The Price of Our Resurrection (interest check)

People die each and every day, it is the inevitable end point of each living thing to find itself at the end of their own personal rope.

However there are those among the dead who refuse to accept their final day, who scream defiance against the universe to a point where the universe is bent to that whim. Instead of finding itself on the path to What Comes Next the wandering soul of these few find themselves in a Place Betwixted, a dumping ground for those whose will has defied the natural order. They find themselves sitting in front of a campfire with a forest surrounding them on all sides, with cries of things that aren't ringing through the woods. And then the thing appears. The thing is oddity, madness, almost as if the world moves around it instead of it moving through the world. The thing always gives the same name/title, 'Jester Angel'. It explains the situation to the recently deceased, informing them that they are indeed dead, but it need not stay that way. Due to their extreme will it can offer them a return to life, a chance to walk the world of the living again. But there is a price to be paid for said resurrection.

Jester Angel explains that where they are now was meant to be a holding cell for Things That Aren't, beings that weren't ever supposed to exist. It is the warden over this place, but the spirits that force their way into the Place Betwixted open holes that the creatures can escape from. Thus the deal is made like this, the Jester Angel will allow them to go to the exact moment of their death but change things just enough so that they don't die. However in exchange they will become it's agents on Earth, finding the Things That Aren't and killing them so they might be returned.

To do this the Jester Angel provides it's agents with two tools. The first is the Cruciform, which appears to be a silver religious icon. However when in the hands of one of the agents of the Jester Angel the metal that makes up the icon can grow and change, becoming a weapon capable of hurting the Things That Aren't. The second gift it gives is the Stigmata Brand, which is equal parts curse and blessing. The Jester Angel reaches forward and places itself in contact with the human somewhere on their body and burns a permeate brand only they and other agents can see. This mark will slowly kill the one who has it bestowed upon them if they try to ignore their duty, but in return it grants them a special ability to aid in their fight.

So now they are returned to the world, their death averted, and a new duty hanging over their hands like the executioners ax. What will they do?

So any level of interest in this?

Character Sheet

Name

Age

Appearance

Cruciform: What religious symbol it takes while resting, and the weapon your character feels most comfortable wielding it as.

Stigmata: A pure black dot that can only be seen by other people who have been brought back. Also include what abilities it grants. Things like telekinesis, pyrokinesis, astral projection, a life draining touch, some sort of minor future sight. Things like that.

Backstory: Include how your character died

Personality: What kind of person they are

I'm interested. What kind of story would we be looking at? Would there be a Myth Arc? (I really like Myth Arcs. Even episodic adventures, as long as there's always some sort of goal in mind. Aimless interactions don't really do it for me.) Would you be controlling the Things That Aren't, and the RPers just fighting them, or what?

Not going to go to the trouble of crafting a character until I see that a viable amount of people are in, but count me as interested.

Yeah, there would be an overlying plot that would run throughout the various missions, with time for character interaction and growth between the breaches of reality. I don't want to spoil much in case this doesn't end up kicking off, but you can expect an underlying series of events.

Cool. Definitely interested.

Edit: And I lied. I got bored so I'm totally drawing up a character sheet.

Here it is. The only thing I don't have is what powers the Stigmata gives her. What kind of power level are we looking at here? Like on the Super Weight scale?

• Name: Tabitha Merwin
• Age: 19
• Appearance: Light-skinned, tall and slender, with thick, dark brown hair and brown eyes. Tends to dress in nondescript clothing, usually a t-shirt and jeans with a light jacket and comfortable slip-on shoes. Not especially feminine in her style choices.
• Cruciform: The Dharmachakra, a.k.a. Dharma Wheel. When used as a weapon, the Chakra expands and separates into two chakram that can be used either as throwing weapons, which (unlike real chakram) return to her after being thrown, or as hand-to-hand weapons.
• Stigmata: Tabitha's mark is in the palm of each of her hands. It gives her the ability to adjust her own mass, similar to the titular scientific principle of Mass Effect. By increasing her mass, she can make herself a heavy hitter^note The average human hand has a mass of between 0.2 and 0.5 kilograms—now imagine getting punched with a 500 kilogram fist., and by decreasing it to near zero, she can virtually fly.
• Backstory: Tabitha struggled with depression throughout her teenage years. Despite being highly intelligent, she barely graduated high school. A year later, she had spent a year fruitlessly searching for work and spiraling deeper and deeper into self-recriminations about being a burden to her parents, with whom she still lived. She was growing distant from her friends, who all had their own complicated lives to deal with. Her girlfriend of two years had just broken up with her. It seemed her life was falling apart and there was nothing she could do to repair it. So Tabitha snuck into the freight elevator of an office building downtown, rode it up to the roof, took a long look at the cityscape around her, and stepped off. In the seconds she spent in free fall, she realized her terrible mistake. Somehow, somewhere, something in the universe took notice of her desperation to go back—and then she hit the pavement.
• Personality: Sensitive, but tries to mask this with humor. She genuinely has an abrasive sense of humor and identifies most closely with others who have a similar sense of humor. Typically, playful insults are a sign that she's comfortable around someone; if she doesn't insult you, that probably means she doesn't like you or doesn't feel close to you. Tabitha is more empathic than she lets on, and feels personally responsible for suffering that she doesn't try to prevent, which feeds into a kind of mild cycle of Chronic Hero Syndrome in which her failure to be a perfect hero leads her to fall into a period of depression and self-recrimination.

edited 26th Oct '16 9:16:48 PM by SolipSchism

Question: Since I haven't been able to decide on powers (mostly because I don't know what power level the RP in general is going to run on), would it be okay if I started from nothing and had Tabitha discover her powers as we go? I'd run any new powers by you to make sure they're okay, but it would give me more flexibility if I was able to give her New Powers as the Plot Demands, within reasonable constraints.

If not, I'll just come up with something as other players join and I see what kind of power level their characters are at and what kinds of powers they have.

edited 26th Oct '16 1:29:26 PM by SolipSchism

This sounds interesting, but It'll take me a little to come up with something

I just thought of an interesting possibility for a power related to the circumstances of Tabitha's death. She could be able to manipulate her mass (a little bit a la the titular scientific phenomenon from Mass Effect). That is, she could increase her mass to make her a really heavy hitter, or decrease it to make herself capable of near-flight.

And if this power didn't affect her chakram, she could use them to literally fly. She could decrease her mass to near zero, and throw the chakram for propulsion. Since they return to her after being thrown, she could do this indefinitely.

It'd be weird, but could work. There'd have to be an upper limit on her mass though, otherwise she could be way overpowered. Or just fuck up the gravity of the Earth. <_<

To answer the question based around Stigmata abilities I would say make them useful, but they don't have the power to win a fight by themselves. Like if you could throw fire then summon up some flames, but with the understanding that it might not be enough to put down an enemy by itself.

Also thematically appropriate powers are always nice, such as gravity in relating to your characters suicide. So gravity would be fine, able to increase, decrease within a certain range. I try not to be too strict on people to allow more room for creativity.

As for your question of individual power level I would put them at optimized human strength for their build. So they can fight and move like action heroes, but are still capable of bleeding and feeling fatigue after awhile. The power is more of a trick to help you in a fight, while your weapon and body are the real aces in the hole.

If it helps think of it like a Jedi in Star Wars. The Force is a powerful tool, but at the end of the day hitting something with a lightsaber is a faster way to end a fight.

Cool. Okay. In that case, I'll start with the mass-changing ability, and if it seems appropriate to give her more later, I'll ask you if it's okay first.

I feel so impatient because I'm already so eager for this to start even though so far I'm the only one here with a character sheet. <_<

Definite interest.