CLOSED to new applicants until further notice. ---------------------------------------------- [img=http://i89.photobucket.com/albums/k202/Ythania1/night_at_the_bath_house_by_ashofablackrose-d5d3nv9_zps08859f48.jpg] [i]Sitting archly in a lavish room, the Third Witch Katashi counted each precious lump of glittering gold as she moved them individually from one box to another. The room was silent save for the crackling of the opulent fireplace and the clicking of metal on metal. Her cold blue eyes reflected the sickly yellow gleam from the gold and her wrinkled lips were pulled taunt into a greedy smirk. Silence permeated the area for an indefinite amount of time until the sound of sandals of marble floor interrupted Katashi's slow and deliberate counting. Three knocks upon the door and she could already sense that it was her most loyal servant Yoru. With an irritated sigh, the gilded doors were flung open. "What is it?!" rasped Katashi, drumming her manicured talons on the mahogany surface of her desk. "You asked for the humans to be prepared for the realm shift. They are all falling into position now." reported servant Yoru in his usual hollow tones. he stood as stiff as a board, staring vacantly towards Katashi and awaiting further orders. The Third Witch's grin alighted at the new possibilities of the humans, ever since she heard of her cousin being forced to hire one...well, everyone in the whole damn Spirit Realm knew how that turned out. Business over at Yubaba's Bathhouse is booming. The Third Witch had to keep up with her distant relative, lest she loses valuable customers... "Very well, Yuro; hurry up! We'll have them in by sundown, and working by tomorrow morning, and if they don't..." breathed Katashi, staring at a thousand faces from the reflection of the golden nuggets, each one as cold and as hostile as the next. Servant Yoru continued to stand to attention, allowing the Third Witch Katashi a moment to think. "...If they don't, then we'll feed them to the spirits. Who cares about a bunch of snivelling humans, anyways?"[/i] -------- [b]What is Spirited Away?[/b] [quote=Wikipedia]Spirited Away (千と千尋の神隠し Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi?, "Sen and Chihiro's Spiriting Away") is a 2001 Japanese animated fantasy film written and directed by Hayao Miyazaki and produced by Studio Ghibli.[/quote] The plot follows 10 year old Chihiro into the spirit realm, where her parents are put under a spell by the food they encounter at the empty stalls and don't stop eating until they've turned into pigs. Chihiro has to take a job at the Spirit's Bathhouse owned by a witch, Yubaba, in order to find a way to free her parents and leave the spirit realm. This heartwarming film centres around the consequences of greed, with solid gold being the Spirits main currency. I can't do the film justice in words, and whilst you may not need to have watched it for this RP, I heartily suggest you take some time out of your busy schedules to watch the film itself. ----------- [b]Okay then, so what is The Bathhouse of the Third Witch going to be about?[/b] The Bathhouse of the Third Witch RP takes place some months after Chihiro's adventures in Yubaba's Bathhouse. Distant cousin Katashi has grown envious of her cousins vast amount of gold and how her business is flourishing, so she creates a plan to take a small handful of human children from their lives and make them work in her own Bathhouse through trickery and deceit. The RP will begin slightly ahead of events, so the recap is rather simple and so we can get down to the long and arduous task of finding a Spirit Tunnel to escape from the Spirit Realm despite being in the middle of a vast and seemingly endless lake. Friendships will have to be formed, the temptations of greed have to be avoided, and the humans will have to deal with some particularly difficult customers inside the Bathhouse! [hider=The Story So Far] Four lunar cycles have passed since Chihiro's departure from the Spirit Realm, and it is still a claim to fame for many spirits, who boast about how they once received a bath from the girl; despite the fact she only ever served one customer. The Third Witch Katashi, being eaten by greed, has devised a plan so foul it makes a stink Spirit smell like lavender... [/hider] ------------- [b]Cool! I want to be a spirit, let's go-[/b] For the purposes of this RP, I will be allowing 5 Human children ranging from ages 10-14, along with 3 "spare slots" for people who are slightly late to the party or produce a really outstanding CS. After the 5 initial Character Sheets have been accepted, the RP will be 'closed' but I will offer people to PM me their CS if they are desperate to join still. I will personally how have one particular role, but will act as a Narrator. Some of the main characters you will meet are Servant Yuro, Third Witch Katashi, Bathhouse Worker Mai, and a hidden character! These 4 will be the ones that keep reoccurring in the RP - especially Mai, who will be the Human's caretaker whilst in the Bathhouse. [indent][b]But what if I want to talk to another NPC that wasn't named there?[/b] For the purposes of the RP, you are allowed to talk to anyone WITHIN REASON. For example, you could ask a Yuna for her golden bath token, but she might just sneer at you and strut away. [u]Interactions with any NPC should not be the entire purpose of your posts if you can avoid it, as you will have to wait for me to reply in order to progress.[/u] Similarly, I suggest you ask an NPC a question and perhaps talk with another child afterwards. None of the NPCs will feel 'ignored' if you just suddenly switch conversation partners, and it frees up the chance to RP amongst yourselves.[/indent] --------------------------- [b]I'm still interested, and whilst I really don't want to ask, could you give me a set of rules?[/b] ❀ [u]Your Character is a CHILD.[/u] For the sake of the true "Spirited Away" experience, I formally ask you to react to situations in the most childish manner possible. Trapped in a Bathhouse away from your parents and friends, practically all by yourself and being sneered at by the Spirits? Yeah, you're going to cry a bit. you're going to be scared. You're going to find the work tough, and you're going to be tired around 8pm...That's what really will make the RP different. You have your heroes in your other RPs, but in this one, childish innocence is encouraged! ❀ [u]Keep it Miyazaki-esque![/u] The last thing I'd want is to twist Miyazaki's idyllic fantasy movie. Therefore, there are some simply [u]unacceptable[/u] life events that you should avoid when making your character: [i]Sexual harassment, Sexual assault of any kind, Domestic abuse, Physical violence in Bullying, eating disorders, drug addiction (includes smoking), etc.[/i] Some life events can be accepted to a degree, such as bullying in the form of childish teasing, living in financial difficulties...I advise you to think as if you were designing a main character for a new Miyazaki film. If you want to add a not-so-cheery life event, but you're unsure whether or not it's allowed, simply ask me via PM. [indent]❀[u]Continue to Keep it Miyazaki-esque![/u] Even after the creation of your CS...try to keep the RP light-hearted. Like I said, I'm allowing toned-down bad life events under the condition that your character doesn't spend 24/7 brooding, and picking fights with other kids - or even worse, the spirits. They could've been bullied, sure, but that doesn't mean that they'd talk about it all the time. In fact, quite the opposite.[/indent] ❀[u]Try to write a lot![/u] The limit for each post is [b]at least 3 decently sized paragraphs[/b] per post, no matter what it is you're doing. This keeps the plot moving at a reasonable speed and gives others plenty of opportunity to reply to your posts. If a post is under the limit, I will ask you to improve it, but I am not cruel; if you require assistance and don't know what else to add, feel free to ask me via PM or through the OOC thread and I will be happy to help. For some, this may seem limiting if you're making a CS, and I will always by there to assist in CS creation. Instead of giving up since you can't have your character the way you want it, I implore you to either send a PM or drop a post on the OOC thread regarding your issues so we can work them out together. --------------------------------- [b]Aw man, alright...throw me the Character Sheet Template![/b] [hider=Character Sheet Template] Please remove the dots in the coding when creating your character sheet. --------------------------------------- (Image here) [.b]NAME:[./b] (Your full name.) [.b]NEW NAME:[./b] (A bit of a challenge; try to pick a name that will, if a couple of syllables were taken out of it, sound a bit more Japanese! EG: Hariett = Hari, Jonathan = Jona...or take seperate phrases out of the name, eg Blake Colton could become Aketo. Keep them short and sweet. Usually you don't see any names in the spirit world that go past 3 syllables, and for the love of all that is holy, do NOT do what I did and choose something difficult to spell like Katashi...I always spell it Kattashi. [u]This will be the name that Katashi gives you, so this counts more than your original name. Make it count![/u]) [.b]NATIONALITY:[./b] (For the sake of keeping to RP standards...you can be any nationality you like, but you'll ALL be speaking un-accented english. Spiritspeak, as I like to call it; a spell cast upon the humans to all speak understandable english.) [.b]GENDER:[./b] (...Choose one or the other. Fairly simple!) [.b]AGE:[./b] (10-14 years old. Old enough to be sensible, but young enough to still act like a child!) [.b]APPEARANCE:[./b] (Whaaat? But there's already an image slot! Well, I'd like at least a couple lines describing your appearance to others, in the most unbiased way possible. No 'luxurious eyelashes' or 'chiseled abs', hehe... ^^") [.b]PERSONALITY:[./b] (Children are USUALLY very outspoken and welcoming. Shy kids are allowed, perhaps avoid sensitive subjects such as mental disorders because...the spirits won't care, and people can be offended by their brash nature and lack of sympathy for the sufferers IRL. Please do not make your child haunted by past traumas and cringing away from everyone all of the time; shyness is fine because eventually they'll have to come out of their shell a little to progress with the story...and I like me some good character development.) [.b]HISTORY:[./b] (As much or as little detail as you like. Remember, it's 10 years you're writing for at the least, and 3 of which you'd barely remember!) [/hider] [hider=Sample Character Sheet] [img=http://i89.photobucket.com/albums/k202/Ythania1/Mai_zps5e0da3b4.png] [b]NAME:[/b] Mai [b]NEW NAME:[/b] Mai [b]NATIONALITY:[/b] Japanese [b]GENDER:[/b] Female [b]AGE:[/b] Over 10,000 years old. [b]APPEARANCE:[/b] A tall, muscular woman who looks to be in her early adult years. She has long, dark brown hair and wide-spaced eyes, with a very flat and pig-like nose and a wide smile. Whenever she grins, her lower canines are ever-so-slightly longer than her upper ones. [b]PERSONALITY:[/b] Mai is very spirited and playful, but equally as rough and tomboyish. Compared to the Yuna, she is rather masculine, loud, and not very subtle. Her penchant for gossip means that she usually does not properly think about what it is she is saying prior to actually saying it. She's blunt, rude, and tends to kiss up to the customers a fair bit; but then again, what worker doesn't? Despite all of the negative traits about her, she also has an indescribably charisma - the charm of a sly troublemaker surrounds her actions with every syllable and every movement. It mainly stems from her endless supply of optimism and her ability to simply get to know people. There are very few who could resist her warming charm and wit, so it's a shame that those few happen to be the highest-ranking spirits in the Bathhouse. [b]HISTORY:[/b] Mai has been in Katashi's Bathhouse for as long as she can remember. She doesn't remember her old life or her old name, condemning her to a lifetime of servitude with the spirits. However, she often claims to have dreams of deep green forests, running away wildly in fear and squealing as loud as she can. These, she believed, are the key to her escape from the bathhouse - if she could only recall her name in those dreams, she might have a chance of getting out of the bathhouse... After a few millenia her hopes started to dim, so she has opted for another approach. Since her mouthy attitude prevented her from rising up in the ranks, she decided to cast a web of communications, favours, and friendships in order to find out as much about herself as possible. Because of that, she's well-known and somewhat liked (or disliked) by a variety of people and regular customers. That doesn't grant her immunity from all her punishments - after throwing cheek at Servant Yoru and the Third Witch, Mai's found herself stuck with a bunch of humans to look after. How dull! [/hider] [url=http://198.58.124.212:3000/topics/36577/posts/ooc?page=1#post-1085381]Accepted Character Sheets can be found here.[/url] I tend to find that mood music really helps me write in the style of the RP I'm facing and keep me on the subject! Here's a few youtube links to get you into the zone. [hider=Mood Music] [url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UqbWJYzMhvc#t=353]Spirited Away Soundtrack[/url] [url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DkW1iTyS8dk]A WHOLE HOUR of Traditional Japanese Music[/url] [url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=neFRbKjweto]Japanese Shamisen Music[/url] [url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0p_yo_VGOSw]Yoshida Brothers - Ibuki[/url] [/hider] ------------------- If there is anything that I have missed, do let me know below! Any questions, feel free to ask. Feedback and constructive criticism is welcome. I hope you find the RP as interesting and as enjoyable as I find the community here on RPerGuild!