Dolly? Kill! (interest check+sign up)

You've been running as fast and as hard as you could since that monster entered your camp and killed your friends. Your legs are burning and the stump where your hand used to be is starting to feel numb, which is slightly better then the burning sensation when one of the monsters mouths ripped it off you but is probably concerning in its own way. You can hear it right behind you, but its impossible that it hasn't caught up to you yet. The thing was the size of a bus and moved fast enough that no one else at the camp had time to run.

Then it strikes you, whatever this thing is, its playing with you. Like a cat might bat around a mouse before finally killing it. That fact makes indignity burn in your stomach like a hot coal dropped down your throat. You don't want to die like this, being a plaything for a monster.

You want to live.

"Ah, a guest."

You find yourself in a cramped room with various bits and pieces of material scattered along the floor. Wood, metal, plastic, and a number of other things haphazardly tossed without much care. In front of you is a older man bend over a desk. Despite the obvious age and wrinkled hands the man never pauses working on something before turning to face you. His face gives you the impression of a grandparent inviting family over for a holiday, almost as if he is about to wink and put a candy in your hand. But instead his eyes glance toward your missing hand. "You've had a rough time, but don't worry dear boy. Nothing that can't be fixed."

You nod dumbly, both because the bloodloss is making it really hard to think and because going from abject terror to a peaceful situation has left you deeply confused on how to actually deal with what's going on. Before you have time to actually summon up any thoughts the old man grabs your arm and shoves a prosthetic hand onto your stub. A scream erupts as the pain that came from losing it reignites a hundred fold, but only for a brief moment. After that you find its comfortable, and when you think to move your hand the fingers of the prosthetic move perfectly.

"There we go, all fixed up. Now then, can't let you leave empty handed," lights shoot up about the room, revealing each wall was covered by a variety of dolls, mannequins, and what looked to be robots. Each unique, either beautiful or disturbing in its own measure.

However, one in particular caught your eyes, and in a voice that could have been a whisper asked Do you want to live?

You nod, confident in that one fact at least. The doll falls from the wall before your feet and the old man nods. "You can figure out the rest from here. Some friends should be along to help, if you can make it free from this situation that is."

And just like that you are back in the forest, the creature coming closer to you. But some part of you, call it instinct if you wish, summons the words to your mouth. "Dolly?" the world shifts for a moment as the doll that spoke to you appears, thin red threads extending from the fingers of your artificial hand to the doll. The monster finally frees itself from the woods, glaring at you with eyes filled with malice. But you are ready now. "Kill!"

The forest was filled with screams from that point on, and all of them in the voice of the monster.

__________________________________________________________

Welcome to Dolly? Kill!, an RP where you take the part of a Puppeteer, a person who has come into contact with the horrible monsters that hunt down and ruin human lives for their own amusement and survived by a chance encounter with the Dollmaker. After having a bodypart replaced they gain the ability to control a 'Dolly', one of the creations of the Dollmaker and one of the only tools able to kill the monsters that hunt humanity. Each Dolly is wholly unique, possessing powers and a form that aid in protecting both their Puppeteer and killing the creatures who fight them.

However their power comes at a cost, the 'strings' that connect them are made of the users own blood, and their abilities draw out power from the Puppeteer in order to help them fight.

Players will take the roles of either independent agents or employees of String, a U.N. secret task force that exists to hunt down monsters by gathering those the Dollmaker has gifted and providing aid in anyway they can.

Character Sheet

• Name:
• Title: (If your player has a specific title they like to go by)
• Age: (17-up)
• Appearance:
• Personality:
• What was Replaced: (Could range from a hand, to even an eye. Feel free to be creative but not gross)
• Dolly: (A creation of the Dollmaker given to the Puppeteer in order to ensure their ability to fight against the monsters that hunt them. They can range from anything to small dolls you hold in your hand to human sized mannequins or machines.)
• Dolly Ability: (The unique power of your Dolly, once again feel free to be creative. Are they a small doll that can summon and control fire? Maybe a duplicating humanoid creature made of knives)
• Dolly Sentience: (Can your Dolly speak? Are they a tool or their own seemingly unique person? Completely up to you if you want to make them almost their own character or just a ability for your character)
• Backstory: (Try to include how they received their Dolly, and any other important information)
• Misc: (A catch all for anything not in the basic character sheet.)

Info on Monsters

The monsters themselves range from humanoid to utter abominations, but are known for their intense sadism and commitment to violence against humanity

Definite intrest.

Interest!

Edited by JumpingFruit on Apr 2nd 2021 at 4:19:17 AM

100% interested

I look forward to seeing what you guys come up with.

• Name: Ayako Ayanami (w/ Western naming order)
• Title: The Cavalry
• Age: 17
• Appearance: Here she is.◊ She sometimes wears glasses when she needs to look at things very closely, and is usually sitting in a wheelchair.
• Personality: Ayako is a very solid and dependable girl, and is always willing to extend a hand to those who need help. She is known to be gentle but firm in the face of bullying, presenting a stoic front to everyone that approaches her with malicious intent. As she is an honor student at her private school, she tries to conduct herself correctly at all times. She once applied for a position on the student council but found traveling to the meeting room too tedious and gave up. Despite this, she is still trying to find new ways to strive forwards despite her disability.
• What Was Replaced: Ayako's spine was replaced, but it was still not enough to allow her the full use of her body. Instead, it has preserved her ability to move her upper body, while doing nothing for the paraplegia that she had before meeting the Dollmaker.
• Dolly: Ayako's Dolly is named Chiron, and he is a rather handsome clockwork centaur◊ with lacquered armor plating overlaid on his frame to protect him against attacks. The seams in the rest of his porcelain plating are so minuscule as to be almost invisible, so he also looks very lifelike and friendly. Chiron is a larger Dolly, so he has problems fitting into small, cramped spaces, but is also rather heavy because of this, which helps him trample smaller monsters underfoot. He wears a modified saddle that straps Ayako's legs tightly to him when she rides him into battle, as she cannot move anywhere on her own and it isn't safe to leave her in one place while he sallies forth to fight.
• Dolly Ability: Chiron has the ability to call forth weapons into his hands which he can then wield with astounding skill and grace. He has learned to summon a sword, a shield, a lance, and a bow so far, but can only maintain the presence of 2 of his selection of weapons at a time. The bow is a special case, as it comes with a quiver of arrows that will slowly replenish over time, with seemingly no extra charge, unless more ammunition is needed, at which point Ayako will be drained with each additional arrow that is summoned and fired from the bow.
• Dolly Sentience: Chiron is indeed sentient, and has the disposition of a proud and chivalrous warrior. He generally tends towards being good and wise, but can be naive sometimes, as he only entered into the "real world" very recently. In such a short period of time, he has already come to care for Ayako greatly, but is worried about her continued survival since she insists on fighting side by side with him as an equal, something that most Puppeteers don't do. He still respects her for her fighting spirit and will obey her orders most of the time.
• Backstory:
  • Ayako was born to a well-to-do family in the wealthy suburbs of Japan, and had a fairly comfortable life from childhood. However, this all changed when a car accident killed her older siblings, after which she received the news that she had a heretofore unknown nerve disorder that would soon render her paraplegic. Overcome by shame at having a physically disabled daughter, her parents used their connections to get her shipped off to a foreign private school, telling her that it would probably be best for her to move elsewhere to get her mind off of the recent deaths in the family. Ayako, for the most part, took this without complaint, and has capitulated on the special nature of the school to advance her pre-med academic career with all due speed, hoping to find a cure for herself. All of her life experiences have lead her to believe in the fleeting transience of life. One can only think carefully and work hard to solve problems, so stoicism and keeping a cool head is important. This saved her life when a monster attack on campus occurred.
  • After acquiring Chiron, she became a bit of a pariah at school due to the necessary brutality that both Puppeteer and Dolly displayed while killing the monster. However, with the increased incidence of monster attacks nearby, the two decided to devote their extra time to hunting down monsters, often appearing out of nowhere at a full gallop to lend their aid to other Puppeteers and normal folk alike. This ended up attracting the attention of online forums, which nicknamed her "The Cavalry" after several of these incidents. This in turn attracted the attention of String, which has made her an offer of membership. Ayako is still considering joining at the moment, wanting to err towards caution.
• Misc: There was only one sport available to Ayako that didn't involve the use of legs in some way, and that was archery. When she wasn't studying, she was usually found at the school's archery range practicing her shooting, which eventually allowed herself to elevate herself to the status of co-captain of the club due to her sheer dedication. That's why Ayako usually wields a bow in battle while Chiron handles melee matters.

Edited by JumpingFruit on Apr 5th 2021 at 10:06:11 AM

This is probably too hard to implement to be accepted but I wanted to check.

• Name: Adrian Baker
• Title: None (although he does sometimes go by his dolly's name to people he's keeping Splits a secret from)
• Age: 24
• Appearance: 6 feet tall, medium-short brown hair, slightly tan skin, and wears mainly dark grays and blacks, but all of these are minor details compared to his highly obvious augmentation (see What was Replaced).
• Personality: Adrian has a bizarre moral compass: his goals are usually heroic overall, but he tends to go about these goals in the most morally questionable way possible. However, he will usually stop these escapades if asked. In a group, he gravitates to the lancer role, generally following orders but pointing out things he perceives as mistakes. He is overall an OK guy, treating his fellow puppetmasters and his dolly with respect.
• What was Replaced: The entire left half of his body.
• Dolly: Adrian's dolly, Splits, is a human sized animatronic of a bright green cartoonish humanoid. However, the right half of Splits' animatronic plating is missing, so you can see the robotic innards.
• Dolly Ability: At any point, assuming Adrian isn't too tired to pull it off, Splits can make a branch in the timeline, where he does one thing in one timeline and another thing in the other timeline. Adrian and Splits can see both timelines, but no one else can. At any point, Splits can pick a timeline to be the "correct" one, and the other one disappears. This gets harder and harder to do the longer it's been since the split and the more different the two timelines get, and if they can't keep it up anymore they're forced to drop one of the timelines. (Think of it like when you're carrying something heavy and you can't keep going, so you're forced to put it down for a second.) Having more than two timelines at once is theoretically possible but extremely difficult, and will probably never happen unless Adrian is in extreme danger.
• Dolly Sentience: Splits is sentient, but he's such a doormat that he might as well not be. If Adrian told him to eat roadkill he'd do it. However, he does hesitate significantly and generally act nervous when doing something he doesn't want to do, which usually happens with Adrian's more morally dubious commands. (Adrian will usually tell him he doesn't have to do it in these cases.)
• Backstory: Adrian's life before getting Splits isn't all that interesting; college dropout, got an office job before being fired, hired at a home improvement store, etc. However, as with basically all puppetmasters, an attack happened. In an attempt to evade the monster he ran into the dark and creepy woods (a classic), when suddenly four figures seemingly appeared from thin air, and one of them cut him cleanly in half. Immediately after this was when he appeared in the Dollmaker's room and got Splits. After getting Splits, he used his new friend's abilities both to kill monsters and for his own personal gain. It was only months later that he thought back to his induction and realized how much two of the figures looked like him post-augmentation and Splits...
• Misc: As Splits doesn't have much direct combat utility (he has a lot of indirect combat utility, but can't really attack), Adrian has to take matters into his own hands, fighting with whatever weapons he can get his hands on. And if this RP takes place in America, that would probably be guns.

• Name: Markus Faust
• Title: He usually just goes by his last name, but some in String have started to refer to him as "Unglücksrabe" or more commonly as Raven, as he is sometimes seen as a bad omen.
• Age: 34 years old.
• Appearance:
  • Markus◊ is not easy to forget, once you meet him. His red, shoulder-long hair is usually unkempt and only barely tamed into what can be generously called a "hairstyle". He almost always has a heavy five 'o clock shadow, that borders on a full beard. His piercing green eyes are usually either cold or tired, though on good days he can manage to find the warmth that had illuminated his features before the incident. Nonetheless, the easiest word to describe Markus would be "vagabond".

  • He is of average height, with the lean, but athletic build of a man that knows how to fight and does so regularly. He has numerous scars on his back and arms, with the latter especially notable when he wears a shirt. Markus prefers to wear casual clothing, like jeans, shirts, etc. He is, however, rarely seen without his favorite black jacket.
• Personality:
  • Markus is usually a serious, somewhat distant man. He tries to remain professional and behaves detached to most people, caring more about getting paid and finishing the job than anything else. He has managed to work through the trauma of the loss of his wife, but is still hurting deep inside. Work keeps him busy, distracted and he approaches each mission with a tenacity and ruthlessness that could be seen as disconcerting.

  • Outside of work, however, Markus can be a pleasant companion. He likes to play guitar in his free time, is a skilled artist, and takes care of two cats, called Nina and Didi. Should one get to see him in a domestic environment, one can see the hints of a family-man in him, happy to cook, clean, and otherwise take care of the house. Perhaps it is this calm, mature attitude that causes this stark contrast to his driven, cold work-personality.
• What was Replaced: Markus had his heart ripped out by the monster he has dubbed "The Tailor". In his chest now beats a porcelain-like core, which now pumps blood through his veins and which has been inserted into the hole in his chest.
• Dolly:
  • Markus' has two dollies. The first is called Grete and takes the form of an adult-sized porcelain mannequin, draped in black robes and with a serene, but a sorrowful expression. Her immaculate face is framed by blonde curls. She has her hands folded, looking like she is praying when in her "passive mode".

  • The second Dolly is called Mephisto. Like Grete, it is a humanoid porcelain mannequin, dressed in a white suit. His face resembles a Fool's Grin◊, eery and vindictive. Wild, red hair flows down to his shoulder. His hands are open in an inviting gesture, clad in red gloves when he is in "passive mode".
• Dolly Ability:
  • Markus usually can only activate one of his dollies at a time, as the strain of using both quickly drains him and could even kill him at worst. When passive, both Dolly usually only react in their capacity as mannequins, moving on Markus command. Grete's robe is bullet-proof, while Mephisto can punch through solid rock.

  • Should Markus switch them to active, though, their abilities change. Grete opens up and clads Markus into a black suit of armor, reminiscent of a knight. In this capacity, Markus is heavily protected against most incoming attacks but also weighed down heavily. Mephisto functions similarly, but with the opposite effect. On getting activated he folds around Markus in a white suit of armor, resembling a white, clawed beast. Markus' speed and strength are massively increased, but he has no defenses.

  • In the event of both dollies being activated, Markus wields a black, white plate armor, together with a black shield and a white sword. His face covered by an expressionless helmet. This form is called Ave Deus and gives him both increased defense and offense, but at the cost of potentially killing him. As such, he almost never uses it.

  • Of further note should be that in order to make full use of both Grete and Mephisto, Markus has to essentially puppet himself. His ability to fight is therefore directly impacted by skill to direct his Dolly, as they lack any agency on their own.
• Dolly Sentience: Neither Grete, nor Mephistor is really sentient. They instead behave most of the time like mere automatons, with occasional flashes of agency showing that are hard to explain. However, Mephisto is notably more aggressive and sometimes has to be restrained by Markus, showing signs of sadism or frenzied rage on occasion.
• Backstory:
  • For the most part of his life, Markus was anything but remarkable. Jobless, with arts degree, he did spend his youth mostly in various projects that barely paid his bills. He lived a simple lifestyle, quite satisfied with what he had, even though it wasn't much. Eventually, he met Maria, a smart, feisty young woman who worked as an architect. The two hit off quickly and eventually married. Although kids weren't in the cards for them, they had an idyllic domestic life, with Markus adopting two cats. Maria sometimes joked that she was the main breadmaker for the household, financing all of Markus' semi-successful projects. A fact he rarely disagreed with.

  • On their fifth anniversary, he took her out on a date to a romantic boulevard, under the red autumn leaves in the evening hours. It was the perfect moment, which they sought to commemorate with a picture. When Markus was ready to take the photograph, he spotted a lanky man behind Maria. Weird, uncanny, and resembling more a horrific mannequin than a real human being. Clad in unfitting, badly stitched clothes. In this brief moment of confusion, replaced by dread, the "Tailor" as Markus would later call him, raised his blade-like claws and killed Maria where she stood. Markus could only scream in horror, as the creature then buried its fingers into his chest and brutally ripped out his heart. Collapsing onto the cold side-walk, Markus stared into the dead eyes of his wife, while he bled out...

  • Markus has only fractured recollections of how he woke up, alive and with two dolls next to him. The next months were a blur, as he slowly came to grips with his situation. Having lost his wife, he was now also in dire financial straits. Eventually, he began to work as a mercenary or free agent for hire. Training himself in the use of his Dollies, Markus began to hunt down monsters for any who would pay for it. He slowly began to rebuild his life and eventually came to terms with the death of Maria, though it still haunts him to this day. Still, life had to go on and although it no longer had the luster for him it used to have, Markus carries on, trying to live in a way Maria would approve of.

  • He would eventually come into contact with String and, although never officially becoming a part of the organization, began to work for them. His tendency to arrive whenever something bad happened or a crisis was at hand, led to him gaining a dubious reputation. Especially, since he usually demanded quite high fees for his services. Still, Markus has the skills to back it up and remains cordial with String, even if he remains independent from them.
• Misc: Markus is a skilled cook and domestic husband. He has a soft spot for kids and small animals. He also never managed to find the "Tailor", though he keeps any eye out for any monster resembling its description.

Edited by TheNohen on Apr 4th 2021 at 10:11:11 AM

@Jumping Fruit- Accepted

@The Fullest Circle- Accepted, however it also means I'll have to keep a closer eye and might be more ready to jump the gun if it looks like you are taking the power into overdrive. Showing your character getting exhausted in bad situations from switching timelines, having to take a hit when they would have otherwise died, things like that will go a long way. Feel free to still score victories but try not to make them crushing and you will be just fine!

@The Nohen- Accepted

Okay with three people I can arguably fire this off, but it will have to wait till Wednesday due to life obligations. If you guys would like a discord page I can open one, or just have a discussion page for anything. Whatever is easiest. I look forward to writing with you guys.

A Discord server would be okay with me.

Edited by JumpingFruit on Apr 4th 2021 at 6:50:17 AM

Same here.

I concur.

• Name: Ridsy
• Title: The Heartstrung
• Age: 25
• Appearance: Ridsy is tall, slim-figured woman with vibrant red hair done up in a long ponytail. She generally dresses in casual but practical clothing that most of the time consists of sneakers, jeans, a tightly-woven silk shirt and a surprisingly well-made leather jacket. Embedded in the front of her neck, stitched into the skin, is a segment of pale wood with a piece that resembles the reed of a woodwind instrument; The 'reed' faintly vibrates when she hums. Strapped across her back is an acoustic guitar made of a dark wood with a faintly shimmering finish.
• Personality: Ridsy is a deeply melancholic person following her encounter with the monster. While she seems rather talkative with Orieus about to be her voice, her facial expression never really changes from a somewhat sad and listless stare at whoever has her attention. When Orieus isn't active, she spends a lot of time humming and playing her guitar. In combat, she is often just silent as she lets Orieus do its work with a minimum of (obvious) direction.
• What was Replaced: Throat. To be more specific a messy chunk of windpipe that included the voicebox.
• Dolly: Orieus is a humanoid Dolly made of metal and cloth that stands a fair bit taller than its Puppeteer. It's torso is blue metal, vaguely articulated at the waist and bearing holes that suggest speakers hidden under the plating. Extending from that torso are a pair of arms and legs, mostly made of white cloth except for the knees and elbows where the joints are plain metal jointwork with no covering. The Dolly's head is the most detailed feature, with a well-crafted rigid mask for a face and a wild crop of short white fake hair. Across its back is a lyre whose strings are in fact the red threads that connect Ridsy to her Dolly.
• Dolly Ability:
  • A Heart of Transistor: Orieus has an affinity with machinery, especially those used for the creation of music. When it sings to electrical devices, they often sing back (in beeps and motor whirs) and are more willing to be manipulated (within their intended functioning).
  • Passion Burns Like Hades Below: With the right strums of the strings that control it, Orieus can summon forth blazes of fire as its main combat technique.
• Dolly Sentience: Orieus can speak, though its voice is weird and clippy due to the fact that its vocabulary is comprised of individual phonemes strung together into words. Theoretically, Orieus speaks for its Puppeteer in this Vocaloid-esque voice and as far as Ridsy has said, it's just a non-sentient replacement voicebox for her. When singing, Orieus' voice fits together far more readily but is still noticeably artificial and comprised of those individual phonemes.
• Backstory: Ridsy sang in an indie rock band, one that did a lot of gigs in the shady part of town. The bassist (a veteran of the punk scene) taught her how to defend herself both with proper clothing and various improvised (and less improvised) weapons. Unfortunately, that wasn't enough when a bestial monster managed to ambush her from an alley a block away from her home and tear out her throat (and, as Ridsy says, it also tore out the entire metaphysical concept of 'communication' from her which explains why attempting to write or type causes her to go into respiratory distress). Orieus burnt the monster to a crisp soon after the visit to the Dollmaker and in the panic of this all happening and her new lack of voice Ridsy fell out of contact with those that knew her before this. Her bandmates know she's alive because they've seen her around the city, but she can't exactly use a phone to call them and she doesn't seem to want to summon Orieus around them. They're concerned about her safety, which is honestly justifiable given she's become a Puppeteer.
• Misc: There's one specific melody comprised of repeated 'La's that comes out sounding utterly natural when sung by Orieus. Ridsy is not her original name and she says that she changed it after becoming a Puppeteer and that those using her old name ("Red") are not to be trusted.

• Name: Lafayette Kitsch
• Title: silencieux
• Age: 26
• Appearance: 5'9
• Personality: Though mute, Lafayette is extremely energetic and expressive with his gestures. though usually friendly, he's rather jealous towards people that have the ability to speak. He seems closer to his dolly Empathy than anyone else, mostly because they can communicate (albeit telepathically.)
  • Due to his former profession as a pro musician, Lafayette has a slight air of condescension at times, and he's not quite adjusted to a non-wealthy lifestyle.
• What was Replaced: Most of his neck including his throat and windpipe.
  • Empathy: "4'2 and 98 pounds."
• Dolly Ability: Empathy has the ability to psychically meld with one person at a time (including Lafayette). While melded, Empathy can access the memories, thoughts and emotions of the melded individual. In addition, granted that Lafayette and Empathy's combined will is stronger than the target's, they can dominate their target's mind and force them into servitude.
• Dolly Sentience: Very. Empathy is rather stoic when unmelded, but when connected to another's mind she gains some of their characteristics. These characteristics are retained after the melding and stockpiled into Empathy's total personality.
• Backstory: Born in Paris, Lafayette was on the road to success from his inception. A musical prodigy, Lafayette was given a free ride through collage and into profession. He was a breakout hit, his talent with the cello unmatched by his peers. He was growing rapidly in popularity until, mysteriously, he disappeared. To the public he was announced dead after 2 years missing. Nobody ever found out what happened to him.
  • In reality Lafayette had been abducted by a monster going by the name of Marquis. Marquis wished to find a truly exceptional human and snuff them out, for all talent enraged it. After months of torture, the monster finally attempted a deathblow on Laffayette, slicing through his throat wit it's claws.
  • Lafayette didn't die. Instead he was visited by the dollmaker who informed him that though his voice was permanently gone, his life was not lost. In a shower of purple energy, Marquis was destroyed.
• Misc:

@Pentigan- Accepted

@Yayakuza- Accepted

Link to the discord is https://discord.gg/zP9KTkHU4z

Game will begin tomorrow