icmasticc

Tin Men - Near-Future Realistic Military RP

I should have something up tomorrow, myself.

Tin Men - Near-Future Realistic Military RP

V a r r i n a B r a e l y n n

" J a c k - K n i f e "

^{L o s A n g e l e s , C a l i f o r n i a || 1 0 : 0 0 P M}

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She fought internally, her mind struggling to stay focused on the bars in front of her and stray thoughts weaving themselves in and out of the forefront. Outwardly however, she was a picture of composition. Though her body trembled, the tremors were so light that the shaking was nearly invisible to anyone aside from the one who sat right next to her. Her eyes fixated themselves to only what was directly in front of them though they were staring at nothing in particular. Her expression was blank, emotionless, lips completely still and not even a slight hint as to what she was thinking or feeling on the inside. The whir of the needle was the only sound she could focus on though the pain of the rapid-fire punctures was more apparent than she would have liked. The very thought of getting a tattoo would have been forbidden back when she still had her freedom, but once the warden locked her in her cell, the statuesque woman holding herself together on her stool purposely abandoned all prior teachings she was thought to be instilled with. Federal prison was no place for morality, after all.

"Goddamnit Vee, stop twitchin' and shit," a butch woman with a slightly deepened voice bellowed. The other women around snickered. The woman on the stool sighed.

"I told you I hated needles already... What did you expect me to be like?"

"I expected you to not be such a damn pussy!" The butch woman snapped. The circle of watching women snickered once more. The woman on the stool sucked her teeth.

"Whatever... I didn't even want this crap."

"You know the rules. If you're gonna be part of our crew, you gotta have a tat."

"I'm only part of your crew because I'm tired of getting my face stomped. Can't I just be an honorary member or something? I'm not even gonna be useful, I told you guys up front that I just want the protection."

"Oh, you'll be useful. Trust me, you're the only one small enough to do what needs to be done."

"That's only because this prison is full of amazonian women who are all six feet or taller. Where the hell is that even a thing? Five-six is average for females."

"Like I said, you're the only one small enough. Get used to it."

The woman on the stool pursed her lips and remained silent. In truth, she had been extremely hesitant to join up with a prison clique, but it was also true that there was little choice. The beatings had been getting worse and there was no guarantee that she wouldn't suffer permanent damage the next time she got caught at the wrong time in the wrong place. She felt powerless and weak having to beg for help, but she knew that there also opportunity amongst the general shittyness of the group itself. There was an opportunity to learn and for Varrina Braelynn, an opportunity to learn was the most dangerous kind of opportunity you could present her with.

"Annnd... Finished!" The butch woman exclaimed, quickly rising from her own stool and stepping back to admire her work. The other women closed in around Varrina's right arm and examined the freshly finished ink drawing for themselves. The image depicted a laughing skull with two open jack-knives in an "X" formation beneath it--an obvious play on the iconic skull and crossbones imagery. The butch woman handed Varrina a mirror to which the short woman frowned at her newly desecrated arm.

"Jesus... At the very least, can we drop the name? The tattoo is enough to show I'm part of this gang or whatever, right?"

The butch woman laughed. "Hell no, we ain't droppin' shit! Every one of us has a nickname. It's another part of being in our crew. Besides, yours fits so damn well. You think you can't be useful to us, but in our eyes your our little Jack-Knife."

Varrina rolled her eyes and abruptly stood from the stool. "Jack-Knife... So fucking stupid," she murmured.

"What?! Didya say somethin'??" The butch woman bellowed once more. Varrina shook her head and offered a half-smile. This was what had to be done if she hoped to survive the length of her sentence.

Her eyes opened slowly, the familiar speckled, white tile ceiling greeting her awakening. Varrina elected to lay in bed and stare upwards as the chime of her smartphone alarm went off on the adjacent nightstand. An arm lazily reached out and hammered the surface of the nightstand, looking for the smartphone in vain. Finally, it fell on the device with decent show of force and the sound disappeared. Varrina sighed heavily and pulled herself into an upright position against the headboard. "If you're gonna be staying the night, you can't be trying to break my phone when I have to leave," she said to the man laying next to her.

The man grumbled something unintelligible and Varrina cursed under breath--both because it was somehow already ten o'clock and this was not the first time her phone had been viciously attacked by this particular individual. Swinging her legs over the edge of her mattress, Varrina stood and took a brief moment to stretch before a chill caused her to fold up and hug herself. The temperature had dropped, but then again she also dressed in a t-shirt and panties. A hand ran through a forest of brown hair as the still somewhat groggy Corporal trudged towards her bathroom. "I'm gonna take a shower," she announced to the man who was still laying her bed, "be gone before I get out." The door closed and the man moved after a minute or two. He knew quite well what would happen if he even thought about staying longer.

Varrina was in and out of the bathroom in fifteen minutes. Steam wafted into the air, escaping from the bathroom as she walked out more alert and energetic than before and headed to her closet. Her uniform was already ready to go thanks to some prior preparation the day before and her hair was already tied back and pushed up into a high ponytail. In spite of her personal time activities, the old military discipline was still very much indoctrinated into the laid back woman. With a quick stop at her mirror and a pocketing of keys and phone, Varrina quickly beelined for her front door and exited her studio apartment with a rigid gait, long stride, and solid frown. She hated working in the middle of the night.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

^{T h e H u m p}

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The Hump was still as secure as ever. Being in the military meant one grew used to showing ID and adhering to security measures everywhere on a base, but The Hump was secure to the point of annoyance in Varrina's perspective. All the bio-metric scans, locks, ID cards, card keys, armed soldiers, and even more was too much for the Corporal to be able to just grow used to whenever she had to report for work. Though her visage never betrayed her inner emotions, suffice it to say Varrina always gritted her teeth just a little as she went through all the security just to even enter the building. Of course, it made perfect sense considering the RI-1 shells were more expensive than any one individual could possibly comprehend, but that didn't stop the whole procedure from seeming just a touch ridiculous.

Varrina bypassed the locker rooms as she marched her way down halls and corridors towards the Cryo Room. Truth be told, she didn't care one way or another about changing within the public facilities, but she found it easier--and a way to sneak in just a bit more sleep time--to simply change in the convenience of her own home. She swiftly moved down the longer sections of the facility, giving salutes or returning them as she passed the odd solider here and there and glanced their respective rank. It wasn't long before she finally arrived in the "coffin bay", as she and some friends called it, and found that she was probably one of the last to arrive. Even when you leave early, you're still late, fuck, she thought as she moved a stray strand of hair behind her ear. With a nod to some of the soldiers in the bay, Varrina finally made her way over to her specific coffin and took a stance next to it, folding her arms.

Now all she had to do was wait.

The Mantle

T h e M a n t l e

An Original Roleplay By:

icmasticc

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The Quick and Dirty:

Superhero Open-World Sandbox

Character/Player-Driven Narratives

Mature Atmosphere

Overarching Plot-line

Collaborative World/Lore-building

Creative Freedom

Freedom of Choice

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Premise

The world has become a dangerous place.

As the world turned and humans lived their individual lives, a strange phenomenon of unknown origins engulfed the planet. The super-powered beings whom humanity had come to rely on for protection suddenly disappeared. Iconic heroes like Superman, Batman, and Captain America all seemed to just cease to exist. At first, a massive uproar ensued as the public began to fear for their lives and the world's governments called emergency summits to discuss and diagnose the situation. However, all hope was not lost. It was soon discovered that though all the heroes vanished, their powers and abilities had transferred to nameless individuals across the globe. These individuals would wake one day to find they now possessed the talents and powers of the heroes before them, but none of the same experiences and memories that shaped the men and women who wore the respective costumes.

As the years went by, these nameless individuals were sought out and brought in to the various governments of their residing countries and presented with a proposition; follow in the footsteps of the hero whose power they had been given and continue to protect the world as they once did. A new organization was soon set up to unite these new powered-persons and give them a base of operations to maintain the peace and safety of the entire planet. The International Legion of Justice--dubbed the ILJ--was created as a larger and more efficient version of the now archaic Justice League. As long as they could stack up to the legends before them, these new heroes were promised complete autonomy to be wherever they needed to be to thwart whatever threat appeared--and they would need the jurisdictional freedom.

As the catastrophe had taken all known heroes from the world, it also allowed villains and arch-rivals to once again rise to the forefront and continue to wreak havoc. With the ILJ beginning operations for the first time and villainy quickly spreading across the globe, the world watches with bated breath to see just how these unknown individuals live up to the names they inherited--

If they can properly carry the weight of The Mantle.

Introduction

Hello all and welcome to my roleplay! As you hopefully read in the quick and dirty section, this will be an open-world sandbox experience--with superheroes. To further explain the premise, the characters from popular comic book companies such as Marvel, DC, and Image Comics have all disappeared from the Earth, but their various powers and abilities have been transferred to people all over the globe. In effect, though the monikers remain the same, original characters will now be taking up the mantles of the heroes who have mysteriously disappeared. As a player, you will create an original character and choose which superhero mantle you wish to inherit--basically creating a Captain America who is not Steve Rogers or a Robin who is not Dick Grayson. Characters from either Marvel, DC, or Image Comics will all be allowed.

Though this is a sandbox experience, there is somewhat of an overarching narrative to keep things going and give direction when someone wants some. The International Legion of Justice works just like the Justice League. This organization allows heroes to undertake missions all over the world and defend the Earth from all manner of threats. However, this roleplay will also explore the typical lives of all characters involved so when a player is not on a mission, they are free to delve into the personal lives of their character and how they spend their time in civilian clothes. The idea is to interact with your fellow players to create a vibrant, living world where the players themselves create the narratives and can enjoy both hard-hitting action and mature slice of life roleplaying. To further that end, players will also be allowed to add to the world and the lore with a generous amount of creative freedom so we can all enjoy a truly collaborative experience.

Mainly, this roleplay was inspired by my love of superheroes and the freedom of choice. How you choose to spend your time and roleplay in this game is up to you. You want to join the ILJ and take on missions as heroes are wont to do? Awesome. You want to reject the ILJ membership and become a true vigilante serving up justice in your own way? Great. You want to avoid justice altogether and smear your previous hero's name by becoming a villain with their powers? That's cool, just watch out for the ILJ members who might have to hunt you when you become the target of one of their missions. You want to avoid all responsibility and not even use your powers, opting to live a normal life amongst the new status quo and ultimately rejecting your hero's legacy? No problem. You want to romance a fellow player character, marry them, and live as happy a life as you can get in this RP? Go for it.

This will be a true sandbox experience where your actions carry weight and have consequences. I've labeled it as mature because I'd like to pursue a real, gritty sort of take on the superhero story. This will not be first come, first served either when it comes to character choice. I'm probably gonna hold myself to a max of 10-12 players, but who gets who depends entirely on the effort put into the character sheets. As for now however, this is just an interest check so who would be interested in joining in this endeavor with me?

Tin Men - Near-Future Realistic Military RP

Sorry for the delay, ran into work problems yesterday and I just got home right now from another shift. I'll have my post up tonight, apologies again!

EDIT - Post up.

Tin Men - Near-Future Realistic Military RP

@DeadDrop

That has been happening to me where I'm at as well. Stupid power company is killing power to random parts of my city in the summer time.

Tin Men - Near-Future Realistic Military RP

Ooooh boy, and we're off! I'll begin working on a post.

EDIT - Gotta head in to work so my post will be up tonight when I get off.

Tin Men - Near-Future Realistic Military RP

I, too, agree with the banter outside the shell first. Developing characters is s cornerstone of any good narrative. Let's get some development in before we hit the action.

Tin Men - Near-Future Realistic Military RP

Yep, I've heard stories of the craziness and crimes people committed before being given the option to join the Army or go to jail. It's a circumstantial thing really, but I thought it'd be an interesting way to start my character's narrative within the plot of the RP.

Crazy story though @Gunther. A bit humorous and sad all at the same time. Unfortunately, all of my crazy army stories revolve around Dear Johns, Stolen Valor, and arrogance lol. None of the guys I was in with were dealing with drug addictions, at least not to my knowledge. Hell, thinking back on it, I had a relatively boring little contract term during my brief tenure. Although, being a mechanic did afford a few entertaining scenarios, I can't recall anything that really stood out enough for me to reminisce on. That is, outside of basic. Basic is where I had all my memories made, mostly because I didn't know what to expect before going in. And I went through basic in 2010, so I'm sure it was faaar different than what you went through.

Tin Men - Near-Future Realistic Military RP

@DeadDrop

Everyone else had such great records so I figured I'd thrown down a character who started off great and turned her to shit lol. (Well, before turning it over again, I suppose. I was close)

Tin Men - Near-Future Realistic Military RP

@Gunther

Oh, trust me, I fully agree with you. I've literally had this conversation with other people and I feel the exact same way. It's pretty ridiculous the state of our affairs at present in regards to employment and college education. I only limited Varrina to Bachelors Degree as a means to convey that due to the organizations she was affiliated with during that time, she would only need the first tier of completed college education to secure herself a job.