Castlist

application: CAPE AND COWL

2011-10-29T17:32:16Z

[PLAYER INFO]
NAME: Shaz
AGE: 23
JOURNAL: scissorbite
IM: aim - shiny effin curls
E-MAIL: please ask
RETURNING: --

[CHARACTER INFO]
CHARACTER NAME: Quinlan Vos
FANDOM: Star Wars
CHRONOLOGY: At the end of Clone Wars: Volume 8 - before the execution of Order 66.
CLASS: Hero or Villain, Anti-Hero or Mass Murdering Psychopath, or just pretending to be one while really acting like the other? Will they keep their dog tags, or will they strike out on their own?
SUPERHERO NAME: Your character will be asked to keep a secret identity, but whether they keep to it or not, other Capes will be calling them by their super alias when it’s given out.
ALTER EGO: Your character’s civilian name and job!

BACKGROUND:
What is your character’s world like? What is their role in it? In what major canon events did your character play a part, how did your character affect these events, and vice versa? If applicable, what important relationships do they have with other characters in this series?

This doesn’t have to be terribly detailed, but we’d like a good picture of their canon to draw from, so please make sure you explain anything particularly series-specific or that we might not understand, and also that it’s in your own words.

PERSONALITY:
What is your character like, in at least two paragraphs? What are their dreams, their fears, their general quirks and the issues that make them, them, and does their personality shift in any way after or before the point you are taking them from? If they are from a different or alternate universe, or if their personality radically shifts due to events during the point in time that you are taking them from, how is their new personality different from their normal one?

POWER:
What is/are your character’s superpower(s)? If they have abilities in their canon source, please list them here. If they do not, please create some! Every character brought into the City must have at least one power, though this may be as useful or as useless as you wish. Please indicate which abilities are canon for your character and which are not.

Additionally, each character is permitted an upper limit of three separate powers. At our discretion, we may request that you reduce, readjust, or otherwise redefine your character’s powers in order to acclimate more readily to the game setting. Characters from more Eastern-style sources are to have their powers adapted to a Western setting – for example, characters from the series “Naruto” would turn their most prominent ninjutsu into the super-powers they receive upon arriving here.

[CHARACTER SAMPLES]
COMMUNITY POST (FIRST PERSON) SAMPLE: How your character will be addressing the game at large. This sample should follow the same rough format as Cape&Cowl proper — a first-person, text/audio/video-based, intentional post to an internet community. Preferably more than a paragraph in length, this sample is to show us your character's unique voice. If you can make us laugh or outright scare the pants off us, you’re doing a good job!

LOGS POST (THIRD PERSON) SAMPLE: The name of the game is introspection, folks. This sample will both showcase how you will play in the logs community, and how well you understand your character’s motivations, hopes, dreams, quirks, etc. This sample should be a bit longer than your first, and, again, make us cry, make us laugh, or make us never want to meet your character in a back alley and you’re doing a good job!

A note: In the cases of both first person and third person samples, we do NOT accept links to samples written at other games. If, however, you are a returning player applying for a character that you have played previously at Cape&Cowl, you are allowed to link to posts made by that character in this game.

FINAL NOTES ABOUT YOUR CHARACTER:
Is there anything else about your character that you feel we should know, that isn't covered in any of the earlier sections? This field is optional.

storyline: the mothership

2011-10-08T11:37:04Z

the mothership

.arrival

At the very moment of reawakening your mind is assaulted. A thousand new sensations and thoughts pour in to your subconscious: data streams of unfathomable complexity, dozens of heartbeats that aren't yours, the searing pain of grief and the ice-cold emptiness of space.

It's a headache, a heartache, an everything-ache and for a few seconds your body can't handle it - it's all too much, your brain is overloaded. You want to shut it off, to kick all these sensations away from you and to run - but no, there's something there trying to drag you in. A soothing tendril of pure hope and love that begs you not to fight it. It asks that you open your mind and accept the mothership.

Your new home is trying to talk to you. The mothership has embraced you; she's in pain and she needs you to help her.

.morrimax
The Mothership is a game set on board the telepathic alien starship Morrimax as she flees through the universe in search of help. Wounded, traumatised and mysteriously missing her original crew Morrimax is confusedly sucking in all kinds of lifesignals from across the multiverses in to her sickbay to help her find her way home. She's fiercely attached to everyone she imports and no matter how much they resent her for pulling them on board she is determined to keep them as her new crew.

Having been abruptly displaced from their original timelines, your character awakes in Morrimax's sickbay with an instant telepathic connection to both the ship and everyone else in the game. Escape from the telepathic bonds that draw the new-found crew and the ship together is impossible but brief moments of respite can be found in an individual's cabin - where only the mind of the ship can penetrate the walls. Processing all the thoughts and emotions of your crewmates and newfound home is painful and traumatising but the longer your character stays on board and opens up is a to helping the mothership rather than fighting her, the easier they will eventually find it.

{MOTHERSHIP} {THOUGHTPLANE} {link} {link}

registration plot idea: document one

2011-10-04T19:04:05Z

In the post-Tower Attack turmoil Cambridge approaches the Magistrate with a proposition: to create a list - tentatively called the Potential Harm List but codenamed Document One whilst in development stages to dissuade any suspicion and prevent leaks.There is obviously a potential to divide the city (echoing Marvel's Civil War arc) in game and plenty of plot opportunities for interesting shenanigans! Cambridge will put himself forward to head the project - and take any negative press away from the rest of the government/the Magistrate. He'll suggest that the Magistrate call it an 'unfortunate but necessary evil' and allow him to take the slack for it - but in return he will ask for a large degree of autonomous control over the list.
The development of the plot could take the form of a 'leaked' scrap of the registration plan: just a small section of the document with a few worrying key phrases to get people talking. There's a possible example of both below.
BASICALLY Cambridge is so keen to propose/be in charge of this project for a very good reason: to keep himself off it. He's still trying to keep his technopathy under wraps and ironically enough he'll be using his (quite formidable) power to keep the registration list so very well protected just in order to make sure he (and his colleagues, if their applications are submitted/accepted) is never put on it. As a side note: if this plot happens then I'd really like Cambridge's power to eventually be exposed as part of some kind of twist? Because obviously it makes him a dirty hypocrite! What fun! At the moment there are three - potentially four - people in the city who know that he's a technopath so he'd have to find some way to blackmail them in to keeping his secret!
I imagine there'd be lots of turmoil and uproar and even though the document is not meant to be used for employers to discriminate against hiring nonhumans this could still totally happen. Perhaps some people in the Registration Office could be open to bribes? Yay, corruption.

" THE REGISTRATION OFFICE "
c/o: The Magistrate's Office
DEVELOPMENT OF DOCUMENT ONE
DRAFT #01: RESTRICTED CIRCULATION

AIM: To provide a detailed list of all non-human persons that may pose a potential threat of considerable severity to the safety of the citizens of Bete Noire; the well-being of the Magistrate; the effective running of the government of Bete Noire; or themselves.

FUNCTION: The POTENTIAL HARM LIST (codenamed DOCUMENT ONE whilst in development stages) will be made available to all government departments with the Sheriff's Office given priority access. All other access to the document will be monitored by a newly-commissioned department named the REGISTRATION OFFICE.

PRACTICE: Document One will be compiled and managed by the Registration Office under the direction of a HEAD OF REGISTRATION who will report directly to the Magistrate. Information from all judicial departments including the Sheriff's Department must be made available to be included on Document One. Any potential threats discovered over the network via the Office of Communications must be reported to both the Sheriff's Department and the Registration Office.

RESTRICTIONS: In order to reassure the wider public that this document will not be used to encourage pro-human discrimination in city employers the Registration Office will ensure that Document One is not be made available for public consultation unless written permission has been obtrained from either the Magistrate or the Head of Registration.

Potential leaked snippet of the registration proposal

Leaked on to the network by a government employee NPC?

active originals v7

2011-09-24T14:41:27Z

the cast list chez emprises & ataraxion
isaac 'c a m b r i d g e' moore
It's not that Cambridge is a particularly mean person - but he certainly seems to have trouble being nice. Outwardly Cambridge is a caustic, impatient man disinclined to suffer fools gladly; all who fall under Cambridge's acerbic eye are immediately judged and very few are ever seen to pass muster. After working so hard to achieve so much in his own life Cambridge cannot help but deem those who haven't achieved as much as him as comparatively useless – or even worse, stupid – and unworthy of both his time and his pleasantries. ❝ if you really like an argument we should see more of each other ❞
j u l i a n dixon-ross
a really useless vampire. ❝ I'm starting to think I'm more of a hide-and-seek person. ❞
g i d e o n southey
Gideon always had been a man of faith. Before the darkness fell and the world turned to hell he had dreamed of becoming a priest… but then all hell broke loose and religion as we know it ceased to be. Who cared for religion when it was painfully clear that the gods had forsaken mankind and left it to tear itself to pieces? But Gideon never stopped believing. Alright, so the deities he prayed to might be nameless and unknown, but he still hoped. He hoped that there was something greater out there, something that would make all this pain and suffering justifiable, somewhere for their torn and tattered souls to rest when the horror finally consumed them. He travels the wastelands of the world alone, for now. He picks up a few companions here and there, sometimes stopping to help wherever he can. He learns on the way, picking up all sorts of knowledge from the people he finds and writing it down in a journal that he one day hopes will become an encyclopaedia documenting the terrible times that they all live in. ❝ I don't seem to be able to keep myself grounded. Things change around me. I'm not sure if there's rhyme or reason - but here I am. ❞
thomas a l d r i d g e
As a university lecturer in English literature, Thomas Aldridge started to notice the slow seeping of emotions from the essays his students handed in: stress, dread, pain, sweat and tears all became commonplace when he handled the dissertations of his over-achieving tutees. When he handled books – especially second-hand and vintage editions – he could feel the weight of emotions from everyone who had ever read them. Sad stories, romantic poetry, real-life biographical horrors… they all affected Aldridge as he soaked up their emotional resonances. The stress of absorbing his students’ powerful, hormonally-charged emotions became too much. He had tried to tolerate it - he had even tried to turn it to his advantage – but eventually Aldridge retired from his position in the university. But his love for literature kept him in the business of books – using a few old friends and contacts in the publishing business he turned his hand to running a second-hand book shop. At least he doesn’t have to read the new books that come in through his door to gauge whether they’re good or not... ❝ It's not the words themselves that matter but the effect they have. I'd say it's about the reader, not the story. ❞
dr. c a l l u m rhys-bowen
A paranormal archaeologist who specialises in crypto-zoology. Callum is basically the guy you call when you think you've found a unicorn skeleton in your back garden. Is considered a bit of a joke by the international scientific community but he is completely fine with that. He wrote his doctorate thesis about a mass burial site of a Neolothic werewolf pack int he Brecon Beacons but nobody ever read it because he wrote it in Welsh. That's just how he rolls. Runs a small company (so small it's just him, his young colleague Fergus/Tom Jones and Cat the cat) that investigates crypto-zoological findings. ❝ Look, if you don't find those vampire teeth then I'm sending you down the Wookey Hole caves with a toothbrush and a trowel to find some new ones, alright? And that is, like, a three hour train journey. ❞
capt. jack s h e r i d a n
A dragon captain in His Majesty's Aerial Corps. Captain to the Pascal's Blue Orphirus, a French hatchling sent over to Great Britain during the peace, and currently a scout on the North-Eastern coast of England. Unfortunately for England, Sheridan really is the Irish nationalist spy that some people ocassionally suspect him to be. ❝ Miss Darlington, if you have read my despatches then you will understand exactly what kind of man you are dealing with and what is truly at stake here. ❞
sally 'b a t h' mills
Completely ageless and immortal, Bath will never be able to die. She has assumed a variety of roles in various governments over the years but has turned something of a recluse in the past few decades, preferring to watch over the other members of the Order at a distance. ❝ Allow me a little fantasy, won't you? Even if it doesn't happen, I'd like to think - there's so much ruin, you see? Can't you forgive me a little day-dreaming... ❞
n i c h o l a s black
1803 AD and a young wind charmer runs away from home to join the Royal Navy as Admiral Nelson's latest "secret" weapon - a man of weather-magic that can whistle up winds and summon terrible storms to turn the tide of battle this way or that. Naval life suits him well: he loves the roll of the ship beneath his feet and the thrill of battle as he draws in winds and roars thunder across the sky. But even the bluest seas have black, hidden depths. for all of the mage's enthusiastic innocence he's not a mortal human but a creature of the wind and the sea - capricious, mercurial and quick to anger. Riptides and clawing currents operate beneath the glassy surface: in the deep mania of casting his weather magic in the midst of battle, Nicholas is prone to getting carried away... ❝ I had never slept in a bed that one must hang from a ceiling before... but now I am sure I shall never want to sleep in anything else ever again. ❞
m o n r o e / parzi
Monroe always had a penchant for masochism and whilst being possessed by a demon wouldn’t usually be anyone’s idea of a good time, for Monroe it was (ironically) heaven. But the demon was soon exorcised – against both of their wishes – and in the process it dug its fingernails in to Monroe’s soul and tore it to pieces. Now Monroe’s physical body reflects that diseased and broken soul within: every day he grows fresh bruises and cuts. Disillusioned, angry and resentful of the world, Monroe trawls around the low places of the world seeking out new pains and new highs to try and replace the sweet agony that possession had brought him. ❝ It's like, I'm all blistered where I should be afraid. Like a scab or somethin'. And all I'm afraid of now is pickin' it off when it gets better and what's gonna come out from underneath it. ❞
cities & operatives:
the supernatural: fairygodmoderprincelysecondgetouttamypubfear_and_co
fandom & fandom au & fandom oc: tea_and_harper deerlicious spectrumofbrown thebiggestfan revolting_poet acidatchoo jellicle_bomb finestwines mywarmgun sendhawkwood letuskillthem fightingtemrer neverneverbird
normal humans: pretendyman notmadeofmoney homotango en_italie
mutants & superheroes:
space & sci-fi:

in which shaz writes a million peter pan AUs

2011-09-12T21:19:54Z

yet another au But be warned: Peter Pan - the boy who tempts children away from the loving embraces of their parents with promises of wild adventures in a foreign land - is not the hero of this story.
of captain james hook:
On the morning of 19th February 1797 - five days after the Battle of Cape St. Vincent - Captain James Hook was forced to undergo the amputation of his right hand. The flesh, stinking and superated under the negligent care of the drunken ship's doctor, was carved aside and the bone sawn just above the wrist. Surviving the trauma of surgery had been a close-run thing and had given the future James Hook his deeply-bound reliance on opiates. Forcibly retired from the Royal Navy and forced to make-do with on a miserably navy pension, Hook discovered the true hardship of the unlucky sailors that were not treated to the mercy of dying in battle: a meagre existence as the forgotten victims of England's war with France. ❝ he has an iron hook instead of a right hand, and he claws with it. ❞ Now, in 1800, he makes a pitiful living in London in a rented studio above a tavern - the Jolly Roger in Marylebone Street - as a painter. Still dosing himself with inordinate amounts of laudenam in order to combat the ferocious pains of his phantom hand he takes solace in painting wild and tragic seascapes with black skies and waves like gaping mouths. Very few of his paintings sell. His landlord - and the purveyer of his illicit morphines - is the enigmatically youthful Peter Pan, a man of twenty-something years but the charmingly boyish face of a child. Peter finds the tragic naval captain's paintings oddly delightful and takes any paintings worth anything of note in payment for his opiates - Hook resents the hold the young man has over him. Perhaps the only creature that gives James Hook any real comfort is the young lady Wendy Darling. Wendy, a ward of Peter's and the self-appointed 'mother' of all the young orphaned scoundrels that Peter picks off the street, was the one who fashioned the crude hook that James wears in place of his long-lost hand. Wendy helps Hook: in helping James with all the menial tasks such as clothing and feeding himself she helps to preserve his dignity - and she has been known in the past to nurse him through the crashing downward spirals of his opiate highs. Once or twice she has even modelled for him, in the rare times when Hook can bring himself to paint anything other than murderous seas.
of the ever-youthful peter:
A true child of the streets, Peter was born in a prison cell to a diseased mother who rotted away and died in the two years following Peter's unhappy birth. The boy was passed out of the gaol and in to the hands of the criminal sorority of whores that had considered his mother one of their unfortunate own. Peter always did have something of an escapist mind. As one of the prettier boys of the West End rookeries he would often be called in off the streets to put on some skirts and tread the boards of the more disreputable theatres as a pretty maid, and from then on he always did prefer fantasy to reality. Elaborate cons were Peter's favourite criminal tricks: he loved the make-believe worlds that came with worming his way in to privileged society wearing borrowed clothes and stealing the silver from under the noses of the bourgeoisie. But this was small beer compared to the heinous criminal acts he would later commit: encircling himself with a trusted posse of runaway urchins and street rats Peter became the self-styled leader of the Lost Boys and quickly rose to become one of London's top gang leaders. ❝ a strange smile was playing about his face, and Wendy saw it and shuddered. While that smile was on his face no one dared address him; all they could do was to stand ready to obey. ❞ Peter came in to possession of the Jolly Roger - a Marylebone tavern populaced by impoverished artists, debauched actors and desperate whores - through foul means but ran it with the skilled hand of a much older man. Blessed with the boyish charms and pretty features Peter was popular with customers as long as they knew how to step carefully to avoid triggering his sudden fits of terrifying wrath. Despite being known for his beautiful smile and carefree attitude Peter is a murderous master of the house and lacks nearly every single moral and ethic known to man. When he tempted the Darling brothers and their pretty sister Wendy off their impoverished-yet-honest life on the streets and offered them positions in his criminal outfit he knew he was writing them in to a debt of slavery. It was Peter's habit - he 'saved' the desperate and then counted on their considerable debts of gratitude to further his own gains. So it was with James Hook, the tragically wounded sea captain: Peter 'bought' his paintings and supplied him with opiates, enslaving him with pretty smiles and the much-desired laudanum to keep the tortured man around for his own amusement.
of wendy, your mother and mine:
blah blah whore with a heart of gold, loves peter and hook and doesn't know what to do, Tootles shoots her at one point, Tinker Bell tries to kill her at another. ❝ 'If you knew how great is a mother's love,' Wendy told them triumphantly, 'you would have no fear.' ❞

a few words...

2011-08-30T21:35:31Z

ONE SENTENCE STORIES
nicked from Noodles

JULIAN

The secret to surviving immortality, he thinks, is to have something - or someone - to look forward to when you wake.

MONROE

Disease and sickness, inside and out.

GIDEON

He likes to be the man that people need, regardless of whether they realise it or not.

JIMMY/VITOR

Brawling was his favourite thing for getting all that stolen blood pumping through his body.

CITY!BATH

The rubble of the city's stones were her broken bones, but the war certainly wasn't over yet.

PERICH

His human body was lovely, yes, but sometimes the peacock wished it had as many interesting colours as his other one.

DAHLIA

Choosing between her creation and her creator was like no heartache she had ever felt whilst alive - proving that even when it was dead, the heart could still break.

SPACE OPERAAAAA

2011-08-23T22:11:44Z

the three surviving races of the known galaxy...

A E L A J A H N
a beautiful, largely secular race of peace-loving, humanoid beings, the Aelajahns have their hearts set on ridding the galaxy of the parasitic Sarrites and their apparent threat. Polite and resourceful, the Aelajah were successful in securing an alliance with the humans, which is seemingly strong and beneficial for both sides. However, the peace between these two races is perhaps not set to last, as certain humans are very close to discovering an Aelajahn secret that may not shed very bright light upon them.

S A R R I T E
troublesome pirate junkers who genetically engineered their physiognomy to look more like the neighbouring Aelajah, the Sarrite are engineering magpies who plunder Aelajahn and human ships to kit out their own. Within the past few years they have discovered a phenomenal relic on their adopted homeworld that they believe is a miracle left over from the Old Gods that created the universe.

H U M A N
having finally made the technological jump that allowed them to traverse beyond their own little Solar system, the humans race ventured forth out of the Milky Way galaxy and in to the neighbouring Triangulum. They quickly allied itself with the (seemingly) peaceful Aelajahn against the threat of the encroaching Sarrites whilst also continuing to explore the star systems in search of a possible colony site. Nearly thirty-thousand humans make up the exploration fleet, comprising of both civilian and military units from across the Earth's nations.

SARRITES

2011-08-23T18:50:22Z

S A R R I T E S

S A R R A X 'third of Sar' - the home planet of the Sarrite race - now uninhabitable. S A R R I S 'seventh of Sar' - once named Carthos - the current homeworld of the Sarrites. a junkyard planet, little more than a scrapheap.
A N C I E N T HISTORY Before the Sarrites took refuge there and renamed it, Carthos was the dumping ground for the First Race - an unknown alien species that colonised the system hundreds of years prior. Any planets that First Race had colonised were presumably destroyed as there are no other signs of their existance other than the garbage wasteland world of Carthos. As far as anyone knows, Carthos is the only surviving world that retains physical evidence of the First Race's technological achievements. When the Sarrites - safe in their own system of planets encircling the star Sar VI - first made contact with the outer world they saw a universe of possibilities, all of them to be twisted to their own advantage. Naturally competitive and curious the Sarrites pushed themselves to emulate the races they came in contact with, often by mimicking - or even flat-out stealing - their new-found neighbours' technology. Their technological curiosity would get the better of them - they developed nuclear technologies that they simply did not have the capability to handle. On top of this, acutely unsustainable levels of mining left their home planet a weakened shell. After a series of catastrophic accidents, the Sarrites were forced to abandon their own homeworld and start a colony elsewhere. The five other planets in the Sar VI system were uninhabitable. Shortly, they came across Carthos - a veritable mine of discarded metals and ores laced with hidden treasures of ancient technology ripe to be plundered. The Sarrites settled there are renamed it Sarris in keeping with the other planets of their home system. The Sarrites quickly entrenched themselves amidst the ruined tech of the First Race and were soon advancing their technology once again. Already a highly militarised a space-faring civilisation, they started sending recon ships out to plunder and steal from other planets. The Sarrites were excellent at taking other techonologies and refitting their own ships to incorporate what they had stolen: every little thing they came across was deemed theirs for the taking.

MODERN H I S T O R Y Not only are the Sarrites keen technological engineers but their engineering has also recently extended to genetics and biology. When their thievery and voracious appetite for the technology of others led them to war against the Aelajahn race they realised the need to adapt to suit their style of warfare against their new enemy. Already a war- and science-orientated race, they did not have any qualms with major biological experimentation on their own people in the name of victory... B I O L O G Y The Sarrites genetically engineered themselves to look exactly like the aliens they fought: they slimmed their masses and refined their bone structures to mimic their foes. It took several generations and hundreds of thousands of wasted Sarrite lives but the end result was that they took on a body shape indestinguishable from the Aelajah species. Unfortunately, the genetic engineering had side effects: unless a Sarrite dies in battle it is generally expected that they will die of massive organ failure when they get in to fiftieth year. Ever since the Sarrites became completely modified the oldest one has ever managed to live was 56 years old. HUMAN C O N T A C T With the Human race first having contact with the Aelajahns they were naturally given a biased first impression against the Sarrites. The humans allied themselves with the Aelajahns and the Sarrites quickly lumped the two together as enemies. It was no great loss: if anything, double the enemies meant double the amount of tech they could plunder.

THE S O U R C E Around the same time that the Sarrites became aware of the Human race they discovered their most important First Race artefact in the history of their colonisation of Sarris: the Source. A bright blue orb of unknown material and surrounded by religious inscriptions in First Race hieroglyphic code, the Source was inexplicable and enchanting. Not only that but it had the miraculous ability to heal the injuries of those that bathed in its light - and for all their commitment and dedication to science the Sarrites were quick to proclaim it as proof of a higher power. This, they claimed, was a miracle of the Old Gods of the First Race and proof that the Sarrites were destined to take root on Sarris. A conclave of devoted worshippers formed a protective priesthood around the site of the Source, vowing to protect it and the now holy world of Sarris with their lives. C R I B S H E E T PHYSICALITY: average lifespan of 50 Solar years. Otherwise completely indistinguishable from Aelajahns. SOCIAL VALUES: Meritocratic - society is ordered on those who are smartest/strongest being in charge. Not family-orientated - children are bred quickly and raised communally, with no emphasis of family ties. Competitive - Sarrites judge themselves not on their own qualities as an individual but by how much better they are than their peers. Militarised - all Sarrites are sent in to space as part of ships companies to pirate other technologies. Fighting in order to steal tech from other races is considered their primary mission. NAMING: Sarrites names reflect their emphasis on life aboard their cobbled-together spaceships over family ties. Notions of family are non-existant to Sarrites who prefer to think of their crew members as their closest 'relatives'. As such, a Sarrite has a given name followed by their ship name. LIFE CYCLE: Sarrites are assigned a ship aged 14 and are expected to serve on it their entire life with leave only given to take a mate and quickly produce offspring. Notions of marriage do not exist so Sarrites usually form various attachments to crew members that last only as long as it takes for the female to become pregnant and give birth (13 months - an extended gestation period is another side effect of the genetic modification). SHIPS: Ship life is everything. Individual craft are a motley assemblage of whatever technology the crew can steal: Sarrites will often capture enemy vessels and incorporate whatever they find in to their ship. Nothing is considered useless and nothing is wasted.

castlist @ 2011-08-21T13:27:00

2011-08-21T12:27:39Z

A bizarre and incongruous mix of history and sci-fi: old-style Venetian architecture complete with canals but with CPU control panels hidden in bricks in the wall. An AI computer host helps to run the city and citizens can reprogram bits of the buildings and change the weather and things. Occasionally the AI fucks things up and it’s like WHOOPS VIRUS and a mini-event like bodyswap or something is triggered. The city canal water level rises whenever there’s a glitch or virus and everything floods.

The canal water itself is full of security programs designed to look like sharks that prevent people from swimming in the canal and trying to get under the city (strictly forbidden).

The AI that runs the city is a broken but earnest program called Brian (originally called Brain but her name corruption reflects how faulty her coding has become). She welcomes new arrivals and is slowly coding everyone that has ever existed in space and time in order to import them in to the city. Unlike other games where individuals seem to appear in a new place without their canonmates, Brian is quick to reassure all new arrivals that their friends and family will arrive ‘shortly’. Unfortunately, shortly could be anything between a few hours or a few millennia. Lots of things seem to go wrong in the city and invariably they are ALL Brian’s fault, but she’s so well-meaning and apologetic that it’s hard to be angry with her for very long.

Brian created the city back in the 15th century and the complex is an actual physical place: located in the depths of the Mediterranean sea, Brian has been carefully coding the city to the best of her abilities for hundreds of years. The best of Brian’s abilities aren’t that great: the city, much like the real Venice, is a crumbling, decaying wreck. Certain areas are better than others – these are the more desirable places to live in as the code is easier to be edited by citizens and has great potential. On the other end of the spectrum are the ‘badcode’ areas – sections of the city that are darker and more rundown than other districts and are generally thought to be the slum areas.

Brian pretty much sucks and is really useless but she tries so hard to help! She actively encourages all new citizens to edit the buildings to suit their needs but unfortunately a lot of the exterior coding of the buildings was never very secure to begin with and is constantly falling down. A lot of the coding is so botched that it can’t be repaired without restarting the entire city so the outside facades of buildings generally retain their old Venetian style – it’s the insides of the building that are really open for editing (apart from in the badcode areas, where you would struggle to change the colour of the walls). The only thing that cannot be edited on purpose is the floor level/water level elements of the environment: nothing can be edited beneath these are going under the city is strictly forbidden. No basements or cellars are allowed and no swimming in the canals (as previously mentioned) is a firmly upheld law.

The only other things that can’t be edited are the inhabitants. No one has control over person-codes as they are safely kept in something called the Source Code. When people appear in the city their individual person codes have finally been calibrated and are now active in the source code repository (Brian’s code is also stored there). When a character is dropped the in-game reason is that their individual code needs to be recalibrated and has been removed from the Source Code – Brian will reassure their friends that they will return as soon as it has been recalibrated, but unfortunately they may not retain any changes to the code (such as memories) that took place in the city. Brian has limited power over individual citizen’s codes: he can temporarily affect individuals or limit their movements by way of punishment but the code soon reverts to its previous status. Individuals who have been caught attacking others, for example, may find their movements restricted to a badcode area or that they temporarily lose a sense (sight, for example). These punishments do not last longer than a few days.

acqua alta 2

2011-08-21T11:04:15Z

. WELCOME
New Venice is an encoded environment shell located on the sea bed of the Mediterranean sea designed to host program versions of life forms taken from all walks of time and space. It was built by the damaged AI unit Brian after crash-landing in the 15th century AD and the coding of the city has suffered as a result of her corrupted hardware: decayed and unstable buildings, frequent glitches and code 'floods' plague the city which, until now, looks like it has been completely devoid of habitants.

But Brian has been working tirelessly to encode and import as many new residents in to her facility as possible; it has taken centuries of processing to code the first arrivals (yourself included) and will probably take further centuries to finish the rest. When you arrive in New Venice you are earnestly reassured that your friends and family will be along 'shortly' - unfortunately for you, 'shortly' in an AI's mind could be anything from a few hours to a few millenia. Rest assured, Brian is working tirelessly to bring in as many people as possible to populate her imperfect little city.

. BRIAN & NEW VENICE
A well-meaning AI, Brian has spent many hundreds of years digitising your form in order to import you in to New Venice. She is both the creator and the keeper of New Venice - unfortunately for you, she doesn't do either of these things very well.

New Venice is located in a dome on the bed of the Mediterranean sea but from the inside you would not be able to tell - the city is surrounded by impenetrable 'buildings' on all sides and a weather program ensures that residents cannot see the ceiling above. The buildings that surround the city seem to be empty warehouses but are much like old Hollywood sets that simply mask where the illusion ends. All other buildings throughout the city can have their coding 'edited' by citizens to suit their needs to a certain extent but these high-security building codes are completely inaccessible by anyone other than Brian.

Buildings throughout the city are graded from 1 to 3 reflecting how malleable and adaptable they are for recoding by citizens: the more desirable grade 1 buildings are sought after as living areas: anyone who makes their home in these buildings can edit them to reflect whatever environment they desire. Grade 2 are less malleable and the buildings in their original state are smaller, more decrepit and in less desirable locations away from the main waterway. The Grade 3 buildings - the badcode districts - are almost impossible to recode. They are crumbling warehouse-type buildings, more prone to glitches that make them darker and grimier than other areas of the city. Badcode areas are also where citizens put under punishment are restricted to; all citizens are free to come and go in the badecode areas as they please unless they are under area arrest and sent there under detention.

Much like the real Venice, New Venice is a wet city built on and around a series of waterways. There are no pavements or sidewalks (unlike the real Venice) and every building opens out on to a canal, big or small. Travelling between buildings can only be achieved by boat but lucky for you there are plenty of boats to choose from. However, it should be noted that swimming in the canals is completely forbidden: the waterways are patrolled by security programs that take the form of sharks and will quickly relocate any citizen caught in the waters back on to shore.

Citizens are encouraged to move in and edit their surroundings as much as they wish - it's Brian's most ardent hope that his inhabitants are as happy in their new environments as possible. To help with this, each citizen is given a Personal Computer Unit (PCU) that must be carried at all time. PCUs are the most important posession a citizen will ever have: not only is each unit completely unique to every individual (the design reflects the time period that the user is from) but it is also the only way a citizen can interact with their surroundings on a coding level. It is both a passport and a tool and almost impossible to replace. Damaged units will be repaired by Brian but willingly damaging your - or another person's - PCU is one of the most heinous crimes anyone can commit. PCUs not only allow citizens to edit the code of the city but are also a powerful communication tool allowing citizens to interact with each other - and Brian too, as smaller Brian programs (Baby Brians) are carried on PCUs as a guide to the city. Brian updates all the PCUs with important information - warnings about glitches, updates about the latest goings-on in the city - as often as possible.

?NAVIGATE: {LOCATION} {MAINFAQ} {DATA ENTRY} {REGS} {SEE DBASE}

ACQUA ALTA: NEW VENICE

2011-08-20T22:25:35Z

ACQUA ALTA

come hell or high water

Meet Brian.
Brian is an earnest, well-meaning AI program designed to create safe spaces and populate it with electronic versions of citizens from other times, places and realities. Unfortunately, when he first arrived on Earth in the 15th century, Brian's landing was less than perfect and he took considerable damage to his hardware. With his judgement somewhat impaired after a crash-landing in the Mediterranean sea Brian slowly began to program his safe space - a hard-hologram encoded biodome - in its watery depths.
Several hundred years later and the city of New Venice is a coded environment loosely based on the real Venice: a watery city precariously built on extensive canals. With code control panels located amidst the crumbling brickwork and rife with glitches, New Venice is the perfect blend of antique architecture and the software that makes up the very bones of the biodome. Unfortunately, Brian's programing isn't the best: certain sections of the city's code seems to have been corrupted in the creation process and every now and again self-perpetuating viruses sweep the city, causing all manner of wacky shenanigans and hi-jinks. This is all highly embarrassing for poor Brian. He apologises in advance.
But the city is incomplete without inhabitants! Brian plans to bring versions of every possible person in all creation in to the city (poor, delusional Brian) but the process of encoding and calibrating them all takes hundreds of years. When your character arrives in the Piazza (the only place in New Venice that is a perfect replica of a real-life place in real!Venice, the Piazza San Marco) they will be quickly reassured by Brian that their friends and family will be arriving 'very soon'. Unfortunately, a damaged AI's idea of 'soon' is anything between a few hours and several hundred years.
Citizens of New Venice are given free reign to reprogram several large sections of the city: if they can dream it, they can program it. How susceptible the coding is to the programming is another thing entirely: several sections of the city, the Bad Code sections, are difficult to reprogram and are often left derelict. They are the slums of the city and are ripe for the more illicit affairs that one may wish to conduct away from the prying eyes of the AI. Grade 1 sections of the city are the most maluable and highly desired areas (more so than the middling Grade 2 sections) and Brian has already programed a variety of entertainment venues and apartment buildings suitable for habitation in these sections. Citizens are encourage to move in and edit their surroundings as much as they wish - it's Brian's most ardent hope that his inhabitants are as happy in their new environments as possible.
There aren't very many rules to the city: Brian isn't really cut out for punishment, or ruling. Brian would much rather see the inhabitants sort themselves out (you fickly and funny creatures, you) but of course he hopes that everyone will at least try and be pleasant. Vicious and destructive attacks on his precious coding will see Brian inflict minor punishments - perhaps the loss of a sense or restriction to the badcode areas for an arbitrary length of time.
However, there is ONE rule that is always enforced: nobody must ever, in any way, shape or form, attempt to get under the city.
Ever.
The area under the city is entirely off-limits: there are no basements, no cellars... no citizen is even allowed to swim in the canals for fear they might try and somehow get under the supports and foundations of the buildings and attempt to work their way beneath.

the voice unheard

2011-08-16T11:23:21Z

Spoken Word of the Voice Unheard
there is an ancient language of spellcraft which allows only a tongue gifted with the ability to speak in the voice unheard to utter the ancient curses. the voice unheard is nothing but mere silence to those who have not studied the deepening magic or own the blood of those that have. to utter spellcraft with a human tongue causes pain and torture beyond belief in those with real spellknowledge and the sound of the mangled words will drive those who listen to it mad. the writing of spells is a heresy - the spells themselves have souls and transferring it in to a physical presence will gift it life in the form of a spellbeast. a spell brought to life will take a living shape - often human or animal, but sometimes plant if the conditions are so. the shape and personality of the spellbeast will depend on the nature of the spell and how it was written; the spell is trapped in living form and unable to be used in craft by humans, but the spellbeast itself can use its own power at the discretion of its owner.
	Spellbeasts each beast is subject to dominion by whoever it is that wrote the spell down in the first place and only through possessing their written spell can a spellbeast free themselves. destroying the written spell will damage the spellbeast but not kill it; the only way a spell can be released is through the destruction of its physical form. some of the most powerful spells in the world have been trapped in beast form by guardians who consider the spells too destructive to be used in spellcraft - these particular spellbeasts are imprisoned in the depths of the earth and guarded by ancient magic - but spellbeasts are wily creatures and some have been known to escape. if a spellcaster desperately wants to use a spell that has been given life then they may hire a hunter to destroy the beast and release the spell to be used. hunters are mercenary folk who know just how desperate some spellcasters are to pay good money for the death of a valuable spellbeast.
dilla, a spellbeast curse ● chaos ● misfortune dilla has roamed free of the deep prisons of the earth for the past ten years, courtesy of a jail-breaking hunter intent on destroying her human form to get at the unlucky curse inside. unfortunately, despite equipping himself with a good-luck charm in the form of the cat spellbeast Sura, said hunter had the misfortune of dying a horrible death at the hands of dilla. after finding the engraved metal plate that held Sura's spell and thus freeing him, Sura and Dilla are on a mission to locate Dilla's own written spell and kill whoever possesses it.

hemophagism

2011-08-10T16:24:02Z

ℋemophagism

blood and other human noises

on hemophagism :

Vampirism is, in short, a reanimating disease. Sufferers are corpses during the time when the sun is fully visible in the sky but are granted certain life-like abilities whenever the sun is obscured by the horizon (be it partially or entirely). As the sun begins to set a vampire undergoes a gradual reanimation process as the body gradually eases itself out of rigor mortis that can take as long as it takes for the sun to fully set. When the sun begins to rise a similar process happens in reverse but with the body literally dying all over again. Every sunrise is another death for a vampire as the body undergoes 'life-like' sensations of organ failure. Again, this process lasts as long as it takes for the sun to fully rise above the horizon. It is incorrect to say that a vampire never dies - quite the contrary, vampires are always dying.

Furthermore, vampires are hardly invulnerable. Whilst 'alive' they can take damage just as any human would (except perhaps with a higher tolerance for the pain) but with the advantage that whatever injury they sustain during the night will be miraculously healed by the time they awake. On awaking every evening a vampire is exactly the way they were when they were first created and the body will always be reverted back to its original state. However healing takes its toll and is the single greatest factor in determining how 'thirsty' for blood a vampire will be when they awaken: vampire bodies rely on human blood to keep them in their state and repairing itself will cost a vampire a greater amount of blood the next evening in order to make up what it has used.

Whilst 'alive' a vampire still lacks a lot of human functions. Nerve endings are dulled, leaving the vampire with absolutely no way of gauging temperature. They do not need to breathe, eat or drink as they rely purely on blood to survive. Many vampires find the idea of eating or drinking anything other than blood abhorrent as they claim that everything 'tastes like ash'.

The reason behind this is more than mere preference - a vampire's saliva glands change their purpose on creation. No longer needed to produce the enzymes that human mastication relies on, the glands secrete a substance similar to human saliva that has anaesthetic and anticoagulant properties to aid the feeding process. One of the side effects of the saliva is that although it reacts with fresh flesh and blood to create endorphins and elevated dopamine levels it produces an overpoweringly ash-like taste when mixed with anything else. Much like a mosquite, a vampire's bite will leave a set of raised and itchy bumps on human skin but will not often have much of an affect as long as the victim does not lose a dangerous amount of blood.

Vampire victims often fall in to a 'swoon' shortly after biting - this is largely due to the sharp drop in blood pressure accompanied with the loss of blood. The other factor lies in another side-effect of the vampire's salive: a relaxant designed to overcome the fight-or-flight instincts that, in large doses, will leave a victim sleepy and lethargic.

I. john mercer (1551-1585)

an elizabethan soldier of uncertain pedigree. Mercer was attacked by his maker - presumably a young and inexperienced vampire with no idea how to feed - and left to find his own way in the dark lonely world of 16th century england. Vampirism lended itself well to killing in spectacular and off-putting ways so mercer made himself available to the elizabethan london criminal underground as an assassin specialising in delivering 'warnings' to various debtors.

He lived a lowly unassuming life mixing little with the supernatural society and preferring to keep to himself until the onset of the Age of Enlightenment. With the tenets of Voltaire and Rousseau threatening to dispel the mysticism that he and his kind so relied on Mercer travelled to France and began to work with his fellow vampires against the Reason of the French Revolution. When it was clear that the battle was lost in France he returned to England to make preperations to ensure that the same would not happen in his home country. These plans were laid aside with the threat of revolution in the North American colonies when Mercer became the founder of the Swift Company - a group of vampires enlisted to fight for the English crown in the army.

From thereonin Mercer has enjoyed a killer career as a soldier; he tours the war-torn areas of the world and more often than not fights for whomever he percieves to be the 'underdog'. The Swift Company have long since disbanded but he still keeps in contact with various members and invites them to tour the battlefields of the world and pick of the combatants for old times' sake.

keepsbalance

II. evangeline de comeaux (1757-1793)

Saved from the ravages of the French revolution by the war-tourist vampire Mercer, la Comtesse de Comeaux watched from afar as her beloved family were destroyed by the mobs that bayed mercilessly for their blood. Driven mad with grief and utterly convinced at the terrible inhumanity of mortals she locked herself up in her chateau and only ventured forth to destroy the townspeople of Comeaux at night. Over the centuries she has made hundreds of vampires but every single one of them was destroyed at her own hands shortly after being sired. In every one she could see the faces of the wretched peasants that slaughtered her family and Evangeline couldn't bare to let them live.

Three hundred years later and the mad, reclusive French vampire still hates humankind more than ever. Her terrible pattern of creation and destruction continued right the way up until she sired the only vampire that would become a calming influence - the American dancehall girl Dahlia Woodward. But her misdemeanours did not go unpunished as she realised when she was paid a visit by her maker in 1914. Evangeline is instantly recognisable for only having one remaining vampire fang intact; the others have been smashed from her skull by Mercer for destroying so many of her kind.

dentdiabolique

III. dahlia woodward (1892-1910)

As a young girl living in 19th century Chicago Paris had always held an undeniable allure and Dahlia had spent the years of her youth collecting postcards depicting various street and dancehall scenes from that famous city. Aged only seventeen Dahlia ran away from home and used her savings to buy a liner ticket for France with the plan of enrolling in one of the famous Parisian ballet schools... but the reality of the seedy Paris streets was far harsher. It was an age of bordellos, of Moulin Rouge, of lecherous bohemians, of opiates and absinthe. But the hardy American girl did anything and everything she needed to survive...

bluh bluh met evangeline story goes here bluh bluh

keepingher

IV. julian dixon-ross (1897-1917)

useless

bloodhaolic

V. jimmy mcgee (1949-1973)

Jimmy McGee was a young American artist looking for fame as an artist in Paris who would go on to find it as one of the greatest dog-fighters in the monster cagematches of Europe. After being created in secret by Dahlia in the 1970s the pair had hatched a plan to escape in to the wilds of East Europe until the plan was waylaid by Dahlia's loyalty to her maker. Jimmy left to explore on his own and fell in with the vampire brawlers of Belgrade who earned their nightly living in grusome circus-like cagematches pitting themselves against werewolves and other monsters. In this he found more of a natural talent than he ever did for painting and he clawed and tore his way through the ranks until he was a 'living' legend in his own right.

scarifire

storyline: heart of oak

2011-07-24T22:28:11Z

HEART OF OAK heart of oak are our ships, heart of oak are our men; we’ll fight and we’ll conquer again and again.
1803: although England's war against the Emperor Napoleon is going well things could always stand to be a little better. Unbeknownst to the majority of the world the British government has been recruiting some extra help - of the supernatural kind. Vampires are drafted in to the infantry, shapeshifters lurk guerrilla-style in the Spanish mountains and at sea young mages are sent to whistle up storms. The latter are known as NELSON'S SEA WITCHES: men with abnormal magical powers recruited to serve for King and Country on the high seas and capable of whistle up winds and summon terrible storms to turn the tide of battle this way or that. To think of these witches as mortal men would be a grave misunderstanding - and a fatal underestimation should you find yourself on their wrong sides. They're not human, no, but creatures of the deep magics from England of ages past - capricious, mercurial and quick to anger. And, just like the sea, riptides and clawing currents lurk beneath the glassy surface: in the deep manias of casting their magics amidst the heat of battle, the sea witches are prone to getting carried away... And so each sea witch is given a KEEPER - a junior lieutenant that guides them and takes responsibility for their welfare. Both brother and minder, it is the keeper's duty to not only watch over the well-being of their ward but also the safety of the ship and fellow sailors. Each keeper is gifted with a series of SAFETY SPELLS - a series of keywords capable of hurting, knocking out or possibly killing their designated sea witch - only to be used when the sea witch has become a danger to either themselves or the ship. The responsibility of the keepers is huge and requires a heavy commitment from those who have chosen to sign up for the service... for not only must they become as close as a brother to their ward, they must always be ready to turn on them in the name of duty. we’ll still make them fear, and we’ll still make them flee, and drub ‘em on shore, as we’ve drubb’d ‘em at sea.
from the a i r to the s e a NICHOLAS BLACK, a young wind charmer, ran away from his secluded sanctuary in the Welsh mountains to join the Royal Navy as one of Admiral Nelson's latest secret weapons in the war against the French at the tender age of twenty two. Naval life suited him well: he loved the roll of the ship beneath his feet and the thrill of battle as he drew in winds and roared thunder across the sky. Yes, he was a little naive and a bit too full of the kind of overly-enthusiastic jingoism that young men who have never known the true horrors of war possessed. The crew of HMS Terpsichore found him both ridiculous and alien and his keeper - a stern, bold man called John Evergreen - struggled to keep the young witch respected and liked by the jacks. By chance - or perhaps by some underhanded duplicity - Evergreen was found dead on a Portsmouth shore visit between cruises and Nicholas found himself orphaned. Considered an albatross by many, Nicholas has yet to be assigned a new keeper - for no-one will volunteer. Rumours are spreading on the Terpsichore that Nicholas had killed his own keeper - for it was soon discovered that the coronor was unable to determine Evergreen's cause of death. Of course, anyone spending even a minute with Nicholas would soon realise that the young man was incapable of killing a man in cold blood, let alone his one true friend in the entire Navy... journal: witch sea	the f a i l e d keeper, betrayed Lt. JAMES HOOK had always found the sea witches a remarkable - and even admirable - race and the idea of being in charge of one had tickled his pride in just the right way. Having quickly signed up to become the keeper for his ship - HMS Jolie Rouge, a seized French frigate - he found that his charge was particularly obstinate. PETER PAN, a young sea witch gifted with the remarkable talent of creating illusions - resented his vain and hot-tempered keeper. The sea witch rebelled against Hook and turned the entire ship's company comatose as he fed them fantastical illusions about a mystical place he called the Neverlands. Knowing what his young ward was like, Hook - sucked in to the illusion and cast as the antagonist pirate captain pitted against Pan's deluded self-image - realised that the only way he could escape the illusion and return to consciousness on board the ship was to die within the dream. On his death within the fantasy Hook broke the spell and Peter was consigned to the brig - but not for long. On the night before his court martial the sea witch escaped and jumped ship, but not before happening across the sleeping Hook and cutting off his hand in a vicious parody of the twisted fantasy world that Peter inhabited. journal: 1 handedly
then cheer up, my lads! with one heart let us sing: our soldiers, our sailors, our statesmen and king!

application draft for QUEEN OF HEARTS

2011-07-24T17:15:23Z

Player Information
Name: Shaz
Personal Journal: scissorbite
Contact Info: shiny effin curls via aim; fizzier via plurk
Other Characters: --

Character Information
Name: Cambridge - but she will introduce herself with her chosen human name Anne Frances Cambridge.
Age: although she has existed in one form or another for over 1,800 years Cambridge has the body of a 34 year old.
Setting:
History:

Personality:

Abilities:

Sample:

application draft for BETE NOIRE

2011-07-24T17:05:50Z

1. Player Information
Name (or internet handle): Shaz
Current characters in Bete Noire: n/a

2. Character Information
Name: Isaac 'Cambridge' Moore
Livejournal Username: brainsext
Fandom: The Order (original character)
Image:

http://l-userpic.livejournal.com/112058190/39246464
Reserve: here

3. Character Information II
Age/Appearance:

Thirty year old caucasian male. Five foot ten inches with a light build. Deep hazel eyes that will often just be referred to as 'dark'. Brown hair that's prone to fall in to slightly embarassing curls when it gets too long, although rarely does Cambridge allow this to happen.

Cambridge carries himself well and with an natural upright confidence that makes him appear much taller than his comparatively average height. His face is fairly animated and will often betray his emotions (especially negative ones) before he even has to open his mouth.

He prides himself on his appearance and will make a huge amount of effort to look presentable. He's fond of fashion and designer labels and is rarely seen out of his vast collection of sharp jacket and trousers combinations. Cambridge likes long, sleekly cut suits and would rather die than be seen in 'casual' clothes.

History:

Original character - see below.

Personality:

It's not that Cambridge is a particularly mean person - but he certainly seems to have trouble being nice. Outwardly Cambridge is a caustic, impatient man disinclined to suffer fools gladly; all who fall under Cambridge's acerbic eye are immediately judged and very few are ever seen to pass muster. After working so hard to achieve so much in his own life Cambridge cannot help but deem those who haven't achieved as much as him as comparatively useless – or even worse, stupid – and unworthy of both his time and his pleasantries.

Cambridge’s overly-judgemental personality mostly stems from his upbringing – before he knew anything about the Order. As a middle child in a lower-middle class family from Sheffield young Isaac Moore knew that he would have to prove himself to be above and beyond his peers in order to get anywhere in life. With a largely absent father and an overworked mother Isaac was forced to look to his brothers for any real sense of family and quickly found that there was none to be found. An active resentment of both his older brother’s sporting successes and his younger brother’s popularity fuelled a chronic competitiveness and from an early age he pushed himself to continual self-improvement. His naturally sharp and quick-witted mind made him unpopular with his brothers who in turn resented Isaac’s constant one-upmanship and attempts to put them down in order to better himself. Isaac never really understood why his brothers didn’t like him – even now they live estranged lives and Isaac still maintains the delusion that they just never really ‘understood’ him. This was just the first chapter in a life of chronically denying culpability - a theme that runs throughout all aspects of Cambridge’s personality, be it in fouling relationships or elsewhere. The speed with which Isaac lost his Yorkshire accent in favour of a more cultured and refined (or so he thought) Southern accent exemplified how keen he was to distance himself from his ignoble upbringing. It wasn’t so much that he ever wanted to forget or ignore his roots but rather show just how far he had come.

It was through hard work and sheer force of will that the young Isaac Moore managed to send himself to one of the most prestigious universities in the world and it’s this core work ethic that still defines him to this day. With the rest of his family never making it beyond the city limits of the much-resented Sheffield Isaac thought himself incredibly accomplished. He knows he's a vain and proud creature but as far as he's concerned he's got a hell of a lot to be proud about. The fact that he could play just as hard as he worked and still ace all of his exams only served to heighten the smugness – as an Order operative, Cambridge prides himself on being able to drink and socialise (that is, for a given level of being sociable) whilst still being an accomplished and talented agent.

Cambridge’s attitudes towards his colleagues vary. On the one hand, every single operative has, at one time or another, been seen worthy of becoming an agent and that in itself distinguishes all of them from the usual plebis of society. Yet Cambridge still judges his colleagues harshly – if anything, he reasons, he’s justified in judging them by harsher standards because more is to be expected of them. Never mind his hypocrisy, Cambridge is often prone to making scathing remarks in public about the conduct of his fellow operatives – both in regards to the professional and their private lives. Cambridge isn’t afraid of making enemies amongst his fellows; he’s perfectly confident that he can handle any enmity from anyone who challenges him. If anything he’d like to see other people talking back to him because then at least he could respect them more for having the backbone to stand up for themselves.

In extension of this Cambridge often prizes confrontation and provocation above appeasement and being ‘nice’. Nice, to Cambridge, suggests being boring and easily pleased whereas conflict and confrontation can only serve to push one on to better oneself; complacency, in Cambridge’s eyes, is a terrible thing.

Because Cambridge is so proud of having achieved so much there are several things that he really hates in other people: slothfulness, ignorance and dishonesty. All three are things that he strives to continually keep at arm’s length and if he sees it in other people then he will likewise keep his distance from them as well. Cambridge prides himself on being an honest individual but, as his associates will acknowledge, Cambridge has a terrible habit of being too honest. Blunt and often rude, Cambridge will say things exactly as he sees them and won’t skimp on dishing out his opinions at every opportunity. Likewise, when it comes to general ignorance and stupidity in others he won’t hesitate to point it out and make a scene about it – in some deep level of Cambridge’s subconscious it’s a way of pushing that person on to bettering themselves but really it just makes him look like a callous dickhead.

Sexual Preferences/Orientation:

At heart Cambridge is a very judgemental soul and his standards are set impossibly high – if someone is good looking enough, intelligent enough, witty enough and game enough to keep up with him then it’s fairly certain that he will be sexually attracted to them, regardless of sexuality. Furthermore, he’ll be sexually attracted to them whether he likes them or not – there’s a lot to be said for ‘foemance’ when it comes to Cambridge and sex.

Cambridge’s attitude to sex and love are rather special: he’s incredibly fussy about his partners (his high standards are meticulously maintained and he considers chemistry a very important factor) but at the same time he’s an incredibly sexual person with an overactive sex drive. Oxford is his most important sexual partner and Cambridge has been enjoying an ambiguously undefined relationship with him for the past eighteen months. The ‘understanding’ they share is far from monogamous but is the closest thing Cambridge has ever really known to a relationship. Cambridge doesn’t believe in true love and would rather stick needles in his eyes than apply to anyone but he certainly has something for Oxford that he doesn’t have with anyone else. Their friendship is a heated competition that often spills over in to the bedroom but somehow never ties either of them down long enough for them to even consider being mongamous.

Powers:

When Isaac took on the role of Cambridge within the UK Order four years ago he was gifted with the power of technopathy. At its most basic this power allows Cambridge to directly interface with any kind of electronic device only using his brain. If that device then has access to the internet then Cambridge has virtually any kind of access and control over all kinds of electronic systems; within the Order this is mainly used for tracking communications (email, internet banking, coded transmissions, etc) but Cambridge has been known to abuse his power greatly. Outside of the Order he's prone to curiously going through people's personal emails and social networking accounts.

When he first took on the technopath powers Cambridge's range was limited but over the four years that have passed Cambridge has improved to the point where his access to any kind of electronic databases seem to be nearly entirely unlimited - the only person that could possibly keep him from going through your texts and emails is another technopath with greater powers.

Cambridge's weakness is the fact that without some kind of conduit he is unable to practice his powers - that is to say, without a desktop computer, laptop, smartphone or electronic device he is pretty useless. Power outages will also affect him - without an electrical current Cambridge cannot hope to be able to interact with the wider technological planes.

Reason for playing:

Simply put, I'd just like to see Cambridge pitted against a vast array of fandom and OC characters in an environment that is going to actively stimulate the darker sides of his personality. His powers would allow him to keep tabs on all kinds of activity via the city's network and (with a thorough permissions post) I'd like to see him use his technopathy to spy and nose around in other people's businesses. Furthermore, should his colleages Oxford and Dresden be accepted I'd like to investigate how they might try and continue their Order work in Bete Noire. I can see them having to work together to find out more about the city and its inhabitants and I think it'd be interesting to play out their reactions to other people with supernatural abilities. As it is completely impossible in their world for people outside of the Order to have superpowers Cambridge would be incredibly superstitious of, for example, mutants and would try and extract information from them about their conditions and histories by any means possible.

As Bete Noire is the city of sin I'd like to see Cambridge's proud and wrathful tendencies develop even moreso - especially his pride. Cambridge is incredibly proud of his technopathic tendencies but has always been forced to keep them a secret; in the city he would try and maintain the secrecy as long as possible but I can envision him perhaps letting it slip and outting both him and his colleagues, for better or worse.

4. Original Character Supplement
World History:

For the past four hundred years the governments of the world - the parliaments, the senates, the kings, queen, emperors, the fascists and the communists, the proletariats and the bourgeosie - have never really been the ones in control of their countries. Orders - clandestine society of superpowered operatives - have worked tirelessly to ensure the smooth running of hundreds of governments throughout the world. Selecting their operatives according to their own agendas the Orders continue to regulate themselves independently of any governmental involvement whilst maximising their involvement in national affairs at the very topmost political levels.

Each Order assigns its operatives codenames according to various cities within its country and in the UK it's no different: each seat in the Order of Great Britain comes with its own city-related codename and a particular power. The operative assigned the codename St. David's has the role of gifting each new city their superpower and removing it when their time comes to leave. As befits their city, the operative codenamed London is the presiding leader of the Order. With St. David's as their right-hand advisor and the precog Westminster as their left, London has the last word in any decision that the Order makes.

Things have not always run smoothly for the Order. In times past events have escaped their control and come to light to the British public - from the English civil war to Jack the Ripper, there have been times when disagreements within the Order have threatened to destroy them. Orders members have always been political creatures - not only at large and on a national scale but within their own ranks. None of them are strangers to drama - but when you gift some of the brightest men and women of the country inconceivable powers, who could blame them for meddling with each other as much as they meddle with their government?

see the cast page

The world that Cambridge comes from is completely indescernible from any other 'normal' earth except for one crucial difference - the existence of superpowered, supersecret organisations called Orders that control the national governments of the world from behind the scenes. In the past they have been mistakenly called illuminati but agencies generally prefer the term the Order. The very word itself suggests just how operatives like to see the work they do: they move silently amongst the politicians and work tirelessly to bring cohesiveness and discipline to governments around the world who are largely otherwise engaged in bitter in-fighting.

After recruitment each operative is gifted with a certain power that goes with their codename and each Order assigns codenames based on major cities and towns within that country (with the operative with the codename of the capital leading the agency). Each power is carefully assigned to a suitable operative who then goes on to take a position somewhere in the political or judicial infrastructure of the country that best fits their power. As the technopath of the outfit Cambridges have always worked in surveillance capacities and when Isaac took on the job of the current Cambridge it was no different (see character history below).

Character History:

(1981) The young Isaac Moore didn’t have a very happy childhood. It wasn't as if anything spectacularly bad or traumatic happened to him but rather it would always leave a bitter taste in his mouth whenever Cambridge looked back upon it. It was a constant struggle to define himself as something other than ‘just the middle child’ – his brothers had their own individual niche in the family and Isaac was left to drift unhappily between them. His parents had ignoble roots: his father drove long-haul lorries across the continent for haulage firms and his mother slaved away for years in multiple cleaning jobs to provide for her brood of sons in the long, penniless periods while her husband was away.

Striving towards Cambridge University and everything it stood for – intelligence, good breeding, class – was something that defined Isaac’s teenage years. He made a few friends amongst his peers but the friendships didn’t last beyond his acceptance to Cambridge (1999). As soon as he received that proverbial golden ticket he was off like a shot and left both his family and his friends in the dust. Determined to make the absolute most of his time at Cambridge Isaac threw himself in to student life from the very beginning. He purposefully lost his accent in an attempt to fit in more with the classier (and mainly London-based) echelons of the student body at King’s College and applied himself as much to extra-curricular activities and hard drinking as he did to his studies.

The course he had successfully gained entry to was the highly-esteemed and notoriously challenging four-year Masters course in natural sciences. His third year was passed with the equivalent to a high first and he eventually graduated with his Masters with a distinction and a specialisation in metallurgy (2002). During his time at university Isaac had hardly spared a moment's thought for his family back in Sheffield and the prospect of having to return to them post-graduation was physically sickening. Luckily Isaac procured a graduate placement with a certain internationally-reknown British arms manufacturer - a move that not only proved fortuitous for his short term happiness but would later bring him to the attention of the Order and thus secure his future career.

After having only worked as a resident consultant with the arms manufacturer for less than a year Isaac was approached by Jemima Dunstan on behalf of the Order. Dunstan would later reveal herself to be Canterbury, an Order operative and force field generator especially selected to approach Isaac about joining their ranks. After a month of interviews and rigorous mental tests Isaac was inducted in to the Order to replace the previous Cambridge and was gifted with the extraordinary power of technopathy. After devoting his life to studying science – both theoretical and practical – the realisation that there was such a thing as superpowers was a stunning revelation, but a revelation that Isaac took in his stride. He took to his technopathy like a duck to water and threw himself in to experimenting with his powers. Soon it became an extension of his natural curiosity – even to this day he uses his powers freely and relies on them for a whole host of day-to-day activities as well as the important communication spy work that’s required of him as an Order operative.

But most importantly, when Isaac Moore became Cambridge he knew he had found the real family that he felt he had deserved all along.

The heady world of working with the Order was an exciting - and often explosive - cocktail of spying on and meddling in the affairs of some of the affluent and influential men and women that ran British politics. In his role as Cambridge he was expected to deliver information on the thoughts and movements of the arms industry he was so deeply bedded in to. When his time in his placement ran out Cambridge's extensive knowledge of the arms trade made him an ideal candidate to take on an advisory position in the British government's Ministry of Defence. With a combination of his scientific know-how and Oxford's (the Order telepath) help Cambridge aced the interviews and became a civil servant on the UK Defense Council (2007).

Being a high-profile advisor to the British government and a member of the secret Illuminati that rules the country did nothing to relieve Cambridge’s already swollen ego. As far as he was concerned he had truly made it in life – the unfortunate thing was that he obviously couldn’t actually tell anyone about the latter. But Cambridge has maintained both positions with admirable ease whilst also enjoying an active social life.

During his early years with the Order Cambridge formed a close friendship with Durham. Durham was the operative gifted with the power of mnemokinesis (memory manipulation) and charged with the solemn duty of wiping the memories of all operatives as they retire their powers and positions within the Order. Their friendship continued for a year before Cambridge began to drift towards a closer friendship with the newest Oxford operative. Durham had as much of a lax attitude towards the liberal use of his powers as Cambridge and, motivated by jealousy and a dislike for Oxford, Durham didn't hesitate to manipulate Oxford and Cambridge's minds and wipe clean the memories of their first meeting and sexual encounter. Durham had grievously underestimated Oxford's skill even as a newly ordained telepath and was eventually found out. Whilst Oxford has taken to passionately despising Durham for his meddlesome jealousy Cambridge hates him a little less so; there's a little bit of Cambridge that can't help but be morbidly amused by the petty lengths that his old friend had gone to in trying to dissolve his friendship with Oxford. Unfortunately for Durham it was just one of the many things over the years that would cement Oxford and Cambridge's friendship.

5. Samples
First-Person:

dear_mun: thoughts on being sent to a rather exciting-sounding 'city of sin'.

Third-Person:

Cambridge was no stranger to cities. He’d always rather liked them. Despite an acerbic personality that suggested otherwise Cambridge was actually a very social creature: he liked to be surrounded by other people if only because the vast majority of them would remind him of just how truly excellent he was. But yes, this city was different, he would certainly admit that. He didn’t recognise the architecture or the signs... and the people, he thought to himself, had a distinctly un-English attitude: altogether a bit more rough around the edges and confrontational than the more refined breed of humanity that he considered himself a proud part of.

Any and all such nationalistic musings were rudely interrupted by a horrible little nagging feeling in the back of Cambridge’s conscience. It was an insistent tickling that told him something – something terribly important – had suddenly and inexplicably changed. Cambridge recognised that feeling – he knew exactly what it was as soon as it began to itch at his thoughts – and instinctively Cambridge’s hand delved in to his pocket to fish out his smartphone. He frowned and held the phone up to a dim streetlight to better inspect the screen; something very important had changed, it was true.

"...Good Lord."

Cambridge's technopathy was finely tuned enough that it had detected the subtle shift in information and coding that was being processed through the layers and layers of circuitry in his phone as it adapted to its new Network. He shook his head with a look verging on admiration. It took a hell of a program to get past the finely-crafted web of security that Cambridge had crafted around his phone and he couldn’t help but begrudgingly respect whatever – or whoever – it was that had broken in. Through the little phone in his hands he could feel it – the citywide Network. A pulsating web of interlinked devices, seemingly capable of all kinds of different platforms of interaction, somehow run by a source he couldn’t quite make out. It was exciting, certainly. And it was just screaming to be tinkered with.

Third-Person #2:

There were two things that Cambridge was not particularly good at. The first was being a good loser.

Losing the Boat Race was a yearly risk that both Oxford and Cambridge allowed themselves to get altogether too worked up about (not that they would ever admit it, not even to each other). As far as they were concerned the Boat Race wasn’t just about their respective alma maters it was about them – and they took it very personally. The indignity of Cambridge’s loss sat badly with him especially in the face of Oxford’s gratingly smug look of triumph. Anti-climactic as the race had been for him, Cambridge was determined not to allow himself to seen as the weaker half in anything beyond the day’s rowing: the heated kiss that he planted on Oxford’s lips as soon as they were in the confines of the men’s bathroom was dominant and resolute, followed by an insistent shove against the stall door that asserted that Cambridge would not allow himself to be defeated twice on the same day.

It certainly didn’t take a telepath to realise what Cambridge wanted. To wipe the insufferable smirk off his face was often something Cambridge fantasised doing to Oxford, more often than not with an overwhelming and breathless kiss much like he was crushing against Oxford’s lips now. Determined to be on top at least in love Cambridge had a knotted fistful of the older man’s shirt in each hand as he held him pinned against the bolted door of the single stall. Cambridge’s pride, already severely traumatized by the shameful loss of his university’s team against Oxford’s, would not suffer him to be beneath his colleague. Not today, not this afternoon and certainly not here – not with the mockingly jubilant laughter of students drifting from the bar and down to the restrooms. Cambridge’s kiss, ferocious and with a hint of teeth as he slipped his hands under the hem of Oxford’s shirt, was all frustration and tension and a burning desire to try and claw back some of his own dignity in the face of Oxford's own. And if Cambridge could do that by having his friend, moaning and sweating and begging for Cambridge to fuck him in the grottiest pub toilet in the whole of London, then he would do it.

The second thing that Cambridge was bad at was being patient.

Cambridge was utterly determined to have Oxford right there and then and nothing less than that would suffice. He had no patience for purposeless fumbling and blowjobs were completely lacking in the raw skin-on-skin adrenaline-fuelled release of a hard, sweaty fuck. And besides, Cambridge had no desire to coax Oxford in to kneeling on the floor of a disgusting men’s toilet, not in such finely tailored trousers as Oxford was wearing. Cambridge was mean but he wasn’t cruel – he did admire Oxford’s style - and giving Oxford the chance to later land Cambridge with the dry-cleaning bill was like handing him free ammunition. No, Cambridge wanted sex: sex as revenge, sex as relief, sex as a pain-killer against the throbbing heartache of his ignoble loss in the Boat Race. He jammed his hips forcefully against Oxford’s, slanted slightly at the thrust so as to part the other man’s legs and allow the tantalising frisson of erection-on-fabric-on-erection. Cambridge’s furious kissing only stopped for a strained groan of indecent volume as he paused to savour the sensation.

There was no subtlety to where his hands roamed once he had unknotted them from Oxford’s shirt. They delved and raked their way over the fabric of Oxford’s trousers with speed and insistence: there was no attempt at restraint now; Cambridge was done with passive aggressive flirting and merely being suggestive. His fingers deftly ripped Oxford’s belt buckles aside and snapped his belt away with a crack before he began to work Oxford’s trousers down over his hips.

active originals v6

2011-07-24T16:51:59Z

active ๏riginals
the supernatural
ROSSETTI the angels that rebelled Fell and found their feet in hell, rebranded as the horde of Lucifer and obliged to a life of sin. They were "old-school" - still bound by rules and morals and the lingering memories of Heaven... but Rossetti is not one of this breed. A pure second-generation spawn of Hell, Rossetti and his ilk were the product of the Fallen. 100% Hell beasts with none of the injured grace of their predecessors, these were a rawer breed of evil. He's one of the Devil's top agents: a wheeler-dealer of extraordinary talent. He dresses himself up in the style of a Hollywood agent but the contracts he offers are considerably more dangerous. Rossetti will promise you the world and by God you'll get it ...but the price you'll pay is beyond your wildest imagination. His contracted clients are his property and he'll fight dirty to keep them his. He can't stand competition and every single threat to his savage little industry must be eliminated. journal: magicbroker	PARZI Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum. journal: demonfull
MONROE Monroe always had a penchant for masochism and whilst being possessed by a demon wouldn’t usually be anyone’s idea of a good time, for Monroe it was (ironically) heaven. But the demon was soon exorcised – against both of their wishes – and in the process it dug its fingernails in to Monroe’s soul and tore it to pieces. Now Monroe’s physical body reflects that diseased and broken soul within: every day he grows fresh bruises and cuts. Disillusioned, angry and resentful of the world, Monroe trawls around the low places of the world seeking out new pains and new highs to try and replace the sweet agony that possession had brought him. journal: skinsack
the order (cities au)
CAMBRIDGE Having been recruited in to the Order at a much younger point than many operatives his age, Cambridge has had nearly seven years to hone his powers of technopathy. Capable of interacting with all kinds of technology using just his mental abilities, Cambridge has been using his powers to tap and trace all kinds of communications between Ministers in the British government (and not just in his own department in Whitehall). journal: brainsext	BATH Completely ageless and immortal, Bath will never be able to die. She has assumed a variety of roles in various governments over the years but has turned something of a recluse in the past few decades, preferring to watch over the other members of the Order at a distance. journal: perdenuo
WESTMINSTER Westminster receives nightly visions of the future instead of dreaming. She can interact with these visions to gain important clues as to when, why and where they will happen but each vision is a concrete depiction of what will definitely come to pass: no matter how hard she tries, Eva will never be able to prevent them from happening. journal: of_belgravia	BORDEAUX Even before he was bestowed with the powers that came with his title Bordeaux was already a very gifted soldier. As a keen disciple of all forms of armed (and unarmed) combat he had already been given ample opportunities to practice and hone his skills as a member of France's elite commandos. Thanks to the Order he has found himself further blessed with heightened reflexes, strength and agility. journal: jacquesbond
the humans
GIDEON SOUTHEY Gideon always had been a man of faith. Before the darkness fell and the world turned to hell he had dreamed of becoming a priest… but then all hell broke loose and religion as we know it ceased to be. Who cared for religion when it was painfully clear that the gods had forsaken mankind and left it to tear itself to pieces? But Gideon never stopped believing. Alright, so the deities he prayed to might be nameless and unknown, but he still hoped. He hoped that there was something greater out there, something that would make all this pain and suffering justifiable, somewhere for their torn and tattered souls to rest when the horror finally consumed them. He became a man of philosophy and threw all his worldly efforts in to studying anatomy and science. Knowledge would bring an end to fear, and if he knew what this hideous plague was then he knew he could renounce fear, and then teach others to cast off their fear too. He travels the wastelands of the world alone, for now. He picks up a few companions here and there, sometimes stopping to help wherever he can. He learns on the way, picking up all sorts of knowledge from the people he finds and writing it down in a journal that he one day hopes will become an encyclopaedia documenting the terrible times that they all live in. journal: fearsomefaith	THOMAS ALDRIDGE As a university lecturer in English literature, Thomas Aldridge started to notice the slow seeping of emotions from the essays his students handed in: stress, dread, pain, sweat and tears all became commonplace when he handled the dissertations of his over-achieving tutees. When he handled books – especially second-hand and vintage editions – he could feel the weight of emotions from everyone who had ever read them. Sad stories, romantic poetry, real-life biographical horrors… they all affected Aldridge as he soaked up their emotional resonances. The stress of absorbing his students’ powerful, hormonally-charged emotions became too much. He had tried to tolerate it - he had even tried to turn it to his advantage – but eventually Aldridge retired from his position in the university. But his love for literature kept him in the business of books – using a few old friends and contacts in the publishing business he turned his hand to running a second-hand book shop. At least he doesn’t have to read the new books that come in through his door to gauge whether they’re good or not... journal: theytouched
CALLUM RHYS-BOWEN A paranormal archaeologist who specialises in crypto-zoology. Callum is basically the guy you call when you think you've found a unicorn skeleton in your back garden. Is considered a bit of a joke by the international scientific community but he is completely fine with that. He wrote his doctorate thesis about a mass burial site of a Neolothic werewolf pack int he Brecon Beacons but nobody ever read it because he wrote it in Welsh. That's just how he rolls. Runs a small company (so small it's just him, his young colleague Fergus/Tom Jones and Cat the cat) that investigates crypto-zoological findings. journal: histomystery
of other times
JACK SHERIDAN A captain in His Majesty's Aerial Corps. Captain to the Pascal's Blue Orphirus, a French hatchling sent over to Great Britain during the peace, and currently a scout on the North-Eastern coast of England. Unfortunately for England, Sheridan really is the Irish nationalist spy that some people ocassionally suspect him to be. journal: whatdragon & spiaire	NICHOLAS BLACK 1803 AD and a young wind charmer runs away from home to join the Royal Navy as Admiral Nelson's latest "secret" weapon - a man of weather-magic that can whistle up winds and summon terrible storms to turn the tide of battle this way or that. Naval life suits him well: he loves the roll of the ship beneath his feet and the thrill of battle as he draws in winds and roars thunder across the sky. But even the bluest seas have black, hidden depths. for all of the mage's enthusiastic innocence he's not a mortal human but a creature of the wind and the sea - capricious, mercurial and quick to anger. Riptides and clawing currents operate beneath the glassy surface: in the deep mania of casting his weather magic in the midst of battle, Nicholas is prone to getting carried away... journal: witchsea

all dem AUs

2011-07-17T23:22:32Z

IDEA NICKED FROM NOODLES
cause why not

THE DRAGON CAPTAIN

fig 1. original universe; fig. 2 spy-verse

THE VAMPIRE

fig. 1 original universe; fig. 2 genderswap

THE CITY OF CAMBRIDGE

fig. 1 original universe; fig. 2 extended; fig. 3 genderswap; fig 4. The Order verse

THE CITY OF BATH

fig. 1 original universe; fig. 2 The Order verse

THE PHYSIO

fig. 1 original universe; fig. 2 rugby career awfulverse; fig. 3 rugby career goodverse

THE WOULD-BE PRIEST

fig. 1 original universe; fig. 2 genderswap

THE DEMON

fig. 1 pre-exorcism; fig. 2 post-exorcism

storyline: cities [ ou ]

2011-07-11T19:10:42Z

WHAT THEY ARE:
- ...Individuals that are spiritually tied to the continued existence of their home town/city. Their existence is directly reliant on the very physicality of the city. Two examples of how this may be reflected: the twin cities of Brighton and Hove are manifest as twins and heavy remodelling of a city's structure will take a physical toll on their city manifestations. They emerge when a city/town reaches a certain size and their ethnicity should reflect their population.

- ...Proud of their cities. You could say that city manifestations have an in-built love for their cities. Although they are capable of disliking their inhabitants, a city will never stop loving their home. In this vein, they might be more emotionally affected by perceptions and stereotypes of their city - Glasgow might resent how she is always thought to be a violent person and might want to extol some of the cultural upsides of her city such as her growing arts and music scene.

- ...Able to grow and change independently of their cities. The longer a city exists the more likely it is that they are to develop their own personal subtleties as a result of what they have seen/done. For example, Cambridge is an smug arse not because the city itself or its inhabitants are smug or arsey, but because he's nearly a millenia old and he's the city version of a crotchetty old man who has seen his city advance so far that he holds others who haven't done the same as "below standards".

WHAT THEY AREN'T:
- ...Hetalia.

- ...A direct personification of the inhabitants of their city. Cities tend to be proud of their more famous residents and may attempt to call them their 'own' but that is hardly up to them. They DO rely on the existence of their inhabitants in order to keep them alive and to make their city thrive.

- ...Rulers of their cities. All the local governments are left to their own devices - a city doesn't hold any sway over what their residents do.

- ...Stereotypes. A city manifestation might share traits that you might expect of their inhabitants because they identify with them or are proud of them, but it's hardly a rule that they must. For example, Cambridge enjoys keeping up to date with technology and gadgets because of he enjoys city's reputation for scientific advancements out of interest and pride, not because he has to.

-... Political manifestations. Say Bath city council went from Liberal Democrat control to Conservative. This would have no direct impact on Bath herself or her personality but she might perhaps be happy if the new councillors were going to restore listed buildings/build more houses/open new parks or what have you.

storyline: the order

2011-07-10T21:14:39Z

moved

soul survivors : angel virus

2011-07-02T11:13:47Z

a short description of 1986

A N G E L VIRUS

The first sighting of the 'angels' was a worldwide news phenomena. The bodies of the dead were rising up in their thousands with alien voices and white-feathered wings newly sprouting from their backs. They called themselves angels and the religious communities of the world joined them in proclaiming that they were the heralds of the Apocalypse. They claimed this was the Later Days and the Revelation had come to fruition.

The world was engulfed in mass religious hysteria as the angels grew and grew in number. Graveyards and cemeteries all over the world were slowly emptied as the dead rose up in angel-form and soon the host numbered in their millions.

One week after the first angels rose up they began the destruction of the earth.

Fire engulfed everything, levelling the land until it was black and crumbling and the buildings fell in to ashen stacks of rubble. There wasn't a single community left untouched in the world and with more and more people dying the host of destructive angel-scourges grew and grew.

They destroyed everything. The humans that survived the world fires retreated underground.

The British mines that had been rendered empty and barren by Thatcher only a few months earlier were suddenly heaving with life as the people took refuge in their depths. Here, the humans were left alone by the angels and it quickly became apparent that they were only interested in purging everything above ground and not below. Human life did not seem to factor in to their motives - in short, all they wanted to destroy was plant life and buildings, anything that rose above the ground. They even toppled mountains in their efforts to level the blackened ground flat and completely clear.

In the mines and pits and caves of the world, humanity began to piece together what had happened. This was no act of God - there had been no Saviour, no Judgement, no chariots of fire or ladders to Heaven. Just wild fires and death and destruction. The haste with which the religious communities of the world had initially embraced the destruction turned to bitter anger as the mainstream religions turned on each other in an effort to appease whatever god it was that they seemed to have angered.

Of course it wasn't the Apocolypse. Not really.

A viral organism had invaded the world. It's impossible to pinpoint where it would have arrived but borne in the blood of some inter-dimensional interloper the organism had managed to infect humans. Unable to take control of a living human body, the organism lies dormant until the human vessel dies. The outbreak in 1986 had been sudden and brutal, and had spread more quickly than anyone could have imagined.

Once in possession of a dead body, the organism takes control. It reanimates and mutates the body, giving it broad wings for flying and an immunity to heat and flames in order to carry out the 'purification' of the world. The systematic destruction of the earth and the blackening of the soil creates fertile conditions for the virus to grow and flourish at the expense of whatever civilisation had taken root there before.

Unfortunately, humanity is yet to figure out the final aspect of the parasite: although the virus can only control a dead human body it is not above infecting the living. Once in the bloodstream, the virus lies dormant and awaits the time for its host to die. As it bides its time, it 'prepares' its host with a selective amnesia: the vessel forgets what it was like to have and see trees and buildings as they did before the apocalypse virus first struck. The memories gradually fade as the human struggles to remember names, colours, sights, sounds, textures - everything relating to nature and buildings is completely forgotten. Once the human dies, the parasite takes control and continues the work to level the planet to ashes and rubble.

It takes thirteen years for the entirety of the surviving members of the human race to become infected, and thus the virus secures its own survival.

application draft for BETE NOIRE

2011-06-24T17:07:16Z

1. Player Information
Name (or internet handle): Shaz
Current characters in Bete Noire: none

2. Character Information
Name: Gideon Southey
Livejournal Username: fearsomefaith
Fandom: Original Character
Image:

http://l-userpic.livejournal.com/110294266/37811466
Reserve: Here.

3. Character Information II
Age/Appearance: A thirty-seven year old Caucasian man with a high forehead and medium-dark brown hair. He wears his hair short - more out of practicality than anything else - but he often misses out in shaving the sparse stubble on his face. As an already tall man he seems to add extra inches in the way he carries himself: he's upright and bold in his movements but with an easy-borne element of loose relaxation when it comes to standing or sitting. The clothes he wears are comfortable but not terribly fashionable - the life he leads doesn't afford him much choice when it comes to sartorialism.

History: see below

Personality: Whilst everyone else in the world who survived the Apocalypse tore themselves to pieces with grief and fear Gideon was a pillar of calm and support. He has the mentality of wanting to be ‘the man they need’ – when everyone panicked, he drew upon his reserves of composure and pragmatism and became the shoulder to cry on, the friend with an ear for all woes, the man who could spare reassuring moments and kind words for everyone. That isn’t to say that he wasn’t afraid – when your entire world is being destroyed how could anyone not be terrified? – but publicly he put on a brave face for the sake of those who couldn’t. In helping others through the trauma of the Apocalypse he found his own coping mechanism. In processing the events through the testimonials and shared memories of his fellow men he felt he could understand more – and understanding was important.

Gideon had always planned on becoming a priest before the Apocalypse struck and for a man of faith Gideon has always put a lot of stock in questioning something in order to better understand it. Everything in the world is open for scrutiny in Gideon’s mind – which makes it all the more sweet and poignant to surrender this pursuit for knowledge in the name of faith. He believes himself to be a man of learning and philosophy but knows that sometimes the greater part of understanding is knowing what can be left unknown. Rather than thinking Understanding and The Unknown as two opposing forces he prefers to see them as like shifting sea currents in a wave: pulling and tugging this way and that, sometimes pulling one way and sometimes the other, but ultimately working together to create movement.

Whilst mainstream religion has left him disappointed and jaded Gideon has never, ever stopped believing in something. Whereas before the Apocalypse the God he prayed to had a name and the concrete foundation of an organised belief system, now Gideon’s prayers are to an unnamed, unknown deity. He believes there’s someone out there – something at least – purely because he desperately hopes that there has to be some kind of meaning or plan behind all the terrible things that have happened in his world. He refuses to believe that the suffering of good men and women will have ever been in vain.

As he slowly divorced himself from his mainstream beliefs Gideon took solace in his own philosophical pursuits. He evaluated what it was he really valued and desired in this life: he wanted to be good, a fair man, a man of integrity who could not only overcome moral adversity but – better than that – help others to overcome them too. He set his bar high, and he’s been striving towards it ever since.

It’s this idealism that has given him a certain melancholy – the gentle, creeping fear that he will never be the man he believes he should be. Behind the quiet enthusiasm of his outwardly optimistic persona Gideon hides an altogether darker and sadder side: a man who takes on the problems of others too heavily on his own already weighted shoulders. Sometimes, in a pique of highly-critical self-awareness, he’ll bitterly observe that perhaps it’s pure selfishness that motivates him to help others – that really he only seeks out the needy to prop up his own moral feel-good factor in an illusion of selflessness or that the most important bit of helping others is to be seen to be helping them.

Sexual Preferences/Orientation: Chaste but not naïve, Gideon shuns all kinds of sexual proclivities whilst at the same time managing to love everything and everyone equally. He’s never really thought sex to be a sin per se but rather just one particular expression of love that he doesn’t want to engage in. Whist he will openly recognise that sex can be a passionate exchange of emotion between lovers, the idea of loveless – or even violent – sex disturbs him deeply.

In terms of orientation Gideon believes in judging compatibility on personality rather than gender. The distinction between friends and non-sexual lovers is blurred – especially seeing as Gideon openly believes that it is possible to have healthy, loving mental relationships between friends that are just as tenders as those between sexually active partners. By extension he also maintains that it’s possible to love multiple people at the same time – poly-amorous but non-sexual, Gideon is open and free about his feelings if not quite prepared to act on them further than simple, tender gestures of affection.

Powers: Other than enjoying a superhuman amount of patience, Gideon has no beneficial powers whatsoever. The only inhuman element is his Angel Virus – a microscopic organism that lies dormant in his bloodstream and will reanimate and possess his corpse when he dies. [NOTE: I don't plan on this happening at Bete Noire but if this changes I'm happy to discuss it with the mods]

Reason for playing: : In short, I want to make Gideon squirm. He’s a remarkable man who has lived through some fairly traumatic events but so far his coping mechanism has served him well… but unfortunately for him, there’s no coping mechanism in the world that can help him through Bete Noire. I want to corrupt him, erode him via his weaknesses and make him struggle with his own inner demons… whilst also making him watch other people – both bad and good people - go through the same slow moral degeneration. Inarguably, it’s the latter point that will be the most painful.

4. Original Character Supplement
World History: The world that Gideon hails from was very much like the world of our own right up until the year 1986. With the invasion of the angel virus and the Apocalypse that followed, Gideon’s world took a drastic deviation from what we all know and love.

The first sighting of the 'angels' was a worldwide news phenomena. The bodies of the dead were rising up in their thousands with alien voices and white-feathered wings sprouting from their backs. They called themselves Angels and the religious communities of the world joined them in proclaiming that they were the heralds of the Apocalypse: with one voice they claimed this was the Later Days and the Revelation had come to fruition. The dead had risen and all would be judged before God.

The world was engulfed in mass religious hysteria as the angels grew and grew in number. Graveyards and cemeteries all over the world were slowly emptied as the dead rose up in angel-form and soon the angelic host numbered in their millions.

One week after the first angels rose up they began the destruction of the earth. They lit fires – towering infernos that consumed entire towns in hours – and tore down the blackened remains with their cold, dead fingers. The fires engulfed everything, levelling the land until it was black and crumbling and the buildings fell in to ashen stacks of rubble. There wasn't a single community left untouched in the world and with more and more people dying the host of destructive angel-scourges grew and grew.

They destroyed everything that stood above the ground: both natural and man-made. Buildings and trees. They were all burnt to the ground until nothing remained but pillars of smoke and acres of ash.

The humans that survived the world fires retreated underground. Here, the humans were left alone by the angels; apparently, they were only interested in purging the earth above the ground and not below. Human life did not seem to factor in to their motives - all they wanted to destroy was plant life and buildings, anything that rose more than a foot in to the air. They even toppled mountains in their efforts to level the blackened ground flat.

In the mines, pits and caves of the world humanity began to piece together what had happened. This was no act of God - there had been no Saviour, no Judgement, no chariots of fire or ladders to Heaven despite what the angelic hosts had said. It was just wild fires and death and destruction.

This is what had really happened when the Apocalypse struck:

A viral organism had invaded the world. It was impossible to pinpoint where it had arrived but borne in the blood of some inter-dimensional interloper the organism had managed to infect humans. Unable to take control of a living human body, the organism had laid dormant until the human vessel died.
Once in possession of a dead body with no human life signs remaining the organism began to take control. It reanimated and mutated the dead flesh and gave it broad wings for flying and a remarkable tolerance to heat and flames.
Far from being random, these mutations had a specific purpose: to help in carrying out the 'purification' of the earth through fire. The viral organism needed the destruction of the planet – in reducing the world to a haze of smog, ash and blackened carbon it created fertile conditions for the virus to grow and flourish at the expense of whatever civilisation had taken root there before.
Unfortunately, humanity is yet to figure out the final aspect of the parasite: although the virus can only control a dead human body it is not above infecting the living. Once in the bloodstream, the virus lies dormant and awaits the time for its host to die. As it bides its time, it 'prepares' its host with a selective amnesia: the vessel forgets what it was like to have and see trees and buildings as they did before the apocalypse virus first struck. The memories gradually fade as the human struggles to remember names, colours, sights, sounds, textures - everything relating to nature and buildings is completely forgotten. Once the human dies the parasite takes control and continues the work to level the planet to ashes and rubble.
The outbreak in 1986 had been sudden and brutal, and had spread more quickly than anyone could have imagined. It took thirteen years for the entirety of the surviving members of the human race to become infected, and thus the virus had secured its own survival.

In the years that followed the Apocalypse, humanity found a way to eke out a meagre living underground. In the dark, damp places of the earth they were left unharmed by the angels. They could even venture out in to the wastelands above ground – as long as they didn’t try to build or plant trees. Angels still monitored the wastelands with dead white eyes, following travellers as they scuttled between the caves and mines that hosted the refugee camps. Countries and nationalities and governments collapsed – now that the world was flat and blackened there were no borders or capitals. Civilisation as humanity had known it ceased to exist. Every mine and cave that held a refugee camp became its own little township. The refugees built up their own little societies: meritocratic for the most part, but with extensive black markets dealing in the most precious items: weapons, food and medicine.

Character History:
PRE-APOCALYPSE: CHILDHOOD
Born in 1970 to Aphra and Jermyn Southey, Gideon was to become the oldest son in a fairly unremarkable middle-class family. Along with his younger brother Jeremiah, the Southey family were part of a small, closely-knit fishing community on the island of Tresco (part of the Isles of Scilly, just off the coast of Cornwall). As a child Gideon was quiet and stoic and a huge contrast to his more energetic and loud-mouthed younger brother. His relationship with Jeremiah was a little fraught - Jeremiah thought his older brother a little dull and boring, something that he made very clear to Gideon during their younger years, and Gideon in turn thought Jeremiah too silly and angry. As the boys grew and matured in to teenagers they became more easygoing and accepting of each other's differences - but each boy still kept to themselves fairly seperate and didn't mix very often.

On such a small island community as Tresco it wasn't difficult to know everyone. Gideon was quiet, yes, but he was helpful - he liked wandering the island and helping out, be it holding mooring ropes for the fishermen or catching sheep for sheering. But beyond the little adventures that lonely boys have when they have a whole island for a playground, he had a very unremarkable and boring childhood.

PRE-APOCALYPSE: LEAVING THE ISLAND
It wasn't until they were in their teens that Gideon and Jeremiah were allowed to regularly leave Tresco and visit the Cornish mainland on their own. Cornwall in the seventies was still quite rural, even in the larger towns, but for the Southey brothers even the small town of Truro was a bustling metropolis of adventures and possibility. Jeremiah, drunk on the new-found freeedom that the mainland brought (and drunk on other things too) would disappear for days on end and party with other teenagers, Gideon found himself drawn more towards the quasi-Druidic spirituality of Cornwall and often spent long hours adventuring around the abbeys and stone circles that littered the west Cornwall coastline.

Whilst Jeremiah and their mother had been staunch atheists, Gideon and his father had shared an interest in spirituality that had manifested itself in long, in depth conversations about their thoughts on life, death and the universe that would be drawn out over weeks and weeks at a time. On the mainland Gideon was fascinated with the earthy mix of Cornish superstition and Bardic paganism with mainstream religion - it was as if the rugged natural elements of the land itself was creeping in to the spirit and soul, mixing the lofty, airy thoughts of the church with the more tangible and beautiful Romance of the land and the sea. When Gideon made the decision to join the Cornish church and study to become a priest at the age of sixteen it felt like the most natural thing in the world - it felt right.

THE APOCALYPSE
And then the Apocalypse struck. Gideon had only been enrolled in his new school of theology for seven months when the story broke but the news was unavoidable even in the quiet seclusion of the little community that had welcomed him with open arms. The wall of fire and smoke that swept the land left Cornwall, much like the rest of the UK, a blackened uninhabitable smear on the map.

The British mines that had been rendered empty and barren by Thatcher only a few months earlier were suddenly heaving with life as the people set-up camp there. Cornwall was full of tin mines and Gideon, along with hundreds of other survivors, took refuge in the cold, damp depths of the Great Consolidated Mine network. Disillusioned with the haste that the religious communities of the world had initially embraced the destruction, Gideon underwent something of a spiritual crisis as he sought to distance himself from what he saw as the hysterical way that mainstream churches had turned on each other in an effort to appease whatever god it was that they seemed to have angered.

POST-APOCALYPSE: THE JOURNAL
Whilst the virus flourished in both the living and the dead, humanity began to try and re-establish itself and adjust to its new underground habitat. Gideon, as ever, was adept at making himself useful to everyone. He always managed to find ways of being an invaluable help at whatever he did and it was in the first two years of humanity's retreat underground that he began to start work on his journal. It started out as just a simple challenge that he had set himself - to try and work through his own thoughts and feelings by way of catharsis - but soon his subject became those around him. There were so many unique and brilliant individuals around him, all with terrifying and beautiful tales to tell. As a child he had been an avid diarist and this continued all through his teenage and young adult life. He found he didn't have much of an imagination for writing original stories but rather he liked writing observations stemming from his experiences. It was cathartic, more than anything. As a natural and ready listener he found himself writing more and more about stories that other people have told him, and so he began his book. Not only did the book grow with surprising speed but, much to Gideon's delight, it became a kind of public affair - people often asked to read it or add to it and before long it became Gideon's unofficial, unspoken duty to keep a record of all the things that happened in their little underground community.

POST-APOCALYPSE: EUROPE AND OTHER WASTELANDS
As much as Gideon came to dearly love his role in the underground camp he was restless. It was the same kind of restlessness that had spurred him to leave Tresco and seek his spiritual journey on the mainland - now, two years after they had moved underground, there were stirrings of wanting to get back out to the surface. Gideon was one of the many intrepid people who wanted to push out, push back, and search out other refugees wherever they may be.

And so he did. Taking his journal, he ventured out on to the surface. The land was bleak, flat, blackened and terrifying to look upon. Angels followed him with keen, wary gazes as he travelled onwards - along the south coast towards Dover. Crossing the Channel between France and England was difficult, but with the help of a small group of like-minded travellers they made it.

For the next fifteen years Gideon travelled the continent, ranging far and wide, as he searched for other little underground camps. His journal continued to grow as Gideon found himself meeting hundreds and hundreds of people with stories to tell. He carried messages, drew maps, passed on important information and even occasionally he would take people with him.

5. Samples
First-Person:
[ With his newly-found comms device in one hand Gideon shakily manages to engage the video function. The view that is broadcast on to the network is that of a sadly disconcerted man in his late thirties. He looks drawn and tired – beyond tired, in fact, more like exhausted – but even more than that he looks confused. When he finally rallies himself in to speaking he sounds unsettled to say the least:]

A city. I haven't seen anything like this for twenty years...

[Behind the shape of Gideon's pale, worried face is the blackened brickwork of a building. He's leaning against it and frowning, jamming one broad shoulder against the grimy expanse as if to test its solidity. He winces up the length of the brickwork up towards the grey sky above before returning his gaze to the comms device once more.]

I'd forgotten – I'd forgotten what it was like to walk around a city. Buildings are bigger than I remember. Sturdier. And the people here...

[He trails off pensively. In the short few hours he's spent in the city Gideon has already seen things that have seriously damaged his usual calm. He swallows thickly before continuing, his voice a little quieter than before as he admits: ]

I think I'm a little out of my depth.

--------------------
additional examples:
trans-dimensional interlopers
mediation for the soul
--------------------

Third-Person:
When the blackened ash had given way to pavement and the ground had started to hitch and buckle and grow in to houses and buildings Gideon knew he was no longer in the world he had once known. There was no way the angels would have let a city of such size stand without trying to rip it to pieces. These buildings were tall - impossibly so in Gideon’s eyes, looking on them as someone with no recollection of what it was like to stand in the shadow of concrete and brick – and the angels would have wasted no time in razing it to ground with no consideration for the inhabitants. But no, there were no angels. Not here. Apparently.

That thought alone was a relief. Gideon sank in to the damp shadow of the first building he came across on the outskirts of the city. Night had fallen and sitting in the even deeper darkness of the lee of the building gave him time to think and Gideon pulled his travel-worn leather satchel closer across his body as he sat pensively amidst the cigarette butts and general litter of the street. The fact that this city was angel-free made it a safe place but as Gideon looked out across the dark streets from his hunched position in the shadows he couldn't help but think this place felt anything but safe. Some quiet voice of instinct, a voice of self-preservation, told him to hide away - to keep out of sight. To look and watch and evaluate. ...UNFINISHED - TBC

Third-Person #2:

REMEMBER ! REMEMBER

2011-06-19T17:36:44Z

REMEMBER ! REMEMBER

we've sent an old friend to visit you, dreamer
keep them safe, they're a little part of you.
with love from
the hidden street
the town called OBSOLETE

the dreams of mortals are not, as commonly believed, the product of the human brain trying to process and strengthen long-term functions. rather it is the manifestation of hopes, fears and expectations of the soul that are strengthened and shaped by memories and thoughts.

césar, the dreamer of the story. a thirty-two year old ex-war photographer suffering post-traumatic stress disorder and trying to live with the horrific memories of all the atrocities he's witnessed during his career. every time that he goes to sleep he dreams of visiting the hidden town of Obsolete - a ramshackle ghost town hidden in the depths of his subconscious that house all of his repressed memories. upon waking he invariably finds that one of the town residents have journeyed back to the world with him: fully-conscious, fully-functioning and reflecting a little bit of his past (be it a shameful secret, a fond memory or anything in between) these dream creatures and monsters suddenly find themselves freed from the binding depths of césar's subconscious and now have the whole world at their feet.

put it down and it will come around
a hidden street
a town called OBSOLETE

ACTIVE ORIGINALS

2011-06-19T00:57:04Z

THE SKIN AS IN A CELL vampires, demons, demigods - unnatural creatures in the guise of humans that live amongst the unsuspecting
julian dixon-ross bloodaholic & bloodaholique & bloodphobic Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.	monroe skinsack & demonfull Monroe always had a penchant for masochism and whilst being possessed by a demon wouldn’t usually be anyone’s idea of a good time, for Monroe it was (ironically) heaven. But the demon was soon exorcised – against both of their wishes – and in the process it dug its fingernails in to Monroe’s soul and tore it to pieces. Now Monroe’s physical body reflects that diseased and broken soul within: every day he grows fresh bruises and cuts. Disillusioned, angry and resentful of the world, Monroe trawls around the low places of the world seeking out new pains and new highs to try and replace the sweet agony that possession had brought him.
larceny jones and_tyranny Letitia Jones fell foul of a minor demi-god somewhere in the middle of the 1940s, but thanks to the silver-tongued talents of her older sister Tertia the pair managed to escape an eternity in hell in favour of serving the demigod as his personal agents. Now indebted to collect ten-thousand souls before they can be released, the sisters are held in ageless limbo all the better to trick and deceive mortals in to sinning so they can work their way closer to freedom.

THE V.U.E. cursed or blessed? these select few have been dealt a vast array of powers ever since the Violent Unexplained Event [VUE] hit earth on january 25th only four years ago. mass amnesia spread around the world leaving barely three hundred with any recollection of what happened: these 'chosen few' gained extraordinary powers along with terrifying nightmares of black clouds and towering infernos... w.i.p.
tobias unremarking In this day and age healers have become like gold-dust: their saintly powers to bring back even the most catastrophically wounded from the brink of death is a godly power indeed. Healers are a valuable commodity, so Tobias reasons, and he sells his services at a extortionately high price. He's not above a contract either: many a time he has sold exclusive healing rights to the highest bidder - or whoever could offer him the best protection. Calculating and dispassionate, Tobias won't help you unless he can get a damn good repayment. and he has good reason. Tobias doesn't just heal the wounded - he takes their injuries into himself and each use of his power leaves him with a permanent mark unique to the occasion. However, sly and mercurial, Tobias was never one for being honest about his powers: he also has the ability to t r a n s f e r injuries from one person to another whilst completely bypassing himself.	alicia crawford aaahblood Alicia Crawford was never one for being squeamish at the sight of blood until one day she literally saw r e d. The sight of her own blood instinctively triggers a mutated self-defence mechanism that gives her extraordinary powers at the expense of her self-awareness. Her body goes in to 'panic' mode and superpowered fight/flight instincts take over, giving her incredible super-strength and -reflexes. The blood itself is oily, black, oddly highly flammable and capable of burning and eating its way through anything it comes in to contact with: except for Lisha, of course
poltergeist incorporealite a little disdainful and exempt from the average human way of life, Poltergeist - or Jamie as his friends and family know him - is a little melancholic and self-pitying at times. An honest, self-aware and creative man, Poltergeist knows there is a lot that separates him from both fellow humans and mutants alike. But despite being an outsider and insistent individualist, Poltergeist finds himself drawn to outgoing and charismatic people that he can look up to and then spend his days feeling miserable that he isn't just like them. In happier times he's a loyal and trustworthy friend, fond of reading and all sorts of boring boardgames.	del the scenechanger scenechanger DEL STARGAZER; SCENE CHANGER wheels and deals in realities. She provides the would-be escapist with a new dimension tailored to meet their exact demands. A talented reality-warper-turned-saleswoman, Del Stargazer is literally a self-made woman. Del rarely likes what she sees and always prefers her own creations; she prefers bright colours and vivid lights and often finds "real" reality to be quite dull. She travels throughout the various dimensions of the galaxy, injecting her own idea of beauty in to the world.

CITIES
isaac cambridge siliconfen & brainsext & whatapunt Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.	anne frances cambridge thelightblues Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.

THE HUMAN CONDITION
danny cairns dramaticfall & nationaljoke "Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum."	callum rhys-bowen histomystery A paranormal archaeologist who specialises in crypto-zoology. Callum is basically the guy you call when you think you've found a unicorn skeleton in your back garden. Is considered a bit of a joke by the international scientific community but he is completely fine with that. He wrote his doctorate thesis about a mass burial site of a Neolothic werewolf pack int he Brecon Beacons but nobody ever read it because he wrote it in Welsh. Runs a small company (so small it's just him, his young colleague Fergus/Tom Jones and Cat the cat) that investigates crypto-zoological findings.
barney jones touchiefeely & bloodytramlines & injunctionpls "Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum."	joe james un_locks a qualified geek – and that’s not just referring to his MSc in applied environmental microbiology. He has an almost encyclopaedic knowledge of terrifying beasts and the various ways in which they can kill you (his personal favourite is the legendary Mongolian death worm) and enjoys regaling other people with gruesome legends. Relaxed to the point of being horizontal, Joe often takes his job at the Eden Project for granted and will sometimes be found shirking his duties for gossip with the attractive office girls in the administrator offices. His years of playing first-person shooter games has helped him to develop a very calm and accurate trigger finger – but also a penchant for shouting ridiculous pop-culture references in the middle of a mission (“I saw an episode of Star Trek like this but it didn’t end very well”, “our hopes of surviving this are 725 to 1!”, “And I thought they smelled bad on the outside”, etc., etc.). He’s tolerated for his good-humour but his mouth could often do with being duct-taped shut.
gideon southey fearsomefaith & writesabook Gideon always had been a man of faith. Before the darkness fell and the world turned to hell he had dreamed of becoming a priest… but then all hell broke loose and religion as we know it ceased to be. Who cared for religion when it was painfully clear that the gods had forsaken mankind and left it to tear itself to pieces? But Gideon never stopped believing. Alright, so the deities he prayed to might be nameless and unknown, but he still hoped. He hoped that there was something greater out there, something that would make all this pain and suffering justifiable, somewhere for their torn and tattered souls to rest when the horror finally consumed them. He became a man of philosophy and threw all his worldly efforts in to studying anatomy and science. Knowledge would bring an end to fear, and if he knew what this hideous plague was then he knew he could renounce fear, and then teach others to cast off their fear too. He travels the wastelands of the world alone, for now. He picks up a few companions here and there, sometimes stopping to help wherever he can. He learns on the way, picking up all sorts of knowledge from the people he finds and writing it down in a journal that he one day hopes will become an encyclopaedia documenting the terrible times that they all live in.	thomas aldridge theytouched As a university lecturer in English literature, Thomas Aldridge started to notice the slow seeping of emotions from the essays his students handed in: stress, dread, pain, sweat and tears all became commonplace when he handled the dissertations of his over-achieving tutees. When he handled books – especially second-hand and vintage editions – he could feel the weight of emotions from everyone who had ever read them. Sad stories, romantic poetry, real-life biographical horrors… they all affected Aldridge as he soaked up their emotional resonances. The stress of absorbing his students’ powerful, hormonally-charged emotions became too much. He had tried to tolerate it - he had even tried to turn it to his advantage – but eventually Aldridge retired from his position in the university. But his love for literature kept him in the business of books – using a few old friends and contacts in the publishing business he turned his hand to running a second-hand book shop. At least he doesn’t have to read the new books that come in through his door to gauge whether they’re good or not...
OF EVERY TIME muses from period settings
capt. jack sheridan (ou) whatdragon Jack Sheridan, a captain in His Majesty's Aerial Corps. Captain to the Pascal's Blue Orphirus, a French hatchling send over to Great Britain during the peace. Both dragon and captain are rather conflicted: Orphirus due to his French heritage and Sheridan due to his Irish one. Before Sheridan's accident they were one of the best scouts on the Western coat, defending England against the Irish (and Napoleonic forces via Ireland)... Both Sheridan and Orphirus missed out on participating on the Battle of Shoeburyness, something that has become a bit of a sore point for both of them.	capt. jack sheridan (au) spiaire au version of Sheridan where he really is the Irish nationalist spy that everyone believed him to be in the original universe. As the fall that triggered his amnesia never happened, Jack is still stationed as a scout on the North-Eastern coast of England with his Pascal's Blue dragon Orphirus. For all intents and purposes he is a highly-commended scout for His Majesty's Air Corps but he also secretly doubles as a despatch courier and informant for his United Irishmen brothers-in-arms.
nicholas black witchsea EIGHTEEN-HUNDRED-AND THREE, A.D. - a young wind charmer runs to sea to join the royal navy as admiral nelson's latest "secret" weapon - a man of weather-magic that can whistle up winds and summon terrible storms to turn the tide of battle this way or that. naval life suits him well: he loves the roll of the ship beneath his feet and the thrill of battle as he draws in winds and roars thunder across the sky. but even the bluest seas have black, hidden depths. for all of the mage's enthusiastic innocence he's not a mortal human but a creature of the wind and the sea - capricious, mercurial and quick to anger. riptides and clawing currents operate beneath the glassy surface: in the deep mania of casting his weather magic in the midst of battle, nicholas is prone to getting carried away...

COLLAGE #2

2011-06-18T23:19:14Z

OF SPACES...