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.
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° 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.
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♢ 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!
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Player
Name: What would you like to be called?
Username: ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png) username
Current/former characters: Are you already in the game? Were you here before?
Sleeper
Character: The character's name goes here, obviously.
Username: 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? |
Uther Doul | The Scar
Name: Takhys
Username:
Current/former characters: None.
Sleeper
Character: Uther Doul
Username:
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.
Uther Doul | The Scar | 2 of 2
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.
Revisions
Almost there!
Your application is good! We just have a few questions about your app before we can decide to accept or decline. Please expand on...
Appearance
Unfortunately, Doul would not be able to keep his scars as you have described them. Our largest issue with them is that we see no corresponding City history in order for him to have any injuries similar to what he has in canon. If you can think of a few incidents that might explain Huw obtaining these scars, then please let us know.
Personality
While we understand that Doul is a silent, serious individual, we do not get much of an understanding beyond that through this personality section. We would like to see more about his internal thought process, his reactions to strange external situations, or how he might receive the many different types of people he might meet in the game's environment.
Powers
This is just one that we would like to clarify. Are all of these things aspects you intend for Doul to regain during his time in-game, or simply a description of how they are depicted in canon? "Probability sickness" would still be viable regardless if you would like to inspire plot while on hiatus.
City history
Tell us more about Huw. What City-state is he from? What did he end up doing with his life? You say he is excellent with numbers and the like. Did he end up with a job in this field, or—as you mentioned disappointment to his parents—did he never find a job? This is also the place you'd mention specific incidents that might have resulted in any scarring if you would like Doul to keep them.
Revisions
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.
accepted!
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