been plotting how to do so since at least a century prior to his defection from Soul Society and seems to have accounted for every detail. Whether as a simple intimidation tactic or merely another demonstration of his informative and polite nature, Aizen is repeatedly shown explaining how a situation initially perceived as a disadvantage to him is actually a necessary step down the path of his plan. The best example of this is when he tells Ichigo Kurosaki that he has known about him since he was born and that he has been guiding his actions since that time.

It isn't just the shinigami he deceives either. After defecting from the shinigami, Aizen amasses an army of hollows by promising them power in payment for servitude. He is repeatedly shown in polite conversation with the most powerful of these hollows, even in instances when he actually manipulating them. At times, these manipulations seem to be for nothing other than Aizen's own amusement, as he is shown provoking Grimmjow on several occasions to act out before turning around and punishing (or manipulating others to punish him) for it. The hollows serving under him, in fact, appear to do so out of a combination of respect and fear. One of them, about to die, proclaims that hollows follow Aizen because they are literally creatures born of fear, and because Aizen has no fear, they cannot help but feel inspired.

He is neat and orderly, charming and versatile. Aizen has honed his very demeanor into a weapon he wields expertly, but in doing so he further distances himself from those he seeks to guard against. Aizen is conceited. He believes he is the best and brightest, that no one can surpass him, and everyone is beneath him. He believes he is invincible even after he's been defeated. Aizen does not regard others as his equals, he will use them as he sees fit. By his own admission, he sees friendship and personal bonds as weakness. Once loved by his fellow captains and his subordinates, Aizen renounced them all without regret because he never cared for them, as that would have been compromising in his eyes. Aizen truly confides in no one, trusts in no one, and expects quarter from no one. Gin Ichimaru, his former lieutenant who defected from Soul Society alongside him, betrays him and tries to kill him, but Aizen saw it coming, even planned for it.

Due to his penchant for intense and detailed plotting, Aizen is exceedingly cautious. However, this does not merely stem from forward thinking. Though unparalleled in manipulation and highly intelligent, Aizen is not without his flaws. Chief amongst them is just how paranoid he really is. Though, his paranoia is not without reason. His manipulation and deception of the shinigami may have initially (or only later) stemmed from a desire to overthrow the Soul King, but in a way it was necessary merely due to his nature. His plots may have become grandiose and complex, but the cost of failure was high, a price he pays when at last he is defeated and imprisoned.

The Thirteen Court Guard Squads is a military organization from which there is no discharge, honorable or otherwise. Once an individual becomes a shinigami he does not have the option of leaving. Deserters and those shinigami deemed too dangerous to be allowed to remain in active duty are secretly imprisoned. Aizen's schemes to subvert the organization are convoluted and exacting because they have to be. Possessed of a rigid structure and replete with protocols and regulations, there is little opportunity amongst the shinigami to follow a path not set out by those of higher rank. While Aizen had attains the rank of captain before defecting, he remains under the whim of Central 46 and the captain commander. And Aizen, like so many deemed too dangerous for active duty, is different. He possesses more power than is natural to the shinigami. While it is his vast arrogance that leads him to assert that other shinigami are so inferior to him that they cannot comprehend his power, the reason he cannot identify with his fellows is not so simple.

Even so, Aizen is not the sort to readily show fear. He prides himself on being calm and collected, and it is through control that he feels most secure and naturally the loss of it most unnerves him. Indeed, control his main objective, whether it’s of himself, or the people around him. His zanpakutou (a blade which is also a piece of his soul), represents illusion, and is just another tool in her repertoire which he uses to manipulate others. He deals with losing control of the people he manipulates more easily than losing control of his own actions or capabilities. Regardless, it’s difficult to tell when he has truly lost control as each time Aizen has faced a setback he either dismisses it as immaterial or calmly denies that it was a setback at all and claims that it was just another facet of his Machiavellian plans. The only instance in which he drops this unflappable facade is when he is defeated by the combined efforts of Ichigo, the Thirteen Court Guard Squads, and their allies. When all of his accumulated power is ripped away in a second and more than a century’s worth of planning goes up in smoke, he finally loses his cool and launches into a diatribe that is cut off by the very kidou (magic spell) that defeated him.

I'm bringing Aizen in after he is captured and imprisoned, bound in sense-depriving wards and sealed in a solitary cell, a state of defeat that is shown to give him pause and possibly even get under his skin. As such, Aizen has some issues bubbling under the surface. First and foremost, he has failed. A plan that was more than a hundred years in the making crumbled before his eyes, and he has yet to move past that failure. The only acknowledgement he offers to his defeat is to muse aloud that those he considered so inferior where able to defeat him. If it's not already apparent, Aizen also has major trust issues. He holds people at arm’s length, believes he knows exactly what and who they are, but he wouldn't trust a single person other than himself. And why would he? After manufacturing a personality with which to deceive hundreds of people for decades, where the smallest slip up could cost him his life, Aizen is not about to open up. Furthermore, stripped of his powers as he will be, suddenly on the same level or even inferior to those around him, Aizen will very much have to adapt his perspective. Not that he’ll let on in if he can help it.

Flavor Abilities: The Hougyoku is a small bluish purple orb that Aizen used to transcend the barrier between hollows and shinigami in order to achieve the power to enter the royal dimension and defeat the Soul King. As Aizen ultimately failed to do this and it's unclear whether the Hougyoku is at fault, Aizen's got some issues with it. The fact that he embedded the thing in his chest probably doesn't help. Sadly, all of the Hougyoku's power will be gone in Snowblind, but I would like to keep a mocking little glow. It wouldn’t be a significant light source, or even be seen through his clothes. It would only be enough to be an irritating reminder that it's still there, and that he failed.

Suitability: In Bleach, Aizen is a character defined by his power. When Ichigo defeats him we learn he has been so overwhelmingly powerful for so long that he may actually have longed to find someone else on his level. Even after being defeated, Aizen is able to severely injure a trained soldier who simply steps too close to him. His power isolated him even when he pretended to be an amicable comrade in arms, and once he reveals his agenda he is quite literally placed in a sensory deprived solitary confinement. Though Norfinbury is essentially changing one cage for another, the fact that Aizen will not have his powers at all will, for once, make him an ant among the titans. Aizen talks more than once, and sometimes at length, about fear creating the potential for growth. What better way to explore his character growth than a place in which he'd actually have cause to be afraid?

Aizen already has issues with paranoia, isolation, and obsession. It's isolation that pushes him to reject his place in a world he judges inferior, and paranoia that further compounds his isolation. An obsession, specifically his obsession with the potential power Ichigo wields, contributes to his downfall. I certainly want to play with those aspects in this new territory where the only tools Aizen really has left are his wits.

Of course, Aizen isn't at a complete disadvantage. Though no longer a vastly powerful spiritual being, he is still a trained military captain. He has a keen mind and is capable of tactical reasoning. Furthermore, he is adept at unarmed combat and very physically fit. In canon Aizen has almost always been able to fall back on the fact that he outclasses everyone. The exception to this, when he was defeated, caused an outburst that broke his characteristic calm demeanor. Without his powers to fall back on, Aizen will be working without a net and may have to rely on people other than himself. Frankly, I want to see that most of all, because what sort of contortions will a self-deified paragon put himself through before he finally asks for help?

RP Samples: Thread 1, Thread 2

The cloying gray clouds seemed only partially distinguished from each other as they slouched down toward the bleary horizon. Windswept snow drifted with misleading smoothness across the crumbling dregs of the neighborhood Aizen had been picking his way across for the better part of the morning. If the rubble had even truly been a neighborhood. He honestly wasn't certain anymore. Earlier that morning, when the sky was still pink, he'd been able to spot the ruined little details like broken toys and splintered furniture that spoke of a residential area. Now, his eyes squinted up toward the gray sky too often, even as his feet wobbled as they drug through the snow. It was a sight Aizen was quickly becoming familiar with, and yet he still would have cast off every crude and necessary piece of gear he wore for the chance to stride up into that dreary sky and stand atop the wind.

Yet again he pushed aside the familiar impulse to bound up there. It was as impossible as it was imprudent. Exposing himself to the wind like that would only allow the cold to cut through his clothing anyway. Bitter chills already racked through him at infrequent intervals. The cooler air might bring relief to his head, which was over-warm and far too full, but even that would be a temporary ease in exchange for feeling worse later. Breathing was already starting to become a chore as it was, even through the comparable warmth of the cloth wrapped around his face.

Rutching his backpack higher up on his shoulder, Aizen's gaze lifted again to the murky gray sky. This was no good. His feet felt heavy and there was a dizziness that pulled at him. Stubbornly, he refused to spread his arms for balance, though whether that was to quell his shivering or soothe his pride, Aizen pointedly refused to contemplate. He was already slowing down, and one bleak thought echoed in his mind. He wasn't going to make the rendezvous.

Absently, his gaze fell back to the horizon and arrested on the dark smudge of life he could barely make out in the distant haze. It was a lone figure, too obscure to make out features. It seemed to still as it caught sight of Aizen as well. Drawing himself up to his full height, Aizen uncrossed his arms from his chest. The next lungful of air seemed sharper as he forced himself to take a deep breath. He didn't stop moving, however. Instead, he continued trudging forward, shifting his course gradually toward the figure.

A mix of caution and curiosity gripped him. It was still too far away to tell, at least in this visibility, whether this shape was the person he expected to meet or someone else. Or if it was one of those anomalies, the ones he'd been warned about, that had not yet decided how best to attack. Then again, he mused, If it was one of the other survivors, they may be feeling the same apprehension he was. More, certainly. Even so, Aizen didn't opt to lift his voice just yet. Instead he raised one gloved hand high in the air and waved.

(no subject)

[personal profile] deicidal - 2016-11-11 13:01 (UTC) - Expand
corknut: (stock] opening)

Melanie | The Girl with All the Gifts

[personal profile] corknut 2016-12-01 05:05 am (UTC)(link)
Player Information

Name: Iddy
Age: 26
Contact Info: ZieglerFan719@gmail.com / [plurk.com profile] ihdreniel
Other Characters: Alfie Solomons | [personal profile] devoutish

Character Information

Name: Melanie
Canon: The Girl with All the Gifts
Age: 10
Gender: female
Canon Point: After Helen Justineau gives her the book of Greek myths
Background Link:
Melanie comes from a world that has been overrun by what is essentially the zombie apocalypse, here taking the form of a parasitic fungus called Ophiocordyceps (which really exists in the insect world and is super creepy). When someone is infected, the fungus invades and overpowers the brain of its host - essentially killing all brain function, in the most extreme cases. With children born to infected parents, however, the fungus develops a symbiotic relationship with their bodies rather than a parasitic one, and their intelligence and personalities are left pretty much as-is - other than the fact that they look a little dead and the scent of human flesh starts to seem really appetizing.

Melanie is one of the second-gen infected. She was found and brought to a British military base when she was younger (she doesn't know how old; the memories are fuzzy) where she serves as a test subject for scientists hoping to study and cure the fungus. Despite her genius-level intelligence and strong emotional range, she is not seen as a human - or even a sentient being - by nearly all of the people at the base. Most of her time is spent locked alone in a cell, and when she is brought out, she's strapped down into a wheelchair at her hands, feet, and head (all the scientists spray themselves down with a chemical to mask their scent, but they still don't want to take any chances).

Melanie's eventual fate, as well as the eventual fates of the other test subjects, is dissection. She doesn't know this. She doesn't even know what she is. Even though she doesn't like most of the scientists, she ultimately feels grateful that she's on the base. After all, being locked up means that she's safe from the monsters outside... right?

And here's the book's Wikipedia page just to round things out.

Inventory:
- a white shift dress
- white pants
- white shoes
- a copy of the book Tales the Muses Told: Greek Myths by Roger Lancelyn Green

Personality:
Despite the fungus taking up residence in her brain, Melanie is first and foremost a little girl. She's full of an intense curiosity about the world around her and hoards all the information she can get about her surroundings, in large part because the surroundings she's used to are so small and confined. Her high intelligence goes hand in hand with her curiosity, allowing her to soak up things she learns with ease. But locked up at the base, she doesn't get much of a chance to use her intelligence - at this point in canon, she has very little practical knowledge, which means that she's quite naive. Her understanding of the world comes almost entirely from things her teachers tell her, all of which are designed to study and test her ability to learn and none of which are supposed to actually be useful to her. The few other things that she does know - little snippets that she's overheard in conversations that she wasn't supposed to be listening to - are completely contextless, and therefore confusing at best and incomprehensible at worst.

However, this naiveté is purely an environmentally-caused trait, and something that she ends up shedding extremely quickly when she finds herself outside the base later on. Later canon shows that with more of the world at her disposal, she's very capable of adapting and applying what she learns to her own life when given the opportunity. At the beginning of the book, she's completely at the mercy of the scientists at the lab, and she doesn't rebel or try to cause trouble (other than talking back, and that's literally only once). By the end, she's threatening and controlling her would-be dissector with her own scalpel, and confidently making high-consequence world-changing decisions all by herself. She has a lot of untapped potential in her - she just has to realize that it's there. One of the ultimate sources of this inner strength is in her sense of loyalty and her desire to keep those that she cares about safe. She quickly positions herself as the protector of Miss Justineau - her favorite teacher, who she loves boundlessly and endlessly - despite the fact that she's just a kid and Miss Justineau is an adult. She fights for her, stands up to soldiers with guns for her, and even kills for her. When it comes to defending the people who are the most important to her, Melanie is fearless.

Last but absolutely not least, Melanie's true nature will always be an inescapable part of her life, though she doesn't yet know it. The scientists do not tell the children what they are, or what their true reason for being at the base is. They also douse themselves in chemicals whenever they come into work, hiding their scent so that the children won't feel the urge to try to attack. This means that hunger for human flesh is both an intrinsic part of who and what she is... and something that she has very little experience with. The first time she really felt it, it was directed at Miss Justineau, and she ended up nearly taking a bite out of her. The incident left her feeling horrified, confused, and incredibly ashamed. Later, when she learns more about herself and begins to get used to the idea, she's ruthlessly pragmatic about it. When traveling in a small group of two soldiers, one scientist, and Miss Justineau, Melanie sides with the soldiers when they suggest things like muzzling her, making her sleep outside, and locking her in a cage (this is even as Justineau protests that that's cruel and inhumane). When she's unmuzzled or her hands are untied, she's the first to remind them to keep their guns pointed at her, so they can shoot her if she loses herself and starts to attack. More than anything else, she wants to not hurt innocent people.

Throughout the book, the Greek myth of Pandora resonates with Melanie deeply, though for different reasons at different points of her life. When she first learns about her at the base, she immediately identifies with Pandora's lack of mortal parents. She daydreams about being a special, gifted girl herself, created and beloved by the gods. And later, after she finds about the secret of her own biology, she identifies with her for a deeper, darker reason: just as Pandora's greatest weakness was her curiosity, Melanie's greatest weakness is her hunger. And she fears that, like Pandora, she won't be able to resist giving in to it in the end.

Flavor Abilities:
Her general appearance would fall under this category - she's mostly human-looking, but her skin is very pale and cold to the touch, and she doesn't give off any sort of bodily warmth. Looking over old FAQ comments, I'd love to have this sort of set-up with her, or something similar to the route Jax took with Beckett - she'd need to eat actual food on a regular basis like everybody else, but would still feel the near-uncontrollable urge to attack and snack on people if they got close enough to her.

Lastly, she has an extremely high IQ, and is particularly good at fact retention and mathematical problem-solving. This isn't actually a superhuman ability for her, but I figure it's worth mentioning anyway just to be safe.

Suitability:
Norfinbury would be at once overwhelming and exhilarating for her. Her entire life at home consists of the same extremely restricted routine day in and day out, and suddenly being thrust into an unpredictable landscape with much less routine is something that she would absolutely not be prepared for. However, she's a very quick learner, and she'd take advantage of all the new, different people she'd have access to (another thing she wouldn't be used to) in order to do her best to survive. Her days would be dominated by discovery more than anything else, simply because everything would be novel to her.

Once she figured out that she's a danger to others, she'd be extremely wary of being near them, and would probably insist on traveling on by herself most of the time. People who didn't inspire bloodlust in her (non-organics or other dead-ish people, basically) would be a huge relief to her, and if she made a friend who fell into that category she'd be thrilled. Another important thing to mention is that she'd be coming in soon after having tried to chomp on her favorite, adored teacher, something that was confusing and mildly traumatizing to her. She'd need to process and unpack this, either on her own or with the help of others - particularly if she also ended up attacking someone in town, which would be likely to happen at some point.

RP Samples:

log sample

By the end of her second day in Norfinbury, Melanie's throat starts to feel dry and parched. Her lips chap. Her stomach growls and she feels hungry, which makes her chest knot up with anxiety and memory.

She doesn't know what to do, so she worriedly calls the lady who'd been so nice to her on her first day, telling her the problem but not telling her why it scares her. On the video, the lady spots Melanie's bag with its untouched rations and water bottles, and she gently suggests that Melanie have something to eat and drink.

It seems like a strange suggestion to Melanie. It's only been a few days since chow time, and anyway, this isn't the kind of food that she eats. She'd just assumed it wasn't her food, even though she'd been told that the bag was hers, and she'd actually been planning to leave it behind when she finally left the house, for someone else who actually needed it to find. She'd tried to explain to the lady what Dr. Selkirk had said - that she ate different food from normal children, and only once a week, because that was how her body worked. But the lady insists - really insists, her voice sounding tight and worried for Melanie. Melanie likes the idea of someone being worried and concerned over her (even though she also feels kind of bad about it), and so she decides to try. Just to make her happy. The food isn't anything special, but she dutifully eats it down until it's gone. The water is next, and the lady encourages her again, telling her that that's really the most important thing - even more important than food. Melanie is, again, skeptical. She doesn't drink at home. She's never had anything liquid before in her life. That's another thing that Dr. Selkirk had told her - she gets all the water she needs from the meat she eats. But she takes a tentative, messy sip, once the lady on the video really starts pleading. It helps, like the food, but she likes it even less. Some of it spills out of the corners of her mouth and dribbles down her chin, wetting the front of her shirt, and even what she manages to swallow feels funny and unpleasant going down her throat. It's satisfying, but in a grim way. The lady tells her it'll get better in time, and she only doesn't like it now because she's not used to it. She makes her promise to take either four small sips or two big sips every hour, even if her throat doesn't hurt. Melanie promises.

Food and drink aren't the only strange things here. Far from it. Some are things that she's read about (though, invariably, they always turn out to be just a little bit different from how they were in the stories), and some are entirely new. She revels at them all, even the things that other people say are normal and nothing special. Long, narrow staircases. Hats made of brightly-colored yarn. Doorknobs that turn under her hand - her hand - even though she isn't a grown-up or a soldier or a teacher. Other people talk about trade; about giving away things that they don't want. Melanie doesn't think she'll ever want to do that. Everything she finds is a treasure, and if she can take it and keep it and marvel at it forever, then she will.

TDM samples

TDM thread (network --> in-person)
TDM starter (network)

Re: that last link - I know we're not supposed to use intro-style posts for app samples, but since I already have the non-intro network and log samples I figured I might as well throw it in for good measure!

(no subject)

[personal profile] titanette - 2016-12-09 23:23 (UTC) - Expand
thewarningafter: (goatee griefbeard | neutral | backpack)

Doctor Stephen Strange | MCU | reserved

[personal profile] thewarningafter 2016-12-01 07:33 pm (UTC)(link)
Player Information

Name: Kathryn
Age: 29
Contact Info: [plurk.com profile] YawningDodo
Other Characters: Ecks ([personal profile] ecks) and Dug ([personal profile] andiloveyou)

Character Information

Name: Dr. Stephen Vincent Strange
Canon: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Age: 40
Gender: Male
Canon Point: After the end of Doctor Strange (2016 film)

Background Link: MCU Wiki links - SPOILER ALERT: film summary; biography of Doctor Strange. These pages include extensive spoilers for the film.

Player's rewritten reference version (still contains spoilers):
Doctor Stephen Strange was a brilliant but arrogant and self-centered neurosurgeon whose life revolved around his award-winning work. Strange suffered a car accident (his own fault) that dealt severe nerve damage to his hands, leaving him unable to continue his career. He became destitute through his obsessive efforts to find a cure; when he heard of a former paraplegic named Jonathan Pangborn who had learned to walk again, Strange sought him out and learned that the man had apparently been healed at a place named Kamar-Taj in Nepal. Strange spent his last dollar on a one way trip to Kathmandu, where he did indeed find Kamar-Taj and the Masters of the Mystic Arts, led by a woman known as the Ancient One. After Strange's skepticism (and just being a butt in general) nearly cost him the opportunity to study with the Ancient one, he did get accepted into Kamar-Taj, where he resided and worked at learning the aforementioned Mystic Arts. While the timeline of the film and the length of his studies at Kamar-Taj are unclear, this application assumes that he spent at least a year at Kamar-Taj in order to reach his current level of ability. He struggled initially, but after being forced into a breakthrough by the Ancient One he progressed rapidly and began pushing the limits of what he was expected (or even allowed) to learn, going so far as to tamper with temporal magic he found in a book from the Ancient One's private collection. Strange was also expected to learn to fight at this time; he sort of did, but not particularly well.

When he learned that the purpose of the Masters was to protect the world from mystical/dimensional threats, Strange initially refused to become involved…for about half a minute before he found himself defending the Sanctum Sanctorum of New York (one of three Sanctums designed to protect the Earth from malicious alternate dimensions) from an attack by one of the Ancient One's former students, Kaecilius, who intended to give the Earth over to the ruler of the Dark Dimension in exchange for eternal life. It was during this fight that an animate artifact known as the Cloak of Levitation selected Stephen as its new owner and came to his aid, which was fortunate for Stephen because he was getting his ass kicked. After Strange fended off the first attack on the New York Sanctum, he and fellow master Karl Mordo faced a repeat attack and Strange nearly got the both of them killed due to a major tactical error. The Ancient One came to their rescue but was mortally wounded in the process, later dying at the hospital where Strange had formerly worked.

With Mordo, Strange went forth to defend the final Sanctum in Hong Kong, only to find it already destroyed and a rift to the Dark Dimension opened in the sky above it. Using an artifact known as the Eye of Agamotto (actually the Infinity Stone of Time, not that Stephen knows anything about it), Strange reversed time to undo the attack on the Sanctum, including undoing a number of deaths of both fellow Masters and civilians. Kaecilius interrupted his spell before Stephen could completely restore the Sanctum. Hearing Kaecilius reference the fact that the Dark Dimension was beyond time, Strange abandoned the fight to enter said Dark Dimension and confront its eldritch ruler, Dormammu. Knowing that he could not hope to fight Dormammu, Stephen instead annoyed the entity into giving up his attack on Earth by trapping himself and Dormammu in an endless time loop until Dormammu would agree to bargain with him. Dormammu responded by killing Stephen repeatedly; it is likely that Strange experienced a violent death dozens or even hundreds of times while wearing down Dormammu's patience. Eventually Dormammu conceded in order to be set free and agreed to Strange's demands that he leave the Earth and take Kaecilius and his zealots with him.

With the Master of the New York Sanctum dead, Stephen agreed to take on the mantle in his place after returning the Eye of Agamotto to its proper place in Kamar-Taj. His canon point is immediately post-movie, so the further developments revealed in post-credits scenes are irrelevant to this application.


Inventory:
Non-magical equipment / Clothing that totally doesn't make him look like a cultist or anything:
  • Blue long-sleeved undershirt
  • Blue knee-length tabard
  • Intense belt situation (Seems to be one big belt with several thinner belts attached)
  • Blue trousers
  • Boots covered in pointless straps (I'm operating under the assumption that they have hidden zippers, because it would take him at least an hour to put them on otherwise)
  • An expensive watch with a smashed face (non-functional); an inscription on the reverse reads "Time will tell how much I love you - Christine"
  • Slimline wallet with a driver's license and a couple of credit cards in his own name, plus a very small amount of cash in a mixture of American dollars and Nepalese rupees.

Magical items:
  • Cloak of Levitation: an animate red cloak made of at least two layers of heavy, embroidered fabric that chose him as its owner and actively protects him. See "abilities" section; this item qualifies as a pet as per this discussion on the FAQ.
  • Sling ring: designed to be worn on two fingers; allows the user to generate magical portals. Does not work in Norfinbury.
  • [Pictured in links above but not included in his Snowblind inventory: an eye-shaped amulet known as the Eye of Agamotto]


Personality:
Until relatively recently, Stephen was a self-centered neurosurgeon whose work was his life. A combination of arrogance and fear of failure drove him to the top of his field, which offered him both the accolades he desired and a sense of control over his own life as well as the fates of his patients. As a surgeon, Stephen selected his patients based largely upon how much they might benefit his career, declining to operate on patients whose problems he deemed uninteresting and older patients who might "ruin his record" by dying on the table, and declining even to communicate with potential patients whose cases he considered "hopeless." That being said, Stephen took his Hippocratic oath seriously even if he did not invest himself emotionally in his patients as individuals. Stephen had also made for a poor boyfriend to his former significant other, Dr. Christine Palmer, due to his general narcissism. The two did, however, remain on friendly terms after the relationship officially ended (Stephen has a tendency to stick by the individuals he's chosen to trust), though Christine eventually cut off contact when Stephen became emotionally abusive in the downward spiral of financial and emotional self-destruction that followed his accident.

Stephen's time at Kamar-Taj taught him humility almost above all else, which is somewhat ironic considering the cosmic powers that came with the training. His sorcery education began with the Ancient One quite calmly and deliberately stripping away all of Stephen's assurance in his basic understanding of the universe. The greatest lesson the Ancient One imparted to Stephen, though, is that it's not about him. While that's a lesson with which Stephen continues to grapple, he has become more willing to put others first, to share credit when credit is due, and frankly to acknowledge that other people are also capable of competence, though he still tends to only allow himself to rely upon a few select people he has deemed trustworthy. He became willing, also, to admit his own wrongdoings and to offer a sincere apology to Christine without any accompanying expectation that they would resume their romantic relationship.

Stephen still strives for greatness; while his time at Kamar-Taj has given him a clearer picture of his place in the world, he has never stopped pushing himself to new heights. While he is innately gifted, Stephen is no stranger to the hard work that goes into reaching the top of one's field, and is singularly, stubbornly driven when it comes to increasing his own knowledge. He is a lifelong learner with an impressive memory that he puts to both impressive and not-so-impressive uses. His increased powers of retention allowed him to progress rapidly in his education first as a surgeon and then as a sorcerer, but they also allow him to pack his brain with esoteric musical trivia that he enjoys reciting whenever given the slightest excuse. In his former career he went so far as to play musical trivia games with his assistant while performing brain surgery, to no apparent detriment; he is, apparently, quite adept at multitasking.

Stephen has a dry but active sense of humor that he employs mainly for his own amusement. He favors sarcasm as well as deadpan deliveries of the more absurd truths he encounters. While he is capable of speaking seriously about important matters (and is definitely capable of man-tantrums at his lowest points), he generally prefers to downplay his fears. He can be sassy when the mood strikes, but he mostly says things he himself finds funny rather than making many keen observations about the people around him.

While Stephen does hold certain convictions to heart (namely his reluctance to use deadly force), he is flexible in his problem-solving and shows a marked readiness to break the rules (up to and including the laws of nature) if he perceives that good will come of it. Stephen is not a rule-breaker for its own sake, but will readily circumvent or simply ignore any rules that would prevent him from solving a problem or progressing in his own education. Because Stephen sees rules (even his own) only as guidelines to be constantly questioned, he is relatively forgiving of hypocrisy in others so long as the intent was good.

For all the humility he's managed to learn, Stephen remains largely unable to accept that there are problems he cannot solve. His distaste for killing, rather than making him a pacifist, drives him to find alternate solutions to problems that often fly in the face of the more direct strategies used by other sorcerers, martial artists, superheroes, and so on. Stephen prefers to contain or remove threats rather than fight them directly. This stems partly from a moral objection to killing, partly from a refusal to allow others on the sidelines to become casualties, and partly out of an ongoing need to prove to himself and others that he has a better way of doing things. Also, well, partly because Stephen is not particularly good at fighting (when forced into combat, he mainly shows off his mad skills at running away). Even when his creative problem-solving backfires spectacularly, as it did the second time he faced Kaecilius, Stephen is not deterred from trying to do things his own way again later.

Finally, Stephen is willing to put himself in harm's way to protect others. Despite his initial reluctance to become involved in the Masters' mystical war, Stephen was drawn into the fight the moment he saw a fellow member of his order fighting for his life and interjected himself into the situation despite being outnumbered and vastly outmatched. Stephen is not a man to stand by and allow another person to get hurt or killed when it is within his power to prevent it, even if that means that he must suffer immensely for his interference. Stephen has shown willingness to endure torture (even to invite it upon himself) for the sake of protecting the people of Earth; while his experiences in the Dark Dimension will certainly have scarred him, Stephen's taste of self sacrifice has also left him stronger than ever in his conviction to protect others.
thewarningafter: (goatee griefbeard | neutral | backpack)

2 of 2: Doctor Stephen Strange | MCU | reserved

[personal profile] thewarningafter 2016-12-01 07:35 pm (UTC)(link)
Flavor Abilities:
Sorcery:
As noted in the inventory section, I propose that he should keep the Cloak of Levitation and that it should remain animate/actively magical on the grounds that it behaves like a living creature and therefore qualifies as a canon pet. At full power, the Cloak would be strong enough to lift Strange, giving him limited flight capabilities (also, enabling it to drag him about against his will), and sturdy enough to block attacks made with bladed weapons without being damaged itself. In Norfinbury, the Cloak will retain its ability to move and act, including the ability to fly through the air independently of Stephen, to hang in midair when not being worn, and to wrap around and roughly manipulate objects. It will not be capable of lifting Strange (or any other heavy object) and will be rendered about as sturdy as any quality garment made of heavy fabric, nullifying its usefulness as magical armor. It will also be unable to fly any higher than an average human can jump.

In canon, Stephen is able to tap into a variety of magic powers (some only with the use of magically imbued artifacts), including teleportation, travel to neighboring dimensions, astral projection, summoning shields and weapons made of energy from other dimensions, and altering the flow of time. Given that all of these abilities represent distinct survival advantages, he will not be able to use them in Norfinbury. If possible, I would like him to be able to come tantalizingly close to calling upon his sorcery, namely by generating sad, useless little sparks in the air when he tries to create a portal or pull energy from another dimension (the sparks would not be useful for generating heat or lighting fires, and he would have to work quite hard to do even that much).


Mundane abilities:
Strange is a quick learner with an eidetic memory (that is, while his memory is not perfect, he has significantly improved sensory recall compared to an average person). He is quick to grasp and to be able to implement complex concepts and instructions. He is also shown to have significant (but not inhuman) linguistic ability; during his time at Kamar-Taj he learned to read ancient Sanskrit well enough to understand an advanced magical text and perform a ritual described in its pages within minutes of first reading it.

Beyond that, Doctor Strange is also a passable martial artist. He's capable of physically defending himself, but without his magic he likely wouldn't hold up very well against more experienced fighters, and he cannot strike with his hands without causing himself a good deal of pain due to extensive previous damage.


Disability:
While this is obviously not an extra ability, it's important to note that Stephen Strange has limited use of his hands due to extensive nerve damage sustained in a car crash. He is capable of performing tasks necessary for day to day survival (he will be perfectly capable of operating doors, for instance, and of dressing himself), and he is able to type slowly but clearly when he makes the effort. However, he has poor individual control over his fingers and he experiences nearly constant tremors in both hands that worsen under duress; he will struggle with any tasks that require fine motor skills. He also experiences chronic pain that comes and goes at irregular intervals, which he will treat with meditation and/or any over-the-counter pain killers he manages to find.


Suitability:

While Stephen has grown as a person and become more willing and able to set his ego (...and personal safety) aside for the common good, he will have a hard time coping with the loss of his powers. When he lost the use of his hands he obsessed over finding a cure to the point of financially ruining himself and destroying what few positive relationships he had because his life lacked meaning without his work. This time around he'll handle the loss of his abilities better due to his increased emotional maturity, but he'll have to convince himself that he'll eventually be able to get his powers back in order to be able keep moving forward.

Stephen is a problem-solver, and I expect him to actively work with others to find answers and help move the ongoing explorations forward. Being transported to an alternate universe and encountering people he considers fictional (not to mention a face twin in Sherlock) is something Stephen will actually take more or less in stride at this point in his life. While he will be curious about the town and its inhabitants and won't exactly be happy about the cold and the monsters anomalies, the core issue of finding himself in another world will not phase him as badly as it does many characters.


RP Samples:

I may have gone a little overboard. Please note that typos in Stephen's text-based communications are intentional.

YAS

[personal profile] thewarningafter - 2016-12-09 23:31 (UTC) - Expand
bloodbiter: (what are you watching?)

Adelina | The Two Princesses of Bamarre

[personal profile] bloodbiter 2016-12-02 04:06 am (UTC)(link)
Player Information

Name: Eli
Age: 23
Contact Info: [plurk.com profile] becoming
Other Characters: N/A

Character Information

Name: Adelina
Canon: The Two Princesses of Bamarre
Age: 16
Gender: Female
Canon Point: Post-canon
Background Link: boop
Inventory: A dress, her wedding charm, and a pair of sturdy boots (formerly magical, now depowered).

Personality: Raised as a princess, perhaps the first thing anyone would notice about Adelina is her elegance and grace. While she does sometimes panic in times of extreme crisis, she most often appears composed and calm, and she’s able to think rationally in most times of danger. Through her journey in canon, she becomes accustomed to reacting well in situations that involve the possibility of injury or even death - being attacked by gryphons, being kidnapped by a dragon, the list goes on. As such, she can be described as not only calm and composed, but incredibly brave as well.

Her bravery stems from the people she cares for; there’s little she wouldn’t do for those she loves. Though the chance of survival was slim, she goes on a journey to find a cure for her sister’s illness nonetheless. She’s fiercely loyal and protective once she bonds with someone. Over the course of canon, she develops the desire to protect everyone, not only those she’s close to; after witnessing a child killed by a gryphon, she makes a promise to herself that she’ll do all she can to protect the land she lives in. However, though her drive to protect everyone grows over the course of canon, she remains pragmatic about who it’s possible to save and who can’t be helped. For example, when one of her loved ones is injured in the heat of battle and she thinks he may have been killed, she doesn’t go to help him; she realizes that she can’t spare a moment of concentration in the midst of the fight to make certain he’s unharmed.

Likewise, her drive to protect people moves into a deeper desire; she wants to help build a world where all people can be safe permanently. Her largest wish for herself is to live peacefully and help others do the same, safe from the dangers that plague her country. In order to pursue this goal, she’ll willingly fight and engage in battle. Enduring a period of time of chaos or war, to her, is worth it if it means it will bring about a longer period of peace and tranquility. This is her greatest desire.

However, not all of her desire to save the people of her country comes from altruism or compassion; there’s also a sizable degree of guilt that motivates her. She spent her childhood remaining as willfully ignorant to the problems that plagued her country as she could be, and she would have been satisfied without offering them help if her eyes weren’t opened to the lengths of the suffering that they were still enduring. She recognizes this fact, and after changing her ways, part of the reason she’s committed so deeply to helping people is the fact that she didn’t concern herself with that cause while she was younger.

Apart from her bravery, her love of people and desire to protect them, there are other notable aspects of her personality. She’s artistic; she loves to draw and embroider, and it’s something that provides her relief from any stress or worries she experiences. It’s written at one point that while she’s doing art, she can distract herself and lose herself for hours.

Additionally, she’s very intelligent and resourceful, able to use her environment to her advantage in times of need. During her quest to save her sister, there are several moments she wouldn’t have survived if not for her quick thinking and wit. This is undoubtedly her strongest weapon in battle. As well as being intelligent, she’s also very curious and easily fascinated by new knowledge and new experiences. One of the other characters in the book is a sorcerer, and each time he performs some kind of magic she responds with great interest, wanting to know how it was done and enjoying the spectacle every time she sees it.

Of course, with all of her strengths, she has several weaknesses as well. She can become frustrated easily, regardless of whether she lets that feeling show or not. She can be stubborn as well, and believe she’s right even when the evidence stacks up to the contrary, particularly during tense situations or conversations. When this happens, she typically realizes her mistake when she’s had time to calm down and think things through, but it’s still a notable trait of hers.

Flavor Abilities: Drawing, painting, embroidery. All that artsy stuff.

Suitability: She’s no stranger to being in dangerous situations, so what Snowblind brings won’t be entirely new to her; what will be new is having other people in close proximity that are also being exposed to the same kind of danger. As such, I think she’ll strive to protect others as best she can, in any way she can, whether that functions as warning others of danger wherever she sees it, or trying to shield any of her companions at a given time from harm. She’ll willingly provide emotional support to other characters when needed, but her focus will be on keeping others safe by any means.

RP Samples: one and two!

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Cassel Sharpe | The Curse Workers

[personal profile] theurgy 2016-12-03 09:04 pm (UTC)(link)
Player Information

Name: Jenny
Age: 25
Contact Info: [plurk.com profile] cephalopods
Other Characters: Tifa Lockhart, Natasha Romanov

Character Information

Name: Cassel Sharpe
Canon: The Curse Workers
Age: 17
Gender: Male
Canon Point: Black Heart, right after tailing Lila with Barron
Background Link: No wiki, so I wrote it up here.
Inventory:
- thin leather gloves
- green t-shirt
- jeans
- socks
- sneakers
- black leather jacket
- cell phone
- wallet
- car keys

Personality:
There are a few beliefs that Cassel holds unshakably that form his worldview: First, that con artists, grifters, and to a certain extent, workers, are somehow intrinsically bad and cannot change this fact, but can only ape being good people. Secondly, he's a non-worker in a family of workers, and so he's the black sheep in a family of outsiders. Third, he killed his best friend and the girl he had a crush on, Lila Zacharov, when he was 13. He remembers very little of the murder, but does remember blood on his hands and a smile on his face, and the overwhelming adrenaline rush of having gotten away with something.

Everything else sort of branches out from there. Cassel was raised in a family of con artists and criminals that have close ties to one of the major US worker crime families, the Zacharovs. From an early age, Cassel felt inadequate—his mother, father, grandfather and two older brothers were all very powerful workers, but the gift had skipped Cassel. All of the people Cassel grew up with viewed workers as "better", a sort of us vs them mentality that had been beaten into them by years of prosecution and criminalization. To compensate, Cassel has spent most of his life trying to make up for his lack of magic. He broke into his first house at seven, sneaking into a window and snatching a file for his mother, feeling proud of himself for being able to do something. He tried to be the best in his family at the non-magical parts of their criminal life—lying, lock-picking, sleight of hand, pick-pocketing—and while he's good, he never did quite manage to be the best. He knew for a long time that Lila, who he was infatuated with, was completely out of his league both as Zacharov's heir and as a powerful worker in her own right. This has left Cassel with a crushing sense of inadequacy and a feeling that he is never and can never be good enough.

His criminal upbringing also left him with a ton of baggage. Shandra Sharpe, his mother, would emotionally manipulate her sons both magically and in the more mundane sense of the word, and the blowback would leave her emotionally unstable, often easy to anger and quick to hit. Cassel and his brothers were raised not to trust anyone outside of their family, and to view everyone who wasn't a Sharpe as a potential mark. Cassel and his brothers, basically, are all emotionally destroyed jerks who have terrible coping mechanisms and don't know how to connect to people in healthy ways.

Conning and lying was as normal a part of life for them as breathing, and even now the trust issues are something Cassel can't shake. He simply cannot conceive that anyone would be nice to him unless they want something. Even when he begins to make real friends for the first time in years, he still views these relationships and the relationships around him as subtle power struggles with constantly shifting or stable dynamics. At one point, Cassel admits to Lila that he doesn't believe that anyone in his life wouldn't be working him, and he also states that he doesn't think anyone would help him unless conned or manipulated into it. He subconsciously sorts the world into two categories—con artists and marks, and he is always quietly noting how someone might screw him over and how he could protect himself or get them back. A really great example of this is when he refuses to allow Agent Hunt to give him a ride home and is stranded at a rest stop. Rather than going to anyone to ask for genuine help, explaining that he was with someone he felt unsafe with and just needed a ride back to school, he comes up with a way to lie and even picks out the best people to manipulate into driving him.

This is partially because at his core, Cassel is a liar. He lies to everyone around him, both because of his massive trust issues and out of sheer habit, but he also lies to himself constantly. He grapples with the fact that he loves the thrill of the con while claiming to want to be a better person. By the end of the books, Cassel finally admits to himself that he enjoys being a grifter and decides to continue doing it, but at this canon point, he's still trying to convince himself that he'll be happier on the straight and narrow. Or, more accurately, that he needs to do so whether or not it makes him happy. He is constantly rearranging stories even in his own head to justify his shady or morally dubious decisions or to paint himself as the victim. It's rare that Cassel actually thinks he's genuinely wrong for most of what he does. He certainly knows it on a logical level, but his guilt is short lived and he quickly reconciles it.

Of course, his supposed murder of Lila is what drives most of his true guilt and self-loathing. For years, Cassel believed that he had killed her and he couldn't remember why. He tried to make up for this by going to Wallingford, by trying to be a better person and by punishing himself, constantly. Cassel didn't so much try to be a normal person as try to be what he thought a normal person should be. He dated girls and tried to become what he thought they wanted, and never let himself get close to anyone. At the beginning of the books, Cassel is absolutely miserable and he hates himself. When he finds out Lila wasn't killed and that his entire family had been manipulating him and lying to him, it screws up his worldview even more. The true constant he had been raised with was that family came first, and you couldn't trust anyone else, and suddenly this wasn't true anymore. Still, Cassel seems to justify this, and rather than cutting them out of his life completely or getting them back, he still does everything he can to protect them and help them, with a few exceptions. He mentions a few times that he understands that his upbringing was wrong or abnormal, but he doesn't seem to fully appreciate or allow himself to examine what that really means. He justifies his mother's blatant abuse by saying that she loves her sons, and just can't seem to conceptualize a loving, stable childhood unmarked by lying and manipulation.

Cassel is naturally selfish, although his self-awareness of this is skewed. He seems to acknowledge this, but less as a choice he makes and more as an unshakable part of his personality. He's selfish because he's from a family of criminals, and he can't change who he is, not really. It's only much later that he admits to himself that sometimes he does things just because it benefits him, even if it might hurt or negatively affect the people around him, and that it's a choice he actively makes rather than a compulsion. For example, when Barron and Daneca start dating, he tries to break them up and succeeds, first because he doesn't think Barron could possibly really love Daneca. Later, he finds proof that Barron did, and that Daneca loved him back, far more than she loved Sam. Still, Cassel does nothing to fix their relationship and even rips up Barron's photo and notes about Daneca, guaranteeing that Barron will forget her, purely because Cassel wants Daneca to stay with Sam, even if she isn't as happy with him.

That isn't to say that Cassel is completely terrible to his core. He does help people, and when he does, he does it because he wants to, not out of an attempt to win brownie points. Usually he does it in awful and manipulative ways, but Cassel isn't the type of person to leave someone in significant trouble if they ask him for help, or even if they don't. Still, he has a real ruthless streak, and seems more than willing to completely ruin the lives of people he deems "bad". Criminals are fair game, and he'll screw them over with no guilt. That isn't to say he won't also con the sweetest person in the world, but at least he has the conscience to feel bad about it and avoid it if he can (mostly). The sad thing about him is that he could genuinely be a better person, but he constantly self-sabotages and finds excuses to go back to his old ways and behaviors because real change is terrifying and difficult.

Cassel's guilt and self-loathing over Lila's "murder" means that when he does try to help or fix problems, he tends to do it with no regard for his own well-being. He's a terrible person in his mind, and so he's very reckless, often getting himself into situations that might get him killed or seriously hurt. He just doesn't seem to think his own safety is a top priority. When Lila finally confronts him about this, she tries to work out why he feels so guilty and so self-sacrificial, and Cassel denies feeling any guilt over killing the men his brothers made him kill or even over all the lying and stealing. It's purely because, even though he knows he didn't kill Lila, that fake memory is still in his head and he spent so many years believing that it was true that he can't shake the guilt or self-hatred.

Lila is probably one of the most important people in Cassel's life, and he views her both as his best friend and the girl he's in love with. This relationship has shifted over the years from overwrought infatuation as children, although Cassel thought Lila was untouchable and unobtainable, into something incredibly unhealthy during the years he believed she was dead. He put her on a pedestal and hated himself for still daydreaming about her and loving her, because he didn't think he deserved to. When Lila resurfaces, he's confronted with the reality of her: Lila is now seventeen years old, angry and ruthless and completely traumatized and vengeful, and she struggles to reintegrate into a normal life. At one point Cassel compares his feelings for Lila to a death wish, saying that she's dangerous but still alluring and addictive, and he says he would do whatever she asked with very little question, which is mostly true. He views Lila as the only one who really understands him, but this is almost entirely because neither of them will allow anyone else to get close enough to have that bond or understanding. Lila is one of the few people that can call Cassel out and get to the heart of his motivations and stupid decisions, and she's one of the few people that can actually get Cassel to reevaluate his choices, although even this isn't always true.

To other people, Cassel apparently comes off as dangerous, as much as he tries to seem unassuming and normal. The other students at Wallingford see through this act, and it's not hard to understand why. Cassel is a very angry dude, and he doesn't quite understand that anger, but it gets him into more than a few fights. He's a pretty moody person in general, really. He deflects a lot of things with sarcasm and barbs, and gets himself into a lot of trouble this way. Zacharov respects him because he's fearless, but this gets him into awful situations like getting the crap beat out of him because he can't keep his mouth shut. He also flat out says, "Touch my mother and I'll kill you" to Zacharov, who could easily have him disposed of with no one ever knowing or caring. He's vengeful, too, and can be incredibly cruel to people who have wronged him or his family. Still, he's funny, and multiple characters comment on how charming he and his brothers are. "Clever as the devil and twice as pretty" is what one old worker woman says to him, and Cassel is clever, maybe too clever for his own good. He's great at conning and manipulating, and he can seem utterly sincere and sweet when he needs to. He's also very smart and has a knack for classical literature. Despite his general self-centered nature, he does genuinely care for the people close to him, it's just that he doesn't show that in healthy ways or remember to turn off the part of his brain that's always looking for a con.

Flavor Abilities: None!

Suitability:
Cassel is tough and resourceful and he deals very well with pressure. He's a survivor in a lot of ways, and he'll fight tooth and nail to get out, even as he makes terrible decisions. Emotionally, Cassel will not deal with Norfinbury well. There's a scene in the books where Sam gets shot, and while Cassel manages to keep it together long enough to make sure Sam is okay, he pretty much goes into shock afterwards and pukes his guts out. Cassel has always accepted the fact that he'll probably die horribly because of his family's criminal ties, but he doesn't deal well with the idea that he might watch other, innocent people he cares about die. Cassel will also probably try to fight his natural desire to continue his Criminal Lifestyle at first, but it won't take long for him to start making more and more shady decisions and likely give into it. He also can't keep his mouth shut, so he'll probably piss a whole lot of people off.

RP Samples: Here!

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gitanes: (♘ but i won't run)

lila zacharov | curse workers

[personal profile] gitanes 2017-01-01 05:10 am (UTC)(link)
Player Information

Name: Anne
Age: 26
Contact Info: [plurk.com profile] passiones ; tavrosno[at]gmail[dot]com
Other Characters: N/A

Character Information

Name: Lila Zacharov
Canon: Curse Workers
Age: 17
Gender: Female-identified
Canon Point: After the opening scene of Black Heart
gitanes: (♘ to be what i am?)

lila zacharov | curse workers

[personal profile] gitanes 2017-01-01 05:11 am (UTC)(link)
Background Link:
In the world of Curse Workers, magic has existed since the dawn of human civilization. Magic workers have been known throughout the ages as theurgists, dab hands, workers, hyperbathygammic (HBG) individuals - or colloquially, people with heebeegeebies. "Work," as these skills are most commonly called, is genetic rather than learned and comes in seven varieties: dream work, physical work, memory work, luck work, death work, emotion work, and the rarest, transformation work. It's only since the beginning of the 20th century that non-workers have attempted to legislate and control workers, an attempt that has largely failed. Anti-worker laws went into effect at the same time that Prohibition was written into law, and while Prohibition was eventually lifted, curse work was not decriminalized. In fact, workers were put into work camps during the 1930s, and it was during those years that the worker crime families came into being - and that the worker family mentality came into being. Watch out for the family, take care of the family, screw the other guy. Everything that would later define the Zacharovs and the Sharpes began in those camps.

Fast-forward several decades and the Zacharovs are one of the preeminent worker crime families on the East Coast, with the Sharpes working as the Zacharovs' right hands - advisers, bodyguards, assassins, and so on. Lila Zacharov is the family's heir apparent, introduced through the youngest Sharpe brother's point of view - and Cassel is infatuated with her, so all you see initially is that she's a dream worker, rich, spoiled, savage, and vicious, seeing the world as something owed to her, ready and willing to hurt anyone who gets in her way. This remains more or less true . . . until Lila stumbles across the two elder Sharpe brothers and her cousin Anton conspiring to assassinate her father, tries to stop them, is almost killed herself, and then "rescued" by Cassel, who proceeds to turn her into a cat because - surprise! - he's a transformation worker, the only one in the world, a fact his family has been keeping from him allegedly for his own good. In the end, Lila is caught by Philip and Barron Sharpe and kept in a cage in cat form for three years, from the ages of 13 to 17.

It's here that the series actually picks up: with Lila having escaped at last from her inhumane imprisonment and come to wreak vengeance on a memory-wiped Cassel. He had no idea that she was this weird white cat he kept seeing, but he was drawn to her all the same, and the closer he got to her, the more strange dreams he started to have and the more new memories started coming back to him of things he'd done under his brothers' and mother's influence. Once he figured out what was really going on - that he was the transformation worker and Lila was not dead, but a cat - he transformed her back and she told him that he had been used as an assassin every night by his brothers and Anton, then memory wiped before they let him go back to sleep. Together with two of Cassel's friends, he and Lila came up with a plan to double-cross Barron, Philip, and Anton, and they succeeded with the help of Cassel's grandfather, Desi. Lila reunited with her father, who kept Barron and Philip in his employ rather than killing them outright out of gratitude to Cassel and Desi - but unfortunately, Cassel's mother Shandra worked Lila to love Cassel, so he ran from Lila, allegedly in order to keep him safe.

The summer passed, and Cassel came back after vacation only to find that Lila had transferred to his school to be closer to him, because despite her knowledge of the love curse, she couldn't stand to stay away. She attempted to move on as best she could, since Cassel kept distancing himself from her, but when she got involved with other people he got defensive and angry. Eventually, despite his insistence that he had to do the right thing and stay away from her, he kissed her and would have gone further if he hadn't been interrupted. After this, he asked his friend Daneca to "fix" the problem by working Lila to feel nothing for him. Then he told her that he loved her in preparation for when her memory would theoretically be erased, because that totally made sense.

On a less supernatural-teen-drama front, Lila helped Cassel to solve the murder of his brother Philip, while also doing her level best to keep him from being recruited by a shady government agency seeking to use the world's single transformation worker for their own purposes. It turned out that the murderer was Philip's ex-wife Maura, on the run from Philip's abusive behavior with their child. Lila subsequently helped Cassel frame someone else for Philip's murder.

However, that success wasn't enough to overcome the effects of his betrayal: Lila figured out Daneca was trying to work her and made her confess what Cassel told her to do, realized Cassel was a jackass and thought he had been stringing her along the whole time she was cursed, got her Zacharov necklace (the chain of scars on the neck that marked her as an official member of the Zacharov family), and told Cassel to basically fuck off and die.
Inventory:
☛ black Louboutin boots
☛ one black dress with red accents
☛ a black purse with cards, cash, makeup (~1.5 months' worth), comb, compact mirror

lila zacharov | curse workers

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vitrissimo: (pic#10845396)

viktor nikiforov • yuri on ice (reserved)

[personal profile] vitrissimo 2017-01-01 09:15 pm (UTC)(link)
Player Information

Name: Kat
Age: 24
Contact Info: intrepidly (plurk); altercation (dreamwidth)
Other Characters: N/A

Character Information

Name: Viktor Nikiforov
Canon: Yuri!!! on Ice
Age: 28
Gender: Male
Canon Point: After Episode 12 (post season 1)
Background Link: Find it here!
Inventory:
§ one (1) fabulous heavy brown coat,
§ scarf
§ gloves
§boots
§and of course a golden band on his right hand.

vitrissimo: (pic#10845421)

viktor nikiforov • yuri on ice (reserved)

[personal profile] vitrissimo 2017-01-01 09:16 pm (UTC)(link)
Personality:
Many words can be said about the jack of all trades, figure skater Viktor Nikiforov.

On the surface, he is a skater, choreographer, and eventually coach to Yuuri Katsuki. Beyond that, he’s won five consecutive World Championships, and a litany of other medals and competitions. He’s the talk of the town and the world in the realm of figure skating, with his dashing looks, charming demeanor and beautiful routines. He’s been on the scene since he was a young adult and he’s always surprising the crowd with daring new sets.

But beneath that, Viktor is a very normal twenty-something year old. Blessed with amazing looks and a smooth voice, Viktor makes flirting look easy. Whether or not he’s always flirting is a different question, but when he does, he does it effortlessly. Even though he’s as charming as they come, it doesn’t seem like Viktor has a laundry list of lovers. Rather, it seems like Viktor enjoys the basic things in life, like flirting and good looks and skating. Getting to know people on such a deep and intimate level seems like a rarity, but Viktor is definitely curious by nature.

Which is probably why not many people see beyond the air-headed and charming side of Viktor. His stage-face is a true part of his personality, but he’s much deeper than people give him credit for. Sure, he’s forgetful and spontaneous and a bit on the quirky side, but he’s much more complicated. He can be deeply serious when he needs to be, whether it’s on the ice or in his personal affairs. He cares about his small circle of friends deeply, with a zeal that not many other possess.

While he’s competitive by nature, he strives to encourage all those around him to do their best, and he applauds when they excel. He has a definite soft spot for coaching the younger generation, and while an amazing coach, he almost resembles a doting parent.

It’s hard to imagine Viktor being cruel or mean. Sometimes it may come off that way, if he is faced with a situation he just doesn’t know how to solve. Emotions are difficult things and his sometimes brutal honesty can be taken as needless (such as when he says he’ll resign as Yuuri’s coach if he doesn’t win as a form of hard-handed encouragement for Yuuri).

But despite that rarity, he seems to be the type of person that approaches each situation with a smile and poise, even if he isn’t entirely sure what the solution is. He would rather resort to puzzling through something and looking for the best solution than cutting corners or being cruel.

All in all, Viktor is a good guy with a good heart. Sometimes the way he shows it are unconventional, spontaneous and personal-space invasive, but he always means well. He wants all those around him to succeed and to be happy, and he enjoys the simple things in life (like his beloved dog and Instagram). It’s hard to imagine a more charming person than Viktor.


Flavor Abilities: Probably nothing here!

Suitability: Viktor, being from Russia and loving the ice and everything about it, will at least do well in terms of the climate. Sure, it’s nowhere close to as cold as he’s used to, but he’s fairly adaptable. What he lacks in experience he makes up with desire and determination. He tries to make the best of most situations, so it would be hard to imagine that Viktor wouldn’t press on for a solution and try to help others out as things progress.

The “unique” aspects of this world, however, may prove as a struggle, and he may be pushed out of his comfort zones. It’ll be interesting to see how he’ll adapt to coping with and handling situations he’s never encountered before!

RP Samples:
test drive: @ https://snowblindmemes.dreamwidth.org/27877.html?thread=10858213#cmt10858213
meme thread with canon-mate @ https://bakerstreet.dreamwidth.org/3855109.html?thread=1786256645#cmt1786256645
Edited (i can't get the html to work on the links for some reason i'm so sorry) 2017-01-01 21:22 (UTC)

not a problem!!

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quadrangle: (why)

Karkat Vantas | Homestuck | Reserved

[personal profile] quadrangle 2017-01-01 10:26 pm (UTC)(link)
Player Information

Name: Lina
Age: 29
Contact Info: @facetious on plurk
Other Characters: N/A

Character Information

Name: Karkat Vantas
Canon: Homestuck
Age: 16
Gender: Male
Canon Point: [S] Game Over
Background Link: wiki link
Inventory: Default outfit: black tennis shoes, gray pants, long-sleeved black shirt with Cancer sign in gray over the chest. Everything in his sylladex is gone, including his strife deck. Good luck, Crabcakes!
Edited 2017-01-01 22:26 (UTC)
quadrangle: (FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK)

WHY IS THIS SO LONG I'M SO SORRY

[personal profile] quadrangle 2017-01-01 10:28 pm (UTC)(link)
Personality:

On Alternia, the color of a troll's blood is everything. Consequently, delving into Karkat's personality without first explaining that his mutant cherry red meant instant death would make most of the text to come extremely confusing. Suffice it to say that despite how little the color matters after his home planet's destruction, it's held the greatest sway over how his personality developed pre-Sgrub and continues to influence him until the events in [S] Game Over. Most notably, his blood color and the life experiences he had because of it infused Karkat with deep paranoia, self-loathing, and... well, A TORTURED PSYCHOLOGICAL PROFILE FULL OF TOTALLY HYSTERICAL EMOTIONS AND UNAIRED GRIEVANCES AT PRACTICALLY EVERYBODY.

The paranoia is understandable; Karkat needed to keep the color of his blood concealed at all costs. This meant, to some extent, limiting his in-person interactions with other trolls, ignoring the cultural convention of typing in his blood color, and deflecting the attention his secretive habits inevitably drew. He only revealed his blood color to the other trolls after Alternia had been destroyed, and he was insistent that he gain their respect as a leader before doing so. Shortly before the events of [S] Game Over, Karkat shows similar uncertainty about the strength of his bonds with others by pointedly asking Dave whether the two of them would still be "bros" after reuniting with Jade and John. Some of his doubts are due to his low feelings of self-worth, further expanded upon below, but his anxiety over relationships and how he's perceived by others is nothing if not an evolution of the fear that he is literally expendable.

His self-loathing, meanwhile, grows from the fact that he was unable to escape internalizing the stigma of his blood and the perceived need to justify his existence. His original plan for doing so, should perpetually hiding not work, was to become an excellent enough threshecutioner that the empire would excuse him from his mandatory culling. Both options were unrealistic, but more importantly, they gave him plenty of reason to both feel ashamed for being who he was and work toward goals that were unobtainable. Failure to achieve the latter thus became justification for the former, and any other mistakes or personal failings quickly joined the Comprehensive List of Reasons Why Karkat Sucks (note: actual title probably has more swear words). This mindset, like his other issues, persists well past the point where his blood even matters; after all, his mistakes do, too. Worse, he finds ways to blame himself for things he couldn't have seen coming, solely because of course everything is his fault. He's perfected the art of self-flagellation to the point that he contacts himself at various points in his own timeline to tell himself how stupid he has been, is being, or will be, and yes, those conversations are about as ridiculous as they sound.

On top of all that, Karkat has a plethora of other issues that conspire to make his life difficult. His default state is "furious at everything, especially himself," which emerges from the aforementioned self-loathing as well as a total inability to regulate his emotions. His tendency to blow things out of proportion is not limited to his personal mistakes; he can and will react melodramatically to almost any situation, usually by throwing a tantrum. These tantrums are probably what he's best known for, both due to their frequency and their highly creative, offensive, and repulsive contents. The word "fuck" also tends to feature prominently, but that and every other curse under the sun (moons? shit) are a staple of his speech regardless. Talking to Karkat is akin to navigating a minefield wherein the mines are gross bodily functions, depraved sexual acts, and physics/anatomy-defying feats made possible either in pursuit of one of the above or as their direct consequence.

He's hotheaded in other ways, too. The trolling campaign against the humans, for example, was something he initiated without any real planning, and his impulsiveness in other areas is probably why he professes to hate Past Karkat the instant he's finished being him. The way he rushed Kanaya through breeding his session's Genesis Frog is another case in point (see also Strengths/Weaknesses). Strangely, he seems to have a hard time recognizing his impatience as a problem; when Jade brought it to his attention, he dismissed the issue in a way that validated the creation of her countermeasure, saying, "YOUR STUPID PASSWORDS ARE ALSO STANDING IN MY WAY. IF NOT FOR THAT I COULD BE FAST TRACKING THIS TO SOLUTION CITY FOR US BOTH."

Despite his brusque demeanor, Karkat is one of the most caring and empathetic people in the cast. One consequence of this is that he becomes the unofficial team counselor as well as the leader, and of the two roles, he is far more adept at the former. His help may not always wanted, as seen when he gives Vriska an unsolicited deconstruction of why she has difficulty with quadrants, but several other trolls, like Eridan, approach him with their problems independently. Yet others he has to make a point of approaching first, and while not all of these interactions are shown in full, four in particular help to highlight different parts of his personality.

The conversation Karkat has with Vriska is the first in which he really takes off on the subject of romance, and he does it with little prompting. The instant Vriska specifies that the hatred she feels for Tavros is "a really special kind of h8", Karkat immediately makes the logical leap that she's referring to black feelings. He then goes on to explain why she and Tavros would never work out in that quadrant and why Vriska in particular is emotionally screwed, none of which she cares to hear. His analysis is characteristically blunt, but it isn't wholly mean-spirited. Instead, Karkat seems to be laboring under the delusion that Vriska genuinely needs someone to point out where and how her psyche is damaged. Effectively, the conversation demonstrates two things: the depth of his fascination with romance and his willingness to share his "wisdom" with others. Even Vriska, who has an unpleasant attitude and worse record, is someone he'd (debateably) like to help, if mostly by monologuing at her.

Eridan, being Eridan, consults with Karkat multiple times and seemingly always on the subject of romance, but it's their conversation on the second memo that proves the most revealing. It's also fairly short, both because Karkat is initially curt and because he winds up enforcing his banning policy. The way he talks to Eridan undergoes a complete 180 the second he mentions Feferi and that he's distraught, though, and from that point on, Karkat is empathetic if not strictly apologetic. When he administers the ban, he makes sure to accompany it with reassurance that he'll be around to help Eridan sort his shit out privately. This exchange makes it clear that his friends' emotional health ranks very highly in Karkat's priorities; very few other things get him to abandon his anger so quickly, and his availability as a source of emotional support is something he works very hard to guarantee. Finally, as corroborated in a later conversation, the fact that Eridan frequently seeks advice from Karkat and was one of his closer friends before Sgrub also indicates that Karkat has a surprising amount of patience for listening to people's problems and giving the same advice with little effect.

In defiance of the theme, what initially prompts Karkat to lend an ear to Terezi's problems has nothing to do with romance. Instead, her issue is low self-esteem, and he approaches her because he knows her well enough to tell that she's upset. Specifically, after meeting her dancestor, Terezi believes that she doesn't measure up, and Karkat is quick to try correct her, verbally ripping apart his dancestor and hers before going on to compliment her. All of these actions display a side of Karkat we don't often see. His rant about Kankri, for instance, gets a small laugh out of Terezi, and given the context, he was probably aiming for that response in hopes of cheering her up. Likewise, he doesn't usually tear down people in order to boost up others (the closest he comes is sarcastically pronouncing either Dave or John the smarter human when telling them both off), but he does it for her. Lastly, Karkat exhibits an unprecedented amount of maturity at the conclusion of his speech by saying he's accepted that he's screwed up his chances with her and that he's speaking as a friend who only wants her to be happy. Overall, this brief scene with Terezi shows the most character growth Karkat has had since the meteor massacre as well as the lengths to which he's willing to go to brighten the mood of a friend who needs it. His personal feelings are, in this case, not nearly as important as accomplishing that goal.

The interactions previously discussed highlight Karkat's perceptiveness when dealing with emotions and uncovering (to some extent) the root of his friends' problems. Unfortunately, his success at perception checks in general is not the most consistent. He is good at detecting when people are upset or have something on their minds, but he is abysmal at reading hidden intentions. His relationship with Terezi exemplifies this; he played into her flattery at the start of the troll's session and entered the Medium first, and after Prospit's destruction, he was oblivious as to why she was disappointed the two of them could no longer explore the moon together. Somehow, the hint that "1T W4S SUPPOS3D TO BE SP3C14L" doesn't get through to him, either. Not picking up on Terezi's flirting could very well be a consequence of being a teenager, but her manipulative tendencies are something he knows about well before the game starts. His ignorance in the face of this prior knowledge suggests that because they're on the same side, he's less inclined to read into her actions. His relationship with Jack Noir echoes this situation; the agent easily gains his favor because they have the same blood color, so Karkat doesn't believe Terezi at first when she says they shouldn't trust his motives.

Similar to how Karkat quickly befriends Jack despite multiple stabbings, he warms up to John and Jade with remarkable speed considering how the humans "robbed" the trolls of The Ultimate Reward. His caliginous crush may account for some of why his attitude shifts toward John, but Jade, who has no such sway over him, manages to get him to reconsider his stance on her over the course of a single conversation. With John, meanwhile, Karkat reveals details about the game and troll society that have little bearing on his quest to flame John into nuclear hateblivion, and when the human makes requests, such as to contact him linearly instead of going backward, Karkat is curiously compliant. He states further down the timeline that he was deluding himself about his hatred and that "DEEP DOWN I'M SURE I WAS ALWAYS PRETTY OK WITH YOU," but it's hard to say how much of this statement is part of Karkat trying to save face over the caliginous crush his past self is about to confess to John. What's certain, however, is that Karkat is more forgiving than he lets on and less predisposed to being an asshole. He may not say so directly, but during his second conversation with John, he concedes that he hadn't expected the other boy to apologize for falling asleep and allowing Becquerel to be prototyped and, soon after, states, "HEY, INOPPORTUNE NAPS HAPPEN IN THIS GAME." The forgiveness is implicit even if Karkat insists that his hatred hasn't subsided.

His tendency to forgive emerges elsewhere, too. His moirallegiance with Gamzee is one of the better examples; rather than killing the clown or allowing either Terezi or Kanaya to kill him, Karkat calms down both girls before shooshing and papping Gamzee out of his murderous rampage. Dave and Karkat's eventual friendship is another case; the two were big enough jerks to each other without the question of whom Terezi was flushed for that some forgiveness had to take place. Lastly, Karkat effectively forgives Terezi for Vriska's death because she seems unable to herself. The speech he gives her along with it states that paradox space justifies past decisions because any choices other than the ones made would have resulted in a doomed timeline, but the broader message to mine from that mess of game mechanics is that dwelling on the past over facing one's present is no way to live. Coming from Karkat, the hypocrisy is hilarious, but more than that, it shows that he believes his friends are more than the sum of their mistakes.

Being less of an asshole than he generally behaves, meanwhile, extends to several different areas. For one, he's awful at outright cruelty; he may devolve into sarcasm and insults, but he either backs off from things that might genuinely hurt or offend his friends or apologizes if he crosses a line. This tendency holds true with people he isn't especially close to; he informs Vriska that she can bring back her dead lusus by prototyping her and apologizes to Equius for mentioning Aurthour, who at that point is dead twice over. He also manages to somehow not tell Kankri to fuck off in all the times they appear together; in fact, when Meenah manages to catch him alone after Kankri wanders off from his lecture, Karkat is reluctant to leave, saying that he's not sure he's supposed to. For supposed enemies, one need look no further than his ingenious revenge against the humans; surely there is no worse fate that could befall them than being harassed over the internet, especially when it's fully possible to arrange their deaths behind the scenes. Essentially, he'll go the distance for his friends, and while strangers aren't as lucky, he's incapable of treating them like total trash.

The only times he sets himself against anyone is after they've devastated his group of friends first, again as when Eridan knocks out Sollux and kills Feferi. He orders Equius to stop both Eridan and Gamzee by force at this point, and while his subsequent decision to spare the latter may have been influenced by any number of different factors (Gamzee went crazy due to sopor withdrawal and not as a conscious decision; Gamzee was technically sort of defending himself from Equius and Nepeta; Karkat was tired of his friends dying; moirallegiance sure is weird; who knows), he makes the opposite choice when he and Kanaya catch his ex-moirail beating Terezi. When that happens, Karkat is so enraged that he manages to outrun even a rainbow drinker's supernatural speed. Suffice it to say that Karkat takes protecting his friends physically as well as emotionally very seriously, and even if he would prefer nonviolent solutions, he won't ignore the alternative when the situation demands it.

(no subject)

[personal profile] quadrangle - 2017-01-09 07:42 (UTC) - Expand
fiteme: (Default)

Steve Rogers | Captain America: The First Avenger

[personal profile] fiteme 2017-01-03 05:01 am (UTC)(link)
Player Information

Name: Waffle
Age: 28
Contact Info: [plurk.com profile] withsyrup
Other Characters: n/a

Character Information

Name: Steve Rogers
Canon: Captain America: The First Avenger
Age: 28
Gender: Male
Canon Point: The car ride over to the secret SSR base in NYC, just before getting the serum administered.
Background Link: Here!
Inventory: His army dress uniform, a small pocket-sized sketchbook, pencil, and a half-used package of asthma cigarettes.

Personality: One of the first times we see Steve Rogers, he’s getting beaten up in a back alley because a guy in front of him at the movie theater was disrespecting the news reel about the war. He’s clearly doing terribly, can barely throw a punch, but even after he gets hit badly, he gets right back up and says “I can do this all day.” Later on, he tells Dr. Erskine “I don’t like bullies. I don’t care where they’re from.” These two sentiments really encapsulate a lot of who Steve is as a person, both before and after the serum. Before the serum, he undesirable: he’s small, he’s physically weak and has a huge list of ailments, and he absolutely refuses to sit down and shut up the way the world wants him to.

Steve wants to fight for what’s right. Not because he thinks he’s perfect, or that what he says goes, or that he knows for sure what is right, but because he knows what it’s like to be oppressed. He knows what it’s like to be hurt and downtrodden and not taken seriously, because it’s happened to him. It’s happened to him every day of his life, and if he can keep that from happening to other people, then he will. He doesn’t want to be a hero, he just wants to help and protect people.

That desire to protect others is one of the reasons why he’s so desperate to enlist. The other is that he’s desperate to prove himself. His whole life he’s been told he’s worth less, that he can’t do as much, won’t achieve as much as others because he’s small and weak. Steve heard all that and turned around and said “that’s not true and I’ll prove it to you.” He thinks that the only way to prove it is by showing that he can do everything everyone else can do, just as well as they can do it. He doesn’t want to be a hero, he just wants to show everyone that he’s worth just as much as they are.

The same stubbornness and determination and need to prove himself that leads him to attempting to enlist over and over and eventually getting chosen by Erskine is also what leads him to getting into fights over and over. Steve is smart, clever, has a natural gift for strategy and working things out, but he also has a tendency to rush headfirst into situations without giving it much thought. This only gets worse once he gets the serum and figures out just how much he is capable of physically, but even before that it’s bad. He talks about how many fights he gets into, both with Bucky and Peggy, and it’s clear he doesn’t care about his own well being as long as someone’s standing up for what’s right. It just happens that most of the time that person is him.

His desire to prove himself also leads to him being a pretty prickly person at times, generally unwilling to accept help from others. Lifelong rejection has led him to being a little difficult up front, terse and not overly friendly to people, though he is polite and helpful to those who need it. Before the serum, people tend to show him their worst sides, because they don’t think he’s worthwhile--either they reject him and ignore him, like the date Bucky set up for him, or they mock him and beat him up, like the guy in the alley outside the movie theater. Because he sees the worst in people up front, it’s hard for him to open up and let people in, as evidenced by the fact that his best friend Bucky Barnes is his only friend. But their friendship is unparalleled. They’ve been friends nearly all their lives, and are loyal to each other to a fault. It’s implied that Bucky going to war is another reason why Steve is so desperate to enlist: after Bucky tells him he’s in the 107th, Steve tells the enlistment officer that he’d like to be in the 107th too. The excuse he gives is his father, which might be true, but it’s definitely no coincidence that that’s where Bucky’s headed too.

Even with Bucky though, Steve tends to try to keep what’s really going on inside. He doesn’t want to burden anyone, with his needs or emotions, so he keeps to himself, convinced he can get by on his own. Bucky keeps trying to tell him he doesn’t have to, but it’s never fully sunk in. Steve wants to help those who need it, prove his worth, fight for what’s right, and never burden anyone.

Flavor Abilities: Steve at this point has zero abilities that aren’t totally human and normal. He’s a good artist, though. He’ll probably be making a lot of maps.

Suitability: Steve is definitely not suited for the weather in Norfinbury, but he is too stubborn and determined to let that stop him. He’s small and weak but he’s also sharp and clever and naturally gifted with strategy, so he’ll do his best to explore, draw maps, and help figure out the mystery of what’s going on. Everything else that happens? The worse it gets, the more determined he’ll be to figure out what’s happening and make sure everyone gets home.

RP Samples: TDM threads, including both network and action samples.

Re: ACCEPTED

[personal profile] fiteme - 2017-01-11 02:39 (UTC) - Expand
(deleted comment)
todds: (58)

jason todd, dc comics: rebirth (reserved)

[personal profile] todds 2017-01-04 08:59 pm (UTC)(link)
Player Information

Name: Em
Age: 25+
Contact Info: PM
Other Characters: N/A

Character Information

Name: Jason Peter Todd
Canon: DC Comics: Rebirth
Age: DC recently decided everyone in the Batfamily was to physically regress and have confirmed Dick is now 21 instead of 30, narrowing the age gap between the Robins more than ever before. Jason is going to be around 19 in-game until Rebirth sheds some more light on the matter.
Gender: Male
Canon Point: Red Hood and the Outlaws: Rebirth #5
Background Link: Rebirth Revamp, Prime Wiki page, unedited for Rebirth, DC: Rebirth summary AKA Forget Half Of What We Told You

( Jason's personality has been edited to such an extent over the years that this app will take from his heavily revamped background in New 52-turned-Rebirth edition and the hints of his life in Prime. As a precursor, it's worth noting that when DC gave us Jason's origin story (for around the 3rd/4th time) they cherry-picked which facets of his Nu52 life they felt fans had responded to positively and were more "canon" than others, such as Talia Al'Ghul taking him in but cutting out the part where she turned him over the All-Caste (a league of super-assassins that predated the League of Assassins) and their leader Ducra. This makes for a choppy series of events when pulling from Jason's past in the Rebirth present, but huge events that span the entire Batfam are still etched in stone (Death Of The Family, Court of Owls, B&R: Eternal, Robin War) in the same way Rebirth's Nightwing never lived in Bludhaven but lived through the Grayson series and supposedly everything that came before that. Factors that were cut out of Jason's mishmashed past are largely anything to do with the magical/mystical elements that Ducra taught him. Essentially, fans wanted Rebirth!Jason to go back to his gritty roots as the tank of the former Robins, and DC used their relaunch to vaguely dismiss 50% of what we learned in the original RHatO while waving back in some of the Prime-verse history. Not confusing at all, thanks DC.

It's also not clear whether the Nu52 storyline of the Joker literally creating every tragedy in Jason's life is true because it was never entirely confirmed yet scenes from the result of it were, it's a headache that will be glossed over the same way DC has treated most of Jason's routinely specified-and-edited history. To sort through most of the mess DC Rebirth has given us, this app is going to outline the basics of Jason's life for mod reference and then develop an explanation of his personality from there. Cross-checking of Wikis is advised, but will be incredibly tedious.
)

Jason Peter Todd was the product of a broken family with a depressed drug-user of a mother and a criminal father, as a young child he would hide under the table with his dog and try to block out the sound of his parents' screaming matches. Prior to his father being carted off to prison he taught Jason a few tricks to live on the street and following the (supposed) overdose of Jason's mother that was exactly what he did, leading up to a young teen trying to jack the wheels off the Batmobile one night when Bruce parked in Crime Alley. Batman bought both of them some fast-food and they ate it together, with Jason listening to the advice he was given about his outlook on life, how it was wrong to steal etc. Before his adoption by Bruce Wayne, it was made canon that Jason spent some time at a house for wayward children under the supervision of Ma Gunn (a less than moral old woman) but in his own words before his adoption he was "sleeping on a wet cardboard box a week earlier". Following his hasty induction as a ward of the billionaire it was a short time before Jason was given the chance to catch up on his studies (after dropping out off school in preteen years) and more, revealing he was an extremely bright boy with a 94.8 grade point average: Jason earned multiple doctorates in criminology, advanced computer science, learned German and Russian, and attended fighting/weight training near constantly when he wasn't studying.

At the height of his brilliance, he was presented with the new Robin suit and made Batman's trusted partner on the streets of Gotham. It was the best night of his young life.

This is around the time Jason's life started to crash and burn bad joke all over again. He was harsher with criminals when Bruce's life was in danger, brutally beating Two-Face and finding it difficult to rein in his anger when on the job. Bruce began to bench him from missions (unbeknown to Jason for his own safety after he 'allowed' a rapist to fall to their death, with Bruce fretting over what to do with him) and any New Teen Titans from his Pre-Crisis days, already miserable, were retconned into Jason feeling entirely mismatched within that group and greatly unwelcome in Dick's absence. Dick himself couldn't be faulted for feeling replaced and having a million of his own problems to attend to but this led to Jason's second unstable family dynamic; Bruce seemingly didn't want him around, his idol Dick never made an effort to be a mentor or brother, and Jason didn't know Alfred well enough to explain why he would cry alone at night. The scaffolding of his life began to quickly rust.

Jason was fed a lead about his mother miraculously having survived her overdose and, feeling unfettered and unwanted, he flew himself halfway around the world to find her. When he did, it turned out she was a pawn of the Joker (she tried to save her own life instead of Jason's because she was so afraid of the clown, what a great mom) and the two of them were bound in an abandoned warehouse. Despite being brutally beaten with a crowbar and now convinced no one loved him, Jason tried to get his mother free, ultimately failing when the building exploded around them.

The last thing Jason ever did was whisper an apology to Bruce.

And this is where a supervillain punches reality to retcon Jason's death. DC have glossed over that whole mess of an event and so will we. At any rate, Jason is resurrected 6ft under, screaming in terror for Bruce, and has to claw his way to freedom. Already brain-damaged by the encounter, he retained the skills he was taught by Batman and his street rat sense of self-preservation, unable to function on higher levels as he lived homelessly for some months until his abilities caught the eye of Talia Al'Ghul. The daughter of Ra's took Jason home and, when her father almost had enough of her pandering to a brain-damaged boy, she kicked him in the Lazarus Pit because why not, he couldn't get any worse. Jason's injuries healed and he became inherently stronger as a result of his unauthorised swim in Ra's super-secret pool, with the increased 'natural' strength (that would much later in his life surprise Supergirl when he managed to fend off her attacks). In short, Jason got hench. Talia led him around a few covert missions where he learned more about himself than he was comfortable with, able to kill the cruel and criminal without remorse as he put his life on the line to save innocents. Eventually, Talia's meddling reached new heights when she showed him photographs of Batman with a new Robin, seemingly Batman's replacement of Jason, Tim Drake, and the Joker running around alive as ever. Jason's new purpose in life was to convince himself that Bruce still cared and would avenge him, even if Bruce's hand had to be forced.

For all that Talia did for him, she was neither a friend or a confidant, aiding Jason because she was in love with his mentor, Bruce. Stewing in the same loneliness he had felt as Robin, now heartbroken on an entirely new level, Jason returned to Gotham where he floundered in his plans for a while and stalked the new Dynamic Duo, almost blowing up Bruce in the batmobile. Finding himself unable to go through with it, he devised a far more complex plan to build up a rep for himself as the Red Hood that would catch Bruce's attention; the Joker's old name was recycled by Jason out of spite and to control his fear, the same way Bruce adopted the Bat.

A common misconception is that Jason kidnapped the Joker to lure out Bruce and kill him. In truth, Jason's gambit was that Bruce would at least defer to choose Jason over the Joker and reaffirm his love, having already forgiven Bruce for failing to save his life. When this didn't happen it incensed Jason and reinforced the idea that he was just "a good soldier" and had no real value to Bruce, launching them into a distance that would last for years. (Meanwhile, after losing Jason it was Bruce who fell into a steep depression over his death and Tim Drake who insisted on taking up the mantle of Robin, but Jason knew none of it.) This is where Under The Red Hood ends and Red Hood and the Outlaws picks up. Most of the plot of the 2011 series has been mangled by Rebirth, but in essence Jason learned how to build friendships through Roy Harper and Starfire, until the event of Death In The Family where the Joker's actions would ironically cause Jason to mend most of his fractured relationship with Bruce. It's later made known that the Justice League only refrain from taking Jason in because of Batman vouching for him.

Inventory: (1) Red Hood helmet, DEACTIVATED so it's more of a glorified hat, (1) Cropped leather jacket #FASHION, (1) taser-laced set of body armour; DEACTIVATED in Snowblind, (1) pair of boots, (2) Desert Eagles in holsters with hollow-point armor-piercing shells (or none if unallowed), (1) .45 gun, (1) super sharp knife courtesy of Talia.

Personality: For a man known as the Red Hood by the NSA, CIA, Homeland Security, FBI, KGB, and Interpol, Jason's faults are far more clear-cut than they otherwise could be. He is known to steal extortionate amounts of money and commit felonies across the world, hence his title as an Outlaw to pretty much every government of significance, yet his moral code is strong. He murders and decapitates criminal lieutenants with a zero-tolerance policy toward those who sell drugs to children, rapists, sadists, etc, yet owns a heroic streak a mile wide when it comes to protecting innocents, even offended when Supergirl accuses him of shooting a dog in order to silence it when he actually just put it in a nearby bathroom ("What kind of monster do you think I am?"). His reputation is that of the 'Tank', the brutal former-Robin who goes to the lengths that Batman cannot in search of justice, and he doesn't mind one bit. A huge point of contention between Jason and his mentor is that Bruce never killed the Joker to exact vengeance, whereas were the tables turned it would have been Jason's only option.

Family is the one anchor in Jason's heart that keeps him connected to the Batfam and enables him, over time, to develop deeper relationships with the people from his past whom he initiated resented: he almost slips up and calls Dick his brother when the acrobat fakes his death and Jason chews him out, bonds with Tim to the point where he calls him Babybird, takes him to bars, and can't even bring himself to go to Tim's funeral (when Tim supposedly died in recent issues), also agreeing to keep an eye on Barbara when Bruce suspects she's unstable and petitions Jason's help. Alfred becomes Alfie. His heart is huge with a capacity to protect as strong as his values are to punish, leaving Jason the outsider in his own familial unit.

A good analogy would be a dog miraculously cured of rabies with everyone second-guessing its bite thereafter.

For this reason in RHatO: Rebirth, Jason has to act without Bruce's consent and lead everyone to believe he shoots the mayor of Gotham, when in fact he was injecting him with an antidote to a techno-organic virus created by Black Mask, and why Bruce insists that if Jason gets too deep into the investigation over it ("If you take one life for whatever reason, I'm coming for you") he'll treat him like an actual criminal. The Red Hood is vicious and merciless. Jason Todd likes to read Jane Austen and Sun Tzu. He isn't sure himself whether he's a villain or a hero, he simply does whatever needs to be done that Batman can't or won't deal with. His peppy attitude from childhood has soured into sarcasm, a hardened version of innocent sass, with Jason molded into a grimmer version of the enthused young boy that eagerly gave away his heart to Bruce Wayne, now a lonely adult left to remind himself (with a spare Batmobile tyre on a shelf, next to a precious photo) of the only time in his life he felt trusted and loved.
"Take it from someone who was beaten to death with a crowbar -- some crimes require a permanent solution."
Many people both icly and oocly like to refer to Jason as 'The Bad Robin' when he actually lives most of his life in an unsatisfying grey-scale as a result of extensive trauma, both mental and physical, in two lives. Most recently in the Rebirth arc, Jason has shown his capacity to care for those otherwise written off by the world; he buys Bizarro a plushie of Superman and tries to befriend the monster despite already being deep undercover, and his attempts to garner Artemis's aid are not without some degree of success from the stoic Amazon. He goes so far as to admit that even he has his limits when Black Mask shoots his own henchmen in cold blood.

Jason is usually referred to as the strength of the Robins but, just as often, he is also viewed as the heart of whichever Outlaw dark trinity he leads.


Flavor Abilities: With Rebirth having scrapped all the mystical nonsense from Nu52, Jason's only real extra ability is the reinforced strength and healing factor that the Lazarus Pit gave him. Already a significantly healthy, agile tank in his own right, I'm happy for him to get pared down to a basic human level. Getting brought up by Batman is enough hench training for anyone.

Suitability: Jason "I'm used to holding it all together with toothpaste and bubblegum" Todd. Resourcefulness is a trait that Jason owned long before Batman swooped into his life, a street rat that knew how to live on nothing and make it work from the trashcans up. With his training he'll adapt to Snowblind as if it's a mission or a test, rooting out allies he can tenuously trust as he carves out his own heavily protected niche; he isn't paranoid, he's a Gothamite. Survival is what he does, either as Jason Todd or the Red Hood. He may also feel his identity has been compromised after shenanigans in canon with Roman Sionis, admitting who he is in order to recruit some companions, while the detective in him will be on overdrive. He's no Tim Drake, however, so his attitude will range around "Can we please just fucking solve this ASAP" and if he has to make unsavoury connections to get that to happen, he will.

RP Samples: Both on the TDM.

(no subject)

[personal profile] todds - 2017-01-09 16:28 (UTC) - Expand
himalayanyeti: (♤ i know i'll feel okay)

magenta magenta | jojo's bizarre adventure: steel ball run | unreserved

[personal profile] himalayanyeti 2017-01-05 02:21 am (UTC)(link)
Player Information

Name: Mint
Age: 19
Contact Info: @Togamint on Plurk, dirgni#6844 on Discord
Other Characters: N/A!

Character Information

Name: Magenta Magenta
Canon: Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure: Steel Ball Run
Age: Never explicitly stated besides being younger than 31--I’d put him in his late twenties.
Gender: Male
Canon Point: Immediately after being thrown into the Delaware River by Wekapipo
Background Link: Here’s his wiki page, with rough details on his role in Steel Ball Run!
Inventory: A hat and the clothes on his back, for...non-weapon items.
himalayanyeti: (♤ i want to kill him)

2/2

[personal profile] himalayanyeti 2017-01-05 02:22 am (UTC)(link)
Personality: Magenta Magenta is, to most people, infallibly obnoxious. To his credit, this is wholly unintentional, as the impression comes from his constant cold symptoms and unpleasant voice, with a side of some really bad jokes that he loves to tell. He’s not fun to be around. He does not seem in any way capable, competent, or worthwhile when it comes to employment, particularly employment of a sensitive or dangerous nature. It seems unlikely, then, that he would be an assassin working directly under orders of the President himself, and yet, this is his primary job in the narrative.


When Magenta is first introduced, he plays the jokester to Wekapipo’s straight man, putting on a small show of his comedy. He comes off as vapid and vague, only shutting up to focus on the mission after his partner repeatedly tells him to. He refutes claims that he’s not taking the mission seriously by essentially telling the other man that he has no sense of humor. All of this contributes to an outward appearance of a flippant man, one who prefers goofing off to actually completing the job at hand. To the casual observer, his motivations are unknown and, at best, simply superficial. This front is intentional.


Even Magenta’s strategy reveals his true nature: while Wekapipo distracts the protagonists and keeps them occupied, Magenta is able to skirt around the edges of the battle, with Gyro initially dismissing his presence as being a bystander. Magenta carefully presents himself as being useless and harmless in order to get in the heroes’ blind spot to attack them. This also applies to his more personal relationships: later in the narrative, he reveals that he “actually liked” Wekapipo for the duration of their partnership, hiding behind the façade of jokes and poking fun in order to, contradictorily, keep an air of professionalism. He buries his true feelings for people, because he is largely motivated by how others treat him.


When Magenta meets someone that shows him any kind of personal attention, they become his entire scope of focus. The best example of this is his relationship with Diego Brando, who saved Magenta’s life and consequently led the man to devote his life (literally!) to Diego’s cause. Magenta wants to be loved so badly that he latches onto any kindness shown, even if it leads to him being manipulated. The reverse is true, too: to Magenta, the world revolves around him, and any misfortune that happens surely is the result of another person maliciously acting against him. When Wekapipo assumes him to be dead in the frozen strait, Magenta takes this to mean that his partner abandoned him deliberately, leading to an obsession that ultimately led to his downfall.


While prone to being manipulated by figures in power, such as Diego Brando or Funny Valentine, Magenta exhibits a uniquely strong personal drive of his own. He holds grudges longer and stronger than most people would, such as the one he has against Wekapipo after his assumed “betrayal”. Underneath the shell of a man who has little care in the world--fitting to his Stand, which manifests as a physical barrier around him and the rest of life--he’s deeply disturbed and angry, acting out violent impulses on people he dislikes. He very literally subscribes to the concept of “eye for an eye”: after losing his eye, a slight attributed to Wekapipo, he vows to carve out his former partner’s own eye. He gets carried away, and carried away fast, which is why the work of being an assassin suits him: he has one job to do, and he does it very well.


Like every Stand user in Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure, his Stand makes up a large enough part of his identity that it merits mentioning. 20th Century Boy manifests as an impenetrable suit of armor that forms around Magenta, making him invulnerable to attacks as long as he stays crouched low to the ground. This is part of why he adopts such a flippant attitude about life: he is literally invincible to any harm when he wants to be, allowing him to say and do what he wants. However, using his Stand renders him immobile, and being a more aggressive person, he prefers to act...leading to his loss on more than one occasion. 20th Century Boy represents the mask he wears to protect himself--one that he removes when particularly incensed.


Overall, Magenta, while coming off as crude and unsuitable for his job, possesses a talent for over-focusing on subjects and people, betraying a deeper tenacity than first shown. Late in the story, he makes a passionate comment to Wekapipo: “I’ll show you that the people who don’t have anything to lose are the most dangerous.” Magenta, at his current canonpoint, has burned nearly every bridge in his life, staying alive by the knowledge that his bloody revenge is waiting for him. The truth, one that he’s unwilling to admit to himself and Wekapipo, is that he has quite a bit to lose: his final thoughts are that Diego will surely come to save him, that he’s afraid of dying, that he can’t be abandoned again.. In short, Magenta talks much bigger, much flashier, much stronger than he truly is.

Flavor Abilities: In canon, Magenta possesses a Stand: a semi-physical representation of his soul that grants him virtual invulnerability to attacks and other physical harm, named 20th Century Boy. Of course, he won’t be able to use the actual function of the Stand, but (mods permitting!) his flavor ability would be to summon his Stand as usual, though it would not have any actual powers. Here’s an article on 20CB!

Suitability: Magenta will be adjusting to life without his powers, possibly leading into some accidental scrapes where he forgets that he’s no longer able to protect himself. Overall, though, he’ll be extremely curious about his surroundings, willing to venture out into the cold just to see what he can find, and trying to make friends where he can. Or, well...make friends as best as he’s able. The snow will initially put him off, seeing as he has some unfortunate experiences with it, but he’ll quickly get used to his situation.

RP Samples:


one;
[Magenta hates the goddamn cold. Truly, it’s the worst thing he can imagine, being in the cold--or, rather, he’d like to think that was the case. In reality, he can think of a lot worse things that standing in the snow without a hat, but for his personal dramatic purposes, his current situation is as hellish as it gets, if one imagines hell as being several dozen degrees below zero as opposed to several thousand degrees above. He’s willing to twist the very definition of hell if it means getting some personal, petty satisfaction out of his own misery. Everyone knows that complaining about a shitty situation is the first step to relief.


There’s nobody to complain to, though: stranded as he is in the silent snowfall, a black stain on the white landscape. This annoys him almost as much as the cold does, seeing as one of his few joys is being able to bother other people with his presence. And, truly, there’s a long list of complaints he could air if someone were to come along: his face hurts, the snow’s cold, he’s lost his hat to some nasty wind, it’s getting dark...the list goes on and on, with about ninety percent of it being devoted to nature’s vendetta against him. Painful, really, for anyone to listen to, but he would argue that the items are more painful when experienced firsthand.


He sits for some time in the darkening twilight before seeing someone in the distance--or some kind of moving shape, species of which unknown. Hell, he’d be alright with a bear, as long as it granted him a moment or two of talking.]



Hey! You! Over there!


[He cups his gloved hands around his mouth, yelling with a voice made hoarse by the cold and unpleasant by nature.]


Have you seen a rather nice top-hat floatin’ away with the wind? I’ve lost it, and, frankly, I can’t find it again in this damn snow! Hello? Is anyone there?

two; network post!
You know, I’ve been thinkin’ that this place could use some more wildlife.


[With Magenta’s track record, the message could cut out after “I’ve been thinking” and still provide a decent amount of shock to anybody listening in on the network in this indecent hour. Intelligence is not something he prides himself on, exactly, particularly not late at night.]


You know what I really miss? Dinosaurs. Now, now--Mister Magenta’s no fool, of course he knows that dinosaurs ain’t suited for this weather. That being said! I’ve seen some of those dinosaurs with feathers, and that ought to keep them warm enough, I suppose! Besides, how else are there dinosaur bones up in the Yukon or wherever if they couldn’t live in all that snow?


[He sounds oddly proud of himself, once one listens past the slightly slurred words and muffled way of speaking.]


So. If someone in charge of this damn place is listening, I’d like some genuine dinosaurs! Thank you much-ly. Oh, and this is Magenta! In case you need to put it on my tab, or whatever.

if you need any more samples, i do have a couple threads ! none of them meet the length requirement but i’m sure i can scrounge something up

(no subject)

[personal profile] himalayanyeti - 2017-01-09 11:51 (UTC) - Expand
lucisdreamer: (pic#10930740)

Noctis Lucis Caelum | Final Fantasy XV | Reserved

[personal profile] lucisdreamer 2017-01-07 08:12 pm (UTC)(link)
Player Information

Name: Zorn
Age: 26
Contact Info: [plurk.com profile] ZornSable
Other Characters: Estinien Wyrmblood

Character Information

Name: Noctis Lucis Caelum
Canon: Final Fantasy XV
Age: 20
Gender: Male
Canon Point: Chapter 13 - when he gets absorbed into the crystal
Background Link: Here ya go!
Inventory: His typical outfit, but also the Ring of Lucii. It has no magical powers, of course.

Personality:
Having grown up as royalty, and being fairly isolated as a youth, Noctis is not the most socially aware person. Perhaps more aware than his friend Prompto, but he can still show times of being a bit socially stunted by saying things that are a bit cold or harsh. Even to those he cares about, and sometimes as a jest, but it definitely doesn't come across as such. It doesn't help that Noctis tries to maintain this cool and aloof facade to hide his actual shyness towards people--the decidedly emotionless act makes him seem a bit colder than he actually is.

To be frank, Noctis is a very emotional boy, and very soft hearted. He cares too much for his own good, and perhaps his distant act is in a way a means to protect himself. Regardless, he's easily suckered into helping people, even with mundane tasks, or even going way out of his way to help a stray cat eat. Honestly, he's more inclined to help animals than anything else, because he's a huge animal lover.

Even so, before his journey to Altissia (where he was expected to meet and marry his childhood friend he hasn't seen in 12 years), he often times did community service and the like in the crown city. The general populace knew of his kind-hearted nature, and that carried through even leaving the city. He tries to act like some cool aloof guy, but at the end of the day his good nature shines through.

During his time traveling across Lucis, he gets to meet and interact with the people of his kingdom for the first time, while acting as if he isn't the prince. Laying low since the empire was seeking him out. As he does this, he gets pulled into all sorts of shenanigans, even if he's not exactly excited about it. He's, of course, not afraid to admit his disinterest, either commenting in sassy ways, or straight up whining. In one such quest, they were sent help the quest giver acquire his shipment of beans, and his first response was to whine and say "Beeeaaaaansss..." like a petulant child. If you thought Noctis was mature, think again. Of course he got teased relentlessly by the quest giver, and his friends, to his obvious frustration.

Regardless the task, however, he always does the job. He's not one to make false promises, even if the task is grueling or generally unpleasant. Often times he can over estimate himself, and take on tasks that leave his friends worried and uncertain they'll survive the endeavor. They always do, but they don't always come out unscathed. But it's through this stubborn overestimation of himself that leads to some dangerous shenanigans, and plenty of near death experiences. That never seems to stop him, however.

He's a hard worker, even if he seems to be tired all the time, often times commenting on it, or having issues even waking up most the time. He presses on, however, even if he'd probably prefer to nap instead of doing the task at hand, or anything for that matter. Despite this, he doesn't do less than his best, even if he might whine or complain the whole way. Which he certainly does. He's a bit of a whiny brat at times.

However, despite how he might be willing to do these monotonous to life threatening tasks for his citizens, Noctis actually has never been keen on becoming king. He actually abhors the life of a royal, and wishes for something far more mundane. Often commenting on how he just wants to play video games in his hotel room and so on. Growing up he feared his dad dying because of the strain the powers that come with his family line put on him, and feared even more having to assume his role and responsibility.

When that did come to pass, it certainly wasn't over any usual circumstances, his father being murdered, and his city being captured by their enemy nation. Noctis fought off his grieving with anger, which seems to be a common coping mechanism for him. Or, at the very least, his first emotional reaction to trauma, other than denial.

Several times when met with emotional turmoil he erupts into anger. Often times swearing and yelling as he attempts to garner a grasp on the situation. When he hates someone, he doesn't seem to hold back his contempt, spitting vitriol at them, and if they are a threat to himself and others--he doesn't hold back trying to eliminate them. Especially when it comes to protecting or getting vengeance for someone he cares for.

In fact, his worry for his friends, and his protectiveness and loyalty towards them is absolutely binding. He would do a lot for them, and sacrifice so much to protect them. However, even with that stated, he isn't without his own flaws or childishness. He tends to just as easily take them for granted, even if he doesn't ultimately mean to. Growing up as royalty, and being waited on hand and foot tends to instill a certain kind of entitlement, but even so, he does his best to treat them as equals and to act as such, but it doesn't always come through. Nevertheless, when it comes down to it, he doesn't value his own life above his friends' or their general safety.

Noctis can also be pretty cruelly blunt and dismissive towards his friends. He's a bit socially stunted from being sheltered in his early youth, and so sometimes his teasing doesn't quite come across as teasing... and he doesn't seem to notice. He's also not one to lead someone on, which a perfect example of this was when he and his friend's little sister was wandering around Lestallum, and she kept trying to make it seem like some date, and he seemed wholly uninterested. Of course, much to her frustration, but he certainly wasn't going to play along.

Despite Noctis' reservations to his duty as king, he still goes through with it. He's a sacrificing sort, and no matter how he might try to make himself seem, he wants to do good for his people. Particularly for those he cares about. He pushes his own desires aside, and does what is expected of him, no matter the personal cost. Even if that cost is his own life and family line.

All in all Noctis is a Good Boy™, doing good by others, and willing to sacrifice his happiness and life for the good of his people. He might try to act cool and detached, but that's just to cover up how much of a soft soul he is. Even if he can act rash and rebellious at times, he still means well, and ultimately will do the good thing, even if he doesn't necessarily want to.

Flavor Abilities:
Noctis is an agile and skilled fighter, he's proficient in many weapons types ranging from daggers, to great axes, to even giant ninja stars (???). He seems to just be able to pick up weilding weapons naturally even if he's never exactly practiced with them before hand.

He's also very acrobatic, with a lot of his fighting skill relying on his ability to warp, phase, and flip through the air. He's got quick reflexes, parrying and countering attacks with ease. He seems to be able to jump and do flips with relative ease, and has pretty good stamina to boot.

Suitability:

Noctis grew up in a very large and established city, where he didn't have to fend for his life. He had since left there, and was traveling out in the wilderness with friends, but he still had it pretty comfortably. With their support, his dad's car, and his powers, he didn't have to worry about all too much against the wilds of Lucis--sans the daemons, of course. I think it'd be fun to remove all his safety nets and see how he would thrive in the unforgiving snows of Norfinbury, having to think for himself for once.

RP Samples:
TDM threads

Re: ACCEPTED

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