The world is filled with the supernatural--the typical supernatural. Dragons, fairies, imps, mermaids, pheonixes, etc. and some weirder combinations of the creatures coexist peacefully with humans, even in scenarios where they truly shouldn't. And still even stranger creatures exist in the unexplored regions of the world, flitting just out of prying explorers' sights. All are peaceful. All have been peaceful for as long as anyone could remember. All have been peaceful even as humans expanded and modernized, slaughtering many of the creatures for territory, for raw materials, for clothing.

With the advancement of more modern technology, the news stations and radio announcers were able to crowdsource repeated sightings of a vaguely humanoid, pure-white creature mixed with vestiges of animals--elegant deer antlers on its head, claws for feet and hands, a narrow, whip-like tail lined with spikes. But the main body remained unnaturally human-shaped: a torso that was too thin and gangly to support any internal organs, a waist that was little better, and legs like stilts. Its head had no features, mimicking a human cranium only in general shape while its interpretation of hair was a thin, white membrane flowing backwards from the crown of its head, parting around the roots of the antlers and splitting into three filmy sections. It, too, was never hostile. But it also took no damage from conventional weaponry.

Every sighting heralded a new creature into the world: a chimera straight out of Greek mythology, a leviathan from the Old Testament, scores of tiny sprites sourced back to European folklore, and sometimes creatures straight out of Lovecraftian horror stories. It was almost like the white creature was testing the waters of human thought--taking the fantastical ideas and turning them into reality, but without any of the potential backlash. Almost like the being just wanted to mimic the thoughts of humans in its own way.

Every creature it created allowed itself to be reined in by humans if they came into contact. Any that people feared too much quietly sat by while guns and artillery tore it to pieces.

Without any way of stopping the creator itself, and with no threat of harm from any of the magical monsters it created, the world slowly relaxed and settled into an era of wary curiosity about these wondrous fantasies made reality. Reporters eventually coined a name for the white creature that actually stuck with the public (other attempts had only mixed levels of success): Dreamcatcher.

Around the turn of the 21st century, Dreamcatcher's patterns of appearing, creating a creature, and disappearing began to deviate. It started wandering into human cities where it had always favored outskirts and abandoned locales, if not the wilderness or unexplored territories overall. Every foray into civilization marked a human with powers. It was subtle at first--small powers like levitation and minor telekinesis--but as Dreamcatcher began tapping into the modern imagination in earnest, the powers became wilder: precognition, gravity manipulation, lasers, elemental generation, a magical weaponsmith, a shapeshifter, a healer whose powers could cure even recent death, and even a weaker mimicry of Dreamcatcher's own ability to create monsters.

But for all that it escalated, the number of people Dreamcatcher actually bestowed powers to was severely limited. By 2006, only 10 were known to exist throughout the world. Reddit speculated the number was likely higher accounting for areas where civilization didn't flourish enough for effective communication. The 10 were taken into custody wherever their respective governments caught wind of their existence, and they all went willingly. Eventually, word spread that the common threads between Dreamcatcher's choices were adolescent human beings of the cleanest moral caliber. At the very least, that was the news the governments spread. And so the 10 precursors were set to work under government supervision, carefully monitoring them for any signs of violence. When years passed with nary a smudge on any of their records, the world took to calling them superheroes in recognition of all the good they had done.

Everyone began hoping to be Dreamcatcher's next choice. People started simply acting better, and non-profit organizations saw a rising peak in interest. Certain parties opposed to celebration of something as unknowable and uncertain as Dreamcatcher formed small groups of opposition, rebelling against the norm. Society, for the most part, ignored them. The world was becoming a better place, even if no one could fathom Dreamcatcher's objective.

On January 5th, 2010, everything went to hell.

Those who were nearby saw Dreamcatcher appear in a city--just flickered into existence in the middle of the street in a quiet cul-de-sac at eight in the morning. People around the area flocked to it, only for the creature to shoot straight up into the sky, the trail of light it left behind almost blinding the people around it before coalescing into a thin thread of immovable white light leading up to where Dreamcatcher had flown. A pulse reverberated throughout the world that day, felt by all creatures and humans alike as a white light began spreading from a point high in the sky. There was little sound or fanfare that marked Dreamcatcher's actions. When the hubbub had finally died down, a thin, white veil had been draped across the planet. It followed no laws of light--sometimes a space telescope could catch it, other times it simply wasn't visible. But it was there, evidenced by the thread that the government finally traced to a massive, white, cocoon-like shell high in the stratosphere. The rest of the thread continued onward past the atmosphere, ending at some point where the barrier began.

Dreamcatcher had fallen asleep. That was the rationale. And something was coming that it needed to shield the planet from. This would have been a sacrifice worthy of song, were it not for the sudden, violent rampage of every creature Dreamcatcher had ever created. Leviathans rose from the sea to decimate coastal states and settlements, chimeras tore through inland settlements before being gunned down, the more absurd amalgamations of monsters rose from the unexplored frontiers and laid waste to anything and everything in their paths, some of them as tall as mountains and just as unstoppable.

Monsters true to their nature at last.

In the midst of this, the individuals granted powers by Dreamcatcher were detained, set to be executed before they, too, went the way of their less-human compatriots. It was the current President of the United States who saw fit to use them against Dreamcatcher's monsters instead.

In the middle of discussions for controlling the formerly regarded "superheroes," breaking news of magically gifted individuals began cropping up all around the world, with varying levels of approval and dissent from all factions.

For years afterwards, the world fell into complete chaos between stemming the tides of Dreamcatcher's monsters and rounding up the sudden surge of magical individuals. Too many lives were lost to a cause no one had any understanding of, and too many resources were spent trying to apprehend particularly powerful individuals who simply didn't want to rot in a reinforced cell for the rest of their lives just for the crime of being Dreamcatcher's chosen (assuming a cell could even hold them in the first place).

As small countries were wiped off the map by swarms of fairies wielding disproportionately destructive magic and entire cities were devoured by ghouls, manticores, and anything inbetween, humankind faltered. They couldn't sustain this. When half of China was obliterated by a swarm of dragons that took several nuclear bombs to stymie, the governments of the world crumbled and looked to other sources for help.

A new solution was proposed to the ongoing crisis as magically gifted individuals (dubbed the lusus naturae by the scientific community) began finding each other and banding together, forming anything from organized militia and vigilantes to terrifying cults.

The magic users all held one struggle in common, disparate philosophies aside: the world wanted nothing to do with anything involving Dreamcatcher. It was only by a fortunate twist of fate (fortunate for the "subnaturals," at least--as regular people began calling them) that the militaries of too many countries were too weakened by the constant battle of attrition to deny the usefulness of magic in the now endless war against some of Dreamcatcher's worst monsters. Thus began rigorous background checks and psychological evaluations of the adolescents the government could get a hold of, with the more promising ones assigned to institutions that would ensure proper education and preventative measures while allowing the government to keep a close eye on them. These institutions also doubled as headquarters from which to deploy children against any monstrosities that normal military forces couldn't keep at bay--and those were plenty. Under any normal circumstances, sending teenagers to fight borderline hellspawn would have violated human rights on a terrifyingly fundamental level, but with the horrors of the past few years weighing heavy on everyone's minds, most of the world turned a blind eye to this. Most of the world, actually, hoped the monsters on both sides would kill each other off.

Initial concerns about separating institutions based on age group were quickly debased when all the adults who had gained powers died inexplicably within a month after the event. The deaths were gruesome, to say the least. Some of the "bodies" left behind could hardly be called anything more than bloody smears on the floor. Analysis revealed that any individuals over the rough ages of 21-23 died to some unknown side effect of the powers while the ones on the border suffered severe dementia or simply fell comatose. And yet the Precursors, the original 10 personally chosen by Dreamcatcher, were now well over the danger limits. Someone eventually proposed the theory that powers gained young incorporated more easily into an individual and powers gained after adulthood might suffer a similar effect to rejection of foreign bodies. It wasn't a perfect explanation--nothing was a perfect explanation where the enigma of Dreamcatcher was concerned--but it was the best people could think of when physical examinations and autopsies of more salvageable bodies provided absolutely nothing to go on.

So the world tentatively tolerated the magical children, simply for the purpose of keeping them on society's side. There were enough to pose a danger to civilizations all around the world, but not enough to win in a battle of numbers. Not yet, at least. And for all their powers, they were still human: they tired from overuse of their abilites just like an athlete would overexercising, and a bullet to the head for most of them could kill them just as easily as anyone else. It wasn't quite so easy with the monsters, and there were far too many monsters outside to worry yet about the monsters on the inside.

Here's where our story begins in the year 2020, 10 years after Dreamcatcher abandoned the world to seemingly erect and maintain a barrier around the planet--the event now dubbed "The Slumber."

You're one of the less-stupid ones who realized that obedience (feigned or not) meant the antsy, trigger-happy government wouldn't execute you, so now you're at the United States Army Research Institute for lusus naturae on the East Coast (USARILN East), boasting a high school-to-college-level education regime to keep everyone feeling "normal" and "stable," whatever those words mean nowadays. The Institute is located in the brand-spanking-new town of Crimen Culpae 1 they set up just for your kind and all the weird people who find subnaturals more amusing than terrifying. That means you'll be somewhat welcome in this town--but not for the reasons you'd like. Crimen Culpae 1 is tucked away in a corner of the East Coast (CC1 as the locals like to refer to it) far from any easy access to major cities and is the first of a series of CC towns the government has set up around the nation to control and utilize--as best they can--the emerging subnaturals. They don't really run the mascots and school colors thing, but the students still do, if just to defy institutional apathy on the matter.

The school's colors are, depressingly, black, white, and grey. No one really thought bright, exuberant colors worked for the situation, plus USARILN East is known to be near several major points of aggression for Dreamcatcher's creatures. (And USARILN West already took the bright colors thing, so it would be embarrassing to imp it now.)

However you went about "presenting" yourself to the mercy of the government is your tale to tell. Maybe they had to drag you in by force. Maybe they simply found you somewhere surrounded by dead people because you couldn't control your abilities (and you somehow looked pitiful enough that they didn't murder you on the spot). Maybe you brought yourself to the nearest police station and let things go from there.

But all the same, Dreamcatcher (or something else) gave you your powers, and you were just intelligent enough to know that the world is in no state to tolerate your presence if you didn't comply with their every demand.

What almost no one outside of your fellow mages (the world calls your kind "subnaturals" as an insult; your peers know better, usually) know is that everyone chosen by Dreamcatcher saw a dream. They saw a dream of their magic taken to its utmost limits--power beyond imagination serving the purpose of something that lined up with what every individual personally saw as "good." And right after that dream, everyone saw the nightmare--a perverted version of your power tearing down your enemies and making the world yours in whatever way you wanted, whether it was simple domination or some heightened form of solitude. Your world your way. But without a doubt yours.

When the visions faded, you saw two paths in a hazy mental landscape of sounds and light. On the one path, the you from the dream walked towards something you thought might be a bright future. On the other path, the you from the nightmare (or maybe that was the dream to you?) walked towards something that seemed to whisper "This will be even better."

You chose one. You followed one. And the moment you rejected the other, you felt a visceral emotion from the side you didn't favor--perhaps your brain translated that into hatred.

Those of you who followed the first vision bear a glowing white streak that stretches from below your right eye and across your right temple, stopping as it reaches your ear, the ends of the streak jagged and faded, as if someone took a brush with too little paint on it to your face.

Those who followed the second vision sport a thick, black X (someone once joked that it looked like the Xbox logo's "X" and the visual stuck) on the front of your throats, near the base.

With a bonus. In listening to the temptation, the second vision brought with it a deadlier version of your powers with the same cost for all: the worst day of your life, the most annoying things in the world to you, your most terrifying secrets, your deepest shame, your biggest regret--any and all of those play in your mind without cease, the sounds louder and the emotions more pronounced on each replay. Only doing something can distract you even partially and only doing something destructive to people or objects can sate what the more unfortunate mages have taken to calling their "Stigmas." Sate temporarily, that is. It always comes back.

The more cognizant mages of the various institutions have long ago spread this information amongst each other via a private forum where only mages attending an institution were allowed an invitation--it helped that one of the forum administrators could detect lies. It's an unspoken rule among the mages now that no one mentions what everyone secretly calls "The Awakening" to the "regulars." There was something too intimate about it to share with people who were looking for excuses to kill them.

The forum, known by the innocuous name "Death and Taxes," has also proliferated the underground names "Arbiters" for the mages who woke up on the "right" side of the bed, and "Aberrations" for those who didn't. Frequent, heated discussions debate the existence of a "second Dreamcatcher" due to the duality of the Awakening, with common parlance referring to this potential second Dreamcatcher as the "Wisheater." Even mages whose powers allow for something as abstract as "seeing magic" have no conception of Wisheater aside from the insidious hint of that second vision. The current magical community remains split on the debate with slightly more believing that Wisheater is a desperate fabrication to soothe the sting of Dreamcatcher's betrayal. This tends to lead to flame wars on whether Dreamcatcher had any morality to begin with or if all the current strife in the world is just another of Dreamcatcher's whims.

Individual opinions aside, the forum has a stickied thread titled "Unwritten Rules Written Out For Once (We'll Find You If You Break Them)." After a lengthy introduction, the gist of the post lists the core tenets of magical subculture in the Institutions--the only places that even officially allow a magical subculture, really:

• Do not speak of the Awakening to the regulars. For the new mages, this refers to the two visions you saw when you got your powers. Further discussion can be found in the "Awakening" thread stickied below this.
• Do not mention the nature of this forum to any of the regulars. We can wipe it before anyone investigates and we'll find you.
• Do not call yourselves "mages" around the regulars. You are "subnaturals" to them.
• Do not mention the divide between Arbiters and Aberrations to the regulars. For the new mages, check the thread "Arbiters and Aberrations" stickied below the "Awakening" thread.
• Do not attack your fellow mages unless you absolutely have to.
• Do not provoke the regulars.
• Do not attack the regulars even if provoked.
• Do not be baited by an Aberration. They're naturally never in the best of moods. Don't deal with them if you can't handle that.
• Do not respond to an Aberration's suicide notice. They almost always fail. We can find them if they actually manage to get close to succeeding.

It remains to be seen if those unspoken rules and the animosity of the world will stop you from doing what you want.

But within the subculture of the Institute, there are more things to fear than just the guns of the military guards keeping an eye on you.

June 13, 2016 // 5:12 AM

>[OP][Admin] Semordnilap:

June 15, 2016 // 7:32 PM

>[OP][Admin] Monster Frisbee:

July 2, 2016 // 3:43 AM

>[OP][Admin] Rad Cow Disease:

Basic CS template. Feel free to spruce it up as you like. This simply details the information you must have on your sheet. Anything else is up to you.

Name: Johnny Smithy
Age: Between 13-19.
Height: xxx
Weight: xxx

Appearance:

Image and/or description. Illustrations/anime/manga preferred.

Personality:

Be detailed here. Think quirks, small habits, triggers, pet peeves, and the like. How has your character's magic influenced their personality? (Last point applies more strongly for Aberrations.)

History:

Barring important events/plot-related events (PM me if you want to try a more involved history), keep it brief. Focus more on how your character found themselves at USARILN East. Everything else can be revealed artfully IC.

Magic:

PM me or a co-GM with what you want to do, first. Be as creative as you want. This is the game where I'll ask you to throw me your special snowflake ideas and I or one of the co-GMs will set the appropriate limiters and gimps on your abilities before offering you the Arbiter and Aberration versions of your magic for you to decide. Don't worry, you'll get more powerful. Disgustingly powerful. You'll need to, after all. But at the onset, you're all still working out the kinks in your abilities and making sure no one's losing an arm trying to cast a spell. We have mages for that arm thing, but it would still suck.

Please also note that we reserve the right to reject any powers we deem too similar to ones already posessed by other accepted characters. Feel free to ask anyway, as abilities with similarities aren't neccessarily bad. Redundancy saves lives sometimes.

As a rule, Aberrations will generally have deadlier powers, though not necessarily "better" in all cases. There is a cost if you play an Aberration and I fully expect you to deal with the cost properly--no "shaking it off" or "ignoring it with willpower."

Dream:

Do not fill this out until we've discussed your abilities. What your character saw in the first vision. This generally aligns with what your character perceives as "the 'best' version of themselves doing the 'best' things possible with their powers."

Nightmare:

Do not fill this out until we've discussed your abilities. What your character saw in the second vision. This generally aligns with what your character perceives as "the easiest version of themselves accomplishing their most selfish desires in the most efficient way possible with their powers."

Awakening: Arbiter or Aberration?




Armaments: xxx

You have none, yet. You will get some as the story progresses. Keep track of them here. Some of them might be really important or something, I don't know.