Another Shade of the World - An Urban Fantasy RP

Seeing how he linked to a picture of Christopher Lee as Dracula, I think he's going for the classical movie vampire. And of course the first Hammer Dracula film has one of the most spectacular death by sunlight scenes ever filmed for a vampire movie, so... Yeah.

Mind you, the sun did jack all to a lot of the oldest vampires. They were just nocturnal is all. But yeah.

Okay, I'm thinking a dwarf vampire burglar (I would have made him a ninja but you pointed out that kind of profession might not fit. Elven werewolf smuggler maybe? No I'm not kidding.

Oh, and daltar? yeah the Dresdenverse gets a lot freakier.

edited 17th Nov '13 7:32:44 PM by tricksterson

Well, I didn't want a guy I wouldn't be able to play as half the time; consider that the, like, one exception to vampire canon I'm making with this guy for the sake of plot. Could also be that seeing as he's so damn old he's developed token resistance to the sun.

If we were going truly classical vampire, he would be basically a ludicrously strong zombie that had to be in its grave by dawn and is anal-retentive as hell. But that would make for an appalling character, and who would ever want to play that?

The "vampire die in the sun" was actually made up for the movies. Bram Stoker's Dracula was weakened by the sun but not killed by it.

The fact that it ended up becoming an integral part of vampire lore, so much so that some people still to this day think it was part of the original legends, just goes to show how amazing and influential a piece of cinema Nosferatu was.

• Name: Manuel Mendoza
• Age: 25
• Gender: Male
• Religion: Catholic
• Race: Chupacabra
• Appearance: A young man in his mid-twenties with luxurious, straight, jet black hair worn in a style that reminds you of a river, as his kind, dreamy, slanted, blue eyes shine like two chunks of lapis lazuli and gaze into your soul. His clean-shaven face gives him an air of responsibility, but also of mischief buried somewhere within. Maybe use this as a rough guess◊. When he's in chupacabra form, he looks like this◊, at least physically (he doesn't wear sciencey clothes so he wouldn't have those)
• Personality: Manny is just an honest worker, living his life one day at a time, looking for Mrs. Right, and likes watching the game with a cold one in his hands and his friends nearby, or going down and driving along the coast on weekends. He is a positive and boisterous person who tries to make sure he's always being a good influence on others, because he knows that a lot of people will react well to a bit of kindness when they least expect it.
• Bio: His parents died at an early age and Manny was left in the care of his abuelita. Having grown up in the city, he probably seemed like a real ungrateful shit who didn't understand how good life was now, compared to when his grandmother was a kid. Though even for her it wasn't really that bad, since mankind's had a pretty decent infrastructure for the last couple centuries, leaving long behind the age of peasants who were forced to flee from village to village hunting livestock. So much like other abnormals, they just tried to live their life as normal as they can, keep that whole green reptilian thing out of the eye of humanity. Anyway... after he started hanging with the wrong crowd, his grandmother marched right up to the chop shop he was in, brought Manny back home, and forced him to turn his life around. That's where he learned to cook and really did try to improve himself, because as 'cool' as it seemed to be part of an illegal street gang, at least here he had nachos. Oh and people accepting him for who he was rather than how useful he could be to them, and being compassionate, and stuff like that. Eventually, when he started his own business, Abuelita decided it was time to give him space and go back home to live with the rest of her family.
• Skills: Is a good cook, as well as being pretty good at automobile maintenance and repair. Can make change easily in transactions, able to even identify coins in his pockets or hands without looking, as well as being a pro at using a coin changer belt. He can also eat really spice food without crying.
  • Being a chupacabra, he can eat raw meat and sorta turns into an lizardman sometimes, depends on if he feels like it. That taste for animal blood is pretty minor, and while going without animal blood for a few days would force him to uncontrollably chupacabrize and not let him revert to normal until he's fed, it's easy to control since meat is readily available in the modern era. One of the main benefits of operating a food truck is that he buys a lot of meat without anyone asking any questions, which is how he avoids unpleasant incidents. In his chupacabra form, there's not a ton of special stuff, mainly just lizard regenerativeness, a real tough and scaly hide, and having pointy claws and teeth. It's slightly larger than his human form so it always ruins his clothes unless he wears his stretchy pants.
• Possessions and Assets: Has a food truck painted a fiery red-and-yellow, called the "Macho Nacho" truck, with which he makes his livelihood. It's one of the few trucks in the city that offers goat in addition to the more traditional veggie, carne asada, pollo, chicharon, carnitas, al pastor, and mariscos. Lives in a three-bedroom two-bathroom house in the suburbs that he 'inherited' from his grandmother, with a large two car garage where he parks his food truck, as well as his personal vehicle, a 2001 5-door hatchback Ford Focus with dark blue body paint (it's obviously a manual transmission). He also happens to have an Executive Gold Star Membership to Costco.

edited 19th Nov '13 12:58:16 AM by nman

Well right now I think I've narrowed my options down to Friendly Neighborhood Wendigo, the "oh-god-why-did-you-combine-these-two-things" hellspawn of a vampire and a succubus/incubus, or a bounty hunter.

... Can I play as a Jefferson Starship? Please tell me I can play as a Jefferson Starship.

I'll officially approve or deny Taco's profile a bit later, but for now I'll say that a variant of vampire that is only weakened by sunlight is alright by me. There can be many species of vampires.

Jefferson Starship is a bit too specific. As for the other three ideas, it depends on execution.

As for the Assassin... I don't think she would remain in Volwick all that much, Anno. I mean as an assassin... well, there aren't that many targets or people that would buy her services. There is a crime family, but they would most likely use their own enforcers rather than such a professional for their stuff.

Nman asked me about what the Masquerade entails and I think I really should have explained this before hand. Here it goes.

The masquerade is maintained by three factors. The supernaturals, the magic users and human belief. The third is the blanket upon the other two act. Human belief has made it so that it's hard for common humans to perceive that outside what society has decreed as the way the world works. If you throw a troll in the middle of a crowd, people are more likely to see him as a rampaging gorilla or a large brutish thug than an actual troll. This veil of disbelief also makes magic less effective the more people are around to not think it exists at all. It is not almighty though, as a sufficiently powerful being can pierce through it and do incredible things in plain sight of people to their astonishment. If a normal human also inspects enough attention to the troll, soon they would start to take away the veil and see it for what it is... it is hard, but it could be accomplished. Now, this is a troll that doesn't do anything to hide himself... a monster with an actual magical disguise couldn't be pierced by the eyes of a normal human without some kind of assistance. Anyway, some time ago organizations of mortal humans and their allies as well as some powerful supernatural beings decreed it to be better for them to hide within the humans who believe in science instead of the supernatural instead of trying to change the status quo. They both have agents that try to mask the biggest transgressors that may actually break the masquerade.

But beneath the masquerade... it's not all monsters living as normal people. The more intelligent and human like do so the most often. For a vampire, unaware humans are a veritable and easy to take banquet instead of those who know exactly what they are and how to ward themselves. They hide among humans for their own purposes. Some of these monsters truly want a normal life and live like everyone else... but they need to take care of the sheer majority of them. Fairies prance in the parks and forests, going about their mischievous ways, invisible and mostly without care for humanity except to do pranks. Dark spirits float invisible among the crowds of mortals, bringing them dark fates and despair. Angels may lurk sometimes invisible and sometimes as people watching over their flock. The troll under the bridge isn't smart enough nor has the magic to blend in as a human and instead merely hides there until a hobo comes by that he can kill, cook and eat... letting their deaths be attributed to wild animals or drowning in the river. Monsters stalk the wilds outside of human civilization, nipping at the edges and only in some catastrophes making their way to the heart of it, where the mess they make tends to be attributed to natural catastrophes, a gas explosion or a savage serial killer. Hunters of the supernatural and the agents of the two groups I spoke off before may sometimes need to deal with these situations themselves and try to solve the mess before the masquerade is broken.

edited 17th Nov '13 8:34:25 PM by daltar

Um, well... maybe she just lives there some of the year? I don't really have any other ideas at the moment...

...It's almost five in the morning so there's a good chance this might have something wrong with it and/or be semi-incomprehensible. But hopefully not so, uh, yeah.

• Name: Alexis Mallory
• Age: 17
• Gender: Female
• Religion: "If it sounds good, I'm all for it!" Basically agnostic in the sense that she's open minded.
• Race: Human
• Appearance: Whee. She's pretty tall, too.
• Personality: Hotblooded, restless and unwilling to show fear of anything. She's also admittedly a little boastful and stubborn, which more often than not can lead her into fights. Alexis doesn't intentionally seek out conflict, although she never seems to rush to a peaceful compromise whenever things get heated. She believes that the best way to show conviction in your beliefs is by pummeling the other guy until he concedes to your point. Of course, that's only if a fight actually breaks out. Generally, she's a bit too lazy to actively pick fights with anyone, although not too lazy to be the leader of her gang. She does like having people to boss about, after all, although she refuses to let anyone else do it to them. They're her gang, after all, and no-one messes with the family.
• Bio: The only daughter of rich mage family, Alexis very quickly grew bored of upper class life and the pressures put on her by her parents. Never one to care for her studies, she soon began spending most of her time on the streets, eventually joining a gang of delnquents. To her parents' horror, not only did she end up spending more time with the gang then with them or, more importantly, on her studies, she ended up becoming their leader. If it weren't for the fact that she at least tries to keep the masquerade hidden from the more mundane members of her gang, and the fact that they think she probably knows how to pick locks, her parents would surely have locked her in her room and thrown away the key by now.
• Skills: Alexis possesses higher than average magical potential, but seeing how lazy and uncommitted she is to her studies she can only really do one thing. But she can do it really well, and not only that it's a kind of magic that is very easily concealed from those not in the know. Her magic is based off of reinforcement, allowing her to increase the strength and toughness of objects. She mostly uses this to transform her clothes into makeshift armour, or to increase the power behind her fists, but could also be used to make a wooden baseball bat as strong as a metal one or a pillow rock solid. As a delinquent, she also possesses the skills one would expect from such a youth, most notably honed unarmed fighting skills. She is able to ride a motorcycle, and despite being a delinquent is actually a pretty safe driver. She wouldn't want her bike to get damaged through reckless driving, after all, as that would mean having to beg her parents for the money to repair it. Finally, as she is a Moerin character, she is also an excellent cook.
• Possessions and Assets: Her parents are pretty well off, but seeing how much of a delinquent she is she isn't likely to be getting any pocket money any time soon. All she usually has on her is the clothes on her back, some spare change, and her motorcycle◊. And, of course, her Nice Hat. Do not touch her hat if you value use of your limbs. Additionally, Alexis is the leader of a delinquent gang, consisting of about ten other kids ranging from 15 to 17 years old. They're pretty loyal to Alexis and tend to help her when it comes to fights or information gathering, although most of them are completely unaware of the masquerade. Whilst they do occassionaly get into fights, the most heinous crimes they seem to commit are usually just loitering and jaywalking.

edited 19th Nov '13 12:33:44 PM by Moerin

I'm interested. I'll talk to you about an idea tomorrow, yeah?

• Name: Laoch “Weird” O'Connell
• Age: 29
• Gender: Male
• Religion: Weird is Agnostic
• Race: Human
• Appearance: Weird is an Irish man of standing six feet tall and weighing about 190 lbs, he has brown hair which he often haphazardly dyes pink with green and brown eyes. His shoulders and arms are covered with tattoos of Mythical Beasts, He often wears a dirty wife beater under a black hoody.
• Personality: Weird has fully adapted to his life where most people think he's either a scam artist or insane and the other half think he's an ass. So, he's adapted by being a Sarcastic jerk, often saying what comes to mind, though in the presence of vastly powerful beings he has been known to suddenly become much more amiable. Having a somewhat skewed moral compass, Weird has no problem whatsoever with lying, stealing and intimidation to get what he wants, and if pushed far enough he will not hesitate to use Torture and Murder. He often patrols the more super natural areas in Volstick
• Bio: Little is known about Weird, his accent suggests he's an Irish immigrant. He seems to have a job as a consultant for the police, along with the side jobs he takes to booster his money,
• Skills: Weird is a skilled singer as well as guitarist, he is an excellent Cook, and is in great shape, not to mention being a master level Traceur and is proficient with boxing and firearms. Weird is also surprisingly durable, capable of surviving wounds that would kill an ordinary man, coming out only horribly wounded.
• Possessions and Assets: Weird owns a 2013 Honda Motorcycle and lives in an apartment, that has a potions lab, a collection of books, an armory containing a Remmington hunting rifle, and an M1911 pistol, which he often has on his person Weird also owns a pair of leather gloves and a ski mask, which he uses whenever he has to something illegal like breaking and entering.

edited 20th Nov '13 7:52:38 AM by TroyandHawk

He seems... pleasant.

I'm interested, through a bit overwhelmed at the moment. Hmm.

If the GM's whims doth allow it, I'm going to play a walking Weirdness Magnet who's tasty to monsters. Maybe. We'll see.

To be fair, none of the profiles up right now reflect the tone very well, assuming we're angling for Dresden Files-esque. So if you're overwhelmed by them, don't be.

I take it Weird is the darkest character submitted so far?

Y'know Troy, dark isn't always a good thing.

I am fully aware that Darker and Edgier isn't the same as quality, it simply is what I like to do.

No offence, but just because you like doing something doesn't mean you're going to be good at it. Because honestly, uh... You're really not very good at it. Usually it comes off as either nauseating or so comically dark that either no-one can take it seriously or it just invokes apathy. Sorry. I mean, if you want to do that kind of thing, more power to you, but you really need to learn when enough is enough or what's actually appropriate for this kind of thing.

...Hopefully that made sense seeing how it's 06:30 and I really should actually get some sleep right now.

I am fully aware of my flaws, and I apologize if you're disgusted by my constant darkness, however, I personally Rp for my own enjoyment and just because he has a dark back story and some unsavory aspects doesn't automatically make him one of those dark, edgy "cool because they're Complete Monster" type characters. In other words I'm waiting for the Gm to say something before I change it.

I actually don't remember being in an Rp with you, if you're referring to The Humongous Mecha RP then yes, I admit that it was stupid how most of my monsters were just crap. Alright? So, again, my apologies if my predilection for sarcastic assholes with dark pasts offend you but I'm waiting for the Gm's opinions before I change it.

Also apologies if I come off as passive aggressive it's not my intention.

edited 18th Nov '13 12:44:13 AM by TroyandHawk

Hm, ideas...

...Are kitsunes allowed?

Um... reread that first paragraph. Unless you mean to say that you don't care about anyone else's enjoying the RP, that's come out wrong.

Play whatever you wish. If you get dark and edgy beyond tolerance we will gang up on you, put flowers in your hair and make you wear a pastel leisure suit.