Acting Supernatural Signup Sheet

Ah, the supernatural academy. A staple of the secret supernatural world. You get all of the character interaction of a mundane school setting while also easily fleshing out your world. It's not hard to see why this trope, along with the related superhero academy, is so prevalent.

This is...sort of that?

At some point in the early 2010s, in an otherwise unremarkable town in Massachusetts by the name of Little Haven, an otherwise unremarkable guidance counselor by the name of Ms. Sims starts looking into supernatural events. Slowly, over the course of several years, she becomes absolutely convinced that there's a secret supernatural world parallel to our own, and everyone she knows becomes equally convinced that she has gone crazy.

At some point, Ms. Sims has the ingenious idea that if such a world exists, they must need a school!^note The more sensible conclusion of "if such a world exists they probably already have a school" did cross her mind at some point, but, you know, tunnel vision (plus sheer stupidity)... She had grandiose visions of Oddity High, a huge school with many classrooms, teaching both classes you'd find at a traditional school and classes teaching the kids how to use their weird powers, and her as the principal.

Through a combination of inherited wealth, a few connections, and dumb luck, by 2018 Ms. Sims managed to get Oddity High running and recognized as an official school, but it was far from what she had pictured. She'd been unable to find anyone who wanted to teach the "controlling your powers" class, or indeed anyone besides a single set of teachers of the four core subjects, only a measly twelve* students expressed interest in applying, and they were limited to the third floor of a tiny three-floor office building^note the first floor was kitchens and stuff that anyone occupying the building could use, while the second floor was being used by a team working on a tech startup that would probably fold before October. She decided she would just have the students cycle through each teacher for the first half of the day, do a power control thing herself during lunch once a week, and after lunch they'd just go home.

Worse, the four teachers she did get didn't even believe her: Mr. Morgan, the math teacher, joined because he was new, wanted to practice a bit before getting a job at a real school, and didn't mind the weird kids this would probably attract; Ms. Hughes, the English teacher, joined because her teaching reputation was so horrible that this was literally the only place that would hire her; Ms. Perlman, the science teacher, joined because she wanted to convince the kids that whatever event led them to believe they were supernatural had a perfectly scientific explanation; and Mr. Davis, the history teacher, basically went "screw it, why not?".

Unsurprisingly, Ms. Sims was wrong in her belief of a secret supernatural world. Unsurprisingly from a meta perspective, she was not wrong in her belief in the supernatural. It was the "world" part she was wrong about; all the supernatural things in Little Haven are disconnected events that manage to stay out of the public eye on their own. At least, they have been up to this point...

You will be role playing as teenagers with supernatural powers attending a school, supposedly for the supernatural, where none of the teachers actually believe in the supernatural. The signup sheet is formatted like so:

• Name: Their name.
• Age: Their age, should be in high school range.
• Appearance: What do they look like? Do a fair bit of description. (There's a bit of a caveat to this, which is explained under Power/Oddity.)
• Personality: Who are they, as a person? Again, be descriptive.
• Power/Oddity: This is the fun part. What's their power, or if it's something other than a power, what's special about them? There's no sort of theme I'm going for. I'll accept a guy with magnetic powers, the daughter of an obscure Norse deity, and a blob monster in a hoodie, mask, and gloves all the same. The only caveat is that they have to be, or at least appear, human, at least at first. The teachers should think "oh, these are just normal students" for the first few minutes.
• Backstory (optional): Where did they and/or their powers come from? Do their parents know? Do they even have parents?
• "Why did you decide to join the school?": Answer this in character. (Keep in mind the founder/principal is seen as a crackpot by this point.)

The RP is going to be lighter in tone; while it won't be outright comedic, it's not dark, either, so keep that in mind while writing (although I'm not going to straight-up reject a character for having too tragic a backstory).

*About half of these 12 are going to be GMNPCs, and I will let future students join the school on days after the first, so don't worry about having to wait super long or getting there too late and being locked out.

Edited by TheFullestCircle on Dec 30th 2020 at 9:50:51 AM

• Name: Hailey Woods
• Age: 15
• Appearance: A young girl of average height. She has light brown hair tied into a braid. She wears a white star-shaped hairclip. Her regular outfit consists of a T-shirt with pastel rainbow stripes, a beige artist's apron, and ankle-length jeans. She wears white socks and dark purple sneakers.
• Personality: An artistic lass, she loves to do anything related to the arts. She often hyperfixates on what she's doing at the moment, unable to focus on anything else. Due to this, she can come off as quiet or even shy at times.
• Power/Oddity: With a touch of a pen, she can turn things into life, from origami crafts, to her own drawings!
• Backstory: Back when she was a young child, she loves to draw. She usually uses simple equipments, like a pencil and eraser, and draw on a sheet of paper. On her 10th birthday, her parents gave her a pen to draw with. She thought it was just a regular pen, but uses it anyways because of how much she loves pen art. One day, while using it, she accidentally made the tip of the pen touch an origami creature she made earlier, and all of a sudden.. The creature came to life! She was surprised, and told her parents about it. They didn't believe it until they saw it themselves. From then on, she, and occasionally her parents, learn more about the pen's power, and ponders how it got its power.
• "Why did you decide to join the school?": She simply giggled. "Well, I thought it'd be fun to make some new friends here."

A bit saccharine, but it definitely works, and I can see her causing some interesting character interactions. Hailey is accepted.

Of note: this is to be paired with another player's character, who we've decided are to be siblings (hence the mentions in the backstory section).

• Name: Evelyn Langley
• Age: 14
• Appearance: Approximately 4'8" tall.◊ Usually clad in loose, light clothing such as baggy t-shirts and sweatpants that are clearly meant more for comfort than anything else. The third eye on her forehead can (thankfully) recede into her skull so as to disguise itself, and the skin closes up appropriately behind it. Prominent case of albinism, and suffers severely from cataracts.
• Personality: Due to her appearance and blindness, Evelyn has been rendered severely shy and quiet out of nervousness from how she'll be received by others; inwardly considering herself ugly and freakish in contrast to her sister. Despite this self-deprecation, she tends to still reach out in kindness towards others even if she feels they'll just turn her back on her again, and makes it a goal for herself not to give up on the idea of being accepted by others. Because of her inability to see, she's become very attuned to sound instead; possessing a great love for music and tending to pick up on certain noises otherwise unheard of by others nearby. When put under pressure or otherwise angered, Evelyn's been known to clam up and simply seethe in silence until she's calmed down, which has unfortunately rendered her unable to verbally defend herself in times of opposition. As such, she regularly sticks close by to her sister for protection whenever she feels stressed, relying on her ability to defend Evelyn rather than her own.
• Power/Oddity:
  • Sightjacking: Through the power of a strange, somehow biologically present third eye within her skull, Evelyn is capable of overcoming her blindness in a very strange and indirect way—by causing the third eye to push out from her forehead, she is able to swivel it around and psychically "tune in" to nearby creatures;^note  humans and animals alike, supernatural beings/player characters only with specific permission thus being able to share with herself their perception and cones of vision instead. Though unable to completely take control (her sightjacked targets are unaware of her presence unless they can somehow psychically sense her), Evelyn is able to function mostly normally while using this power, and is in fact more attuned to other points of view than her own. However, if a target is too far away or has sufficient mental defenses in place, Evelyn will merely get feedback and a migraine for her efforts to tune in—that and if she sightjacks for too long all at once, her third eye will eventually grow sore and force itself to recede and heal for a good hour or so.
• Backstory: Born to the somewhat prestigious Langley family alongside her fraternal twin Iris, Evelyn's difficulties were almost immediately apparent from an early age; a variety of complications in birth rendering her partially sighted and eventually completely blind by the time she was 10 years old. Thanks to some rather... strange history in her family's lineage, however, Evelyn has been blessed(?) with a bizarre manifestation of a third eye: granting her the ability to see through the eyes of others even if her own vision remains impassable to her. Due to her albinism and her disability, she's been rendered a painfully shy wallflower; often sticking close to her sister if not actively hiding behind her whenever having to face interaction with other people. But even though she has her difficulties and oddities, she hopes to overcome them and become more confident in herself—even if it takes every sliver of determination she can muster to do so.
• Why did you decide to join the school?
  • “...Sister was going too... a-and... maybe it'll help me, a little...? If it... is a... supernatural school...”

• Real Name: Sue Wukong
• Age: 17
• Appearance: Monkey girl ready for action.◊ But she can also shapeshift into a human if need be.
• Personality: Sue is wild, wily, fun-loving, rambunctious, curious, arrogant, and stubborn as all hell. She does whatever she wants whenever she wants, regardless of what anyone else tells her or expects of her. She is capable of following orders, but whoever's giving them has to earn or command her respect before that can happen. She does have a more insecure side. One that isn't sure if she's doing the right thing. But it never bothers her for too long, or if it does she tries not to show it. She's also rather temperamental, quick to anger and quick to judge. But she's also quick to make friends, and eager to make them. And she'll stick by her friends to the end. (Assuming they don't stab her in the back.) She also has her own sense of justice. An eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth. If someone's done wrong to her or people she cares about, she'll do wrong back. Or perhaps worse.
• Powers: Sue has all the natural abilities of a monkey, albeit enhanced to human proportions. She has great strength and speed as well as incredible agility and dexterity, and that along with her tail and hands-for-feet opens up a lot of options. She can heal faster than humans, though she can still be killed. Additionally, as part of her heritage running back generations, she can shapeshift into different forms, including a stinking hairless ape if she need to.
• Gear: Sue possesses a long red staff that has been in her family for generations, though she barely used it until she ventured out into the world. Aside from being a useful weapon, she can also extend its' reach to the point where she can attack foes from a long distance. She can also use it to summon up a magic cloud that she can use to fly, though it often has a tendency to want to go west. Which is something she's never quite been able to figure out.
• Backstory: Sue was born and raised in a jungle home to a race of monkey people in China, and it was there that she learned most of her morals and principles as well as general lifestyle. This all changed after a smartphone fell out of a plane by accident and dropped right on her head. After reeling from the sheer impact of a small object hitting her at the speed of an unladen swallow, her curiosity got the better of her and she examined the phone. Not having spent a day in civilization or having any sort of handle on technology, it took her forever to get it working, but once she did, she couldn’t take her eyes off it. There was so much there that she didn’t understand. Books, tv shows, movies, pictures of cities the world over and more. Some in her position might have tossed the phone away, unable to deal with the sheer insanity of it all. But Sue was a different story. To the contrary, she was enraptured.
  • Truth be told, Sue had been longing for a change of pace for some time now. Up until now, her life was fairly uncomplicated and simple: Eating, fighting, fucking, and exploring. That was it. And she had been living in the jungle long enough that there wasn’t much she hadn’t already seen. Sure, there were plenty of trees and trails, and even some old temples devoted to the Gods. And she did enjoy those first four things immensely. But she wanted something more. And this was her chance to get it.
  • With that, Sue made up her mind. Not even taking the time to bid her farewells, she summoned up her Nimbus and soared off to the west to see what was out there, eventually landing in America. Of course, the locals weren’t sure what to do with her, much less the authorities. All they knew was there was a built-ass monkey girl in nothing but her birthday suit jumping around and beating up anyone who so much as looked at her funny. In the jungle this would have been acceptable behavior, but she was in a different kind of jungle, and she couldn’t just do as she pleased. Still, what were they supposed to do? Judging by her appearance, she was still a minor, and what she said was true, she was from a different nation and culture altogether. So they weren’t sure they had so much as the authority to lock her up even if they wanted to. Ultimately they were left with two options. Either attempt to deport her (which would surely go over well with the Liberals and people’s rights activists), or try a different tact.
  • Ultimately they decided to let her stay, but on certain conditions. After bribing her with a small mountain of bananas, they set her up with a pair of handlers and told her that if she wanted to stay here, she had to do what they said. This was easier said than done, but she was willing to agree to it as long as it kept the police off her back and her handlers weren’t assholes. (And of course more bananas.)
  • After a couple months, her handlers got so fed up with her that they threatened to send her to a zoo if she didn't behave. By this point she had learned just enough about human culture and the written word to get by, so she ran away in the middle of the night and went off on her own. Despite her mistreatment, she still wanted to learn more about the world and experience all it had to offer. Plus she needed a place to stay. Eventually she saw an ad for Oddity High on a billboard. With nowhere else to go, she headed over and enrolled the first chance she got. Besides, it looked like fun!
• Miscellaneous: Sue enjoys intense action flicks and wacky comedies. There are a number of other things that she has only recently learned about and is just starting to get used to, which is something she'll have to work on.
  • Sue is also an experienced and resilient fighter, hunter, and survivalist seeing as survival of the fittest is the rule of the land in her enclave, and one has to take care of one's self.
• "Why did you decide to join the school?": "I dunno, seemed like fun! Kinda like beating up some asshole in a backally cuz they looked at you funny. Either one seemed like a good idea at the timeOOOBANNANASGIMMEGIMMEGIMMIE"

Edited by kkhohoho on Dec 31st 2020 at 8:28:44 AM

Fantastic. Evelyn is accepted.

I like the idea, but she would probably need to spend most of her time in human form for the RP to work, and I just want to check if that's OK before I accept her. (Also I doubt Oddity High would get much more advertising than a few fliers and maybe some spam emails, but that's hardly important.)

This is the other half of the paired signup with Enirboreh. I'm not usually as wordy as he is though.

• Name: Iris Langley
• Age: 14
• Appearance: Barely 5 feet tall.◊ Her eyes can appear on any surface she's touching, as well as anywhere on her body, and tend to shift around and wander without her input when she's not paying attention. However, with the benefit of baggy, concealing clothes, sunglasses that can disguise the fact that the eyes on her face don't always want to stay put, and enough concentration to keep eyes from opening where they shouldn't, she can pull off a relatively normal appearance.
• Personality: A largely sheltered upbringing has left Iris with little in the way of social skills, or confidence when it comes to talking with new people. In addition, Iris has spent most of her life considering herself a freak, and is ironically jealous of her sister for being able to hide her weirdness much more easily. Partially as a result, she's slower to open up to people than Evelyn is. However, beneath her shy and closed-off exterior, Iris has possessive tendencies and a violent and terrifying temper, which is most easily triggered by threatening something or someone that she considers hers. Especially her baby sister.
• Power/Oddity:
  • She of the Infinite Eyes: Iris possesses a seemingly infinite number of eyes that appear and disappear from her body and surfaces she's touching with little rhyme or reason, and shift across her skin and other surfaces of their own accord. With a bit of focus, however, she can control where her eyes appear and how they move, at least enough to hide them under her clothes when she needs to. Iris's eyes can be damaged or even destroyed, and Iris will feel the associated pain, but new eyes will quickly appear to take their place.
  • Absolute Sight: Iris's eyes are not normal eyes, and are capable of seeing through most surfaces, seeing in the dark, penetrating illusions, and "zooming in" on faraway or small objects. Combined with the placement of her eyes all over her body, this affords her nearly perfect 360 degree vision.
• Backstory: Iris was born to the wealthy Langley family alongside her fraternal twin Evelyn. Unlike her twin, Iris was born completely healthy. Like her sister, however, the Langley family's bizarre lineage manifested in her. From birth, Iris has been blessed and/or cursed with her infinite eyes. She grew up unwilling to leave the house in fear of being labeled a freak, leaving her with only her sister for company. As a result, the two have grown exceptionally close. It was only recently that Iris managed to assert enough control over her eyes to hide them in public, and Oddity High is her first step into education that isn't homeschooling in, well... ever.
• Why did you decide to join the school?
  • "I.. uh... don't really wanna be around a whole lot of new people... this place is nice and small..."

Also fantastic. Iris is accepted.

Well, I think this will do, if I need to make changes, let me know.

• Name: Alexis Travil.
• Age: 16.
• Appearance: Standing at 5'6 and being on the lean side in terms of build and overall physique, Alexis has light brown hair, hazel eyes and typically dresses in rather plain, cheap clothing when not in the school's uniform. The only consistent factor between any of his attire is a simple top hat that he absolutely refuses to take off.
• Personality: Alexis is typically levelheaded and open-minded, doing his best to be polite, patient and typically putting others before himself or at least tries to. There are moments where that calm demeanor cracks though, revealing a more cheerful if rather energetic and competitive youth beneath it all.
• Power/Oddity: Reflect Step. Alexis is able to enter and exit from reflective surfaces on contact and being able 'blink' between them, typically to take shortcuts if they're in a reasonable distance of each other. It's not entirely sure if it's simply all reflective surfaces being 'connected' together for him that he's able to do it, part of the power to begin with or something if it's something else entirely, though.
  • It...does have the drawback of potentially leaving him stranded if someone were to break the only mirror in a house, nor can he really control it terribly well as if he unintentionally makes physical contact with a reflective surface his power WILL typically draw him into the reflection which can be a mild inconvenience at best and definitely alert anyone if they saw him disappear and reappear. And well, he doesn't exactly want to know what would happen if he got thrown into a lake or swimming pool.

• Backstory: Alexis' life growing up would be considered uneventful by most beyond getting the idea that hard work and making an effort to be noticed was important from an early age. Which in turn made him rather competitive to try and stand out in either sports or studying only to fall short through both middle (and so far) high-school.
  • While his relationship with his parents is on mostly good terms, the fact they typically work until very late at night means they rarely see each other, leaving Alexis to look after himself most days. Things got somewhat complicated after they moved to another part of Little Haven at the end of last year and with more work hours, Alexis' current high-school too far out of the way by car and that the only school nearby with a bus was Oddity High.

  • And while he won't say anything about how he got his powers, he will admit that as far as he knows, he's only had them for seven months.

• "Why did you decide to join the school?": "Got to get an education from somewhere, right? Don't exactly have the luxury of choice around here, too far to walk anywhere else, even with the shortcuts."

Edited by TheRealWren on Jan 1st 2021 at 9:53:09 PM

I also think that will do. Alexis is accepted.

(also oddity high doesn't have a uniform btw)

Edit for clarification question: does he not have a reflection?

Edited by TheFullestCircle on Jan 1st 2021 at 4:18:43 AM

@Fullest Circle: That's fine. But I thought you said they only had to appear human for the first few minutes?

I suppose he wouldn't have a reflection unless that'd cause issues in the RP? Because I guess aside from what he's hiding beneath the hat, Alexis would look pretty normal otherwise.

Was flipping back forth if he did or not since there wouldn't be one when he's in a mirror and there was the idea of being able to bring objects out of a reflection back with him but I didn't really want to make it too powerful or whatnot considering he's still relatively inexperience with what he's got.

Edited by TheRealWren on Jan 2nd 2021 at 1:55:54 AM

• Name: Lucien Vaugeois
• Age: 16
• Appearance: The closest Lucien has ever come to a smile◊. Stands at 5'6.
• Personality: Lucien is aloof, sharp-tongued, and a perpetual frowner. Considering himself the smartest person in the room, he tends to put down others for their perceived lack of intelligence and/or common sense. He himself is very smart, and possesses a surprisingly rational mind, so he feels justified in telling others when they're wrong. He's usually good at appearing composed, but his temper is short, and anyone who really pisses him off will have to face his furious outburst. In addition, he is also a perfectionist—in his mind, what he does either has to be perfect or it's worthless. Like him.
• Power: Ice magic. Lucien can create, shape, and manipulate ice, and has some control over the area's general temperature. Generally, you can tell if he's mad when the temperature suddenly drops a few degrees.
• Backstory: Lucien comes from a fabulously wealthy old money family, and had dozens of expectations piled on him from an early age. He very quickly learned that anything less than perfection is simply not enough, which explains much of his current behavior. He is relatively sure his powers came into the equation when he was twelve years old—that being the first time he accidentally froze something—but even when he was a child, people would complain of chills whenever he entered a room. Lucien is reasonably sure he can get away with attending Oddity High—he's been homeschooled all his life, so if he just keeps up with his studies his parents probably won't suspect anything. He has no desire to actually tell his parents about his magic, if only to not give them another thing to judge him on.
• Why did you decide to join this school?: "I figured it was as good a way as any to find out where exactly these powers come from. Besides...the deluded ramblings of a crackpot can be quite entertaining."

• Name: Anisa Wiraputri
• Age: 15
• Appearance: "Mrph?"◊ A little 5' dumpling with unremarkable but comfy attire.
• Personality: If she were to describe herself in one word, Anisa would go with "tired and hungry... ah, oops..." She's possessed of a bottomless appetite, which can be explained by her power, and endless fatigue, which cannot. Because of her constant exhaustion, Anisa can be scatterbrained, slow to talk to, and difficult to elicit a reaction from that's any stronger than 'mild'. That's not to say that she's introverted or doesn't care about others- in fact, she doesn't seem to possess a mean bone in her body, and enjoys conversations so long as she can keep up with them.
• Power/Oddity:
  • Simply put, Anisa can eat anything she puts in her mouth. Her body produces a special strand of enzymes and gastric acid that, as far as she can tell, can break down anything that's given to them. Wood, ceramic, glass, plastic, bleach, and metal are just some of the many things that she's nibbled on, intentionally or otherwise. On top of her digestive prowess, she seems immune to the negative effects that eating such materials would usually cause to a human body.
  • To facilitate this ravenous appetite, Anisa's jaw is similar in construction to that of a snake- her lower jawbone isn't fused to her skull, but instead held in place by ligaments that can stretch and allow her to open her mouth to twice the size of a regular person. Things like cans and plastic bottles can effortlessly be downed in a single big gulp.
  • For objects that are too big to be swallowed in one go, Anita is also in possession of remarkably strong teeth. Again, she hasn't tested their upper limits, but concrete and chicken bones have yielded effortlessly to her maw. As a side note, Anisa broke her wrist by falling off a jungle gym when she was seven, so her teeth's invulnerability don't seem to extend to the rest of her skeleton.
• Backstory: There's a piece of Indonesian folklore that speaks of the Ebu Gogo, a group of gluttonous humanoid creatures that were said to live in the caves of Flores and had the ability to swallow plates and piglets whole. Though one tale says that they were tricked and killed by human villagers, there still live rumours that a pair of Ebu Gogo escaped into the forest and that their descendants continue to live on.
  Surely, however, this has nothing to do with Anisa's father having been born and raised in Flores. From there he moved to America and met Anisa's mother, and Anisa was conceived after the two settled in a quiet little Massachusen home. Anisa was a delight of a daughter, but unfortunately was plagued with medical issues: first diagnosed with pica after teachers often found her eating dirt and pencils at school, and then with chronic fatigue when it became apparent that her excessive idling wasn't born of laziness. Without the funds to afford specialist treatment (not helped at all by conventional medication seeming to have no effect on Anisa when she ingested it), Anisa's parents are doing everything they can to save up for medical expenses- including sending their daughter to the nearest school, even if it has something of a dodgy reputation.
• "Why did you decide to join the school?": "'s cheap... and maybe they can help with my eating problem... Ma doesn't have her hopes up, though."

I guess I may have phrased my question a bit oddly. Although I do think they'd have a reason to want to stay human, either so the people she escaped from don't find her or so the people around her don't freak out. Regardless, Sue is accepted.

Cool. I actually really like the "bringing things through" idea, feel free to use that if you want.

Guess I'm scrapping my ice-themed GMNPC... Lucien is accepted.

That's an interesting power. Anisa is accepted, and with that I think we have enough players to start the RP! I'll make a Discord server for us. Edit: I've sent invite links to everyone. The RP will start when everyone either joins or messages me back telling me they don't use Discord.

Another edit: Signups don't close, but you will have to wait to introduce them into the story.

Edited by TheFullestCircle on Jan 1st 2021 at 12:54:52 PM

So kkhohoho dropped out before posting anything. There is now a race for character creation! Someone write a character to replace them!

Name: Hope Garnes

Age: 15

Appearance: this◊ is her basic appearance, a girl with dark, deep eyes with black rings around them from perpetual lack of sleep, pale skin from being a shut-in in her room all day with mostly a computer screen for company, a bandage on her nose more often than not because she's perpetually getting into little accidents. She's usually got a concealing black hoodie covering her and wears baggy sweat or cargo pants, mostly because she doesn't care much for her personal appearance outside convenience and coziness.

Personality: Outwardly Hope is a shut-in who locks herself away from the rest of the world and comes off as perpetually gloomy and obsessed with the darker and more morbid aspects of life. She's not actually as socially awkward or anxious as she seems but by this point she's somewhat aware of the effects her powers have on others and isolates herself as much for their sake as her own and leans into the doom-and-gloom personality as she's convinced that's how people will view her regardless. She's perpetually lonely and may seem a bit macabre and dark at times but overall is a sweet girl who's just well aware that her ability makes it difficult for her to have close and caring relationships with those around her. She likes anime and manga, a wide variety of music besides the usual types people would associate her with via her appearance. She also likes researching random subjects whenever they strike her fancy though she's a big fan literature and poetry. If she does try to write poems or stories her oddity often makes her write some rather dark and depressing things if she doesn't consciously suppress it.

Power/Oddity: In one word, Hope's Oddity is Despair. If she doesn't constantly suppress it, she leaks a sort of aura of depression and hopelessness outward from herself that compels others to fall into complete despair. It also sometimes controls her actions to make her act in a sad, tragic or macabre way though with focus she can stop this as well. It will sometimes only affect whatever person she's paying attention to at the time, sapping them of energy and manifesting however they would normally process such a feeling of powerless sadness and pointlessness. Hope also seems to have some connection to darkness and gloom, as when her power activates strongly enough light seems to get sucked out of the room and shadows become deepened around her while her own shadow sometimes plays strange tricks on the eyes of those watching as if it's alive. So far this is a purely cosmetic effect and Hope herself sometimes resents the creepy way it presents her, though more recently she's at least tried to embrace her reputation.

Backstory (optional): Hope's power of despair has been with her since she was a little girl, and while though her parents are eternal optimists of considerable mental fortitude, they still have trouble relating to their daughter because of the feelings she often gives off. She's been mostly homeschooled via an online program until now because her powers have a minimal affect on people over the internet. She has very few friends because of her power, anyone who came into contact with her unprepared when she has her guard down would just feel as if there's no point in being her friend, after all. So, when this new potential hoax of a school came about, Hope nevertheless jumped at the chance to enroll and possibly learn better control of her powers and make real friends.

"Why did you decide to join the school?":

"Well, my parents say this place is a total ripoff and only a complete idiot would join but nothing else in my life has really worked out that well up until this point and every other school I've joined has had to let me go after teachers I had quit and my friends all left me alone. So I figured I might as well give this place a shot because it could be the only chance I'll ever have to make friends and live a happy normal life. Not that 'normal' or 'happy' is something anyone really ever gets to be anyways, like, happiness is only temporary and eventually it'll fade and 'normal' is just a way society oppresses people it doesn't like and sooner or later everyone stops being 'normal' but I guess that's something we all have to strive for even if it's in vain. So yeah just thought I would give this a try I mean the worst thing that happens is my teachers quit again right? Well, things could be worse, like a teacher could jump out a window or the school could catch on fire or get leveled by an earthquake or I could fall out a window or someone could die. But like...no sense in not trying right?"

Hope is accepted.

...Dblade also dropped out before posting anything. Character race is back on, I guess, although I will warn you that the character slot might be cursed.

• Name: Blake Smith
• Age: 15
• Appearance: Blake's a little short for his age and is lean in build. Between the hazel eyes and short and messy brown hair he's almost the archetypal image of a happy early teen. His usual outfit consists of an array of different pairs of jeans and shirts; solid colors each with a different symbol that aren't quite corporate logos but definitely have the same energy.
• Personality: Blake puts his best effort into being a bright and upbeat teen with a love for music and hanging out with friends. However he also tends to get sleepy sometimes and his sudden relocation from New York to Little Haven with little to no explanation as to why has given him a little simmering resentment that might explain why he's so cavalier with 'borrowing' random objects that catch his eye around the house.
• Power/Oddity:
  • He is not (personally) responsible for the series of clerical errors that led to his acceptance at the school. His mother and the organization she works for is.
  • He has a minor medical fatigue issue that was being exacerbated by living in New York. While his parents hold many theories as to the source, ultimately it seems to be a mundane issue.
  • His parents work for the government. Specifically the joint HHS and DHS Center For Human Idea-space Management: an agency dedicated to the health of the collective subconscious and the threats and anomalous items that derive from it.
  • His imaginary friend has proven rather persistent.
• Backstory (optional): If there were secrets in Blake's childhood, then no one had let him in on them. Born to what felt like a loving couple in New York, the boy had most of the typical childhood for urban kids with government employee parents: A decent grade school, a small cadre of friends in the neighbourhood, the occasional doctor's visit that involved assorted tests, being brought along to fancy dinners with the parents and of course just hanging out amid the alleys and the city ambiance. And then, in a moment, his world was turned upside down; pulled out of school, given one last medical check and then taken several states over by his mother to move to a sleepy little town named Little Haven. Whatever secret meant he had been split from half his family and all of his friends, no one had let him in on it.
• "Why did you decide to join the school?": "Mom was insistent, guess she doesn't really want me attending a proper school because of my condition."

Blake is accepted.

Is this still open for new players? It has my interest.

Seconded, I'm interested too.

I’m interested too. May I submit my character, or is this not open?