Obviously, a tremendous WIP. Since we're all the GM, there isn't much to specify here but the setting and the plot, which we're all already familiar with; This is the story set in the Bronx in the early 80's, about a man reclaiming his vigilante identity to stop a crime wave, the young woman he trains to be his sidekick, and the gang leader who aims to be his foil. More info as this gets updated.
Here's what I have in mind to organize this properly while also allowing you guys as much creative input as possible: Use each of your first posts on this thread as placeholders for brackets of OOC info you'd like to be in charge of. For example, I'll be using this post you're reading as the Deadbeat OOC -- So far I plan on covering the general setting, the present gangs and their role, the antagonist, and the prospective roles of the supernatural implied in the narrative because why not. If you've got a knack for NPC's, ideas for themes, even a good playlist of inspo music or something, feel free to crack at it in yours. My advice is to write things at first as if they've already been written, presented as fact, and then we'll figure details out and clarify or change things through PMs or the OOC. From there, the rest of our OOC posts will be comments, questions, and general conversation. Y'know. OOC stuff.
The Bronx! Haven't decided on a year, but it's the early eighties. New York City was experiencing a crime wave after the introduction of crack, and no neighborhood was hit worse than the Bronx. Brooklyn, Harlem, even some parts of Queens were crime-ridden at the time, but the Bronx the Wild West. There was so much crime, so often, that cops would look the other way for their personal safety. Separated from the rest of NYC by the East River, the Bronx was essentially the closest thing the first world had to a shantytown. Buildings would be burned down one night by crackheads lighting fires in the basement to keep warm, get stripped of their copper after the fire the following morning, and be turned into havens for those looking for quiet places to screw prostitutes or do heroin by the end of that day. Though Cross's universe might exaggerate it a bit, the vibe we're going for to describe the city is "Wretched hive of scum and villainy".
Going with the religious themes, The Bronx is implied to be purgatory in Cross's perspective due to the choices he makes daily -- The same bum at his building's main entrance asks him for a dollar every day, and so choosing which entrance to use becomes a moral decision. The junkies lining the street envoke images of leper colonies in Cross's mind, which logically makes him the one to heal them and be sanctified.
In Masai's perspective, the Bronx is unquestionably Hell. He refers to his gang life and the friends he has lost (And continues to lose) as "inescapable punishment" for his lifestyle, and his love of skating and description of an ice rink as being "at the center of a frozen lake" is an allegory for the ninth circle of hell in the divine comedy, where Lucifer is imprisoned.
WIP
If it were not for all of the story's clearly realistic elements, the narrative would seem to suggest that both blessings and curses are infallible truths in the world. Cross, for example, experiences genuine change in the outcome of patrols if he does not pray, and seems to experience "superpowers" in moments of exemplifying a cardinal value. He is nearly killed by Masai at the end of Act 2, and refers to his survival as a miracle after hallucinating (Or quite possibly experiencing, depending on your interpretation) being chosen by God to fulfill his purpose. Looking at all these graffiti'd trains makes me think traintop battle. Maybe Masai beats the crap out of Cross all throughout the fight, gloats for a moment while Cross is lying on the roof, and then gets taken out by a sign at high speeds? Too done?
On the other hand, jaded gangsters who otherwise show no superstitions show genuine fear of Masai for his reputation as a witch. Masai is repeatedly shown to practice Santeria, and it is implied that he rose to the top of the gang as a result of systematically hexing his immediate superiors, who all died in strange circumstances. As the story progresses and he and Cross obsess over each other further, he is repeatedly referred to as having "sold his soul" after he lifts his gang's embargo on heroin and crack to gain a financial edge over Cross, while he refers to his girlfriend's death (and possible miscarriage) as a result of his lax stance on drugs as a "Sacrifice". With his religious beliefs in mind, this remark is intentionally written to leave a bad taste in the more speculative reader's mouths.
WIP
I've gotta clean both of these up I went on some tangents but i'm too tired to edit @Gowi@ayzrules
Generally Cross is a character that doesn’t exist in New York City, so that’ll have to be discussed. I’ve put an unrevised and very rough version of his CS that I was initially working on for Create a Hero Season II but since this is a thing it might be more apt to throw a modified version here that I can tweak and play with while we get into the basics of the story and start publicly discussing what we want to do with this.
