cider

Absolute Comics - Season Two: The Monster Within

@cider

What do you have in mind?

@Inkarnate

Not sure! I didn't and don't have a specific character in mind, yet. We'll see what pops up. I am thinking about Banner/Hulk.

Absolute Comics - Season Two: The Monster Within

I'll chuck in my interest. Had a short stint in another one of these a couple of years ago - hopefully not so short this time.

Shadows in the Dread City- A Cyberpunk RolePlay

Fuck. Sorry guys, I don't have any excuse for being absent. I just kept pushing my post further back and then forgot about it altogether. I did get a new job so that may have been a part of it, but it's pretty dumb to forget about a commitment as far as I'm concerned, so; sorry.

Still here though, not quitting. Just read through IC (good stuff btw, seriously, I'll try and work some of the world building into my post) and been working on a sort of introductory post. It's past 2 am here right now though which means I'm going to bed. Hopefully I'll finish the post after work tomorrow.

As for the Discord discussion, I use it extensively myself, so personally I am all for it and just joined the server. The main pro about Discord (or whatever service doing the same thing) is to be able to discuss things in a quicker environment, airing thoughts and conduct som collaborative brainstorming. That tends to work better in a chat format than a forum format, as far as I'm concerned. That being said, if people are adamant about not using it, it's probably best to keep the discussion to the thread just like we're doing right now, so that people don't feel excluded. Just my two cents.

Shadows in the Dread City- A Cyberpunk RolePlay

Donovan Juilliard

Name:

Donovan Juilliard

Gender:

Male

Age:

60

Appearance:

Donovan is an old man who has been incarcerated for the past thirty years, and it shows. While a daily workout in his cells has made sure he's quite springy for his old age, it has done little for his bad posture, pale and dotted skin or his unchecked hair growth. In short, Donovan looks like a bum. Once a vain man of providence and style, Donovan now carries little of other's perception of him. Unless he needs to play dress up in order to be let into a bar or a meeting, Donovan wears scraps and rags. Yet perhaps the most noticable fact is Donovan's lack of cybernetics. He sports none, nada, zip.

Personality:

Foolish arrogance with a very harsh punishment has made Donovan a very sober man. He views people in general with mistrust, and holds nothing but contempt for the mega corps, their associates and their supporters. He holds little self-value, and has no qualms in giving his life as long as he gets to drag corporate to hell with him.

That being said, Donovan is surprisingly charismatic. Not in a charming, crowd pleasing kind of way, but as a tour-de-force of personality, a confidence and determination that spread to those around him. Before being imprisoned, he led leading scientists, held conferences and board meetings, and how you perceived him depended much on your own personality. Some envied his talent, some detested his crude behaviour and yet others admired his vision and spirit. Today Donovan is much the same, but instead of energetic, passionate and rude, he is reserved and bitter yet tactful. He is remarkably intelligent, and it tends to come across in casual conversation as well.

All being said, Donovan has few interests and hobbies. He may drink or socialize to pass time, but he has no heart in it. He has no "heart" left, really. It shrivelled and died in an old prison cell, and what you'll find standing in front of you know is and old man with an old axe that is fevereshly aching for grinding.

Bio:

Brought up in the upper middle class of Arcadia, Donovan was a gifted child excelling at his hobby of fiddling with cybernetics and electronics. He was so promising that the New Anselm Institute, a private research university in Arcadia, offered him enrollment at the age of 14. While always a socially awkward child (not in the shy sense, but in an arrogant and misanthropic one), his skill and fearlessness would put him in leadership positions at the R&D department of the university before he'd even turned 20. Specialising in microelectronics and its use in cybernetics, Donovan spearheaded the development of the now infamous Vanguard 83, V-83, a technology capable of making an individual incapable of operating cybernetic implants - including already implanted ones.

The dangerous technology had officially been developed as a form of last resort fail-safe in malfunctioning cybernetic, but in reality the project was funded by corporate entities interested in a weapon that could render even the most cybernetically enhanced human a non-threat. Donovan was clued in on this following his success, but a schism quickly developed as the proud (or megalomaniacal, according to some) Donovan refused to sell his technology. Moreover, Donovan was unimpressed by the competence of the individuals behind the project as well as the mega corps scientific community at large, and had little interest in furthering its causes unless given a significant power increase himself through a BIG promotion. Subsequently, Donovan was stripped of everything he had by the NAI and its backers.

Following this utter humiliation, Donovan was left to fend for himself amongst the bottomfeeders of society. He rose above the challenge and used his engineering skills to create cybernetics for criminals, affiliating himself with the Militia - then an organization sharing his views on corporate society. Together they conducted a string of terrorist attacks on corporate targets while using and spreading the V-83 technology that was supposed to be a secret high-end corporate tech only. Eventually, Donovan was found and captured by the authorities. V-83 was by know in widespread use throughout Arcadia, causing a host of problems for the Peacekeepers. The technology was banned and being found in possession of it resulted in extreme punishments.

First the Peacekeepers, then the NAI itself, thouroughly interrogated and tortured Donovan for years. Partially as punishment, partially to try and find out if Donovan had managed to create variants of the technology that might've survived the purge. He maintained innocence to the brink of death, and was left to rot in a prison devoid of all things cybernetic and electrical. Partially simply to spite him, given his love for these things, and partially because corporate was concerned about sending Donovan to a prison filled to the brim with the kind of technology he'd spent his life learning to overcome. Moreover, all his achievements and records where expunged, and those he'd associated with - including his family - were quietly taken and murdered. All to give Donovan the ultimate punishment - that of an extremely prideful, attention-seeking man being erased from the memory of mankind.

And so there he sat. Forgotten by society in a dirty stone cell with zero human contact for a full thirty years. Then, luck would turn. A bit too little too late for the now utterly embittered and hateful Donovan, but it nevertheless did. The owner of the prison turned out to be a very incompetent businessman. He had neglected running it properly many years ago, and had in fact not had a new prisoner incarcerated since 2100. When his other business ventures went sideways, he found himself bankrupt and all his assets seized by the authorities, including the prison. The new owner found himself with a golden opportunity. He now had dozens and dozens of hardened criminals, many with no record of even existing, including Donovan. Delusions of grandeur caused him to not realize the double-edged blade as he employed the men he found still capable, only to within days find himself being murdered by one of them - Donovan.

Having searched and found his old hidden V-84 weapons, Donovan forged the identity he uses today - Donovan Juilliard - and tried to contact his old associates. He found they were nearly all dead, but a young girl he'd known thirty years ago had survived and was now a leader in the Militia, an organization very different from the idealist one Donovan had worked with. They reached an agreement to help each other - Donovan was to help the Militia in creating and modifying more powerful implants while he himself was put in a smaller leadership role in the organization, giving him his own wretched patch of turf and henchmen.

In reality, Donovan has zero interest in helping the Militia doing anything. His goal is very different. With nothing to lose but a life not even Donovan himself values any longer, the only thing left to do before saying his earthly goodbye is to sacrifice said life in a mission to exact vengeance on as many of those who have wronged him as possible. And what better way to do it than to help the criminal scum of Arcadia get a hold of the fabled Golden Disc, thus turning Arcadian society on its head?

Long ass fucking bio

Raised in a relatively well off family, "Donovan" (an assumed name and not his real one) was one of those fortunate enough to get a proper education. He applied himself well enough in school as a child, though was not seldomly noted and reprimanded for his rebellious nature. Donovan's father was a corporate middle man with a penchant for tinkering with cybernetics, robotics and their like. Donovan found it interesting and would often spend his evenings fiddling around in his fathers workshop while showcasing a natural aptitude for his father's hobby. Upon reaching adolescence Donovan was given the opportunity of studying at the New Anselm Institute (NAI), a research university specialising in finding and promoting young talent.

Donovan performed admirably and eventually developed an interest in electrical engineering. Guided by some of the more gifted individuals in Arcadia, Donovan was made part of the Research & Development team at NAI before he turned 18. As intelligent as he was, however, Donovan continued to struggle with obedience. The fights he'd get into with class mates where easily overlooked, even that one time when Donovan hospitalized a girl for "challenging him". More problematic was Donovan's ignorance of authorities in the form of professors and corporate associates. Under normal circumstance an individual might well be thrown out of NAI for such behaviour and see themselves ostracised from the scientific community (and usually far worse, though that was less often talked about), but exceptions were frequently made for Donovan due to his skill and the eventual results his fruits of labor garnered the institute.

At twenty years of age Donovan was given his own small team of scientific engineers as he started up a microelectronics department in the institute dedicated to the research of control systems in cybernetics. The task had been given to Donovan by the headmaster himself - Simo Zouari. The man was a stern individual Donovan had long since assumed had strong corporate ties. The purpose of the study was said to be to develop a more efficient fail-safe in malfunctioning cybernetics, though Donovan had his doubts about the legitimacy of that claim. The NAI was, after all, like all other universities in Arcadia privately held and seldomly dedicated to the good of the public.

The project did well, and ended up a success. It didn't take long for Donovan to realize he was right about his suspicions. As the head developer of the new fail-safe technology there was little Zouari could do other than to either inform Donovan of his plans or replace him. The latter was never a real option considering the kind of groundbreaking design in question. Donovan gladly accepted the opportunity of being part of the "real" community, the one dictating research. As it turned out, the plan behind the fail-safe was to develop a weapon capable of seizing control of operative implants - as in other people's cybernetics. Similar products had existed in the past before cybernetics were as advanced as they had now become, but the NAI was interesting in creating a more potent system that could be sold to trusted associated in Arcadia and elsewhere.

Work continued, and while Donovan's fail-safe, now labelled Vanguard 83 or V-83, would never reach the goals the NAI had in mind, it did somewhat achieve the intended goals - rather than controlling cybernetics it nevertheless proved capable of shutting them down temporarily, potentially permanently. The system itself was a form of electrical gadget that similarly to EMP's of old used disruptive bursts of energy, but V-83 was inserted into the spine of the object, connecting with the central nervous system and targeting the biological computer of the host - the brain - by disturbing the CNS and causing a discord between brain and cybernetics. As such cybernetics were rendered effectively useless unless purely mechanical in nature as the brain would not detect them as anything but chunks of metal and wires.

Donovan was protective of his design, however, and that along with his resistance to listening to his peers - or indeed even considering them peers - made for a delicate situation. To put it bluntly; corporate entities wanted to use Donovan's design as nothing more than a tool to cull the masses while Donovan himself wasn't sure at all he considered the modern mega corporations fit to rule society to begin with. In his life he had seen nothing but incompetence interspersed with the occasional spike of mediocrity in those deciding the fate of Arcadia, and more than once he'd found himself thinking that he himself could do so much better.

His relationship with the NAI tensed beyond salvaging when he thus simply refused to give up V-83 without considerably more influence - the NAI moved against him and within a few months Donovan found himself on the streets, publically humiliated and personally bankrupt at the age of 24. He fell into depression and mixed with the lowest in society - underachieving roaches he'd held nothing but contempt for his entire life. He plied his trade at the black market, constructing and selling various cybernetic implants. He even went so far as to try implanting them himself, but one botched surgery too many saw him stay clear of that particular type of work.

Concurrently he would bitch and moan about the corporations to any who wanted to listen - and often those who didn't - until he was eventually approached by the Militia. He didn't share their ideals of challenging injustice and helping the downtrodden in the slightest, but he did share their corporate hatred and saw a potent tool. His engineering skills to practice made him a valuable asset to the Militia, and while his anything but social demeanour ensured he was never properly included in the Militia, the relationship did see beneficial use for both parties as Donovan orchestrated a string of terrorist attacks against the corps in general and the NAI in particular. He supplied the Militia with V-83, a tool proving very effective against the often more-machine-than-man-security that corporations utilized. The technology obviously made authorities aware of who was responsible, and was probably the main reason why Donovan was caught.

Donovan was put in literal chains - his jailers too concerned about Donovan otherwise finding a way of tampering with the security of the corporations' state-of-the-art prisons. Instead, Donovan was chucked in a dark cell of iron and stone. The Peacekeepers interrogated Donovan for several years with their "direct methods". At first they were mainly probing for more information about the Militia and other dissidents even though Donovan had already given them all the information he had straight away. He had no qualms about giving up his "colleagues". They were worth as little to him as anyone else he'd ever met now that he had no use of them.

Since Donovan introduced V-83 to the Militia the technology had quickly spread throughout the bowels of Arcadia and became a real menace through its short lifespan. V-83 was banned even in the higher echelons of society and destroyed on site when found, and soon enough a tracking technology was integrated with Os-Net, capable of recognizing and pinpointing the activation of a V-83. It was a situation that Donovan had long since prepared for. In fact, he had himself helped engineered the groundwork of what would later become the tracking technology back when working at the NAI but given all credit to another, very baffled, scientist. Meanwhile Donovan had developed a variant, V-84, in but a few handmade weapons, very well hidden years before he was caught. Someone had come to suspect a variant might exist him/herself, and eventually Donovan's interrogators were swapped for more familiar faces as Donovan found himself being "interrogated" (tortured, to be clear) by Simo Zouari on a regular basis. He never talked, however, and Zouari ultimately lost interest after deciding that having Donovan being locked and forgotten in a cell for the rest of his life was satisfying enough. Zouari made sure all trace of Donovan having ever existed was eradicated, including Donovan's family and associates. Being completely forgotten and written out of history was after all a punishment worse than death for someone like Donovan - someone craving attention and recognition.

The years and decades went by. There were no cell mates and no guards. A small window, too far up for Donovan to see anything but the sky, was the only source of light while the only sign of human life was the daily food tray delivered by a tiny four-wheeled robot, perhaps in mockery of Donovan. At times he felt as if he losing was his sanity and in truth he probably was too, but he always found a way back somehow. He would scratch the date on the stone floor and walls with his nails to keep time, and in order to pass it dream up fictional storys, eventualities and outcomes, sometimes losing track of what was real and not.

And then one day the food robot never came. Then a second day, and then going on a third. Donovan had already been drinking his urine and was seriously contemplating eating his feces when he heard other human voices for the first time in thirty years. It turned out his prison was not made for him alone, but hosted a rather large number of former dissidents. It was a large stone building situated in Old Town, a small tourist section of Arcadia dedicated to history, full of stone and wood buildings built in the style of those the Earth was filled with centuries ago. The owner of the prison had long since neglected it, and no new prisoner had arrived in the past twenty or so years. The files on inmates, deliveries and everything else was either lost or never kept properly in the first place and while the owner had done a good job of covering his failings this all came to light when he filed for bankruptcy after his other ventures went south.

As such, the Peacekeepers had simply seized his assets - including the prison robots - and left the prisoners to starve until the new owner came to the prison a few days later. Joven Harris was an ambitious criminal posing as businessman (like most ambitious criminals) and considered the old pile of stones a jackpot - here he had hundreds of criminals deemed extraordinarly dangerous by corporations, all forgotten by the authorities, and all now owing him their life should he free them. He had already erased what remained of their prison files, leaving the men nothing but unidentified non-citizens until a new identity was forged for them.

A month later Donovan found himself a free man for the first time since he was 30. Now twice as old, he was hired by Harris following impressing him with both keen mind and skills. Harris was on the hunt for a precious object - Arcadia's Golden Disc - and Donovan and his few still living fellow former prisoners (most of them were executed after being deemed worthless by Harris) was sent on the hunt for it. Due to renovation and construction changing the city landscape, it took Donovan three days to find the V-84 prototype he made all those years ago and use it on Harris, killing him in the progress. Thanks to Simo Zouari he was now completely free of oversight, and in the physical state Donovan was in he little problem blending in with the homeless, the junkies and the crazies as he used Harris' pocket money to forge himself a new identity - Donovan Juilliard.

He found that most of his old associates were dead or worse, but not everyone. The Militia - now little more than just another criminal entity - still retained some members from long, long ago. And boy were they surprised to find Donovan in the flesh. This included Virrian Shear, a then-girl now-grizzled woman who was said to be the leader of the Militia, to the lens sure went blurry when one tried to figure out just what the Militia leadership hierarchy actually looked like. Back in the 80's, a teenaged Virrian had idolized Donovan's careless, unapologetic attitude and presumably this (and/or a lack of intelligence) caused her to believe him when he bullshitted her about not having given the authorities anything but the bare minimum of info when caught. A bargain much like that of old was struck. In return for helping the Militia create or modify much more competitive implants, Donovan was given charge of his own gang of miscreants, Shear tricked into believing Donovan still held ambitions to make a name for himself.

Instead, with nothing to lose but a life not even Donovan himself valued any longer, the only thing left to do before saying his earthly goodbye was to sacrifice said life in a mission to exact vengeance on as many of those who had wronged him as possible. And what better way to do it than to help the criminal scum of Arcadia get a hold of the fabled Golden Disc, turning Arcadian society on its head?

Other:

* Donovan is at this point not long for this world as he has can't find a single reason to stay in it other than to get revenge. My goal storywise for this character is to have him get to a point where he can either crash and burn along his old rivals, or somehow rise above, tackle his giant sized demons and find some kind of peace. Which way it goes will depend on what transpires in the RP and how his relation with others develops, particularly other PC's. That's the basic idea, anyway.

* Donovan used to have cybernetic implants, but opted to have them all removed after developing the V-83.

Shadows in the Dread City- A Cyberpunk RolePlay

Right, here's my CS. I got carried away when writing the bio and ended up with a novel, so I put it in a hider and wrote a more "condensed" version that's easier to handle for others. I mean, length and detail is all well and good but 2k+ words on a fucking bio is just excessive and a bit much to expect others to read just to familiarize themselves with a character. The longer one has exactly the same info but more details on this and that.

Donovan Juilliard

Name:

Donovan Juilliard

Gender:

Male

Age:

60

Appearance:

Donovan is an old man who has been incarcerated for the past thirty years, and it shows. While a daily workout in his cells has made sure he's quite springy for his old age, it has done little for his bad posture, pale and dotted skin or his unchecked hair growth. In short, Donovan looks like a bum. Once a vain man of providence and style, Donovan now carries little of other's perception of him. Unless he needs to play dress up in order to be let into a bar or a meeting, Donovan wears scraps and rags. Yet perhaps the most noticable fact is Donovan's lack of cybernetics. He sports none, nada, zip.

Personality:

Foolish arrogance with a very harsh punishment has made Donovan a very sober man. He views people in general with mistrust, and holds nothing but contempt for the mega corps, their associates and their supporters. He holds little self-value, and has no qualms in giving his life as long as he gets to drag corporate to hell with him.

That being said, Donovan is surprisingly charismatic. Not in a charming, crowd pleasing kind of way, but as a tour-de-force of personality, a confidence and determination that spread to those around him. Before being imprisoned, he led leading scientists, held conferences and board meetings, and how you perceived him depended much on your own personality. Some envied his talent, some detested his crude behaviour and yet others admired his vision and spirit. Today Donovan is much the same, but instead of energetic, passionate and rude, he is reserved and bitter yet tactful. He is remarkably intelligent, and it tends to come across in casual conversation as well.

All being said, Donovan has few interests and hobbies. He may drink or socialize to pass time, but he has no heart in it. He has no "heart" left, really. It shrivelled and died in an old prison cell, and what you'll find standing in front of you know is and old man with an old axe that is fevereshly aching for grinding.

Bio:

Brought up in the upper middle class of Arcadia, Donovan was a gifted child excelling at his hobby of fiddling with cybernetics and electronics. He was so promising that the New Anselm Institute, a private research university in Arcadia, offered him enrollment at the age of 14. While always a socially awkward child (not in the shy sense, but in an arrogant and misanthropic one), his skill and fearlessness would put him in leadership positions at the R&D department of the university before he'd even turned 20. Specialising in microelectronics and its use in cybernetics, Donovan spearheaded the development of the now infamous Vanguard 83, V-83, a technology capable of making an individual incapable of operating cybernetic implants - including already implanted ones.

The dangerous technology had officially been developed as a form of last resort fail-safe in malfunctioning cybernetic, but in reality the project was funded by corporate entities interested in a weapon that could render even the most cybernetically enhanced human a non-threat. Donovan was clued in on this following his success, but a schism quickly developed as the proud (or megalomaniacal, according to some) Donovan refused to sell his technology. Moreover, Donovan was unimpressed by the competence of the individuals behind the project as well as the mega corps scientific community at large, and had little interest in furthering its causes unless given a significant power increase himself through a BIG promotion. Subsequently, Donovan was stripped of everything he had by the NAI and its backers.

Following this utter humiliation, Donovan was left to fend for himself amongst the bottomfeeders of society. He rose above the challenge and used his engineering skills to create cybernetics for criminals, affiliating himself with the Militia - then an organization sharing his views on corporate society. Together they conducted a string of terrorist attacks on corporate targets while using and spreading the V-83 technology that was supposed to be a secret high-end corporate tech only. Eventually, Donovan was found and captured by the authorities. V-83 was by know in widespread use throughout Arcadia, causing a host of problems for the Peacekeepers. The technology was banned and being found in possession of it resulted in extreme punishments.

First the Peacekeepers, then the NAI itself, thouroughly interrogated and tortured Donovan for years. Partially as punishment, partially to try and find out if Donovan had managed to create variants of the technology that might've survived the purge. He maintained innocence to the brink of death, and was left to rot in a prison devoid of all things cybernetic and electrical. Partially simply to spite him, given his love for these things, and partially because corporate was concerned about sending Donovan to a prison filled to the brim with the kind of technology he'd spent his life learning to overcome. Moreover, all his achievements and records where expunged, and those he'd associated with - including his family - were quietly taken and murdered. All to give Donovan the ultimate punishment - that of an extremely prideful, attention-seeking man being erased from the memory of mankind.

And so there he sat. Forgotten by society in a dirty stone cell with zero human contact for a full thirty years. Then, luck would turn. A bit too little too late for the now utterly embittered and hateful Donovan, but it nevertheless did. The owner of the prison turned out to be a very incompetent businessman. He had neglected running it properly many years ago, and had in fact not had a new prisoner incarcerated since 2100. When his other business ventures went sideways, he found himself bankrupt and all his assets seized by the authorities, including the prison. The new owner found himself with a golden opportunity. He now had dozens and dozens of hardened criminals, many with no record of even existing, including Donovan. Delusions of grandeur caused him to not realize the double-edged blade as he employed the men he found still capable, only to within days find himself being murdered by one of them - Donovan.

Having searched and found his old hidden V-84 weapons, Donovan forged the identity he uses today - Donovan Juilliard - and tried to contact his old associates. He found they were nearly all dead, but a young girl he'd known thirty years ago had survived and was now a leader in the Militia, an organization very different from the idealist one Donovan had worked with. They reached an agreement to help each other - Donovan was to help the Militia in creating and modifying more powerful implants while he himself was put in a smaller leadership role in the organization, giving him his own wretched patch of turf and henchmen.

In reality, Donovan has zero interest in helping the Militia doing anything. His goal is very different. With nothing to lose but a life not even Donovan himself values any longer, the only thing left to do before saying his earthly goodbye is to sacrifice said life in a mission to exact vengeance on as many of those who have wronged him as possible. And what better way to do it than to help the criminal scum of Arcadia get a hold of the fabled Golden Disc, thus turning Arcadian society on its head?

Long ass fucking bio

Raised in a relatively well off family, "Donovan" (an assumed name and not his real one) was one of those fortunate enough to get a proper education. He applied himself well enough in school as a child, though was not seldomly noted and reprimanded for his rebellious nature. Donovan's father was a corporate middle man with a penchant for tinkering with cybernetics, robotics and their like. Donovan found it interesting and would often spend his evenings fiddling around in his fathers workshop while showcasing a natural aptitude for his father's hobby. Upon reaching adolescence Donovan was given the opportunity of studying at the New Anselm Institute (NAI), a research university specialising in finding and promoting young talent.

Donovan performed admirably and eventually developed an interest in electrical engineering. Guided by some of the more gifted individuals in Arcadia, Donovan was made part of the Research & Development team at NAI before he turned 18. As intelligent as he was, however, Donovan continued to struggle with obedience. The fights he'd get into with class mates where easily overlooked, even that one time when Donovan hospitalized a girl for "challenging him". More problematic was Donovan's ignorance of authorities in the form of professors and corporate associates. Under normal circumstance an individual might well be thrown out of NAI for such behaviour and see themselves ostracised from the scientific community (and usually far worse, though that was less often talked about), but exceptions were frequently made for Donovan due to his skill and the eventual results his fruits of labor garnered the institute.

At twenty years of age Donovan was given his own small team of scientific engineers as he started up a microelectronics department in the institute dedicated to the research of control systems in cybernetics. The task had been given to Donovan by the headmaster himself - Simo Zouari. The man was a stern individual Donovan had long since assumed had strong corporate ties. The purpose of the study was said to be to develop a more efficient fail-safe in malfunctioning cybernetics, though Donovan had his doubts about the legitimacy of that claim. The NAI was, after all, like all other universities in Arcadia privately held and seldomly dedicated to the good of the public.

The project did well, and ended up a success. It didn't take long for Donovan to realize he was right about his suspicions. As the head developer of the new fail-safe technology there was little Zouari could do other than to either inform Donovan of his plans or replace him. The latter was never a real option considering the kind of groundbreaking design in question. Donovan gladly accepted the opportunity of being part of the "real" community, the one dictating research. As it turned out, the plan behind the fail-safe was to develop a weapon capable of seizing control of operative implants - as in other people's cybernetics. Similar products had existed in the past before cybernetics were as advanced as they had now become, but the NAI was interesting in creating a more potent system that could be sold to trusted associated in Arcadia and elsewhere.

Work continued, and while Donovan's fail-safe, now labelled Vanguard 83 or V-83, would never reach the goals the NAI had in mind, it did somewhat achieve the intended goals - rather than controlling cybernetics it nevertheless proved capable of shutting them down temporarily, potentially permanently. The system itself was a form of electrical gadget that similarly to EMP's of old used disruptive bursts of energy, but V-83 was inserted into the spine of the object, connecting with the central nervous system and targeting the biological computer of the host - the brain - by disturbing the CNS and causing a discord between brain and cybernetics. As such cybernetics were rendered effectively useless unless purely mechanical in nature as the brain would not detect them as anything but chunks of metal and wires.

Donovan was protective of his design, however, and that along with his resistance to listening to his peers - or indeed even considering them peers - made for a delicate situation. To put it bluntly; corporate entities wanted to use Donovan's design as nothing more than a tool to cull the masses while Donovan himself wasn't sure at all he considered the modern mega corporations fit to rule society to begin with. In his life he had seen nothing but incompetence interspersed with the occasional spike of mediocrity in those deciding the fate of Arcadia, and more than once he'd found himself thinking that he himself could do so much better.

His relationship with the NAI tensed beyond salvaging when he thus simply refused to give up V-83 without considerably more influence - the NAI moved against him and within a few months Donovan found himself on the streets, publically humiliated and personally bankrupt at the age of 24. He fell into depression and mixed with the lowest in society - underachieving roaches he'd held nothing but contempt for his entire life. He plied his trade at the black market, constructing and selling various cybernetic implants. He even went so far as to try implanting them himself, but one botched surgery too many saw him stay clear of that particular type of work.

Concurrently he would bitch and moan about the corporations to any who wanted to listen - and often those who didn't - until he was eventually approached by the Militia. He didn't share their ideals of challenging injustice and helping the downtrodden in the slightest, but he did share their corporate hatred and saw a potent tool. His engineering skills to practice made him a valuable asset to the Militia, and while his anything but social demeanour ensured he was never properly included in the Militia, the relationship did see beneficial use for both parties as Donovan orchestrated a string of terrorist attacks against the corps in general and the NAI in particular. He supplied the Militia with V-83, a tool proving very effective against the often more-machine-than-man-security that corporations utilized. The technology obviously made authorities aware of who was responsible, and was probably the main reason why Donovan was caught.

Donovan was put in literal chains - his jailers too concerned about Donovan otherwise finding a way of tampering with the security of the corporations' state-of-the-art prisons. Instead, Donovan was chucked in a dark cell of iron and stone. The Peacekeepers interrogated Donovan for several years with their "direct methods". At first they were mainly probing for more information about the Militia and other dissidents even though Donovan had already given them all the information he had straight away. He had no qualms about giving up his "colleagues". They were worth as little to him as anyone else he'd ever met now that he had no use of them.

Since Donovan introduced V-83 to the Militia the technology had quickly spread throughout the bowels of Arcadia and became a real menace through its short lifespan. V-83 was banned even in the higher echelons of society and destroyed on site when found, and soon enough a tracking technology was integrated with Os-Net, capable of recognizing and pinpointing the activation of a V-83. It was a situation that Donovan had long since prepared for. In fact, he had himself helped engineered the groundwork of what would later become the tracking technology back when working at the NAI but given all credit to another, very baffled, scientist. Meanwhile Donovan had developed a variant, V-84, in but a few handmade weapons, very well hidden years before he was caught. Someone had come to suspect a variant might exist him/herself, and eventually Donovan's interrogators were swapped for more familiar faces as Donovan found himself being "interrogated" (tortured, to be clear) by Simo Zouari on a regular basis. He never talked, however, and Zouari ultimately lost interest after deciding that having Donovan being locked and forgotten in a cell for the rest of his life was satisfying enough. Zouari made sure all trace of Donovan having ever existed was eradicated, including Donovan's family and associates. Being completely forgotten and written out of history was after all a punishment worse than death for someone like Donovan - someone craving attention and recognition.

The years and decades went by. There were no cell mates and no guards. A small window, too far up for Donovan to see anything but the sky, was the only source of light while the only sign of human life was the daily food tray delivered by a tiny four-wheeled robot, perhaps in mockery of Donovan. At times he felt as if he losing was his sanity and in truth he probably was too, but he always found a way back somehow. He would scratch the date on the stone floor and walls with his nails to keep time, and in order to pass it dream up fictional storys, eventualities and outcomes, sometimes losing track of what was real and not.

And then one day the food robot never came. Then a second day, and then going on a third. Donovan had already been drinking his urine and was seriously contemplating eating his feces when he heard other human voices for the first time in thirty years. It turned out his prison was not made for him alone, but hosted a rather large number of former dissidents. It was a large stone building situated in Old Town, a small tourist section of Arcadia dedicated to history, full of stone and wood buildings built in the style of those the Earth was filled with centuries ago. The owner of the prison had long since neglected it, and no new prisoner had arrived in the past twenty or so years. The files on inmates, deliveries and everything else was either lost or never kept properly in the first place and while the owner had done a good job of covering his failings this all came to light when he filed for bankruptcy after his other ventures went south.

As such, the Peacekeepers had simply seized his assets - including the prison robots - and left the prisoners to starve until the new owner came to the prison a few days later. Joven Harris was an ambitious criminal posing as businessman (like most ambitious criminals) and considered the old pile of stones a jackpot - here he had hundreds of criminals deemed extraordinarly dangerous by corporations, all forgotten by the authorities, and all now owing him their life should he free them. He had already erased what remained of their prison files, leaving the men nothing but unidentified non-citizens until a new identity was forged for them.

A month later Donovan found himself a free man for the first time since he was 30. Now twice as old, he was hired by Harris following impressing him with both keen mind and skills. Harris was on the hunt for a precious object - Arcadia's Golden Disc - and Donovan and his few still living fellow former prisoners (most of them were executed after being deemed worthless by Harris) was sent on the hunt for it. Due to renovation and construction changing the city landscape, it took Donovan three days to find the V-84 prototype he made all those years ago and use it on Harris, killing him in the progress. Thanks to Simo Zouari he was now completely free of oversight, and in the physical state Donovan was in he little problem blending in with the homeless, the junkies and the crazies as he used Harris' pocket money to forge himself a new identity - Donovan Juilliard.

He found that most of his old associates were dead or worse, but not everyone. The Militia - now little more than just another criminal entity - still retained some members from long, long ago. And boy were they surprised to find Donovan in the flesh. This included Virrian Shear, a then-girl now-grizzled woman who was said to be the leader of the Militia, to the lens sure went blurry when one tried to figure out just what the Militia leadership hierarchy actually looked like. Back in the 80's, a teenaged Virrian had idolized Donovan's careless, unapologetic attitude and presumably this (and/or a lack of intelligence) caused her to believe him when he bullshitted her about not having given the authorities anything but the bare minimum of info when caught. A bargain much like that of old was struck. In return for helping the Militia create or modify much more competitive implants, Donovan was given charge of his own gang of miscreants, Shear tricked into believing Donovan still held ambitions to make a name for himself.

Instead, with nothing to lose but a life not even Donovan himself valued any longer, the only thing left to do before saying his earthly goodbye was to sacrifice said life in a mission to exact vengeance on as many of those who had wronged him as possible. And what better way to do it than to help the criminal scum of Arcadia get a hold of the fabled Golden Disc, turning Arcadian society on its head?

Other:

* Donovan is at this point not long for this world as he has can't find a single reason to stay in it other than to get revenge. My goal storywise for this character is to have him get to a point where he can either crash and burn along his old rivals, or somehow rise above, tackle his giant sized demons and find some kind of peace. Which way it goes will depend on what transpires in the RP and how his relation with others develops, particularly other PC's. That's the basic idea, anyway.

* Donovan used to have cybernetic implants, but opted to have them all removed after developing the V-83.

Shadows in the Dread City- A Cyberpunk RolePlay

Aiming to be done by Saturday myself. Not because the CS is so god damn splendid it takes me five days to write it, I've just got a cold and can't be bothered.

Anyway, the idea is an old and cranky but genial Militia terrorist who has spent the better part of his life in prison during which time Arcadia has forgotten him, but he has not forgotten nor forgiven it. Vengeance, old rivals etc, you know how it goes. So, dibs on that!

Shadows in the Dread City- A Cyberpunk RolePlay

Alright, so I have my character ready, I just don't know how to do the thing that DeadDrop and ElRey have done, excuse me for being new to this, I just don't want to be the only one who's posted it without the cool drop down bar.

@Sir Parzival

Just type [cider]blablabla[/cider], except "hider" instead of my great name. Then you'll get this;

Hider

blablabla

You can also type [cider=borkborkbork]blablabla[/cider] which will end up as;

borkborkbork

blablabla

If you look at the bottom of the page were you're writing, you'll see a headline called "Formatting Cheatsheet" and a toggle button. Just press the button and you'll get a guide on BBCode. There's also an entire forum section sporting various guides on fluff stuff and other things, if you're curious.

You can also simply quote someones post (by pressing "Quote", that is) into your replybox to see what BBCode they've used and how, which is why DeadDrop's post looks like a fucking mess when you quote it. :)

Shadows in the Dread City- A Cyberpunk RolePlay

Not gonna lie, been checking this section for a cyberpunk RP since I saw the gameplay reveal of Cyberpunk 2077 (from which your pictures - bar the top one - are, right?) and lo and behold - here it is!

🇴🇫 🇲🇮🇨🇪 🇦🇳🇩 🇲🇪🇳 🇦🇳🇩 🇿🇴🇲🇧🇮🇪🇸

Kenny Blankenship

Name
Kenneth "Kenny" Blankenship

Age
27

Appearance
Short and wiry, Kenny might be described as something akin to a weasel if it wasn't for his crippled right leg rendering him unable to move any more graceful than a drunkard with a limp. Many are the comments made by the fellow man that Kenny has had to hear about his knock-kneed gait - especially considering how he received it - and even more plentiful are the amused glances women give him. Unfortunately, Kenneth never was a looker to begin with. His nose, crooked from being broken more than a few times, is too large for his small face and his bleak grey eyes convey little else than despondency and disinterest. Kenny's chestnut hair is short but naturally thick and impossible to groom, something Kenny never bothered with anyway. By contrast his facial hair is nonexistent. Yet, for all his faults, plenty are those who would readily admit Kenneth has one of the most infectious smiles and accompanying laughter one could imagine. A strange juxtaposition which is endearing enough for some.

Personality
Kenny is something of a shell. Superficially, he's commonly perceived as being callous, withdrawn, unlikable and dishonest - none of which is wrong, yet none of which is entirely accurate either. Kenny is something of a lost soul, someone so dissident yet lethargic that even the slightly-above-averagely perceptive person can pick up on the fact that Kenny is not necessarily as much of a dickhead as he comes across, but more-so a result of unfortunate circumstance and - perhaps - not truly a lost cause. Kenny can be witty and gregarious when he wants to, though he usually relegates himself to making snide remarks and hurtful comments; a way to keep people at bay.

Kenny is someone who desperately needs attention in the form of confirmation and affirmation. After living a life largely met with neglect and/or contempt, Kenny wants to be liked, yet is unyielding when it comes to letting people inside of his abrasive shell. Kenny is the kind of guy more likely to respond to affection or empathy with a biting "go fuck yourself" than acceptance, despite thoroughly wanting such attention. Moreover, Kenny harbors deep feelings regarding Negroes in specific. He was taught they were worth less as a young child, a belief cemented by a profound betrayal that left him scarred for life.

Speaking of the devil, the consequences of said betrayal has left Kenny severely emotionally distressed. He'll wake up in the middle of the night screaming or crying, usually unable to remember his dreams yet always able to tell what they were about regardless. His past has left him utterly unwilling to commit violent acts, and he detests the thought of killing (though he wouldn't admit it). The murders he has committed has haunted him for years, and he has so far been unable to find remedy. Somewhere deep down inside, Kenny has a fiery need for making amends and doing something with his life, but he has yet to find a catalyst.

History
Born in 1907 to Robert Blankenship and his wife Margaret, Kenneth is the youngest of the couple's six sons and a local of Cypress Hollow. Robert was as the owner of Head On Inn a well-known and respected member of Cypress Hollow's community. Offering food, beverages and lodging, the Head On Inn was one of the more popular establishments in town. With their older brothers already helping out with running the inn, there was little reason for young Kenny and his youngest brother, Raymond, to do the same. Instead the two would from a very young age be allowed to follow their uncle Harold into the surrounding forests and swamps. Harold was a hunter and trapper and would often sell his game to his brother Robert for a discount. When Kenny was ten things would change dramatically, however. The four eldest sons of the family where all drafted into the War. Less than a year later three of them were gone. Edward died fighting, David died from pneumonia and Henry simply went MIA, presumably killed. Meanwhile Kenny's father suffered a heart attack and followed his sons into the afterlife, and when Thomas, the only surviving brother, came back from Europe he was not the brother that had left.

According to Robert's wishes, before he past, the eldest son Thomas assumed ownership when he returned. Left embittered and despondent from the horrors of war, Thomas did little good to Head On Inn. Kenny and Ray were hounded hard, having to help out with washing, serving, cooking and cleaning around the inn as well as receiving regular beatings from the older sibling while their hapless mother mainly spent her time softly weeping. Eventually uncle Harold had enough of Thomas misgivings. Although he could do little about the inn, Harold managed to talk enough sense (after beating him and putting a rifle to his temple, according to some) into Thomas to be able to take Kenny and Ray away. With Harold as their new guardian, the two kids entered adolescence somewhat hopeful.

Kenny spent the better part of his early teens following his uncle around, learning how to navigate the surroundings of Cypress Hollow by heart as well as how to live weeks-on-end in wilderness, using the local flora and fauna to your advantage. School suffered, but Kenny could care less. The runty little kid had, unlike Ray, never been a popular figure amongst the other kids anyway. Unfortunately the death's in the Blankenship family was not over yet, and in 1923 Harold was killed by a Negro. He had assaulted Harold in a botched robbery, ending up stabbing the man to death (years later, Kenny would hear that Harold was the one attacking the Negro, though whether Kenny could allow himself to believe this is another story). At the time, Ray was of legal age and worked at the local saw mill. He managed to take over custody of Kenny after Harold's death - a task no doubt made easier by the fact that Thomas had been sent to prison for extortion while their mother Margaret was an emotional wreck. Together with Kenny, Ray took over Harold's business. While Ray was the true talent at hunting, Kenny proved to be more than apt at trapping animals as well as constructing various shelters and watch towers throughout the country side, to the extent that he would get hired by other locals to build or fix whatever they needed. They had a good couple of years until the summer of 1926, when Kenny managed to fall for a Negro.

The Affair

Norma Hines was a waitress at the Oiled Spleen, a weirdly named pub on the outskirts of Cypress Hollow which ever so slightly managed to make a turnover, mainly due to the demise of Head On Inn. The place was sparsely visited and with a crumbling interior, yet the prices were cheap and it was one of few places where a black female could gain employment. And so it was here that Kenny met Norma. She was hardly the first Negress that Kenny had met, but she was the first woman - black or white - that treated Kenny with respect. Not respect in the sense that a black woman would treat a white male, but because she didn't act that way. Whether black or white, Norma didn't seem to care. She was hardly a looker, but she was genuinely nice to those she felt deserved it, and Kenny was one of them. Granted, this got her beat up more than once by unhappy patrons, and Kenny respected her all the more for it. Hell, he knew he would never dare stand up to the guys she did, and yet there she was. Norma clearly wasn't the most intelligent girl, but she had heart. Judge then how elated Kenny was when Norma, though surprised, accepted to go out with Kenny in secrecy for a while.

Peace never lasts however, as many as said, and before long people found out about the affair. Unfortunately for Kenny, it was Norma's people who found out. One night as he was making his way home to his and Ray's hunting lodge outside of town, Norma's father and two of her uncles as well as Norma herself cornered him on the roadside. The three men asked Kenny whether he "was the whitey who raped Norma". Stunned by accusation, Kenny vehemently denied yet Norma herself persisted that he'd done it. At the time Kenny was dumbfounded, though he would later figure that she said what she did so as to not get targeted herself. Either way, Kenny tried to run away. One of Norma's uncle aimed his shotgun at Kenny and fired, blasting him in the knee. After falling headfirst into the silent creek on his left, the man with the shotgun closed in on Kenny and fired at his head. The shot merely grazed Kenny, but he flung his head into the water and played dead. The three men and Norma thought they had killed him and left.

Somehow, Kenny successfully dragged himself to the hunting lodge where Ray was sleeping, and his brother managed to take him to a doctor. Months went by, and although Kenny's leg healed well enough that he could stand on it, he would never be able to run (or walk swiftly for that matter) again. Ashamed of the reason he'd been attacked, as well as almost being killed by blacks, Kenny refused to give up the identities of his assailants, even though half the town knew the truth. Instead, Kenny decided to take matters into his own hands. The Hines family had hastily skipped town after the attack, and Kenny and Ray spent the better part of three months tracking them down.

A cold winter morning in 1928, the Blankenship brothers kicked down the door to the dorm house in Tulsa where the Hines stayed. Rifles in hand, they entered the place looking for Norma. Kenny had intended to let her live and ask questions, but someone - Kenny never figured out exactly who - managed to get hold of a gun and a bloody gun battle ensued. When the smoke cleared, four people were dead; Norma's parents, one of her uncles, and her little sister. Norma herself had been hiding beneath a bed but came out screaming, howling curses in-between tears at Kenny as he levelled his rifle at her and pulled the trigger. In total, six people where killed that day as Norma turned out to be pregnant at the time, Kenny possibly being the father. Local authorities protected the Blankenship brothers and no one was ever tried for the murders, the official statement being that the one surviving uncle (the same who had previously shot Kenny) was the culprit. He ran away and is yet to be found.

Following the events of 27-28, Kenny fell into a depression. He left Cypress Hollow for a few years, working on various construction crews in the south. Although Kenny was a thankful victim due to his short stature, comical gait and repressed demeanor, his talents did not go unnoticed. He was even hired to lead comparably large construction projects, the height of his career being the architect as well as principal foreman of the Cedar Springs town hall (another small town some 60 miles west of Cypress Hollow). Yet for all his success in his career, Kenny was never destined to go anywhere beyond that. He drank away his money, spending his days either alone and self-loathing or with prostitutes, constantly trying to keep his mind off the guilt he felt for what he'd done to Norma. It wasn't until 1932 he decided to return to Cypress Hollow. His brother had written, asking him to come home and help out with the business as Ray himself was suffering from a head injury sustained in a fight, causing him migraines and short term memory loss.

Kenny decided to return to his hometown, at least temporarily, and help Ray. Although Kenny managed to quit drinking, the two brothers didn't exactly make for a productive partnership any longer, and business declined for a few months after Kenny's arrival until Ray one morning never woke up. The medical examiner later explained that Ray suffered from a blood clot in his brain, and that this was likely the cause of his previous symptoms as well as his death. Kenny was devastated by the loss of his brother. Unwilling to continue their business venture, Kenny closed it down. He spent the next six months doing some transient work for the surrounding community, becoming something of a local original and spectacle with his silly walk, quiet demeanor and absurdly efficient handiwork. In 1933, after providing some repairs to property owned by Henry Tackett, the farmer decided to offer Kenny employment indefinitely.

Accordingly, Kenny moved out to the Tackett farm. In the past year, Kenny has been a jack-of-all-trades handyman at the Tackett farm, used for construction, repairs and sourcing food as well as teaching willing (or ordered) farmhands how to do said things.

Speech Color F4A460

Traits
Positive
Expert Craftsman (+5) *
Local (+2) **
Trapper (+2)
Woodsman (+1)

* Kenny is a handyman's handyman. He's well-known for his uncanny ability when it comes to construction, whether he's waterproofing a shed, creating a garden or doing plumbing.
** Kenny is very familiar with the creeks, swamps, caves etcetera of the area as well as the flora and, more so, fauna in them. I figured it'd probably cost an extra point.

Negative
Racist (-2)
Crippled (-5)
Ugly (-1)
Shell-Shocked (-2) *
Skittish (-2)
Untrustworthy (-3)

* Kevin never fought in the war, but he suffers from similar PTSD-related symptoms described above.

In total: 10 - 15 = -5 points

Inventory
Various tools and materials corresponding to his trade and task at the Tackett farm. Everything from hammers, nails, screwdrivers and pliers to mechanist squares, spirit levels and building materials are to be found in Kenny's shed on the Tackett property. As for what Kenny's carrying on his person, it's usually a standard tool belt with assorted tools along with suspenders and a sturdy shirt.

🇴🇫 🇲🇮🇨🇪 🇦🇳🇩 🇲🇪🇳 🇦🇳🇩 🇿🇴🇲🇧🇮🇪🇸

Just a quick note about The Affair. In 1920s Florida there wouldn't be any need for local authorities to cover it up. The fact three black men had assaulted a white man, even if there was an accusation of rape involved, would automatically confer a death penalty on the black men.

The real challenge would be to stop the local population from lynching the three before they managed to get taken into police custody. Even then the three would likely find themselves in serious danger of falling down stairs, tripping over and accidentally smashing their facers into the floor and waking in the middle of the night to find their ribs had spontaneously broken while they slept during their stay in jail awaiting sentencing.

Most black men around this time would've just moved their entire family out of the area as soon as they discovered Norma's relations with a white boy, rather than confronting him. In fact, they'd probably have moved out of town after she'd stood up to a disgruntled customer for the first time, to avoid the inevitable firebombing of their home the day after.

<Snipped quote by cider>
The trait is entirely to do with the unwillingness to kill, and nothing to do with religion. The name is just for flavour.

We already had this discussion in depth over on Discord, when people were asking whether a character who would be willing to kill for religious reasons should have the trait or not.

@Genni

Can't claim I know all too much about the era (not even American, after all). In any case, what you say sounds reasonable. Kenny, however, was ashamed of almost "allowing" himself to be killed by blacks as well as having an affair with a black woman to begin with and thus didn't let anyone know (this is in the bio, but maybe it's not clear enough?). There were rumours to the point of it being an open secret however, and I can see why Norma and her family might've probably skipped town after the attack. Thus I've now rewritten that part of the bio to have Kenny and Ray track them down elsewhere instead. Thanks for the points!

@cider Sheet's good, but you have too many traits. Shave off a few and Kenny will be accepted.

@DeadbeatWalking

OP didn't say anything about it so I didn't consider that. I can see now that you've said about max 10 on the last page though.

I figure "Crippled" might cover the "Slow" trait, so I've removed the latter along with "Abrasive" and "Fisherman", which knocks down the total to 10.