@Mokley Done! Here's a loud, boisterous foil to Fluke:
WHAT WAS YOUR CHARACTER'S NAME? WHAT IS THE CODENAME THEY NOW GO BY AS A ZE? Formerly Laverna Graydon, now Steel Rose, or Rose.
DESCRIBE YOUR CHARACTER'S MASK AND APPEARANCE. Rose stands at 5'7", walking with confidence. Her chin-length, chestnut brown hair frames her face in messy wisps. Behind her mask is a pale, freckled and expressive face, with sharp green eyes. Her hands bear slight scars from tinkering accidents, and she has a tattoo of leafy vines winding around her left arm. She favours bright, bold colours, which extend to her mask, or at least half of it.
While the mask features plant motifs all over, both sides contrast with each other. Gears and metallic shards make up the flowers and leaves on the right side, wires snaking like branches around them. This mechanical design gives way to a riot of colour and intricacy on the left side, with red, pink and yellow roses surrounded by gold-tinged green vines and foliage.
WHAT IS A STRANGER'S FIRST IMPRESSION UPON MEETING THEM? HOW DOES YOUR CHARACTER SEE THEMSELVES? Despite the "steel" part of her codename, there's nothing rigid or cold about her. Feisty and free-spirited, she can be viewed either as fun to be with, or a troublemaker who needs seriously reining in - not that doing so is at all easy. When she has issues with someone, she'll let them know. In that situation, she acts or speaks first, and thinks later. This is especially true if they're threatening someone she cares about.
She thinks of herself as her own person, someone who lives life to the full despite having been held back for so long. Having a strong sense of identity is important to her.
WHERE DID THEY GROW UP? WHERE DO THEY FEEL AT HOME? She grew up in an industrial, high-tech area of Rig, although she found such a sterile part of an otherwise verdant city stifling. She much preferred the overgrown streets and woodlands.
WHO ARE (WERE) THE MOST IMPORTANT PEOPLE IN THEIR LIVES? During childhood, it was her father, a renowned engineer. Just like most children view their parents as role models, she idolised him until he started using her love of tinkering to his advantage, forcing her to follow in his footsteps for his own image. For years, she was treated like as much of a machine as his creations, and punished for the slightest misstep or flaw in her projects. It was when she started sneaking out that she met Jay, who became a close friend, and the main figure in her life.
He'd take her hang-gliding, trekking through lush greenery and climbing trees, giving her freedom she'd never experienced before. Most importantly, he valued her for who she was. When the Nox crisis happened, however, her father made sure to keep her "safe" in the workshop, not out of concern for her, but for his legacy. After the situation calmed down, she found out Jay had survived, but only in a physical sense. Those blank grey eyes held none of the spark of life she'd known. She visited the care centre as often as she could, but every time, it became more and more painfully clear. He was gone.
WHAT IS THEIR PROFESSION, SKILL OR LIFESTYLE? WHAT DO THEY THINK THEIR STRENGTHS ARE? WHAT ARE THEIR ACTUAL STRENGTHS? Rose has not abandoned crafting and construction, although her creations have an artistic flair with bright colours and floral motifs, to differentiate them from her father's works. Because she tends to experiment and get ahead of herself, rather than relying on tried and tested methods, sometimes the projects don't turn out quite as intended. Besides this, she's skilled at woodcrafting, something she and Jay learned together.
Her creativity is a strength not just when it comes to constructing items, but thinking on her feet and finding solutions to problems. Another merit is her willingness to work with others as often as possible, as long as nobody dominates a task too much. She thinks her curiosity is more of a strength than it is - while it can be helpful at times, it can just as often land her in trouble.
WHAT ARE THEIR FEARS, FLAWS AND SECRETS? One of the things Rose hates most is being alone. This makes solo projects difficult, she favours group projects even if the people involved are likely to conflict with her. If it's something that can only be done by one person, she prefers to have someone around to talk to while working on it. Despite her need for company and casual friendship, she doesn't like to get too close to people, as she's afraid of losing them. Her worst fear is being unable to protect someone.
She also prefers to follow her own rules, which as a member of an organisation, causes obvious problems. If someone gives commands she doesn't like, or too harshly, that's when her defensive side shows - a side that hides unease from bad memories. Something else linked to said memories, and that she hasn't fully acknowledged, is her perfectionism. For all her apparent wildness, she still feels the need to put 100% into everything she does, and while she pretends to laugh off failures, they get to her.
As for secrets, she doesn't let on who her father is, as she wants to break all ties with him. She never tells anyone her real name, in case they make the connection.
WHAT DO THEY WANT MOST? WHAT DO THEY ACTUALLY NEED? A new start, but more than that, she wants to take action in a way that she couldn't before. What she needs is to see the difference she and the other Zephyrs are making, and to be part of a family-like dynamic of people who truly value her.
WHY DID THEY JOIN THE ZEPHYR EXTINCT? Partly, it was to get away from her father, and start a new life with a new identity. The other reason is she wishes she could have helped Jay like he helped her, so this is a way to protect people from the Nox, and make sure they don't end up like him.
HOW WOULD YOU LIKE TO SEE THIS CHARACTER CHANGE AND DEVELOP? Rose needs to mellow out over time, and make peace with her past enough that she can set aside issues with authority, as well as truly let people in. Reasonable higher-ups, and gradually getting close enough to a friend that she can confide in them, would help a great deal.
PITCH A SMALL SUBPLOT THAT WOULD BE PERSONALLY MEANINGFUL TO YOUR CHARACTER. I'd like to explore how she copes with not being able to truly "save" people who have been infected by the Nox, as in being faced with the shells of themselves they've been reduced to. This could lead to trying too hard to get stronger, to defeat as many Nox as possible, and of course going about it the wrong way. A more positive route (although the two wouldn't be mutually exclusive) would be trying to find a way to help former hosts.
It would also be interesting to see how she'd deal with a friend getting hurt, especially if she wasn't in a position to help them, as well as how others respond to her tendency to get hurt protecting others.
@LuckyBlackCat Steel Rose is wonderful! And her lore experience is just heartbreaking -- I can totally see some plot points developing. Please do copy her to Characters, she's approved! 💚
WHAT WAS YOUR CHARACTER'S NAME? WHAT IS THE CODENAME THEY NOW GO BY AS A ZE? Name by birth was Odette Fouquet (a suuuuper embarrasing rhyme.) Now she goes by Iris.
DESCRIBE YOUR CHARACTER'S MASK AND APPEARANCE. Iris' mask is a handsome, if austere, piece of ceramic, expertly hand-crafted in the style of the hoverbikers that flit through the skies of Rig. Its sharp edges and angular style are crafted in the starkest facsimile of the human face, leaving its intended sex and the sex of its wearer underneath ambiguous. Underneath, her eyes are as blue as the skies she soars in, and a short crop of blonde hair frames an often-smiling face as androgynous as her mask. The wearer herself stands just under six and a half feet tall, intimidating by anyone's standards; her muscular, athletic figure usually strains against the sleeveless shirts and shorts she feels comfortable wearing in more athletic counters, and her skin is the healthy tan of a young woman who spends her time in the skies. (Inspiration)
WHAT IS A STRANGER'S FIRST IMPRESSION UPON MEETING THEM? HOW DOES YOUR CHARACTER SEE THEMSELVES? Iris' height and musculature is immediately disarming, but so too is her charm. Far from some golem used for intimidation factor, she sees herself as a particularly large stuffed animal, open and gregarious without being overbearing. She's a person who is just as comfortable gabbing for hours as she is to spend those hours with her head in the clouds.
WHERE DID THEY GROW UP? WHERE DO THEY FEEL AT HOME? Iris was one of the many young men and women who spent their lives in the skies and atop the buildings of Rig. The hang-gliding and hoverbiking communities were more than just lovers of idle pastimes, they were followers of a way of life, with a sort of easy-going rapport between family units that would often translate to a support system. The vertical gardens of Rig and the small, lush markets on its rooftops needed people to tend them, and Iris grew up happily entrenched in such a lifestyle. She grew through the typical rebelliousness of the high-flying hoverbikers (riding your bike too fast, not holding onto someone while sitting secondary, not wearing your protective mask to keep out the bugs, wind, and sun...) into a girl with a sunny disposition and a belief in the goodness of people, similar to those she grew up with. She is still most at ease in the skies, riding a bike or lounging atop one of the gardens that dots the rooftops of Rig.
WHO ARE (WERE) THE MOST IMPORTANT PEOPLE IN THEIR LIVES? The "high-flyers" are taught to love all those who live their lives in the skies of Rig as though they were all surrogate parents. This "takes a village" mantra helps expose children to the potential wealth of knowledge and skill available in every human, but it also helped blunt the feelings of loss that one might feel if they lost a parent before their time. Especially during the darkest days of the infection, when Nox were a constant threat, this policy helped comfort those who may otherwise have lost their entire family. It may seem strange to those who dwell in the streets, but it is an open-hearted, loose definition of family that the high-flyers have embraced - although it can be an insular one, as high-flyers are also expected to "tread wind currents," so to speak, and remain to impart their knowledge into the next generation in turn. So, while Iris still obviously loves her parents, she finds it hard to consider them - or anyone - more important to her than anyone else. The whole community, everyone you may see when you look up to the skies, is equally dear to her. Call that naive if you want.
WHAT IS THEIR PROFESSION, SKILL OR LIFESTYLE? WHAT DO THEY THINK THEIR STRENGTHS ARE? WHAT ARE THEIR ACTUAL STRENGTHS? Iris is still very much a high-flyer at heart, and has always spent much of her free time atop her hoverbike, tending to the rooftop gardens gardens or searching for the city's prettiest vistas from a birds-eye view. This also makes her adept at location scouting and surveying, as she knows crannies of buildings and potential meeting spots that those who've spent their lives on the ground could never dream of.
Occasionally, while enjoying a perch on some high-up branch or seated atop her bike enjoying stained glass in the morning sun, she'll start to scribble out some of her own ideas for the city's architecture, new places where greenery could flow or an enclave for the high-flyers could go. Unfortunately, she's a little too late to be much of the pioneer that she thinks she is, but still, her inventive and asymmetrical approach to problem-solving and endless wellspring of creativity shouldn't go unappreciated.
WHAT ARE THEIR FEARS, FLAWS AND SECRETS? Iris would tell you that her fears are no different than anyone else's - Nox left their scars on all of Rig, and Iris fears them as most sane people do. She also fears losing anyone close to her, so she would tell you, but the truth is that there is no one who is truly close to her; in the past she's skirted the edges of promiscuity, and even to this day she moves through life as though she's still atop her hoverbike, keeping her acquaintances exhilarating but fleeting. Forging deep, long-lasting connections that are unique between two people don't come easily for her; they weren't an important part of the culture she was raised in.
WHAT DO THEY WANT MOST? WHAT DO THEY ACTUALLY NEED? Iris desires nothing more than to chip in and keep a post-Nox world spinning - she wants a world where she can still soar through the skies, with a whiff of soil in her nose and the sun on her back and her mask. This too, though, is a sort of "common" desire, not one really specific to her. What she needs is something that goes beyond the communal, something that truly motivates her beyond what she thinks is best for those around her.
WHY DID THEY JOIN THE ZEPHYR EXTINCT? Iris needed to create her own identity. Communal need is all that she's ever known, and creating a whole name and mask for herself - even if they still bear some influence from her old life - is one step towards becoming a person independent from everything she's ever known. It should be healthy for her. The Zephyr Extinct forced her to make those choices for herself, while still allowing her to serve the City of Rig's common good. It was the perfect compromise for her.
HOW WOULD YOU LIKE TO SEE THIS CHARACTER CHANGE AND DEVELOP? I'd like to see Iris fully achieve her own individuality over the course of this game, pouring more and more of her own drives and desires into this new identity she's made. All she's ever known is a happy-go-lucky lifestyle that values pitching in and communal values, which is important - it's given her a strong moral compass - but one that's cost her quite a bit of her own individuality. In a way, she's someone who has been given more freedom with this name and mask than she had in her old life. I would like to see that explored more.
PITCH A SMALL SUBPLOT THAT WOULD BE PERSONALLY MEANINGFUL TO YOUR CHARACTER. Since Iris still likes to indulge in taking to the skies on her bike or in a hang-glider, I'd like to see someone in one of those insular, "everyone recognizes everyone" style gardens recognize her (because how can you not get a load of the 6'6 girl with the loudspeaker voice???) and challenge her on whether becoming a Ze operative is just a flight of fancy for her, and whether this new mask and lifestyle was worth abandoning the freedom and the community that everyone she's ever known has tried to foster.
@Plank Sinatra I love Iris! Especially the irony of feeling more individual with the mask and the made-up name compared to her old life. She'll fit in perfectly with the rest of the characters (in her own unique way)! Please do copy her to Characters, she's approved!
All expected character sheets are in and approved! (The other Lucky, you're welcome to lurk and hang out: and your RP invitation remains open!)
All your characters have blown me away! I'm gonna peruse them for inspiration for a good opening scene, but what do you guys hope for in this RP? Action/no action? Any themes or scenes you really want to see, besides the plot pitch in your CS?
@Mokley Personally, I'd prefer some action, with plenty of teamwork opportunities. At least some kind of struggle against the Nox. Also the theme of identity is something that could be explored, with everyone's personal goals despite their masks and codenames, plus it's already an issue for Rose and Iris.
I do think some action is important, considering the nature of Zephyr, but I'm also certain our characters will drive a lot of character-focused stuff. I agree with Lucky on the identity stuff as a possible theme (Cedar struggles with similar problems - half the time he barely feels like a real person). If I come up with more I'l make sure to say.
I effing love all these suggestions, and I think most of them can be included in a starter plot! At this point I'm thinking of RPing out everyone's first meeting and first mission together, maybe something slightly tame but hopefully entertaining, with a bit of exploration of Rig. I'm just a sucker for first meetings.
Check the Characters tab for a new character sheet for Archer (which tells about as much information as she tells anyone) and a list of some inspiration and vibes for this world. I'm going for something more gritty and nature-oriented: more bark and weathered solar panels, less polish. Your character sheets seem to have latched onto the same sorta vibe already!
@Mercenary Lord Aw thank you!! Now I've got to make a proper effort to live up to that recognition! 😂💚
So after thinking a bit... it's entirely possible (I did just choose her codename out of the irony of it) that Marissa misheard her codename and assumed it was Listener when Glistener might have been actually what it is. It would be entirely in character for that mistake to happen.
I see a lot of people Listener is going to love to get along with.
I also agree with everyone about a little bit of action, I'm pretty sure Listener is not going to settle well with a quiet boring life and will make her own action from time to time.
What would you guys think if I made separate posts for Flaw and general mod posts? I feel like Flaw's posts can serve in-between you guys' posts as more of a social encouragement, then general mod posts move the story.