Reply With QuoteQuestion: If we wanted to choose an animal that does not naturally come from North America, do zoo animals count as domesticated? Just wondering, since that's a bit of a gray area for me.
IC is here.
~~~
In books authors always talk about a sudden flash, or boom. A wave of sounds and air that rushes away from a center point. In real life nothing is ever as obvious, or as dramatic as the way things happen in books. Maybe that's why no one commented, announced, or otherwise made any note of the way everything had changed. It was likely just that no one noticed anything other than a strange buzzing sensation, and after that everything seemed to go back to normal. In any case it wasn't something that everyone felt. Only one in a million felt the rush, maybe less than that.
You know the feeling you get sometimes, where all the noises around you are overwhelmed by an odd buzzing noise, and the world spins and fades in and out a bit? Like when you've been sitting for too long and you stand up to quick. If anyone noticed anything, that's all they would have felt. Nothing they hadn't felt a million times before. Except that it was different.
Over the span of a few hours it had passed over the whole world once in a giant wave, and then it was gone.
Strange how something that would cause such a huge shift in the world would go by so unnoticed, but that happens more than we think. The second wave was something no one could have missed. Truly it must have started sooner, for everything to happen as quickly as it did, but no one was aware of it beyond seeing some strange new stories and dismissing them.
All over the world animals were suddenly flying, walking, slithering, galloping, and sneaking into buildings. Bears ambled up to the 18th floor of office buildings, eagles flew in through open windows, macaques swung through doors and onto desks. They all seemed completely focused and un-phased by anything, or anyone, they encountered. They were obviously going somewhere, and they were all doing it at the same time.
But no one knew why.
~~~
Last edited by Jakhi; 02-04-2013 at 12:49 PM.
Question: If we wanted to choose an animal that does not naturally come from North America, do zoo animals count as domesticated? Just wondering, since that's a bit of a gray area for me.
The main reason I said not domesticated is because, for the purposes of the game, wild animals have a stronger connection to the Earth and therefore are capable of becoming a familiar. So a zoo-born 'wild' animal, while not domestic, certainly isn't wild enough for my purposes. And in any case zoo enclosures are pretty sturdy and are built to contain the animal they hold, so even if they DID become a familiar they would have a seriously hard time escaping.
...so, short answer...probably not allowed. That being said, I'm pretty lenient so if you PM me your reasoning/back story ect and can plead your cause I may consider it. You'll also need to have a way for this animal, even with a little intelligence boost, to escape their enclosure.
How much freedom do we have with the powers? Do we have to use the innate powers you listed, or can I make a water element character that freezes everything he touches?
<Xartarin> I've been RPing all day, I need to do more productive things with my time, like drawing cartoons
<Xartarin> ^basic summary of my life
Xartatin, everyone will have close to the same 'base' of powers...but within each branch your character can definitely have a more of a kinship to water in it's frozen state, rather than liquid or gas. What I mean is that the base power is generally agitating your element in whatever form surrounds you, so your character might cause ice crystals to form, water to turn to ice in small amounts in the beginning, ect. I'm fine with that, but you would also have some effect on the liquid form.
Name: Ada Varley
Age: 19
Element/s: Fire
Description:
Personality: She has a childlike essence to her, full of curiosity and bubbly excitement. There is a certain innocence and naiveté to her, but she can just as easily be sneaky and immature, loving to play tricks and pranks on others. Fun is her main focus in life, and she always tries to keep an optimistic outlook, in order to live her life to the fullest.
There are rare occasions, however, when she might lose control of her temper. In these cases, she can become very nasty, with a sharp tongue and a mean streak. She won’t hesitate to throw out hurtful insults in the heat of an argument, and often regrets them later, beating herself up over any little thing she might have said.
History: Ada grew up as a single child of two loving and free-spirited parents that taught her to treat happiness and optimism as a way of life. At the age of 14, however, she lost her mother to breast cancer. Her father withdrew from the world, neglecting her for several years. During this time, she learned to take care of herself, but went through a bout of depression and anxiety. When she entered high school in this state, she felt she may never heal from the pain of her mother’s death. It wasn’t to be, though; during her sophomore year, she met her best friend, who had lost her own mother, but kept a positive outlook on life. This girl was responsible for inspiring Ada to become the girl she is today, choosing to follow her mother’s way of life as a way to honor the deceased woman, but still has unhealed scars from the traumatic experience.
Species: Bobcat (Lynx Rufus Californicus)
Picture:
Name: Ashfur
Gender: Female
Age: 9 years (Live up to 16 years in the wild)
Personality: She is a bit of a foil to Ada. Her personality starkly contrasts with the girl’s bubbliness. Callous and short-tempered, she can be difficult to get along with, and it takes time for her to warm up to people. With a strong sense of independence, she illustrates the term ‘loner’ quite nicely, refusing to ever be carried or held by a human. Sometimes, though, her natural laziness will contradict with that, and she might command someone to carry her across long distances, or loan her their lap as her bed. She is naturally careful and wary of all humans, distrustful of men in particular, but she does share Ada’s natural sense of curiosity as well, which can often lead her to explore things outside of her comfort zone.
History: Her early life as a normal bobcat was relatively uneventful. She would explore with her two siblings, and travel with their mother, learning how to hunt on their own. During their first year of maturity, however, she lost her mother and brother to illegal poachers, who had set up leg traps in the forest. Her sister disappeared to live on her own shortly after. That experience stayed with her, causing her natural distrust, and she generally has an agenda against human men. Having never encountered a female human before Ada, she is unsure what to make of her, but remains cautious. Having never had offspring of her own, for fear of losing them as well, she seems to enjoy treating Ada as if she were her own cub.
Other: Ada likes to call Ashfur ‘Ash’ or ‘Ashy’, much to Ashfur’s chagrin.
They primarily identify with each other because of lost loved ones, and this is just about the only reason that they can maintain their bond at all.
- - - Updated - - -
I wasn't exactly sure if that's what you meant by how the familiars get their name, so i just went with that. Let me know if I need to change it, and I'll be happy to.
Last edited by Bumblebee848; 11-27-2012 at 01:09 PM.
Bumblebee, I think this is going to be a popular question, so I'll try and answer it here.
The animals who become familiars are, before the change, just animals. The same wave that awakens power within humans causes the changes that make a 'regular' animal into a familiar. So she wouldn't have a name, or any concept of what a name was until she became a familiar.
Basically one of the first few things the human-familiar pairs will do is figure out what to call each other. The animals will want to call their people things that make sense to them, but they don't really 'get' names yet. They'll be identifying 'their' humans by something that seems most obvious to them. So an animal with a powerful nose might call their human 'pleasant scented one', or an animal who relies on their ears might say 'You with the nice noises', ect. Until the idea of 'names' is explained to them (which should be a lot of fun IC) they'll have no idea what those strange sounds we use to identify each other are.
So your character will 'name' the familiar IC, basically.
I hope that's a better description...I do love the little story though Bumblebee. You could work that in by having your char ask Ashfur about defining moments in her life, or something like that...
Alright, thanks for clearing that up. I'll just take the story out for now, and I might work it into the IC post somehow. I'm assuming the familiars can't communicate in full sentences, so could she just share a brief memory with Ada, or something of that sort?
She sure can! Sharing memories is a bit like meditating mixed with dreaming, and they will be able to do that right off the bat. Part of the initial bonding includes a sort of hightlight reel of the other partner's life to date. That doesn't mean you'll understand what happened or why, but you'll know the important bits of the other partners life. Sort of like...talking points.
Familiars communicate mainly through emotions, brief memories, and short words and ideas...interpreting the meaning will take some practice though. But aside from basic communication both partners will be able to share full memories, as they recall them, but they have to be fairly calm and in a quiet place for it to work best. Especially at first before the bond has been strengthened.
- - - Updated - - -
My character
Name: Michelle Tereshkova
Nickname(s): Mishka, Mish
Age: 26
Gender: Female
Elements: Earth/Water (Strong in Earth, weaker with water)
Appearance:
Personal Items: Mishka has a thin silver chain, with a fair-sized sapphire pendant wrapped in silver wire. Her mother made this for her. Aside from her necklace Mishka also has a well worn leather backpack that carries a book or two, her drawing pad, a pencil case of art supplies, and usually some sort of snack food.
Likes: Mishka likes drawing, reading, and baking, but her true love is wilderness. If she ever collected enough money at once together she would buy a small peice of land as far away from other people as possible and live the rest of her life out in the woods somewhere, living off the land.
Dislikes: Most people, being indoors...she is a bit claustrophobic, so anywhere she has to go that's enclosed puts her a bit off. The exception seems to be caves.
Habits: Miska is very direct, overly so. She tends to say exactly what she's thinking, and usually regrets the way she said something, if not the thought itself. She fiddles with her hair when she's nervous, and whenever she's feeling uncomfortable or anxious she places herself near doors or windows without thinking about it.
Personality: Aside from her directness Mishka is usually a kind person. She is very comfortable in her own skin, and thinks everyone should feel the same way. Her outlook is that nature doesn't care what you look like as long as you can gain the skills to survive, so she doesn't care either and she doesn't understand people who are self conscious. Her personality is fairly balanced between being nurturing and helping people grow, and being fiercely protective or her personal space and the, very few, people she has let into her life.
Biography: Mishka was born in Russia, but her mother emigrated to North America as soon as she was able to travel. Mishka doesn't really know why, but over time she started to think it was because Irena (her mother) wanted to escape from Mishka's father. Her mother worked a lot when Mishka was growing up, but there was always time for Michelle and her homework. Irena grew up in a small village where she lived very close to the land, so a lot of their produce was grown in a home garden and Mishka learned a lot of survival skills as she grew.
Every fall Irena would manage to scrape together enough money, sublet their apartment, and take their harvest and Mishka to a cabin in the wilderness for a few weeks. If Mishka was supposed to be in school the homework would be brought with them, but the focus of these trips was Irena teaching her daughter the skills she had learned growing up poor in rural Russia; hunting, fishing, making tools from what they had, and also forest husbandry and where to find food in the wilderness.
Mishka never knew why, but since her mother refused to answer any questions and always seemed very concerned if Mishka didn't seem to catch on quickly enough she learned to just do her best and learn as fast as she could. The only thing Irena would say about the topic at all was "Better safe than sorry.", her motto.
When Mishka was just 19 her mother passed away in her sleep, it was a huge surprise to everyone and it had a huge effect on Mishka. She took a backpack and a few basic tools and vanished into the woods for a few months, but when she came back she had gained a stronger sense of self and seemed at peace with her mother's passing.
She never kept a job longer than a year because she kept up the habit of going to a cabin every fall for at least a month, and there are very few jobs or schools that allow that sort of break. She mostly works as a waitress, or a cashier at some sort of store, but it's very clearly a means to an end.
She has very few good friends, but she is very loyal to the ones who last. It takes quite a bit to earn her trust, but she is rarely unfriendly to strangers on purpose, a habit gained from working customer service jobs since she became old enough to get a job.
*note* Mishka works at Cool Beans coffee shopShe may have seen some of you before. *hint*
Familiar
Species: Ursus arctos (Grizzly Bear)
Picture:
Name: Mister
Gender: Male
Age: 12 (average ranges from 22 in the wild to 40 in captivity)
Personality: Mister is a calm and steady fellow. He would always rather be alone than with other animals, of any kind, and he doesn't like noise, lights, and over powering smells. If he had his choice he would live deep in the forest, where he was born and raised, far from people. Now that he's met Mishka things have changed; his main purpose now is to protect and teach her, but he would still rather take her off into the forest with him. Not many things startle him, which is a good thing because he's huge and unaccustomed to being near the city.
History: Mister was born deep in the wilderness of BC. His mother was a shy careful bear, and she taught him to stay far from the scents of humans, regardless of how good their food and waste piles smelled. After he left his mother he moved a bit south, but stayed near the rivers where the salmon run in the fall. The fat and richness of the meat helped him grow huge, into one of the largest males in the area. Shortly after his last growth spurt he claimed a sizable territory and set about fathering cubs, he had a few years of that before he felt a strong pull to move east and towards the cities he had always avoided.
Last edited by Jakhi; 11-29-2012 at 04:44 PM.
That's...much more in depth than mine xD I'm wildly curious about her familiar now!!
Oh, and can I say that Ada was a regular at Cool Beans? Considering she'd be in her first year of college, I was thinking that might be the local hangout where she does her homework and stuff like that.
Posting Permissions
