[OOC] The Empress of the Underground

[Alfbie]

Ugh. That took longer than intended to reply. Son wanted to hang out after work, so I had to oblige. Then it took me a while to pinpoint a name. I even found a couple of pictures, but they don't quite match what I have in mind, so I'm being a chicken and am being reluctant to post. So apologies! Hope it was worth the wait :)

[mamagermany]

I remember the days when just being out of high school meant you were old, and now half my RP partners have kids. I'm puzzled as to how I became a young'un.

Well, I'm very happy with it. It was so immersive!
I dunno why, but 'multi-racial lowlifes like this punk' made me snicker.
As a matter of fact, the way you're describing Alexander really makes me think of this actor I worked with a summer or two ago. Biracial, the longish hair, the appearance of not having bathed recently and ratty clothing (those were costume decisions not the guy himself). But it's weird because as much as the descriptions kinda fit, I still can't quite see that actor as Alexander. Maybe it just feels too weird for me to project this person I know into this story.

I've started coming up with some inspiration for the underground. It got more fun when I decided to play fast and loose with the laws of reality.

[Alfbie]

Haha!

Most RPers I know either don't have kids or they're in their very early 20s (fresh out of college or still in college...and no kids), so I typically feel quite strange and out of place, like I'm not supposed to be RPing or something. I need to get to know your people, lol.

You work with actors! Now I'm curious as to what you do for a living. What about this actor doesn't quite fit? I can post those pictures I mentioned, but my biggest issue is that the men in these pics are either "too pretty" or they look too much like meatheads. No one wants to draw/photograph a normal-looking dude, lol.

Re the underground: nice! What is inspiring you for that world?

[mamagermany]

I have like 4 RPs going on on this site, and when 2 of them have kids... it blows my mind a little that that seemed to be the demographics of this site. Might have just been a coincidence, of course.

His eyes are the wrong color, and his skin isn't as smooth as described. And I can't really pinpoint what else doesn't quite work about him. I do think it's part that I can't really put the image of this guy I know in real life in this fictional world.

I'm getting inspired by ferrofluid, and the idea of levitating rock formations, and these renderings of biblical seraphim that are just massive and terrifying. I have this idea of the skull of a fallen angel, miles high, being a part of this landscape. And an idea of fortress walls - I don't quite know how to describe it - that are solid at the ground level, but extend up, separating, getting less dense, and levitating apart from one another.

[Alfbie]

That sounds very, very cool!

I suppose I should have worded "smooth skin" better. As far as I know, crackheads like to pick at their skin, creating sores. The pawn shop owner saw no evidence of that on Xander, hence the 'smooth skin' comment. Bah. I fail at description sometimes :p

[mamagermany]

Ah, okay, I see what you mean now. In that case, maybe his skin does fit the bill. It sounds like ya the right shade. Not that I know coffee drinks well at all.

I think my workload has gone down at long long last, so I can actually work on responses now! Yay!

Now I have more ideas, inspired by the inspiration of the angel. It gives me something to possibly add to her backstory. And it got me thinking, she needs credibility. She needs something to make it undoubtable that she is THE fearsome empress of the underground.
So what if she slew that angel herself?

[Alfbie]

The suspense!

So, this tremor... how strong is it? Is it a few-second shake that would make everyone think, "Oh, it's just an aftershock from some earthquake in California. Moving on"? Or is it full-on earthquake that will make everyone go, "Holy crap, what's going on, the world is ending, RUN!!"? Or is it a series of shakes, each one stronger than the last? I don't want to over- or under-react to the tremor.

[mamagermany]

A series of shakes, I'd say. Though I don't quite think it will get to the level of 'oh shit the world is ending', it won't get quite that strong. More like 'this is really going to ruin my day', but not quite 'I'm definitely gonna die'.

[Alfbie]

The empress appearing a block away from Xander and failing to spot him right away made me think that he wasn't supposed to meet her in my next post. So, he didn't :p Sorry if he was supposed to!

[mamagermany]

There's not really any 'supposed to'. We write whatever we think feels right to happen next. It's fine.
I wrote her being a block away because I thought, even with her having approximate knowledge of his location, it would have been too big a coincidence to appear directly in front of him.

I'm real excited for the next installment because it might allow for a moment to showcase the empress as the wonderfully cruel creature she is.

[mamagermany]

I'm having some issues going into this next post. I got two conflicts - one, I'm still unsure of the nature of her hellish powers or how powerful to make her. I don't want her overpowered, of course, but she's the friggin empress of hell, possibly a fallen angel, she's gotta be powerful.

Two, I'm debating how she'd go about this conversation. Part of me wants to make her all business, regarding everything like it's beneath her and just going about everything as efficiently as possible. But another part of me wants her to have fun with everything. She's so completely assured of her control of the situation, that she might as well enjoy it. I worry that's going to act against her personality. But the former makes for a less interesting interaction.

Perhaps, for her powers, I really should just make something up. While my concepts for the empress are inspired by Christian theology, I really ought to just create an entire theological story mostly from scratch.
Let me know if you have any ideas.

[Alfbie]

I've been making up stuff for Alexander as I go along, so I won't argue if you do the same. What did you have in mind in terms of powers for her? Regarding Christian theology, I'm thinking of her bringing locust plagues, famine, earthquakes (done lol) and other natural disasters, disease, etc... But much of that would seem a bit overkill right now. Maybe if (and only if!) Alexander escapes and it ticks her off, haha...

Perhaps you can meet half way between her being serious and toying the man? Toy with him just enough to get that real sense of being otherworldly, say just enough to be mysterious. I don't know if I'm making any sense.

Hope this is at least a little helpful?

[mamagermany]

I've been wondering if she'd have the ability to manipulate hellfire. It seems reasonable. She'd be impervious to earthly weapons and harm, I just sorry that it could come across as being completely invincible, which isn't true.
But you know what'd be real interesting? If the human weapons that came along in the last thousand years actually get kinda close to hurting her. She gets shot in the head and is stunned that... that almost hurt.

Some clarification for what you put in your bio, how long has he had this power? His reaction with the car accident makes it seem like this is quite new to him, but the bio kinda implies otherwise. It's amusing to think that he's had these powers since he was born. The empress sure was taking her sweet time.

I think it helped. Might just kinda go with my gut on this.

[Alfbie]

My original intention was for Alexander to first learn of his powers while in the war--specifically, that flashback scene in which he was caught in an ambush and somehow survived while his comrades did not. I suppose, while writing the bio, I toyed with the idea that such self-regenerative powers manifested earlier. I'll tweak the bio to make it more clear when they first emerged (at the war).

Sorry for not answering your question sooner. It's been a loooooooooooong day and I'm flat-out exhausted.

[mamagermany]

Ooooh okay. That makes sense now. Not sure why that wasn't clear to me before.

[Alfbie]

No worries :) It was probably messy writing on my part. I'll try to be less cryptic with my flashback scenes in the future :)

[mamagermany]

My response might take a little while. I've been very angry and miserable recently and it's getting hard for me to concentrate and be inspired. Sorry m8.

[Alfbie]

No problem, take your time. Good luck and thanks for the heads up :)

[mamagermany]

I'm doing a little better now - I can only hope it lasts - so I'm gonna try to respond by the end of Tuesday.

[Alfbie]

Hi!

No worries, I went *poof* for a few days myself. Turned out to be a really, really hard and very depressing, stressful week. I'll respond sometime today, though :)