Lostman Grafitti [Character Driven Urban Fantasy]

[ERode]

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Schoolgirls disappear and adults don’t bat an eye.
A grim reaper stalks skylines, severing blossoms before they wither.
Monsters steal memories and skin, deceiving and seducing their way to their next prey.
Two men twist hearts for their own ends, their paths parallel and opposing.
Bleak graylight scours the night clean of dreams.
Pale starlight burns the shadows from the day.
And somewhere, nowhere, the Lostman watches and waits.
For another lamb to answer.
For another lamb to desire.
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The metropolis of Tenoroshi exists under a veneer of calm, a monochrome cityscape indistinguishable from so many others. Monorails curve eloquently around towers of glass and steel, while convenience stores sprout like weeds every three blocks. School-bound children share the same streets as wage slaves and punk rockers, a human melting pot created by a too-small world, while warehouses and amusement parks stand empty, relics of a brighter past abandoned by an untrusting present. No one forgets though. The smokestacks of the crematorium inhales and exhales day in and day out. A holy man stands watch over the graveyard, ringing a bell to help the dead pass on. Streetside memorials emerge as splashes of color upon the pavement, whether it be for those lost by accident, lost by malice, or simply lost. Grayscale is the world of eight hundred thousand people, no matter how bright the neon lights of the red-light district, how vibrant the beats of the downtown core.

This indifference and numbness though, is what keeps this microcosm of a world functioning.

Beneath the grayscale veneer of Tenoroshi is a world that no ordinary person would want to comprehend. Grisly murders go uninvestigated and unreported, dying with the memories of the victims. Buildings vanish overnight, leaving nothing but empty, overgrown lots. The mayor of the town never appears in person, but continues to win elections, over and over again. Rumors and superstitions cross the airwaves constantly, as television hosts invite psychologists and hacks to make sense of the incomprehensible. But no consensus is ever reached, and the legends only grow. Of the Firefly that metes out infernal retribution, bearing a burning hand, a burning heart. Of the Ghost of the Electronic Matrix, the second dimension fairy that scatters itself into the void of the unseen spectrum. Of Harmoney, the true overseers of the human race, the ones who pull the strings without ever revealing their faces. All things that no ordinary person would want to comprehend, all things that no ordinary person would want to face, to explore.

But for those that do delve beneath the grayscale veneer of the metropolis that doesn’t care, they would undoubtedly be lead to a certain tale. The story of the Lostman, the messianic figure that would grant the faithful the power to change the world or the power to change themselves, but never both. And never for any price, nor to achieve any particular goal. The most famous enigma of all, the most obscure of them all, the most debated, the most misunderstood.

They are the key and lock to the underbelly of Tenoroshi.

They are the root of every impossible incident.

They are the beholder of all.

The asker of one.

What would you change? The world or yourself?

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Bookkeeping

Well, fancy-smancy talk aside, Lostman Graffiti is a character-driven urban fantasy RP, with individual plots furthered by a larger, overarching incident, set in a metropolis with a whole lot of sketchy shit around. I’m looking for a small group of 4-5 players who can stay active in the OOC and who don’t mind doing world-building of their own. I’ll definitely require each person to make three NPCs and three locations within Tenoroshi that will be relevant to their character to start with, so yeah, best to be comfortable with this.

Posting speed is, at the very slowest, one post per week, with the ability to get conversational collabs out as well. I care less for large posts and more for posts that progress plots, so as long as you get two paragraphs of good quality, I’m fine with whatever. What’s most important is that your characters are all internally driven to do something right at the start. Being a little bit off their rocker is probably going to help out. Generally, it’d be helpful if your characters don’t have full-time work to worry about.

I will give you a heads up if your character has a high chance to die, because character death is definitely going to be a thing, especially with how in-over-your-head you’ll all be. I’ll generally strive not to kill nonsensically though, unless your character just makes catastrophically bad decisions constantly.

This RP is inspired by Boogiepop, Wixoss, Dead Mount Death Play, and Haru no Houtai Shoujo. Things are gonna get violent and weird, but hopefully it never gets too stupid. Maybe we’ll even try some non-linear RPing, who knowssssss.

[OwO]

yes

[Cole]

super interested ! sounds crazy

[Malice]

Interested in this.

[Letter Bee]

@ERode, Is being a Magic-user allowed?

[ERode]

@Letter Bee Pitch me what your character idea is and I'll think about it. As a general note though, Lostman is the root of all supernatural powers, so there's nothing like 'a magic bloodline' or anything like that.

@Malice@Cole@Burger this goes for the rest of you too. I'd like an idea of what sort of character you plan on making, as I only intend on making the OOC and IC once I have a cast of accepted characters.

[Letter Bee]

@ERode, Well, here's my rough idea:

A boy looking for his parents, who had vanished into Tenoroshi City months ago, and had an encounter with The Lostman, who gave him the power to Change Himself; he can transform into an 'ideal self' with superhuman abilities and weapons. Yes, a Magical Boy.

He has three NPCs with him:

- Another boy, his lover, who has a grudge against the organization called Harmoney and their control over the Human Race. He has the power to Change the World; this ability takes the form of laser beams, energy shields, and the ability to glow very brightly. Basically, he has solar-based powers.

- An older woman, whose encounter with The Lostman left her with another power that can Change the World; she has the power to manipulate fate and probability itself, allowing her to navigate the worlds of finance and law not just to make money, but to break up corrupt interests.

- And finally, an older man, a mercenary that once hunted those with powers, but has since grown to realize that he was not so different from them and seeks to atone for the crimes made in the name of 'justice'. He has many weapons that allow him to take on those 'blessed' by the Lostman.

[ERode]

@Letter Bee
First off, let me make clear. You're making the NPCs, but I'll be the ones controlling them.

Second off, the powers granted by the Lostman is far more esoteric than the stuff you'd expect out of normal shenanigans. In general, the ability to change the world isn't related at all to anything that grants you combat ability. It'd be stuff like...being able to see imperfect roses bloom from the chests of others, symbolizing the imperfections of their psyche, or being able to reprogram a human's mind through low-electricity shocks. In this RP, at least, powers that grant straight up combat ability are pretty weak. If you consider their powers as an extension of their innermost desires...people who gain destructive powers are probably a buncha psychos. Those who change themselves can have transformation abilities, sure.

Third, outside of Flame and Ashton's whole coupledom, you haven't explained at all how the older people relate at all to Ashton. Generally, people who are chosen by the Lostman are driven by their own interests and desires, because that's the greatest common denominator between them. And your former assassin dude is going to have lotsa trouble with ordinary society due to the bag of firepower he'd need to put down what basically amounts to supernatural existences. Japanese gun laws don't stop existing just cause the police don't wanna deal with inhuman threats to society, and without the backing of his former organization, it's definitely gonna be harder for him to do...whatever the hell he even does.

Generally, your pitches are lacking the 'why' behind a whole bunch of things, the most important one being 'why are they chosen'. I'd recommend you keep them unpowered until you have those reasons in mind.

In regards to Flame's hatred of Harmoney, I hope you realize that he'd have started out with chasing what amounts to conspiracy theory bullshit. Like, it'd require a sort of ridiculous madness on par with thinking the moon landing was faked to seriously ascribe any 'real' problem to Harmoney.

[Letter Bee]

@ERode, I see. So, basically, we're focusing on more cerebral and esoteric stuff instead of just action? Psychological thriller stuff?

Also, is there any way I can talk to you via Instant Messaging? Talking this out on forums is slow.

[OwO]

ignore the fact that i'm literally yeeting the plot of dororo and uratarou into a blender. this is also plan A. in case there's too many edgelords, she gets dumpstered for a softer concept

A woman formerly known as the Tenoroshi's strongest female MMA fighter. Known for being a mad dog. She was brutally butchered by a pack of inhuman serial killers, each one of them taking her limbs and organs as trophies. As they left her for dead, missing most of her non-essential organs, she cursed them all. If only she had limbs. If only she could change her cruel fate. The lostman took interest and gave her the ability to change herself. To change her cruel fate. To live through it. She cursed them all. She would come back. And she came back with the ability to take and assimilate other people's body parts for a limited amount of time. She's on a time-limit because if she doesn't get all of her body parts back, she straight up dies.

She basically has the powers of:
Body part assimilation
Able to live through pretty much everything as long as her brain isn't crushed.

For NPCs, we got the plucky, auxiliary nerd who helps her on her quest. A close friend from before she was murdered

a dangerous detective who's on her case, since she's on the warpath to regain her body parts and killed (maybe 1-2 at the beginning of the story) inhuman killers

and an entire gang of serial killers and all of the enemies it entails

[ERode]

@Letter BeeI prefer using the forum to talk about it right now, because it gives me more time to think. And sure, you can think of it that way. I just don't particularly want this to turn into a superhero beat-em-up RP. The Lostman would be giving you a singular ability, so you probably won't have people going around who can project energy shields, shoot laser beams, and also sparkle in daylight or whatever. It'd probably be better if you formulated your character's singular, greatest desire and then I'll come up with a power for you.

@Burgerlol Tenoroshi having a MMA scene at all. Anyways, if you basically set her up as a zombie (e.g no need to eat/breathe/shit/sleep/doesn't generate body heat), I'll be fine with that too. Will she basically be waddling around on prosethics to start with? Or will she have taken other, unrelated people's body parts in order to sorta live normally? The detective will probably also be a private investigator rather than someone in the force, btw. I can definitely use a gang of crazy motherfuckers though.

Her ultimate time limit is going to be eight years. After that, she'll be unable to assimilate any of her lost body parts. She regains her body parts by actually finding them, so the act of getting revenge is a purely personal thing and won't magically require her bits and pieces. Taking parts off other people (or animals, if you're feeling dangerous) will end with those foreign pieces liquefying after a month of substandard operation. If it turns out that some of her body parts have been, I don't know, eaten or burnt to ash or whatever, then she's shit out of luck for those parts.

[Malice]

My first thoughts were something a bit like the ability to see when someone is going to die (because, original, ey?), but because the character has some sorta Munchausen by Proxy type thing and they wanna play the hero by saving everyone they know is close to death.

But also I'm not convinced by my own idea, so there's that.

[ERode]

@Malice mm, a Deathseer would be opening you up to a buncha things, plot wise. Munchausen by Proxy basically means that they'd be engineering those future deaths to begin with, yeah?

[Malice]

@ERodeyeah, they would be engineering them somehow. It's an idea that needs developing to be useable for sure.

[Letter Bee]

@ERode, I have another character, William, whose deepest desire is to 'fix tragic stories', as in, he finds people whose problems try to plunge them headlong into tragedy and fix said problems.

But I dunno if I can play that well, so I think I'll be giving this game a pass; I'm sorry.

[ERode]

@MaliceEyup. To start with, it's probably better to think of him as someone that doesn't have powers, and then figure out how he gets things done. If you're going for the idea of 'madman puts other people into deep shit to rescue them himself in order to validate his existence', the ability to tell when someone's going to die isn't totally necessary to the core idea.

@Letter BeeS'all good. Hope you find better luck with other RPs.

[pr3acher]

Interestado

[OwO]

lol Tenoroshi having a MMA scene at all. Anyways, if you basically set her up as a zombie (e.g no need to eat/breathe/shit/sleep/doesn't generate body heat), I'll be fine with that too. Will she basically be waddling around on prosethics to start with? Or will she have taken other, unrelated people's body parts in order to sorta live normally? The detective will probably also be a private investigator rather than someone in the force, btw. I can definitely use a gang of crazy motherfuckers though.

Her ultimate time limit is going to be eight years. After that, she'll be unable to assimilate any of her lost body parts. She regains her body parts by actually finding them, so the act of getting revenge is a purely personal thing and won't magically require her bits and pieces. Taking parts off other people (or animals, if you're feeling dangerous) will end with those foreign pieces liquefying after a month of substandard operation. If it turns out that some of her body parts have been, I don't know, eaten or burnt to ash or whatever, then she's shit out of luck for those parts.

@ERode

i forgot that japan was super into kickboxing, i've been reading too much kengan ashua and forgot that MMA BLOODSPORT isn't the national sport of japan. Zombie is good. She'd probably have prosthetics, just in case she runs out of arm/leg. At the start, she'd probably have some arms/legs taken from a random corpse she found. jesus fucking christ she's going to be walking around dark alleyways looking for random dead people. She'd probably have taken a few arms/legs here and there from unsavory people.

Yea, the entire point of killing the people who got her was entirely for greedy PoS revenge. Isgunbegreat. It all sounds good to me.

also ravioli ravioli give me cs-oli

[AardWolf]

I’m interested as well, if there’s still room?

If so, I’ll be more than happy to pitch a character idea, after I get some sleep.

[ERode]

@BurgerTotally not sus, that a psychopath would be the first to uncover dead bodies in alleyways. Totally not sus at all.

You're the bad guy here.

@AardWolfYou'd be the fourth, which is still within my 'small group' limits, so feel free to toss up a pitch.

And here's the CS, for anyone who feels like neglecting their other commitments to get this done early. Powers and abilities aren't a part of it, because I can more or less memorize what they are and hey, hidden talents are always fun to reveal later on.

CS Template

<Character Image>
Identity: Name, age, gender, and physical description, as well as general stuff like where do they work/study/live.
Psyche: How their mind functions and whether or not they have any noteworthy traumas, fears, or obssessions.
Background: Any bit of their past that you think is relevant to your character. I will fill in any gaps you've left. Feel free to keep it brief.
Quirks: Any particular habits or preferences they may have that you want to note down for future reference. Optional.

Relationships: Create three characters that have some degree of significance with your character. One paragraph for each. Be sure to include some semblance of name and appearance for these people, as well as the nature of the relationship.
Locations: Create three locations that your character frequents or has emotional attachment to within Tenoroshi. One paragraph for each. Be sure to give it a name and have a general idea of where it is.