Post-Magical Megiddo: Not The End Sign Ups and Interest

One day, the protective measures intended to keep the magical and powerful apart from the mundane failed. At once, there was the magical, the unusual, the previously impossible. Psychic Powers, Magic, Cryptids, everything from the noblest(?) Unicorn to the starkest dragons was all at once real. There was to be a period where adjustment should have happened.

It didn't.

Now, thirty years after the "Great Emergence" that led to a world-shattering event, the world is a vastly different place. Florida, Georgia, Both Carolinas, and Alabama are all now nothing but memories resting beneath the waves.

Russia is a colder, darker and deader place than it had ever been before - playing home to the ancient magical warlord Alpha-Leunis, who had rested in his Hecatomb until the Emergence, and then plied his trade of playing to feelings of superiority.

Too many magic users at once flocked to the message of Alpha-Leunis - that they, the more powerful, were the rightful rulers of the world, having been born into "the right side of the Masquerade" and manipulating the fundamental forces of the world.

With his Horsemen of Destruction, Alpha-Leunis waged a devastating war across the globe. Powers that once seemed ironclad evaporated before him. Only a dedicated Resistance movement across the world halted the advance of Alpha-Leunis...at great personal cost.

Now, a generation has grown up in the shade of war, social darwinism, pressure to survive and live through the worst and come out on top.

But the world's darkness need not define you. There still exists hope that the great tyrant of their time may be defeated, and peace restored.

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So, basically, this idea came to me tonight, and I figured I should go ahead and go for it. The general idea is a more resistance themed RP - in a way kind of like Sonic {-Sat AM-}, the villains have a definite position of advantage. The heroes have to start by sabotaging and inconveniencing the villains until they can wield enough power, influence and capabilities to more decisively engage Alpha-Leunis.

A large amount of the world currently exists under the Darksteel thumb of Alpha-Leunis, learning his (seriously screwed up) perspective on the world.

Its the job of the Player Characters to work their way through his territories and eventually confront the Big Bad himself.

---

Sign Ups:

• List of Accepted Characters:
  • Wilma Printer / Jumping Fruit

Sign Up Sheet:

• Name:
• Age: (most resistance fighters are rather young, owing to the danger in their profession)
• Gender:
• Appearance:
• Powers:
• Equipment:
• Skills:
• Weakness:
• Personality:
• Background:
• Etc:

Edited by NickTheSwing on Apr 13th 2019 at 7:30:24 AM

The Town of Kirkton

The setting of the game, and a new town that sprung up in New York. People fleeing the devastation to the south passed through, and some stayed around - the town would grow in number if not wholly in size due to this. The exact degree of comfort present in the town is always relatively low - most buildings are not built high and are usually a mix of old buildings and new repairs slapped together.

The main town tavern is the Running Ridgejaw, after a monster that the owner was involved with a few years back. It is a common gathering place for people in town and those passing through - the owner has a mean cocktail recipe, and the place is also home to the Hunters Guild. The Hunters form the backbone of the Resistance's effort - can't be fighting Alpha-Leunis' forces when the home front is being damaged and worn down by various monsters and beasts.

The town is unfortunate enough however to be right by a large amount of wasteland - in addition to the monsters which call the place home, there is a Warlord who serves Alpha-Leunis present in that wasteland with his horde, biding his time and resources. This Warlord only goes by "The Saint", while those unfortunate enough to reckon with him can attest that he is anything but saintly.

• Name: Wilma Printer
• Age: 15
• Gender: Female
• Appearance: Wilma is a (5 ft. 2 in. tall, 120 lbs.) stocky 15-year-old girl with brown eyes and light brown hair in two thick fishtail braids reaching down to her lower back. She wears a white button-up long-sleeved shirt and a dark brown knit vest under a light brown trench coat (that is always open), a knee-length black pleated skirt (with knee-length bloomers underneath), knee-high thick woolen socks, and flat-heeled knee-high leather boots. She also wears the aforementioned newspaper hat and black rectangular wire-rimmed glasses.
• Powers:
  • Paper Manipulation: Wilma is able to manipulate paper to form a variety of constructs, provided she has enough lying around. The constructs she makes take on the attributes of the real thing. Through constant practice and ignoring all facts to the contrary, her constructs are now waterproof and fireproof.
  • Art Animation: Whatever she draws on a surface will appear real and move around on its own, but only on the surface it was drawn on. If she takes the time to pay attention to minute details, she can then summon the drawing off of its surface and into real life.
  • Legend Forgery: By fabricating a legend that attributes anomalous properties to an item or location and believing in it herself, she can make the properties appear in the item/location. She cannot speak of the true history of the item/location, as that will end the effects immediately.
  • Understand Languages: Wilma has the strange ability to use any language as soon as she comes into contact with it. She thinks this is annoying since it gives her splitting headaches when activated.
• Equipment:
  • Messenger Bag: A messenger bag holding Wilma's sketchbooks, notebooks, and writing/art supplies. This is with Wilma at all times, and she has developed a sixth sense as to where it is should it ever be lost.
  • Newspaper Hat: A large, slightly floppy sailor hat made out of newspaper. Wilma carries this hat around as "concealed" ammunition. It looks slightly silly, but people ignore it, which is her intention.
• Skills:
  • Speed-Reader Savant: Wilma tears through reading material extraordinarily quickly, remembering everything she reads, if only subconsciously. This makes her a good researcher of threats.
• Weaknesses:
  • Words Are Binding: Wilma physically cannot tell a straight lie and must keep any promises she makes because of the stipulations of a family blessing that ensures her continued existence and counters a curse by a magus family. In addition to this, she must prevent her name from being struck from all records (on documents and from memory) or else she will cease to exist because the blessing is tied to the "Wil-" syllable in her name.
  • Bleed For Your Art: Attempting to overuse or use her powers in ways not defined by her own rules causes her physical pain and in extreme cases, bleeding from orifices. This can be fatal if she does it too often.
  • Otherwise Regular Person: Despite her powers, she is a regular human being and is affected like one, too.
• Personality: Upon first glance, Wilma is a Cloudcuckoolander through and through. However, under all the strangeness lies a startlingly bright intellect that doesn't hesitate to lend a hand, should she be needed. She is concerned about the situation with Alpha-Leunis (as well as an old family grudge, which seems to have reared its ugly head again) and is secretly very scared, but she doesn't think that will stop her from doing the right thing, whatever that may be.
• Background:
  • Wilma and her family have odd powers related to art and their obsession with it. Such individuals are called "Inspired," or just "Mad" by people wishing to insult them. This wouldn't be such a problem in itself, but the new government was highly wary of such people, because they had an extended capacity to criticize them with their art and in the case of one member of the Printer family, kill important officials through strongly worded letters (it never happened, but the government feared this as an outcome nevertheless).
  • Inspired individuals were branded as dangerous because of their odd thought processes, and many were sent to "Mental Reconditioning Centers," never to be seen again—including Wilma's grandfather, who was an excellent writer. The other, not-so-dangerous ones were mandated to wear special badges warning people to stay away from them. After several years of this treatment, the Printer family pooled their collective resources and escaped to Kirkton. Wilma came right along with them, eager to make a name for herself as a member of the Revolution, clearly affected by the romanticization in the books she loved with all her being.
• Etc:

Edited by JumpingFruit on Apr 20th 2019 at 6:35:56 AM

I wear the skin of the Elder Things, having come unto my own.

Accepted welcome to the game.

Name: Aria Fischer
Age: 20
Gender: Female
Appearance: Despite her lean 5'10" figure, she packs quite a bit of wiry muscle underneath her scrappy outfit. Her clothing consists of a ragged cream blouse and navy pants with some worn leather boots and a tight leather vest, all of which she covers with a deep brown cloak made up of countless fur skins. Her shorn off auburn hair spiking everywhere due to its short length and the brown tan to her heavily weathered, scarred skin adds to her wild look. Only her ice blue eyes seem to give any hint of humanity, even as her alert gaze seems to pierce right through you.
Powers:

• Hypnotic Voice: Due to her Siren heritage, any creatures and people are compelled to stop and listen to her whenever she speaks, no matter the strength of their will. She can even control them through a combination of gestures and spoken commands. Through singing, she can extend her power to inanimate objects to become more like telekinesis as well as lure to her anyone and anything unfortunate enough to hear her.
• Feather Manifestation: Once again, being part Siren can let her grow on her body at any time light yet nigh-indestructible razor-sharp feathers. She can pull these off to throw or shoot them out as projectiles to protect her and also serve as body armor.

Equipment:

• A large backpack full of
  • Writing supplies: Since her voice limits her communication, she has collected various items to write her thoughts instead. She has a chalk and board, quills and ink, and several pens and pencils with some notebooks.
  • Hunting toolset and weapons: Surviving in the wilderness requires her to have these items invariably. She currently has a bow and numerous arrows, a slingshot with a pouch of stones, and a pair of hunting knives.
  • All the essential survival gear.

Skills:

• Survival and Hunting Training: Her time wandering around the land made it necessary for her to learn any survival and hunting techniques she could to live as long as she did. Hunting also give her the bonus of trading in meat and fur for any items she might require at the moment.
• Animal Voice Mimicry: To aid her in hunting, she taught herself to copy and project the sounds of nearly any creature she has come across. It is not perfect by any means, but she has used it to distract others while she runs or hides away.

Weakness:

• Power Incontinence: The power of her voice is constantly active, forcing her to become practically mute in order to restrain her powers.
• Plucked: Making too many feathers in one day strains her body, taking her several hours of rest and plenty of food to recover from it.
• Just Your Average Girl: Aside from being more agile, faster and smarter than one would typically suspect of her, she is a rather normal human with all of their pros and cons.

Personality: Her harsh living has made her equally rough in character, as shown by her blunt and often rude manner of going about others to the point where she almost revels in rebeling and infuriating others. She does have a habit of softening her behavior somewhat when being consistently treated kindly and in the presence of young children. During all this, she often reveals the insecurity and sadness she tries so hard to obscure in her efforts to fullfill her goals.
Background:

• Aria's mother was one of the few wild Sirens left in the world after most had been captured or killed for their powerful abilities. Because of this, most either decided to isolate themselves or live a nomadic life wandering through the skys to avoid their fate.
• At a young age, Aria was told that she was the product of the one affair Mother dared to have with a kind man named Tobias during her world trekking. She felt like she regretted not staying with him since then but she ran away when she discovered her pregnancy due to fear of him dealing with a half-breed child. So on her deathbed, she gifted Aria with her last feather and an enchanted bottle filled with her voice along with the wish that her only daughter would find protection by Tobias.
• That was 6 years ago. Progress towards finding her elusive father was slow and tedious with the rough living she had to go through. Now however, she got some clues that he had been locked up by someone working for Alpha-Leunis together with a unknown half-sibling of hers. The reason from what she could gather was his vast knowledge of many of the dying out races of half-animal, half-human species out there. So she decided to start her search in Kirkton right next to one of the Warlords that might hold her father...

Etc.: She developed a hobby of wood crafting and carving when she was stuck sick in a cabin in the woods for a month. She also enjoys journaling and detailed documenting of any creatures and experiences she's had from when she was very small.

Edited by ayamketimun on Apr 28th 2019 at 10:13:12 AM

• Name: Lucy Livingston
• Age: 16
• Gender: Female
• Appearance: 5'2"◊. Of apparently mixed Asian descent. Very thin in appearance, almost undergrown—with her pallid complexion, often mussed hair, and tired eyes clearly displaying her exhaustion and poor emotional state. Usually averts her gaze when looked at—prefers to hide her face in thick or baggy clothing such as hoodies. Blushes easily. Habit of staring into space.
• Powers:
  • Ink Manipulation: Lucy is mentally tied to her own produced ink, and has incredibly precise control over it as such. With pure instinct she can lash out with it in violent yet uncontrolled bursts, but with concentration she can mold it into weapons and manipulators able to be used for a variety of situations. She can manipulate the density of the ink by packing it tightly together or stretching it into loose membranes, and her versatility with it allows her to form practically anything needed for a situation granted if it isn't overly complex. Lucy most commonly shapes her ink into external tendrils or uses it to enhance her physical strikes, but high velocity pellets launched from her skin are also used for offensive purposes on occasion.
  • Ink Generation: By isolating excess fats and fluids in her body, Lucy can create new reserves of ink for her usage by pushing it out through her pores; either as a gradual trickle or a violent burst akin to a geyser. It is directly tied to her metabolism and as such overuse of this ability can quickly fatigue her and put her at risk of starvation and dehydration—but she is able to simply pull back the ink supplies if they've remained intact and absorb it back into her skin to rejuvenate herself. Theoretically, Lucy could perhaps convert other parts of her body into ink, but out of fear of the risk and whether or not she'd be able to reverse it properly she primarily avoids using anything other than disposable materials anyhow.
  • Tactile Telepathy: Of a sort, at least. Either through direct physical contact or by concentrating through her ink, Lucy can extend her psionic signal out and into others for a brief moment in time to snatch up flashes of information (most commonly the person's current emotions). This is indicated visually by a slight electrical discharge that bounces off of her skin and the person she touches, or similarly arcs of static that flash through her ink if she decides to do it from a distance. Lucy has yet to solidify this ability into anything substantial, but it can be useful for gathering her enemies' intentions in the heat of a battle.
• Equipment:
  • Emergency Ink Supplies: Due to the fact that ink by itself isn't exactly easy to find and that producing her own can quickly drain her, Lucy keeps a ready supply in the fabric of her very clothing—which has the side effect of making all of said clothing a pitch black in colouration. Even in the case that fails, Lucy also collects ink cartridges when she can find them and stores them in her pockets or wherever she can hide them for quick deployment. Some might say she's overprepared, and honestly Lucy can't do much else but agree with them.
• Skills:
  • Insight: Despite her meek tendencies, Lucy is constantly taking in notable snippets of information and collecting them into an inward map of not-necessarily-connected but not-entirely-nonsensical understanding. Her cautious and empathetic demeanour means that she is usually walking on eggshells around people anyway, and so in any event she ends up thinking primarily for the feelings of anyone involved over the actual structure and planning—and indeed all of her organization is based around people instead of pure efficiency. Though this is all assuming she has the courage to speak up to actually organize something in the first place.
  • Painting: Lucy has quite an artistic mind, and her perfectionism and innate sense of order usually keeps her working up until ridiculous hours just to get every single detail perfect. She has a great appreciation for aesthetic as a result, and can often zone out if she spots something distinct or interesting enough. Notably, she focuses on portraits in particular—environmental art and landscapes are usually avoided unless she feels it has ‘personality.’
  • Empathy: By far her most prominent trait. No matter who the person is—even if they are directly in opposition to her—Lucy always approaches them with genuine concern when they show even the slightest hint of vulnerability. Even in the case she's being assaulted she still attempts to talk her would-be attackers down and try to judge whether they're doing this for some other reason. Lucy's forwardness regarding her strange need to comfort others in need is in stark contrast to her usual timidity—and it isn't unusual for the girl to flit from a reserved state to a fawning worry as soon as the time arises.
• Weakness: Water tends to mix poorly when her ink is active, and Lucy for all her skill in manipulation can be quickly downed if one figures out how she defends herself. While she can harden her ink for both defensive and offensive purposes, the substance tends to act like oobleck in its viscosity—hardening according to impact and softening if handled lightly. As such, those with blades or enough smarts to take it slow can break through her defences, and once she doesn't have her ink to help her there's little Lucy can do to defend herself. The only real thing she'd have left is her tactile telepathy, but even that can be overpowered by those with decent mental fortitude and has the unfortunate side-effect of inducing backlash against her anyway.
• Personality: A withdrawn, painfully shy, yet incredibly selfless and softhearted individual. Lucy puts herself at detriment for the benefit of others, and that is seen most clearly by her sickliness and severe amounts of stress she has to wade through. She's the type of person to stand in silence for hours at the side of the room in order to gauge people as they talk amongst each other—yet be the first to approach with gentle reassurance and a calming embrace if the situation somehow escalates and someone is hurt. She seems to think her opinion is somehow invalid and only useful when asked for, and even then her prominent stammer when pressed on things can make it difficult to get her to speak most of the time. An expressionistic sort, Lucy relieves her pent-up anxieties through paintings, music, and other such artistry—things she is always reluctant to share for reasons more than simple shyness. Inwardly, Lucy can be a very opinionated, unforgiving, and even hurtful individual against those she perceives as being unjust or somehow in the wrong, but her own doubts and sense of self-awareness prevent her from making her more intolerant side visible most of the time. While under opposition she can be rendered nigh-unrecognizable, Lucy remains a genuine person at heart and is always willing to provide support to those who need it. Granted if they haven't avoided amending some prior wound inflicted on her, of course.
• Background: Born to Jane and Lucius Livingston all the way over in Newport, Lucy's relatively normal (if not financially absent) life was abruptly interrupted by Alpha-Leunis' sudden attack on the city and the local states, prompting the family to pack their bags and flee to Kirkton due to their lineage's infamous tendency of producing incredibly powerful and unstable offspring. With Lucius getting separated in his attempt to fight back and presumed dead, his newly widowed wife could do nothing but go on without him; spared due to the fact she herself lacked any supernatural ability and that Lucy had yet to manifest any powers of her own. With them settling into the depths of Kirkton alone and lost, Jane attempted to raise Lucy the best she could while remaining anxious of her own waning health and her daughter's potential nature as a destructive power and/or target of Alpha-Leunis and his cronies. Growing up in a harsh environment and socially stunted as a result, Lucy's still managed to remain mostly kind and gentle despite her naturally timid nature and lack of self-esteem, but there's no telling of the extent of what her experiences have truly done to her psyche. Recently having manifested a psionic mastery over ink due to her obsession with painting (The Livingstons often received abilities forged after their personalities and individual wants) Lucy has been secretly training herself in the ways of empowered combat—her fragile exterior hiding a dangerous desire to fight back and discover her father's fate no matter the cost.
• Etc: Lucy paints in a distinctive chiaroscuro style, and her works (when not of people or environments she's seen) often include rather grim and disturbing imagery. Her most prized painting illustrates that perfectly; displaying what appears to be a younger version of herself cheerfully and naïvely interacting with a tall, inhuman figure with a hood disguising its face. The origin of this imagery is unknown, as whenever asked Lucy only seems to clam up about it.

bork

Both of your characters are Accepted! Thank you so much for signing up.

Edited by NickTheSwing on Apr 22nd 2019 at 1:29:48 AM

I've been interested in this for a bit but refrained from posting due to lack of character concept, and well while I don't have a solid concept yet, I'm working on it. I do have a few questions about the setting though. It is modern day post apocalypse right? So there's cars and guns and shit, in addition to dragons and demons and wizards? Cause that's how it read to me, but it wasn't explicit, so I want to be sure.

How bad is infrastructure supposed to be? I know the starting town is young and new but like is there still functioning power plants? Does everyone have to do their own thing electricity? What about global communications? Can I beat a monster to death with a gameboy and will it still function afterwards?

How's religion been doing? Did high fantasy style paladins and clerics suddenly start springing up? Did the Pope try to cast Holy on Alpha Leunis and fail? ...My character concept wasn't religion related but now I suddenly want to play a paladin. Probably won't just tempted.

Click Click Boom Boom

Basically, its a modern day apocalypse despite taking place chronologically a few years beyond the modern day due to the damages.

Yes, cars and guns and stuff like that, in addition to dragons, demons, monsters of all stripes, and wizards.

In the land not controlled by Alpha-Leunis, things are pretty bad - a lot of the outskirts are infested with warlords, some big cities are abandoned and have some pretty nasty things dwelling in them. There are functional power plants - in fact, the better the power plant, the more functional the population center is.

A lot of the places with power plants use them in conjunction with magic to keep out some of the nastier magical customers.

As far as electricity, its every citizens' responsibility to keep their electricity running - and this can get a bit dangerous considering the things they need to retrieve to get repairs.

Global communications are tattered and don't work 90% of the time.

Well, you could probably COULD do so against certain weaker specimens of the "Poppet" species of monster. Trying that against a Greater Reaper though is asking for trouble.

As far as religion; the current Pope, Boniface X, did indeed make an effort against Alpha-Leunis - the holy spell attempted didn't work the whole way, though it did sideline the big bad long enough for certain other things to happen. The Vatican still exists, owing to a "Holy Force Field".

As for Orthodox Churches, while the Greek Orthodox is still extant, the Russian Orthodox Church basically rolled over for Alpha-Leunis. Via blackmail, displays of force and charisma (as well as weaponizing corruption), Alpha-Leunis got the Russian Church to declare him the son of god. This isn't exactly taken seriously outside of Alpha-Leunis' domain.

There are holy orders and clerics now, mostly originating from the larger cityscapes, usually having an amount of power and influence some would call inordinate.

So, clearly I need to make it my character's life goal to beat a greater reaper to death with a gameboy, because that won't go horribly wrong at all.

Just how nasty are the cities supposed to be? Cause I suddenly got the idea for an urban explorer who goes into cities to scavenge for stuff, but if we're talking like 95 percent death rate even for experienced explorers that's uhh probably not really an option.

How are other religions doing? Like Hinduism? Shintoism? Norse and Greek/Roman Neopagans?

I also have a few PC concepts that I decided against, that I think might make interesting NPCs if you want any suggestions on those.

Edited by Kosjurake on Apr 23rd 2019 at 3:57:04 PM

Click Click Boom Boom

The cities either have roaming crowds of marauders, raiders...or in the aftermath of so much death, some rather eldritch seeming creatures settle in to the old cities, and emerge when humans enter.

They're not a super high death rate, but the thing is you've got to be exceedingly careful.

India and Hinduism are kind of in a rough spot - even though there's a growing movement to help, India itself is mostly closed off from the outside - they saw what happened in China. Due to China's humongous population, Alpha-Leunis decided to make use of China as "a pure Human Resources country".

Shintoism is...radioactive, but Japan has become a troubled place. Even though Alpha-Leunis doesn't overtly rule it, the people in charge very much hearken to his will. They claim to fight against him, but in practice the leadership is following Alpha-Leunis' will, against the wishes of the populace. And this is leading to some VERY angry Kami.

When it comes to Greco-Roman stuff, it might interest you to know that Alpha-Leunis absolutely loves Greece and Rome. His domain is largely themed after it, but with many more colosseums than Rome ever had.

• Name: Melvin Hurst
• Age: 20
• Gender: Male
• Appearance: Mel is slightly short for an adult male standing at about five feet six inches. He is narrow of frame with well defined musculature. His hair is a dark brown verging on black, his eyes were formally hazel, but after drinking an alchemical concoction on a bet, they are now a bright yellow cats eyes, slit pupils and all. He's picked up various minor scars from scrapes and close calls but nothing particularly notable among the populace given how rough life has gotten.
• Powers:
  • Aeromancy: Mel is a competent aeromancer, who normally uses the magics to assist in his movement through ruined urban landscapes. While not capable of actual flight, he is capable of slowing his falls and increasing the height and speed of his jumps. He can knock others around with his air magic as well but none of that blade of wind stuff, at least not yet.
  • Small Magics: While Mel has devoted most of his time to learning more air magic he's picked up minor cantrips from other schools. Lighting small fires, creating motes of light, stuff to that effect.
  • Enhanced Senses: Due to an alchemical concoction Mel drunk a year ago half on a bet half because he wanted to, his vision has been significantly enhanced. Mostly in terms of the fact that he has much much better low light vision, but he can also see clearly twice as far as a normal human, and can much better track high speed movements. His hearing has also gotten about fifty percent better. Even his sense of smell is better, but not good enough to be super notable.
• Equipment:
  • Handgun: Mel carries a 9 millimeter semiautomatic handgun, with a 15 round clip. It is mostly a panic back up weapon. Given the fact that guns are loud which both alerts others to his location, and hurts his ears.
  • Short Compound Bow: Mel's primary weapon is a small 40 pound draw weight bow.
  • Grappling Hook and Rope: Mel doesn't often use this for movement given his other skills, but its always good to have a back up or if he's transporting something heavy.
  • Survival Knife: A seven inch steel blade with serrations along the spine. Nothing particularly special but well made.
  • Bicycle with attached cart: A plain somewhat rusted but otherwise well maintained pedal bike, with a small two wheeled cart attached to it. Mel uses it when ever he leaves town either on a courier job to another town, or when he's going to scavenge city ruins. He also occasionally uses it around town if he's delivering large packages.
  • Utility Vest: A sturdy plain grey vest covered in pockets, used to store various useful odds and ends. Occasionally ditched if Mel needs to lose weight fast, but almost always retrieved if possible.
  • Backpack: Used for courier duties or scavenging, its a backpack, nothing much to say here.
• Skills:
  • Parkour Master: Mel has learned how to move and to move well. He's quite agile and capable of traversing basically any terrain with ease.
  • Marksmanship: Mel isn't a particularly accomplished marksman, he can hit his target more often then not yes, but he prefers to avoid a fight if he can help it.
  • Knife Fighting: Mel knows the very basics of knife fighting. Which basically amounts to pointy end towards enemy, and a few basic blocks.
  • Stealth: Mel certainly can't vanish in plain sight, but he knows how to be quiet and how to make use of the shadows.
  • Sleight of Hand: Mel knows a few basic card tricks, and a few pick pocketing tricks, but he's never been successful on swiping stuff while people are paying attention to him. Not that he tries that on anyone in town... anymore.
  • Endurance: Melvin while not actually a marathon runner has the endurance of one.
• Weakness:
  • Only Human: Melvin might be used to a bit of a rough and tumble life style, but he's still only human. He bleeds, his bones break, pain can be debilitating.
  • Loud Noises: Mel's heightened hearing does make him somewhat more vulnerable to loud noises then a normal person.
• Personality: Melvin is a rather chipper fellow despite the entire dead father and mother vanishing and abandoning him in his early teens thing. He's accepted the saying "Life's a bitch and then you die." And has decided to enjoy things despite that. He has hedonistic leanings when not on an expedition. And while friendly enough he doesn't have much interest in forming relationships beyond business matters.
• Background:
  • Melvin's parents were rather ordinary folk both before and after the magical apocalypse happened. His father worked as a plumber in New York City, and his mother as an electrician. Not the most noble of trades, but useful even after the rise of Alpha Leunis. They didn't meet one another until seven years after the apocalypse. There were no great sparks of passion between the two, no love at first sight. They simply got stuck working together on the same job, fixing up some of the towns utilities. But they grew closer over time working together. They never really fell in love, but after moving in together nature took its course and resulted in Melvin.
  • They weren't bad parents, they weren't good parents, though standards had slipped so they were better then most. Childhood was about as good as it could get for a child of the post apocalypse for a good five or six years, but accidents happened. In this case a building Melvin's parents were working at the same time went up in flames. His dad never made it out and his mother was crippled unable to walk again. Melvin was suddenly stuck doing a lot more around the house then he used to at a young age. Which included running errands.
  • Melvin liked running, not only did it let him get out of now too gloomy home, it was just simply fun to see how fast he could get from point a to point b. Eventually based off the straight line hypothesis he started climbing and traversing rooftops. And with dwindling resources and charity he soon had to start running messages and packages for people besides his mother. Especially as his mother started declining mentally. When Melvin was 15 his mother suddenly left town having taken most of his savings to hire transport, and leaving a letter saying she was going to "The Saint" to be fixed.
  • After a year with no word from his mother, Melvin gave up hope of ever seeing her again and had a small private funeral of his own for her. While content to continue his now established courier job, he started wanting to accomplish something greater. Which was when he started plotting to visit the ruins of New York City. He knew it was dangerous but it wasn't like he had anyone to mourn his death anymore. His first trip went remarkably well, with no near death experiences at all, but he had stumbled across some hand written books of dead spellcasters. He took them for his own to learn from them, and hocked them when he was done. They were pretty basic books all things considered, their writers having not lived long enough to create proper grimoires.
  • Subsequent trips varied significantly both in terms of rewards and how close Melvin came to death. After a few too many close calls Melvin has not stopped entirely but only makes a ruin diving trip once every sixth months.
• Etc:

I'm aware the personality slot is blank. I'll try to fill it in tomorrow/later today but I've always been bad at that bit. And since everything else is basically done, no point leaving it as a saved draft and risking losing it.

Edit: Took me longer then intended but got in the personality section.

Edited by Kosjurake on Apr 26th 2019 at 8:37:59 AM

Click Click Boom Boom

I don't know if this will be good enough of it if needs adjusting, but if anything needs changing, just let me know. Backstory's almost done.

• Name: Jayce Alban
• Age: 19
• Gender: Male
• Appearance: More or less. Stands about about 5'8.

• Powers: >Scan/Hack.: I suppose to put it simply, just call it magic being by being typed up on a holographic keyboard rather than being spoken. Since I don't know if being able to hack both electronics/machinery and living things would work in this setting or not.
  • Either way, his powers specialize in supporting allies or hindering enemies, with the base power firing a wire-frame cube that surrounds at target, scanning it and giving Jayce information, such as possible wounds/weaknesses to exploit or how much ammunition is in their weapon. On the downside, using any of these powers takes a few seconds to cast as Jayce needs to type in both the command and target which takes time.

  • Firewall/Crash: The former enhancing the target's durability, like somewhat numbing their ability to feel pain or actually making them physically tough enough to shrug off minor injuries. Crash attempts to do the exact opposite, usually by causing their corroding their armor or causing them a sudden shock of pain that does no actual harm, but might leave them open to something that will. Represented by a green laser for allies or a wire-frame hammer that smashes into enemies.

  • Overclock/Disrupt: Instead of what one might expect by the name and making someone faster, Overclock increases an ally's reflexes and reaction time, along with either increasing a firearm's rate of fire or subtly giving one of their powers a temporary boost. Disrupt on the other hand does exactly what it implies, making it harder for an opponent to use powers or attempt to stop any spells/powers in effect. Red lasers for allies or a wire-frame cross for enemies.

  • Hibernate.bat: On organic targets, this, like the name might imply, will attempt to try to put an enemy to sleep, usually to capture or incapacitate critically injured foes. On mechanical objects like guns could suddenly jam or security cameras shutting down. Blue spiraling lasers.

• Equipment: Tinkerer's Toolkit: Holds a customizable screwdriver, duct tape, pliers, insulated gloves and an adjustable wrench, the last of which doubling as a desperation weapon if he's stuck in melee.
  • Emergency First Aid Kit: Despite only knowing the basics of first aid, an extra set of medical supplies when out in the field is never a bad idea. Consists of bandages, disinfectant, splints, scissors and tweezers.

• Skills: Mechanical Marvel: Even without his powers, Jayce is still quite adept with electronics and machinery, whether it's knowing how it works or how to fix it. Granted, he's not great at building things, but if something need fine-tuning, repairing, or jury-rigging if time/resources are an issue, Jayce can probably fix it.

• Weakness: System Shutdown: Jayce's mental fortitude and ability to keep track of countless information has it's limits. Overusing his powers will lead to crippling headaches, blurred vision or even getting to the point he's completely unable to use them for twelve hours in the best case scenario...and several days at worse.
  • Frail: Even with his powers, Jayce is still human(?). Without them, all Jayce has to offer to a fight is a sharp mind, quick reflexes and stiff-upper lip as what some might consider light grazes are very likely be considerable injuries for Jayce even WITH Firewall to act as a buffer. And even it won't help in stopping him from breaking a limb if he's unlucky.

• Personality: Whether it's out in the field or keeping himself busy with repairs and other tasks back in Kirkton, Jayce's mindset to stay focused on whatever task is at hand makes him come across as serious and level-headed, if somewhat aloof. That doesn't stop him from doing his best to be polite and patient. However, the young man's sense of humor is practically non-existent, others acting recklessly or in foolish ways will bring out a surprising amount of snark and his composure gets shaken if he's stuck near fire.

• Background: Jayce's childhood and early teenage years for the most part was a normal one, which given the state of the world, is a blessing. Born to a middle-aged couple from England, his mother; a businesswoman who was in America for a business trip and his father was a teacher. Finding themselves stranded in America/deciding it'd be safer to remain there while Alpha-Lenius was on his warpath, Jayce grew up with stories of Great Britain, with sights such as London Bridge and Buckingham Palace along with important lessons, especially to keep stiff-upper lip no matter whatever challenge he faced as well as keeping his powers a secret.
  • Those stories and advice helped the sixteen year old teenager through some trying times when a boat setting sail for Europe was discovered by at least one Warlord and while it managed to leave intact, Jayce and countless others were separated in the chaos, leaving him and others stranded.

  • Captured, he and others his age were the ones doing all the work, whether it was repairing machinery to being sent out into the Wastelands and Cities to scavenge for supplies with very little for protection if monsters were to attack, the Warlord and those in power were quite content for things to remain that way with any complaints getting a snide remark that they were welcome to wander off into the wastelands to try their own luck.

  • After a year in such a dismal conditions, between stashing supplies and making preparations for an escape, most escape during a scavenging excursion, using repaired cars powered by salvaged solar panels or other means and by the time the Warlord or his forces had noticed, they were long gone.

  • Of course, with their newfound freedom, there were disagreements when many of them had different ideas on where to go, with one bright eyed youth and a close friend pointing out the rumors of a revolution building in Kirkton, rationalizing that it'd both be safe and calming down it'd give those wanting revenge to do so.

  • Sadly, the group's numbers dwindled between being picked off by the monsters despite their best efforts to survive until it eventually was just Jayce and the one who'd suggested fleeing to Kirkton. The car soon gave up the ghost, forcing the two of them to continue on foot and on the morning they were to arrive at Kirktown, his friend had vanished without a trace.

That was two weeks ago, something Jayce definitely can't write off to jumping the gun and wandering off lost, but he's positive that even though his friend has still confident that even if they don't turn up until the revolution is won that they'll keep fighting.

• Etc:

Edited by TheRealWren on Apr 27th 2019 at 12:10:07 AM

Hope you weren't expecting anything witty here. Maybe some day.

Okay both Real Wren and Kosjurake are Accepted.

I am thinking we might be able to get this started pretty soon - anyone wanting to sign up, don't worry, sign ups are not closing.

And now we're free to begin!

Decided to drop some possible plot coupons right from the start.

Link to the Discord.

Edited by NickTheSwing on Apr 29th 2019 at 11:29:30 AM

Dream Eaters

• They appear as shadowy nightmare creatures lifted straight out of a horror movie. (In fact, they were.)
  • The more powerful they are, the larger they are, and the harder it is for them to hide themselves. The smaller Dream Eaters tend to swarm.
• Their most common powers are the sapping of creativity, the ability to induce apathy, shadow manipulation, and the ability to appear in dreams. Some sort of shape-shifting/invisibility ability is also common among Dream Eaters.
  • The higher-powered Dream Eaters gain the ability to possess people, as well as a boost in their powers.
  • They gain power by sapping the creativity of humans.
    • Their favorite targets are children and Inspired individuals, since they have the most creativity.
• Wounds caused by a fully grown Dream Eater fester and begin to ooze a black tar-like substance.
  • It can only be cured by faith-based healing.
• Children, animals, psychics, and those that have been affected by them and know about them have a higher chance of being able to see them. Inspired individuals are always able to perceive Dream Eaters unless they are possessing someone.
  • The more powerful they are, the more they are prone to Glamour Failure.
  • Their presence is indicated by a darkening of the area they are in.
• They can be harmed by items augmented by belief (i.e. a child believes they are weak to flashlight beams, etc).
  • Children are their greatest food source and bane—especially Inspired children. They have a lot of creativity to feed on, yes, but they can also weaponize their nigh-limitless imagination against the Dream Eaters.
• This is their life cycle:

1. A full-grown Dream Eater first spawns a bunch of small-fry Dream Eaters.
2. They feed on hope until they grow stronger and possess their host to incubate.
3. Then they burst out of their host's chest and the cycle continues.

• Dream Eaters were created by the sworn enemies of the Printer Family to drain their Inspiration, but ended up being more defective than expected. Despite the small fries' fragility, there are a few Dream Eaters that have managed to become true Nightmares indeed...

Edited by JumpingFruit on May 5th 2019 at 3:51:02 AM

I wear the skin of the Elder Things, having come unto my own.

The Printer Family

The Printer family have firmly established themselves as Kirkton's resident loons, but are still generally respected due to their politeness, honesty, and integrity regarding promises. The fact that they have helped people evade the authorities by covering for them also helps.

There is still a fair bit of whispering about their tendency to attract Dream Eaters, however. Something seems to be off about the whole lot of them, especially how they always seem to stick to Exact Words. No matter how hard they work for Kirkton or how much respect they gain, they can never shake off the rumors surrounding them.

They are trying to keep a low profile in order to avoid attracting their enemies to them by not using their powers or making too much of a fuss. The only exception to this is Wilma, who has "officially" joined the front lines of La Résistance.

Wilfrid Printer

Wilfrid was the progenitor of the Printer family blessing/curse. When he was alive, he was described as a little timid and easily shaken. He worked as a writer, and then a historian in his time. All Printers inherit their dark brown hair and eyes from him, along with their Inspiration.

His power was to cause things to happen by writing about them in allegory. This caused him to switch from a writer of children's stories to a historian, as that was only chronicling things that had already happened. After a brouhaha that ended up with him cursing a magus family with Creative Sterility (after they cursed the Printers first) and making enemies of them, he had to write to save his own—establishing three rules in order for their continued existence:

• All Printers will have a name beginning with "Wil-" to continue my legacy.
• No Printer will speak a lie, upon pain of revoking their name.
• No Printer will break a promise, upon pain of revoking their name.

Unfortunately, he died soon after he finished making sure that the Printers wouldn't wholly succumb to the curse laid on them, only staying alive long enough so he could name his son.

Wilgefortz Printer

The sole son of Wilfrid, Wilgefortz had the power to command things to happen—with each use of his power threatening to burn out his vocal chords if what he ordered was beyond the bounds of what was considered possible. He imposed rules upon his powers, and with enough practice got his powers to extend to his writing as well.

Unfortunately, this caught the attention of Alpha-Leunis' lackeys, who came for him. Since he refused to write propoganda for them, they shot him with tranquilizers and dragged him off to a Mental Reconditioning Center. The rest of the Printer family had already been forbidden from helping him, and he was never seen again.

Wilgefortz had a thoughtful mien and his most marked attribute was his wide, bushy eyebrows. He had three children, and thankfully his spouse was already deceased (killed by tuberculosis) so she didn't witness him being dragged off.

Wilbur Printer

The eldest of the surviving Printer siblings, Wilbur is a metalhead through and through. He doesn't really contribute to Kirktown and is in fact a bit of a loafer (alongside Wilgrimm), but regularly holds metal concerts in the town square to keep people's spirits up, with his brother Wilgrimm on vocals and him playing his guitar. Wilhelm has to be convinced to mind the synths to varying degrees of success. Nobody seems to mind their slacking as long as they provide good company.

He transforms into a superpowered version of himself by shouting his full name. He gains the usual package of strength, speed, endurance, alongside the ability to shout so loud it generates a wave of force in front of him (but it strains his throat). His guitar gets the ability to shoot gouts of flame, lightning, and high-powered blasts of air and water. However, he can only maintain his transformation for ~6 hours lest he strain his Inspiration powers. Conversely, if anyone uses his full name when giving him a command, he must do it.

He is best known for his head of hair, which is shaved on both sides. The resultant bundle of hair is Dutch-braided behind him, revealing the runic tattoos on his scalp.

Willie Printer

Willie is Wilbur's 10-year-old son. He hero-worships his father, but does not share his love of metal music. Instead, he likes plays and movies.

His powers include manipulating his surroundings by giving stage directions, the primary use of which is to teleport things ("[Insert Noun Here] exit/enter stage left/right!"). Everything is heavily telegraphed, and the louder he gives his stage directions, the more powerful the effects. He risks becoming mute if he overuses this power. His other power is the creation of masks to impersonate famous characters in plays and gain their abilities. He was influenced by his uncle Wilgrimm in this aspect. Willie often has to go to Wilma for help in making his masks.

He has no idea about this, but his mother was a prostitute. His birth was the first step for Wilbur sobering up and accepting responsibility, as previously he was a rampant womanizer.

Wilgrimm Printer

Wilgrimm is the second eldest Printer sibling and one of the more air-headed members of the Printer family who is able to gain the abilities of various characters in literature as long as he has the copy of the book they're from on hand. He can only maintain the transformation for an hour, and he must stay in character or else he receives backlash.

Wilgrimm can, if he so chooses, apply storytelling elements to the events surrounding him in an attempt to tip them in his favor. For example, he can make himself extra effective when fighting a group of mooks...only to instantly get thrashed by a single opponent. His view of himself as the tragic hero is subtly exercised in all his lovers either leaving him or dying. At least his 10 children haven't died yet...

He spends his days writing the lyrics for Wilbur's songs and composing melancholic poetry. Some of his poems have even been published in Kirkton's newspaper.

William & Wilmarina Printer

William & Wilmarina are twins born to Wilgrimm, and the only two who have developed Inspired powers so far. William is 13 while Wilmarina is 12.

William has the ability to read people and things like books. This means that he has an excellent grasp of peoples' characters, but he can also read their thoughts. He can see the previous history of objects by touch, though it tires him out. His primary offensive ability is the ability to sprout 3 more pairs of arms and hands, and summon eye-familiars from the eye-holes in the palms of his hands. His main eyes have been given to Wilmarina, so he wears sunglasses.

Wilmarina was born without eyes, but has the ability to "read the future." Some of her predictions never come to pass, but some do because of a series of freak occurrences. She cannot control this ability, her visions coming and going as they please with no way to tell if they are accurate or not. She has named the two familiars donated to her by William Huginn & Muninn. They look like regular eyes, each bearing a pair of crow wings and legs, and each possessing a small mouth with sharp teeth. Wilmarina can see through her two familiars, and can also toggle on the abilities to a) see through things, b) remotely read text, or c) see "hidden" things (like lies) one at a time, with a steady stamina drain. Finally, they are able to fire off medium-powered psychic blasts from themselves, which also drains Wilmarina's mental strength. William's familiars work the same way, but drain him less since they belong to him properly.

The twins are always together, and have a great companionship. When one is harmed, you can expect the other to come running.

Wilhelm & Paige Printer

Wilhelm is the third eldest Printer sibling, and whether by sheer luck or Wilgrimm's influence (he's the youngest of three sons), is the only Printer that is still happily married, with a fairly diverse powerset to boot. Wilhelm is a nondescript man with no outstanding physical attributes except for his tattoos—he is absolutely covered in them. He has short-cropped black hair and dark eyes. He typically wears nondescript street clothes under a black hooded trenchcoat.

Wilhelm can manipulate any kind of ink to form constructs, as long as he can see the ink he's trying to manipulate. He can turn printed ink into liquid ink and vice versa. Once ink comes into his control, it turns black. He can store the ink he's collected in the form of tattoos, but he's limited to tribal-style ones. He cannot generate his own ink. Once he stores ink in the form of tattoos, he can use them to alter his body for a short period of time. The ink rises up out of his skin and forms the desired changes, but will continuously drip. If the ink drips away completely, the changes will be reversed. Wilhelm does not forget anything, and can turn his memories into books that he can review later. This is especially useful for investigations, as the books he creates sometimes detail things he missed. Wilhelm can quote phrases from famous books, poems, and songs in order to manifest anomalous effects in real life. The main drawbacks to this is that he has to have the book he is quoting from on his person, the books cannot be quoted from too often (or they will burn up), and it taxes him severely to quote things.

Paige is Wilhelm's spouse, who understands him because she also happens to be Inspired. She is a thin and lithe woman with long red hair and green eyes. She wears various colorful ankle-length sundresses under a leather jacket and boots. She walks confidently and is straight-backed. Paige appears stern, but is actually very willing to help people.

Paige can bring any image (drawings and photos) that she has made to life, even if it is merely a scribble. She doesn't have to pay attention to her drawings the same way Wilma has to in order to be able to animate them. She can also make the subjects of pictures move, but she cannot pull things out of them. Paige can go into her drawings to examine them more closely and talk to her own creations. However, in her pictures, everyone ignores her as if she wasn't there. The drawings and pictures are connected by her power, so she can use them as portals. She can bring people with her as long as they are holding hands. This has come in handy many times for smuggling operations.

Wilhelm and Paige have had 3 children, and they both work part-time as document forgers (for the Resistance) and newspaper contributors.

Wilma Printer

See here.

Wilselena Printer

Wilselena is Wilma's older sister, aged 17. Paige's powers have influenced her a lot, but she has radically different powers than Paige. She can "draw" illusions in mid-air, but their efficacy waxes and wanes along with the moon. However, if someone believes what she has drawn is real, then it will be able to affect them.

Wilselena is somewhat of an emo, and professes to hate her name and the limits it imposes on her. Neverless, her illusions has proven useful on many occasions when the Printers were escaping from Alpha-Leunis' mooks.

Wilhelmina Printer

Wilhelmina is also Wilma's older sister, aged 19. Like Wilselena, her mother has influenced her a lot. She can use her art and writings to inspire extreme emotions in people, or just use her art to send secret messages (after all, "a picture is worth a thousand words").

Wilhelmina is timid, however, and no matter how much Wilma tries to cajole her into joining the Resistance movement (because her powers would be handy), she always refuses. She works as a waitress alongside Wilselena at the Running Ridgejaw.

Edited by JumpingFruit on May 6th 2019 at 10:33:59 AM

I wear the skin of the Elder Things, having come unto my own.

Edit: Sorry, I confused this for the RP you're currently running. Just ignore this

Name: Dr. Dizer

Age: 29

Gender: Male

Appearance: Dr. Dizer is a thin man about 5 ft & 8 inches tall and his eyes are colored grey. He tends to wear a lab coat, covered in stains from his recent experiments, and a sweater underneath. Occasionally if it gets hot he switches to a simple dress shirt. Besides that, he wears some dress pants and shoes. Due to having lived in the Blasted Wastes, usually carries a gas mask to ward off the ash and smoke. Powers:

• Alchemist:Has an innate grasp of alchemy. Able to create various potions and transmute & alter objects. Potions tend to require special ingredients, which tend to either be harvested from plants, or from the various creatures of the world.
• No sleep:Due to a potion he drank, he lacks the need for sleep, or for that matter, the ability to sleep. He usually just works on his potions during the night, or makes other preparations.

Equipment:

• Alchemist's Kit: Various tools and basic materials need for alchemy. Requires a flat surface to use.
• Silenced Pistol: A normal altered to act as if using a Hollywood Silencer
• Crossbow: A crossbow, along with a number of arrows. Can be used with potions in order to inflict it's effects on those the arrow hits.
• Research Journal: Records his research on potions and other things.
• Backpack: Carries his equipment and any special ingredients he harvests.

Skills:

• Dissection: Capable of harvesting parts of enemies for use in potions and other things.
• Hideouts: His experience in the Blasted Wastes has made him quick to identify safe areas to hide out in.
• Beekeeping: Knows beekeeping for some reason.

Weaknesses:

• Creepy: Instills a sense of unease in most people when interacting with them.
• Test Obsessed: When creating a new potion, will try to get a test subject as soon as possible, no matter what may occur.
• Hearing Voices: Hears voices, who tend to advise him in all sorts of matters, and he listens to them.

Personality: Fits the common archetype of the Absent-Minded Professor but with the added tendencies of Science-Related Memetic Disorder. This is likely why he carries his research journal on him constantly.

Background: Due to an incident involving an experimental potion, two chickens, a bee nest, and a cardboard box, Dr. Dizer had to flee the lands of Alpha-Leunis before the massive amount of evidence left behind connecting him to the incident, which would likely result in his Public Execution. He managed to make his way to the Blasted Wastes, where he hid out and occasionally made trips into the local town of Kirkton for food and supplies. He is not too pleased with the presence of "The Saint" in the region and is hoping to find a way to get rid of him.

Edited by Mindris on Nov 6th 2020 at 7:00:10 AM

Edited by Tensword on Oct 9th 2021 at 11:23:35 AM

I know what you're thinking, she's with Clovis Bray, she must have all the answers! But I'm just as in the dark as you are about the Crypt.

Hey, I just wanted you to know, Tensword, that 1) this RP died and 2) Jumping Fruit did not give you permission to use her ideas. Do not do that.

Ok. Please tell her I am sorry. I will delete the post.

I know what you're thinking, she's with Clovis Bray, she must have all the answers! But I'm just as in the dark as you are about the Crypt.