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Sky of Diamonds Moderators ([personal profile] resetbutton) wrote2012-02-01 03:00 pm

♢ APPLICATION


APPLICATION
How to

Applications are OPEN.

♢ We accept applications for: fandom (OU), original (OC), alternate universe (AU), and fandom original characters.
♢ Please check the taken and reserve pages to make sure the character you wish to apply for is available.
♢ Up to three versions of a single character may be in the game at once.
   ° NPCs do take up one of these character slots. They count as AUs.
♢ We allow only one OU version of a character, out of a total of three versions. (That means we can have a combination of either one OU and two AUs, or just three AUs before we stop accepting applications for that character.)
   ° Alternate universe characters are marked by silver borders on the taken page.
♢ If you are given a revision, you have two weeks to fill it out before we issue an automatic decline.
♢ In the case of a decline, you must wait two weeks before reapplying.
♢ We don't do app challenges.
♢ Headcanon is allowed.
♢ Don't worry about apps getting long. If it takes a lot of words to get across what you're trying to say, then go ahead and use them.
♢ Our goal is to have apps processed within a week of their posting.
♢ Existing players, please make sure you can manage activity with your current characters before applying for more.
♢ Applications are screened. Upon acceptance, you may ask us to unscreen them if you wish.
   ° Remember: Dreamwidth allows you to reply to your own screened comments!

If you're unsure of who to apply, we suggest the potential app discussion page. Filling out the small form might give you a better idea of who would work better for you and the setting!

Example
Player
Name: What would you like to be called?
Username: [personal profile] username
Current/former characters: Are you already in the game? Were you here before?

Sleeper
Character: The character's name goes here, obviously.
Username: [personal profile] username
Canon: What series is your character from? If an original character, feel free to come up with a fake canon name to be listed on the taken page, while also listing "original". Mark AUs here.
Canon point: Where in their story do they come from?
Age: Tell us how old they are. If your character's age would be altered upon acceptance into the game, make sure to note that you are changing it here, and what their new age will be.
Appearance: Height, build, hair and eye colors, demeanor, even a general fashion sense if you want. Tell us what we would see if we took a glance at your character.
Personality: The meat of the application! This should be around four solid paragraphs describing who your character is, both inside and out. We want to make sure you understand the character and will play them accurately to the setting.

If you'd like, you can also include a paragraph on how you see them reacting to the game environment.
History: Your character's life. You may link to a wiki here, but we would love to hear your own take on it! This is nearly as important as personality, as we will be using both sections to compare to the City history and make sure it's appropriate.
Powers/skills: Be sure to explain how they'll be changed or powered down in the case of non-humans turning human or those who are overpowered.

Characters who are canonically powerless may pitch to gain a power here. All new powers need to enhance an aspect the character already has, whether it relates to their personality or lifestyle, and you will have to explain how you believe it fits with this requirement.

Skills gives us a better idea of what this character is good at in mundane terms, so that we can help with a City position if you're coming up blank.

City
Name: This shouldn't allude to their canon name.
Position: Profession or other pigeonholing as necessary. Basically, "What laws do they abide by?" for us mods to consider. This will tell us what job the character will be assigned in the Cave, as well.
History: Two paragraphs minimum, but this section doesn't need to be very long. You can contact the mods to work with us on this. Absolutely needs to relate to the character in some way or another. Ironic placement, while fun, would not work for the setting. Any powers they may have in the Cave will not be present in this history.

Remember that you need permission if you plan to include other PCs in this history.
Proof: This is what will be waiting for a character in their living quarters when they first wake up in the Cave. It should be a photo, a voice clip, a video, etc., anything that would feature the Sleeper in a way that could be recognized. An item that would make a very solid case for your character living in the Diamond City before the Disaster.

Playing
First-person sample: (Should be at least 5 or 6 sentences. Links allowed: 15 comments minimum. If AU, samples must be of the same AU.)
Third-person sample: (At least 300 words. Links allowed. If AU, samples must be of the same AU.)
Did you read the rules?
Apply
navigation
deshabille: «vampire wondering how you walk upright» (☀ take my aim)

maladicta | discworld | 3/3

[personal profile] deshabille 2012-04-24 10:16 pm (UTC)(link)
City
Name: Milena Tichý[1]
Position: Cave: Supply depot temp. City: Barista at Under Pressure Cafe in the middle ring.

History: Originating in the south-southwest, Milena's family used to be landed gentry, but progress wore on them over the centuries, and by the time she was born they were aristocratic in name only. When she was two, Milena's great-uncle, who had been a general in a longstanding civil conflict, was tried for war crimes; after a bitter legal struggle, and despite the insistence of the Tichýs on his innocence, he was convicted, permanently tarnishing the family's name. Milena became conscious of her family history in bits and pieces between the ages of three and ten. Her mother, a very religious woman, tended to be strict; her father was stricter and disappointed in the fact that Milena wasn't a third son. Her brothers ignored her entirely.

Both parents were entirely focused on preparing her brothers for higher education and, to a lesser extent, her for marriage. In an effort to restore respect for the family, her father accepted a position in the Diamond City as an ambassador's assistant when Milena was eight. The only one who didn't have trouble adjusting to their new life was Milena, who immersed herself in school, particularly English classes, in hopes of finding support outside of her home. While she excelled in school and her teachers adored her, she was considered odd by her peers and generally ignored.

Around the age of fourteen, her mother became emotionally abusive, frequently questioning Milena's devotion to God and berating her for being sexually active (she wasn't). Her father, increasingly busy with and unhappy at work, refused to intervene in their increasingly frequent screaming matches. Isolated and unhappy, Milena started to protest, first in small ways, then more loudly.

On her fifteenth birthday, Milena cut off all her hair; nothing her mother said ever convinced her to let it grow back. On her sixteenth birthday, she calmly cut up a dress her mother had made for her, stole a pair of her brother's pants, and stated her refusal to ever wear a skirt again. On her seventeenth birthday, after a particularly bitter battle with her mother, she shoved her hope chest, which she had received upon their arrival to the Center, under her bed and stormed out of the house to apply for a job at the local coffee shop. On her eighteenth birthday, she left home for good, rented a small and squalid apartment in the outer ring with money saved up from her job, and settled in to save some more. Even she wasn't sure what her ultimate goal was; all she knew was the routine of waking up every morning, opening the store, and coming home in the afternoon smelling like coffee grounds to a gloriously empty flat.

Nobody bothered her; she was intimidating and therefore fit in perfectly at Under Pressure, which was a little bit alternative for the middle ring. She took to wearing black, partially as a fashion statement but mostly because it was easy, and became used to being mistaken for a boy. She liked it; she felt people took her more seriously that way. Near her nineteenth birthday, she tried to get into university, but a combination of lack of enthusiasm, lackluster essays, and her parents' refusal to fill out financial aid forms made this impossible. And just after she turned nineteen, the Disaster struck, which made it all a moot point anyway.

Proof: A photo of her scowling while holding a plaque - Milena Tichý: Barista of the Month. (The plaque has a picture of a coffee bean on it.)

[1] "Gracious silence."

Playing
First-person sample: Does this work?

Third-person sample: Shufti had once told her – oh, beg pardon, Betty had once told her – that in difficult and unfamiliar situations, it was often helpful to make a list of pros and cons. Since Betty was generally a clever enough girl despite her sudden and unexpected motherhood, Mal decided to give it a try.

Pro: She was in a cave. Caves, as a generally rule, were advantageous for her kind; no sun, no trees to make stakes out of, the occasional dwarf settlement (although perhaps not here).

Pro: She'd found coffee. There was a warehouse with a surprisingly wide variety of supplies, although she'd gotten coffee and bread and nothing else. She didn't need anything else.

Pro: She hadn't met any . . . family, so to speak. Which meant no one would try to squeeze her into a corset anytime soon. She'd had quite enough of corsets for several lifetimes, and considering who she was that was a very long time.

However, con: Because she hadn't met any other vampires, she also hadn't met any Ribboners, and therefore no one who'd know where to find the heart should supplies run out. This, she had to admit, had her slightly jittery. She shouldn't have been nervous at all – after all, it had worked out fine the last time – but this situation was somewhat different.

Direct segue into con: Where was the regiment? Naturally she was more concerned for Polly than for herself. A life without Mal was a dangerous life indeed, especially in the Ins-and-Outs, where a lady soldier was liable to get stabbed in the back for Being Political without her trusty vampire sidekick (excellent track record or no, and they did have an excellent track record). Not to mention it would be so dull. Mal provided the wit and the womanpower, and dear Polly made people angry.

Altogether this was an entirely mixed bag – quite similar to the one Mal was currently holding, which reminded her: jitters. With a half-sideways turn, she glanced back into the depot and smiled her toothiest smile. “I don't suppose any of you gentlemen have something along the lines of a coffee pot?”

Did you read the rules? Indeedly.
deshabille: «vampire judging the fuck outta you» (Default)

Revision

[personal profile] deshabille 2012-04-24 11:04 pm (UTC)(link)
That's a good thought and significantly less complicated than what I had suggested. That works well for me if it works for you! ♥
deshabille: «vampire of flamboyant hand gestures» (☀ if you're thinking endlessly)

accepted!

[personal profile] deshabille 2012-04-24 11:46 pm (UTC)(link)
I will be using the same journal, and go ahead and unscreen! :]
with_discipline: (M; Right no Shakespeare go on)

T'Pol | Star Trek: Enterprise | Mirror!Verse

[personal profile] with_discipline 2012-04-28 01:33 am (UTC)(link)
Player
Name: Ari!
Username: [personal profile] zenith
Current/former characters: --

Sleeper
Character: T'Pol
Username: [personal profile] with_discipline
Canon: Star Trek: Enterprise, mirror!verse
Canon point: Just after she's been made First Officer.
Age: 67
Appearance: Long brown hair, hazel eyes, slanted eyebrows and pointed ears. For the most part, T'Pol looks pretty human, but when she flushes, her skin takes on a green hue instead of a red. Her face is usually set on the severe side of neutral, and usually when emotion crosses her features, it's controlled. Mostly she just looks a lot like this.
Personality: T'Pol is a Vulcan. First glance would leave that as her having zero personality; but even in the mirror universe, Vulcans have strict emotional control. T'Pol's emotions have always been extremely close the surface, but her time among the humans has taught her to be ruthless with them: she can be so coldly logical that she can use emotions to get by in a human dominated environment. Usually, anyway.

While Vulcans are widely believed to be emotionless, that is not so: they suppress their emotions, believing them - rightly - to be extremely dangerous. T'Pol follows this practice, though nowhere near as closely as she was taught to; a Vulcan must do what one must in order to survive in the Empire. However, she feels a good deal more than she suspects she should. T'Pol feels pride - in her work, in her abilities, in what she accomplishes; upon joining Starfleet, she did not consider species reassignment, deciding that altering her appearance in order to rise more swiftly through the ranks was below her. It is pride that is dangerous to her, and when she fails to control it properly, she is arrested. There is loyalty, too - to herself, first, foremost, and above all others, but she also holds onto her loyalty to her people and their plight, and to a much lesser extent, her Captain - Maximilian Forrest. She has drifted from logic's clearest path in order to serve her purposes best.

Crowds make T'Pol uncomfortable. She learned while in the Academy how - and when - to socialize with those around her. She's learned to be manipulative out of necessity, and has little use for guilt; that is one emotion T'Pol has had no difficulty suppressing. Humans have abused her people for generations; she sees no reason not to use them as tools in her own plots. However, tools are best obtained quietly and subtly, and used without association; crowds have always left her unsettled. There are fewer ways to avoid association and accusation in a crowd - and more ways to wind up with a knife in her side.

Emotions are dangerous. Experimenting with emotions are dangerous. But logic is not necessarily salvation; not within the Terran Empire. T'Pol has drifted from strict interpretations of logic, experiencing more than she would have chosen to in another life. The nature of the Empire has demanded a lot of sacrifices, many of them personal. She's experienced emotion in ways most Vulcans abhor; it's led to embarrassment and discomfort. It has allowed her to understand the humans she works with and manipulates. It's allowed her to carry on.

T'Pol is an extremely private individual, though it isn't always possible to cling to privacy. Her personal space is hers, and unwelcome proximity is usually met stiffly. There is a certain difficulty to maintaining control at those moments, and there have certainly been occasions when T'Pol has found herself wishing that violent tendencies were not a thing of her peoples' past. She has always been intelligent, a good student with interests and prowess that have taken her across the universe; that intelligence has no doubt saved her life on several occasions. Her capabilities range from doing her duties as Science Officer of the Enterprise to the intricacies of Vulcan neuropressure; anything and everything that helps her stay a step ahead she has delved into head first.
History: In 2063, Vulcans made First Contact with Earth: by 2070, Earth had conquered Vulcan and started to form the Terran Empire. T'Pol wasn't born until 2088, in northern ShiKahr, already under the thumb of the Terran Empire. Her mother held a position at the Vulcan Science Academy, and tried to raise T'Pol on Surak's teachings; her father she barely recalls, as he disappeared early in her life. Despite her mother's efforts, T'Pol had difficult with Surak's lessons; her emotions were always close to the surface, and she found difficulty in suppressing them, especially given the suppressed state that Vulcan was frequently kept in.

She grew up seeing the limited opportunities available to her: she could be a slave to the Empire, as lowly as her logical people, or she could join that which she hated, but which clearly was better off. That was what led her to join Starfleet; she knew what difficulties she would face, what prejudices, but she was young, and held all the self-images of invincibility that the young frequently fall prey to. She knew a life with Starfleet would be a preferable alternative to a short one in a mine on Earth's moon.

Her time at the Academy was unpleasant; aliens on track to become officers were frequently mistreated, especially on Terran soil. T'Pol weathered it. Like most Vulcans who remained in close contact with humans, she learned to get by, either by ducking her head and being invisible, or by proving her loyalty, usually in ways she found discomforting. Her mother had raised her on Surak's pacifism; T'Pol learned quickly at the Academy that pacifism would see her killed.

Her ambitions were buried, then altered as she served on Empire vessels. She made her loyalty unquestionable, ingratiated herself with Captain Forrest. T'Pol needed to be unquestionably faithful to the Empire if she was going to live long enough to make it serve her. And it was good she did; her mother left her position at the Science Academy to join the rebellion shortly after T'Pol began serving on Forrest's Enterprise; she was brought under suspicion because of it, but Captain Forrest's faith in her loyalty didn't waver. She'd later repay that faith in full.

The rest of her time on the ISS Enterprise was tumultuous; in 2152, she became infected with a microbe that triggered her pon farr reaction; without a mate, and without time or interest wasted in a medical cure when there was an obvious, natural cure, T'Pol did what she had to. She doesn't remember much of it, beyond what Commander Tucker has refused to allow her to forget. There was a steep price in accepting his help; she developed a telepathic bond with him. T'Pol convinced Tucker that he was suffering daydreams and delusions, and convinced herself that there was no lingering affection or love involved on her part.

After the events of In a Mirror, Darkly took place, T'Pol was held in the brig with Doctor Phlox, awaiting execution at Archer's orders; she was freed at the last moment by Staal, and escaped with him on one of the Defiant's shuttles, the McCool.
Powers/skills: She's a Vulcan, so she's stronger, more durable, a little faster, etc. Boils down to heightened reflexes and strength. Her ears are extremely sensitive, too. The big thing, of course, is her mind-melding. Vulcans are touch telepaths, so T'Pol can form a mental link with anyone through skin-to-skin contact. She's pretty good at it but she's technically a novice since she had to teach herself, which means problems could theoretically arise via telepathic diseases. She won't have any of this until powers start returning.

As far as skills go, she's an accomplished scientist in a wide range of sciences, she's very logical minded (if something's illogical, she might balk at bothering to waste time on it), and a pretty decent combatant. She knows Vulcan Suss-mana, which is like a mix of Tai Chi and Krav Maga. If Vulcans are fighting, they're either evading hits or, in the mirror verse, taking no prisoners.

City
Name: Delilah Bristow
Position: Lawyer
History: Delilah grew up just outside of Diamond City. She was always very studious, and knew she wanted to go into law from an early age, but when it came time to start paying for law school, she came up short. Her family was never very wealthy, and rather than admit she couldn't handle her dreams on her own, she found another option: she joined the navy. It was supposed to be short term, just to pay for school, but she found herself enjoying the work, and wound up making a career of it. It was something she did well, and her precise, ambitious nature worked well for her.

But of course good things never last, and she found herself making questionable decisions. Ultimately, she was discharged as a lieutenant, under less than honorable circumstances. After that, she finished law school, refusing to be deterred, and did a fair bit of networking to secure herself a position with a prominent law firm in Diamond City. She was an up and coming member when the Disaster struck.
Proof: A picture of her smiling, celebrating her first win with coworkers.

Playing
First-person sample: One and two.
Third-person sample: Here!
Did you read the rules? Yup!
doul: (Default)

Uther Doul | The Scar

[personal profile] doul 2012-04-30 02:19 am (UTC)(link)
Player
Name: Takhys
Username: [personal profile] takhys
Current/former characters: None.

Sleeper
Character: Uther Doul
Username: [personal profile] doul
Canon: China Mieville's Bas-Lag books.
Canon point: Approximately six months after the events of 'The Scar'.
Age: 40
Appearance: Most obviously, Doul is a physically imposing man. That he is tall (6'2"), broad, and clearly someone who is accustomed to demanding physical work is reinforced by a commanding physical presence. His confidence and comfort with his own body is apparent no matter what he is doing.

That he prefers to keep himself covered up is more for other people's comfort than his own: Doul has numerous scars, old and new, ranging from minor wounds all the way up to a particularly vicious Probable Scar that starts just under his ribs, winds over his hip, and inner thigh. As a Probable Scar, at times his old wound shifts from a healed injury and enters a state of flux where it can be both healed and fresh. This flux doesn't happen often and, if it goes against the tone of the game, can be ignored entirely.

In canon, he has a weapon known as a Possible Sword which is a weird artifact that requires a gearbox worn on the hip and a series of wires woven through the muscle of his right arm and emerging as metal brads in the palm of his hand. Since he's not able to bring his sword into the game, I would like to ask that he's allowed to keep the scarring that would've come of the body modification.

Personality: There is a general consensus that Uther Doul appears profoundly, achingly sad, as if he has been through some great, unknown tragedy. This is likely reinforced by his reluctance to speak aloud; when given the choice between talking or being silent, Doul will nearly always choose to hold his tongue. His homeland, High Cromlech, is known for being a silent city that praises the ability to avoid talking. Now that he is in the world at large, he is silent less out of social obligation and more because he prefers not to speak unless necessary.

In contrast to his long periods of quiet contemplation, Doul has the need to be profoundly violent. He has spent years participating in holy gladiator fights and working as a mercenary for a pirate city, neither of which lead to easy living. In both these cases, he can descend into a traditional, terrifying battle madness. That said, he would like to believe that he does not kill without good reason.

He is an intensely private man and while he abhors the limelight, he is not entirely adverse to having power. Like anyone, he wants things to go his way, but his preferred method for achieving his goals is through subtlety and manipulation. Ideally, he would like people to do as he wishes, but to believe that they are following their own desires. While good at using people, he is not so very good at connecting with them -- whether this is some innate Doulishness, a bit of culture from High Cromlech or further proof that he's not entirely human is up for debate. In all his years on Armada, there was really only one person that could have been considered something akin to a friend. (Admittedly, when it became necessary he quite literally crucified that friend to the mast of a ship.)

History: Uther Doul is from the world of Bas-Lag, a pseudo-Victorian, steampunk reality that has been heavily influenced by Lovecraft. In Bas-Lag, humans are not the only sentient race, nor are they necessarily the majority. In general, it's wise to remember that bad things happen to good people, all manner of crawling horrors are real, and they do want to get you. In terms of tone and general feeling, it's similar to Mignola's BRPD'verse.

In the canon material, much of Doul's backstory is intentionally left vague while conflicting accounts are given by various characters about his 'known' history. Personally, I feel that this is an important part of the character and don't really ever plan to reveal too much of whatever brought him to the point that he is at. That being said, it is generally agreed upon that Doul was born and raised in High Cromlech, a city-state known for its silence and that it is organized around an oligarchical necrocracy where a certain caste of the preserved dead, the thanati, rule and appear as "liches with sewn-shut mouths, with beautiful clothes and skin like preserved leather," while the living, also known as the Quick, are bred to serve. At the bottom of this social stratum are the vampires (ab-dead) who are forced to beg for food.

After leaving High Cromlech, Doul went out into the world to study the Ghosthead Empire. These people (creatures?) were notable for their ability to manipulate and 'mine' probability, creating incredibly powerful weapons that strike every target possible in every possible method simultaneously, buildings with unreal floor plans, and instruments capable of altering reality -- all of which were apparently fuelled by stripping the world its possibilities. No description still exists, but Doul theorizes, based on his knowledge of his probabilistic 'might sword', that they appeared differently based on preference or preconceived notions of the viewer. However, is it said that nothing is known with any certainty about Ghosthead physiology or appearance, save that it was unlike that of any modern race.

After he returned from his time studying the Ghosthead Empire, Doul brought back the 'might sword', along with a few other artifacts, and learned how to use them. Most humans lack the ability to use any of these artifacts and this fact reinforces other hints given that Doul may not be purely human. In any case, he repaired and installed the necessary equipment to operate the sword - the visible components being a small clockwork box on a belt at this side and a series of raised, metal touchpads on the palm of his right hand connected to wires that run along and under his skin.

While learning to use the might sword, Doul continued to travel around the world of Bas-Lag, and eventually he ended up in Armada -- a massive, mobile flotilla of ships that functioned as a small nation. Within this nation, there are many different ridings, each with its own form of government. It is seen as a curiosity that Doul is close friends with the Brucolac, the ab-dead leader of Dry Fall riding.

Doul ends up working as a bodyguard for The Lovers, a pair of nameless, scar-covered humans, who run Garwater Riding. It is while he is in this capacity that the events of 'The Scar' take place. Briefly, the Lovers decide to capture an avanc -- a giant, transdimentional fishmonster -- tether it to Armada and pull the whole nation towards the Scar in order to mine it for probabilities. At its most simplistic, the Scar is a place where reality breaks down and anything is possible. The best way I can think to describe it is that the Scar emits a sort of 'radiation' (Torque) which mutates reality as we understand it.

At first this plan of the Lovers' is heralded as a brilliant idea, but as Armada gets closer to its goal, unsettling things begin to occur: one of the crew is lost in an airship only to be recovered days later, swearing that he was there when Armada was pulled into the Scar and that he is either doomed to repeat it all again, a copy from a different, but Possible future, or, and this is suggested later on, lying at the behest of Doul who knows better than anyone what could go wrong when exposed to too much of the Scar's cacotopic energies. (I know this is very odd and very complicated, but I have no problem with explaining it further upon request.)

Thanks to a battle with other forces (who are not really relevant to Doul's backstory) the final outcome is that one of the Lovers choses to leave Armada and continue into the Scar, the avanc is released, and Armada is devastated. This is where canon ends.

Following this point, I have assumed that Doul has continued to work for the remaining Lover to stabilize and repair Garwater and Armada as a whole. He will be arriving at Sky of Diamonds just after the death of the Lover.

Powers/skills: While never explicitly stated in his canon, it can be inferred that Doul has a greater than human ability to understand and select beneficial probabilities. A similar example in comics would be Domino's powers. Her abilities manifest through her unconscious action and her own physical involvement in a stressful situation, while Doul's talent is a purely conscious effort and best used by channeling it through an artifact from the Ghosthead Empire. While it has been hinted that he has the knowledge (and inhuman ability) to both repair and built new probability mining devices, they would be exceedingly difficult and dangerous to construct and if I went mad with power and chose to go with that particular plotline, I would contact and discuss it further with the modteam.

In times of great stress and generally for plot purposes, Doul suffers from 'probability sickness'. This results in his incapacitation for a few days (while I am swamped over with RL/work/whatever) and necessitates removing himself from public. While his 'old wound is acting up' the rules of probability and chance tend to be unpredictable in his general vicinity. e.g. don't play cards around him or check on Schrodinger's cat because the dratted thing will be in both states at once.

His skillset includes such useful things as: sailing, a variety of hand-to-hand techniques and a familiarity with a variety of weaponry (sword and pistol as favourites), knowledgeable in hands-on engineering, scientific method and practice, first aid, fluent in multiple languages (Salt, Quiesy, Ragamoll, etc.), excellent memory and lateral thinking capabilities, and highly literate.
doul: (Default)

Uther Doul | The Scar | 2 of 2

[personal profile] doul 2012-04-30 02:20 am (UTC)(link)
City
Name: Huw Downing
Position: Huw has a great head for figures and would make an excellent accountant or some other job that involves finances and doesn't rely too greatly on people skills. He would not be well suited to being a salesperson.

History: Huw is the middle child of three. Both his elder and younger brothers have entered into the family business (some sort of sales or import/export that would suit the city) leaving Huw as a bit of a disappointment to his parents. Where the other Downing children were out-going, gregarious men, Huw was introverted and bookish.

When he was in his twenties, there was a brief marriage which ended in divorce. The split wasn't entirely amicable, as she had been having an affair for some time, but didn't really want to risk losing the stability and security of her life with Huw.

Overall, Huw's life was uneventful, but not unenjoyable. He took pleasure in his work and when paying clients didn't fulfill him, he did a lot of pro bono work for charities. Those who knew him would describe him as a 'good man who works hard'.

Proof: A family photograph taken when he was about 16.

Playing
First-person sample: Personal Journal of Uther Doul, Seventh Hawkdi, Third Quarto.

The Scar comes to us. While it does not move from where it split the world like so much overripe fruit, its ways are being felt among the crew. I can taste them in the air and feel how it burrows through thoughts and into tilting dreams.

We approach the Scar. All of Armada creeps forward as the Avanc sickens and dies beneath us, sending up oil slicks of pus and fluid and yet, we move ever forward. Do we approach it as supplicants to beg from an unknowable god or miners lusting for unknowable treasure?

I alone remain in a state of flux; able to simultaneously pull the Scar into myself, shattering all around me, and giving over all that I am into that multifaceted horror. A sane man would wonder how long he could remain between before he was entirely subsumed, but I know that I was lost long before I first wove wires through my flesh.

The gulls no longer scream to greet the dawn, but I can feel the shift in the city as the sun rises. I must go attend to the Lovers.

Third-person sample: After years at sea and even longer years away from the necrocracy of High Cromlech, Doul had become accustomed to the noise and smell of the Quick, but this was all a new experience to him. The familiar scents of machinery, sea water, and butcher's offal were replaced almost entirely with a belching, sick smoke that tasted like the slick gas-smoke that poured from those fReemade unfortunate enough to rely on furnaces in their bellies. Staying in his new, neat, sterile room made him ill at ease; the neat, perfectly assembled furniture seeming fake, soulless and inhuman. The whole society was sick at heart with its reliance on machinery, the lack of horses, and under it all, the constant, hum of electrical (chymical?) wires crackling along his nerves and only serving to emphasize the otherness of this new land.

Going out into the street was just as unnerving. At first he wondered if somehow the Three Suns had gone and purged all the xenians from this city, but when there was no mention of that happening (and they surely would have crowed for centuries over such a 'victory') Doul began to suspect they were never here at all. No vodanyoi with their slick, cool skins and dry humour, no towering cactacae and their great, glasshouses and rivebows, no khepri women with their acrid, scent-talk, and above all, no Remade horrors with neat, sharp foxes mouths or heavy metal-treads and pistons.

Nevertheless, Doul knew that in this foreign Hell he would survive, if not prosper. A practical man can almost always do well when confronted with new things, but a practical man who can still taste the hot, metallic tang of Possibilities, that is even better. He has no doubt that there will come a chance, an opportunity, a suitable person that he could exploit and then it would only be a matter of time before returning to civilization.

Did you read the rules? Sure did.
doul: (Default)

Revisions

[personal profile] doul 2012-04-30 09:50 pm (UTC)(link)
Appearance & City History: I've smushed these two sections together because they deal with his background.

Downing's family had originally been from the Center, but for various reasons (most likely some poor and/or shady business deals on his mother's part), the entire family packed up and moved out to the North. They had a history of working in import/export and couched it in terms of being closer to the source of many of their products. His brothers would've gone into the family business and while Huw had been trained in accounting, he would've broken tradition and struck out on his own pointedly not working on any accounts that could be connected with the Downing family.

In regards to his scarring, I think it would be reasonable to say that at some point his life (approx five years ago?), he was in some sort of accident - either boating or a car crash, whichever you think is more feasible for the game. While his scarring won't be over the course of many years, I think that it should be 'close enough' that he isn't too body disphoric.

Personality
Doul is an internally focused and driven man who priorities his own goals and interests over those of anyone else around him. In regards to his morality, Doul is a profoundly practical man and is more concerned about his own relation to the world than any connection to an external source of authority (God, the Law, etc.) - he won't break the law without reason or if getting caught goes against his better interest, but he has no respect for the institution of law or lawmakers. He believes that it is better and more efficient to lead with stern compassion, but when that fails, force is acceptable. For example, the Lovers were 'benevolent' dictators and Doul didn't appear to have trouble acting as their chief enforcer for years. That all said, he is not wanton or cruel for cruelty's own sake.

When he is without a project to occupy his time, he is restless in a way that manifests itself through outbursts of bad temper and withdrawing from society. Conversley, when he has found something he wants, he is almost infiniately patient when it comes to the creation and carrying out of whatever meticulous and occasionally amoral plan he's created.

He tends to categorize the world around him into that which is useful and that which is not; promptly ignoring anything that doesn't aid or threaten him. That said, he is aware of his surroundings and often reevaluates his situation to better make use of his environment. In his canon, he desparages the ab-dead (vampires), but it is implied that this is done more to irritate The Brucolac (the ab-dead leader of an opposing political faction) than out of actual animosity. Doul has a host of flaws, but bigotry is not among them.

He is adaptable to all manner of strange situations. In game, I think that he'll be most shocked by how similar everyone is rather than their differences. On Armada, he was used to a bustling city filled to overflowing with humans, xenians (non-humans), and fReemade (recently escaped humans and xenians forcibly altered into new shapes as a form of punishment). Each riding (a political division) in the city was governed in a different way and it made for a profoundly patchwork and argumentative form of leadership.

Powers
In game, I think that Doul will likely function as a 'baseline' human with a sensory processing disorder. On days when the world is too loud for him to function easily, he appears to suffer from sensory defensiveness, acting closed off, unemotional, and distant. Conversely, on Good Days, when it's easier for him to concentrate, Doul's ability to focus can be quite frightening.

If he is allowed to regain access to probability manipulation in game, I think there are a great many ways that it could be useful; but as it stands, it's more of a nuisance than anything else. When confronted with a situation where a choice needs to be made, he can explore the likely outcomes of various actions, but each 'branch' of any one choice-tree splits off in innumerable ways and usually serves more to overwhelm than provide valuable information. There's a big gap between being aware of probable outcomes and being able to influence which one he would want to have. Without access to his equipment, he would only have some knowledge of what might happen and that without exceptional circumstances, he would be unable to select and enforce any one option.

In his canon, this ability is harnessed and made useful through the creation of a device called a probability engine (a.k.a. the Might Sword, as in it 'might' do one thing or the other or both at once). As I said in the application, I think that building such a thing could be interesting to explore, but that it's not something he would be able to complete without a great deal of time and effort - at least a year of gameplay would pass before I'd be comfortable bringing that forward as a plot point.
doul: (Default)

[personal profile] doul 2012-04-30 10:32 pm (UTC)(link)
Thanks! I am going to be using this journal and you're welcome to unscreen my app.
onemoredrink: (Default)

Owen Carter (OC) - 1/3

[personal profile] onemoredrink 2012-05-02 02:40 pm (UTC)(link)
Player
Name: Liam
Username: [personal profile] chibalerasui
Current/former characters: The Doctor (First)

Sleeper
Character: Owen Carter
Username: [personal profile] onemoredrink
Canon: OC - Golden Hour RPG

Summary: In the land of Balfour, a small kingdom in medieval Europe, researchers study the manipulation of Belief, a thing that seems to bring about mythical creatures and magics that, before, had no proven existence. All creatures and magics could be real, it was only a matter of having enough people Believe in them. These researchers based their organization, the Golden Hour, in the city of Tyrol, Balfour's capital, where the Citadel, the kingdom's religious organization, had their own headquarters. Cita-worship was widespread throughout the kingdom, and while the rest of Europe followed Christianity, Balfourians faithfully stuck with the Citadel.

Unfortunately, the Citadel was against the Golden Hour and their practices, believing Others, what those of mythical origin came to be called, to be demons. This lead to strife between Civitates and the Golden Hour and their 'pets'. Somehow, the Golden Hour's manipulation of Belief caused the city to attract Others, and more and more were seen arriving in the city.

Played-by: Ville Valo of HIM.

Canon point: Post-Citaspolsion, Pre-gangwar.
Age: 35

Appearance: Standing six-foot-two in height, Owen is a tall man who, while physically fit from his many endeavors, would hardly be considered muscular. He's lithe and flexible, and moves with fluid, graceful motions, unless he's drunk out of his mind, which is hardly uncommon. His shoulder-length, brown hair is often disheveled, and he actually puts effort into ensuring its wild state, strands frequently dangling before his blue-green eyes. He's rarely seen without a smile on his face. He prefers leathers for pants and footwear, and silken shirts in vibrant colours. Occasionally he may be seen wearing a collar, and he tends to wear eyeshadow to darken the area around his eyes. Oh, and he loves hats.

Personality: At his very core, Owen is a hedonist. He lives to enjoy life. He loves all forms of pleasure, from intimacy to food and drink, and the only thing he has no interest in is gambling. He smokes, he drinks, he fornicates, he runs around causing trouble, plays truth or dare with anyone willing, and enjoys the company of everyone and anyone, human and Other alike. He has no prejudice, outside of preferring the company of whores and criminals to that of those with authority. He has nothing against authority, however, and if caught breaking the law, will give himself up without a fight, laughing and joking the entire way to the gaol. He has never committed murder, and has no intention of doing so, but just about anything else is fair game.

As a thief, he was careful of his targets, preferring those who looked like they had coin to spare. Call it a conscience, but he had no interest in putting the downtrodden down further. While he no longer commits theft for monetary gain, he still maintains those skills, and occasionally puts them to use to cause mischief - there's something entertaining about the smug, rich boy discovering he can't afford the round he'd boisterously ordered for his friends.

Owen is a very social extrovert. He talks to everyone, drinks with everyone, and will seek out conversation with anyone he comes across, even if they look less than interested. If it is at all possible to find himself in a social situation, he will find a way in. He has attended noble gatherings as a drink server, become a regular at the Guard's favourite drinking spot, and even got himself invited to a nobleman's wedding as a guest. He's flirted with everyone from commoners to nobility, guards to Civitates, and has something of a reputation as a friendly, if flirtatious, individual. Conversation is, quite possibly, his most favourite activity, even though he claims it's drinking.

Owen has no qualms with Others, or those not of human origin. While he never openly stood up to defend them, he was getting close to wanting to. Equality is something of importance to him, and saw no reason Others couldn't be treated fairly as people. If an Other committed a crime, they deserved to be called on it, but if they were living their lives and causing no harm, why should they be made to suffer? Sure, some of them had powers that made them fearful, but unless they actively used those powers against others, what threat was there? In fact, many used them to make a living, and Owen had no problem buying magical charms or potions from those able to make them, even if he kept quiet about it.

While he may seem very open about himself and his dealings, and, indeed, has little about himself he keeps private, his general friendly appearance is something of a guise. He's very careful to keep himself emotionally detached from most people, and rarely finds himself growing fond of someone. It's a weakness, this bonding thing, friendships, caring about people. A weakness that can cause problems. Still, there are those he winds up growing fond of, such as Amber and Laurent, and a few of the whores he visited regularly. And while he may not form close bonds easily, he is very loyal once he does, offering everything of himself to those few who have earned his fondness, giving them a place to stay, someone to talk to, and doing everything he can to help them feel better when they need it.

Despite his hatred for his father, Owen managed to pick up some of his father's business sense, expanding on it once he opened his tavern. He's a quick learner, learning best from first-hand experience, and dabbles in many areas. His initial interest in running a business was to make money, but he quickly learned that information was freely available to those who looked for it, and with the right businesses, the more information you had access to. Drunks talk, and he knows how to listen, how to pick up the things that go unsaid and grasp at the things that are mentioned in passing, and how to dig for more information without being obvious about it. Running a brewery gave him access to other businesses that sold alcohol. Running a print shop meant he had first access to anything that got printed. He made it a goal to collect information wherever possible, storing it until he found someone who may be interested in it.

Owen may be considered a pacifist, simply because he has no combat training at all, and far prefers talking to fighting. If at all possible, he'd rather talk through a situation than get into a fight - unless it's a bar brawl, those are just fun. While he considered this a good thing for most of his life, he learned more recently that it was a failing, and regrets not having taken up some training, even if he only ever used it in defence. In searching for a short-cut to becoming more useful in this area, Owen offered a large sum to be turned into a werepanther - the idea of being an exotic Other was, itself, very enticing, and being something that could fight, could defend itself and his friends, and could even kill if needed (but only if needed), only made his interest grow. The city was under constant threat, it seemed, and that included his friends, as few as they were.

The most advanced thing Owen has ever seen was his printing machine, and there was this girl talking about designing clockwork cats. Beyond that, he knows nothing of technology. Everything he did used 'old fashioned' methods, from brewing to printing. His print shop used movable metal type, small blocks of letters that were arranged into the words of the page and set into the frame for print. Everything he wrote was handwritten with quills and ink. Pens would be 'advanced' for him, let alone these crazy writing machines! There will be a huge amount of culture shock for him as he tries to adjust to the setting he's been thrown into, and he'll believe that his life was all a dream because this couldn't be something his subconscious could make up, it's way beyond him. He won't like it, but he'll believe it.
onemoredrink: (Are you gettin' what you're lookin' for?)

Owen Carter (OC) - 2/3

[personal profile] onemoredrink 2012-05-02 02:40 pm (UTC)(link)
History: Owen was born a bastard. His mother was a whore that his father paid visits to once a week for several months while his marriage lay in crumbles. Unfortunately, the man cared little for the whore or his bastard son, and even tried to convince her to abort the child early on. While the idea was tempting, she decided against it, instead taking up an offer made by one of her other customers to provide them with a child.

The couple the boy went to were kind and gracious. They had been struggling to have a child of their own for many years, and had even taken to affairs in case it was simply a matter of incompatibility. Nothing had worked. Once this whore turned up pregnant with the child of a man who wanted nothing to do with either of them, the husband, William Carter, made the proposal. His wife, Julie, holed up within their home for the duration of the pregnancy, and the whore, a woman named Maria, was brought in to stay with them until she gave birth. She was cared for tenderly, treated well, and once the child was born, sent on her way with a full purse of coin. She saw nothing wrong with this arrangement, and it suited her well, for those coins went to buying her way out of the city.

Thus Owen grew up in the Carter household, the only child of a commoner couple who had little to offer the world but for their trade, Father running a small fabric company in the city. It wasn't an unheard of situation, and while rumour about it did fly freely, nobody really cared one way or the other. They were only commoners, after all.

While he may not have lived a life of grace, he certainly didn't spend it in poverty. Father's trade was prosperous enough to afford decent clothing and meals, and even a decently sized home. Mother took care good care of him, cooked all his favorites, and even at a young age let him pick out his own clothes. He was, essentially, spoiled.

Outside of the home, he played with all the rowdiest boys, getting into trouble on a regular basis. While Father didn't much care for the trouble he caused, Mother doted on him over it, her scolding nothing more than encouragement to continue.

Into his teenaged years things only grew worse. He spent his nights drinking with his friends, and slept his days away. Mother continued to spoil him, much to Father's annoyance. He'd hoped this boy would grow up to inherit the family business, but with how she'd ruined him, he was in no way suitable for such a responsibility. Instead, he adopted a cousin as his inheritor, which was just fine to Owen. What did he want with some little fabric shop, selling bolts of cloth to seamstresses? What did he know of fabric aside from that silk felt better, looked better, and cost more than cotton? That was not how he wanted to spend his life.

As to what he did want, he still had no clue. On his sixteenth birthday, his friends took him to a brothel, where he got to experience intimacy beyond his Mother's coddling for the first time. And found that he really enjoyed it. From then on, half of his cash went into paying for whores, while the other half kept going into alcohol, until the fated day that his father put his foot down, cutting his allowance. That only caused him to throw a tantrum, and Mother tried to argue on his behalf, claiming that boys will be boys and that he would grow out of it. Father remained firm.

Grumpy at losing most of his income, Owen took to the streets to look for ways to make an income with as little effort as possible, and started picking pockets. At first he only targetted the elderly or very young, those he could fight off if he got caught, but as he learned the trade, with some guidance from his street-dwelling friends, his target selection grew, aiming for those who had the most coin to spare rather than those who were easy marks. It made him enough to keep him drowning in women and drink.

At the age of twenty, his father started talking about marriage. He shuddered. By Cita why would he want to be bound to one woman? And kids? Not a chance! (He likely already had a few bastard children out there anyway, that was enough!) He refused, adamantly. Father merely shrugged him off and went about his business, and left it to Mother to try to encourage it. This was when she found out just how spoiled he was. He threw a tantrum, refusing to marry any of the women Mother would try to introduce him to, and finally fed both his parents up to the point that they told him the truth about his past. Disgruntled, but not entirely angry, he left home.

At first, he lived on the streets, supporting himself with his illegal dealings and getting mixed up with gang members. He made friends with members of several gangs, and in fact had something of his own thing going, where he helped out the younger kids finding themselves on the street, ensuring they learned the ropes and found a place for themself. He was in no way a leader, and his little band wasn't a gang so much as a stopping point for potential gang members, who would move on to one of the proper gangs in the city. He befriended a young girl named Amber, though she didn't stay long.

Later, he started taking up lovers for money. He didn't compete with the brothels, only accepting those clients who came to him. At first it was simply a willingness to share a bed, but he discovered they'd give him gifts of coin or jewelry for his services. Eventually, he found himself the lover of a wealthy nobless. She was older, but not unattractive, and very good in bed. All she asked was that he keep it to himself, which he did, gladly.

Then one night, the husband walked in. Owen was sure this would be the death of him, and was not only surprised but thoroughly confused when, rather than shouting for his head, the husband approached the bed and began to undress. The woman seemed disgruntled, but not unwilling (do I have to share siiiigh) and managed to talk Owen into participating. Thus was his first experience with the same sex. ...and he enjoyed that, too.

Now that he had both of the couple in his pockets, he started to save. Much of his money from the couple was tucked away, the pile growing rapidly over a few years, until he had enough to open his own business. Then he considered what business that would be. He already knew where - he spent a lot of time in that area of town, but he didn't want to compete with the brothels in the area. Instead, he decided to go with a tavern, a place to provide the other of his two favorite things in the world. He called it the Fox'N'Crown.

Business was slow at first - not unexpected, really. He made a few bad business decisions, but he learned quick, and made up for it with the great interest he showed his patrons. In time, his business grew prosperous, and he started tucking most of his profits away for future endeavors.

The city was one plagued by gangs, the two main ones, Signifer Gladios and the Whispers, constantly bickering and battling over territory. Somehow, Owen managed to arrange a neutrality for his tavern, where any gang member caught causing a fuss was berated by their own leaders. This worked well, as it ensured his business remained profitable and out of danger. Owen collected and sold information to the two gang leaders, and strove to expand his information business, luring in businessmen and even nobles with his charisma.

In the year that followed, Owen opened up his own brewery, specializing in ales and a particular drink of his own making that he tended to call Carter's Special Brew. It was stronger than anything else served in the area, and he even began exporting it to the sea town not far away.

Not long after, he opened a print shop. He hired young women who couldn't find work elsewhere - single mothers who were frowned upon, homeless women who needed shelter - giving them simple jobs and easy work. He never expected anything out of them other than that they get the job done. They appreciated the work, as it allowed them to take care of themselves and their children. His relationships with them remained purely professional.

Owen started to flirt with a nobleman named Laurent, cousin to the heir of the Vaux household. When Cita arrived in physical form, and took up arms against the Golden Hour, Laurent ran to help defend innocents against this so-called God of the Citadel. For the first time, Owen found himself honestly worried about someone's safety, and grew frustrated at his own inability to help.

With threat of war still in the air, the Whispers' front-man confronted Owen and demanded loyalty, forcing him to choose between them or Gladios. This man, who went by the name Jai, was someone Owen had recognized from youth. He'd been the girl Amber in years long past, and while Owen kept his knowledge of Jai's old identity to himself, he still felt the fondness for her that had been formed from their shared background. Having no ties to Gladios, he accepted the demand, swearing his loyalty to the Whispers.

Shortly after this became public knowledge, Gladios reacted, depositing the Whispers' second in command on Owen's doorstep, who also happened to be someone Owen had rather liked, a younger man named Rhys, unable to speak yet still very expressive. His death left behind the pup he'd acquired, and Owen took the pup up as his own, letting it stay at the tavern.

The Whispers had to respond to the attack. War was brewing, and everyone knew it. Owen was unable to fend for himself, he knew nothing of combat outside of basic street fighting, most of that drunken. He wanted to be able to defend himself, to be of more use to Jai and the Whispers, and to be able to protect those few he knew and cared for, such as Laurent, and the whores he'd grown attached to.

It was around then that rumours spread of the Golden Hour's increased ability to manipulate Belief to the point of turning humans into Others. Owen wrote to the man said to be responsible, offering a substantial sum to be turned into a werepanther. This would give him the ability to protect himself, his property, and his friends, and be of more use to his new boss.

It was shortly after this that he awoke to find himself in this... strange place, with strange machinery and magics beyond anything he could have ever imagined.
onemoredrink: (Default)

Owen Carter (OC) - 3/3

[personal profile] onemoredrink 2012-05-02 02:41 pm (UTC)(link)
Powers/skills:

Powers: Owen will discover that he can turn into a panther, as becoming a werepanther is the one thing he wanted most before 'waking up' from his dream, in order to make himself more useful at protecting those he cared about. Unfortunately, he won't get all the other benefits of being a were-creature - no improved healing, heightened senses, or enhanced strength. He'll be able to turn into a panther and will have to adjust to being a panther before that is even of much use to him, but over time, his panther-self will have the senses, agility, and eventually, instincts of a panther. Practice makes perfect, and all that. (Though he'll also be awful cuddly for a panther. >_>)

Skills: Owen's skill consist mainly of the things he did in his various professions. Pick-pocketing, medieval-era brewing, bartending, keen business sense, bookkeeping, printing by way of a movable-type print machine. He also has very good social skills, and can usually manage to figure out how to play up to a person's interests.

City
Name: Julian Mitchell
Position: Brewer - Runs Mitchell Brewery and Distillery (MBD), formerly Ivory Tower Ales.

History: [tw; child abuse, teen abuse]

Julian was born to a military mother and her domestic partner. The two later had a military wedding when their boy was three. The family was relocated often due to his mother's career, and he's spent time just about everywhere. Because of this, he had few friends growing up.

Leading into his teens, he started hanging out with anyone who'd have him - this was, usually, the troublemakers of society. He got into trouble so often his father started trying to beat sense into him, starting at the age of twelve. The beatings grew more and more severe as Julian refused to submit to the ruthlessness, and at the age of fifteen, during one of his mother's longer postings, he wound up hospitalized due to his injuries - two cracked ribs and a broken arm, and a lot of bruising. His father claimed he'd gotten mixed up with drugs, and since traces were found in the kid's system, the doctor's believed him.

They did, however, inform the police, who showed up to question him at the hospital. Clearly this boy had some sort of involvement in illegal activities, and they tried to convince him to talk. When he kept refusing, they took him into the station, where he demanded they contact his mother.

When they found out who his mother was, at that time an officer in the special forces, they were quick to get in touch with the military to have her informed of the problem. She couldn't get away for at least a month, and the military sent someone to investigate on her behalf.

It wasn't until she returned home to see what was going on that Julian co-operated, and told her what had actually happened. In a rage of fury, she attacked her husband, beating him to near death before the other officer was able to restrain her.

Julian's father was taken away to be prosecuted. Julian never heard from him again. His mother was reprimanded through the military, but retained her position. Unfortunately, this left Julian without a legal guardian. He was entered into military school shortly before his sixteenth birthday, against his wishes but with his mother's blessings.

Things didn't improve much for him. Sure, he didn't have a father beating him at every opportunity anymore, but he hated his school, and spent more and more time goofing off, and looking for ways to push authority. He took up drinking and smoking, found himself a few lovers, and was constantly punished for a variety of things, including theft, vandalism, disturbance, and was generally considered a bad influence. His mother tried to talk sense into him, but he was having none of it - he resented her. She'd left him to an abusive father and then abandoned him to this hell. It was all her fault.

He was enlisted on his eighteenth birthday. Still the troublemaker, his superiors were especially harsh on him, piling chores and exercises on him so that he had very little free time. When he did get time off, he spent it drinking and fucking. At least he wasn't getting into trouble. And he did take his lessons seriously, if only because it was kind of cool learning the arts of war, and he felt like it made him a badass.

At twenty, Julian managed to escape, having grown tired of the war game. He started traveling the lands until he made his way to the Diamond City, where he took up an assumed name, Jake Sanders, and lived a poor life as a beggar until he managed to land an under-the-table job doing deliveries. He didn't ask questions, and followed orders, and his new boss, after testing him with some special deliveries, started setting him up with more difficult operations. While Julian never asked, he assumed they were illegal dealings, but kept doing them because the money was good.

He started experimenting with brewing, since alcohol was expensive and he wanted to get as much of it as possible while spending as little as possible. As it turned out, his recipes were rather well received by friends, and eventually his boss got wind of it, and had him deliver some of his goods to their base of operations. Finding he enjoyed the ales 'Jake' managed to produce, he set Julian up with a brewery to start a business, with all shared of it owned by his boss. Julian tried to refuse, since if the business did well, his face would get out, but his boss insisted (with force/threats) and he had no choice but to agree.

He did his best to keep out of the spotlight, running things from the background, but during a commercial run, someone managed to snap pictures, and they got out. The military eventually tracked him down and arrested him, locking him up for desertion complete with a formal dishonorable discharge. Julian didn't argue. Most in prison left him alone, though he made 'friends' with a few of his boss's other men when they were informed he was in. Mostly they kept tabs on him to ensure his silence, which he had no interest of breaking.

However, during his incarceration, his boss wound up being taken out by police who had a plant in his illegal activities. Since the brewery wasn't directly owned by the criminal, and was a legal business, it didn't get closed. Instead, with legal council, Julian was able to claim ownership of it, using his assumed name as a business name, which wasn't unheard of, while also convincing the jury he had no knowledge of the illegal activities and was just a brewer. The military could have refuted the claim, but Julian's mother managed to smooth talk her superiors into letting her son be.

He spent the rest of his prison term supervising his business through telephone calls or visitations. Since he wasn't considered a threat, his lawyers managed to hook him up with more lenient visitation rights, though all belongings were still searched before each visit, and the visits were monitored. This allowed him to discuss business and even sign papers when needed.

Once he was released, he went back to work. He continued to drink and smoke, but he had a business, and was content let management continue with most of the work while he oversaw things, signed papers, and focused on the recipes, though he did put through a name and label change for the company. He paid close attention to quality, making many trips to test the products the company produced, and his business expanded to meads, then later to rum, and put a lot of effort into promotion.

His mother kept in touch. It had been ages since he'd felt any sort of hatred towards her, and he'd come to recognize that she couldn't have known what kind of a man his father would have become. Yet having never really known her, he felt something of a detachment, and mostly put up with the attention because of some vague sense of duty to a parent. He refused to even look for his father, whom in turn has never made an attempt to contact him before the disaster struck.

Proof: A recording of a commercial he took part in to promote his ales after being released from incarceration, the legal documents declaring his business as his.

Playing

First-person sample: How's this?

Third-person sample: And this.

Did you read the rules? Aye.
with_discipline: (Default)

Re: Revisions

[personal profile] with_discipline 2012-05-02 06:23 pm (UTC)(link)
Herperp, here they are! Sorry for the wait. <3

Age: Mentally, T'Pol has memories of almost seven decades, but Delilah's only been around for almost four of them. She's about thirty-six, thirty-seven.

Personality: T'Pol was never an overly social person, even after learning to cope with being around so many humans. She had plenty of time in the Academy to observe them, though, and that was how she learned to interact. She mimicked emotions, learned to express small amounts of them on her face so that humans would see her as less 'other' and 'alien' - and thus less of a target. She never went as far as some other aliens in Starfleet: she would mimic humans, but she would not become them. She's a scientist: observation comes naturally to her, especially when it means her survival. She doesn't take many chances where that's involved.

Finding herself to actually be human will be stomach churning for her. 'Delilah' may have always been human, but T'Pol knows herself to be Vulcan, and there will be very little doubt in her mind which life is the real one, at least at first. She will, however, be pretending very, very hard that she is this human named Delilah Bristow, and that that's all she's ever been. T'Pol doesn't see artifice as a game, like some, but it is a way to ensure her survival, and that's all she really cares about in the end.

History: Sorry! I forgot to cut out the tail end in the history. She is going to be from just after Archer makes her First Officer, as I plan to do a few canon updates to mess with her head. xp

Powers: Hmmm, do you think later on it could be that the touch telepathy actually saps some strength/hearing/etc from others? It would be a kind of call back to ancient Vulcan mind-lords, who were telepathic, telekinetic, and just generally terrifying sons of bitches. But if not, I'd rather just stick with the touch-telepathy, either works!

Sample: She wondered if she was a masochist. In retrospect, it would explain her decision to leave the only home she had ever known for Starfleet. Her first year on Earth had been the worst: all her studies, of Earth, of Starfleet, had done nothing to convince the Terrans that she belonged there. Worse yet, they didn't think she was capable of the work that laid ahead of her.

Those were the insults that stuck in her ribs, grinding at her carefully composed calm. She knew the prickle of pride, remembered it from her childhood, and as those early days stretched on she felt less and less desire to repress it. She was better than they gave her credit for, a better scientist, a stronger officer. But showing up a Terran in classes was unwise: it was a lesson she learned the hard way, early on. Her jaw had been swollen for days.

Hazing was another central aspect of Starfleet. For most, it ended after they survived their first year, and they would turn around and take out their anger, their scars and humiliation on the next class. For non-Terrans, though, it never ended. And as she continued to excel in her school, things got worse. There were very few alien officers; most knew better than to reach for high positions. It was better to blend in, to keep your head down and your mouth shut. You became less of a target.

She considered that when they made her a commander. Not even Soval had risen so high, and she couldn't quite resist the temptation to tip her chin up, the subtlest show of pride she could manage. Forest wasn't careful when he pinned the new pips to her collar, but she ignored the prick of the pin against her neck. Pain was passing; she'd just proven that a Vulcan was just as - if not more, she told herself - capable as a human. And it felt good.
with_discipline: (Default)

Re: accepted!

[personal profile] with_discipline 2012-05-02 07:09 pm (UTC)(link)
Awesome, thanks! I'm using t his journal, and you can unscreen the app. c:
onemoredrink: (Living by the law)

Re: accepted!

[personal profile] onemoredrink 2012-05-03 03:08 am (UTC)(link)
Same account and you may unscreen!
goodintent: (Default)

Castiel | Supernatural

[personal profile] goodintent 2012-05-03 07:59 pm (UTC)(link)
Player
Name: Fufu!
Username: [personal profile] tumbles
Current/Former Characters: None!

Sleeper
Character: Castiel.
Username: [personal profile] goodintent
Canon: Supernatural.
Canon Point: Shortly after civil war in Heaven breaks out, but before returns to Earth sooo in between S5 end and S6 start.
Age: ALL OF TIME but looks to be in his mid/late 30's.

Appearance:
Stiff, certain, and a little lopsided as far as his clothes go is how Castiel looks. In more physical terms, he is about 5'11, has short black hair that often fluctuates between styled and messy, blue eyes and an apparently permanent 5 o'clock shadow. He's not particularly scary looking, but he does have a distinct seriousness to him.

In his canon, Castiel is always wearing the same thing. Black dress pants, a white button dress shirt, a blue tie and of course his trademark beige trench coat. Most of his clothing appears to be somewhat big on him and his tie is often backwards because it gets flipped over and he doesn't ever notice something is wrong with it. He is not concerned with physical appearances, if only because he doesn't realize that he has to be.

Personality:
As a soldier of Heaven, Castiel appears to be a somewhat hardened person, and is generally very serious about things. He is precise, to the point, and doesn't exactly elaborate on things even when relaying information to his friends. If he doesn't know the answer to a question, he is prone to simply ignoring the call or literally vanishing.

Castiel is a quiet angel, and more reserved than some of his brothers. But the behaviour isn't due to shyness -- excessive talking and small talk are simply things that he doesn't see as necessary. That said, although he doesn't say a whole lot, one can gather quite a bit of information from Castiel's body language alone. It's in the way his head tilts, the way his eyes and his eyebrows move, the position of his shoulders, even in the way he breaths or stands sometimes. Though the motions are often subtle and he can put up defensive fronts when needed, it is still possible to read him. Castiel also doesn't have a very good concept of personal space and stares longer than he should (though to be fair, Dean is the one who receives the most of Castiel's personal bubble breaching). This is because, well, he isn't actually human no matter how much he looks it. He is still unfamiliar with a lot of social constructs and thus describes his "people skills" as "rusty".

Lying is also not one of his strong points. He was able to conceal his plan in season six from the Winchesters and even his angel allies for quite a while, but only because no one was poking at it. It would seem that while Cas is decent at avoiding things, he'll start to falter should his lie be questioned. He may accidentally reveal something he shouldn't or, more likely, be given away by his own body language. Normally the angel has intense eye contact, for instance, but when Dean caught him in a lie, Castiel looked away. And as for little white lies? Terrible. He just does not understand the point of them. And really, that's putting it lightly -- Castiel rarely even registers that they're needed. As such, when he believes something to be hopeless or insane or anything else then he'll just flat out say it, or if something is wrong he won't even think about saying "I'm fine" or "it'll be okay" like the boys are so prone to doing. He'll just tell it like it is without thinking, and deal with it. He doesn't sugarcoat anything. Even when he tried it once to appease Sam, it was terrible and awkward and Sam had to tell him to just stop it.

Unsurprisingly, sarcasm and humour are things that don't exactly register either. Dean is often throwing pop culture references and jokes at him that simply fly right over his head, expressed multiple times by an odd response (such as his reply to Dean saying God is on a tortilla being "no he's not on any flat bread") or even just a simple, confused look. After years of being friends with the Winchesters however, it would appear he has developed some sort of ability to at least detect when something is a reference or joke (sometimes)... but he still doesn't actually get it.

Of course, these are all human abnormalities. As an angel... well, alright, he's not quite a totally normal angel either. It's his interest in humanity that throws him into the naive little brother category, mostly. His fascination with the Winchesters actually got him demoted when he was still following Heaven's orders, and later he would rebel against Heaven, his family, because of and for Dean Winchester.

In all the massive amount of time that Castiel has been in existence, he has followed orders. It's what angels do. Only in the past couple of years was Castiel introduced to the concept of free will, and the ability to distinguish between right and wrong on his own terms. He was introduced to human emotions and honestly, Castiel is still sort of learning about them.

Though he is socially awkward, Castiel is very intelligent otherwise. Considering that he is pretty much as old as time itself, he's picked up quite a few things during his lifetime. He is well versed in a multitude of areas such as (but not limited to) human history, supernatural information, sigil creating, rituals, languages (including Enochian, the language of the angels) and tons of other useful things. He is not easy to outsmart, the only thing seeming able to get the jump on him being other angels.

He is also very powerful. More powerful than he lets on, really.

Castiel may look fairly harmless, but his physical appearance is only a vessel and is nothing like his true self (which is too overwhelming for humans to view without having their eyes burst into flames). He may be a close friend to the Winchesters and he may do whatever they ask of him, but he's still an angel. He was built to be a warrior without emotions, so even with all that he's learned about free will and choice, all the human emotions he's discovered and felt, he still has a fighter in him. It's why he's so quiet and pointed in conversation, and why he's a force to be reckoned with should someone piss him off or do something like threaten the Winchesters. Even Dean, his closest friend, has been on the receiving end of the angel's wrath before and it didn't end in flowers and puppies.

When Castiel is loyal to someone, it's with a fierce passion. He will disregard his own safety to the point of being willing to die for his cause -- a fact proved over and over again by getting himself killed (and thankfully resurrected) multiple times for Dean and Sam. He considers himself not just their friend but their guardian, and will go great lengths to keep them safe, no matter the cost. This includes making a deal with a demon because he thinks it is the only way he will be able to keep the boys (and by extension the rest of humanity) safe.

He is concerned with doing what he thinks is right, but not in a sparkly, goodie good way. He turned his back on his family because he believed them to be wrong. For his betrayal he became an enemy and was hunted by his brothers. Though he was subsequently forced to kill any angels who attacked him in order to survive, it was not something he did gladly. If given a choice, Castiel would have preferred not to have to do it. At the end of season five he begins to develop a sense of pride, which in turn led to him believing he was chosen by God to take over Heaven. So he challenges his older brother who is trying to take over and restart the Apocalypse that Cas and the boys worked so hard to avert. Even as he leads his army of angels against Raphael and his followers, slowly starts to dip into crazyville and has his questionable business deals come to light, Castiel still believed what he was doing was right. He just wanted to fix things, to end the suffering of his family and his friends, even though he had taken a dangerous road to do this. He was distraught when his friends started to abandon him. Castiel had only tried to do what was right... but now he was confused and misguided. But of course, it isn't the road to Heaven that's paved with good intentions.

From the canon point that I'm taking Castiel from he has not yet gone nutty, but he does still have that spark of pride and a desire to set things right. His heart's in the right place, but it would seem that all that free will might have been a bit much to swallow at once.
goodintent: (Default)

Castiel | Supernatural

[personal profile] goodintent 2012-05-03 08:00 pm (UTC)(link)
History:

Detailed history is here on his wiki page! And for some reason I wrote my own condensed version, so here's that too.

Castiel is a very, very old being. He was present at the beginning of time when his Father created the humans, and watched as they carried out now historical events. In more recent times, Castiel (along with a group of other angels) had laid siege to Hell in order to rescue the soul of one Dean Winchester, known to them as the Righteous Man. Castiel was the one who found Dean's soul and raised him from perdition, but not before the first of 66 seals that held Lucifer's cage together was broken. Not that they let the Winchesters in on this until much later.

In any case, with Dean back on Earth and the whole Apocalypse thing triggered, the angels were dispatched to Earth for the first time in over two thousand years. As angels are "wavelengths of celestial intent", taking on a human vessel was the only way to do this. Castiel's vessel is a religious family man named Jimmy Novak (who at this point is possibly dead, though Castiel continues to hold onto the man's appearance while on Earth so who knows).

Castiel (and subsequently the whole angel species) is officially introduced in season four. Up until the very end of this season, Castiel remains a soldier who is loyal only to Heaven and his Father (though is intrigued by humanity). He followed orders without wondering why, just as he always had... but as the season progressed Castiel started to become more and more aware of these odd human feelings that had never really bothered him before. Uncertainty. Guilt. Looking at the choices the fallen angel Anna had made, listening to her tell him he needed to think for himself and listening to Dean tell him all sorts of blasphemous things like free will slowly began to change him.

At one point, Castiel was going to tell the Winchesters the truth. About the Apocalypse, his orders, everything. He was going to help them -- but before he could, he was sent back to Heaven for a short time.

When he returned, he had "learned his lesson" and angrily told Dean that he served Heaven, not man.

But not so far down the road when Dean asked him again to help him, Castiel gave in and stood up for himself and his new way of thinking. By doing so, he rebelled against all of Heaven, chose the humans over his own family, all because he was sure that it was the right thing. He managed to send Dean to his brother so the boys could stop the breaking of the final seal, but they failed and Lucifer was released onto the Earth. Trying to protect the Winchesters, Castiel was killed by the Archangel Raphael.

However, it turns out in the fifth season that Castiel has been revived by an unknown force that he believes to be God. He holds onto his Grace (basically his angelness) but because of his rebellion he is cut off from the power of Heaven and is unable to access some of his powers, such as smiting demons and healing. That said, Castiel remains a powerful ally and with his new freedom is able to spend more time with the Winchesters. As they try to find a way to send Lucifer back to Hell and fight everything in between, Castiel acts as their guardian angel and goes to them whenever he is called. For a time, Castiel also spends his time searching for his Father, still believing in Him, but eventually his faith is shattered when the boys go to Heaven and discover that God is not only MIA, but he doesn't really give a shit about his children anymore either.

Some time after giving up on God and shifting his faith entirely to the Winchesters, they find a way to seal Lucifer in his cage again. During their final altercation with the devil, Castiel is once again killed by an Archangel (Lucifer this time) for helping the Winchesters.

And once again he is mysteriously brought back! He believes it to be the work of God yet again. Castiel is even more powerful than before, and as Heaven explodes into anarchy over the failed end of times prophecy and sudden, distinct lack of a chain of command, many of the other angels believe Castiel to be chosen and lay their loyalties with him. So with Sam stuck in the cage with Lucifer, Michael and his little brother Adam, Dean is left on his own. He goes to an old girlfriend and her son where he builds a new, normal life, and Castiel returns to Heaven to restore order.

Of course that doesn't quite turn out so well. He's no match for Raphael, who is stronger than him in every regard.

But Castiel is no longer bound by the laws Heaven placed on him. He has free will, and tons of angels looking to him as their leader, not Raphael. For a while the angel feels stuck and almost goes to Dean in order to ask for his help... but finds himself unable to bring himself to do it. Dean is finally happy and free from the life of hunter, and Castiel knows he can't take that away from his friend. He is soon approached by a demon named Crowley (who also now happens to be the new King of Hell in Lucifer's absence) and offered a plan, and a deal:

Find Purgatory (the place monsters go when they die) and split the 30 - 40 odd million souls in there 50/50. With the immense power that would come from so many souls, Castiel would be powerful enough to take out Raphael and thereby avert another Apocalypse. To show Castiel just how serious he was, Crowley offered 50 thousand souls from the Pit upfront to give him the boost he needed to deliver the first strike against Raphael.

Castiel accepted.

He then returned to Heaven and threw in the gauntlet. He let it be known that from now, you either stand with Raphael or you stand with him.

"And so went the long road of good intentions."

Powers/Skills:

Even low ranking angels in Supernatural are insanely powerful, so Castiel like his angel buddies already here will also have to be powered down. The basic bits are as follows:

Teleportation: So long as an area is not guarded by angel warding sigils, Castiel can instantly teleport anywhere.

Angelic Endurance/Strength: He is able to take quite a few hard hits without dying (as in, stabbings and shotgun shells to the chest don't really slow him down) and also possesses strength beyond that of the strongest human. Castiel can do things like throw people around no problem, push around furniture with a simple push of one hand, and survive falling out of a fourth story window and crushing the car he lands on without more than a scratch.

Supernatural Perception: Such as being able to see ghosts and reapers, seeing the true face of demons and angels, and being able to tell if someone is some form of supernatural creature or human.

Some Touch Based Skills such as Induced Sedation where simply a touch to the forehead can cause a person to temporarily lose consciousness and Healing of even the worst injuries. (Though for the purpose of the roleplay, these can be totally watered down to just being able to heal some cuts or make a person dizzy or something if necessary.)

He is also proficient in hand to hand combat and knife fighting, so even without his powers he should be able to hold his own in a fight.
goodintent: (Default)

Castiel | Supernatural

[personal profile] goodintent 2012-05-03 08:00 pm (UTC)(link)
City
Name: Gregory Wilton.
Position: A librarian/sometimes teacher.

History:
Gregory is a member of the huge and powerful Wilton family, spearheaded by their wealthy inventor of a father. Out of the tons of children his father produced, Greg is one of the younger boys and generally hasn't had a whole lot of interaction with the four oldest of the family (who are generally regarded as the closest to their father). That said, and in spite of being seen as young and naive and sometimes odd, Greg did have his place in the family. He was a serious, smart kid who didn't have much of a sense of humour, but he was nonetheless content with his life and loyal to his family.

So even after the second oldest threw a fit one day over a new kid and effectively drew a divide through the whole damn family, Greg stayed loyal to his father and the siblings still with him. And for quite some time Greg held onto his family pride. He continued to be obedient and diligently worked away in university, earning himself a constant place on the Dean's List and eventually PhDs in Theology and History.

He was a good student, and a good son -- even though his family was slowly but surely falling apart all around him.

And after years of slowly distancing himself, Daddy dearest finally dropped off the grid altogether. Out of love and lack of knowing anything else, Greg stayed and followed any orders he was given, just as he always had.

However somewhere along the way, Gregory made some new friends who slowly began to help him realize just how ruined his family really was. All the emotions Greg had unknowingly hidden away escaped from their confines, and finally he too decided enough was enough. Like so many brothers and sisters before him, he left as well.

But although he left, the kid hadn't given up hope and it was this lingering faith that led to a number of problems for the next couple of years. While his brothers fought, Greg went on a search for the one person who could put an end to it all -- their father. He stayed resolute and determined about the quest for quite some time. He went through a couple jobs at different libraries, did some teaching of college classes (mostly things like theology, world religions, histories of various countries, some folklore) and a couple high school gigs, never really staying that long before moving on to the next town.

Finally, he was hit with the devastating realization that their father was alive, but that he had stopped caring a long, long time ago. It took him quite a few weeks of drinking to start feeling less depressed about the whole thing. But he still had his friends. And they were once again inspiring him to get his shit together.

He decided that enough was enough. The fighting would never stop until he put an end to it himself.

When Gregory returned to the family, he quickly gathered support among his siblings. But putting together this mess of a family wasn't going to be easy, and Greg would need some help. There were already whispers of Greg dabbling in some... less than honest methods already, but still he found he wasn't strong enough on his own.

And that's why he showed up in Diamond City. He'd heard good things about that place, heard maybe he'd find a brother in hiding if he was lucky. He wasn't there long before the Disaster struck, but alas it's where he was when it did.

Proof: A faculty ID card from the last college he worked at.

Playing
First-Person Sample: shazam

Third-Person Sample:
Gregory Wilton.

Who this man was, Castiel didn't know. All he knew was that the man had a couple degrees or some other documentation that made him a doctor (which he supposed was a respectable achievement for humans, if he recalled correctly) and that apparently, "Gregory" was actually Castiel. Or Castiel was actually Gregory, technically, but the Workers were going to be hard pressed to get the angel to really believe that. Of course, it was curious that he had been rendered human upon arrival -- but there could be more than one reason for that, so it was still a weak argument.

Cas had been mortal once before. It wasn't very pleasant then, and he didn't have high hopes for the second time round either. Even when he was cut off from Heaven, he had at least held onto his wings. He at least wasn't completely useless.

But here... here he wasn't just human, he was somebody else. Not Castiel, not even Jimmy, but some man named Gregory who apparently had a pretty big, difficult family to deal with as well.

And Castiel could only assume that this Gregory fellow was more in tune with the world of humans than Cas was, he thought as he wandered through the library that he supposedly worked in and found himself concerned about the lack of real paper books. Everything was digital. Castiel just barely knew how to operate his cell phone and he hadn't actually used a laptop before, though he knew basically how they worked. So, as he stood off in backwards corner by himself, his head was tilted curiously as he peered into the screen of his e-reader like it held all the secrets of the universe.

He wasn't an idiot and he learned the basics of human products fairly quickly, but the initial introduction to it was a little... confused.

Did you read the rules? Yessums!

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