It seems like a spring day, just an average day where the sun strengthens another small measure and the warmth soaks into the soil loosening winter's hold on the land. A day just like a thousand others through the years, and yet not like them at all.

It doesn't matter where you were; sleeping, standing in line, at work. No matter where you were you felt it the same as all the others like you. You felt a jolt, a sharp and piercing momentary pain deep inside your mind and body both - like nothing you had ever experienced before. And then an awakening. A sensation of unfurling awareness rippling out from your core through your limbs and...its gone.

Nothing. It was nothing. You shake off your sense of discomfort, of ill ease. Turn a rueful grin on your confused co-worker and mouth words about not enough sleep or a sudden headache, but you can’t shake the sense that something is happening.

Even if it had passed without notice that one moment was the one that would change your life, and the world.

~~~

The next day you notice something strange; maybe the man in the cubicle down the hall calls in sick - the one who never calls in sick. Maybe it's the barista at your favorite coffee spot who's missing, and the other workers are murmuring and passing glances about her leaving mid-shift. Maybe you don't notice for a day or two - maybe you refuse to acknowledge any sort of shift in your world view. It doesn't matter, the change is here and your belief or disbelief won't change that.

Within three days you can't pretend you don't notice anymore. There are few of them but they seem to be everywhere; the woman in the apartment above you is suddenly mobbed by a flock of sparrows, and seems overjoyed at it. Your confusion trails you and only intensifies when you see a fox trotting down Centre Street in the wake of a man.
They are everywhere.

It’s only been days and suddenly your small town is consumed by a flurry of news and gossip; this girl has a weasel or ferret, that boy was seen with a deer. Animals of all sorts are invading the town and none of them are leaving. On the news you see it's happening everywhere, and not everyone is amazed and amused.

A gang of men crowds around a teenage boy and a lynx on the news, they jeer and taunt as the cat hisses and swipes at them. Suddenly someone is pushed forward, and a fight begins in earnest. You turn away from the violence caught on live news, but the next day you hear the boy died and his cat was shot.

The woman with the sparrows, your neighbor, is attacked on her way home from work and you see the broken bodies of three sparrows lying limp in the dust as you want past. The bruises under her eyes and the tears as she grieves for the sparrows is too close, to near for comfort. These things aren't supposed to happen here, not in your town.

You keep your head down and try to go on as though nothing has changed, but you feel something stirring in you; anger, possibly hate...but something else too. Suddenly the life you always wanted is a hollow shell of a thing and something in you is crying out for fulfillment.

And then he is there. Warm fur, the scent of the forest, and love like nothing you have ever felt fitting perfectly into the hollow deep inside. You drink in his scent and touch as a parched man gulps cool water. It bathes your soul and you are whole again, and more than whole. Together.

But the spark within is not gone. It grows and grows until you are full to bursting and when a cocky teen throws a sandwich wrapper and yells "Filthy creature-lover!" the crudeness of his words and the mocking implications of his tone are suddenly too much. It breaks free and a flicker of flame twitches from your fingers and almost, almost, reaches his startled face before it flickers and dies. Just enough, this time. He runs from you as flicker-flames dance on your fingertips. Terrifying and exhilarating all at once, this something that welled up from within.

So this is what has been awakened in you - Power.

Will you be afraid? Will you master it? What changes will the touch and caring of a wild thing bring to your life? Care to find out?

I don’t know about you, but I’ve always wondered what it would be like if some people suddenly had magic. I’ve also wondered what it would be like to have an animal soulmate. This RP is a blend of those two ideas.

Everything is set in a modern day world, the only difference being that the people are more likely to be antagonistic and suspicious of anything magical. There are fewer books, shows, and movies about anything to do with magic or special powers and being interested in those things is seen as more than a little childish and strange.
Our characters will begin to develop their powers slowly, and the strength and control will grow gradually throughout the game (If you expect to jump in and throw fireballs you’re on the wrong track ;) ). Since this is a huge change they’re going through there will be a focus on character development and interaction.

The magic is loosely based on a combination of the styles used in Mercedes Lackey’s Valdemar books (the mages) and Anne Bishop’s Pillar of the Earth series. You do not need to have read any of these books to enjoy the game, or understand the magic. I will give you all the info you need :D

Basically, it is elemental, with the four elements and their attributes (aside from any offensive fun-things ;) ) being:

Air:
heightened awareness sensing creatures/people
force fields - shifting
mind-melding
power sharing
when tired air powers tend to gust and vanish - like the wind
find it hard to tell when they're running out of energy until almost too late (makes them tend to faint if they overextend)
Air shields are hard to spot or penetrate because they constantly shift and change

Water:
sensitive to emotions of others
force fields - flexible
flexibility in magical thinking
sensitive to magical energy
mind-melding
when tired water energy slowly goes from a full on-gush to a trickle
water mages get lots of advance notice when they're tiring, but will have a gradual reduction in their power as they tire
very smooth power, easy to share and can help smooth rough joins or cracks in a shield

Earth:
force fields - strong
steady and stable powers
growing things
healing
good support
lots of notice before they tire, hold steady and strong right until they are out
their shields tend to be either like rock - craggy and brittle in places, or like a forest of overlapping trees - small holes here and there, the strength made by strong limbs intertwining.

Fire:
force fields - lashing out
most aggressive
flashes of power
changing one type of power into another
creative use of power
When tired fire energy tends to flicker for a bit then suddenly blink out. Some advance notice, but not a lot. Fire mages tend to over extend themselves if needed anyways, fires of passion ect ;)
Fire shields are shifting, and full of energy. They also work as a defense because they will singe or burn anything attacking them.

Any one person can have up to three of the elements, but the more elements they have the less concentrated it will be. You can't have both Fire and Water though.

~~~

Once you join the game and we’ve gone through this system of assigning strengths you’ll never need to worry about randomization or dice rolls again. This is strictly to give you an idea of how strong you will be in comparison to the other players and to add an element of randomness to the powers. (Maybe-sorta to prevent a bunch of SUPER POWERFUL WIZARDS who can kill anything with little creative thought. Flaws are fun, perfect characters with perfect powers much less so.)

Each player will get a personalized bunch of magical info for their character, including some info only they get. That is the magical info you’ll work from when building your posts.

Characters can have affinities for certain part of their element; ie, a Fire mage could have an affinity for electricity, or an Earth mage an affinity for rocks or plants, A Water/Air mage could feel an affinity for thunder storms or hurricanes, ect . You will have complete control over that (within reason...Nem and I reserve veto power)…but every element has the same basic powers and that’s where we’ll start. Affinities won’t become a factor right at the beginning, but they will play a big part overall.

In general these are the sorts of small-magics, that are innate, you would begin having shortly after bonding, there wouldn’t be a ton of control over them initially either:

Air
-Small bursts of wind, but uncontrolled (knocking over a cup or pile of paper)
-In the case of strong emotions little dust devils will spring up
-Slightly sharpened hearing/sense when someone is near (10 feet or so, even around corners)

Water
-Water droplets can be summoned, but not really controlled (must be water nearby)
-Strong emotions cause puddles to form at your feet or water in containers to spill, no control about it
-emotional sensitivity to others begins to develop (ie, if you're next to someone having a mental breakdown you won't be doing so hot either)
-If also a healer - bruises will fade a little faster, cuts will heal cleanly (will NOT apply to other people!)

Earth
-Pebbles, sand, or little clods of dirt can be flung around without any control (pebbles might roll to or away from your feet in all direction, or a small pebble might suddenly fling away in a random direction)
-Strong emotions cause little tremors, or sudden dips in the ground (think potholes)
-If also a healer - bruises will fade a little faster, cuts will heal cleanly (will NOT apply to other people!)

Fire
-small sparks or mini flames for a brief second (no flinging fire balls!) but not very directed - your hands will have flicker-flames dancing around them, ect.
-Small amount of protection from flames - when you're upset (ie your own anger-flames won't burn you, but if you calm down and they haven't gone out you'll be susceptible.)
-In the case of strong emotions your hands will heat up to the point that they will burn highly flammable materials like paper, wool, ect
-If you have two powers the other will be less controllable

Other powers and abilities will be added as things progress. Generally if you aren’t sure about something you want to be able to do send me a PM describing it and I’ll give you a yes/no/sorta/later ;)

In order to make it more realistic/fair there will be an element of randomness involved. Let me try to explain. (and PLEASE feel free to question and/or poke holes. This is new and I created it myself, I'd like holes to show up NOW rather than later, lol)

When you make your character sheet you may choose your elements. You have a total of 4 ‘element points’ you may choose to use. You don’t need to use more than one, and the more you use the more powerful you will be in that element (*Note* If EVERYONE uses all 4 I’ll be changing this. We can’t ALL be crazy powerful. Flaws are fun people ;) ). You may assign the points to each element you have chosen, the more points given to an element the more power your character will have in that element.

Ex:
Jakhi decided to use 3 element points and split them like this:
Earth: 2
Water: 1

In addition there are 4 facets to each person’s power:

-Strength is the overall power you can bring to bear. Whether you’re passing it to another person, or throwing fireballs.
-Channeling is a gift for collecting energy from others and passing it to a person who uses it. This would be useful during healing a major injury where the healer’s own energy isn’t enough but they wouldn’t have the focus to collect energy from others as well as heal. (Think of it like braiding; you start with a few strings and end up with a stronger, thicker rope.
-Healing is fairly self-explanatory. Fire and air cannot heal.
-Elemental is the strength you have in directly controlling your elements.

These four facets will be decided through dice rolls. I will roll a d-10 (Nem will roll for me ;) ) and the number I roll is what the player must guess in order to have the highest level of power possible in that facet (out of 5 levels). For each number you are away from the ‘high’ number you go down a level.
So, if I rolled a 6 the chart would look like this:

Level 5 ..........6
Level 4 ........5..7
Level 3 ......4......8
Level 2 ....3..........9
Level 1 ..2.............10

Guessing a 1 would mean the player had to guess again. A player guessing a would have 4 would set the player at a Level 3 in strength.

Ex:
Then Nem rolls for Strength ('cause I'm not gonna roll for myself) and gets a 2, so the chart goes:

Level 5 ..........2
Level 4 ........1..3
Level 3 ......10....4
Level 2 ....9..........5
Level 1 ..8..............6

Jakhi guesses 9, and has a Magical Strength of 2.

This is repeated with a fresh roll for each facet.

Jakhi ends up with stats that look like this:

Jakhi:
Earth - 2
Water - 1
(Stronger overall in Earth than Water, but about half strength of the highest possible Earth Mage)

Strength: 2
Channeling: 5
Healing: 2
Elemental: 3

I know this is sort of confusing, and I made up the system myself, so feel free to poke holes in it XD

Here's a bit more info on how each facet works and effects magic.

Strength
Strength has two main functions, the obvious one is how much magic you have available to you if not in direct contact with your element - your 'battery' if you will. This will effect how long you can use full magic attacks in a battle, how many fires you can light (or put out) in a row, how many broken bones you can heal and how well/fast you can do these things.

Strength also references the amount of 'push' you can put behind something. A strong shield is one that can be held for a long period of time, be impenetrable, and not drain the energy of everyone behind it. Someone with a high level of strength(4-5) can send some energy to a channeler for a shield AND send magic attacks out around the shield, or heal, or w/e. (Just like anything though, the more you try to multitask the less focus you have for each thing and the quicker you'll tire.

Channeling
Channeling is the act of taking magic from one thing, transforming it into pure power, and then either doing something with it or giving it to someone who will. When channeling magic the channeler is like the person who takes many strands of wool to make yarn, they twist and wind the power together until it's stronger, smoother, and steadier than power from a single source could be.

The power they put out is affected by the materials used; fire and water power don't mix well without a third to help them combine, earth power is strong and steady, water power is sometimes smooth but can also gush like a broken dam, air power can be light and calming or violently twisting like a hurricane, fire power can warm and soothe or burn viciously. It takes a certain mind and lots of practice to be able to combine these into a cohesive power strand that anyone - any element - can use.

Healing
Healing is, first, the ability of your body to heal itself, and secondly the ability and knowledge to heal someone else. There are many kinds of healing that require different strengths; someone who can set a bone and cause it to heal strong wouldn't be much use in heart surgery...and vice versa.

Healing takes concentration, time, and patience - which all drain power. that's why channelers and healers tend to work closely to complete a healing without making the healer useless for days after.

Element
This expresses in a few ways; the first is control, the second is knowledge.

Someone with a low element score might be restricted to lighting a small fire, redirecting a nearby stream, plowing a field, or listening in on someone a few feet away...or they might have full access to their powers but be unable to direct them usefully. Leading to landslides, bush fires, tornadoes, or floods. they might have control but have bad aim, setting a tree three feet to the left on fire when you were aiming at the campfire on the right - ect.

The good thing is that control can be learned through practice and discipline, so you won't be stuck with a low score.

*Added* Once you've picked stats we decided that you have the option to swap two numbers and add one point somewhere. Ex:

Before:
Earth - 2
Water - 1
(Stronger overall in Earth than Water, but about half strength of the highest possible Earth Mage)

Strength: 2
Channeling: 5
Healing: 2
Elemental: 3

After:
Strength: 3
Channeling: 3
Healing: 2
Elemental: 5

Animals
The bond animals will all be wild. Period. It plays a major part in the plot.

Since the game is set in North America near the mountains there’s a wide range of animals you can choose from, but if you can’t find a picture of that animal, wild in that region I won’t let you play them. Taking your ball python outside and taking a picture of them on nicely manicured grass doesn’t count. Just FYI ;)

Within that feel free to be creative. You can pick a moose, lynx, cougar, garter snake, flock of sparrows (I will be SUPER picky about anyone wanting a bunch of anythings. The rule of thumb is they must be dumb enough to be considered a flock/hive-mind. No flocks of ravens, they have individual personalities. But if the idea intrigues you then give it a shot and I’ll let you know what I think :)), weasel, fox, ect.

I also want people to consider the less awesome animals. Magpies, voles, hares, ect. There could be a lot of fun to be had with an animal that’s less of a superstar.

I won’t be accepting any duplicates, btw. Whichever sheet gets approved first with a certain animal gets that animal.

More info to come :)

~~~

Bonding
When you first bond there is a rush of magical energy that will pass from the animal to you at the first touch. This rush of pure and uncontrolled power will bleach your eyes a brilliant ice-blue (later on it may become a special skill to magically be able to mask this color…*hint*) and they will stay that way. This is the mark that shows you have bonded, and is a big plot point and makes the characters the focus for persecution.

They’ll be about this color, but less of an obvious band around them: (still looking for a better example pic)



Other than that, once you’ve bonded it is typically for the life of the pair. The death of a bondmate is a soul wrenching experience, and the partner left alive commonly pines or commits suicide. A bereft bondmate will eventually find a new partner, so if their friends and family can keep them alive they will survive, although it’s not easy.

The animals who become bondmates also gain a few characteristics, such as exceptionally long life (triple normal life span, or as much as quadruple in some cases), enhanced intelligence that GRADUALLY increases over the course of the bond and to realistic levels. Ie a bear will not suddenly begin spouting Shakespeare upon bonding, but after 15 years he might begin to appreciate the merits of poetry. Especially if it talks about things they like, such as honey and she-bears.

In the case of someone who bonds a collection of animals (flock of sparrows, bunch of prairie dogs, ect) the entire flock is enhanced, but each individual (while brighter and more longer lived than it’s normal counterparts) is not changed all that much. And they can still be eaten by hawks.

The animals do not communicate in words, but more feelings and images accompanied by body language.

Ex:
Quark the raven cocked his head at Mary as he flashed a picture of the last bite of sandwich currently held between her two fingers falling to the floor. He flirted his tail and sent ~hunger~ to her, before ruffling his feathers and attempting to look as pitiful and hungry as a very fat raven can.

Mary raised an eye brow and said “As if you needed another sandwich, Mr. Greedy-guts” Before popping the last bite into her own mouth.

Quark narrowed his eyes slightly, then shook out his feathers and slicked them back as he turned his back on her. He hunched down with a corvid-grumble in his throat and sulked as he sent her a picture of himself sitting out in the snow and starving, sending a sulky sensation of continued ~hungry!~ emphatically before stretching out his wing to preen huffily.

More to come later :)

Character Sheet
Name: (first and last please, make them believable)
Age: (no one under 16...please don't all be teenagers *pleading*)
Gender:
Description/picture (either/or/both - no preference. If you use a picture it must be a REAL person. No anime/cartoons.)
Personality: Basic...but descriptive. 1-2 short paragraphs will cover it. (Feel free to 'break the mold' of personalities to elements. Just because you want fire doesn't mean you need to be crazy impetuous or battling rage.)
History: 2-3 paragraphs (When the story begins we HAVEN'T yet bonded an animal. Keep that in mind and feel free to make your character a complete hater.)
Elements: (Up to three, but you can't have both fire and water. Keep in mind that if you go for three you'll be weaker overall than you could otherwise be.)
Affinity/specialty: (Ie, if you want your Earth mage to specifically be a healer, or your water mage to be able to pelt ice bits at people this is where you'd put that. Keep it short though, since it won't be applicable yet.

Animal
Image (MUST be a wild animal native to North America, in the wilderness. Real picture.)
Age: (Believable. You MUST include the natural age span of your chosen animal and fall at a reasonable place within it. No cougar kittens!)
Personality: 1 paragraph should cover it. Make it believable - no prey animals that are surprisingly brave/vicious. Follow the actual animal's general attributes.
History: Ditto the above.

*cough* you'll notice there's no 'name' slot in the Animal's part of the sheet. This is deliberate. There are VERY few animals with self-awareness, animals don't have names. After we do the bonding-thingy your character can give them a name...or not. Up to you. If you can make a strong case for your animal having a name then cool, give it a shot...but Nem or I may veto it.

The game will start at the moment your character feels the Change happen. How they react is up to you, but it's essentially a 'set the scene - average day' intro. I'll be posting first, followed by Nem. Um...more to follow on this. (sidenote - if you're ever too busy to post in your turn please PM Nem or myself and we'll figure something out to keep the game going until you've got time. We'd rather not get stalled, but we will find a fun way around it.)

Once your character has been accepted either Nem or myself will contact you to do the stats part of things and I will send you a bit more of the magical info. :)

Initially none (or very few) of the characters will know each other and they won't be meeting up right away. Nem and I will be playing NPCs as needed to give you the info you need to get to our first Goal. More info on that later.

Any updates ect will go here. Check back often!

-I will post twice a week. The day before my post goes up I'll post in the OOC thread to let everyone know.
-If you miss one posting round you can simply tack it on at the beginning of your next post (or PM me if it's an NPC interaction and we can do a short joint post to get you caught up)
-If you miss two rounds you'll need to contact me, but likely you can just get all caught up in one post or a short joint post.
-If you vanish for 3 rounds (aka a week and a half) without telling me anything, I'll make your character inactive, but you can get caught up with a PM)
-2 weeks (4 rounds) with no notification and we'll figure it out if we get there.

Of course valid reasons will just mean you'll need to get caught up, no problems, but if people start vanishing for 2-3 weeks at a time without any notification/reason and come back expecting to have no problems...we'll have to have a chat. TBH though I'd really rather not have to deal with any of that. I'm nice and fair and I'd rather just enjoy the game. :D

Active:
Jakhi (Co-GM): Mellie and the burrowing owl
Goldmarble: Tyko and the raccoon

Inactive:
Lady Squee: Darcy and her grizzly
Logrin: Christopher and the multitude of lice
Vistruction: Ian and the otter
Nem (Co-GM): Al and the raven
Chaotic Law: Alexander and the snowy owl
Bunnita: Polly and the pygmy rabbit
Prince: Nick and the porcupine

MIA:
OneEyedChurro: Israel and the mountain goat
Wulfenheart: Hedwig and the wolverine

A glib narcissist selfsatisfied through dominating, intimidating, humiliating and deceiving others. Lives a promiscuous, parasitic lifestyle out of boredom, thus far impervious to any remorse or guilt for his actions. Derives more pleasure in taking than in having and does not react well to perceived slights. Anticipates betrayals and punishment, desires revenge.