Bishop's Stone (OOC) (Open)

[Inumo]

Bishop's Stone, midnight. Come early.
You'll love it.

You found the note in the mail when you came home from errands this afternoon. Now, it's about five minutes to midnight at the old boulder outside of town and you're starting to shiver from the cold. You arrived ten minutes ago, as per the note's instructions, and have found a comfortable little niche on the rock's craggy surface. Or at least, as comfortable as you can get on solid stone. Around you are other sillhouettes, all apparently here for the same reason as you. As you think of heading home, a warm hand suddenly claps over your mouth, oddly silencing your sounds of surprise. "Shhhhh..." the hand's owner whispers next to your ear. "Hold still. You don't want them to notice you. Just be glad that they've put on blindfolds for this." The figure settles onto the rock amidst your group, out of sight, as you lean back against the rock and resume waiting.

The figure kept true to their word. A few minutes later, your breath catches as three shapeless shadows, each at least eight feet tall, step out from behind trees and  buildings and approach Bishop's Stone. Forming a triangle formation, thick arms pull down hoods as they near. Your breath catches as furry ears spring up. You couldn't move if you tried as the leader intones, "Avalon, we wish to be gone." The figure beside you springs up as the boulder begins to rumble, and the trio of creatures continue towards the base of the rock and out of sight. Leaping down from their perch, the figure beckons you down.

"Come on," he shouts up, apparently no longer worried about the people he'd cautioned you against minutes ago. "Don't you want to look?"

Do you?



The time has come to try my hand again at GMing a forum RP. This is an urban fantasy RP, flipping back and forth between our world and the world of fantasy creatures. Players must begin, at least, as humans, though between magic and faerie mischief they may not stay that way. This first post will become a compendium of all that the players know about this world when play begins, though all knowledge must be discovered in due course. I have no idea what aesthetic this story will reveal itself to contain, however, as the fates of each character will rely on my deck of tarot cards, and who knows what will evolve from it?

If you're interested, make yourself known! After two people have shown interest I'll throw together a character sheet. After five people have submitted characters I will begin the RP. I look forward to showing you through this tale.

The character sheet template is as follows. Please, PM me for approval before you post it up!

Name:
Occupation:
Living Conditions:
Significant Relations: (friends, family, bosses, companies, societies, cults, etc)
Reason to Follow the Note:
Card: (Don't worry about filling this out; I'll give you one once I get your submission)

Characters:

Marci Kensworth
Robert Orin Charles

In Stasis:

Damien Stryfe
Daniel Nevans
David Matthews
Lemick Faust
Lorelei Ainsley Evans
Nanabi Tybalt

Dead (or Close Enough):

Kirrin Shaddix

[Meany]

INTEREST.  There, I've expressed it.

Very interesting, but isn't Avalon common knowledge for anyone who has seen Gargoyles?

[Arroyo Milori]

Sure why not : D I'm interested.

[Inumo]

Alrighty, I'll have a character sheet up in no time.

Very interesting, but isn't Avalon common knowledge for anyone who has seen Gargoyles?

I wouldn't know. I stole it from Skin Deep 'cuz I couldn't think of a better name on the spot. Avalon's just the formal name for it, of course.

[JamesCray]

Considering my personal reading library includes every single Dresden Files, October Daye, Mercy Thompson, and SERRAted Edge book, as well as observing your performance as a player in Of Steam and Steel, I doubt I could be dissuaded.

[SquirrelWizard]

Sure, I'm up for it.

[justacritic]

I wish to try, to receive more practice at RPs

[LionHeart]

I'm interested.

[Inumo]

As someone pointed out to me, some players might like to play the RP with a particular atmosphere in mind. If you are one such player, let me know when you submit your character what atmosphere you would like and I'll tailor the tarot deck I'll select your card from with that atmosphere in mind. If, alternatively, you want to write your character based on the atmosphere, again just let me know and I'll draw your card and let you know what atmosphere it is, saving the exact card for when you submit your sheet.

[AmberCross]

An RP involving Tarot readings?!? Count me in! Also, Avalon is the name of that mythical island they took King Arthur to after he not quite died. Anyone with general knowledge of Arthurian tales would recognize that name. It is also used in high connotation to mean fae related things. So yeah, when my character hears something about not quite human looking people going to Avalon, he's going to jump to some instant conclusions...

[Azlan]

A good portion of the RPs I am in are sporadic or nearly dead, possibly undead, I would express interest in possibly trying this.  I have a passing familiarity with things faerie, though not much knowledge in Tarot (unless Sins webcomic counts ). 

[Inumo]

Well, I've finally gotten my tarot deck, so I can start assigning people cards. Also, since it may not have been clear, I am randomly selecting from either the full deck or a deck tailored to have cards themed around the atmosphere you'd like to describe future plot, not picking by hand for the atmosphere you want or to match the character.

[AmberCross]

And with my character approved...

Name: David Matthews
Occupation: Science! Also college...
Living Conditions: He rooms with a few others at an apartment during the school year, or with his parents otherwise. He doesn't have a regular schedule though, so they're well used to him being active or doing things at crazy hours of the whenever.
Significant Relations: Parents and a little brother (just a little bit little tho) at home, a couple of casual to good friends otherwise, but none that talk with him on a daily basis.
Reason to Follow the Note: Abject curiosity. This guy has way too much of it.
Card: Three of wands

David is one of those people who wants to believe magic is out there, but has never found any proof and is starting to lose that belief. He's taken to coping by finding magic in the little things. When other people see something like a standalone streetlight in the torrential rain, David will force himself to see tiny jewels falling from the sky, each one briefly lit up in splendor as it passes through the light before shattering into oblivion and washing away. He's used to seeing things in the light of science and treating obstacles like many intricate puzzles with a way to solve them if you can just figure it out. However instead of the world being robbed of its beauty by knowing what makes it tick, he always tries to see the beauty in the composite parts and how amazing it is that they all work together. Not that he always succeeds or does this constantly, but he tries.

All his life he feels like he's been searching for something but doesn't realize that what he's searching for is the search itself. Offered a chance to go to a world of magic where he would be free beyond constraints, he would take it in a second if not for the fact that he loves his own home so much. However, not having access to such a world... he makes due by a vivid imagination and semi-lucid dreaming. He loves those cloudy days where the color seems drained out of everything just as much (if not more) than those where the sun is shining and extra vivid because it feels like a blank slate that he can paint over with his mind. Imagining lights, ribbons of color, and whatever else comes to mind as he pretends he isn't just making a world that only he can see, but perhaps seeing into a world behind his own that no one else notices. But that's just him being silly and whimsical. After all... if such a world existed science would have surely found it... right?

David is going to be following an atmosphere of discovery and wonder. The world isn't black and white and all those shades of colors he's been painting over it actually do exist, even if not quite in the same way he painted it. His element is air and his season is autumn or winter. Year of the tiger, month of the lion, these are things about him that don't really matter to everyday practical things, but some people like to know these things anyway.

[Azlan]

With approval, so it is posted.


Name: Lorelei Ainsley Evans(-Lorraine)

Occupation: University Graduate Medical Student/Reserve British Army Medic (23 Special Air Service)

Living Conditions: Upper Class lifestyle.  Lore lives in an expansive 6 bedroom penthouse flat in the nice area of Plymouth in Massachusetts.  Compared to her parents' expansive mansions it is rather modest.  She has a reasonable staff consisting of an attendant/butler, maid/housekeeper, chef, and chauffeur.  Her apartments are adorned with a collection of the rare and mystical, tasteful art, and fine electronics.  To reach the university campus, she is typically driven in her not very modest, new Bentley Mulsanne, she can drive herself in her less exquisite Aston Martin Vantage, or more typically she takes the train to Cambridge.  

Significant Relations:
•   Parents:
    o   Father - "The Most High and Noble, His Grace Harold Richard Evans, Duke of Cleveland, Marquess of Winchester, and Earl of Middlesbrough"
    o   Mother - "The Most Honourable Lady Rebecca Evans-Lorraine"
    o   Brother (older) – Richard George Evans-Lorraine
    o   Sister (younger) – Avril Kimberly Evans-Lorraine
    o   Brother (younger) – Frederick Harold Evans-Lorraine
•   Friends:
    o   Professor Powell – Occult studies/Mythology Professor
    o   Captain Macgregor – commanding officer for B Group Medical Corp for 23 S.A.S.
    o   Beatrice Kearney – Amateur Occult investigator, occult studies student, and magical enthusiast
•   Alma mater: Harvard University
•   Reserve Military unit: 23 Special Air Service as a Medical Officer, 2nd Lieutenant
•   Silver Dawn Reading group – the official name for a magical studies and occult investigations enthusiast group that she is a member of.  Qualifies as a magical cult.
•   Staff:
    o   Attendant/Butler – Bryce Adler
    o   Maid/Housekeeper – Candace Hall
    o   Chef – Jonathan Green
    o   Chauffeur – Mei Li Ward

Reason to Follow the Note: A strong curiosity, overriding common sense, for anything mystical or legendary.  A small part of her wishes to escape the pressures her parents, society, and academia place on her.

Card: Three of Swords


Despite grounding in medical science, part time British military discipline, and stuffy high society English nobility upbringing, she has always had a strong love for magic, faeries, and other fantastical things.  While other children wanted to play the Princess or the knight, she happily took on the role of the dragon, the witch, or the beguiling faerie.  She has independently studied the occult and suffers from an unnaturally strong curiosity for such things.      

Lorelei, or Lore as she is known her friends, is someone who has been forced into a specific mold of what one should be.  Forced to wear a mask of a proper lady, high culture, and refinement.  For much of her life it has been what father or mother wants, father or mother gets.  Her only small successes were being able to choose medicine as her course of study in university, selecting Plymouth, in the United States, to live and attend school, and undertaking her family's duty to military service as her elder brother is physically unfit to do so.  Her father's influence and desire to protect his precious daughter allowed her only to enter the reserves.

Generous to a fault and fiercely loyal to those she holds dear, Lore can still be caught up on appearances and inconsequential details.  Never afraid of hard work, Lore can get the job done.  A precious trait she holds close is the last remnant of her naive youth, the belief in the fantastic and mystical.  She may not view the world with childlike wonder, but she is open-minded to the possibilities of things that can defy reason and logic.

Lore was born in the year of the dog, in the season of summer; in the month that Emerald holds sway.  She is strongly drawn to sapphires and has been told that both metal and fire are elementally important to her.  

[JamesCray]

Name:
Robert Orin Charles

Occupation:
I.T. Support Technician

Living Conditions:
Robert works nine to five doing I.T. drudge work at a university he graduated from not too long ago. When that's over, he goes home to a studio apartment and tunes out mostly, reading, surfing the web, watching TV. Occasionally he hangs out at the local bookstore, and most Sunday nights he sits in on a Dresden Files RPG one of the Biochemistry professors runs. Lather, rinse, repeat.

Significant Relations:
Zachary Cameron is his boss at the local university he works at, Professor Michael Bishop Ph.D leads his Dresden game, his mother lives in Maidstone, and really, not much else. His friends all moved on to bigger, better things after college graduation, he's the last holdout.

Reason to Follow the Note:
Robert's life has been in a holding pattern since college. He's soul-crushingly bored with what he has, and has been looking for an escape. Mysterious notes arriving out of nowhere? Shadowy inhuman figures? This is EXACTLY the adventure he seeks.

Card:
Wheel of Fortune

Robert is very intelligent, and as is implied earlier in his profile, rather bored. He had grown up reading and watching stories of mystery, action, adventure, but his own life always seemed to him rather normal, even dreary. Some of this, however, is his own doing, as the closest he's come to seeking out action and adventure was buying a car with painfully bad resale. Now that he is going to be getting a bit of adventure, who knows how he'll actually react to it. He may end up wishing he was more careful what he wished for.

Robert (don't call him Bob, just don't, he hates it.) likes to think of himself as cultured, sophisticated, and a bit eccentric. However, he comes from a working-class background and it shows, as he is prone to seek comfort in the more simple things, a drive in his 147 or a curry and a bitter. He was born in the year of the Tiger and the month of the Twins, and he is vaguely aware of this. He hasn't looked much into what it MEANS, mind you, but hey, some people are going to be interested in this sort of thing.

[SquirrelWizard]

Name: Daniel Nevans
Age: 23
Occupation: College Student
Living Conditions: small appartment with three others, typical college clutter. Living room with a couch and game setup, kitchenette in varying degrees of cleanness.
Significant Relations:

Mother: Mary Nevans
Father: Eric Nevans
Sister: Linda Nevans
Brother: Eric Nevans
Friend+Unseen Realm Contact: Emily Marron
Professor Allen Hershal: Lit Professor, keeps tabs on Daniel as he sees him as a kindred spirit with potential.
Edward Sanders: Best friend, chemistry major.
Charles Maron: Roommate
Benjamin Childers: Roommate


Unseen Realm: Unseen Realm is a loose coalation of occultist, occult followers, conspiricy theorist. Has no central leadership, but can organize via an online forum. Members are typically encouraged to avoid causing problems for the public, though they have not real control over their members, but try to work with the local authorities when a member gets out of hand.

Unseen Realm is known to be one of the seedier occult "cults" (bit of a misnomer as not every member adheres to the same beliefs). While not exactly dangerous, some members skirt the edges of the law to varying degrees.

Reason to Follow the Note: Curiosity, seeking to capture the living, breathing, occult over the stale book definition in his writing.
Card: 5 of swords

Daniel Nevans is a Creative Writing Student at the local College. Since the age of ten, Daniel has had a varied palate of activities. He was quite active in martial arts, Boy Scouts, literary forums and metallurgy. Though he never truely mastered in these endevors, this gave him a wide base of knowledge and experience for which he finally decided to try and market this random mishmash of skills through writing.

Daniel is a relatively personable person. He's easy going and can talk to almost anybody. Though he has many aquantances, he doesn't have many people who he'd really consider as a friend. Other than Edward, his best friend, and his roommates Daniel has started hanging out with Emily Marron, a self proclaimed wiccan, who has been helping him with his research by introducing him to the occult community. Daniel's willingness to plunge into things, and the fact that he keeps an open mind about him even if he doesn't believe in the subject, has let him join the Unsceen Realm's members with little friction. Allen Hershal, a writer and litterature professor from semesters past, keeps tabs on Daniel from time to time to see how his writing is coming along out of interest.

[Meany]

Name: Nanabi Tybalt.

Occupation: Retired, (former CEO of the Tybalt Trading Company).

Living Conditions:  Upper Middle Class.

Significant Relations: Solomon Tybalt (husband, deceased).  Kiriko Tybalt (daughter, deceased).  Michael Tybalt (son, estranged.) Tybalt Trading Company (Former CEO, Founder, since replaced by Michael Tybalt.)  Agnosticism.

Reason to Follow the Note:  Loneliness, regret over missed opportunities, and a profound desire to communicate with people again despite being dreadfully afraid.

History: Nanbi is a Japanese woman, pushing sixty now, who married an Italian merchant, and with him founded a successful trading company.  Becoming renowned for ruthlessness, she turned a tidy bit of profit from the company.  When a vengeful CEO of one of the myriad companies Nanabi had ruined took vengeance upon her through her husband and daughter with a shotgun, Nanabi pressed on.  Almost a decade later, she passed the torch to her surviving son, and retired to the suburbs in a modestly large home with servants to tend to on her behalf.
Alone, and realizing that she had years of her life left but no hobbies, no friends, and no longer any family to spend time with...Nanabi came to regret.  She came to regret her decisions as CEO, as a wife, as a mother, as a human being.  Her son refused to speak to her, now that he had her company and the sums it produced.  So, from her own funds she spent time trying to make amends for her misdeeds.  In the end, she just had more wasted time.
Periodically, she would try to speak with the servants, get to know them, perhaps find a friend among them.  But it soon became clear her reputation for cruelty preceded her, and she was alone.

Alone with the memories, and regret.

Her days go with reading books she does not care for, and reading the newspaper for societies that perhaps she could join to find human contact.

Card: Two of Pentacles.

[Inumo]

And with that, five characters have been approved! I'll get to writing up an IC post and close the RP to new characters after the post has been up for a week.

[justacritic]

Finally I've cut down to a manageable size and now meet

Lemick Faust (Age: 21)

Occupation: Janitor for the Second Federal Bank (Cleaner's Union 66)
Living Conditions: Working Class

Significant Relations: Glenda Vanilla (Downstairs Neighbor, works mostly as a cosmetics saleswoman but also moonlights her cooking skills) Mr. Darwics (Lemick's Boss and President of the bank) Marinetta Delora (Lemick's superior and a mean hand with a feather duster) Cleaner's Union 66 (Joining this is a requirement for janitors, cleaners, housekeepers, etc.)

Reason to follow the note: Living has become rather dull in Lemick's eyes and so the note was an interesting event to warrant following.

Card: Nine of Swords

Life has not been easy for Lemick Faust, starting out abandoned at birth. Unfortunately he was just bounced around in foster care, never ending up with any caretaker taking enough of an interest in him. In his education, no matter how hard he tried, in spite of all the late nights reviewing and note taking he ended up with average grades. When he applied for college he didn't even manage to make a single acceptance to any institution. And so he had to make do with what he had when he left foster care at the age of eighteen. Finding a job with only a high school diploma is not easy but he finally managed to become one of the janitors at the Second Federal Bank. The salary was enough to let him rent a small one floor apartment, though at times requiring serious maintenance. Routine has been the key word of his week, from waking up, speaking to Glenda the cosmetics saleswoman living on the floor below his, to making sure that the clean image of the bank remains that way, to going back home and enjoying the small entertainment he is able to steadily afford, fairy tales.

[Inumo]

The IC thread is now up. The RP will officially close 2/27/12 until it is workable to bring in more people.

http://clockworkmansion.com/forum/index.php/topic,8834.0.html

[SilverDemonWolf]

I'm interested!  *Goes to PM character profile*

[SilverDemonWolf]

And my character has been approved!

Everyone, meet Damien:

Name:  Damien Stryfe

Occupation:  Works full time in a music store, going to college part time (studying music, with a side of business and teaching.  He wants to own his own store and offer music lessons one day).

Living Conditions:  Upper Lower Class.  Damien comes from a poor family, and thus didn't have anything to start with when he came of age to be on his own.  Through lots of hard work and plenty of overtime hours, he's managed to get himself a studio apartment in a not TOO bad part of town.  What money he makes that he doesn't use on essentials tends to go towards his part-time college courses, so his apartment is only lightly furnished.  What he does have is secondhand and worn, but his place is spotless and he takes good care of his possessions.  As a special note, he's hung thick blankets on the walls of his apartment to act as a sort of amateur soundproofing, so as to not annoy his neighbors when he's practicing music.

Significant Relations:
Family -
Father:  Adam Stryfe
Mother:  Mary Stryfe
Older siblings (in order):  Lucas Stryfe, Riley Stryfe, Taisa Stryfe, Adrial Stryfe, Adair Stryfe (twins)
Younger siblings (in order):  Cain Stryfe, Rose Stryfe, Sophie Stryfe, Blade Stryfe.
Boss -
Tom Carter is Damien's boss at the music store where he works.  Tom is rather fond of the young man, treating him like a younger brother and giving him a discount on things Damien needs for his instruments when he can get away with it (Damien has a little too much pride to take advantage of it often).
Pet -
Lucky is a retired alley tomcat who Damien found sick and injured and nursed back to health.  This massive, battlescarred cat is a perfect sweetheart to his owner, but is SATAN INCARNATE to everyone else.  Tread with caution (and boots, he likes ankles).

Reason to Follow the Note:  Damien has three reasons for following the note, although he himself probably wouldn't be able to voice them all.  The first reason is that he's a bit of a dreamer, and deep down inside has a secret hope that there's MORE to the world than just what we normally see.  The second deals with growing up in a large, poor family.  He had to share EVERYTHING with his siblings, and never had anything new that was his and his alone.  He would like to have something besides his music that is just for him, and he doesn't have to share with his siblings (even though he loves them to bits).  The third is simple, plain curiosity.  As in, cat-levels of curiosity.

Card:  Seven of Pentacles

[SquirrelWizard]

sorry, its gonna be a bit before I get a post up. Just had a new computer arrive in the mail, and between that and writing a short story for class, I've been a bit tied up.

Edit: Also, wasn't my card 5 of swords?

[Inumo]

Edit: Also, wasn't my card 5 of swords?

Yes, Daniel's card is. However, the Nine of Swords is his event card, so to speak. Daniel's (or any other character's) card represents a common theme over time, which hopefully I can do justice as the plot progresses. The event card represents the "here and now", so to speak, of what's going on during the short period of time described.

EDIT: At this time, Bishop's Stone is now closed. It will open again in time; it's just a matter of how fast the plot progresses before it does so.

[Inumo]

"The city," as most people know it, is officially named Joneswark. Built along an oddly secluded shore on the east coast, it can be thought of as three "rings," in a sense, centered around a central government building known as the Spire. Each ring is a separate economic class, starting with the wealthy upper class in the central ring, the middle class in the ring outside it, and the lower class on the edge of the city. At the same time, the city is also divided into five districts radiating from the Spire, named Plymouth, Jamestown, Saybrook, Charleston, and Roanoke. Plymouth covers the northern half of the coast, and replaces the lower class of the outer ring with the upper class's summer homes and luxury harbors. The lower class living in between the two upper class realms make their living off souvenir sales and tourism, as the beaches are often used as spiritual retreats. Charleston, on the southern half of the coast and extending to a major shipping highway, is a hub for all things mercantile. Many corporations have their HQs in the central ring, and more than one black market can be found if one goes looking on the fringes. Next on the clockwise rotation is Saybrook, home to the emergency HQ, from which policemen, firemen, and emergency room doctors are distributed across the city. In addition, it houses the local militia-like National Guard chapter. On the far side from the coast is Roanoke, nicknamed the Disappearing District after its lack of anything particularly special, and thus ease of being forgotten. Here the basic structure of the city's rings - that is, of upper class and a couple of multi-corporate administration buildings in the center, middle class and office buildings past that, and lower class and factories on the fringes - is most evident. Finally, Jamestown serves as a hub for the food and drug industry, both legal and illegal. Aside from the buildings housing such things as epigenetic research corporations, microbreweries, and meat packing plants, there are the heroin dealers, "party homes," meth houses, and the homes of the people who work in or make use of each.

Places of interest include Joneswark University, the local public college; Edward Jones University, the local private college; the Spire, behind whose mirrored windows nobody really knows what occurs; and Bishop's Stone, a well-known boulder just outside the city limits so named after it was the only thing left unblessed by the founder's bishop in the colonial days.

[Inumo]

Check check one two, check one two, is this game on? Saturday is coming.

[SquirrelWizard]

Dont you know? There is an invasion on. Giant sentient ships flying out of dark space hellbent on ending all life in our galaxy as we know it. I've been a bit preoccupied keeping our species alive....

(anywho... i'm trying to work on my post...)

[Azlan]

On foot against a Reaper...

I am working on a post... really.

[AmberCross]

Protip: Most people just look until they find the relevant paragraph to their character. Once found, they assume nothing else will pertain to them since after all, wouldn't that just end up in the paragraph pertaining to them anyway? If you're going to do something like this again, put notes at the end of each section that says, "(see also: last part of post)" or something like that. It took me a few looks to figure out that bit myself and that was mostly because you had declared to some character (not mine) that everyone was going to be gathered back together any moment (aka next GM post) and my particular section ended with no such prompts so I dug deeper to figure out what I was missing. If I did not habitually read other characters' storylines, I probably would assume I was still in Avalon myself.

[Inumo]

Point. I'll make a habit of putting something like ((Plot post! The last section is in addition to any of the personal sections!)) at the top of plot posts.